Ethics and secrecy

Blind

caecus

Blindness names a failure of recognition rather than a claim about the alchemist’s eyesight.

From the book

A New Light of Alchemy

Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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English renderings
blind

Meaning

Lemma.

Blindness names a failure of recognition rather than a claim about the alchemist’s eyesight. Mercury says that no blind person can see him and immediately explains the charge: the worker cannot see himself. The exchange links self-knowledge to recognition of the material. The alchemist’s response, boasting of princely service, demonstrates that he has not accepted the correction.

Places to read

  1. Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 8Latinnemo me caecus videre potest.