From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Mind and imagining
mens; mentem; imaginatur
Mens is mind, the mediating governor of bodily action; imaginatur and related forms name conceiving or forming an image.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMens is mind, the mediating governor of bodily action; imaginatur and related forms name conceiving or forming an image.
- In the workIn the human hierarchy soul conceives, mind knows, and the members obey mind.
- In this editionThe English “imagined” in the seed passages should not be assigned a purely psychological meaning.
- A place to readIlla gubernat mentem, mens vero corpus: The hierarchy distinguishes soul, mind and body.
Meaning
Mens is mind, the mediating governor of bodily action; imaginatur and related forms name conceiving or forming an image. The same verbal family is also applied analogically to fire’s formation of seed.
Use in the book
In the human hierarchy soul conceives, mind knows, and the members obey mind. The body is compared to an artisan’s instruments and is said to know nothing. This makes mind an operative intermediary rather than a synonym for either physical body or divinely infused rational soul.
The source contrasts mental imagining with God’s immediate efficacy. A soul may imagine being in Rome without bodily travel; God effects in being what he imagines. Elsewhere “imagination of fire” names the formative origin of seed in air. Finally the alchemist’s profound imaginings and private fancy are satirized because they lack natural foundations. These uses share vocabulary but differ in subject, efficacy and argumentative force.
Places to read
- Sulphur · Fire · Passage 5LatinIlla gubernat mentem, mens vero corpus: The hierarchy distinguishes soul, mind and body.
- Sulphur · Fire · Passage 6Latinsicut anima imaginatur esse Romae: The Rome example separates imagination from actual presence.
- On Sulphur · Passage 19Latiniuxta meam phantasiam non vult succedere: The alchemist concedes that private fancy has failed.
Translation in this edition
The English “imagined” in the seed passages should not be assigned a purely psychological meaning. Speaker and grammatical subject determine which kind of imagining is intended.
From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Fire’s imagining
imaginatione ignis
The phrase assigns a formative act to fire in the account of seed.
- English renderings
- fire’s imagining
Meaning
Phrase.
The phrase assigns a formative act to fire in the account of seed. It is not the alchemist’s private fantasy and not simply a human mental act. Air provides the place in which seed is imagined, while watery sperm carries it toward a womb. The source later contrasts this orderly production with the failed worker’s self-directed imaginings.
Places to read
- Sulphur · Water · Passage 1Latin; Sulphur · Air · Passage 1Latinex imaginatione ignis.