Heavenly and earthly

Meaning

The exceptional matter is described as partly heavenly and partly earthly at the opening of its preparation. The two qualifications accompany an initially mingled being whose colour is not wholly discernible. They indicate a composite relation of levels, not two separately identified substances that the reader is told to fetch. The passage then makes prior recognition of the matter and its hidden spirit indispensable before manual work. English “partly…and partly” preserves the coordinated qualification; it should not be silently intensified into an assertion that the matter is wholly celestial or reduced to an ordinary earthly mineral solely because it is handled.