Christian,
Thanks. I think I'm no closer than before - his reference to work of
the laboratory before that implies that the transformation is indeed
considered internal, but in the passage you quote, it sounds as if he's
suggesting otherwise. I wish he hadn't included the example before he
finished the definition of transmutation, as it muddles the waters
considerably.
Dan Harms
Coordinator of Instruction Librarian
SUNY Cortland Memorial Library
P.O. Box 2000
Cortland NY, 13045
(607) 753-4042
-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of C Kerslake
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 8:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Faivre and Esotericism
Dear Dan
In the passage you refer to, Faivre seems to be talking about alchemy,
specifically the three basic stages of black, white and red. He says 'it
is
often implied that transmutation can just as well occur in a portion of
Nature as in the experimenter himself'. On p. 34, he talks about
alchemists
taking 'a parcel of matter' back to its 'glorious state before the
Fall', an
act he says is identical to magic. Later, he refers to Evola's book on
alchemy, but strangely says that it concerns only spiritual or
initiatory
alchemy (implying it does not involve real substances). His book on the
Philosophy of Nature might provide further clues, and he also published
a
Cahiers de l'Hermetisme on alchemy.
I'm not sure if this helps...
Christian Kersl
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