Dear Dan
If he is influenced by Evola's interpretation, then the 'portion of matter'
concerned could just be one's own physical body. 'Experimenter' in the
original French could be intended to be closer to 'experiencer', so some
sort of psychophysical parallelism might be intended. Evola's interpretation
at least has the merit of cutting through the usual disjunction between
either 'spiritual transformation' or metallurgy. This problem surely
requires a philosophical approach to the mind/matter distinction, alongside
the attempt to interpret alchemical doublespeak.
Christian
On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:37:36 -0400, Daniel Harms <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>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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