woman in the physical practice of alchemy
is like a reflection at a distance of this more exalted process, and
there is evidence that those who worked in metals and sought for a
material elixir knew that there were other and greater aspects of the
Hermetic mystery."(1b)

(1a) MICHAEL MATER: _Atalanta Fugiens_ (1617), p. 97.

(1b) A E. WAITE: "Woman and the Hermetic Mystery," _The Occult Review_
(June 1912), vol. xv. pp. 325 and 326.

So far Mr WAITE, whose impressive words I have quoted at some length;
and he has given us a fuller account of the theory as found in the
_Zohar_ in his valuable work on _The Secret Doctrine in Israel_ (1913).
The _Zohar_ regards marriage and the performance of the sexual function
in marriage as of supreme importance, and this not merely because
marriage symbolises a divine union, unless that expression is held to
include all that logically follows from the fact, but because, as it
seems, the sexual act in marriage may, in fact, become a ritual of
transcendental magic.

At least three varieties of opinion can be traced from the view of sex
we have under consideration, as to the nature of the perfect man, and
hence of the most adequate symbol for transmutation. According to one,
and this appears to have been JACOB BOEHME'S view, the perfect man is
conceived of as non-sexual, the male and female elements united in him
having, as it were, neutralised each other. According to another, he is
pictured as a hermaphroditic being, a concept we frequently come across
in alchemical literature. It plays a prominent part in MAIER'S book
_Atalanta Fugiens_, to which reference has already been made. MAIER'S
hermaphrodite has two heads, one male, one female, but only one body,
one pair of arms, and one pair of legs. The two sexual organs, which
are placed side by side, are delineated in the illustrations with
considerable care, showing the importance MAIER attached to the idea.
This concept seems to me not only crude, but unnatural and repellent.
But it may be said of both the opinions I have mentioned, that they
confuse between union and identity. It is the old mistake, with respect
to a lesser goal, of those who hope for absorption in the Divine Nature
and consequent loss of personality. It seems to be forgotten that
a certain degree of distinction is necessary to the joy of union.
"Distinction" and "separation," it should be remembered, have different
connotations. If the supreme joy is that of