air_.

In another exposition of Hermetic secrets we discover the amazing
statement that "the alchemist is found working throughout, in
conjunction with a woman of the art; _they begin and they attain
together_."

This should be plain enough. Small chance, indeed, either would have
of attaining alone. But if this suggestion is not sufficient (and
either from design or from failure to comprehend the significance of
it, the translator seems to have missed the point), we are introduced
to a symbolical figure-study, which shows a Chalice in which the sun
and the moon are personified (the solar-man and the solar-woman), with
the god Vulcan (fire) seated between them. Underneath this "twain-one"
symbol a mortal man and a mortal woman are kneeling on either side of
a cone-shaped and dome-tipped furnace, which is lighted by a feeble
candle. But their attitude of prayer bespeaks the hope that this
earthly flame will be transmuted by their prayers and aspirations; by
their reverential attitude toward the divine character of the function
of mating, into the immortal and unquenchable flame typified by the
god of fire himself.

In another series of symbolical plates, purporting to be the story of
Metallic transmutation, but representing, above all, the story of
manifestation from the Divine to the human and again to the
spiritualized and perfected Adam and Eve--(the solar man and the solar
woman), we again see that from generation to regeneration the work is
accomplished by man and woman in conjunction.

These plates bear the hall-marks of Christian appropriation of
Hermetic symbolism, as peculiarly applicable to the Church, but the
central doctrine of salvation through sex-regeneration, is retained.
Whether consciously or not, is a question.

Modern commentators and translators of alchemical literature insist
that such documents are palpably related to the secret, or secrets, of
metallic transmutation. That they prove the search for, if not the
existence of, a "magic solvent" that resolves the baser metals into
gold; but, as far as known, such a compound has not yet been
discovered or, if it ever was, it has since been lost and evades all
attempts at rediscovery. But if we read these alchemical treatises as
they relate to transmutation of sex-love from the pro-creative
function to regeneration through spiritual or counterpartal union
(solar mates), we have the key to every statement.

A writer tells of an instance which is r