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In a somewhat similar manner, Hitchcock 1857 proposes every subject in nature may be regarded in a twofold point of view, as it is in its principles
substantially and as it is in manifestation phenomenally. Thus, water, air, light, etc. are considered as variable, fluctuating things, phenomenally. But the sciences
of by prostatic, pneumatics, and optics, drawn from these subjects express the unchangeable laws according to which the phenomena takes place, yet the
permanent and the transient are inseparable in all of them, and if the whole of nature be considered as one subject, it may be conceived, from this view, as
permanent in its laws, that is, in its science but variable, phenomenally, to the senses that the two are inseparable, and in the expressions, one nature, one
science, and one manifestation, we find a Trinity. In similar, Swedenborg, an 18
th
- century engineer and hermetic philosopher, as quoted by Hitchcock 1857, says
that there is a Trinity in all things, which he calls end cause and effect, that the effect is a manifestation. For nature is subjected to mans control only by a
knowledge of its unchangeable principles or laws, by means of which it becomes obedient of the art of man, which nevertheless is subordinate to nature, contrary to
which art can accomplish nothing pp.138-139.
a. The importance of self-knowledge
In Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, written by Atwood 1960, man is, in fact, with all adepts, the one subject that contains all, and he
only need be investigated for the discovery of all. Man is the true laboratory of the Hermetic Art. His life is the subject, the grand distillery, the thing distilling and
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the thing distilled, and self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition. To discover then the secret of Alchemy the student must look within and scrutinize
true physical experience. All that we do know is learned by observation, and we should be hardly induced, from anything we are commonly conversant with, to
conclude that Self-Knowledge would be a way to the knowledge of the Universal Nature. p.74
The importance of knowing on e‟s genuine desire is an essential starting
point in the process of accomplishing the Master Work of an Alchemist. As Hitchcock‟s remarks on the subject, of writing being written in Arabic, entitled
Centrum Naturce Concentratum, or the Salt of the World, translated in English as follows,
He that hath the knowledge of the Microcosm. I cannot long be ignorant of the knowledge of the Macrocosm. This is that which the Egyptian
industrious searchers of Nature so often said, and loudly proclaimed, ” that everyone should Know Himself. This speech their dull disciples took in a
moral sense and in ignorance affixed it to their temples. But I admonish thee, whosoever thou art, that desirest to dive into the inmost parts of
Nature, if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee. If thou knowest not the excellency of thine own
house, why dost thou seek and search after the Excellency of other things? The universal Orb of the world contains not so great mysteries and
excellences as a little Man, formed by God to his own Image. And he who desires the primacy amongst the Students of Nature, will nowhere find a
greater or better field of study than Himself. Therefore…and with a loud voice do now proclaim: O Man, Know Thyself; in thee is hid the Treasure
of Treasuresy pp, 35-36
It is reflected by Hitchcock 1857 as follows; that the highest wisdom consists in
this, for Man to know himself, because God has placed his eternal Word in him. Therefore, let the high inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of nature
learn first to know what they have in themselves, before they seek in foreign
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matters without them; and by the divine power within them, let them first heal themselves and transform their own souls. Thus, they may go on prosperously,
and seek with good success the mysteries and wonders of God in all natural things. pp, 35-36
b. Purification
