neck, the guttural and its meaning given according to the content of the old form of oath. The fate of the traitor befalls the man who is slain at this point; he has been a traitor to the inner true man. It is here the place to bear in mind the descending scale of marks (guttural, pectoral, stomachal). Man is to be transmuted on rectangular principles, or in the language of alchemy, is to be tinctured with the divine tincture. This tincturing seizes first the most spiritual and advances steadily until the whole man is transformed. The trichotomy corresponds to the Platonic (and alchemistic) tripartite division of the powers of the soul. Plato distinguishes the reasoning soul, which he places in the head, the intellectual in the breast, and the affective in the abdomen. The entire soul, even the vegetative, is to be illuminated by the highest light. If we assume that it is more than a pretty picture, Staudenmaier’s view becomes of interest, namely that man may have an extraordinary spiritual perfection in bestowing consciousness through practice upon the centers that ordinarily work vegetatively without consciousness. In this way he gains power over a whole army of working powers that otherwise escape him. Staudenmaier’s own experiences teach that all the dangers of introversion are connected with such a training, and it may easily happen that we are defeated by the spirits that we invoke, instead of becoming their masters. The absolute mastery of the rational ego is, however, evidently the foundation of the ethical work of perfection. Kenning’s doctrine is related to the theories of Staudenmaier.] Oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to perceive the life blood flowing into the fountain of the same divinity from which it came.” Whereupon wisdom opened more of her secrets to her. (L. G. B., I, p. 24.) It may be that this is the most suitable place to mention another series of visions (apropos of the building of the tabernacle, L. G. B., I, pp. 24 ff.): “It [the holy ark] is an impregnable fortress and tower, so go thou not out [so says Wisdom], but bind thyself and ally thyself here as a disciple, to hold out to the end, then thou wilt be learned in the lofty spiritual art of the everlasting mystery, and be instructed how this incomparable composition or medicine of the healing elixir and balsam of life is prepared. Above all thou must enter a bond of silence and vow to reveal it to no one outside of your fellow learners, who are called together near and with you, to work at this very art. [I hardly need to mention the duty under oath, but will only call attention to the group of the three virtues of the newly entering: attentiveness, silence, fidelity.] Further thou must completely bide the definite time and year of it, in all fidelity and patience indefatigable, until thou succeedest in making this oil as well, and preserve it in the beautiful snow-white alabaster box of consummate nature, and art as fit and perfect as thy instructress.”