Divine element

Aristotle of Stageiros (384-322 BCE) did not agree with his teacher s geometric bodies for the different elements. He rejected the Democritian atoms in which matter was considered a principle but form was a secondary characteristic. Nor did he accept the existence of a void. According to the Aristotelian view, the four elements arose from the action on primordial matter by pairs of qualities (warm + dry, fire, warm + moist, air, cold + dry, earth, cold + moist, water). He introduced another element, ether, as a divine substance of which the heavens and stars are made (23). 

Next to the description of God breathing into Adam s nostrils Forman added definitions of the divine and animal souls that he attributed to Paracelsus. The divine soul was eternal, only man s imagination could kill it the animal or elemental soul died with the body. At the bottom of the page Forman added a description of Adam as born with eternal life, power over all creatures, and altitude ... 

The civilization of Europe had known nothing like these novel drugs of Mexico, at least not in recorded history. Similar miraculous powers were attributed, in a way, to the Elements in the Mass and the Catholic Church in Mexico was quick to perceive this, to it, alarming parallel. But belief in the divinity of the Sacrament called for an act of faith, whereas the Mexican plants spoke for themselves. 

Heraclitus of Ephesus (about 490 B. C.), on the other hand, considered fire as the primeval element, but apparently viewed fire as also the moving and creative force of the universe, as a divinity indeed.10... 

The shell of the egg is an element like earth, cold and dry it has been called copper, iron, tin, lead. The white of the egg is the water divine, the yellow of the egg is couperose, the oily portion is fire. 

Hermetis saith It is a single Numen, a divine, wondrous, and holy office, while it encloseththe whole world within it, and will become true with all else, and truly overcometh the elements and the five substances. Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, neither have entered the heart of any man, how the heaven hath naturally embodied to truth of this Spirit, in it the truth doth stand alone, therefore it is called the voice of truth. To this power Adam and the other patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, owed their bodily health, their long life, and finally prospered in great wealth thereby. 

This is the Divine Spark hidden in all things, the reflection of Celestial Fire. Called the Quintessence, it is the "most purified and fixed part of a matter," formed by the perfect balance of the Four Elements. This harmony between opposing forces of the Elements, brings forth a whole new and exalted state, the Fifth Element or Quintessence. Its action is digestive and maturing. It drives the transpiration and subtilization of the elements upward to regenerate fire. 

Perfume would seem to be one of the elements, one of the original secrets of the universe. How it gets into flowers, and certain uncouth creatures, as for instance, ambergris in the whale, or civet in the civet cat of Abyssinia, or musk once more in the Florida alligator, is a hidden process of the divine chemistry, and why it affects us as it does no philosopher has yet explained. Literally, it belongs to those invisible powers whose influence is incalculable, and as yet unknowable. 

Quintessence is so called because it is something higher than the elements, nor does it originate from these or from what is gross therein, but is divine in source and in effect. 

For chemists working with several elements, the penodic chart of the elements is so indispensable that one is apt to forget that, far from being divinely inspired, it resulted from the hard work of countless chemists. True, there is a quantum mechaniciil basis for the periodicity of the elements, as we shall see shortly. But the inspir. ition of such scientists as Menddeev and the perspiration of a host of nineteenth-century chemists provided the chemist with the benefits of the pcnodic table about half a century before the existence of the electron was proved The confidence that Mendeleev had in his chart, and his predictions based on it. make frscinating reading." ... 

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