30 PARACELSUS 



the one who is merely speculating about it) may fully rely, 

 as he would rely on the value of a precious stone, or as he would 

 trust to a solid rock upon which to build the foundation of his 

 (spiritual) house. 



AcTHNA. — An invisible, subterrestrial fire, being the matrix from 

 which bituminous substances take their orij^in, and sometimes 

 producing volcanic eruptions. It is a certain state of the "soul" 

 of the earth, a mixture of astral and material elements, perhaps 

 of an electric or magnetic character.^ 



AcTHNici. — Elemental spirits of fire ; spirits of Nature. They may 

 appear in various shapes, as fiery tongues, balls of fire, &c. 

 They are sometimes seen in " spiritual seances." ^ 



A'kIsa. — An Eastern term. Living primordial substance, cor- 

 responding to the conception of some form of cosmic ether 

 pervading the solar system. Everything visible is, so to say, 

 condensed A'kasa, having become visible by changing its supra- 

 ethereal state into a concentrated and tangible form, and every- 

 thing in nature may be resolved again into A'kasa, and be made 

 invisible, by changing the attractive power that held its atoms 

 together into repulsion ; but there is a tendency in the atoms 

 that have once constituted a form, to rush together again in the 

 previous order, and reproduce the same form ; and a form may 

 therefore, by making use of this law, be apparently destroyed 

 and then reproduced. This tendency rests in the character of 

 the form preserved in the Astral Light. 



Alcahest. — An element which dissolves all metals, and by which 

 all terrestrial bodies may be reduced into their Ens primum, or 

 the original matter (A'kasa) of which they are formed. It is a 

 power which acts upon the Astral forms (or souls) of all things, 

 capable of changing the polarity of their molecules, and thereby 

 to dissolve them. The power of Will is the highest aspect of 

 the true Alcahest. In its lowest aspect it is a visible fluid able 

 to dissolve all things, not yet known to modern chemistry. 



Alchemy. — A science by which things may not only be decomposed 

 and recomposed (as is done in chemistry), but by which their 

 essential nature may be changed and raised higher, or be trans- 

 muted into each other. Chemistry deals with dead matter 

 alone, but Alchemy uses life as a factor. Everything is of a 

 threefold nature, of which its material and objective form is 

 its lowest manifestation. There is, for instance, immaterial 

 spiritual gold, ethereal fluid and invisible astral gold, and the 



* It is an element in the life of the "great snake " Vasuki, that accord- 

 ing to Hindu mythology encircles the world, and by whose movements 

 earthquakes may be produced. — H. P. B. 



^ They are the Devas of fire in India, and bulls were sometimes sacri- 

 ficed to them.— H. P. B. 



