1 Hence the designation of Mercurius as mare nostrum.

2 Cf. Maitrayana-Brāhmana Upanishad, V, 8 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 15, p. 311). He occurs as the spiritus vegetativus and collective soul in the Vedanta-Sutras (ibid., vol. 34, p. 173, and vol. 48, p. 578).

3 The treatise of Rosinus (Zosimos) is probably of Arabic origin. “Malus” might be a corruption of “Magus.” The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim (A.D. 987) lists, along with writings of Rimas (Zosimos), two works by Magus one of which is entitled “The Book of the Wise Magus (?) on the Art” (Ruska, Turba, p. 272).

4 Art. aurif., I, p. 310.

5 Cf. “The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales,” pp. 231ff.

6 [Cf. Psychology and Alchemy, ch. 5, “The Lapis-Christ Parallel,” and Aion, ch. 5, “Christ, a Symbol of the Self.”—EDITORS.]

7 The Spiritual Exercises (trans. Rickaby), pp. 75ff.

8 [From L. mephitis, a noxious exhalation from the earth.—TRANSLATOR.]

9 Evidence for this is the widespread motif of the two hostile brothers.

10 Cf. the saying of Ostanes concerning the stone that has a spirit.

11 “For the knowledge of the creature, in comparison with the knowledge of the Creator, is but a twilight; and so it dawns and breaks into morning when the creature is drawn to the love and praise of the Creator. Nor is it ever darkened, save when the Creator is abandoned by the love of the creature.”—The City of God, XI, vii.

12 Brihadāranyaka Upanishad, IV, 3, 6 (cf. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, p. 133).

13 “And when it [the creature’s knowledge] comes to the knowledge of itself, that is one day” (Et hoc cum facit in cognitione sui ipsius, dies unus est).—The City of God, XI, vii. This may be the source for the strange designation of the lapis as “filius unius diei.” [Cf. Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp. 335, 504.]

14 “Since no knowledge is better than that by which man knows himself, let us examine our thoughts, words, and deeds. For what does it avail us if we are to investigate carefully and understand rightly the nature of all things, yet do not understand ourselves?”— Liber de Spiritu et Anima, LI (Migne, P.L., vol. 40, cols. 816-17). This book is a very much later treatise falsely attributed to Augustine.

15 “Wherefore the knowledge of the creature, which is in itself evening knowledge, was in God morning knowledge; for the creature is more plainly seen in God than it is seen in itself.”—Dialogus Quaestionum LXV, Quaest. XXVI (Migne, P.L., vol. 40, col. 741).

16 The Liber de Spiritu et Anima attributes very great importance to self-knowledge, as being an essential condition for union with God. “There are some who seek God through outward things, forsaking that which is in them, and in them is God. Let us therefore return to ourselves, that we may ascend to ourselves. . . . At first we ascend to ourselves from these outward and inferior things. Secondly, we ascend to the high heart. . . . In the third ascent we ascend to God” (chs. LI–LII; Migne, P.L., vol. 40, col. 817). The “high heart” (cor altum; also “deep heart”) is the mandala divided into four, the imago Dei, or self. The Liber de Spiritu et Anima is in the mainstream of Augustinian tradition. Augustine himself says (De vera religione LXXII, Migne, P.L., vol. 34, col. 154): “Go not outside, return into yourself; truth dwells in the inner man. And if you find that you are by nature changeable, transcend yourself. But remember that when you transcend yourself, you must transcend yourself as a reasoning soul.”

17 “Evening descends when the sun sets. Now the sun has set for man, that is to say, that light of justice which is the presence of God.”—Enarrationes in Ps. XXIX, II, 16 (trans. Hobgin and Corrigan, I, p. 308). These words refer to Ps. 30 : 5 (A.V.): “Weeping may tarry for the night but joy cometh in the morning.”

18 The City of God, XI, viii. Cf. also Dialog. Quaest. LXV, Quaest. XXVI,

19 Confessions (trans. Sheed), p. 289.

20 Enarrationes in Ps. CIII, Sermo III, 21 (Migue, P.L., vol. 37, col. 1374).