of sin might be
destroyed...."

I Corinthians XV, 42 ff.: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in
incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.... It is sown
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.... The first Adam was made
a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.... We shall all
be changed.... For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality."

I Corinthians XV, 40 ff.: "There are celestial bodies and bodies
terrestrial.... There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the
moon."

Ephesians II, 14 ff.: "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace,
and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby."

If we note the two contraries that are to be united according to the
procedure of the hermetic philosophers with [Symbol: Sun] and [Symbol:
Moon] [sun and moon, gold and silver, etc.] and represent them united with
the cross [Symbol: +] we get [Symbol: Mercury with a sun]; i.e., [Symbol:
Mercury], the symbol of mercury. This ideogram conceals the concept,
Easter. All these ideas, as we know, did not originate with Christianity.

II Corinthians V, 1: "For we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens."

John VII, 38: "He that believeth on me ... out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water."

I mention right here that the hermetic philosophers do not pursue
speculative theology, but that, as is clearly evident from their writings,
they made the content of the religious doctrine a part of their life. That
was their work, a work of mysticism. Everything that the reader is
inclined to conceive in the passages above, as probably belonging merely
to the other life, they as Mystics, sought to represent to themselves on
earth, though without prejudice to the hope of a life beyond. I presume
that they therefore speak of two stones, a celestial and a terrestrial.
The celestial stone is the eternal blessedness and, as far as the
Christian world of ideas is considered, is Christ, who has aided mankind
to attain it. The terrestrial stone is the mystical Christ whom each