es of Arabi may be quoted: "My heart is eligible for
every form [of the religious cult]; for it is said that the heart (root:
kalaba = overturn, to alter oneself) is so called from its continual
changing." It changes in accordance with the various (divine) influences
that it feels, according to the various states of the mystical
illumination. This variation of experiences is a result of the variation
of the divine appearances, which occur in its inmost spirit. The law of
religion (theology) speaks of this phenomenon as the changing and
metamorphizing in the forms (of living and being). Gazelles are the
objects of the mystic's love. In one of his poems he says: "And surrender
yourselves to play in the manner of lovely maidens with buxom breasts and
enjoy the luxuriant willows in the manner of the female gazelles." In his
commentary on this passage he says: " 'Play' denotes the various states of
the mystic, to which he is advanced when he passes from one divine name to
another." (Horten, Myst., I, pp. 11, 13, ff.)

It is the ethical ideal of the mystic, more and more to put off the
limited ego, and to take on in its place the qualities of God, in order to
become God.

When with Arabi the theme of an ode is "Through asceticism, fervent
yearning after God and patience in suffering, man becomes God or acquires
divine nature" (Horten, Myst., I, p. 16), then this goal is identical with
that of the alchemistic transmutation; the base metal acquires (after
purification, refining, etc.) by virtue of the tincturing with the
Philosopher's Stone the nature of gold, i.e., the divine nature.

But patient effort is requisite. Precipitancy is as great an evil as
inactivity. It is, to use the language of the alchemists, just as bad to
scorch the tender blossoms by a forced and hasty fire (that in spite of
its intensity may be merely a straw fire), as to let go out the fire which
should be continuously kept alight, and to let grow cold the materia. The
process of distillation is to be accomplished slowly, so that the spirits
may not escape. That which rises as steam through the "heating" in the
"receptacle" (i.e., in man) is the soul rising into the higher regions.
Distilling like rain drops [destillare = drop down], it brings each time
to the thirsting materia a divine gain. But this process is not to be
overdone, for the thirsting earth must be gently instilled with the
heavenly moisture of the water of life: the process of "imbibition