ning given according to the content of the
old form of oath. The fate of the traitor befalls the man who is slain at
this point; he has been a traitor to the inner true man. It is here the
place to bear in mind the descending scale of marks (guttural, pectoral,
stomachal). Man is to be transmuted on rectangular principles, or in the
language of alchemy, is to be tinctured with the divine tincture. This
tincturing seizes first the most spiritual and advances steadily until the
whole man is transformed. The trichotomy corresponds to the Platonic (and
alchemistic) tripartite division of the powers of the soul. Plato
distinguishes the reasoning soul, which he places in the head, the
intellectual in the breast, and the affective in the abdomen. The entire
soul, even the vegetative, is to be illuminated by the highest light. If
we assume that it is more than a pretty picture, Staudenmaier's view
becomes of interest, namely that man may have an extraordinary spiritual
perfection in bestowing consciousness through practice upon the centers
that ordinarily work vegetatively without consciousness. In this way he
gains power over a whole army of working powers that otherwise escape him.
Staudenmaier's own experiences teach that all the dangers of introversion
are connected with such a training, and it may easily happen that we are
defeated by the spirits that we invoke, instead of becoming their masters.
The absolute mastery of the rational ego is, however, evidently the
foundation of the ethical work of perfection. Kenning's doctrine is
related to the theories of Staudenmaier.] Oh, how sweet and pleasant it is
to perceive the life blood flowing into the fountain of the same divinity
from which it came." Whereupon wisdom opened more of her secrets to her.
(L. G. B., I, p. 24.)

It may be that this is the most suitable place to mention another series
of visions (apropos of the building of the tabernacle, L. G. B., I, pp. 24
ff.): "It [the holy ark] is an impregnable fortress and tower, so go thou
not out [so says Wisdom], but bind thyself and ally thyself here as a
disciple, to hold out to the end, then thou wilt be learned in the lofty
spiritual art of the everlasting mystery, and be instructed how this
incomparable composition or medicine of the healing elixir and balsam of
life is prepared. Above all thou must enter a bond of silence and vow to
reveal it to no one outside of your fellow learners, who are called
together near and