fiery sulphur must be
worked out or rather sent out and used for work. The field of activity of
the member proportions itself, as it were, according to the expansion or
range of its sulphurous radiation. At this time the member enters into a
relation of such intensified activity with the world that the intellectual
grasp [which corresponds to the [Symbol: Mercury] = principal] acquires
from it a new illumination [blazing star], and breaks away for a
connection of the will, which was at first merely individual, with the
collectivity. To me at least that appears to be the sense of the
figurative but not quite clear exposition of W. S. H., pp. 952-962, which
I have, for the sake of exactness, given in the original text. [See
Appendix, Note I.] As soon as the crude stone is cut and polished we have
no longer to work inward but outward. What we are to accomplish so
creatively would be insignificant if we did not know the secret of
borrowing power from a power that apparently lies without us. Where do
these mysterious powers work if not at the pillar B, whose name means: i.
i. d. St.? In the north directed on the contrary towards the moon, whose
soft feminine light it reflects, it corresponds to [Symbol: Mercury],
which unceasingly flows towards all being, in order to support its central
fire, [Symbol: Fire]. The exaltation of the latter leads to the fire test,
the idea of which Wirth seems to take in strictly occult form, in the
manner of Eliphas Levi. Finally, a circulation takes place, in that the
individual will seeks like a magnet to draw the divine will, always falls
down again, rises, however, and so on in cycles, till both meet in the
"philosophical fire." It is the cycle of which we read in the Smaragdine
Tablet. The incombustible essence that comes forth from the fire test is
the phoenix (a figure much used by the alchemists). The member has the task
of changing himself into the phoenix. Not only [Symbol: Fire] belongs to
the work, however, but also the act must be guided by intelligence;
activity and receptivity must complement each other. Therefore the member
has to know both pillars thoroughly. And therefore he becomes also the
already mentioned androgynous material, Rebis. That is only to be attained
when the elemental propensities are overcome, therefore the figure Rebis
is represented as standing on the dragon. (W. S. H., pp. 96-101.)

What will the master do now? He will identify himself with the Master
Builde