Die Alchemie. Das ist die Lehre von den grossen Geheim-Mitteln der Alchemisten und den Speculationen, welche man an sie knüpfte

The tortoise and the bird would therefore get along poorly together in the Avatars divine incarnations; the bird would consume the tortoise, so one of the two must make way. Since this must happen, the bird must obviously make way. If the tortoise were to make way, the very basis of the animal embodiment would fall. If one assumes, as is not so far-fetched, that the second avatar was originally the only one, then a state of pure impossibility arises for the tortoise to make way for the bird. As the flying animals step back, only the land animals and the water animals remain for us, and we have only the material for two new avatars. With these, however, we are in the clear. We ask: In what form should Wischnu Vishnu embody himself? The answer is: As an animal. We ask further: As which animal? The answer is: As a fish and a land animal. If one then asks: "Where should the new incarnations be placed?" then, in regard to the fish, the first avatar is given of its own accord; for in that one there is talk of the Deluge. It is preeminently original Greek: κατ’ ἐξοχήν the water-avatar. Now, if the fish is not to be ranked there, where then should it be ranked?

It is a popular custom among us to be much more inclined to generalize the fish than the land animal or the mammal. It was exactly the same with the Indians. This is why, in order to incorporate the fish or water animal and the land animal into the avatars, no further specialization is made regarding the fish, but further specialization is indeed made regarding the land animal. It is not a question of which specific fish should appear to a man, such as a pike or a carp, rather, the fish remains simply a fish. However, the question does arise: If the land animal enters the matter, what kind of land animal should it be? In answering this question, the eye is naturally directed toward the lion, toward him who is the king of animals and whose color is yellow, like the Liquor hepatis liver of sulfur solution. But it might be difficult to bring the lion into a closer relation to the representation of the Liquor hepatis, and that is the reason why one turns away from the lion and toward the boar. The boar, as we have seen above, can be brought into relation with the representation of the Liquor hepatis regarding its wallowing in the morass and its tusks, which stand upright. Thus, it takes the place of the lion. It enters into the third avatar according to the simple law of sequence. The first avatar is completed; it has received the fish. The second avatar is completed; it has received the tortoise. Now it is the turn of the third avatar, and it receives the boar.

Now three avatars are finished. Vishnu is accommodated three times as an animal, and with that the animal world is exhausted. If Vishnu is to embody himself further, one must look further for a substrate of incarnation. And here the following path opens. Vishnu is a god; as a god, one has him by that very fact original Latin: eo ipso. As an animal, one has him on the basis of the first three avatars. And so it is natural to slide the middle link, "man," between animal and god. Thus, one has as a new incarnation-substrate: man and god. However, after completing the first three avatars, we still have seven before us, and man and god would only offer substrates for two incarnations. Help is needed here, and this is best achieved by bringing middle links into the matter. Between animal and man, the middle link is that class of beings called half-animals or half-humans; such as animals with human heads, humans with animal heads, and so on. The same manner prevails with the angels. Between man and god, the middle link is the hero. In this way, the material is offered to us to expand the two, man and god, into four: half-human (half-animal), man, hero, god. But even with this, we have not yet reached the goal. For it is a matter of seven incarnations, and in the manner mentioned, we only obtained four of them. We are still short by three. Further help is therefore required. And here the following presents itself. The animal is represented threefold; accordingly, it is natural to also

let the human be represented threefold. This is fitting if only so that man does not rank below the animal. It is all the more fitting as the three-man significantly emphasizes that one is well aware of the three among the animals, that one deliberately establishes three classes of animals instead of four (the class of birds being dropped). In this way, one would then have as the substrate of incarnation in the individual avatars: 1) Animal, 2) Animal, 3) Animal, 4) Half-human (half-animal), 5) Man, 6) Man, 7) Man, 8) Hero, 9) God. With that, we would be finished with nine avatars, and only the incarnation material for the tenth avatar would be missing. In regard to this, the author of the avatars takes his specific standpoint as a Buddhist a follower of Buddha—he is a Buddhist—and places the Buddha above God. In his progression from animal to half-human (half-animal), from half-human to man, from man to hero, from hero to God, he does not stop at God as the final link, but he proceeds one link further and comes from God to Buddha. And in this way, we receive as substrates of incarnation in the individual avatars: 1) Animal, 2) Animal, 3) Animal, 4) Half-human (half-animal), 5) Man, 6) Man, 7) Man, 8) Hero, 9) God, 10) Buddha. And with that, the answer to the question "In what form should Vishnu embody himself?" would be exhaustively completed, and the matter would be settled.

However, the author of the avatars does not settle the matter quite like that. First, he gives the three of the human not to the man, but to the hero. Now, that is an insignificant variant from the previous one. He thinks it is more significant if the hero, who is after all still a man, receives the three, rather than the man himself. In this way, we would receive as substrates of incarnation in the individual avatars: 1) Animal, 2) Animal, 3) Animal, 4) Half-human (half-animal) 5) Man, 6) Hero, 7) Hero, 8) Hero, 9) God, 10) Buddha.

But he does not stop here. He calculates as follows: The basis of the Avatar incarnation is indeed the representation of the Liquor hepatis, but significant consideration is also given to those forms under which Vishnu embodies himself. In order for them to be given significant consideration, they must be able to develop freely. They would not be able to develop freely, and specifically Buddha would not stand in his full glory, if the fetters of the representation of the Liquor hepatis were perpetually attached to them. This is the reason why the author, from the hero onward, leaves the Liquor hepatis out of sight and moves quietly toward the Buddha, as if there were no Liquor hepatis in the world. Mind you, this does not happen by leaps and bounds, all at once; for with the hero, we still have the significant avatar, and this is still a half-hearted representation of the Liquor hepatis, because even in the second avatar, the main representation-avatar, the struggle is brought in. But in general it does happen, and because it happens, it is natural that when we have arrived at the Buddha, we look back and ask: But where has the Liquor hepatis gone? That is the reason why the author does not conclude with the Buddha avatar, and brings after it the Kalki the final avatar avatar. This avatar is intended to bring the Liquor hepatis back onto the table. But the situation in and of itself is awkward. As soon as we have arrived at the Buddha, as soon as he is completed, we have an accomplished fact original French: fait accompli in regard to the avatars. To bring another avatar afterward means starting the whole thing over from the beginning. If such an action is carried out consistently, we will never reach an end. And here the author helps himself by saying, fine, the matter is concluded; I must not bring the Liquor hepatis by starting over from the beginning; I must not bring any avatar at all. But if I am not allowed to bring the avatar, I can at least not bring it. I do not bring it, for it is only a matter of an avatar which is not there at all, which lies in the future. You cannot cut off the vague future from me. And as for the Liquor hepatis, I do not bring that either. I bring it, to be sure, but I do not bring it as Liquor hepatis; I bring it as non-Liquor hepatis; I bring it as the corrupted Liquor hepatis, as the Liquor hepatis that has ceased

to be Liquor hepatis. For as soon as the Liquor hepatis becomes white, it is no longer Liquor hepatis; as soon as Vishnu comes on his white horse, he annuls himself within himself. Thus, despite the fact that I bring the Liquor hepatis on one side, I do not bring it on the other side, and I have the non-standpoint both in bringing the avatar as such and in bringing that which it concerns. To take such a position cannot be illogical.

In this way, contrary to the preceding list, we would obtain: 1) Animal, 2) Animal, 3) Animal, 4) Half-human (half-animal), 5) Man, 6) Hero, 7) Hero, 8) Hero, 9) God, 10) Buddha, 11) Kalki. But now we have one incarnation too many, and that is the reason why two heroes are compressed together in the sixth avatar, so that we obtain the list: 1) Animal, 2) Animal, 3) Animal, 4) Half-human (half-animal) 5) Man, 6) Double-hero, 7) Hero, 8) God, 9) Buddha, 10) Kalki. This list is then followed by the author in the incarnations. Having this list before our eyes, we only need to add a few special details regarding the incarnations of Vishnu.

We have the fish, tortoise, and boar in the first three avatars. It is now the turn of the fourth avatar. According to the previous list, the half-human or half-animal must come to this one. In the third avatar, as we saw, the lion was close at hand, but he was not good to employ and was therefore pushed back. The one who was pushed back is now brought forward again. Here in the fourth avatar, we no longer attach the scruples to him as in the third avatar. In the third avatar, one could ask: but what good is the lion to us, to whom no relation to the representation of the Liquor hepat. Liquor hepatis can be attached? The same could indeed be asked in the fourth avatar, but here one can answer evasively: certainly, in regard to the representation of the Liquor hepatis, the lion is remote, but that does not matter here. We have two things to keep in view: the representation of the Liquor hepatis and the substrate of Vishnu's incarnation. As the latter, however, the lion fits perfectly, because the fourth avatar concerns the half-human or the half-animal. The lion, namely a man with a lion's head or a lion with a man's head, was a common figure. Because it is a matter of the half-human or half-animal, and because the lion can be so well exploited for this purpose, the author says that one can forgive the lion for not representing the standpoint of the representation of the Liquor hepatis. What he lacks in this regard, however, he compensates for on the other side as a representative of the half-human or half-animal, and therefore he may enter without causing scruples. In passing, we also want to mention that, apart from the figure of the half-lion-man or half-man-lion familiar to the Indians, the lion can also be exploited for the incarnation as a half-human or half-animal because he is indeed an animal, but as such is the king of (land) animals. The king of animals, however, already stands with one foot in the class of man.

Now it would be the turn of the fifth avatar, which according to the above list has to bring the human. How the human becomes a dwarf here, we have already learned above in the fifth avatar.

The sixth and seventh avatars follow, which have to bring us the hero in a threefold number. The Three-Rama the various incarnations of Rama figures as such a triple hero. The eighth avatar follows, which according to the previous list has to bring us the god. Krischna Krishna figures as such, who on the one hand reminds us of the Greek Apoll Apollo, who tends the herds for Admetus, and in this respect stands somewhat harmlessly; but who on the other hand, according to the description we provided above, figures as an extraordinarily powerful god.

Then comes the ninth avatar, which brings us Buddha, who thus stands above Krishna.

In the tenth avatar, finally, the incarnation of Vishnu as Kalki makes the conclusion.

If we now specifically consider the Liquor hepatis in relation to the incarnations of Vishnu in the individual avatars, we have, as we know, in the first avatar the double conception of the Liquor hepatis as a given and from the standpoint of representation. This double standpoint is deliberately brought into it. On one side, the author wants to take the representation of the Liquor hepatis into account, as in the 2nd, 3rd, and subsequent avatars; on the other side, however, he also wants to have the contrast to the 10th avatar, so that the beginning of the avatars offers a counterpart to their end. But if he wants to have such a contrast, the Liquor hepatis must appear in the 1st avatar just as it departs in the 10th avatar. This it does when the 1st avatar simply brings us the Liquor hepatis.

The second avatar is the principal representation-avatar.

The third avatar is once again a representation-avatar.

The fourth avatar, by contrast, is not a representation-avatar. Leaning on the lion, we have the yellow color of the Liquor hepatis, but nothing more. The lion simply offers no point of reference for the representation of the Liquor hepatis. Why he is nevertheless drawn upon, we know from the preceding. The representation of the Liquor hepatis gives way to the incarnation of Vishnu as a half-human or half-animal. We pointed out previously that the exceptional qualification the lion has for representing Vishnu as a half-human or half-animal may already paralyze the scruple that the representation of the Liquor hepatis steps into the background. But even if the scruple may be paralyzed, if one holds strictly to the Liquor hepatis, it always remains, viewed in and of itself, a gap that we receive it from the standpoint of its color, which is taken generally, from the standpoint of being, and not from the standpoint of representation. Here the author covers himself in such a way that he says: it is absolutely necessary that we have the Liquor hepatis alongside the standpoint of the mode of representation, also from the standpoint of its givenness. This double conception must be there for the sake of the first avatar, for the sake of its situation opposite the 10th avatar. Because we have the standpoint of representation in the second and third avatars, someone might easily let themselves be carried away by analogy and, in the 4th avatar, feel tempted to establish merely the standpoint of the representation of the Liquor hepatis. This is countered when an avatar brings the Liquor hepatis merely from the standpoint of its being given. Then such an avatar brings tangibly before our eyes that we should consider the being-given alongside the representation, and this points to the fact that the first avatar occupies a double standpoint in regard to the Liquor hepatis. The fourth avatar, which takes on such a mission, is the one at hand.

The fifth avatar is then, in further sequence, again a representation-avatar.

But then, in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth avatars, the Liquor hepatis steps into the background, and only steps into the foreground again in the tenth avatar to depart. The white horse in the tenth avatar is, incidentally, already prepared in the second avatar, for already there a white horse emerges from the Amrita nectar of immortality. To this tenth avatar, we add the note that we will later learn through Plato how he brings us his world-animal, exploits it, and after he has exploited it, reconstructs it and reverses it. This is a very similar situation to here with the avatars, where the Liquor hepatis is first brought, then exploited, and after it has been exploited, is reversed again.

And now that we have specifically considered the incarnations of Vishnu and the Liquor hepatis, we also want to specifically consider the struggles linked to the Liquor hepatis. The giants, demons, and so on, are nothing other than the school doctors, with whom the alchemical doctors must endure struggles. We will have the opportunity to look these struggles in the face, especially among the Westerners. But as the avatars show us, they are already very old. Hardly does the divine council appear with the Amrita, then arises

Wischnu Vishnu, Avatar incarnation, Liquor hepatis liver of sulfur solution, Schildkröte tortoise, Thierverkörperung animal embodiment, Sündfluth the Flood, Eber boar, Buddhist, Buddha, Kalki, Heros hero, Rama, Krischna Krishna, Apoll Apollo, Amrita nectar of immortality, Plato.