ABSTRACT
Dorn calls it "veritas." "It is the supreme power, an unconquerable fortress, which hath but very few friends, and is besieged by innumerable enemies." It is "defended by the immaculate Lamb," and signifies the heavenly Jerusalem in the inner man. "In this fortress is the true and indubitable treasure, which is not eaten into by moths, nor dug out by thieves, but remaineth for ever, and is taken hence after death." 32
1!5 For Dorn, then, the spark of divine fire implanted in man becomes what Goethe in his original version of Faust called Faust's "entelechy," which was carried away by the angels. This supreme treasure "the animal man understandeth not. . . . We are made like stones, having eyes and seeing not." 83
116 After all this, we can say that the alchemical Sol, as a "certain luminosity" (quaedam luminositas), is in many respects equal to the lumen naturae. This was the real source of illumination in alchemy, and from alchemy Paracelsus borrowed this same source in order to illuminate the art of medicine. Thus the concept of Sol has not a little to do with the growth of modern consciousness, which in the last two centuries has relied more aild more on the observation and experience of natural objects. Sol therefore seems to denote an important psychological fact. Consequently, it is well worth while delineating its peculiarities in greater detail on the basis of the very extensive literature.
