Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts - Herbert Silberer (great reads .TXT) 📗

of the stone, the alchemistic as well as the building stone, it depends on the clearing away of the disturbing elements, not on ornamentation. The purification (rectificatio, purificatio, etc.) of the alchemistic stone exactly corresponds to the working over the raw stone with the pick. Crystallization produces the regular form; fixation, the density. The projection corresponds to the employment in the building of the temple (which [pg 397] appears infrequently in symbolism). Probably the most appropriate place for these passages (L. G. B., I, pp. 131 ff.) is in connection with this mention of building. “Only have faith, so I will go before you and reveal my name and show you the foundation of it [the city], wherefrom your strength increases and your victorious power shall be known. But who must be your architect to instruct you in this foundation work of yours but this Wisdom who was with the great God Jehovah from eternity, who gave you existence and being from the breath of the eternal Will? Therefore thus and in such manner the motivating power of the will must result and proceed.... Come therefore to me and I will show you where all these foundation stones lie. Look and see the material of the treasure in the circumference of your new earth.... Here you might spy out or find this foundation, [Cf. what was said previously about the new earth], for which purpose will be given to you the golden measuring line, or the plummet of my spirit.” [The master stands on the pillar of strength. Jehovah was the last master word.]

We stopped where the angel John says we should know that the divine salt is hidden in all men. It goes on: “but it has lost its power and savor, and such is the principle of light that includes all other principles, because man, although quite unknown to himself, is an abstract and concept in brief of all worlds. Therefore he may find in himself all that he seeks; only it cannot happen before the salt alone, which has lain as dead, has been again raised to life [pg 398] through Christ the Freestone (who calcines the black to a jasper brilliance and to a beautiful whiteness). This is the true theosophic medicine, which indeed gradually, or little by little, works out of itself, from itself, and into itself, even as a grain of wheat which when it is sown does, by the coöperation of the sun and the outer planets, forms itself into a body. Only one has to watch and pay attention so that no birds of prey come and pick it up [Cf. Figure 3, p. 199] before it comes to its maturity and full time. For just such a state [as with the grain of wheat] exists in the case of the gold stone, which lies hidden in the foundation of nature, is nourished by the warm fiery influence of the divine sun and through the moist seeds of the spiritual Luna [sperma luna] is watered, which makes it grow through the inner penetration and union of the planetary powers of the higher order, which draw the weaker and lower into themselves, impregnate and swallow them. Whereby the mastery is obtained over all that is astral and elemental. In this manner the beloved John revealed to me the nature of the royal stone, as it was revealed to him in the island of Patmos (there by him was brought forth what he possessed in the spirit). And he told me further concerning this: that where the universal or general love is born in any one, such would be the true signature and token that this seraphic stone would there be formed and take to itself a bodily shape.” (L. G. B., I, p. 44).

[Here we meet clearly the trinity [Symbol: Sun] [Symbol: Philosopher's Stone] [Symbol: Moon], sun, [pg 399] moon, and as an outgrowth of both the [Symbol: Philosopher's Stone] gold stone, the Philosopher's Stone, which unites in itself the [Symbol: Gold] and [Symbol: Silver] or which is the same [Symbol: Fire] and [Symbol: Water]. It is therefore not at all a mistake to see in the [Symbol: Water] a union of action and reaction. The G must be conceived in the anagogic sense, as the genesis of the Philosopher's Stone or as regeneration.] In L. G. B., I, p. 147, I find also this remarkable passage: “The word of Jesus was revealed to me in the following manner: O you that wait upon Jerusalem. Through what gate have you entered? And what have you seen here that you are so desirous of living here? Have you not been taken in by the fire flaming eye? [The eye is the flaming star. In L. G. B., I, p. 196, is found the representation of a face that is equivalent to the eye. A moon is added to it. The eye [Symbol: Gold] is, as it were, the sun to this moon.] so that you intend not to go out again from here, till you get another heart [The pectoral learns who approaches to the flaming star.] which never could be completely changed?... O then be therefore wise, and await your nuptial spirit [Genesis] and the garment of the power unfailing. [i. i. d. St.] No one can ever get that outside of this treasure city, for in this Zion all must be born anew....” [Oswald Wirth regards the alchemistic concept Rebis as the expression of the perfect degree of community. “The initiated, who becomes in some way androgynous, because he unites the virile energy with the feminine sensitiveness, is represented in alchemy by the Rebis [from res bina, the double [pg 400] thing]. This substance, at once male and female, is a mercury [Symbol: Mercury] animated by its sulphur [Symbol: Sulphur] and transformed by this act into Azoth [Symbol: Mercury], i.e., into this quintessence of the elements [fifth essence] of which the flaming star is the symbol. It should be noted that this star is always placed in such a way that it receives the double radiation of the male sun [Symbol: Gold] and the female moon [Symbol: Moon]; its light is thus of a bisexual nature, androgynous or hermaphrodite. The Rebis corresponds otherwise to the matter prepared by the final work, otherwise called the journeyman who has been made worthy to be raised to the mastery.” (W. S. H., p.99.)]

But to return to Jane Leade's magical journey. “Hereupon I was moved (because I well knew and was certain that this heavenly stone already had its birth and growth in me) [Rebirth = the cubical stone's change from potentiality to actuality] with great frankness to ask whether my external furnace [her own body] would keep so long, and not perish [die] before the stone would have attained its perfection. Whereupon this dear saint [John] said to me in answer: Worry and trouble not yourself about this but be only patient in hope; for the true philosophic tree is grown and in a fair way to produce ripe fruit.” (L. G. B., I, pp. 44 ff.) The preparation of the stone is now described by John according to the well known outlines. For “said Wisdom and the apostle John to me: Henceforth you shall be brought to the old worthy heroes of the faith who have [The masters too.] effected projection [pg 401] with the stone [= the work of transmutation]. And after I was brought there I saw the patriarchs or arch fathers and all the great philosophers, who had been taught by God himself both in the earlier and in the later times. After that I was led into a darkness and gloom, which was of itself changed by a magic power into a clear silver light.” (L. G. B., I, p. 46.) Several other allegories follow for the changing activity, as described already (L. G. B., I, p. 41). John explains that all the wonders were accomplished with the stone of wisdom and that whoever has worked out this stone in himself is marked as one sealed [Sigillum, Hermetes, Sealing with the Trowel, mark of salvation, Mark Mason.] of God with the power from above.

A further communication of the preceding vision [sc. Magic Journey] gives the following additional information: “The Word came to me and said: The love bond between God and thee must not be loosened but tightly knotted. Meanwhile the spirit is the only eternal substance and property in which thou must labor and toil. That it may then cling to you so fast and strongly that it may draw thee quite closely to it and may establish thee within the circle of the immeasurable love; from which enmity is sundered, and the curse of the elements is separated and wholly taken away. O go in, go, I say, into it, for this is the infinite space, that thou hast seen, and which is to be found inside the third door. [Does this need any explanation?] This invisible love bond will perfect thee through the first gate, [pg 402] which is so narrow and low, and therefore also through the other two gates; in case that thou wilt yield everything in thee completely in all its length and breadth so that it may be able quickly to raise thee. For, dear one, what is to return thee so mightily to the desired enjoyment of all abundance and good as the love of God? Therefore be strong and courageous in love, in going through these divers gates, and fear not any attack of the adversary till thou hast entered this hallowed country and art wedded therein to thy beloved.”

A complaint that was made of Wisdom by her pilgrim: “Meanwhile as I lay in my deep struggle, came there a spirit of prayer down, who made an earnest supplication and unutterable sighing, rise towards heaven, [The lamentation at the grave of the Master.] which as I felt most clearly, penetrated and broke through the gate of the eternal profound, so that my spirit had an entrance to the secret chamber of pure godhead, wherein I had audience and complete freedom to pour out my lamentations and show my wounds and tell who had pierced me. For each and every hand was against me, let fly their stinging arrows at me, and burdened and oppressed still more that which hung already, dropping blood, upon the cross, and cried and said, Crucify, crucify her, make her really feel death in the dying.... I was in violent birth travail. All woes and onsets, however, made a greater opening for the birth of life, and gave me an entrance into the holy place, wherein first I heard the eternal tones. [pg 403] And then after this, as I gained the strength to be in a pleasant quiet, I was in a clear water, [Tears.], in which no mud nor any refuse arose; also no implement was lifted to any work there, nor was any noise nor uproar heard.” [Just as in the building of Solomon's temple.] (L. G. B., I, p. 48.)

Now Leade hears the comforting voice of the “Bridegroom” (the unio mystica) which brings to her view the perfection she has striven for, and commands her to touch no unclean spirits of this world. [Gloves.] Only what is detached from sin may come near him. The bridegroom is answered by Leade's soul-spirit: “Lord, how can this be done? For although I have had a great longing towards this ministration [the holy service] that I might be ever near thee, the spirit of this world [See previous.] has made claim to this shell or body of mine, and says that I have not yet stepped out the bounds and sphere of his dominion. The external man is encompassed by hunger and thirst, heat and cold [antitheses of the Hindu philosophy], which are wont to entangle his external senses in such things as are external, in such a way that no one can live in such pure abstraction and seclusion, until he is relieved of and freed from all care for the external body. This is what I bewailed with tears, and expressly asked God whether it was not possible for the eternal mind and spirit to supply all necessaries for the bodily part without aid of the spirit of reason, who is king in that realm where malediction rules?” [In other words, whether it was not possible in the living life [pg 404] to be released from contradiction (as it is called in the Bhagavad-Gita), to quite tear away the bonds of animal sensuous being, and definitively allow the eternal principles to be active. The question is whether the terrestrial stone is, in its complete perfection, on the whole possible, whether the ethical ideal in absolute purity can be pragmatically realized.]

“Whereupon after a short blocking and