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Home Preface 5 Planes of Existence Introduction Five Planes of Manifestation A to Z Contact Related Information BIBLE VERSES |
ALCHEMYThis signifies the production, by unperceived processes, of the higher qualities from the lower; that is, from the baser metals, or lower mental qualities, the precious metals, or higher mental (silver) and buddhic (gold) qualities, are by transmutation produced. Also, the process of purification by fire, whereby out of earth (lower nature) there is made gold (higher nature). “According to Greek writers the Egyptians employed quicksilver in the processes whereby they separated the metals gold and silver from the native ore. From these processes there resulted a ‘black’ powder or substance which was supposed to possess the most marvellous powers, and to contain in it the individualities of the various metals; and in it their actual substances were incorporated. In a mystical manner this black powder was identified with the body which the god Osiris was known to possess in the underworld, and to both were attributed magical qualities, and both were thought to be sources of life and power. The knowledge of the chemistry of the metals and of their magical powers were described by the name ‘Khemeia (cast together).’ To this name the Arabs affixed the article al, and thus we obtain the word Al‑Khemeia, or Alchemy.” — Dr. Budge, Egyptian Magic, p. 20. Osiris with a black complexion signifies Deity unmanifest in the profound darkness of potentiality. In the black body of the dead Osiris, we may see a symbol of the Archetypal Man, the Logos involved in Matter at the end of the cycle of Involution. Deity manifests again in Evolution — Osiris comes to life in the new order of unfoldment. The lower nature (earth) gives birth to the higher nature (gold). This is the Divine Alchemy in which the black earth of ignorance appears to be transmuted into the gold of Wisdom. “The transmutation of the normal physical consciousness of man into the divine consciousness was the magnum opus on which the true alchemists were engaged, and much that is grotesque imbecility in the directions and recipes they have left behind, if we read it simply as nineteenth‑century chemists, becomes beautiful spiritual philosophy in strictest harmony with the laws governing human spiritual evolution, when we put a symbolical construction on the quaintly expressed formula relating to coctions and distillations and the mercury of the wise, and fiery waters and ferments.” — A. P. Sinnett, Growth of the Soul, p. 371. “The prime object of alchemy was held to be the production of the Philosopher’s Stone; that perfect and incorrupt substance, or ‘noble Tincture,’ never found upon our imperfect earth in its natural state, which could purge all baser metals of their dross, and turn them to pure gold. The quest of the Stone, in fact, was but one aspect of man’s everlasting quest of perfection, his hunger for the Absolute. Gold, the Crowned King, or Sol, as it is called in the planetary symbolism of the alchemists, was their standard of perfection, the Perfect Metal. Towards it, as the Christian towards sanctity, their wills were set. It had for them a value not sordid but ideal. Upon the spiritual plane also they held that the Divine Idea is always aiming at ‘Spiritual Gold’ — divine humanity, the New Man, citizen of the transcendental world, and ‘natural man’ as we ordinarily know him, is a lower metal, silver at best, a departure from the ‘plan’; who yet bears within himself, if we could find it, the spark or seed of absolute perfection, the tincture which makes gold. The art of the alchemist consists in completing the work of perfection, bringing forth and making dominant, as it were, the ‘latent goldness which lies obscure’ in metal or man.” — E. Underhill, Mysticism, pp. 169–170. “Gold, the Crowned King” is a symbol of the Higher Self (Sol), and the noble Tincture signifies the Divine Life or buddhic functioning in the human soul. The “natural man” is the lower mind (silver at best), and the “New Man” is the perfected personality transmuted to the higher mind. “The Sulphur and the Salt, or ‘metallic soul and body’ of the spiritual chemistry are the body and the rational soul or mind of man — Sulphur his earthly nature, seasoned with intellectual salt. The Mercury is Spirit in its most mystic sense, the Synteresis or holy Dweller in the Innermost, the immanent spark or Divine Principle of his life. Only the wise, the mystically awakened, can know this Mercury, the agent of man’s transmutation: and until it has been brought out of the hiddenness, nothing can be done.” — Ibid., p. 173. “Sulphur” stands for the desire‑nature with its appetites and passions, and “Salt” for the reasoning faculty of the lower mind. “Mercury of the Wise” is the indwelling Spirit without which no transmutation of lower qualities into higher can be effected. The Higher Self must be born in the soul in order that its dross may be turned into pure gold. “The Three Principles being enclosed in the vessel, or Athanor, which is man himself, and subjected to a gentle fire — the Incendium Amoris — the process of the Great Work, the mystic transmutation of natural into spiritual man, can begin. … The first matter, in the course of its transmutation, assumes three successive colours: the Black, the White, and the Red. These three colours are strictly analogous to the three traditional stages of the Mystic Way: Purgation, Illumination, Union.” — Ibid. The desire, mental, and spiritual natures interactive within the human soul, or causal‑body (Athanor), are subjected to the slow process of combination and evolution, whereby development proceeds in three stages. “The alchemists call the first stage, or Blackness, Putrefaction. In it the three principles which compose the ‘whole man’ of body, soul and spirit, are sublimated till they appear as a black powder full of corruption; and the imperfect body is dissolved and purified by subtle Mercury, as man is purified by the darkness, misery, and despair which follows the emergence of his spiritual consciousness. The ‘black beast,’ the passional element of the lower nature, must emerge and be dealt with before anything further can be done.” — Ibid. The first stage represents the present state of human nature, full of imperfections, and undergoing ethical and spiritual discipline and purification in conditions of conflict and suffering. The lower nature is gradually dissolved away by the Spirit (Mercury). “The second stage, Whiteness, the state of Luna, or Silver, the chaste and immaculate Queen, is the equivalent of the Illuminative Way: the highest point which the mystic can attain short of union with the Absolute. This White Stone is pure and precious; but in it the Great Work of man’s spiritual evolution has not yet reached its term. That term (third stage) is the attainment of the Red, the colour of Perfection or alchemic gold; a process sometimes called the Marriage of Luna and Sol — the fusion of the human and divine spirit. Under this image is concealed the final secret of the mystic life, that ineffable union of finite and infinite — that loving reception of the inflowing vitality of God — from which comes forth the Magnum Opus, deified or spiritual man.” — Ibid., p. 174. In the second stage the personality (Luna) is perfected in goodness and truth, and transmuted to the higher mental plane. The third stage culminates in the union of the Lower Self (Luna) with the Higher Self (Sol) on the buddhic plane, when the soul enters into the joy of its Lord at the cycle’s end. “‘This,’ says the author of A Suggestive Enquiry, ‘is the union super‑sentient, the nuptials sublime, Mentis et Universi. … Lo! behold I will open to thee a mystery,’ cries the Adept, ‘the Bridegroom crowneth the Bride of the north [i.e., she who comes out of the cold and darkness of the lower nature]. In the darkness of the north, out of the crucifixion of the cerebral life, when the sensual dominant is occultated in the Divine Fiat, and subdued, there arises a Light.’” — Ibid., p. 174. The Higher Self (Bridegroom) perfects (crowns) the Soul (Bride) which has come forth from the lower nature (north) wherein it was crucified mentally and emotionally. When the self‑will of the desire‑nature is obliterated in the Divine Will, and overcome, then there arises in the Soul the light of Truth. |
See Also
ARCHETYPAL MAN
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