Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts by Herbert Silberer (great book club books txt) 📖

and putrefied in a horse's belly. In such putrefaction is the Basilisk born. Whoever is so daring and so fortunate as to make it or to take it out or again to kill it, who does not clothe and protect himself before with mirrors? I advise no one but I wish to give sufficient warning. [Many fables about the Basilisk were then current. The belief, too, was general that this terrible animal was produced from a hen's egg. [pg 140] Herein lies, again, the idea of unnatural procreation.] ... Now the generation of the homunculus is not to be forgotten. For there is something in it, notwithstanding that it has till now been kept in mystery and concealed, and that not a little doubt and question there was among some of the old philosophers, whether it was possible for art and nature that a man should be born outside a woman's body and a natural mother. To which I give the answer that it is in no way contrary to the spagiric art and nature, but is quite possible; but how such accomplishment and occurrence may be, is by the following procedure: Namely that the semen of a man is putrefied in a closed cucurbit per se, with the greatest putrefaction in a horse's belly for 40 days or until it comes to life and moves and stirs, which is easily to be seen. [Horse's belly by metonomy for horse's dung. Horse manure or dung was an easily procured material that served the purpose of keeping warm at an even mild and moist heat a vessel that was put into it. Horse manure is then finally the gentle “moist heat” in general engendered by any means. In the preceding case surely the narrower meaning of animal belly or dung should not be overlooked. Here indeed this belly with its moist warmth has to act as an equivalent for a uterus.] After such a time it will look something like a man but transparent without a body. So after this it is daily fed whitish (weisslich) with the Arcano sanguinis humani [the water of life that nourishes the fœtus] and nourished about 40 weeks and kept in the [pg 141] even warmth of a horse's belly. A real live human child will come forth with all members like another child that is born of a woman but much smaller. We call it homunculus and it should then be brought up just like another child with great diligence and care till it comes to its days of understanding. That is now the highest and greatest mystery that God has let mortal and sinful man know. For it is a miracle and magnale Dei, and a mystery above all mystery and should also be kept a mystery fairly till the judgment day, as then nothing will stay hidden, but all will be revealed.

“And although such a thing has hitherto been hidden from natural man, it has not been hidden from the fauns and the nymphs and giants, but has been revealed for a long time; whence they too, come. For from such homunculi, when they come to the age of manhood come giants, dwarfs and other similar great wonder people, [Just like Genesis vi, 4] that were used for a great tool and instrument, who had a great mighty victory over their enemies and knew all secret and hidden things that are for all men impossible to know. For by art they received their life, through art they received body, flesh, bone and blood, through art were they born. Therefore the art was embodied and born in them and they had to learn it from no one, but one must learn from them. For because of art are they there and grown up like a rose or flower in the garden and are called the children of fauns and nymphs because that they with their powers and deeds, not to men but to spirits [pg 142] are compared.” [It is characteristic that Paracelsus passes immediately to the production of metals.]

In the description of the generation of the homunculus the power of rotting material has been pointed out. There is clearly evident a feeding with a magisterium from blood (water of life) corresponding to the intrauterine alimentation. We note that from the homunculi come giants and dwarfs and wonderful beings.

The idea of palingenesis appears to have no little significance for the existence of the homunculus production. They imagine that a dead living being could be restored, at least in a smokelike image, if they carefully collected all its parts, triturated them and treated the composition in a vessel with the proper fire. Then there would appear after a time, like a cloud of smoke, the faint image of the former being, plant, bird, man. The clouds vanish if the heating is interrupted. Further it would be possible, even if more difficult, to pass beyond this mere adumbration, and cause the former being to arise again from the ashes, fully alive. In the recipes for this an important rôle is regularly played by horse manure or some other rotting substance. Many authors tell fables of all sorts of wonderful experiments that they have made. One tells that he has reduced a bird to ashes and made it live again, another will have seen in his retort and coming from the moldering corpse of a child its shadow image, etc. We see here in actuality the mythical motive of dismemberment and revivification expressed in a [pg 143] naïve practice. It is quite noticeable that this practice follows the same lines as the mythical representation. All the constituent parts of the body that is cut into little pieces must be carefully collected and put in a vessel and (generally) cooked.

The human child as result of cooking or else of a similar process in a vessel, is not infrequent in primitive myths. I could mention a Zulu myth (Frobenius, Zeitalt. d. Sonneng., I, p. 237) of a formerly barren woman. It was said that she should catch a drop of blood in a pot, cover it up and set it by for eight months, and should open it in the ninth month. The woman did as she was advised and found a child in the pot. The drop of blood, be it noted, came from herself. The numerous whale dragon myths (Frobenius) where it is very hot inside of the whale, belong here in motive. From the whale's belly comes indeed the baked young (sun) hero. [Who moreover generally gets nourishment in the whale-dragon's belly. Nutritio. Heart motive according to Frobenius.] It is interesting that the idea of cooking human beings occurs very clearly in a well analyzed case of dementia precox. (Spielrein in Jb. ps. F., Ill, pp. 358 ff.) In the strongly regressive phantasies of the invalid, fragments of all sorts of things are cooked or roasted and the ashes can become men.

A very interesting variant of the infantile theories of procreation of the living in dung is found in the book, “De Homunculis et Monstris” (Vol. II, pp. 278 ff. of the Strassburg edition of the works of [pg 144] Paracelsus). It is there maintained that by sodomy as well as by pederasty (specifically coitus in anum and also in os is meant) the generation of a monster is possible.

As they did with alchemy in general, so charlatans also made use of the production of the homunculus. Their business was based on the great profits that were offered by the possession of a homunculus and that are equivalent to those of mandrake alum. Mandrake alum gave a certain impetus to the development of the homunculus idea and practice. It can be shown that secrets of procreation seem partly to underlie this also.

It is easy to show the possibility that many a duffer was led toward the production of the homunculus by erroneous interpretation of the procreation symbolism occurring in the alchemistic writings. It was merely necessary, in their limitations, to take literally one or another of the methods. In this way there actually occurred the most ludicrous blunders. Because the philosopher's egg was mentioned, they took eggs as the actual subject. Because the spermatic substance and seeds were mentioned they thought that the prima materia was human semen, and so arose the school of seminalists. And because it was written of the subject that it was to be found wherever men dwell, and that it was a little despised thing which men threw away not realizing its worth, and because they thought of putrefaction as such, they thought to find the real substance in human excrement, and so the school of stercoralists was [pg 145] founded. From the belief in the healing and wonderworking power of excrement sprang moreover the famous filth pharmacy, that was held in no little esteem.

The homunculus topic is exceedingly interesting. Unfortunately I cannot in the space of this book go into it thoroughly. I shall do so in another place.

[pg 146]