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

such a training, and it may easily happen that we are defeated by the spirits that we invoke, instead of becoming their masters. The absolute mastery of the rational ego is, however, evidently the foundation of the ethical work of perfection. Kenning's doctrine is related to the theories of Staudenmaier.] Oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to perceive the life blood flowing into the fountain of the same divinity from which it came.” Whereupon wisdom opened more of her secrets to her. (L. G. B., I, p. 24.)

It may be that this is the most suitable place to mention another series of visions (apropos of the building of the tabernacle, L. G. B., I, pp. 24 ff.): “It [the holy ark] is an impregnable fortress and tower, so go thou not out [so says Wisdom], but bind thyself and ally thyself here as a disciple, to hold out to the end, then thou wilt be learned in the lofty spiritual art of the everlasting mystery, and be instructed how this incomparable composition or medicine of the healing elixir and balsam of life is prepared. Above all thou must enter a bond of silence and vow to reveal it to no one outside of your fellow learners, who are called together near and with you, to work at this very art. [I hardly need to mention the duty under oath, but will only call attention to the group of the three virtues of the newly entering: attentiveness, silence, fidelity.] Further thou must completely bide the definite time and year of it, in all fidelity and patience indefatigable, [pg 390] until thou succeedest in making this oil as well, and preserve it in the beautiful snow-white alabaster box of consummate nature, and art as fit and perfect as thy instructress.”

I continue in the earlier series of forms. Jane Leade is required by wisdom to follow her. “But all of a sudden I was surprised by a mighty enemy, who pressed me hard while he accused and complained that I was breaking the laws of nature, to which I was still bound because I had an external body, for whose elemental wants I must take reasonable care, ... as all my neighbors in the world did, who were under the rule of the grand monarch of the [worldly calculating] reason, under whose scepter everything must mortify what lives in the sensual animal life....” [The man who lives only for the satisfaction of physical needs cannot serve our purpose.... There is a higher life than that to which millions are chained like an animal. To this higher life the Master is to devote himself, and to it he is metaphorically initiated in the admission. Common nature, the prince of this world, strives against these requirements.] “Yes,” says the prince of the earthly life, “how wilt thou turn aside from my laws and throw thy brother's yoke from thy neck?” Leade turns to her mother, Wisdom, who promises her to take God's advice how the enemy could be driven away. The proof should be that they were traitors to the crown, to honor, and to the lordship of the lamb; they would soon be handed over to justice. (L. G. B., I, pp. 27 ff.) [Cf. on the [pg 391] one hand, in connection with “accused and complained,” think of the murderer of the royal architect. As this is the inner man, both belong together. The “prince of this world” turns the tables on his accusation; psychologically quite justifiably.]

After various exhortations Jane Leade receives from Wisdom a book which she, Wisdom, must read from, “in order to explain to you one letter after another, [Spelling.], especially you do not yet know the number which makes up your new name. And as long as you do not see that, what kind of right and title can you advance for the rest of the entire mastery that is developed there?” (L. G. B., I, p. 36.) It refers to a transmutation of the man, which cannot happen all at once; “so highly important a change, that it could not take place without a passing through many distant degrees.” (L. G. B., II, p. 78.)

We come to a section that is inscribed, “The Magic Journeys.” [Probably I shall hardly need now to refer to the meaning of the journey.] It contains all the other phases of the mystical work. “During my spiritual journey to the land of all blessed abundance, a magic outline of it was placed before my eyes, while I was brought to a door which was so low and narrow that I could enter it only by creeping through on my knees, so that it also required great effort and trouble. [Obstacle of the door.] And so I was led farther till, after some time, I came to another door, which was indeed narrow enough but somewhat more comfortable to go [pg 392] through than the first. As I thus proceeded, I came finally to a door that had two valves, one of which opened itself, and was quite right in height and width for my size, and also admitted me to a place of which I could find neither beginning nor end. And I said, ‘What am I doing here alone?’ Whereupon my invisible guide who had led me through these three doors or gates replied that still others would come after me, when they should hear that there was anywhere so great a country that was to be possessed by new inhabitants, and that should be filled and blessed also with all kinds of goods.” (L. G. B., I, p. 40.) [The three gates refer not merely to the three degrees, but have still for themselves another analogue in the initiation. In the old English system the aspirant knocks, because the door offers him a resistance, on the backs of the three officials. They are, as it were, the spiritual doors of the brotherhood. The resistance, and how it is gradually presented in Leade's description, is readily understood psychologically; the nature of the aspirant is the more adapted the further he advances on his work.]

“This idea and apparition and the account and explanation following thereupon were very powerful; so that I entered into the thoughts of it ever deeper, ... so that I ... also might perceive the explanation and meaning of the gates. For although my spirit saw naught but an infinite spaciousness [compare previous pages] I perceived and felt [Infinite spread of the lodge in accordance with the examination.] still the blowing of so fragrant and refreshing [pg 393] a breeze, as if all kinds of flowers actually stood blooming there. [Does the question as to the mason's wind belong here psychologically? In any case the pleasant breeze comes from the east. Jane Leade often describes her flower garden as oriental. Psychologically and mythologically the breeze has the value of a spermatic symbol. Anagogically it is concerned with the bestowing of a power or (to retain the procreation metaphor) the impregnation with such a power.] Therefore this word was revealed and spoken to me: ‘This is space and place where the love realm is to arise and become verdant with its natural inhabitants, who have laid aside their crass self-love [selfishness] and left it behind them, as it might not come here; even as it is the one which makes the entrance so narrow and crowded....’ Hereupon I saw in my spirit unexpectedly different persons, modified out of measure in their bodies, and they were so highly versed in this mystery that they breathed forth such a spirit from them that they could give being and existence to everything that they willed and desired. At times they spread golden tents and went in and out of them, at other times in places that appeared to be quite waste and desolate they made wonderful plants and trees to grow up, which actually offered their perfect fruit that appeared in a bright golden radiance; of which it was related that they were the magical nourishment and food on which the inhabitants of this land were supposed to live.” [We may also say the masters of the art cultivate an uncultivated [pg 394] people, and provide spiritual nourishment at the drawing table.] “And although at my first entrance here it seemed that I saw nothing, yet I did see after a few moments this whole spacious place filled with spirits of so high a degree that they attracted me at once. Thereupon they set me divers philosophical questions [Catechizing.] which I did not understand. So one of them in a very friendly manner offered to instruct and teach me; said further that he would teach me the secret of their art.... Accordingly he brought me into a magnificent tent, and requested me to wait there so that I might advance into the pure acts or works of faith, because I would succeed thereby in becoming an adept in this high philosophy. Now when, thereupon, Wisdom herself appeared to me, I asked her who it was that had set me the philosophical questions? Whereupon she answered me that they were the old and last living worthies, and they were the believing holy ones, taught by her in her inward and outward divine magic stone; and that the time was coming in which she desired to make new artists and poets in this theosophic wisdom, who should give a form to the things that had been so odiously disgraced and lay under a cloud of contempt, ignorance and disgrace. Especially, no other way besides this could be found than that the deep mine, in which the treasure had lain hidden so long, should be broken open and unsealed. [The lost that must be found again is called in freemasonry the master word. The master wandering has the object of seeking what was lost there [pg 395] [in the East] and has [partly] been found again.] Hereupon the apostle John [Well beloved] spoke to me, to whom the secret was well known, and who was the person who had spoken so kindly to me before, with these words: ‘Just as a natural stone, so is there also a spiritual stone which is the root and the foundation of all that the sons of art have brought visibly into being and into the light. And just as the external is corporeal, and consists in work of the hands, and consumes a great amount of time before it can be brought to perfection, so also is the internal elaborated from degree to degree....’ Therefore I begged and asked the angel John in what manner I might go to work, to work out the same?” The “angel John” accorded her the permission. Just as a furnace is used for a chemical preparation, so also a furnace is necessary for the preparation of the spiritual Philosopher's Stone. This outer furnace is, however, the corporeal man, in which “the fire seeds of pure divinity itself are kindled by the essence of the soul, when he finds for it a hallowed and properly prepared vessel. The materia in which one must labor or work is the divine salt, which is placed in a pure clear crystalline glass, the pure spirit. Further shouldst thou know, that this divine salt is concealed in all men.” (L. G. B., I, pp. 40-43.)

Here I must insert the discussion of the salt (also salt stone) and its effect. We must understand clearly that the salt stone of this symbolism is the same as the cubical stone of the masonics. That the [pg 396] salt is hieroglyphically represented by a cube, I have already shown. The concept stone is the parting of the ways for two symbol groups of similar meaning, both of which Jane Leade uses. The one group is the chemical preparation, as the angel John just now described it; the other is the treatment of the stone as a building stone (which is to be dressed, etc.) found in other passages from Jane Leade, namely, in connection with the building of a temple, a sanctuary, the New Jerusalem. Important use is made of men as building stones preëminently in her “Revelation of Revelations.” This one passage from L. G. B. (II, p. 138) may be quoted: “Who will now blow this trumpet of mine that they may break loose from their iron yokes and bonds and come hither, so that they may become worthy to be built in as well-cut pillars for the temple of wisdom.” The quadrangular form is several times mentioned also. Jane Leade is quite right when she says that the divine salt, the cubic stone, lies concealed in all men; the unprepared man is the crude stone and in him lies to be developed (potentially not actually) the cubic. In the preparation