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

stilling of my external senses, I received this answer [of the Bridegroom]; that this could not be until a complete death of the body of sin was suffered, showing me that which is written in the 6th verse of the seventh chapter of Romans, that after that was perished and dead, wherein we were held, we should serve God in newness of spirit.” (L. G. B., I, pp. 50 ff.)

[Here we have then the requirement to become wholly dead to the realm of sin, in order to be able to rise fully to the ethical ideal. The question whether this is possible in life remains open, to be sure. In symbolism this mystical death and the union with the highest spirit was represented symbolically in the highest degree of freemasonry. The representative of the Highest is the Master degree of the M. v. St. and he fills the dead, as it were, with his life, as the raising takes place (H in H, F against F, K against K, etc.), like the reviving of the child by Elijah (I Kings XVIII, 21). As for the necessary decay of the body before the raising (“The skin leaves,” etc.) let us quote the passage, L. G. B., I, pp. 271 ff.: [the divine word speaks] “Know ... that I have not left thee without a [pg 405] potent and rich talent which lies in thine own keeping, although deep hidden and covered with a threefold covering (Exod., XXXIX 34, Num. IV, 5, 6), which must be removed before thou canst see this costly garment. The first covering is the coarse dark appearance of this earthly realm ... the second is the fast-binding [directed upon the mundane] reason ... the third is the baser natural senses.... Provided that thou thoroughly determine with the firm resolution to break through these three obstacles, thou wilt come to the golden mass.... While it is given to ye then to know where the treasure really lies [Seeking out of the grave. The three murderers, who have hidden the corpse, are these very ‘three obstacles.’] and you have my spirit on this, which will not alone seek for it but will with the hand of its strength strongly coöperate with you; [To revive the mystical dead.] so resolve as united in the spirit ... to break through that and to break it up, which lies as a covering over this princely being.... Pray and do not only wait [no idle mysticism] but struggle and work until you have released, set free and liberated this power hidden in a prison; which may be exalted upon the throne of empire, since in truth my spirit as well as yours has hitherto not been displaced from its kingdom except by force and unrighteousness.” [With reference to the raising (cf. L. G. B., III, pp. 87, 91); in that place three degrees of mystical development are described in the similitude of three altars. Under the last altar, which is built of quadrangular stones, [pg 406] in which one can see his own face as in mirrors, lies the life trampled to death, which will again be wakened.]

“Knowest thou not, I was asked, that the law of sin has the mastery as long as it [the body with its selfish tendencies] lives? So that the spirit clearly bore witness and gave me to understand that nothing could make me worthy of this marriage with the Lamb [unio mystica] except an absolute death, since he wedded only the maidenly spirit, to be one flesh with him, [H in H, F against F, etc.] and by so doing changed it into his own pure manhood. [Humanity.] And this is the generation or birth to an actively self-sufficient being, which rises out of the old one. For just as the grain of wheat perishes or dies in the earth and comes into a new life, just so it goes also with the arising and the growing up of the new creation, which in truth is Christ our life, whose appearance will put an end to the sins in us. For, dear one, what has brought on the curse, care, trouble, misery, weaknesses, which press and torture the poor man in this fallen state of his but the departing from God? And as long as he is in this condition, he is a debtor to sin and under its dominion; which subjects him to all affliction and misery, which are wont to follow the footsteps of those who live in the elemental flesh. Now without doubt it is good and joyful tidings to hear of a possibility of drawing out and putting off this body of sins; and in truth the prophet who has arisen in me has prophesied that such a day was at hand. Be dismayed at [pg 407] it, ye that are the wounders and despisers of this grace; which I see is now near being revealed, for the bridal garments are being prepared ... [Cf. the end of the parable.] O Wisdom, the preparation and ordering of the bridal garments is given in charge to you alone, which shall be of divers colors, with which the king's daughter, [Analogue of the king's son, the improved son figure of the parable.] who is entrusted to thy teaching and instruction, may be distinguished from all others, and known [as redeemed].” (L. G. B., I, pp. 51 ff., wherewith the magic journey is ended.)

Thus there is a confident tone, a hope in that which loses itself in the infinite. But Leade suspects that it is an unattainable ideal and knows what regulative import it has: “Ah, who up to this hour has traveled so far, and what are all our realized gifts until we have reached this goal [union with the Divinity]. Can our plummet even sound it and explore in the deep abyss, the matchless wonder of the immeasurable being? And because the revolving wheel of my spirit has found no rest in all that it has seen, known, possessed and enjoyed, it stretched its errant senses continuously towards what was still held back, and kept, by the strong rock of omnipotence; to struggle towards which with a fresh attack I resolutely determined, and would be sent away with nothing less than the kingdom and the ruling power of the Holy Ghost.” (L. G. B., I, p. 87.)

In a parallel between the old and new royal art, I cannot overlook the French masonic writer Oswald [pg 408] Wirth, who has worked in the same province. I agree with him in general; although much of his method of interpretation seems to me too arbitrary. I have already called attention to several passages from W. S. H. on the preparation of the subject [i.e., the uninitiated]. I will endeavor to outline the contents of the rest of the work according to the ideas of Wirth.

Having given up himself, the Subjectum is overcome in the philosophic egg [preparation chamber, i.e., sch. K.] by sadness and suffering. His strength ebbs away, the decomposition begins; the subtle is separated from the coarse. [Smaragdine tablet.] That is the first phase of the air test. After descending to the center of the earth [Visita interiora terrae, etc.—Smaragdine tablet, 6, 8.] where the roots of all individuality meet, the spirit rises up again [Smaragdine tablet, 10.] released from the caput mortuum, which is blacked on the floor of the hermetic receptacle. The residuum is represented by the cast-off raiment of the novice. Laboriously now, he toils forward in the darkness; the heights draw him on; escaping hell he will attain to heaven. His ascent up the holy mountain is hindered by a violent storm; he is thrown into the depths by the tempest: a symbol of circulation in the closed vessel of the alchemists, which vessel corresponds to the protected lodge. During the circulation the volatile parts rise and fall again like rain, which is symbolized by the tears upon the walls. To be sure, it is not here that the neophyte is subjected to the water test, and if a [pg 409] confusion is possible on this point it comes from the fact that all the operations of the great work go on in one vessel, while the masonic initiation is completed in a suite of different rooms, so that the symbolic series here suffers disintegration. The circulating water, which soaks into the pores of the earthly parts of the subject, purifies it more and more, so that it goes from gray through a series of colors (peacock's tail) to white. In this stage the material corresponds to the wise man who knows how to resist all seduction. Yet we are not to be satisfied with this negative virtue; the fire test (we should remember that the four tests by the elements were to be found in the parable also) is still to be gone through, the calcination, which burns everything combustible. After the calcination there is a perfectly purified salt [Symbol: Salt] of absolute transparence. So long as the novice has not attained this moral clearness, the light cannot be vouchsafed to him. In brief, in the first degree, the main thing is the comprehensive purification. The salt layers must be made crystal clear, that surround the inner sulphur [Symbol: Sulphur] like a crust and hinder it from its free radiation. Sulphur is to be regarded as a symbol of the expansive power, as individual initiative, as will. Mercury stands opposite to it as woman does to man, as that which goes to the subject from without, or as absolute receptivity. Salt is midway between both; in it the equilibrium between [Symbol: Sulphur] and [Symbol: Mercury] is found. It is a symbol of what appears as the stable being of man. In the first degree the purification of the salt is worked out for [pg 410] the release of the sulphur. The red column J corresponds to the red sulphur, by which symbolically the novices get their reward. For the rest, the first degree is satisfied with getting the novices to see the universal light (the blazing star). (W. S. H., pp. 88-92.)

The fire test takes place in the second degree. The fiery sulphur must be worked out or rather sent out and used for work. The field of activity of the member proportions itself, as it were, according to the expansion or range of its sulphurous radiation. At this time the member enters into a relation of such intensified activity with the world that the intellectual grasp [which corresponds to the [Symbol: Mercury] = principal] acquires from it a new illumination [blazing star], and breaks away for a connection of the will, which was at first merely individual, with the collectivity. To me at least that appears to be the sense of the figurative but not quite clear exposition of W. S. H., pp. 952-962, which I have, for the sake of exactness, given in the original text. [See Appendix, Note I.] As soon as the crude stone is cut and polished we have no longer to work inward but outward. What we are to accomplish so creatively would be insignificant if we did not know the secret of borrowing power from a power that apparently lies without us. Where do these mysterious powers work if not at the pillar B, whose name means: i. i. d. St.? In the north directed on the contrary towards the moon, whose soft feminine light it reflects, it corresponds to [Symbol: Mercury], which unceasingly [pg 411] flows towards all being, in order to support its central fire, [Symbol: Fire]. The exaltation of the latter leads to the fire test, the idea of which Wirth seems to take in strictly occult form, in the manner of Eliphas Levi. Finally, a circulation takes place, in that the individual will seeks like a magnet to draw the divine will, always falls down again, rises, however, and so on in cycles, till both meet in the “philosophical fire.” It is the cycle of which we read in the Smaragdine Tablet. The incombustible essence that comes forth from the fire test is the phœnix (a figure much used by the alchemists). The member has the task of changing himself into the phœnix. Not only [Symbol: Fire] belongs to the work, however, but also the act must be guided by intelligence; activity and receptivity must complement each other. Therefore the member has to know both pillars thoroughly. And therefore he becomes also the already mentioned androgynous material, Rebis. That is only to be attained when the elemental propensities are overcome, therefore the figure Rebis is represented as standing on the dragon. (W. S. H., pp. 96-101.)

What will the master do now? He will identify himself with the Master Builder of all worlds, in order to work in him and through him. When any one says that that is mysticism, he is not wrong. Being developed