BLOOD AND HEART

One of the engravings from The Mystical Heart, by Paul Kaym



The blood, and its great animator, the heart, must require our full attention in the process of completing our Art. It is not a question here of images, metaphors, indirect allusions: I want to speak here, very clearly, of the blood which flows in our veins, and of the heart which animates it.

The purification of the blood, among other things, is an alchemical method. It includes perspectives that we could - somewhat simply, even caricaturally - call "chemical", but also spiritual perspectives (where the help of our "guardian angel" would not be without consequences). Without forgetting of course the cosmogonic perspectives, the influences of the sun and the moon, or those of a certain cosmic force.

In this regard… The text that I present to you in this article, “Blood, path to Eden”, is taken from the website www.ledifice.net/ . I will add only one thing: the recommendation to consult, as a complement, "The Hermetic Tradition" by Julius Evola, in particular the chapters "The way of the breath and the way of the blood" and "The heart and the light", which resonate in unison with the proposed article; and the recommendation to review the engravings of the Mystical Heart of Paul Kaym...


LAT

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Blood, path to Eden

Among the bundles of knowledge that can lead the individual to the gates of initiation, those concerning blood are very discreet. The following short article will not take into account the polemical aspects of the question. We will not approach the problem of "against initiation", those interested in the subject will turn to GUENON who seems to be the best expert. However, we will use the opinions of theosophical authors, hermetists or proven martinists.

A. BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Blood is a red liquid that circulates in the veins, the arteries. the capillaries and which irrigates all the tissues of the body to which it brings nutrients from digestion and oxygen. Likewise, it collects waste to lead it to the eliminating organs (kidneys, lungs, skin). Blood is made up of two parts:

A liquid part: the plasma which contains water, mineral salts, vitamins, enzymes, hormones, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, the products of digestion, waste, metabolism.

A suspended part: cells or figured elements. These are red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

Of the biological character of Blood:

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the essential constituent of the chromosomes of the cell nucleus present in the blood. Chromosomes contain our genes; each cell contains 23 pairs. They constitute all our memory from our first ancestor to us.

B. SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS

1. A symbol of life

(Ecq. 14,18) The expression "flesh and blood" is sufficient in the Bible to designate man. Life is so precious in the eyes of YAHWE that from the first Alliance with NOË he proclaims that he who sheds blood will have to answer for his because "He created man in his image and likeness" (Gn 9, 5-6). Shedding the blood of an innocent to this day is a crime. But YAHWE abhors "men of blood" so much that even King DAVID is denied the honor and the right to build the TEMPLE, not for having shed the blood of his enemies in abundance but for having unjustly shed that of a single innocent (I Chr 22,8).

2. A symbol of dread

(Ex 7,17,19-20) The Nile carrying blood was one of the most terrible plagues of Egypt. But what about visions of the apocalypse where "the moon", "a third of the sea" or even "the seas, the rivers, the springs" are transformed into blood (Ap. 6,12) (Ap 88) (Ap 16,3-4).

3. Blood as a food ban

All life belongs to God. However NOË is authorized to dispose of the life of animals to feed himself only if the flesh is first bled and emptied because "The soul of the flesh is in the blood" (Gn 9, 3-4). Indeed, we will see later that in the blood resides the specific mercury of the species.

4. A Purifier and Covenant Agent

Circumcision has a purifying role. This bloody rite has the particularity of imprinting the mark of the Covenant on the body of the faithful (Ex 4, 2-26). This purifying role is illustrated by Çippora who will say to her son "you are for me a spouse of blood" avoiding, thanks to circumcision, incest with him. It is interesting to emphasize in this regard one of the positions of modern psychoanalysis illustrated by Germain Dieterhem "The vital force (ie eros or libido) conveyed by the blood should not be confused as a phenomenon with notions of defilement and impurities in the sense that this defilement and this impure do not come from the outside but from the effective flight towards the outside of this interior "vital force" ". Further Germain Dieterhem continues:

5. Sacrificial rites

In the ancient sacrificial rites, the priest sprinkled the Altar with blood, made it flow on the walls or on the horns. Moses practiced in this way to consecrate Aaron as high priest (Ex 29,21). When EZECHIEL during a vision sees the glory of YHVH entering the TEMPLE, the prophet received precise instructions for the consecration of the sanctuary by the sprinkling of blood (EZ 43, 18-20). "Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" (He 9,22). However, since the sacrifice of the LAMB performed perfectly, the countless sacrifices of the old COVENANT are null and void. The mass is a sacrifice that incorporates the notion of immolation. Indeed, the Sacrifice of Christ recapitulates, integrates and transcends all the sacrifices of the old Covenant:

- oblation (minha): offering of the firstfruits of the earth (cakes of flour, oil and incense), part of which was burned (consecrated) and the rest consumed by the priests. The best known form is the rite of the 12 showbread (Iehem panim) representing the 12 tribes of Israel. These loaves were placed in the Temple and a little incense was burned on them. They were renewed every Sabbath and the old loaves were eaten by the Priests.

- the holocaust (olah): (Lev 9,17 No 28,34 Ex 29,42 Ez 46,13 Ez 29,39) the Greek word means "entirely burnt". The victim (bull or steer) after having been bled, was completely burned by fire (in Hebrew alah means "to go up") on the altar (consecration and offering to God). The victim's blood was strewn all over the altar. The animal was substituted for the man by the preliminary rite of the semicha (imposition of the hand of the offerer on the head of the victim). This meant that the offerer was bonding and offering himself to God.

- the sacrifice of peace (zebah shelaminm): (Ex 23.18 34.25) under three species, it is a sacrifice of communion with God for major solemnities. The victim's blood and fat were immolated and the rest served as food for the faithful and the priests. One species is the zebah todah (sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving) which is found in the Mass in the form of the Eucharist: after songs of thanksgiving, immolation of the victim with circumambulation around the altar then offering of bread and libations of wine in a cup called "cup of salvation".

- hattat: rite of purification and expiation for sin. Laying of hands on the victim and part burned and the other consumed by the priests. We find the "scapegoat" dressed in red (symbolic color of sin) for the sins of the priest and the people.

C. VOODOO ETHNOLOGY: BLOOD

The Western and Judeo-Christian vision of the world is one singularity among many others. For example in the old Dahomey (currently Benin) cradle of Voodoo what does blood represent?

Geographically and historically, Voodoo originated in the plateaus of Abomey, 200 km inland from the port of Cotonou.

1. Blood: fluid par excellence

The sorcerer, the healer, the Beninese charlatan whatever his level of real occult knowledge, when you consult him will ask you for a host of supplies. Inevitably on the list will be a living animal whose blood will be shed as an offering to the various deities concerned with your problem. According to the voodoo priests, the blood would contain a mysterious element linking the visible to the invisible and is therefore capable of obliging or at least of disposing the invisible interlocutors to "lend their ears more". This thesis had been underlined by GUENON who thought about certain aspects of the blood that it "effectively constitutes one of the links of the bodily organism with the subtle state of the living being...the subtle state is linked to the bodily state in two different and complementary ways, by the blood, as regards the caloric quality, and by the nervous system as regards the luminous quality". The search for this mysterious fluid for voodoo rites explains the human sacrifices that took place until its abolition around 1868.

2. Words of Power in Voodoo

In voodoo rites the incantations contain in themselves:

The meaning of their destination is the literal meaning.
Their mode of activation thanks to the particular vocal alteration of the literal meaning.
The indication of the plant element which is the median agent.
The indication of the corresponding animal whose blood leads to the change in vibrational level.

Only the knack remains secret and is the subject of an oral transmission within the voodoo convents.

D. THE VIRTUES OF BLOOD

At the risk of repetition, the blood thanks to its conscience keeps us alive. It conveys the soul of our flesh the Hebrew NEFESH whose departure entails death. It transmits heat throughout the body. He intimately knows every corner of the body. It prints in his memory all our passions, our virtues, just as it already contains those of our innumerable ancestors. But there is much more I want to follow in this 0.V. de MILLOZ de LUBICZ on this point that "Blood is a close relative of fire and light; to the same degree as them it results from the instantaneous transmutation of incorporeal light".

Blood is the "Light of men" and his own did not know it. This is why it is said "that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the simple-minded and to children".

E. ESOTERIC BLOOD

1. Symbolism

(Gn 2, 10-14) A river comes out of the garden of EDEN and divides into four arms:

The 1st is called the PISHON, it bypasses the whole country of HAVILA where there is pure gold and there is the bdellium, the carnelian stone.
The 2nd is the GIHÔN bypasses the country of Kush.
On the 3rd the TIGER sinks east of Assur.
The 4th the EUPHRATES.

Beyond the literal meaning, we can see a symbolic meaning, especially in terms of colors.

Remember that the ancients distinguished four main temperaments defined according to the predominance in the body of the four humors whose natures are:

- the lymph: white in color and lunar in character. It is an element of substantiation.

- the blood: red in color and solar in character, it is an element of animation and vitalization. It is also an element of substantiation.

- bile: green in color and corrosive in nature. It is an element of separation.

- the atrabile: black in color. It is an element of contraction

Lymph and blood are altruistic in character. The blood is confident, generous and regenerative. The lymph is the nurse of the whole body. At the slightest danger to the organism, it is ready to sacrifice its leucocytes. Bile and atrabile are two servants of the selfish will of the self. Like Eden, the human body too is bathed by a river which divides into four arms. Personally, I would establish the following correspondence:

the Pishon is the blood,
the Gihon is the atrabile,
the Tiger is the lymph,
the Euphrates is bile.

But of EDEN man has no memory except a very vague nostalgia which manifests itself in a persistent malaise.

2. Gate of Eden and Gate of the Heart

(Gn 3, 24) "He (ie YHVH God) banished the man and he posted in front of the Garden of Eden the Cherubim and the flame of the dazzling sword to guard the path of the tree of life". (translation of the Jerusalem Bible). Here is another translation of E. DHORME: "He drove out the man and he installed in the EAST of the garden of Eden the Cherubim and the whirling flame of the sword to guard the road of the tree of life". I give you a comment on this verse from the book of Nachash: "He chased the Adamic being who had become a stranger to his old environment and a pilgrim in his new one; then to defend the organic (privileged) environment, he strongly established a set of destructive powers drawn from his living center: the KEROUBIM,

That of protecting from all danger those who seek passage when they are not ready.
That of making the pilgrim evolve in order to qualify him for a next attempt.
This double function in the case of KÉROUBIM is manifested by the NAME. Indeed, the structure of KEROUB (KRB) contains the same letters as bârakah (BRK) meaning to bless:

(BRK): Force of blessing.
(KRB): Right severity.

Any return of man to EDEN is conditioned by a transformation. ROYAL ART is one of the possible paths.

F. THE INITIATIVE DIMENSION OF BLOOD

CESARE DELLA RIVIERA in his text "Access to the Cave of Mercury" writes this:

· "In order to avoid any wandering, you should first know that the earth, which we tread on, is not the true earthly element... You cannot reach the celestial DON through it; but in the EAST you you will find a door the widest and the major among all those which, has this, give us ease... Another entrance, according to others is in the great mountains of LYBIA. Hermes, similarly designates a part of it of the Red Sea".

But before trying to penetrate the great mountains of LYBIA, let's remind ourselves of a few ideas about the ART most likely to lead us to the goal.

SAVORET defines ROYAL ART in these terms:

"True alchemy, true alchemy is the knowledge of the laws of life in man and in nature and the reconstitution of the process by which this life adulterated here below by the Adamic fall, can recover its purity, its splendor its plenitude and its primordial prerogatives; this in the moral man is called redemption or regeneration, reincrudation in the physical man; purification in nature".

Alchemy teaches the three kingdoms are modeled according to the three alchemical principles:

Salt, the active agent. Salt is fire.
Mercury promotes cohesion.
The sulfur that carries the soul the specificity

The importance of salt is such that it is said in the Gospel "You are the salt of the earth". The three main stages of the alchemical work are:

Mortification, SOLVE COAGULA.

For a very long time mortification or purification was incomprehensible to me. It consists simply in the distinction within ourselves of three types of sensations. In the normal man these sensations are grouped together and intimately intertwined in a nebulous chaos. The three separate and differentiated sensations constitute the discovery of the three alchemical principles within us. This is true purification. From then on, all moral and guilt conceptions must fall. All this means ORA and LABORA. It is not useless to say that salt is a fire which infuses us during our recollection in prayer before the door of Eden: "Knock and it will be opened to you". You will be able to read (Ma, C 9,49) “Each one will be salted by the Fire”: it is clear, the salt is the fire. Operationally, purification consists of the awareness by the individual of each type of innate sensation in each of the internal organs that the ancients named under the terms of caves, mountains, etc. Each organ being the reflection of the planets which embody functions of the macrocosm , we must be able by sympathy to know them (Co-Naitre). This is represented in our rite by the candlestick with seven branches. "The attention given to a part of the body makes this part a magnet of ENERGY, it is it which is able to give this fullness of life capable of overcoming illness, anguish and anxiety when it is concentrated in the heart and even to awaken our higher senses. The greatest obstacle to the penetration of fire or salt is our brain,

G. THE ARCANE OF BLOOD IN INTERNAL ALCHEMY

The following excerpt alone justifies the importance of internal alchemy. Schwaller de LUBICZ writes indeed "The most tangible manifestation of the world of causes is that of the functions which govern our existence. These functions are embodied in our physical body in the form of organs which are specifications of consciousness. Let us say organs, let's say planets… let's talk about the heart or the sun we will simply have cited functional manifestations of the same life". The ancients taught the same truths. Thus the word Orient that I brought back from Cesare Della Riviera designates the Heart or sun, while the group of words Mer rouge designates blood.

1. Breadcrumb: The Blood

If the old initiatory schools do not clearly state the methods they taught, they allow us to glimpse them. Above we saw that the path to Eden was guarded by the KR Bs. We cannot therefore go to the blood and the heart directly. We know :

That it is a living fire.
That we can tow it during prayer so we take on more of it.
That the attention paid to a part of the body magnetizes it.

The ancients suggest two methods for the integration of Mercury.

First Method:

PRANAYAMA teaches that the air contains a subtle force, PRANA. We also know that profane breathing can modify blood pH. According to the yogic teaching, the concentration on the subtle force hidden in the breath, constitutes a means of reaching and "purifying" the I. This is what makes us say in the "de Pharmaco Catholico": "Mercury relies particularly on the lungs because of the air element. He who, as a spirit, invades and penetrates the other two principles: c and Q , that is to say the body and the soul which unites and binds constantly by means of natural heat ".

Let us ask ourselves on what must the fire act in those who want to release and transform this union?

Second Method:

It consists of concentrating on the blood which can be reached through the sensation of body heat. This is most clearly explained by LUBICZ: "It is about experiencing life as a warm energy that fills the whole body". Isn't what the VM suggests we do when it authorizes the Ceryx with a lit wick to accompany the first Mystagogue to the altar where the seven-branched candlestick is? Bernard de TREVISE in his dream VERT speaks of a red sea because it is blood. Above floats an island which includes seven kingdoms where the author is taken by a "whirlwind". Next J. BOHME, the fire of human life (specific Mercury) resides in the blood but a second blood (universal Mercury) must insert itself into the irascible human blood and into the fire of death (ignited by the "fall"), to drown it . This fire of death ECKHARTSHAUSEN names it fervent of death and specifies it again under the term of Gluten. It is contained in the blood. It is the specific mercury, that of the species. (Gn 2,12) This bdellium is present with gold and onyx in the country that the PISHON skirts. On this subject GICHTEL appears to me dazzlingly clear in advising: "The operation takes place in the heart and here the door of heaven [i.e. of the occult states] is struck with violence... And that requires hard work, a blood sweat [the "HERCULES labor" of the "separation"]". I think the hint is for separation from Gluten But why does he say right after: "Because then the soul has to fight against God [to maintain itself and not 'dissolve' in the light] and against men [to go beyond the human condition at the same time]". The hermetic teaching answers that "to cross the Red Sea is to cross the waters of corruption, those WATERS which are nothing other than CHRONOS" and it was explained that "what Moses calls the Red Sea is the blood" and "in the blood is the sword snaked with flame made to bar the access to the TREE OF LIFE". ROYAL ART therefore allows a transformation in the subtle principle of blood. In John XVII 22:23, Jesus says: “I gave them and communicated the glory you gave me, so that they might be one as we are, one in them, and they with me so that they might be perfect in unity”. Gluten is the enemy to eliminate. To purify the human soul corrupted by this Gluten present in the blood justifies the expression that there is no remission without shedding of blood. This therefore means sacrificing the animal soul NEFESH and going on the "Quest of the GRAAL". It is therefore to go to the conquest of the DIVINE BLOOD which alone can restore the original Edenic state. To purify the human soul corrupted by this Gluten present in the blood justifies the expression that there is no remission without shedding of blood. This therefore means sacrificing the animal soul NEFESH and going on the "Quest of the GRAAL". It is therefore to go to the conquest of the DIVINE BLOOD which alone can restore the original Edenic state. To purify the human soul corrupted by this Gluten present in the blood justifies the expression that there is no remission without shedding of blood. This therefore means sacrificing the animal soul NEFESH and going on the "Quest of the GRAAL". It is therefore to go to the conquest of the DIVINE BLOOD which alone can restore the original Edenic state.

2. Fight Gluten

Through the knightly initiation rite, therefore a divine pact, the knight was given the means to sublimate and etherify his blood. It thus highlights the highest and spiritual quality of the applicant. The traditional means provided to the knight to exalt the specificity of his blood, were the following:

the sense of sacrifice,
the worship of truth,
that of loyalty,
virtue in the sense of virtus, that is to say force,
honor not selfish but rather very noble sense.

These means made it possible to aspire to an authentic realization. The knight who undertook a path of heroic purification and who was ready to sacrifice his own blood thus succeeded in eliminating gluten. This process indicates the meaning of the word faith (ie Fides). It is to conform to a traditional conception and make it become Blood of its own blood. Once this conviction has been established in you, only then will the sense of responsibility be born, for it will be the product of your current consciousness: the evil that makes man a sinner is not in the act itself but in the transgression of a conviction. . As not everyone can become a knight, Christ, by instituting the EUCHARIST, conferred great power on the priest. Indeed, the priest, ECKHARTSHAUSEN tells us, is a separator of the pure nature from the impure nature. A separator of the substance that contains everything, from the destructible matter that causes pain and misery. The sacrifice, or that which has been separated, consists of bread and wine:

Bread is the substance that contains everything,
Wine is the substance that vivifies everything.

In the clear understanding of the FLESH and BLOOD of Jesus Christ lies the true and pure knowledge of the effective regeneration of man. The mystery of union with Jesus Christ, not only spiritually but also bodily, is the supreme mystery of the CHURCH. TO BECOME ONE with him in spirit and to be with him is the supreme achievement. Let us conclude with (John 4, 21-23-24): "The time is coming, and it has already come. That the true worshipers will worship the FATHER in SPIRIT and in TRUTH because the FATHER asks for such worshippers. GOD is SPIRIT and it is necessary that those who adore him, adore him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH".



The Pelican opening its heart to feed its young,
surmounted by a banner bearing the motto "In Sanguine Vita" "The Pelican Rose+Croix" Church of San Domenico in Perugia, Italy 1st quarter of the 18th century