THEORIES AND SYMBOLS OF THE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY

By Oswald Wirth

CHAPTER I

Failing to rise above the ground of experimental observation, we have ceased to understand the ancient authors who based themselves on the rational laws of all existence. Their theories concerning Nature and the secret of her operations appear to us as vain puerilities; this is how Hermetic Philosophy is in our eyes only a fabric of daydreams, just as Alchemy seems definitively relegated to the necropolis of the dead sciences.

But a particular cause has above all motivated the discredit that strikes the doctrines in vogue in the Middle Ages and until the 18th century: we have lost the key to the language used to express them. Our way of speaking is quite different these days. In the past, we were unaware of our claims to use rigorously precise terms: approximations had to suffice, for pure truth is fatally inexpressible. The ideal of the True lets itself be imprisoned in no formula. It follows that, in a certain nature, all speech is a lie, since it only imperfectly expresses the idea that it must convey. The intimacy of thought, its fundamental spirit, is elusive, it is a divinity which ceaselessly eludes itself and only consents at most to sometimes being reflected in images. Such as Moyse, to whom Jahveh could only show himself from behind.

Figurative language therefore had to be used each time it was a matter of giving substance to transcendent notions. I myself cannot dispense with having recourse to allegories and symbols. It's not a whim on my part, because I don't have any other way of making myself understood. Pure thought presents itself to us only veiled; but its veil is transparent for those who know how to discern.

Hermeticism is for thinkers driven by an innate vocation to deepen everything. The universal laws of the generation, conservation and transformation of beings can only be represented by diagrams of which a superficial mind cannot grasp the scope. Also the teaching of the sages remains unintelligible to anyone who stops at the external meaning of the words; but it is up to each one to initiate himself, drawing inspiration from the three words of the Gospel:
Ask for the Light and you will receive it;

Seek the Truth and you will find it;
Knock on the Temple Door and it will be opened to you.

CHAPTER II - TRADITION

Faith and Philosophy. — Gnosis. — Hermetism. The slaves of the letter. — Contemporary Occultism.

Alexandria was in its time the intellectual capital of the ancient world. Famous schools attracted sages from all nations: East and West met in this cosmopolitan center which brought Phenicia, Chaldea, Persia and India into contact with classical Greece, Rome and Gaul. . All these countries brought religious and scientific traditions to the foot of the throne of the Ptolemies. Hellenized Jews translated their Bibles, which were first made available to Gentiles by the so-called Septuagint. The Babylonian Berossus produced a similar work by recording everything he knew about his homeland. Valuable lessons were thus collected from all sides and compared. An effort was made to coordinate them into a philosophical synthesis which,

This one was recruited first of all among sincere, but unenlightened people. The first Christians were ardent spirits, struck with the vices of their time which they proposed to correct. In their secret assemblies, they seemed to conspire against established institutions: they were feared as fierce revolutionaries, enemies of all social hierarchy. They proclaimed men equal before a single God, and admitted a supernatural revelation, made accessible to all by faith. Any independent search for the Truth became condemnable in their eyes, as well as the arts and sciences of the pagans.

To these narrowly disciplined men of action, to these partisans of a democratic equality pushed even in the field of intelligence, opposed dreamers much more harmless. They called themselves Gnostics and claimed to be initiated into the mysteries of the ancient hierophants. Cultivating knowledge accessible only to elite minds, they prided themselves on possessing the most hidden secrets of nature; also, on occasion, they showed themselves theurgists and therapists. The Christians were in their eyes nothing but dangerously fanatical ignoramuses whose coarseness they despised; As for them, they indulged in subtle speculations without managing to agree on a uniform doctrine.

Every disciple of Gnosis aspired to become the direct confidant of the divinity and, therefore, believed in himself.

Christians and Gnostics necessarily had to fight each other. The struggle dragged on, but the victory was won in advance by discipline and large numbers. Having become formidable, the Christian party definitively triumphed during the conversion of Constantine. Implacable henceforth with regard to his adversaries, he proscribed all that was attached to the old worships and persecuted in particular the partisans of Gnosis.

Hunted down as heretics, they had to conceal their doctrines under cover of thicker veils.

Thus were born the secret or occult sciences, which an ingenious symbolism hides from the curiosity of the indiscreet. In the forefront is Alchemy, the art of metallic transmutations, which served as the framework for a whole vast system of allegories. Mystical metallurgy was conceived, with operations modeled on those that nature accomplishes in living beings. A deep Science of Life is hidden under special symbols; she endeavored to solve the most troubling enigmas and researched the basics of Universal Medicine.

This one was to bring remedy to all the evils, as well with those of the spirit and the heart as with those of the body, moreover, it belonged to him to cure the social diseases just like the infirmities of the isolated individuals.

All these benefits were linked to the preparation of the Elixir of Life and the famous Philosopher's Stone. The adepts were looking for a way to ensure unalterable health for all beings and to protect man from all misery. To this end, they proposed to lead everything to the degree of perfection of which it is susceptible: this is what they called changing lead into gold. They practiced the Great Art, the Art par excellence, or the priestly and royal Art of the ancient Initiates; in their capacity as priests, they interpreted the laws of universal harmony, which they applied as kings.

Such grandiose designs make skulls that are too narrow pop. All the alchemists were not men of genius: greed gave rise to gold diggers closed to all esotericism; they took everything at face value, so that their extravagances soon knew no bounds.

While the vulgar prompters indulged in that incoherent cuisine from which modern chemistry later emerged, the Philosophers worthy of the name, the friends of intrinsic wisdom, took care to "separate the subtle from the thick with delicacy and a rare prudence”, as the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus recommends: rejecting the dross of the dead letter, they retained only the invigorating spirit of the teaching of the masters.

But the public confused the wise with the foolish. He rejects en bloc everything that is not within his immediate reach or has not received the stamp of the pontiffs who knew how to capture his confidence.

However, among our contemporaries, a few adventurous spirits have dared to enter the catacombs of lost traditions. The way was opened by Eliphas Levi (Abbé A.-L. Constant), of whom Mr. Stanislas de Guaita, in his Essays on Cursed Sciences and his Serpent of Genesis, proves to be the most brilliant disciple.
This research is extremely important from the point of view of occult therapy. They made appreciate the treaties of Alchemy, which one deciphers again, in spite of their figurative style with the excess.

CHAPTER III - THE THREE PRINCIPLES

The light. —Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. — The Azoth of the Sages. — Binary and its reconciliation.

Hermeticism traces the first origin of all things to a radiation which leaves simultaneously from everywhere: it is the infinite Light, the Aôr Ensoph of the Kabbalists (the alchemical theories were summed up with remarkable clarity in 1864, by the Dr. Ch. de Vauréal in his Essay on the History of Ferments , a doctoral thesis which then caused a sensation within the Faculty of Medicine of Paris).

This creative Light emanates from a center which is located nowhere, but which each being finds within itself.

Considered in its omnipresent unity, this Center is the source of all existence, of all thought and of all life.

It manifests itself in beings as the focus of their expansive energy, which seems to relate to an internal fire, which would be maintained by what the alchemists call their SULFUR.

However, the central ardor results for each being from a refraction in him of the ambient light, crackle is eager to penetrate the bodies and represents the influences which are exerted on them from the outside.

Thus, the Light-Principle manifests itself in relation to beings under two opposite aspects: it converges towards their center under the name of MERCURY, then it radiates from this radical focus as a sulphurous emanation.

Mercury therefore alludes to what goes in and Sulfur to what goes out; but entry and exit suppose a stable container, which corresponds to what remains, in other words to SEL.

Everything that is relatively fixed results from a balance achieved between sulphurous expansion and mercurial compression. Salt is a luminous condensation produced by the interference of two contrary rays; it is the receptacle into which the mercurial spirit infiltrates to excite sulphurous ardour.

In everything that can be conceived as existing, we distinguish from all necessity Sulfur, Mercury and Salt; for one could not imagine anything that did not have its own substance (Salt), simultaneously subjected to internal (Sulfur) and external (Mercury) influences.

Considered in its universality, as ether spread everywhere which penetrates all things, Mercury takes the name of Azoth of the Sages. It is then the divine breath (Rouach Elohim) that Genesis shows us moving on top of the waters, which are represented by Salt.

Originally everything resides in the Azoth; but by the operation of the divine Spirit, the Word becomes incarnate within an immaculate Virgin, who gives birth to the Redeemer.

This is none other than the particular Will harmonized with the general Will; it is Sulfur combined with Mercury in a perfectly purified Salt.

This alliance allows individuality to conquer the fullness of being, of life and of thought; for individuals exist, live and think only insofar as they succeed in assimilating to themselves the being, the life and the thought of the community of which they are a part. We are nothing by ourselves: everything comes from the great All. Man must therefore seek to unite himself closely with the permanent source of all things.

But the intimacy of such a union depends on the degree of purity to which the salt is brought. This explains the importance attached at all times to purifications, which still today hold a preponderant place in the ritualism of Freemasonry.
The predominance of Sulfur exalts individual initiative and translates into virile qualities: energy, ardor, courage, audacity, pride, a taste for command. It pushes to create, to invent; it encourages movement, action, and encourages giving rather than receiving; also the man bases himself less than the woman on the receptive faith: he prefers to work out his own ideas rather than to assimilate those of others.

Mercury, on the contrary, develops the feminine virtues: gentleness, calm, shyness, prudence, modesty, resignation, obedience. It does not make one inventive, but it gives the ability to understand, to guess and to feel with delicacy; moreover, it makes one love rest, especially that of the mind; absorbed in reverie and the wanderings of the imagination.

As for Salt, it generates balance, balance, stability; it is the conciliating environment that has rightly been taken as the key symbol of wisdom.

CHAPTER IV - THE FOUR ELEMENTS

The duplication of Salt. — The theory of the Elements. Their symbols. — Their coordination. — Basic life. - How to extend it? — The fluid of magnetizers.

Salt includes all of what constitutes the personality, therefore both the soul and the body, one being what is celestial in us, and the other what connects us to the earth. This division is represented in the alchemical sign of Salt by the horizontal diameter which divides the circle.

The upper segment represents that which is pure, unalterable and imperceptible, while its lower counterpart relates to that which is heterogeneous, accessible to our senses and subject to perpetual change. This less ethereal domain is subject to the empire of the Elements.

These have nothing in common with what we call "simple bodies." They are abstractions which are distinguished from elemental things. The four Elements are necessarily united in any physical object, because the elementary matter results from the balance which is established between them.

The Element called “EARTH” escapes our perceptions; it is the invisible and impalpable cause of gravity and fixity. Equally metaphysical are “AIR” which produces volatility, “Water” which tightens bodies, and FIRE which expands them.
To the Elements are attached the elementary qualities, which are the dry, the humid, the cold and the heat.

The Earth, which is cold and dry, has as its symbol the Ox of Saint Luke, the zodiacal Bull of spring.

Air, hot and humid, is the domain of the Eagle of Saint John, which shines in the sky among the autumnal constellations.

Water is cold and wet; it corresponds to the Angel of Saint Matthew, or to Aquarius, station of the sun in winter.

Fire, hot and dry, is finally recalled by the Leo of Saint Mark, which marks the middle of summer in the zodiac.

The conjugated antagonism of the Elements is represented by a square which the elementary substance fills.

The Elements are represented in man by the passive bodily matter (Earth), by the spirit or the animating breath (Air), by the fluids, vehicles of vitality (Water), and by the vital energy, source of movement (Fire).

The Earth is a porous container, through which Water and Air pass to feed the Fire, which burns in the centre.

Excited by the Air, it consumes part of the Water and vaporizes the rest. The vapor forces its way through the pores of the earth's crust and rises outside; but the cold condenses it into clouds which dissolves into rain. The Water, holding the Air in solution, thus accumulates on the surface of the ground, which it soaks, to return to the central hearth.

the elements

In this way an uninterrupted circulation is established which maintains life and lasts as long as the Fire is not extinguished.

When the nourishing Water abounds, the Fire asks only to shine brightly. This is the case of the exuberant and impetuous youth, which likes to exert itself until the exhaustion of all central humidity. A state of fatigue and overwhelm then arises, the remedy for which is rest.

However, the activity slows down by itself, as soon as the Fire runs out of fuel. The lowering of the temperature causes the condensation of the external humidity: it rains, and the resorbed Water comes to awaken the central ardour. Such is the mechanism of the repair during sleep of the forces consumed in the waking state.
With age the vital liquid becomes all the more rare as it has been saved less. One must therefore learn to govern one's Fire wisely, if one does not want to age prematurely.

As for the art of greatly prolonging human life, it is far from being a pure chimera. Vesta's lamp oil is likely to ward off the wear and tear of the physiological cogs. Our cells do not reproduce indefinitely after a certain number of generations their race is exhausted, and therein lies the fatal cause of our bodily death. What in our personality is subject to the Elements is thus doomed to a more or less belated but inevitable decline. Only the super-elemental part of our being can aspire to immortality.

The Elixir of long life does not relate any less to a hygiene at the same time physical, moral and intellectual, that the sages recommended from time immemorial.
In magnetism, the “fluid” is nothing other than the vital water exteriorized in the form of vapour. The therapist passes his own humidity into the patient's atmosphere, which absorbs it and thus acquires an increase in vitality.

But there are magnetizers characterized by the ardor of Fire, rather than the abundance of Water. They will preferably be experimenters and will act by will. Their intervention will be invaluable in certain special cases where it is important to remedy the obstruction of the pores of the earth's crust by stimulating the vital circulation. One can then have recourse only to Fire which, acting from the outside, vaporizes the internal humidity and obliges it to make its way through the insufficiently permeable Earth. This is thus cleansed, and thereby the patient becomes accessible to the ordinary magnetic action.

The exaggerated permeability of the earth's crust makes one highly impressionable.

The subjects then show an exquisite sensitivity. Magnetism transforms them visibly; but what they acquire too quickly runs the risk of slipping away from them with equal rapidity.

The means of making his own Earth permeable is of the greatest interest to the psychurge who wants to be able to deploy the fullness of his power. This will be dealt with in the next chapter.

CHAPTER V - THE WORK OF THE SAGES

Operations. - Colors. - Airtight birds. Union of Sulfur and Mercury. - The Star of the Magi. The Rose-Croix.


The Philosopher's Stone is a purified Salt, which coagulates the Mercury, to fix it in an eminently active Sulphur. The Work thus comprises three phases: The purification of the Salt, The coagulation of the Mercury, And the fixation of the Sulphur. But beforehand, it is necessary to obtain the Philosophical matter. This does not entail great expense, because it is very common and is found "everywhere". However, it demands to be discerned. Not all wood is good for making a Mercury. Nature offers us materials that cannot be used in the construction of the Temple of Wisdom. There are redhibitory vices which cause the profane to be discarded even before he is subjected to the tests.

Let us nevertheless suppose the artist in possession of a "matter" suitable for his projects. He will immediately hasten to clean it, in order to rid it of any foreign body which could accidentally adhere to its surface. This precaution being taken, the subject is enclosed in the hermetically sealed philosophical egg. It is thus withdrawn from any influence coming from outside: the mercurial stimulation is lacking to it; its vital fire therefore declines, languishes and ends up being extinguished.

This language would be quite disconcerting if, to understand it, one only referred to the translation that Freemasonry offers in its uses. The ritual prescribes stripping the Recipient of the metals he is carrying, then imprisoning him in the Chamber of Reflections, where he finds himself in the presence of funereal emblems, which invites him to prepare for death. Isolated, reduced to his own resources, the individual ceases to participate in general life: he dies and his personality splits. The ethereal part emerges and abandons a residue henceforth "formless and empty" like the earth prior to its impregnation by the divine breath (Genesis I, 2).

Thus appears the philosophical chaos whose black color is represented by the Raven of Saturn. We can see in this bird the image of the darkness that was on the face of the abyss; he is opposed to the Dove, the symbol of the Spirit of God moving on top of the waters. Deprived of life, matter falls into putrefaction. All organic form is then dissolved, and the Elements merge in a disorderly hustle and bustle. But the putrefied mass contains a germ, the dissolution of which favors its development. This focal point of a new coordination begins to warm up, because of the energies that are stored there. The heat released repels humidity and wraps itself in a coat of dryness.Thus is reconstituted the earth's crust which serves as a matrix for the Fire,

This separation of the Elements restores the vital circulation, which has the effect of subjecting the impure Earth to a progressive washing. Water alternately exteriorized then resorbed, makes the chaotic residue pass from black to grey, then to white, passing through the varied colors of the rainbow, represented by the peacock's tail. Now, the symbol of whiteness is the Swan whose appearance Jupiter took to unite with Leda. The master of the gods represents in this the Spirit who fertilizes; Matter purified by successive ablutions. It is the airy breath that penetrates the Earth, to bring forth the philosophical Child.

While the embryo develops in the maternal womb, the Earth is covered with luxuriant vegetation, thanks to the aerial humidity with which it is impregnated; it is the appearance of the color green, that of Venus, of which the Dove is the favorite bird. From now on there is only the red color to be obtained, which marks the completion of the simple work or Medicine of the first Order. It announces the perfect purification of Salt, which makes possible the rigorous harmony between the internal agent and its external source of action. The individual Fire then comes to burn with an entirely divine ardor, and manifests the pure philosophical Sulphur, whose image is the Phoenix.

This marvelous bird was consecrated to the Sun and it was supposed to have scarlet plumage. It represents this principle of fixity which resides in the hearth of our central Fire, where it seems to be constantly consumed, to be continually reborn from its ashes. To conquer this immutability, the particular initiative must no longer be exercised except under the direct impulse of the universal motor Center; it is the communion of Man with God, or the harmony fully realized between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm.

Arrived at this state, the Subject takes the name of Rebis, of res bina, the double thing. He is represented by an androgyne uniting virile energy with feminine sensibility. It is essential, in fact, to unite the two natures, if one wishes to achieve the coagulation of Mercury, in other words to attract the Fire from Heaven and to assimilate it. The victorious follower of elementary attractions possesses true freedom, because the spirit dominates in him over matter: he has become fully Man by overcoming animality. Just as the head commands the four limbs, a fifth principle must subjugate the Elements; it is the Quintessence, which is the very essence of the personality or, if one prefers, the entelechy ensuring the persistence of being.

This mysterious entity has as its symbol the Pentagram, or the Star of Microscome which, under the name of Blazing Star, is well known to the Freemasons. They have made it the characteristic emblem of their second grade, which one can claim only after having been successively purified by Earth, Air, Water and Fire. The initiatory ordeals are modeled in this on the operations of the Great Work; the four purifications relate to putrefaction (Earth), to the sublimation of the volatile part of Salt (Air), to the ablution of Matter (Water) and to the spiritualization of the Subject (Fire). The last test alludes to the conflagration which fills the being with an entirely divine ardor, as soon as its source of initiative is exalted by the heat of the Fire-Principle animating all things.

The Quintessence is sometimes represented by a rose with five petals.

In one of his figures, Nicolas Flamel thus shows us the Hermetic Rose emerging from the mercurial stone under the influence of the Universal Spirit. On the other hand, the Rosicrucian mystics combined the rose with the cross and saw in it the image of the Man-God that we carry within us. The Savior was in their eyes the divine Light which shines within the purified soul. At first it is only a spark, a frail child born of the celestial Virgin, in other words of this transcendent, immaculate, universal psychic essence, which is destined to invade us. This invasion represses what is inferior in us: thus the apocalyptic Woman crushes the head of the Serpent, seducer of our earthly vitality, while the Redeemer grows to deify us by illuminating us.

CHAPTER VI - THE MAGISTERIUM OF THE SUN

Enlightenment. - Mastery. - Reintegration into Unity. - Philosophical gold. - Wisdom. - The Pelican. - The Star of Solomon.


According to the initiation rites, the blindfold of profane ignorance falls from the Recipient's eyes as soon as he has been purified by the Elements. This quadruple purification has the effect of making the earth's crust permeable and transparent; henceforth the exterior light can also be seen from within. But it is not enough for the Initiate to see the Light; it is up to him to attract it, to concentrate it on the radical focal point of his personality. This is called coagulating Mercury. For this operation the inner Fire must first be exalted. The central ardor thus exteriorizes the psychic humidity, which transforms the individual atmosphere into a refractive medium,

suitable for collecting and condensing the diffuse clarity of the Azoth. Thanks to this refraction, the personality ends up being completely impregnated with coagulated Light. It is then important to make permanent the state which has. known to be achieved. This can only be achieved by inducing a new and more transcendent vital circulation than that which takes place in the ordinary domain of the Elements. But the conquest of a higher life always presupposes a prior death. Now, this time it is no longer the Profane who perishes in the midst of darkness to be reborn in the Light, it is the Initiate who dies raised above the earth and nailed to the cross, in view of accomplishing the Great Work.

This death represents total self-sacrifice. It demands the renunciation of all personal desire. It is the extinction of radical egoism, and consequently the erasure of original sin. The narrow self disappears, absorbed into the self of Divinity. Such absorption invests man with sovereign power. The being who is no longer a slave to anything becomes by this single fact master of everything. His will formulates only the very intentions of God and as such it imposes itself irresistibly.

But, by realizing the Christian ideal, the perfect sage can no longer indulge in any arbitrary enterprise. His mission of redeemer detaches him from all pettiness. There can be no question for him of manufacturing vulgar gold, likely to tempt the misers. When the philosopher's stone is projected on molten metals, it transmutes them into philosophical gold, that is to say into an inalienable treasure, the value of which is absolute and not mere convention.

This gold relates to the highest sum of perfection of which a being is susceptible from the triple point of view intellectual, moral and physical. This is how the philosopher's stone becomes the supreme medicine for the mind, soul and body. It provides perfect health and restores the fallen creature to the original rights of its creation.

But, to make others perfect, one would have to be perfect oneself. Now, who would dare claim perfection? Isn't it a model that we can follow, but never reach? This is so when we speak of absolute perfection. But it is not to it that the philosophical gold alludes, which only represents the degree of perfection compatible with the nature of each being. As soon as one has attained this degree oneself one can effectively fulfill the role of savior. The most modest light helps to dissipate darkness, and to heal others it is enough to be healthy.

A divine spark shines in every man. It most often suffocates under the thickness of the material. Initiation lightens this and kindles the sacred flame. In the human being it develops the Man-Principle by hatching the germ of the latent potentialities that we carry within us. Nothing more could be asked; for all construction is perfect as soon as it conforms to the plan designed by the architect. However, it is here about the sovereign Architect ordering of all things. On the other hand, man is nothing by himself: everything comes to him from without; this is what allows him to participate in omnipotence insofar as he approaches his source. Now, to get closer to God, it suffices to do his will and to love him.

To do the will of God is to work for the realization of the divine plan and, as a determined task is assigned to each being, the whole duty consists in fulfilling it faithfully. The merit does not lie in the grandiose works, but in those which meet the requirements of general harmony. In the universal concert, the performers must apply themselves not to making a lot of noise, but to strictly providing the note requested. Fulfilling his destiny rigorously, such is therefore the whole ambition of the wise man. Glory, honors, riches, pleasure and satisfactions, nothing in his eyes can have any price. He sees in the world only a theater where personalities put on a show.

The actors appear on stage decked out in borrowed outfits, and they play their roles with conviction, forgetting that when the curtain falls, they will strip off their tinsel to become themselves again. Under these conditions, the character that one embodies matters little. Prince or beggar, hero or traitor, the main thing is to play well, responding exactly to the intentions of the author.

However, if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, mere docility is not the end. Submission and obedience are indispensable, but, on their own, they are not enough to raise us towards God: our elevation is proportioned to the degree of Love of which we are capable. The Pelican is, from this point of view, the emblem of that charity without which one could only be a resounding brass or a resounding cymbal. This white bird feeds its young with its own blood. He is the image of the soul which devotes itself without reserve. It is in the sentiment which unites the individual to all beings that resides the supreme virtue, the "strong force" of all force.

The follower who burns with this infinite love obtains the Seal of Solomon. This sign of magical power par excellence, consists of two intertwined triangles, which are the alchemical symbols of Fire and Water. They represent more particularly here the human nature united with the divine nature. The Hexagram or the Star of the Macrocosm is thus the emblem of theurgy, which is based on the alliance of the Will and the Feeling, whereas simple Magic is based on the sole Will of the adept brought to its highest power. His Pantacle is in this the Pentagram or the Star of the Microcosm.

The magician develops his individuality, he exalts his Sulfur and becomes a powerful center of personal initiative. It is related to male or Dorian initiation, unlike the mystic, who conforms to the principles of female or Ionian initiation when he gives way to a power external to himself (Mercury). As for the theurge, his superiority consists in reconciling the activity of the magician and the passivity of the mystic. He is a link in the supreme hierarchy: he commands and he obeys, he transmits the order received from above to what is placed under him, master directing the work of others, he ensures the realization of the plan of the eternal Architect.

CHAPTER VII - THE SEVEN METALS

The ternary and septenary constitution of man. - Correspondence of Metals and Planets. - The seven principles of esoteric Buddhism.


The essentially active Spirit can act on the passive substance of the Body only through the intermediary of the Soul, which is passive in relation to the Spirit but active in relation to the Body. However, health requires that the influence of the Spirit can be fully exercised on the Body. For this purpose, the Soul must be the exact middle term between the Spirit and the Body. Harmony can therefore only be achieved if there is equivalence between the three factors of human personality. These can be represented graphically by three circles which partially intersect each other. A Septenary is then generated which makes it possible to consider the constitution of man under a new aspect.

Spirit, Soul and Body now corresponds to Gold, Silver and Lead. Their synthesis is represented by Quicksilver, symbol of the Quintessence, or of the invisible and permanent substratum of the physical personality. Soul and Spirit unite in the spiritual Soul, to which Tin relates, just as Iron and Copper apply to the corporeal Spirit and the corporeal Soul respectively. Each metal is also associated with a planet or an Olympian deity. Lead, heavy and vile, belongs to Saturn, the god dethroned by Jupiter, who reflects himself in Tin, the lightest of metals.

These two metals are soft and oppose two others which are hard. One, copper, takes on the green color of Venus as it oxidizes. The other is Iron, which reddens in fire and provides arms to Mars. The mobility of Quicksilver is recalled by the rapid movements of the planet Mercury and the equality of the messenger of the gods. The Moon seems to find its whiteness and tempered brilliance in Silver, while Gold shines like the Sun. The elements correspond to Lead (Earth), Tin (Air), Copper (Water) and Iron (Fire).

Incorruptible Gold is represented by Apollo, the god of light, the primordial source of all life and all activity. It is the pure Spirit that animates creation, of which it is the beginning and the end, A and Z, Alpha and Omega, Aleph and Thau, as indicated by the word AZoth, kabbalistically composed of the initial letter of all the alphabets (A ), followed by the last alphabetic character of the Latins, Greeks and Hebrews. This principle relates to the Atma of esoteric Buddhism. It relates directly to Buddhi, the thinking principle which deliberates and decides. It is the animic Spirit or Jupiter, united to Juno his wife, who personifies the spiritual Soul. The master of Olympus takes counsel and launches the thunderbolt of the will.From his brain arises any army Minerva or Reason.

The Soul, the domain of the chaste Diana, corresponds to the Manas of the Hindus. It is the source of Feeling, Imagination and Memory. The corporeal Spirit or the animal Instinct applies to the Kama Rupa or "body of desire of the Orientals". It is the vital energy depicted so well by the ferocity of Mars and the bitter hardness of Iron. The astral body assures the permanence of the physical body, of which it is the ethereal or aromal double. Everything resounds on him, because he is the core of the personality. It transmits the orders of Jupiter and fulfills the role of universal intermediary. Mercury therefore rightly personifies it. Buddhists call it Linga Sharira.They call Prana or Jiva Vitality, which has as its vehicle the fertilizing Water whose foam gives birth to Venus,

There remains Rupa, the material Body which, left to itself, putrefies under the dissolving action of Saturn. When these seven principles balance each other harmoniously perfect health results. But perfection is never achieved. The ideal balance is always more or less broken. This is what generates the diversity of individuals of the same species; for they would merge into the unity of their common type, if they all conformed strictly to their abstract model. The deviations are innumerable; but they are reduced to a small number of secondary types which will be described in the following chapter.

CHAPTER VIII - THE FUNDAMENTAL MODIFICATIONS OF THE HUMAN TYPE

White light and the colors of the prism. - Materiality and Animality. - Spirituality. - Absolute Kindness and Altruism. -Ferocity. - Pure activity and intellectuality. laziness.

The Man-Type or Adam-Kadmon represents an ideal of harmony that no concrete being manages to achieve. The result is infinitely varied idiosyncrasies, which only Hermeticism can classify in a strictly logical manner. To this end, it is important to go back to the causes that generate a more or less rupture of the perfect pronounced balance. They come down to a single one: the disproportion of the constituent factors of the human ternary. Each of them can be in excess or, on the contrary, insufficiently represented. One can thus distinguish six fundamental variations, characterized by the overabundance or the scarcity of the Body, the Soul and the Spirit. To realize these deviations, it is necessary to refer to the diagram of the preceding chapter.

Each of these three circles being in turn advanced, then retracted, their normal interferences are modified in such a way as to explain the principal tonalities of human harmony. These are grouped around the perfect balance, to which the synthetic white light corresponds in the symbolism of the colors, whereas the three primitive colors, red, blue and yellow, are appropriate respectively for the Spirit, the Soul and the Body. As for the intermediate shades, purple, orange, green, they apply to the spiritual Groin, to the corporeal Spirit and to the corporeal Soul. The main variations of the human type can thus be attached to one of the colors of the prism. This is shown in the opposite table.

But each of the divergences thus represented should be studied separately. When the body circle is traced in such a way as to make it encroach on the other two, there is an extension of Mars, Venus and Mercury at the expense of Jupiter.

This is the pattern of material predominance. Physical activity (Mars) the vital sap (Venus) and the practical intelligence which provides for the needs of the body (Mercury) come together to stifle ideality (Jupiter). There is little room for dreams, lofty designs and noble feelings. On the other hand, the muscular vigor will leave nothing to be desired. Such natures are made to work under the direction of others. They will aspire only to the satisfaction of their bodily needs. Any other ambition will seem unreasonable to them. Sancho Panza fully realizes this guy.

The massive poise of these robust beings makes them enjoy excellent health, if we stick to appearances; for, in reality, they are predisposed to apoplexy and to accidents of athletic temperament. Obesity and plethora threaten them, if they do not expend their strength; on the other hand, their organs risk being worn out prematurely by the excessive fatigue that could be imposed on them. These thick personalities need to react against the gravity of matter. Imagination (Moon) in them, will have to idealize vitality (Venus), Diana (Moon) inspiring Venus with pure feelings, will give more empire to Jupiter, especially if Apollo (Sun), for his part, manages to turn the passion of Mars towards the ambition of great things.

This simultaneous intervention of the Soul (Moon) and the Spirit (Sun) reinforces the spiritual or reasonable Soul (Jupiter) which distinguishes man from beast. The latter passively abandons itself to the impulses which govern it. She obeys with absolute docility the laws of her species, and does not deliberate her actions which remain purely impulsive. Animals are comparable, in this respect, to hypnotic subjects who undergo irresistible suggestions. With them there is no trace of ideality. The Spirit (Sun) manifests itself entirely in Instinct (Mars), and the Soul (Moon) in Vitality (Venus). As for the Astral body, it is more powerful than in man.

The unconsciousness which characterizes animality is due to the absence of a spiritual Soul (Jupiter). This only develops following the initial revolt which leads to the achievement of personal autonomy. Man wanted to be by himself and therefore he placed himself outside the current of general or Edenic life, he destroyed the intimacy of the relationship linking the individual to the species. Thus was unleashed a struggle between nascent reason and the instinct of, henceforth deprived of its infallibility. The painful ordeals of individual evolution release by degrees from this state of disorder. The psychic faculties are developed to place man back in the stream of a higher life. Virtue stands equidistant from extremes.

Every defect is opposed by a failure in the opposite direction. Thus exaggerated materiality has excessive spirituality as its antagonist. Here the circle of the body is pushed outside. It only leaves a precarious domain to Mars, Venus and Mercury; on the other hand, Jupiter absorbs everything. It is the thought which is exercised at the expense of the realizing energy (Mars), of the vitality (Venus) and of the invisible web of the personality (Mercury). People in this category are dumb dreamers. They inhabit the clouds and desert their withering bodies.

Willingly they fall into the excesses of mysticism. Now, whoever wants to play the angel plays the beast, because our nature tends fatally to balance: the Body consequently recaptures with violence the Spirit and the Soul which seek to escape it. Wisdom wants us to submit to the laws of our earthly envelope. It teaches to reign over matter and not to flee it. To this end, it is important to volatize the fixed while fixing the volatile, or to spiritualize the bodies by embodying the spirits. All the secret of the Great Art is there. To attach to the earth a personality that is too ethereal, Venus can usefully intervene, by inspiring one of those passions which attracted the Bene-Elohim towards the daughters of men.

On the other hand, muscular exercise and gymnastics will allow Mars to conquer its normal vigor. People who have too much Soul (Moon) are rich in Ideality (Jupiter) and Vitality (Venus). The core of their personality is powerful, but they lack initiative. Generous and compassionate they easily forget themselves; so they risk falling prey to the greed that lies in wait for them. Now, the first duty of the living being is to preserve itself and to constitute itself with solidity. It is in this sense that well-ordered charity begins with oneself. Reasonable selfishness must restrain the thoughtless impulses of the heart.

The moral dispositions which deprive the being of all energy for personal defense have, moreover, their repercussions on the organism. The vital ardor (Mars) has the mission of repelling the invading enemies from which we are constantly threatened. You have to defend yourself if you don't want to be devoured. A being who would be nothing but love and devotion cannot subsist in the midst of a society based on the struggle for life. Taken to the extreme, altruism suppresses instinct entirely (Mars). It is then the triumph of the Soul (Moon), but at the same time the cessation of all bodily life. Virgo (Moon) can only crush the serpent's head in the rapture that transports it to heaven. When the Soul holds too little place in the personality,

of Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. The bodily fire (Mars) is therefore aggressive, brutal and violent. Ideality (Jupiter) and sensibility (Venus) do not manage to put a sufficient brake on it. An indomitable energy is joined in such natures to a cynical selfishness. Crime makes them its most dangerous instruments.

Evil and destructive instincts can nevertheless turn to the benefit of a society that manages to discipline them because, if men of action and movement show themselves to be insensitive, they nevertheless suffer the ascendancy of all moral superiority and intellectual. They demand to be tamed, like the ferocious beasts they are. With tact and assurance we will often succeed in taking advantage of them, for there is always resourcefulness with the strong, while the cowardly remain closed to all virtue. To those who lack soul, it is appropriate to give some, as was done in the days of chivalry. The cult of courage, of virile honor, brings Mars closer to Jupiter.

Respect for women, this charmer whose irresistible ascendancy imposes itself, on the other hand allows Venus to soften what is rough and wild in Mars. Excess Spirit harms Venus for the benefit of Mars, Mercury and Jupiter. The latter maintains a disproportionate ambition, which Mars is ready to serve with all its devouring activity. But there is shortage of vital liquid;

the Fire lacks fuel. He burns himself full of rage and unleashes a sickly fury, which only the influence of a loving and gentle person will manage to calm. Such natures gnaw at it, they would like to undertake everything and suffer from their impotence. The fever shakes them and burns their blood. Sometimes they withdraw into fierce despair, only to suddenly burst into fits of furious anger. Music then seems likely to bring harmony to these troubled souls. At least that is what the story of David and Saul teaches us. One can imagine a being in whom the Spirit would entirely supplant Vitality. It will be the ghost of pure intellectuality, a sort of Lucifer, archangel of pride and absolute independence.

Spiritual poverty sacrifices Jupiter, Mercury and Mars to the tyrannical domination of Venus. The latter is reluctant to action and seeks only voluptuousness. It is laziness and sensuality that atrophy the intelligence and numb all the living forces. The stagnant vitality is corrupted, and engenders the most pernicious vices. Hysteria, with its perversions of moral sense and instinct, is related to this kind of imbalance. Salvation must be sought in distractions which make the body work while occupying the mind. Excess vitality further demands to be expended for the benefit of others. The exercise of magnetism can offer in this an extremely salutary derivation.

It is up to the reader to draw for himself all the consequences of the premises that have just been laid down. What precedes is only a sketch, rudimentary but sufficient to complete the notions that it was important to give on Philosopher's Medicine. This therapy aims to bring man back to the rigorous balance of his divine type. This is what could be called Integral Medicine. May Ordinary Medicine deal less exclusively with the body. Let us hope that a sagacious philosophy will come more and more to enlighten science, and that justice will be rendered in the future to the misunderstood genius of the past!

CHAPTER IX - CONCLUSION OF THE THEORETICAL PART

Enigma in the style of the Alchemists.

There is a painful age when one seeks one's way. An ardent imagination then makes us conceive the most ambitious projects: we climb the sky like the Titans; but reason intervenes, and from the heights of enthusiasm one sees oneself thrown into the abyss of black discouragement. Then the madness resumes. Still bruised by its fall, the spirit rises again on the wings of dream, only to fall more painfully to the ground of brutal reality. And these alternations continue unabated. Judgment in disarray finds no fixed point to which to attach itself: from one extreme it passes to the other, without arriving at certainty, at rest.

However, this agitation must end: we must make up our minds and choose our direction. Full of anguish, we therefore implore a guiding clarity, we appeal to the light that guides the lost... It was under these conditions that I had a strange dream, one night when I had fallen asleep more overwhelmed than of custom. A large painting first captures my attention. I see it in its frame and I consider myself in the presence of a Moorish canvas. But to whom should this unknown masterpiece be attributed? I examine the style of the drawing, the color, the invoice, and I can't get over my surprise when I see that this composition was painted by myself!...

Light and shadow fight against each other in a cloudy sky, invaded by the whiteness of dawn. A light vapor rises from the plowed earth, which stretches far away without a trace of vegetation. On the left, the edge of a cedar forest surmounts a hilltop of land which slopes gently down to the foreground. The ground here has not been disturbed, but it is bare with only a few tufts of grass yellowed from recent frosts. This decor contains characters who, arranged in a circle, seem to be waiting for an extraordinary event. Their dark clothes bring out the scarlet of certain costumes and the yellow draped in a few privileged people.

The crowd is innumerable. She gazes dazedly at an open sepulchre, the huge tombstone of which rises behind like a druidic menhir. The tomb is bordered by a curb, which makes one think of the well where the Truth is hidden. From this tomb emerges a young girl who seems dead. She stands in the void. A long white veil falls from her bent head: her arms hang beneath the folds of her linen shroud. And all stare petrified... Suddenly this gloomy picture comes to life. From the crowd lined up behind the monument, a young man stands out. He has the type and costume of a Florentine schoolboy. With a determined step he advances and approaches the apparition.Without hesitation, he draws her to him, takes her in his arms and places the kiss of life on his forehead.

At this contact the virgin wakes up, she breathes. Her face takes on color and her eyelids open, still heavy with the sleep of centuries. His eyes then stop on his savior with an expression of infinite tenderness. For a moment the two beings look at each other, confusing their souls; then the young man abruptly withdraws and disappears into the crowd from which he came. The resurrected vestal then leaves the tomb. Calm, she advances three steps then, raising her sight to the sky, she drops her veil. At this moment the sun appears, flooding the whole space with its golden splendor. The crowd admires, joyful, because now they understand.