Concerning Artisans and Puffers

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IN THE ORDO Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (R.R et A.C.), the last clause of the obligation (corresponding to Malkuth) of the Adeptus Minor reads thus:

Finally, if in my travels I should meet a stranger who professes to be a member of the Rosicrucian Order, I will examine him with care before acknowledging him to be such.

This echoes the corresponding obligation of the Sociatas Rosae Crucis (S.R.C.) of Sigismund Bacstrom:

Should I travel either by sea or by land and meet with any person that may call himself a Brother of the Rosy Cross, I will try him whether he can give me a proper explanation of the universal fire of Nature and of our Magnet for attracting and manifesting the same under the form of a salt, whether he is well acquainted with our work, and whether he knows the universal dissolvent and its use. If I find him able to give satisfactory answers, I will acknowledge him as a member and a brother of our Society. Should I find him superior in knowledge and experience to myself, I Will honour and respect him as a Master above me.

In my opinion the R.R. et A.C. obligation is quite vague as to how such a stranger should be examined, while the one of the S.R.C. states plainly how that is to be carried out by the initiate. I am firmly convinced that the latter version became summarized into the former, and that the one of the R.R. et A.C. should be viewed in the light of the obligation given in the S.R.C. to be understood fully as to the motive behind it. Now, in my opinion it stands clear that the reason behind this clause is to test and weed out the Puffer from the true Artist. Let me explain these terms in a moment but indulge me first to linger some more concerning the above quoted and related obligations.

The seals of S.R.C. and R.R. et A.C.

In different debates there are often expressed quite severe judgments against anyone attempting to sort out what is a true teaching and what is a false or deficient teaching. There is always someone who raises their finger and objects against these “unfraternal manners”. But when we look at the above quotations taken from two central initiatory rituals is turns out that it is the obligation of a true Adept to test any claims made of such Adepthood and claims of Rosicrucian Theurgy and Alchemy. And we all know that knowledge of Alchemy is seriously lacking in the contemporary Golden Dawn community. It doesn’t suffice to have read the works of Frater Albertus or Manfred Junius, and put whatever they have said to the test tube, to claim to be a true Artist. Whatever you may gain of experience from that endeavor is but Plant Spagery (i.e. the Lesser Work), and even that requires many, many hours in the lab. Imagine then gaining a true proficiency in the Great Work, which truly is a Herculean task! So any claims of Alchemical knowledge by Golden Dawn Adepts (and especially them!) have to be tested (for the sake of the general public), especially if they publish books which claims to represent “Golden Dawn Alchemy”, which is an oxymoron in our post-modern age.

So quite naturally, and justly so, in the wake of Pat Zalewski’s new book on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual there has erupted a quite heated debate over the value of Alchemy and how it should be implemented with the Golden Dawn Tradition. This discussion has also developed into a general discussion concerning the true nature of Alchemy, in relation to the paths that we could term as “external”, “internal” and “spiritual”. And when we are dealing with the latter two terms they often become confused or conflated in any discussion concerning Alchemy or the Royal Art.

This confusion arises from the fact that much what passes for “internal” actually isn’t the real thing. Compared to the Western Tradition, Eastern Tradition speaks lots more in plain language than does its Occidental counterpart, although not all of the Eastern Alchemical Tradition is in print. However, Western source texts are lots more occulted and tending to metaphorical compared to the plain and direct explanations in the various Sutras and Tantras, etc. Therefore Alchemy is such a confused topic today in the West, compared to the situation in the East where there exists a general agreement of what it constitutes. Thus it is my firm opinion that one needs to agree upon certain standards when discussing Alchemy, so that we as participants know what we are referring to, to prevent any further confusion. Let me therefore present the following and tentative definition of these terms.

At the onset I must emphasize that when I talk about “Internal” or “Inner” Alchemy I am specifically referring to physical processes of the microcosm (or between two microcosms), not at all mental processes or intellectual correspondences. Read this again and carefully: Internal alchemy, as has been stated again and again both by me and other representatives of my Order, involves tangible matters and energies, not cognitive or mental functions per se. That latter type of alchemy which solely deals with mental processes I am here referring to as “spiritual alchemy”.

On this blog I use the following terms and definitions, and I expect you to use these as well when engaging in discussions with me here:

External Alchemy = Archemical and Spagyric processes, which has their basis on the Hermetic philosophy and Alchemical formulae that utilizes an external laboratory (such as artificial ovens, flasks, crucibles, etc.) using the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms of physical matter. Archemy is Spagery worked upon the mineral kingdom, whereas the processes involving the plant kingdom only concerns Spagery. This may also be referred to as “Exoteric Alchemy”, or the Lunar Mysteries of analogy. It is related to ordinary chemistry (and is its forerunner), as it uses its matters, but follows alchemical principles.

Internal Alchemy = Alchemical processes (proper) that uses the internal laboratory (the human body, both physical and subtle), either directly manipulating energies or using physical substances from the Alchemist’s body (animal kingdom), strictly following Hermetic principles and dogma. This may also be referred to as “Esoteric Alchemy” or the direct Solar Mysteries.

Spiritual Alchemy = Mental, spiritual and psychological phenomena being explained using alchemical symbology and processes as metaphors. It is however not based upon Hermetic philosophy but rather theology or psychology or magic in general, using the superstructure of Hermeticism to expound the latter disciplines. Perhaps a good alternative term, which is more intuitive, is to refer it to a “Mystical Alchemy”, and furthermore I also propose the term “Mercurial Mysteries”, as it involves the intellect and psyche, as well as the volatility of their constructs.

Note: I know that this division is a mental construct in itself (i.e. Mercurial), and that all these “ways” or perspectives are interlaced, also in specifics, to create but One Universal Alchemy. But if we are to understand what we are talking about here without any confusion, let’s stick to these simple definitions when using terms as “Inner” or “Internal”, at least on this blog.

Now that we have settled on a common vocabulary, and having agreed upon these simple definitions of Alchemy, let me proceed with the subject matter of this essay, following the adage of the Adeptus Minor Obligation: that of artistry and puffery. Now this last clause of the obligation that is required of an Adept of any Rosicrucian body obviously isn’t one of the nicest. On this I agree. It is not without reason is has been attributed to the last of the divine emanations, the Sephirah Malkuth or the Kingdom (that of the manifest matter). But nevertheless, it is a necessary one that any true Adept must follow, if the need arises, as any other of the clauses.

Before we proceed with the current debate from this somewhat severe viewpoint, let me first try to define what I (and many Adepts with me) mean with the terms “Artist” and “Puffer”. In my opinion there are not only two but three major categories of professed alchemists as well as occultists in general; the true artist, the puffer and the charlatan. The Artist or Artisan is someone who is an initiate of Hermetic Alchemy and follows true processings in producing the Philosopher’s Stone, knowing well that alchemical texts uses metaphors for their processes and “decknamens” for their different matters. He is not your ordinary greedy Chrysopoeist (“goldmaker”).

The puffer is often well meaning and serious, but because he lacks proper initiation has lost his ways in the maze – the labyrinth (the convolutions of the brain) – and cannot distinguish between analogy and literal meanings in the case of the external laboratory practitioner. The word “Puffer” or “souffleur” is a reference to the use of bellows when heating the ovens, and hints at someone bellowing in vain for his quest of producing gold. In our modern age this term may also be used in reference to intellectual constructs, castles built up of “hot air” so to speak, which have no foundation in any true Alchemical teachings.

The last category, and of course the worst, is that of the charlatan. He is one who knows that he is a fake but has developed his deceptive abilities sufficiently enough to get away with pretending to be an artist. The source image is the travelling salesman who tries to convince you that he may help you with any problem or against any ailment, only if you buy his “universal panacea”. These fakers don’t concern us at all in this current debate. I will only deal with artists and puffers in this essay.

Now if anyone writes about Alchemy, especially when it deals with the Rosicrucian Tradition such as the Golden Dawn, his knowledge must be tested by the true Artists. These latter have always been quite severe against charlatans and puffers in the past Centuries. Just pick up any alchemical tract of choosing and you will see it often starting off with a long judgmental critique, vitriol even, against false alchemists and their false understanding of the true nature of the Stone and that of the Prima Materia. Let me quote the Master Alchemist Michael Sendivogius and the opening lines of his The New Chemical Light, which serves to be a typical example of this attitude:

When I considered in my mind the great number of deceitful books and forged Alchemistic “receipts”, which have been put in circulation by heartless impostors, though they do not contain even a spark of truth – and how many persons have been and are still daily led astray by them? – it occurred to me that I could not do better than communicate the Talent committed to me by the Father of Lights to the Sons and Heirs of Knowledge. […] The facts and deductions which I have here briefly set down are transcribed from that manual – experience, graciously bestowed upon me by the Most High; and my object is to enable those who have laid a sound foundation in the elementary part of this most noble Art, to advance to a more satisfying fullness of knowledge, and to put them on their guard against those depraved “vendors of smoke,” who delight in fraud and imposition. […] In these wicked days, indeed, when virtue and vice are accounted alike, the ingratitude and unbelief of men keep our Art from appearing openly before the public gaze. Yet this glorious truth is even now capable of being apprehended by learned and unlearned persons of virtuous lives, and there are many persons of all nations now living who have beheld Diana unveiled. But as many, either from ignorance or from a desire to conceal their knowledge, are daily teaching and inducing others to believe that the soul of gold can be extracted, and then imparted to other substances; and thereby entice numbers to incur great waste of time, labour, and money: let the sons of Hermes know for certain that the extracting of the essence of gold is a mere fond delusion, as those who persist in it will be taught to their cost by experience, the only arbitress from whose judgment seat there is no appeal. If, on the other hand, a person is able to transmute the smallest piece of metal (with or without gain) into genuine gold or silver which abides all the usual tests, he may justly be said to have opened the gates of Nature, and cleared the way for profounder and more advanced study. […] Let me therefore admonish the gentle reader that my meaning is to be apprehended not so much from the outward husk of my words, as from the inward spirit of Nature. If this warning is neglected, he may spend his time, labour, and money in vain. Let him consider that this mystery is for vise men, and not for fools. The inward meaning of our philosophy will be unintelligible to vainglorious boasters, to conceited mockers, and to men who smother the clamorous voice of conscience with the insolence of a wicked life; as also to those ignorant persons who have fondly staked their happiness on albefactions and rubrefactions and other equally senseless methods.

Remember that alchemy is an operative (that is experimental) spiritual science and as any science there will be heated debates amongst scientists, especially it if turns out that a layman has put out a book which claims to be scientific.

Let us first turn our attention to the concept of “spiritual alchemy”, that kind which supposedly is addressed by Mr. Zalewski in his new book on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual. Now, Mr. Zalewski tries to interpret the much older Alchemical Tradition from the outlook of the quite young (or rather infant) Golden Dawn Tradition. Mr. Zalewski’s publishers has stated the motivation behind his approach quite plainly thus:

This book is the first attempt to publicly analyze the Outer Order rituals with an alchemical frame of reference completely within the context of Golden Dawn teachings. This is the condition used by Pat for the expansion and development of the higher teachings, i.e., they must enrich and inform everything else in the Golden Dawn or they cannot be part of the established Tradition.

This looks good on paper but the problem is that the Alchemical Tradition, that has so much more to offer to the aspiring and diligent student compared to the Golden Dawn Tradition, becomes diluted in this effort to make it fit into the latter. I have written about this before on my blog so there is no need for me to repeat myself here.

If you read that previous blog you will notice that I am quite open minded concerning some forms of spiritual interpretations of the Golden Dawn Tradition. For example I believe that there is some fruit to harvest in the attempt of attributing the stages of the initiatory process of the Golden Dawn with that of the stages of the Alchemical Process, which traditionally is distinguished by different colour attributions in the following order; Nigredo (Blackening), Cauda Pavonis (Peacocks Tail), Albuedo (Whitening), Citrinas (Yellowing) and finally Rubedo (Reddening).

Now I have to confess that I haven’t read Mr. Zalewski’s latest book yet (thus this cannot be considered to be a review), but it is my understanding from other’s descriptions that he regards the entire Outer Order of the Golden Dawn as being part of the Blackening Phase – the Nigredo – of the Alchemical process. On this part I actually agree with him. But it doesn’t seem to stop there, as Mr. Zalewski has introduced an entirely new concept to Alchemy, which at least I have never heard of before, that of sub-phases. This means that he regards the 1°=10° to correspond to a “Nigredo of Nigredo” phase, that of 2°=9° to an “Albuedo of Nigredo”, that of 3°=8° to a “Citrinas of Nigredo”, and lastly that of 4°=7° to a “Rubedo of Nigredo”.

This arrangement is somewhat reminiscent of the division of the Elements into sub-elements when using Malkuth as the symbol of Earth and its four divisions into sub-elements of Earth. Looks nice on paper if you only have the Golden Dawn as the base for your understanding. The problem arises when you try to understand the Royal Art itself based upon such speculative theories, as this arrangement has no basis at all in traditional Alchemy. So here we see a typical example of transforming the Alchemical Tradition to suit Mr. Zalewski’s understanding of Golden Dawn Ritual. In the light of these new ideas of his, taken together with whatever I have read of Mr. Zalewski on his yahoo-forum and his previous speculations concerning the attribution of the Tarot and the three alchemical phases, and 7 and 12 processings, I would categorize him to be the post-modern equivalent a puffer. He is not a charlatan as some would have him to be. Even if I cannot see any true artist in him I regard him to be at least sincere in his endeavors. What can be held against him though is that he trusts his own intellect and likes his own ideas to much and thus is caught up in the labyrinth of his own imagination.

Pat Zalewski

However, it does happen from time to time that even a puffer can contribute something to our understanding of alchemy (and in this case of the Golden Dawn), if he is benigned with the Grace of God. As an example of this I found his “Alchemical Pentagram” to be quite useful reading his original edition of the Golden Dawn Ritual Commentaries book, as it is based upon the Alchemical theory of the “Golden Chain of Homeros”, although I have arrived at somewhat different conclusions using that polygram model. However, I cannot say if Mr. Zalewski has been so blessed lately as I haven’t read his latest book. I’m not even sure if I will ever read it because my precious time is so short and the work load to great; I prefer to read classical alchemical source texts in contrast to recent inventions or fabrications. I have to make priorities, and to be honest, I believe that Mr. Zalewski has written his best works already (which I already have in my shelf). What I have heard others say about the book hasn’t made me change my mind as of yet. But I’m still considering reading it, and if I will do that I will come back to you with a full review that may perhaps alter my preliminary conclusions in this essay. It is always my prerogative to change my mind as I see fit and if I stand corrected.

The Alchemical Pentagram

At least I don’t refute Mr. Zalewski’s knowledge of Golden Dawn Theurgy and ceremonial (and as I said, from time to time even I find some things he has written in his Ritual Commentaries to be useful). Together with a thorough textual understanding of the classical alchemical corpus fused with an extensive experience of at least external operative laboratory practice, it may create some workable fruit or at least some interesting speculation. But regarding the alchemical operative knowledge or experience of Mr. Zalewski, he has himself on several occasions confessed, information that has also been corroborated lately by individuals that have known him when he was living in New Zeeland with his ex-wife Chris Zalewski, that it was in fact she who did a great deal of work with Plant Spagery, whereas he himself did not. She even published a book on the subject in the early 1990’s called Herbs in Magic and Alchemy (which is more of a magical herbalist’s handbook than an alchemist’s, the latter part heavily based upon Frater Albertus’ The Alchemist’s Handbook, including its omissions of important steps which leads the reader to a ruined elixir!).

Mr. Zalewski is designating his take on Alchemy as a “spiritual alchemy”, in contrast to laboratory practice. He apparently emphasizes that his perspective is not that of the lab practitioner, i.e. non-operative. With this in mind, I personally wouldn’t even refer to his puffery as being of anything “spiritual”, but rather being a kind of “speculative” alchemy in the same vein as the works of C.G. Jung, etc. (At least he is in some really good company!) However, true Spiritual Alchemy brings connotations to great teachers such as Jacob Böhme, who was a true Artist in his own right, although he probably never touched a flask in his lifetime as well. However in contrast to Mr. Zalewski, Böhme based his alchemical ruminations upon spiritual revelations and processes of transformations that he himself had undergone through the grace of God. Some would categorize Böhme’s works as that of prophecy, in the same vein as some consider the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. However, Mr. Zalewski is neither a modern Böhme nor is he a Swedenborg.

Jacob Böhme

If you want to study some really good and initiated Spiritual Alchemy, read whatever Paul Foster Case has written on that subject. In my opinion Case was a good enough initiate of the Royal Art to be trusted when reading his works. The good thing about his teachings is that they border on that of true Internal Alchemy; there is no clear cut division between the Spiritual (i.e. mental) and Internal (i.e. physical) aspect of the Art in his writings. It is this fact that make them so interesting and inspiring to read.

In my humble opinion, from where I am standing today, I hold that it is quite futile to try to understand true Hermetic Alchemy solely from the paradigm of the 22 Tarot Trumps or even the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, for example interpreting the Splendor Solis (who happens to have 22 plates) from the viewpoint of the Tarot. (However if you do the analysis the other way around, that is interpreting the Trumps and letters from the viewpoint of an initiated Alchemical understanding, this might shed some light to the former). Remember however that although both Hermeticism and the Qabalah share a common origin in Egypt and in Chaldean concepts, they both have developed far from each other over the course of many millennia; not to mention that one has retained its pagan roots while the other has not. It is only quite recently, during the renaissance, they both were re-merged together by our Italian Masters and Philosophers, and in the process joined together with the occult doctrine of the Tarot.

But if you resort to using the Tarot and the Holy Qabalah to explain the Art of Alchemy, as does also Paul Foster Case but in an entirely different manner than that of Mr. Zalewski, you have to have a fundamental understanding of the latter to be able to use the former two as pedagogical tools. That is why I can truly recommend Case’s material as a valuable study subject for any initiate, as I know for a fact that Paul Foster Case also involves the physical body as the Prima Materia, however not in such a direct way as that of the Internal Alchemy of my teachers. However, P.F. Case’s understanding of Alchemy is not that of pure intellectual speculation as that of Mr. Zalewski. They are playing in completely different divisions, in my humble opinion.

Paul Foster Case

What Mr. Zalewski is trying to do is to make his readers and students to learn to understand Alchemy from the narrow perspective of the Golden Dawn tradition, which in my humble opinion is a quite fruitless endeavor. However, and of which I previously have hinted at, if you apply the Royal Art itself (that is as a discipline independent from both the Qabalah or the Golden Dawn) onto the Golden Dawn Tradition, you will see the latter in a completely new light. At least for me it has been a true eye opener. Thus I truly believe that the Royal Art may unlock many hidden secrets contained in the Golden Dawn (as the latter is derived from the former), and probably also contained in the Qabalah as an independent tradition, but that you will develop truly false notions about Alchemy if you try to force it into a post-modernist Golden Dawn model in your analysis.

Only in special circumstances and on rare occasions, and through the Grace of God, may you gain some understanding of the Royal Art in meditating on the symbolism of the Golden Dawn, but never in its entire. You have to receive the Keys from a true source to unlock the hidden meanings of Alchemical symbology, and thus may you also unlock the deeper Secrets of the Golden Dawn. These Alchemical Keys has traditionally been bestowed through initiation – the relation between an Alchemical Master and his Disciple – and only in extremely rare cases through direct divine revelation.

But in the post-modern mind there is a strong reluctance or suspicion against the traditional alchemic initiatic norm of passing the body of teaching (orally) from Master to Apprentice or Disciple. One often holds that the Western path, contrary to the Eastern, is more individualistic. It is that, but not at all to the extent we have come to believe in our post-modernist magical culture of the post-Crowleyan – post-hippie era. Following the “True Will” today seems to mean never following the advice of anyone besides one’s own whims and impulses. However the relationship between an Alchemical Master and that of his Disciple, is not that of a Master and Slave. There is lots of room left for trial en error. You have to do the work yourself; your Master cannot do it for you. The history of Internal Alchemy is also replete with examples of high initiates exploring different fields of investigation and further development.

I would rather term the Master-Apprentice relation as that of guidance. In case you are wondering, I would only follow the voice of my external Master if it resonated with the consent of that of my inner / higher Master Teacher (my own Divine Genius). It is also my understanding that the particular path of the initiate is suited to the character and preferences of the initiate; there is no general path that works for everyone. It is the task of the Master to recognize this unique character and individual quality and to guide his disciple accordingly, meeting the needs and wants of his apprentice.

We have now entered into the domain of the operative aspect of Alchemy; the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone. Regarding it the current debate has also revolved around the topic of External vs. Internal Alchemy and how to interpret classical Western Alchemical source texts. Belonging to both camps, that is, believing in the value of both internal and external processings, I don’t necessarily see the opinions that External and Internal students usually propagate as mutually exclusive. To use the Eastern traditions as a comparative example the Tantrikas and Naths, whose teachings are congruent with hermetic principles, believe alchemy to be a “work of two parts”. That is, Hatha Yoga and sexual practices (Internal processings), and that of laboratory alchemy (External processings), according to the Eastern Sages, leads to the same goal – the creation of the Diamond Body. Some of these Sages believe that one is dependent upon the other, even though they at first glance seem to be completely different operations and paths.

Hindu Alchemy involves Yoga (energetic manipulation of the body – trough direct manipulation, such as breathing, posture and visualization) and / or sacred sexuality (Tantra). But it also involves external processings using the mineral Cinnabar and different plants, referred to as Rasa Shastra or Rasayana. This in turn has developed into the tradition of Ayurveda – Indian medicine. We have the equivalent traditions in China and Daoism, which are referred to as Waidan (External Alchemy) and Neidan (Internal Alchemy). Furthermore, the Western Path of the Red Dragon (the path of Cinnabar) is very close in spirit to these Hindu and Daoist notions.

However the Trantrikas and Yogis described internal processings through the use of terms that were borrowed from the tantric outer alchemical practices. This is also seen between Daoist external and internal alchemy. Because I see alchemy as a universal language preceding all religions and classical spirituality, I cannot see any reason why this approach isn’t applicable also to Hermetic Alchemy. So, this means that even if an alchemical author describes processes using languages taken from the mineral realm, this doesn’t mean that he isn’t referring to internal corresponding principles. The case may also be that he is referring to both, that is seeing a full correspondence between external and internal laboratory practices, the one augmenting the other. It is my opinion that the so-called “Dry Path” of Fulcanelli, as described in his Les Demeures Philosophales (“The Dwellings of the Philosophers”), is such a description of a cross-operational technique, involving the Athanor of the external oven as well as that of the human body, but nevertheless independent process-wise. That is, the described process obviously may be performed either as an external or internal working. But my position in this matter is that both working approaches should be performed by the same Alchemist, however not necessarily simultaneously but rather the external preceding the internal (I will return to this sequence in a moment).

But even amongst the practitioners of External Alchemy, which is the most disclosed alchemical tradition contrary to the Internal, there is a division between what some refer to as “Archemy” and “Alchemy”, the latter or course being truer than the former. I have been following (and on some instances participated) over at a well known and acknowledged yahoo-group forum, who has many alchemical authorities of the external paths (and who dismisses Internal Alchemy altogether as that professed by practitioners who have lost faith in the external Philosopher’s Stone). Many speak openly but there are also some few others who seem to be very serious aspiring Sons of Hermes who regard the majority of open discussion concerning itself only with vulgar spagyrics and said archemy, and not that of true alchemy. However it seems that most of these latter reject the idea of an Internal Alchemical process as well.

For example most of these hail Fulcanelli as a true Alchemist but regard his closest pupil Eugène Canseliet (1899 – 1982) to be an Archemist, or even a puffer, who literarily seeks Antimony (or rather Stibnite) as the Prima Materia instead of the so-called “Mineral G”. I have also communicated with some alchemists (or rather archemists) privately who say they possess the keys to true alchemy (of the external way) but don’t share their knowledge with others. My experience is that alchemists are very exclusive, jealous and secretive when they do stumble upon a “true” matter and find yet another “true” processing. I have seen some of the most venomous discussions between alchemists discussing the nature of the true Materia Prima, etc. Thus secrecy comes natural with Alchemy.

Eugène Canseliet

But these proud Alchemists (who actually are Archemists), who only perform the external ways, ironically falls into the same category as the puffers they regard all the others to be; divorcing external processings from that of the internal. They fall into the trap in believing that when Fulcanelli is ambiguous regarding the Antimony (the Prima Materia), that the name of that mineral must be a “decknamen” for some other than the “vulgar” mineral; they foolishly believe he is referring to yet another mineral when instead he is referring to the human body, the Offspring of Saturn, and the process itself as it was of an internal nature. So verily “Antimony” is a decknamen, not for another external mineral but of the human carbon based body instead.

A funny thing about some of the speculations revolving the Fulcanellian “Mineral G” is that it often is suggested to be Galena, the led sulphide, which in ancient times was referred to as kohl used as an eye paint, the earliest reference found in Egypt. The Swedish word “kol” and the German “khole” means carbon (the latter from the latin carbo). It shares its etymology with the English word coal (from the Anglo-Saxon col). Thus one cannot help thinking that Fulcanelli used some kind of play with words (“language of the birds”?), in this case using the Germanic language to actually refer to the human body. It is also interesting to note that the Alchemical symbol for Antimony (the reversed Venus symbol) also is a symbol for the planet Earth itself (Malkuth, which in the microcosm refers to the physical vehicle) and may be used as a general symbol for the Prima Materia.

Now, as with anything that has been claimed by the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega, in the usual fashion of the “Golden Dawn community” some individuals have recently disputed the historical authencity of the term “Archemy” just because it doesn’t frequently show up on Google – that which isn’t on Google therefore cannot exist! At least not in the mind of a post-modern English speaking student of the occult.

Granted, it not a common term, but it has been used somewhat in the past. The Master Fulcanelli popularized it in his The Dwellings of the Philosophers back in 1930, where he makes a distinction between true esoteric Alchemy and that of exoteric Archemy (which is of a lesser and analogical nature); for Fulcanelli Archemy is synonymous to Spagery (the latter traditionally being regarded to be the lesser cousin of Alchemy). But there are earlier references to “Archemy” than that of Fulcanelli. The German chemist Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (1817 – 1892) claims in his Geschichte der Chemie (“A History of Chemistry”) from 1869, that Coelius Rhodiginus (1469 – 1525) used the term “Archemie” in the latter part of the 15th Century. Claudius Salmasius (1588 – 1653) in his Plinianae exercitationes in Solinum from 1629 wrote “Patrum quoque nostrorum aevo Archemia dicebatur et Archemista”. Furthermore, the English edition of Sir George Ripley’s 12 Gates from 1591 says “The compound of alchymy, or the ancient hidden Art of Archemie”. In his Ordinall of Alchemy from 1477 Thomas Norton (1433 – 1513) writes “Mastrye full merveylous and Archimastrye Is the tincture of holi Alkimi”.

The definitions between Alchemy and Archemy obviously has changed during the years, at least if we confine ourselves to published references. They have often been synonymous of the same Art, but some authors, such as the Venetian priest Giovanni Agostino Pantoea in his Ars transmutationis metallicae (“Art of the transmutation of metals), from 1519, made a distinction between them but reversing the meaning and regarded Archemy to be more noble than Alchemy. However, this must be seen in the light of the bad reputation that charlatans and puffers had brought to the name of “Alchemy” during the 16th Century, which had led to the Pope Leo X banning Alchemy altogether but obviously allowing the practice of “Archemy” as he allowed Pantoeas book to be printed.

But it was Fulcanelli who in public presented us with the modern definitions of the terms “Alchemy”, “Archemy” and “Spagery” that I and my Order use whenever we speak of this subject. At the end of this essay I have appended an extraction of the chapter in The Dwellings of the Philosophers that deals with these definitions, so that you may read the words of the Master himself.

Don’t let the quite recent publication of Fulcanelli’s books put you off in reading it. The Dwellings of the Philosophers is by many authorities on Alchemy regarded to be the last in line of classical and true Alchemical texts that has been published. During their 80 years of circulation they have become legendary, as well as the purported feats of its anonymous author (who supposedly succeed with the Great Work, that is produced the Philosopher’s Stone, and gained immortality).

I know of modern students of Alchemy that have committed the entire The Dwellings of the Philosophers to memory – who know it by heart. This says something about its importance and impact in the alchemical community. Most have heard about Fulcanelli’s Le Mystère des Cathédrales (“The Mystery of the Cathedrals”) from 1929 but few Golden Dawn students have heard of his second and more important title (he only published two books), even though it has been translated into English.

I have written about Fulcanneli’s Path of the Black Dragon before on my blog, albeit from an entirely external and exoteric point of view (which is the most common) in where I also in passing mentioned the term “Archemy”, and whatever I said there still holds and doesn’t contradict anything I have said here. In my opinion, the path that Canseliet and his followers has handed down to us, doesn’t constitute any puffery. It is however Archemy. And it was probably taught in this way to Canseliet by Fulcanelli himself. What many seem to fail to understand is that Fulcanelli also taught a way of Internal or Esoteric Alchemy (or Alchemy proper) to complement the External processes of Archemy. This is not only stated by the Secret Chiefs of the Third order of the Alpha et Omega, in a recent communiqué of theirs, but it has also been claimed by independent French sources, such as by the renowned and acclaimed occultist Robert Ambelain.

Thus the external path of the Black Dragon (using Stibnite) only becomes a sign of puffery when you detach it from the overall Alchemical doctrine which also involves corresponding internal processes, in which latter case it represents Archemy. Even if I personally prefer to use the terms Internal Alchemy and External Alchemy (for Archemy and Spagery), it must be clear to everyone that whenever I speak of “Archemy” I’m not referring to puffery at all but in fact to that of external alchemical processings, using Hermetic Philosophy as a basis.

Thus it is in my opinion equally possible to produce an external Philosopher’s Stone with transmuting virtues through Archemy as it is to produce an internal Stone through Alchemy. However, any External Stone cannot be compared to the value of the Internally produced Stone.

But let us regress and involve the concept of Spiritual Alchemy again in our discourse. I firmly believe that both Internal and External processes involves (or are supposed to involve) also the spiritual aspect of ourselves. Furthermore, there is a borderline area between Magic (or Theurgy) and that of operative Alchemy, for example when we discuss the topic of clairvoyance. However, practices which most occultists associate with the words “meditation” and “skrying” isn’t part of the Alchemical practice per se. Skrying more belongs to magical practice. But on the other hand, clairvoyance too has an important part in the processes of Internal Alchemy. And to complicate matters further, Magic is often used in conjunction with Alchemy, both in External and Internal approaches, which also helps to bring in the spiritual aspect of the work.

For example, when I perform an external lab process I usually invoke the forces corresponding to the operation through Ceremonial Magic, and I also do meditations and skryings, with the object to involve my person or microcosm in the external process as well as bringing in the aid of macrocosmic spiritual forces. Contrary to the modern scientific paradigm, which advocates dispassion and separation between subject (scientist) and object, Alchemy involves the Alchemist in a much more profound way, whether it is of the External, Internal or Spiritual kind. Alchemy, as is also the case with Theurgy, is thus about the merging of the microcosm with the macrocosm.

When I perform an internal process my entire being, also the spiritual, becomes involved by default. However, it is not necessary to perform the External and Internal processes simultaneously on every occasion. My conviction however is that the Great Work would be enhanced if we worked both with our external as well as internal laboratory. I also believe that External Alchemy (in conjunction with Theurgy) serves as a good preparation for Internal Alchemy, i.e. that the emphasis changes from the external (macrocosm) into the internal (microcosm) over time.

In the work with Alchemy, as it is envisioned in a Golden Dawn context, you have to start off with the external and tangible first and through the internalization process move on into the internal. This is the same process also with Ceremonial; you have to build yourself your Elemental Weapons (or whatever implement) physically before you are able to use their internal equivalents. Through this process you will also affect your spiritual nature until you are able to produce the physical transmutation. When you are able to do that, you no longer need the external props.

I have suggested elsewhere to this effect, to use the Golden Dawn initiatory system as a frame work, that external processings are more suited for the Second Order, or the R.R. et A.C., while the internal processings are more suited for the Third Order level of work. However, there are some minor and energetic exercises, of a preparational kind, that may supplement the external processes also at a Second Order level.

There is a general agreement in the Hermetic discourse that amongst other things the Emerald Tablet of Hermes introduces the concept of correspondence between the Microcosm and Macrocosm, when it states that “What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.” In the latest translation by Nineveh Shadrach it further and in plain words states that “The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.” Now, to me these words ring with the sound of wisdom and provide me with a theory of science. They are no empty words to me.

(And in the case of someone raising his finger in objection to me adhering to such outdated theorems: Do I care what the modern scientific paradigm claims as to scientific veracity? And please don’t tell me that modern science isn’t just another faith based system as any other, including religion. Because it is. It even has its own fundamentalists!)

Thus, my main argument is that there is a correspondence between internal and external processes and substances through analogy. As above, so below. As internal, so external. Whatever is in the greater, is also in the smaller. This is a fundamental hermetic principle. Alchemy – and Magic – is about the fusion of the macrocosm with the microcosm. The Law of Correspondences concerns the relation between the Greater / Outside world with the Smaller / Inner World. This is the standard Hermetic definition of the term, which is used both in Magic and in Alchemy.

(Of course the doctrine of the Law of Correspondences – as per example in Aleister Crowley’s Liber 777 – are also used to knit the different macrocosmic parts together, such as plants, minerals, planets, etc., as for example through the Paracelsian doctrine of signatures, which is then applied to the healing of the body and soul of the Magician and Alchemist.)

What I am referring to when I talk of analogy between internal and external processes involves physical matters and actions, not behavioral or psychological phenomena. That latter category of phenomena falls under the “spiritual alchemy” heading. The external is represented by the chemicals and matters and laboratory equipment. Each kingdom has its equivalent Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. The Mercury of Microcosmic Man isn’t the same as that in a Macrocosmic Mineral, but they are the same principle nevertheless and are ruled by the same laws that have their origin in the highest spiritual.

(With the highest spiritual I’m referring to the Hermetic ALL, the ONE. GODHEAD. The DIVINE. I believe Eastern people refer to this as the Causal or spiritual plane (the one that precedes the mental, astral, etheric and physical); the plane of the Brahman.)

To me Nature’s minerals and plants and animals constitute parts of the Macrocosm. My own body parts and fluids, and energetic currents, clearly constitutes the microcosm. So when I want to work alchemically with the macrocosm, I perform external lab alchemy, with the objective to fuse it to my microcosm. Not only do I take the elixirs internally and fuse it with my physical body, for the purpose of healing and regeneration, I also align myself astrally and mentally through skrying and meditation with the process to further this aim.

Why then go through all of this arduous and tedious practice of fusion between the microcosm and the macrocosm? Why not let everything be as it is; why manipulate nature to produce such “unnatural” effects? We have to ask ourselves why this division has occurred in the first place to answer these questions.

The theory of Alchemy agrees with that of Gnosticism and the Holy Qabalah, that Man’s condition is that of being in a “fallen” state. This fall is hinted at in the first chapters of Genesis. Thus, we do have a divine origin but through our life in this exiled and differentiated condition of the Material World we have isolated ourselves from the Macrocosm, through the illusions and convolutions of the mind, and thus also energetically. The work of Alchemy and Magic is reintegration, both of our own separated parts (in our mind and body) but also of ourselves as a separated part of the macrocosm.

Some argue that we as Man are in perfect union with the Universe as it is and that thoughts contrary to this is an illusion. But I ask: Is someone living under the Wheel of Samsara truly one of the gods or demi-gods, in full tune with the Brahman? Is our life here on Earth truly a perfect or ideal condition? Why then do we have to meditate? Why do we have to create conditions of reaching Samhadi if we as Atman already are in perfect union with the Brahman? Why do we even have to dissipate that “illusion” of ours in the first place?

Alchemy is about following Nature but it is also the Art of speeding up Her processes. I want to reach Immortality (leave the wheel of Samsara) and become “more than human” in this life. Not in the next. Enough said by me, who is but a Neophyte of our Royal Art. Let us now instead read the words of wisdom from one of our past Masters, a true Son of Hermes, of which I promised previously. If there is any confusion left from reading my all too over-worded exposition, all that will be dissipated from now on:

An extract from Fulcanelli's The Dwelling of the Philosophers, Chapter VII - Alchemy and Spagyrics

Since Lavoisier, all the authors who have written on the history of chemistry agree to profess that our chemistry comes by direct affiliation from old alchemy. Consequently, the origin of the one is confused with that of the other, to such an extent that modern science would owe the positive facts on which it is built to the patient labor of the ancient alchemists. […] Well, we in turn certify, proposing to prove it, that learned men who have in good faith espoused or propagated this hypothesis deluded themselves by ignorance or a lack of penetration. Understanding only in part the books they studied, they mistook appearance for reality. Let us clearly state, since so many educated and sincere people seem unaware of the fact, that the real ancestor of our modern chemistry is ancient spagyrics and not the hermetic science itself. There is indeed a profound abyss between spagyrics and alchemy.

There was in the Middle Ages and possibly even in Greek antiquity, if we refer to the works of Zosimos and Ostanes – two degrees, two orders of research in chemical science: spagyry and archemy. These two branches of the same exoteric art spread throughout the working class by means of laboratory practice. Metallurgists, goldsmiths, painters, ceramic artists, glassmakers, dyers, distillers, enamellers, potters, etc., had, as much as apothecaries, to be provided with sufficient spagyric knowledge. They perfected this knowledge themselves later on in the exercise of their profession. As for archemists, they formed a special category, more restricted, more obscure also, among the ancient chemists. The aim which they pursued presented some analogy with that of the alchemists, but the materials and the means which they had at their disposal were uniquely chemical materials and means. To transmute metals into one another, to produce gold and silver from coarse minerals, or from saline metallic compounds, to force the gold potentially contained in silver and the silver potentially contained in tin to become real and extractable, was what the archemist had in mind. In the final analysis, he was a spagyrist confined to the mineral realm and who voluntarily neglected animal quintessences and vegetable alkaloids. And since medieval laws forbade private possession of furnaces and chemical utensils without preliminary permission, many artisans, their work once finished, studied, manipulated, and secretly experimented in their cellars or their attics. They cultivated the science of the little particulars, according to the somewhat disdainful expression of the alchemists for these side activities unworthy of the philosopher. Without scorning these useful researchers, let us recognize that very often the most fortunate among them only obtained mediocre benefits, and that the same process, at first successful, later led to nil or uncertain results.

Nevertheless, in spite of their errors – or rather because of them – it is they, the archemists, who provided first the spagyrists and later modern chemistry with the facts, methods, and operations they needed. These men, tormented with a desire to search everywhere and to learn everything, are the true founders of a splendid and perfect science to which they bestowed accurate observations, exact reactions, skillful manipulations, and painfully acquired techniques. Let us humbly salute these pioneers, these precursors, these great workers, and let us never forget what they did for us.

However, we repeat, alchemy has nothing to do with these successive contributions. Hermetic writings alone, misunderstood by profane investigators, were the indirect cause of discoveries which the authors had never anticipated. It is in this manner that Blaise de Vigenere obtained benzoic acid by sublimating benzoin; that Brandt could extract phosphorus by seeking the alkahest in urine; that Basil Valentine, a prestigious Adept who did not despise spagyric experiments, established the entire series of antimonial salts and the colloid of ruby gold; that Raymond Lully prepared acetone, and Cassius the purple of gold; that Glauber obtained sodium sulphate and Van Helmont recognized the existence of gases. But, with the exception of Lully and of Basil Valentine, all these researchers, wrongly classified among alchemists, were simple archemists or learned spagyrists. This is why a famous Adept, author of a classical work, can say with much reason: “If Hermes, the Father of philosophers, was resurrected today, along with subtle Geber, and the profound Raymond Lully, our vulgar chemists would not regard them as Philosophers, and would practically not condescend to number them among their disciples, because the latter would not know the manner of operating all these distillations, circulations, calcinations, and all these innumerable operations which our vulgar chemists invented for having misunderstood the allegorical writings of these Philosophers”.

With their confused texts, sprinkled with cabalistic expressions, the books remain the efficient and genuine cause of the gross mistake that we indicate. For, in spite of the warnings, the objurations of their authors, students persisted in reading them according to the meaning that they hold in ordinary language. They do not know that these texts are reserved for initiates, and that is essential, in order to understand them, to be in possession of their secret key. One must first work at discovering this key. Most certainly these old treatises contain, if not the entire science, at least its philosophy, its principles, and the art of applying them in conformity with natural laws. But if we are unaware of the hidden meaning of the terms – for example, the meaning of Ares, which is different from Aries and is closer to Arles, Arnet, and Albait – strange qualifications purposely used in the composition of such works, we will understand nothing of them or we will be infallibly led into error. We must not forget that it is an esoteric science. Consequently, a keen intelligence, an excellent memory, work, and attention aided by a strong will are not sufficient qualities to hope to become learned in this subject. Nicolas Grosparmy writes, “Such people truly delude themselves who think that we have only made our books for them, but we have made them to keep out all those who are not of our sect”. Batsdorff, in the beginning of his treatise, charitably warns the reader in these terms, “Every prudent man”, he says, “must first acquire the Science if he can; that is to say, the principles and the means to operate. Otherwise he should stop there, without foolishly using his time and his wealth. And so, I beg those who will read this little book to credit my words. I say to them once more, that they will never learn this sublime science by means of books, and that it can only be learned through divine revelation, hence it is called Divine Art, or through the means of a good and faithful master; and since there are very few of them to whom God has granted this grace, there are also very few who teach it”. Finally, an anonymous author of the 18th century gives other reasons for the difficulty that we encounter in deciphering the enigma: “Here is”, he writes, “the first and true cause why nature has hidden this open and royal palace from so many philosophers, even those gifted with a very subtle mind. Because, straying since their youth away from the simple path of nature through conclusions of logic and metaphysics, although ingenuous nature advances in a straight and very simple step in this path as in all the others”.

Such are the opinions of the philosophers about their own works. How can we be surprised then, that so many excellent chemists took the wrong path, and that they deluded themselves by inquiring into a science whose most elementary notions they were incapable of assimilating? And would it not be a great service to render unto others, unto neophytes, to advise them to meditate upon this great truth which the Imitation (Book III, Ch. II, v.2) proclaims, when it says, speaking of the sealed books: “They can make the sound of their words resound, but they do not provide any understanding at all. They give the letter, but it is the lord who unveils the meaning of them; they propose mysteries, but it is He who explains them. They show the path that must be followed, but He gives the strength for walking on it”. It is the stumbling block against which our chemists have tripped. And we can affirm that, if our scientists had understood the language of the ancient alchemists, the laws of the practice of Hermes would be known to them, and the philosophers’ stone would long have ceased to be considered a chimera.

We have stated earlier that archemists regulated their works according to hermetic theory – at least as they understood it – and that this was the point of departure for fertile experiments with purely chemical results. Thus they prepared the acid solvents which we use, and through the action of these on metallic bases they obtained the saline series well known to us. By afterwards reducing these salts, either with other metals, with alkalies, coal, sugar or fatty bodies, they recovered, without transformation, the basic elements which they had previously combined. But these attempts as well as the methods which appeal to it showed no difference with those practiced today in our laboratories. A few researchers, nevertheless, pushed their investigations much further; they remarkable extended the field of chemical possibilities even to such a point that their results seem doubtful, if not imaginary, to us. It is true that these processes are often incomplete and enveloped in mystery almost as dense as that of the Great Work. However […] our chemistry owes everything to spagyrists and archemists and nothing, absolutely nothing, to hermetic Philosophy.

The simplest archemic process consists in using the effect of violent reactions – that of acids on bases – so as to provoke, in the midst of the effervescence, the reunion of the pure parts, their irreducible combination under the form of new bodies. It is then possible, from a metal close to gold – silver preferably – to produce a small quantity of the precious metal. […] But this simple body, so easily obtained, although in a very small proportion, is it truly gold? Our sincerity compels us to say no or, at least, not yet. For even if it shows the most perfect outer analogy to gold, and even most of its properties and chemical reactions, still one essential physical characteristics is missing: density. This gold is less heavy than natural gold, although its own density is already greater than that of silver. We can therefore regard it as, not the representative of a more or less unstable allotropic state of silver, but rather as a young, or nascent gold, which further reveals its recent formation. Moreover, the newly produced metal remains capable of taking and keeping, by contraction, the increased density that the adult metal possesses. Archemists used a process which ensured nascent gold all the specific qualities of adult gold; they called this technique maturation or firming up, and we know that mercury was its principle agent. We find it mentioned in some ancient Latin manuscripts under the expression of Confirmatio. But archemy has other methods, whose results bring the proof of philosophical affirmations. They allow us to achieve the decomposition of metallic bodies, long considered to be simple elements. These processes, which alchemists know well, although they don’t have to use them in the elaboration of the Great Work, aim at extracting one of the two metallic roots, sulphur and mercury.

Hermetic philosophy teaches us that bodies have no action on bodies and that only spirits are active and penetrating. It is they, these spirits, these natural agents, that provoke in the midst of matter the transformations which we observe there, yet wisdom demonstrates through experimentation that bodies cannot form among themselves anything but easily reducible, temporary combinations. Such is the case of alloys, some of which are liquefied by simple fusion, and of all saline compounds. Similarly, alloyed metals maintain their specific qualities in spite of the diverse properties which they take on in the state of association. We can then understand of what usefulness the spirits can be in releasing the metallic sulphur or mercury when we know that they alone are capable of overcoming the strong cohesion which tightly binds these two principles between themselves.

It is essential first to understand what the Ancients meant by the generic and rather vague term of spirits. For the alchemists, the spirits are real influences, although they are physically almost immaterial or imponderable. They act in a mysterious, inexplicable, unknowable but efficacious manner on substances submitted to their action and prepared to receive them. Lunar radiation is one of these hermetic spirits. As for archemists, their conception proves to be of a more concrete and substantial nature. Our old chemists embraced all bodies under the same heading, simple or complex, solid or liquid, having a volatile quality liable to make them entirely sublimable. Metals, metalloids, salts, hydrogen carbides, etc., bring to archemists their contingency of spirits: mercury, arsenic, antimony and some of their compounds: sulphur, sal ammoniac, alcohol, ether, vegetable essences, etc.

Among the archemists who used gold to augment it, making use of formulas which led them to success, we will note the Venetian priest Pantheus; Naxagorus, author of Alchymia Denudata (1715); de Locques; Duclos; Bernard de Labadye; Joseph du Chesne, baron of Morance, appointed physician to King Henry IV of France; Blaise de Vigenere; Bardin, of Le Havre (1638); Mlle. De Martinville (1610); Yardley, the English inventor of a process which he transmitted to Monsieur Garden, glover in London, in 1716, and later communicated by Monsieur Ferdinand Hockley to Dr Sigismond Bacstrom, and which became the object of a letter from the latter to M. L. Sand in 1804; finally, the pious philanthropist, St Vincent de Paul, founder of Les Peres de la Mission (The Fathers of the Mission --- 1625) and of the congregation of les Soeurs de la Charite (The Sisters of Charity --- 1634), etc.

We will repeat one last time that of all the operations […], none can be related in any way to traditional alchemy; none can be compared to its own operations. A thick wall separates the two sciences, an insurmountable obstacle for those who are familiar with the methods and formulas of chemistry. We do not want to make anyone despair, but truth compels us to say that those who keep on performing spagyric research will never come out of the ways of official chemistry. Many modern chemists believe in good faith that they are resolutely going far from chemical science, because they explain its phenomena in a special manner without using any other technique besides that of the learned men whom they criticize. Alas, there have always been many of these erring and self-deluded people, and it perhaps for them that Jacques Tesson wrote these words of truth: “Those who want to accomplish our Work through digestions, through common distillations, and similar sublimations, and others by triturations, all these people are off the good path, in great error and difficulty, and they will never succeed because all these names, words, and manners of operation are names, words, and manners of metaphor”.

We believe that we have fulfilled our purpose and demonstrated […] that the ancestor of modern chemistry is not the old and simple alchemy but ancient spagyrics, enriched with successive contributions from Greek, Arabic, and medieval archemy.

If one wants to have some idea of the secret science, let him bring his thoughts back to the work of the farmer and that of the microbiologist, since ours is placed under the dependence of analogous conditions. For, as Nature gives the farmer the earth and the grain, and the microbiologist the agar-agar and the spore, similarly she gives the alchemist the proper metallic terrain and the appropriate seed. If all the circumstances favorable to the regular process of this special culture are rigorously observed, the harvest cannot but be abundant... In summary, alchemical science, of an extreme simplicity in its materials and its formula, nevertheless remains the most unrewarding, the most obscure of all, by reason of the exact knowledge of the required conditions and the required influences. There is its mysterious side, and it is towards resolution of this most difficult problem that the efforts of all the sons of Hermes converge.

Addendum (2014-03-13)
 
Since writing this blog yours truly is no longer affiliated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega® (H.O.G.D./A+O®). However, my general view on this subject stays firmly unchanged, as expressed in the above written text, and what I have authored previously on the Gyllene Gryningen blog still represents my overall opinion. Any practices referred to in reference to the H.O.G.D./A+O® or otherwise suggested also apply to the Order that I am currently affiliated with, namely the Hermetiska Orden av Den Gryende Morgonrodnaden (“Hermetic Order of the Nascent Aurora”) or H∴O∴G∴M+R. 

S∴R∴

Modern transpersonal psychology vs. traditional psychoanalysis

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AND NOW TO something completely different. A comment criticizing Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung from the occult perspective caught my eye the other day, contrasting it with the modern transpersonal school of psychology which was considered to be far more superior. Especially there was some critique against equating “archetypes” with angels, etc. It made me ponder somewhat regarding the nature of archetypes, as well as the purpose of psychotherapy in the context of initiation. So here I will exhibit yet some more of my mental mastrubation.

The reader should also be aware (or warned) that I have the personal ambition of trying to construct a Esoteric Psychology that also works from a strictly clinical sense, fusing elements from both Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, as two representatives of the psychoanalytic tradition (and taking the benefit of their system of pathology), with that of the Hermetic and Qabalistic traditions, into a workable format in the psychoterapeutic context. In my own research I have found that as much as C.G. Jung can be attached to the Hermetic / Achemical tradition, S. Freud may be corresponded to that of the Holy Qabalah.

Perhaps this will come as a surprise to some, but probably not to regular followers of my blog (in particular if they can read Swedish). In my opinion the initiate of a hermetic initiatic school has much more to gain from taking regular traditional psychotherapy or psychoanalysis than he or she does from transpersonal therapy, such as psychosyntheis. Why? Because (and not counting the fact that the former kind of therapists often have a more solid education and clinical training) we need to access that dark, unconscious and repressed aspects of ourselves – the complexes to use the terminology of Jung and Freud.

Thus, as initiates we shouldn’t write off either Freud or Jung as important in the understanding of the human soul to quickly. I agree that they are limiting (especially Freud) when it comes to transpersonal experiences. But no school of therapy is better than psychoanalysis or analytical psychology, or modern psychodynamic therapy, in probing and giving initiates keys to unravel their subconscious strata, and create psychological healing at that.

Sigmund Freud

I happen to have experience of psychosynthesis, both in training and my own therapy as part of that course (although quite limited). I have all the more experience and solid study of psychoanalysis / psychodynamic therapy both in training and in self-therapy. Based on that I must inform you that I have been given a lot more tools and assistance in my search for self-knowledge through my traditional psychotherapeutic training and therapy, compared to what I managed to gather through my psychosynthesis (transpersonal therapy) course.

What the Hermetic schools lack in training and theory is that part of the psyche or aspect of the work in gaining self-knowledge of what in esoteric psychology is referred to as the subconscious; it does however provide us with a map to experience the terrains of the superconscious. Thus while being in an initiatic school I would say that a psychotherapy that lays its emphasis on the subconscious / unconscious is very beneficient in this respect, as it complements the traditional training of an initiate in a most optimal way.

Now, some of you will either think or say that regular meditation and mindfulness techiques, such as found in Eastern traditions, is much more efficient than regular Western psychotherapy. I beg to differ; in my opinion you need the significant other (that is the therapist or initiator) to gain self-knowledge. Regardie understood this very well, especially when it came to dealing with transferential and projective issues, which I find wholly lacking in the transpersonal schools in the way of tools and theory.

Simple guided meditations will not lead you to that as it involves the conscious mind and will-power to a greater extent; you need to evoke those infantile drives to become conscious of them through the transferential relation. However, spontaneous visualization techiques, such as Jungs active imagination or Katathym imaginative psychotherapy more recently developed by Hanscarl Leuner (while starting off with a guided meditation soon developes into spontaneous imaginary), have their value. But even these techniques presupposes the therapist as an active ingredient, that is the relation between two humans.

Carl Gustav Jung

In that same comment Regardie met some critique for attributing Angelic forces to the archetypes. But in my opinion Angels may in fact be referred to “archetypes” of a sorts when referring to the microcosm, in the same manner as demons can be attributed to our repressed complexes. We have them both inside of us, as well as they both do exist in the macrocosm as independent entities. The Divine Genius is that Angel that is most close to out heart and our Sphere, but there are also others beyond that. I am sure that Jung had a thorough understanding of Plato and thus borrowed the idea of archetypes from him, which in the context of the latter refer to eternal ideas which transcends the mundane world that but reflects them in a shadowy format. Remember that we as Man (microcosm) are made into the image of God (macrocosm).

However I also believe that Jung in a way simplified truth in several instances. In his system there seems to be nothing beyond our Divnie Genius of the Hermetic school, which should be the equivalent of the Self in Jungian terms, our personal God (spark) so to speak. Here I beg to differ with him. How I see it today the Jungian Self (which I equate with the Higher and Divine Genius) is but an emissary of the true God beyond. Jung also make the archetypes, as I interpret him, almost as aspects of the individual Self (the archetype of the archetypes). Thus, using his model the other archetypes, such as the Mother and Father archetypes, attach to the Self. This aspect of the analytical psychology of Jung may also be understood in light of the Holy Qabalah. May I propose the following cross-reference:

The strictly Jungian archetypes compose the Sephiroth of the Assiatic Tree of Life in 10 aspects. Here the Jungian Self corresponds to Kether, or Yechidah of Man. The other archetypes are represented by the other 8 Sephiroth which follows, the 10th sphere representing our personal psyche and the “personal unconscious”. The Holy Qabalah teaches us that all the other 9 Sephiroth are contained in a latent and united form in Kether, that they emanate and thus are hanging as pendants from Kether. This clearly is reminicent of how Jung explains the Self in relation to the archetypes, although he uses a more circular model to explain it.

The anatomical model of the psyche according to C.G. Jung

These archetypes that belong to Assiah are actually the reflection of the True Archetypes of Atziluth (the Archetypal World of the Qabalah). Thus the Higher Self in Assiah (the human world of action) is a reflection of Kether in Atziluth, the true Yechidah of the Greater World. However the Kether of Assiah has gone through lots of stages of descent and involution to reach its final destination which originated in Kether of Atziluth. In fact it emanates or grows out from Malkuth of Yetzirah (the world of formation and of angelical choirs), the feet of that mighty angel which overshadows each man. Thus, man’s Yechidah (that is Kether in Assiah) is but an incarnated emanation of the Yetziratic Angel (our Microcosmic Angel).

The orginal archetypes, that is the 10 Sephiroth of the World of Atziluth, are both macrocosmic and microcosmic, or in other words, there is no division between Man and God at this point. The same may be said of Briah as well, at least to a certain extent, the creative world in which the archetypes becomes embodied in the form of Macrocosmic Archangels and the Archangel of Man. In the latter case each Archangelic name represents an aspect of our Mighty Archangel. Thus an Archangel from Briah may interact with us through the medium of the World as well as we may invoke it from inside of ourself, through our own Microcosmic Archangel, in that realm which reaches beyond Assiah. But the lower (and I believe Jungian) archetypes belongs to the personal and solely microcosmic sphere of Assiah. Thus I interpret Jungs psychology as dealing with the anatomy of Assiah and perhaps the lowest statum (i.e. Malkuth) of Yetzirah.

The World of the Qlippoth

Theurgy goes way beyond this. So in this respect the school of analytical psychology don’t give you the keys to everything, but nevertheless it is a good starter to gain self-knowledge about your Assiatic self, that is the 10 Sephiroth of Assiah, while Freud’s theories limits itself even further down to Malkuth of Assiah, or even the infernal Qlippotic regions below, the dwelling place of the Red Dragon. But traditional Freudian teachiques, or schools that are based on his theories, are very good at gaining knowledge of that Mighty Dragon, I must add.

Note: This short essay has been duly amended in 2014-01-16.

S∴R∴

The Tree of Knowledge vs. the Tree of Life: Or a followup to the question of why we should be Adepts first and scholars second

o

In my previous and last blog I tried to distinguish between true Adepthood and that of academic scholarism, of which the latter we see to much of these days in modern initiates at the expense of the former. With this sequel I hope to dispel any strange notions of anti-intellectualism or anti-scholarism on my behalf. So it seems that some on the blogosphere has yet again mistaken or misrepresented my words, this time interpreting me as saying that Adepts should stop being scholars entirely. That is NOT at all what I am saying. I simply ask for initiates to strive for Adeptship first and to be scholars second. That is taking scholarism from the pedestal without giving it up; relegating it into a tool and from being the sole aim and purpose in itself. Thus I’m not asking you to throw out the babe with the bathwather.

It is of course good and dandy to know several languages and be well versed in archaeology, history and contemporary religious research, etc. S.L. MacGregor Mathers was a perfect example of this, so was W.W. Westcott; they often find themselves in leading positions of orders, as being a leader implies by its very innate nature to create a working curriculum for your initiates. What I AM criticizing is that this type of knowledge ought to be the major measuring stick for Adepthood. It is NOT. True Adepthood has nothing to do with any intellectual qualities per se, but instead that of succeeding with the Great Work and discovering the Stone of the Wise, and thus realizing Immortality. This is the original meaning of the term “Adept” which was invented and used by alchemists in the past. You won’t get immortal and god-like by reading a good book.

Granted, intellectual abilities and study of textbooks can aid you in this alchemical endeavour. But it requires so much more than that; reason alone and intellectual knowledge can not take you there – that is realizing the Stone – but more so faith, devotion, passion, reverence, humility, compassion, desire, discipline and will. I recommend a thorough study of G.H. Fra. Sub Spe’s (John William Brodie-Innes’) paper on the Zelator Ritual in this respect; he has some interesting things there to say concerning the importance of faith in the Work.

Intellectual knowledge creates distance and dispassion. To become an Adept you must merge yourself with that aspect of reality with which you are currently working and researching. The intellect can only take you that far; there is a time and place upon the Path of Return where you must set aside the intellect to gain the true vision of the Universe – Gnosis. Mystics all over the world know all about this. Why is it so hard for occultists to get this into their thick heads?

Theory is always the emphasis in the early stages of the training of the initiate, whereas the Work itself becomes the main concern after a while. Thus theory is the foundation of future Work; however not the Work proper itself. The only quality that can make you persevere through this Herculean Work is that of faith and devotion to it, and a true belief in Divine guidance and providence. There are to many sceptics amongst post-modern Adepts, to little with faith. Many are ambivalent and not truly shure why they are called to do the Work. Looking at the written words of some, I sometimes wonder if they even believe in magic; if they believe in miracles; if they belive in the Philosopher’s Stone and its supposed qualities of transmuation. What they do belive in is their own intelligence and discrimination. They also love to show off their large book collections!

But I say that intellectual endeavour may even become a distraction from more important practical work after a certain point. A large library is not the key to discovering divinity and immortality. The task is rather to find the truly important and handful of books that you should read and re-read, and re-read, and re-read, while working around the clock applying what you have understood from the source texts, until the message reveals itself through a Gnosis.

Discrimination is needed to weed out the puffers from the true alchemist authors. Remember that there are three major categories of occultists; the true artist, the puffer and the charlatan. The puffer is often well meaning and serious, but has lost his ways in the maze – the labyrinth (the convolutions of the brain) – and cannot distinguish between analogy and literal meanings. The charlatan knows that he is a fake but has developed his deceptive abilities enough to get away with pretending to be an artist. But there is of course a thin veil between the true artist and the charlatan, especially from the perspective of the student seeking a teacher. Would you prefer to read books by puffers and charlatans, before that of true artists? I guess not. But the problem is that our community is flooded with works written by puffers and charlatans. Thus the task to find the right literature – that is quality before quantity – is Herculean in its own right.

The Good Book (or Bible) is of course one of these important titles and souce texts, for us Westerners, but there are a few more that can help you in the early stages of the work. The Emerald Tablet is of course a requirement and should be put into a frame and hung onto the wall of every would be alchemist’s home, and meditated upon – daily. There are several other titles, of course. One which comes to mind is the Sepher Yetzirah, from the Qabalistic lore. But the tendency amongst real Adepts however is to cut down the amount of books in their library, at least after a while. Remember, quality before quantity. I once heard about a renowned Alchemist who purportedly only owned two or three books in his shelf. Interesting, huh? I wish I knew which titles. But I mustn’t digress any further…

Consider for a while the two Trees in the Garden of Eden that man was prohibited from eating; the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Man was lured by the Serpent to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, not that from the Tree of Life. After being caught in the act man was consequently condemned to a perpetual Diaspora and the path of a re-entry back into Eden barred by the Flaming Sword placed in the hand of the Kerubim, to guard the Tree of Life from being plucked by man who then truly would become as one of the gods as he would also gain immortality.

But as initiates we are told to ascend the Tree of Life and thus to quit our exile; alchemy concerns itself solely with the Tree of Life and its golden fruit. Enoch walked with God, thus man was given a promise of a way back into the Garden. Why then, I ask, do so many students of the occult and initiates treat the Tree of Life as it was the Tree of Knowledge instead? Why this sole emphasis on either theoretical knowledge or knowledge gained through astral scrying techiques (that is gaining information from dubious astral entities as sources)? We are very quick in invoking a force to use it as a gateway into hidden realms, and potential treasure house of knowledge, instead of infusing its powers with that of our Sphere of Sensation.

Now, only because of what I just wrote, some individuals will claim that I now told you to stop scrying. I did NOT! What I said was that you cannot gain true Gnosis only by scrying on the astral plane. The astral plane is a treasure house of illusions and presents yet another maze. Do you really believe that by only scrying more you will gain more true visions? Think again; you will probably only end up being a astral junkie instead. It is true that you will gain a more clear and true vision from the true Work; a true clairvoyance. But that is not from searching for astral knowledge per se; it comes from entirely different techniques. True vision is the outcome of more important work than that.

I am of course referring to purely energetic work. You must learn to infuse your Sphere of Sensation with the Powers of the Universe, with its Energies. You must learn to merge the microcosm with the macrocosm. You won’t do that by scholarly endeavours or communing with entities in the astral. It takes something else. Besides, there are other utilites and advantages from traditional scrying work than simply using a questionnare before an encountered entity. I am talking about astral scrying as a means to receive initiation and undergo transformations, which in turn also may have energetic consequences.

The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life are deceptively alike. They are almost as twins. Thus it is easy to mistake one for the other. For instance, they both have two opposite paths – darkness and light about them. But they are not the same. They have different natures. Eating a fruit of Life will grant different qualities to your being compared to that of eating the fruit of Knowledge. Surely you must suspect this?

May we gain Gnosis trough eating the fruit of Knowledge? I doubt it. The fruits of the Tree of Knowledge has given man his discriminative faculties – his ability to analyse, that is to separate. That is needed in the Solve Phase. But you cannot reach to the Coagula without knowing how to unite the two principles. This uniting principle may only be granted to you by eating the Fruit of Life, plucked from the Tree of Life – that is the Tree of Love and of Light. Gnosis – that is True Knowledge of the nature of things – can only be granted by the Tree of Life (Light and Love). With Immortality comes also Cosmic Consciousness. Enough said. Please feel free to misinterpret and misrepresent me as you wish.

S∴R∴

Concerning the true nature of Lux E Tenebris: an angel or a man? (Or, why we should be Adepts first and scholars second)

o

THE LAST MONTH following G.H. Fra. L.e.S.’ announcement regarding the Third Order transmission of secret teachings for the higher grades of the Second Order, the R.R. et A.C. of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, has seen quite some stir and heated discussions on various fora and the blogosphere. Some conclusions have taken some ludicrous heights, in the usual reconstructionist fashion that we have come to be used to during the recent years.

Now, the good Frater Olen Rush recently published a transcript from a visionary experience back in 1888 by one Frater Vota Vita Mea, that is Thomas Henry Pattison which is listed as No. 8 of the Horus Temple No. 5 membership roll, admitted as a 5°=6° by march 1888.

This letter has previously been published in full by R.A. Gilbert in his The Golden Dawn Scrapbook, pages 37-39. The transcript reeds in full thus (retaining comments by Mr. Gilbert within square brackets):

Copy of Communication from the Inner Ring, made to Fra. Vota Vita Mea, given in his letter of June 20, 1888 to Fra Sapere Aude:

The Crowned One gave to Fras. V.V.M. and H. [presumably F.D. Harrison] much information concerning the natural creation and the following symbol was the one he adopted to illustrate primary creation or the union of first causes:

After this Fra. H. was conducted by an Eagle-headed messenger into the presence of the Angel R + [Raphael] (whom I, S'Rioghail Mo Dhream, know by the motto L[ux] e T[enebris]) He said:

‘I wish to speak to you of the G.D. The prime mover of it must exercise the keenest possible care, and must not accept people into its secrets who are not Occult Students, they all ought to have some occult development which has been the outcome of their own research; otherwise much Evil Magic will be the result. Much good can come out of it if rightly directed, but one Evil One can upset the Harmony of the whole, so that its efforts would be neutral for a lengthy period. The Idea in view must be not to establish an Order; but to gather together those men who are an Order In themselves. Understand that the G.D. is MY Order and that I am and must be accountable for it. The last one initiated [Dr T.W. Coffin, who left the Order within a year having remained in the grade of Neophyte] must be considered and allowed to wait before giving information; 2 or 3 others also are not of much use, and others are likely to drop out. You must take every care not to initiate any who have no occult tendency in a degree developed. Convey my message to those who can carry out my advice.

‘You must consider yourselves highly favoured indeed for being allowed to come in contact with the one (the Crowned One) you did tonight.

‘Also, I would caution and advise you to be very careful in the use of Divine Names, and all symbols should (be) correctly traced. I have seen this lady in Switzerland whom you have been trying to release. I confirm the work you have attempted. But you have failed to fully carry out your intention. The failure is due to the want of correctness in carrying out your Ritual. When the Divine Names are used they are made operative by the emotion of the Soul; if uttered by a cold soul-starved man they are of no use. Put your soul-power into them, and let your whole being speak them; then they do become Operative; and the final Issue of this lady in Switzerland is left open at present for your instruction. You have discovered and commanded the assailants, but you have not yet subdued them; although she will be very carefully watched now: You must make your promise of protection a fact, and establish it as a permanent operation. I shall see you again as to this.’

He also said; - ‘The G.D. will soon find the prime movers plenty to do; they will have more applicants than they can take; and if not careful will get beyond their control.’

He then said to Fra. H, ‘You can go’; and the Eagle-headed Messenger conducted him back.

Now, people has of course noted the particular mention by S.L. MacGregor Mathers of Lux e Tenebris, the motto that MacGregor Mathers re-used for his later in the flesh Secret Chief which he met in Paris in 1892. Some have therefore speculated that MacGregor Mathers started out with a belief of solely astral or angelic powers as the source of the Third Order, and that he later on changed his beliefs into the concept of continental Rosicrucian initiates.

For me this seems plausible, and even more plausible that he believed in both. I personally believe that MacGregor Mathers used the Lux e Tenebris phrase as a generic motto for whatever Secret Chief or source of inspiration he had come into contact with or believe in at a certain point. After the meeting with his physical Secret Chief in Paris he started to apply that motto onto him. Later on there started to spread a false rumour that the identity of L.e.T. was a Dr. Thiessen of Liege, who supposedly died in 1909. However, it’s a well known fact amongst initiates that the L.e.T. motto is a blind, and that the real motto and true identity of MacGregor Mathers’ continental Secret Chief is still secret to this day.

However, one reconstructionist and history revisionist author has even suggested that MacGregor Mathers must have referred to the infamous Madame Horos as his Secret Chief when he announced that he had been visited by them in the flesh. But in his usual manner this author hasn’t made his homework sufficiently enough and completely either missed or ignored the fact that MacGregor Mathers’ in the flesh contact with Madame Horos was established in early 1900, while he made his first official and written claims of physical contact with his Secret Chiefs back in 1896, that is four years prior to him taking in Madame Horos and her husband as guests at his Paris house. He also totally misses the fact that MacGregor Mathers in a weak moment (probably his weakest) believed Madame Horus to be fräulein Sprengel, who used the motto of Sapiens Dominabitur Astris, not that of Lux E Tenebris.

Now let me present the facts, not any fantasies, and again quote MacGregor Mathers’ manifesto concerning the Secret Chiefs in full:

The Manifesto of G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°, Adeptus Exemptus, Chief Adept and Ambassador of those Secret and Unknown Magi who are the concealed Rulers of the Wisdom of the True Rosicrucian Magic of Light:

Unto

The Theorici Adepti Minores of the Order R∴ R∴ et A∴ C∴

Notice: This Manifesto is to be placed in the hands of each Theoricus Adeptus Minor upon his or her attainment of that Grade. After he or she has carefully read the same; he or she must send a written Statement of voluntary submission in all points regarding the Orders of the G∴D∴ in the Outer and the R∴R∴ et A∴C∴ to G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro before being permitted to receive any further instruction. Unless he or she is prepared to do this, he or she must either Resign from the Order, or elect to remain a Zelator Adeptus Minor only. And he or she hereby undertakes to refrain from stirring up any strife or schism hereon in the First and Second Orders.

It is necessary that you who have now attained the Grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor after having passed through the numerous examinations on the Secret Knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade of the Second Order should now understand how that wonderful system of Occult Wisdom has been obtained for you.

Prior to the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts in Britannia (the First Order of the G∴D∴ in the Outer being therein actively working) it was found absolutely and imperatively necessary that there should be some eminent Member especially chosen to act as the link between the Secret Chiefs and the more external forms of the Order. It was requisite that such Member should be me, who, while having the necessary and peculiar educational basis of critical and profound Occult Archaeological Knowledge should at the same time not only be ready and willing to devote himself in every sense to a blind and unreasoning obedience to those Secret Chiefs: - to pledge himself for the fidelity of those to whom this Wisdom was to be communicated: - to be one who would shrink neither from danger physical, astral, or spiritual, from privation or hardship, nor from terrible personal and psychic responsibility; one who, while receiving for transmission the Hidden Wisdom of the Rosy Cross, should be willing to pledge himself under the severest penalties possible, that the Order should be worked in conformity with the principles laid down by those Secret Chiefs not only for the present time but in the future also: - and who should further possess an Iron Will unable to be broken by any unlooked for opposition that might arise in the carrying out of these duties: - he must further pledge himself to obey in everything the commands of the aforesaid Secret Chiefs 'perinde ac cadaver' body and soul without question and without argument whether their commands related to: - Magical Action in the External World; or to Psychic Action in other Worlds or planes, whether Angelic, Spiritual, or Demonic; or to the Inner Administration of the Order to which so tremendous a Knowledge was to be communicated; and that he must further be prepared to abide in any country; to undertake any journey at a moment's notice, or to confront the chances of death, pestilence or elemental upheaval, if called upon in the course of fulfilling their demands to do so; that he would further undertake, whatever might occur, never to lose faith in the Chiefs of the Order, and to keep his body in such a condition of physical health and especially of vital energy, that the ordinary chances of corporal illness and exhaustion should not be permitted to become any bar to his constant efforts and exertions: - all this and yet further conditions were insisted upon as the only pledges under which this Divine Wisdom was to be permitted to be given out: - and these had to be confirmed by the most terrible Obligations.

I, MacGregor Mathers, 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream 5° = 6°, Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°, was the Frater selected for this Work: whom you know as the Chief Adept of the Second Order under the title of Deo Duce Comite Ferro which I had taken upon me.

At my urgent request Soror Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum [i.e. Moina Mathers] was allowed to be associated with me in this labour, but only on condition of pledging herself in the same manner, though in a less degree.

With all this it was insisted that I, the aforesaid Frater, and in a less degree the aforesaid Soror were to be held responsible for any action undertaken thro' misapprehension of the instructions of the Chiefs, no matter in what manner those Instructions were to be conveyed.

That yet further it must not be expected that these pledges should confer upon me any right to expect abnormal material support or assistance. The conditions in question, being only those on which I was to be allowed so great an honour as to be the Recipient of the Knowledge for transmission to the Order; and also that in all this my obedience was not to be the passive one of an unreasoning Machine, but the active one of the intelligent and voluntary Ministrant of the Magic of the Eternal Gods.

These preliminary conditions having been solemnly undertaken by us; then, and only then was I able to proceed to the attainment of the Knowledge of the full 5° = 6° Ritual and of the Obligation thereof; and the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts; my quitting England being a necessary preliminary thereto.

The working of the Second Order having been thus initiated I was enabled to proceed to the acquirement of the Wisdom of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade for transmission to you: - a work, the enormous strain and labour of which it is impossible for me to exaggerate. For, you must not think that the obtaining of this Knowledge of the Second Order for you has been merely and simply the somewhat commonplace labour of translating a heap of unclassified MSS ready placed in my hands for that purpose. This might indeed be difficult and fatiguing, but it would be the merest child's play compared with the Herculean task that I have been called upon to execute.

Concerning the Secret Chiefs of the Order, to whom I make reference and from whom I have received the Wisdom of the Second Order which I have communicated to you, I can tell you nothing.

I do not even know their earthly names.

I know them only by certain secret mottoes.

I have but very rarely seen them in the physical body; and on such rare occasions the rendezvous was made astrally by them at the time and place which had been astrally appointed beforehand.

For my part I believe them to be human and living upon this earth; but possessing terrible superhuman powers.

When such rendezvous has been in a much frequented place, there has been nothing in their personal appearance and dress to mark them out as differing in any way from ordinary people except the appearance and sensation of transcendent health and physical vigour (whether they seemed persons in youth or age) which was their invariable accompaniment; in other words, the physical appearance which the possession of the Elixir of Life has traditionally supposed to confer!

On the other hand, when the rendezvous has been in a place free from easy access by the Outer World they have usually been in symbolic robes and insignia.

But my physical intercourse with them on these rare occasions, has shewn me how difficult it is for a mortal, even though advanced in Occultism, to support the actual presence of an Adept in the Physical Body; and such meetings have never been granted to my own personal request, but only by their own special appointment; and usually only for some reason of special importance.

I do not mean that in such rare cases of physical converse with them that the effect produced on me was that intense physical exhaustion which follows depletion by magnetism; but, on the contrary, the sensation was that of being in contact with so terrible a force that I can only compare it to the continued effect of that usually experienced momentarily by a person close to whom a flash of lightning passes during a violent storm; coupled with a difficulty in respiration similar to the half-strangling effect produced by ether; and if such was the result produced in one, as tested as I have been in practical Occult Work, I cannot conceive a much less advanced Initiate being able to support such a strain even for five minutes, without Death ensuing.

Almost the whole of the Second Order Knowledge has been obtained by me from them in various ways; by clairvoyance, by Astral projection on their part and on mine-by the table, by the ring and disc, at times by a direct Voice audible to my external ear, and that of Vestigia, at times copied from books brought before me, I know not how, and which disappeared from my vision when the transcription was finished, at times by appointment Astrally at a certain place, till then unknown to me; and appointments made in the same manner and kept in the same manner as in the case of those rare occasions when I have met them by appointment in the physical body.

The strain of such labour has been, as you can conceive, enormous; in especial the obtaining of the Z ritual, which I thought would have killed me, or Vestigia or both, the nerve prostration after each reception being terrible from the strain of testing the correctness of every passage thus communicated; the nerve prostration alluded to being at times accompanied by profuse cold perspirations; and by severe loss of blood from the nose, mouth, and occasionally the ears.

You know the extreme and sustained attention and critical judgment requisite to obtain any reliable and truthful answer through the Table or the Ring and the Disc. Add to all this Ceremonies of Evocation, almost constant strife with opposing Demonic Forces endeavouring to stop the delivery and reception of the Wisdom; and the necessity of keeping the mind exalted towards the Higher Self; while at the same time exercising the critical Archaeological Knowledge and having to make the many references necessary to detect any misapprehension of meanings of passages in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Egyptian and what not; and you will only then have a faint idea of what my struggles have been. The only one among you who has known the fearful difficulties I have had to contend with, has been Sapere Aude [Westcott] and he has therefore well known that such work could not be done in a hurry and rapidly like mere mechanical transcription, or even like ordinary original composition.

But unless the Chiefs are willing to give me the Knowledge, I cannot obtain it for you: - neither will I give it to you unless I know that the Order is being worked conformably with their wishes and instructions.

What I discountenance and will check and punish whenever I find it in the Order is any attempt to criticise and interfere with the private life of Members of the Order; neither will I give the Wisdom of the Gods to those who endeavour to use it as a means of justifying intolerance, intermeddling, and malicious self conceit. The private Life of a Person is a matter between himself or herself, and his, or her God; and no person who has taken the obligation of 5° = 6°, and studied the same can be ignorant of its clauses and penalties.

The Temples of the Order are places for the performance of Sacred Ceremonies, and the petty criticisms and uncharitableness of social clubs and drawing rooms, should be rigidly banished from them. To invoke carelessly and inadequately the Divine White Brilliance and the Forms of the Eternal Gods while permitting your mind and lower personality to be filled with uncharitableness; towards your neighbour, self righteous pride, and trivial social considerations, is an abominable blasphemy; it is that taking the Name of God in vain which is a most pernicious sin; for by so doing you cannot touch the God, but instead and in his semblance arouse the Evil Antithesis.

This, I know, has been a sin among you during the last twelve months; and be sure that this must bring its reaction; and there is no surer road to this error than the encouragement of the feeling of the Pharisee: ‘God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are’. Such a formula, whether expressed or implied, means at once separation from that God who is universal.

Of what use are the Second Order Centres, if they are not places where the Gods and the Angelic Forces are invoked in Spirit and Truth; and where Mystic Powers have their abode, and where petty social gossip can find no place.

It is possible for you to be word perfect in all the knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade and to know all its Ceremonies by rote; and yet unless you can really and profoundly grasp their inner meaning, an uninitiated person who has a strong will, faith, reverence, self sacrifice, and perseverance, may be more truly a Magician than you.

Finally, the reading of this Manifesto will have made you comprehend the enormous amount of time and energy necessary to obtain the Wisdom of the Second Order. To this must be added the considerable amount of labour connected with the Order - my own work in the outer world - and with all this the imperative necessity of keeping my physical health and vital energy always up to full pitch; and at times having had the extra disadvantage of being compelled to earn my own living in the world.

I therefore expect you to aid me to the best of your ability by carrying out my wishes regarding the management of the Order and by abstaining to the utmost of your power from putting any extra hindrance in my way.

I have considered it advisable that you should have both had in your possession and carefully studied the whole knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade before receiving this Manifesto.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers. 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream
Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°
87 Rue Mozart, Auteuil, Paris
October 29th, 1896

It is my belief that this manifesto should be treated as an official order document and statement on the nature of the Secret Chiefs and the Third Order, at the time period of MacGregor Mathers’ most frequent encounters with them. I would also in this instance want to quote W. B. Yeats from his Autobiographies, written in 1926. Here Yeats recalls a conversation with MacGregor Mathers concerning the the Secret Chiefs:

Once, when Mathers told me that he had met his Teachers in some great crowd, and only knew that they were phantoms by a shock that was like an electric shock to his heart, I asked him how he knew he was not deceived or hallucinated. He said, “I had been visited by one of them the other night, and I followed him out, and followed him down that little lane to the right. Presently I fell over the milk-boy, and the milk-boy got in a rage because he said that not only I but the man in front had fallen over him.” He, like all that I have known who have given themselves up to images, and to the speech of images, thought that when he had proved that an image could act independently of his mind, he had proved also that neither it, nor what it had spoken, had originated there.

This account fully corroborates MacGregor Mathers’ beliefs as shown in the above quoted manifesto and fully refute Madame Horus as his Secret Chief, which is a proposperous and outrageous proposition in the first place. A further evidence of this is that it is clearly stated in the manifesto that the reason of MacGregor Mathers and his wife Moina to leave England and permanently moving to Paris was to come closer to his Secret Chiefs, such as L.e.T.; thus it reads:

I [was] able to proceed to the attainment of the Knowledge of the full 5° = 6° Ritual and of the Obligation thereof; and the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts; my quitting England being a necessary preliminary thereto.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ statement must be placed in juxtaposition with what Moina Mathers, in her preface to her husband’s book The Kabbalah Unveiled, wrote in 1926 concerning this matter:

Three or four years later he was told by his Occult teachers to transfer his centre to Paris, where my husband and I lived for the rest of his life.

There is no doubt in my mind that Moina clearly refers to S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ prime motivation to move to Paris as to facilitate his communication with his Secret Chiefs. If they were solely astral or angelical contacts, surely there wouldn't be any need of a physical relocation. These written statements, when compared together, for me clearly confirms that his Occult teachers were real and physical individuals.

It is fine by me that there is a variety in the Golden Dawn community. It is fine by me that we share different views regarding the Secret Chiefs and the Third Order, or even that some deny the very existence of the latter and regard it only to be a myth, etc. Each to his own. But what I cannot accept is that facts are being twisted around to serve a militant reconstructionist agenda.

I have watched this debate regarding the Secret Chiefs silently up until now. I honestly don’t care what others think about them or about others’ opinions about my beliefs. These days I’m not surprised at anything anymore; there are obviously no limits to the amount of delusions in the community. Without any connection with the tradition to restraint the imagination people have all sorts of personal opinions and are damn proud to present them all over the internet. The idioticy of the Golden Dawn community is starting to get so piled up it must be almost impossible to wade through it as a prospecting initiate. People may actually start to believe in these fantasies. That’s why I feel obliged to set the record straight.

This whole matter has made me ponder the sad and sordid state of the Golden Dawn community. It has dawned upon me for the last couple of days that it [i.e. the community] produces scholars rather than Adepts. Many today even equate them two. Since the dawn of the last revival of the Golden Dawn Tradition in the 1970’s, it has been a subject to historical research with scholars as Ellic Howe, Francis X. King and R.A. Gilbert. This has put a tone to the whole current. Adepts of the tradition has followed suit en masse.

Now, I do believe that scholarship is a good thing, but if taken moderately. To many initiates and students of the Golden Dawn have an overly detached and dispassionate attitude towards its Tradition. It is not a historical curiosity that can be reconstructed at will; it’s a living Tradition that wants to express itself according to its own rationale. Is has its own soul, it is an entity which acts as an intermediary between the Divine and the mundane. It is possible that the first quoted document (from V.V.M.) captures that notion and spirit. Read it again from this point of view.

Where are the feelings of awe and sacredness in relation to the Tradition? I don’t know about you, but I have had a strong and passionate love affair with the Golden Dawn. For me It is truly a mistress. A jealous mistress, yes, but one which also comforts me and makes me aspire to better myself as a human. I am never alone with the Golden Dawn. She is a infinite source of joy and inspiration. The richness of the Golden Dawn, of its written and living Tradition, is awe inspiring. It is a beautiful Tradition which has been passed on to us to be managed as its stewards, for the betterment of its initiates. As initiates we are her children. Some of her children have been more able than others to act as her vehicles for transmission and expression, which has developed or reformed the Tradition further. These are the most proficient Adepts and prominent teachers, who would naturally become the Chiefs.

Granted, the Golden Dawn is not a religion, and the Order is not a Church. Neither should it be a personality cult. But the Order is not an academic institute, nor is its teachings any science theory. The Golden Dawn is a spiritual path which can be equated with any spiritual path, also those as represented by different religions and Churches. The Order is a Holy institution. It is eternal. Its Halls are sacred as well as it rites; its Officers represent and channel divine powers. It is part of a long chain of vehicles which has transmitted a divine knowledge to aspiring initiates who search for Apotheosis and the attainment of the Philosopher’s Stone. These initiates are aware that by themselves they may produce some minor effects, but with the aid of the Order they become able to create vertible Wonders.

It is only if you approach the Temple with reverence and true spiritual love and compassion that you can gain that sought after illumination. Show deep respect for the Adepts that has walked these steps before you. Show deep respect for its former teachers who has presented the teachings of the Tradition for your own benefit. For your own benefit, mind you!

Would any eastern brother scorn and ridicule its Master or teacher? Would a tantrika downplay on the achievements of previous Masters and teachers of his kaula (spiritual family)? Would a Buddhist show disrespect or spite towards the Boddishatvas? Would a Qabalist badmouth any of its long chain of Masters, or Tzadiks, such as Isaac Luria, Sabbathai Zvi, Nathan of Gaza or Jacob Frank? Why do you think a traditionalist Qabalist makes homage to these individuals whenever he mentions their name, in the same manner as a muslim gives honour to the prophet? Do you believe a Martinist would slander Martinez de Pasqually or Louis Claude de Saint-Martin? No? Why do you think? Because they were perfect Masters? Think again.

Now, I’m not admonishing anyone to feel reverence to S.L. MacGregor Mathers or to place him upon a pedestal. He is not a demi-god; he wasn’t a saint. What I’m saying is that we as initiates and Adepts should feel respect and gratitude to him, and other past teachers of our Sacred Order and Tradition, such as W.W. Westcott, J.W. Brodie-Innes or R.W. Felkin, and even Paul Foster Case and Dion Fortune. I happen to believe that MacGregor Mathers wasn’t that monster as some has tried to make us believe. I happen to believe that he was a good man and a great teacher, a dedicated person who did his very best to make each and everyone of us, who are heirs to his achievements, to gain communion with our God. However, this is not at all about canonisation.

Being initiates we belong to a family with ancestral roots that goes back to antiquity. The Golden Dawn is but the latest form that this entity or ancient egregore has taken in our modern era. We as initiates are part of that egregore. We have the duty to pass on the tourch, which has been passed on to us from our elder brethren and sisters, some of who are historically known and others are not. When we receive the torch we must aspire to leave it in a better condition that it was previously, when the time finally arrives to pass on the torch to further generations. We do not better our Tradition and perfect our Order’s teachings by badmouthing our predecessors, who did the very best that they could manage considering their resources and individual abilities. We do it by setting our own example by our own hard work in perfecting our own base nature. Through our hard work may we come to understand not only ourselves but also that mistress we call the Golden Dawn.

Why is this such a damn hard concept to understand in our post-modern era? This latest tendency amongst some outspoken authorities in the community is childish, to say the very least. It’s infantile and is filled with ugly projections. It smells awful of that old oidipean theme – that of killing your own father to acquire the Kingdom and its Queen. These individuals simply cannot accept the fact that they have to rest upon the shoulders of previous teachers’ achievements, even if they happen to be long since dead. This overly fixation on certain historical personages is an unhealthy sign, which is truly counterproductive.

Many of our previous Adepts, reformers and Chiefs weren’t that perfect and most illuminated individuals that we would hope them to be. We all know that. Probably only few numbers of them achieved that state that we long for as Adepts, to become more than human. Thus it’s easy to turn that initial idealization into literal demonisation. But as initiates we should know better than to succumb to such infantile urges; nothing necessitates this. There is no excuse for us as professed initiates to make ridicule of our ancestors, especially not in public arenas, just to attain scholarly peer recognition or to make greater sales of our books. Attain apotheosis for God’s sake (literary). Stop being scholars; start acting as true initiates and real Adepts instead.

Addendum (2014-03-13)

Since writing this blog yours truly is no longer affiliated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega® (H.O.G.D./A+O®). However, my general view on this subject stays firmly unchanged, as expressed in the above written text, and what I have authored previously on the Gyllene Gryningen blog still represents my overall opinion.

S∴R∴

Magic and attitude

o

IN A RECENT discussion on the blogosphere someone suggested that we all have different interpretations or perspectives of how we perform our magical rituals within the Golden Dawn tradition, but in the final analysis we all harvest the same results with them. Now, is this a correct assumption or simply yet another truism? Well I do have an opinion on this matter, which will follow, but I am also interested in hearing yours.

I believe that our paradigm and emphasis – the interpretation – of what we do also shapes our magic, as well as it shapes our universe. This is largely in contrast with alchemy (that is of the operative material / energetic type, not the speculative or “spiritual”) which is an art-form that is the most scientific of all the hermetic “arts”. This means that alchemy is more of an objective science than it is a subjective art; if you perform certain processes, objective results will follow which is more independent from your own understanding of them. But you have to know the correct processes to reap the harvest.

Traditionally in your alchemical training, you just receive a process and a very basic understanding from your alchemical master so that you will keep yourself within the borders of the overall operation; your alchemical master won’t tell you what effects to expect until you experience them, in which case he will confirm them for you. And if you don’t experience them you are simply doing it wrong or not good enough. Alchemical effects are signposts to success so to speak.

But the thing is, even if you had some fancy idea with what you would expect from an alchemical processing, that wouldn’t change the outcome if you persevered in your technique. Alchemy doesn’t care about your belief system. It doesn’t even care about your morals or spiritual attainment. It will still produce the pre-supposed results if you persevere. There is this aspect of magic as well, but not at all to the same extent as with alchemy. Thus magic is more of an art than it is a science. If you are to succeed with magic, you have to have gained a certain understanding of what you are supposed to do, and the spiritual (and moral) attainment that follows with it.

Thus with magic, things are a lot more subjective and belongs to the powers of the mind, that is will and imagination, to a greater extent. If alchemy is more of a material and etheric / energetic science, magic is more of an etheric / energetic and astral art, while contemplation and meditation belongs to the mental and spiritual realms. Of course, according to occult law, a higher plane always affects a lower; what I am talking about here is upon which plane certain practices operates on a causal level. An operation has greater effect on that plane in which it also has its causual affinity; thus alchemy, which operates mainly on the etheric / energetic and material planes, is the most effective means to transmute your body. In the same manner, magic, which operates mainly on the astral, is the most effective means you have to transmute your personality and the powers of the mind, etc.

It also works the other way around; there is a repriprocity going on here. Thus your alchemy will be affected by the condition of your body, or how your body works; that’s why diet, physical exercise and hygiene is important in alchemy. Hatha Yoga is an Oriental tradition that examplifies this, as it involves all of these component parts in relation to bodily manipulation. And even more so, magic will become affected by the conditioning of your thinking and feeling, by your particular though forms and projections; that’s why right attitude, virtuous conduct and mental hygiene is crucial for the successful outcome of magical operations.

Thus when it comes to magic – the realm of the astral and etheric – a certain perspective or outlook will affect your imagination, thus resulting in different effects of ritual, or at least altered states. That’s what I meant in a previous essay when I said that although me as a traditionalist share a ritual in common with a reconstructionist, and perform it outwardly almost exactly in the same manner as a “reconstructionist” would do it, we will still reap different results because we see them with different lenses.

Now, don’t misunderstand me here. There are of course objective results in magic too; someone entirely ignorant of what he is doing with a rite, with no expectations at all, will still harvest something – a neutral or objective state. We do perform our rituals in a certain way for a reason; the geometrics, proportions, colours, movements and signs are there for a set purpose. Rituals are performed in the body and physical space-time continuum and thus affect objective physical / etheric results as well. But our mind constantly feedbacks with its interpretations and consequently also alters the objective results. This means that perhaps on a Neophyte level the effects are more or less the same between practitioners, if performed properly, and also quite limited, but that amongst Adepts you will see quite different effects and also more profound results.

Then there is the question if there is a “right” way to perform a ritual or a “wrong” one, if we all agree upon the premise that our outlook changes the effect. Yes, I believe there are certain optimal ways to view or understand our common rituals. I have had the benefit of sharing my magic with many initiates, and tutoring several students, for the last two decades. There certainly are effects to be expected that are shared between us. But if we suddenly change our perspective, out of different reasons, that goes contrary with the statistically significant results between a number of initiates and a traditional understanding, what will happen then? Suppose you read a book or some text on internet which interprets a ritual for you in a convincing way that changes your outlook upon it, even though your previous outlook is shared with the experience of several others, won’t that change its effects which goes contrary to its nature? Yes, I believe it will.

Thus, the best way to learn ritual magic is not to have any preconceived opinions about it, beyond some very basic ideas so that you know what to use a certain ritual for. As with alchemy, there should be certain signs to expect from continuous performance of ritual that the tutor will use to check if the student is progressing with his work. As an Adept, his imagination and willpower being developed into near perfection, the effects of ritual will be greatly enhanced. And if they are harmonious with the basic nature of that ritual and in agreement with tradition the enhancement effect will be even greater. Thus the right attitude in magic is crucial.

So my suggestion to anyone working with the Golden Dawn system of magic, with only the published material as a guide, is to shun any analyses of rituals, even my own. I know that the temptation to search for “facts” is great in this post-modern age of information, especially in the initial stages of the work, but unfortunately there are to many strange notions floating around and especially on the internet. Most true teachers of the system are not writing publicly. And those that are only writes about general topics and only very scarce or non at all about specifics.

Just work with the system, learning the theory from the official documents as published by Israel Regardie, and observe what is happening. Take careful notes from the results that follow. Don’t share them with anyone, especially not on the internet. Stay away from blog-journals and do not consider writing your own, especially if you are a beginner in the practice. Remember that your own insights can become a stumbling block for another practitioner. See what experiences and opinions that sticks around after a few years. Chances are greater that they reflect the true nature of that ritual or magical formula.

S∴R∴