Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts Part 20

These typical groups of symbols that the mystic [I draw a certain distinction between the mystes and the mystic. The latter is a mystes who makes a system of what he has realized.] produces as a functional expression of his subjective transformation, can be thought of as an educational method applied to arouse the same reactions in other men. In the group of symbols are contained more or less clearly the already mentioned elementary types as they are common to all men; they strike the same chords in all men. Symbolism is for this very reason the most universal language that can be conceived. It is also the only language that is adapted to the various degrees of intensity as well as to the different levels of the intro-determination of living experience without requiring therefore a different means of expression; for what it contains and works with are the elementary types themselves [or symbols which are as adequate as possible to them] which, as we have seen, represent a permanent element in the stream of change. This series of symbols is quite as useful to the neophyte as to the one who is near to perfection; every one will find in the symbols something that touches him closely; and what must be particularly emphasized is that the individual at every spiritual advance that he makes, will always find something new in the symbols already familiar to him, and therefore something to learn. To be sure, this new revelation is founded in himself; but there results for the uncritical mind (mythological level) the illusion that the symbols (e.g., those of the holy scripture) are endowed with a miraculous power which implies a divine revelation. [Cf. the concept of the origin of the symbol in my essay, Phant. u. Myth.] Because of a similar illusion, e.g., Jamblichus posits demons between G.o.ds and men, who make comprehensible to the latter the utterances of the G.o.ds; the demons, he thinks, are servants of the G.o.ds and execute their will. They make visible to men in works and words the invisible and inexpressible things of the G.o.ds; the formless they reveal in forms and they reveal in concepts what transcends all concepts. From the G.o.ds they receive all the good of which they are capable, partially or according to their nature, and share it again with the races that stand below them.

I said above, every one will find something appropriate to himself in the symbols, and I emphasized the great constancy of the types fast rooted in the unconscious, types which impart to them a universal validity. The divine is revealed "only objectively different according to the disposition of the vessel into which it falls, to one one way, another to another. To the rich poetical genius it is revealed preeminently in the activity of his imagination; to the philosophical understanding as the scheme of a harmonious system. It sinks into the depths of the soul of the religious, and exalts the strong constructive will like a divine power.

And so the divine is honored differently by each one." (Ennemoser, Gesch.

d. M., p. 109.) "The spiritual element of the inheritance handed down by our fathers works out vigorously in the once for all established style....

On the dark background of the soul stand, as it were, the magic symbols in definite types, and it requires but an inner or outer touch [E.g., by religious observances.] to make them kindle and become active." (Ib., p.

274.) "The unconscious is common to all mankind in an infinitely greater degree than the content of the individual consciousness, for it is the condensation of the historically average and oft-repeated." (Jung, Jb. ps.

F., III, pp. 169 ff.)

Whoever allows the educative symbols to work upon him, whether he sees only darkly the ethical applications typified in them, or clearly perceives them, or completely realizes them in himself, in any case he will be able to enjoy a satisfying sense of purification for his earnest endeavor in an ethical direction. The just mentioned dim perception (probably the most frequent case), does not exclude the existence of very clear ideas in consciousness; the person in question generally considers his ideas, although they are only masks in front of the absolute ideal, as the ultimate sense of the symbol, thus accepting one degree of significance for the complete meaning. Every one approximates the ideal as he can; the absolute ideal through his ephemeral, but attainable ideal.

The highest being speaks in the inexhaustible Bhagavad-Gita:

"More trouble have they who devote themselves to the invisible; By physical beings the invisible goal is attained only with difficulty.

[XII, 5.]

G.o.d is the all. Hard is it to find the n.o.ble man who recognizes this.

Those whom greed robs of knowledge go to other G.o.ds, Cleave to many rulers-their own nature rules them, And whatsoever divinity one strives to honor in belief, I respect his belief and direct him to the right place.

If he strives in firm belief towards his divinity's favor and grace, Then shall he in part get what he wants, for I gladly put good in his way.

Yet the result is but limited in the case of those of limited sensibility.

He finds the G.o.ds who honors them. Who honors me, attains to me."

[VII, 19-23.]

If above I derived the instructive group of symbols from a mystic, that is not to say that it must be precisely so. I brought out this case among possible cases only for the reason that the mystic is the one who carries out most strenuously the ethical work of purification, and under such conditions as are most favorable to a suggestive group of symbols, and in particular those rich in characteristic types. Bear in mind the founders of religion. (They do not always have to be individuals-schools, myths.) There are, however, others than the religiously inspired natures, who are preeminently endowed to produce suggestive symbol groups with anagogic value; the artists. I suspect that it would prove that the purifying (cathartic) action of a work of art is the greater the more strongly the anagogic symbolism (the groups of types that carry it) is developed, or in other words, the more they express a tendency to a broadening of the personality. This tendency, to which belong the motives of the denial of the selfish will (father figure) of the love that is connected with sacrifice (incest motive, regeneration) of the devotion to an ideal (longing for death), etc., is manifested in the artist as also in the devout observer of the work of art in his very devotion to it. Being lost in a work of art appears to me essentially related both to introversion and to the unio mystica.

I have already spoken of the creations of the myth forming imagination and its anagogic import. In alchemy, to which I wish now to return, the mythical and the individual images meet in the most vivid way, without destroying each other.

In regard to the high ethical aspirations of alchemy, we understand that as a mystic art it preserves those attributes of a royal art which it seems to have had at first merely as gold making and magic. In fact what art may more justly be called royal than that of the perfection of mankind, that art which turns the dependent into the independent, the slave into a master? The freeing of the will in the mystic (and in every ethical) process has already, I believe, been commented on enough to be comprehensible. And the power of rule that has been extolled as a magical effect of the Philosopher's Stone lies in the harmonizing of the individual will with that of the world or with G.o.d's will. In the new birth-so remarks Jane Leade casually-we acquire a magic power; this occurs "through faith, that is, through the harmony of our will with the divine will. For faith puts the world in our power, inasmuch as the harmony of our will with the divine has the result of making everything ours or obedient to us. The will of the soul, when it accords wholly with the divine, is no longer a naked will lacking its raiment, power, but brings with it an invincible omnipotence."

To-day, too, there is a royal art. Freemasonry bears this name. Not only the name but its ethical ideal connects it with the spirit of the old alchemy. This statement will probably be contradicted and meet the same denial as did once the ideas of Kernning [J. Krebs], although I think I am on different ground from that of this poetic but, in my eyes, all too uncritical author. Keep in mind the historical treatment mentioned in Part I, Section 4, and furthermore do not forget the psychological basis of our present modes of viewing things.

[If I wished to compare the ethical aims of both in general terms, I should run the risk of unduly expatiating on what is easily understood.

Robert Fischer describes freemasonry as a society of men who have set themselves the severe task of a wise life and labor as the most difficult task, of self-knowledge, self-mastery and self-improvement,-tasks that are not finished in this life but only through death prepare us for the stage where the true consummation begins. These beautiful and straightforward words could just as well stand in an alchemistic discussion on the terrestrial and celestial. But this will suffice.]

And now permit me to present the following portrayals by Jane Leade [English mystic of the 17th century. She belonged to the philadelphian society founded by Pordage.] which I reproduce here with a few words of comment, and take them as an ill.u.s.tration of the beautiful spiritual union of the serious hermetic with the new royal art. The reader can draw his own conclusions. The pa.s.sages are taken from Leade's "Garten-Brunn" (L. G.

B.). References to Wirth are to the "Symbolisme Hermetique" (W. S. H.) of this modern author.

This mystic who is sunk in deep meditation on the n.o.ble Stone of divine Wisdom, has a vision of Sophia (Wisdom) at which she is startled. "Soon came the voice and said: Behold I am G.o.d's everlasting handmaid of wisdom, whom thou hast sought. I am now here to unseal for thee the treasures of the deepest wisdom of G.o.d, and to be to thee even that which Rebecca was to her son Jacob, namely, a true, natural mother. For from my body and womb shalt thou be born, conceived and reborn." (L. G. B., I, p. 14.)

Leade is much rejoiced that the "morning star from on high" has sought her, and secludes herself for the following days to await further developments. She has still more visions of the crowned queen of heaven and was asked whether she had the desire to be taken up into the celestial company. She proves herself of constantly devoted will and from this time wisdom speaks to her as an inner illumination. (L. G. B., I, p. 15 ff.)

[Retirement is a precondition of introversion and of withdrawal into oneself. The uninitiated who is to be admitted is, to use the language of alchemy, the subjectum, in whom the process of purification is to be perfected. The alchemists put the subjectum into a narrow vessel so as to be hermetically sealed from the outer world. There it is subjected to putrefaction as in a grave. Introversion leads into the depths of one's very heart. "Where were you formed?" "In my heart [or inner man]." "Where after this?" "In the Way to the Lodge." "What determined you...?" "My own free and unconstrained will." The uninitiated are recommended to take counsel seriously with regard to their important resolution. "Why are you...?" "Because I was in darkness and desired light." The death symbol in the sch. K. is later to be considered. I can naturally go into a few only of the a.n.a.logies. The informed reader will largely increase the number of parallels very easily.]

Jane Leade seeks in the spirit for the key that can open the entrance into the great secret that lies deep hidden within her. Her effort to reach the holy city is great but at first ineffectual. [One is not admitted without further effort.] She wanders around the city and finds no entrance. [Way to the Lodge-"Why have they not led you the nearest way to the Lodge?" "In order to acquaint me with the difficulties and troubles that one must first overcome before one finds the way of virtue."] She is apprehensive that she must, lacking the wonderful key, now grope all her days in darkness ... never find the gate. "While I, now overpowered with fear and horror at all this, was plunged [Symbols and processes in the sch. K. Roll of the terrible Br. It is probably well founded psychologically, a fact that I should like to emphasize in opposition to Fischer, Kat. Erl., I, on Question 7.] into a deep silence and stillness, the word of wisdom itself was revealed to me and said: 'O deeply searching spirit, be not surprised that you have not realized your hopes for so long a time. So far you have been with many others caught in a great error, yet as you know and are sorry for your error, I will apprize you what sort of a key it must be....

And although this wonderful Key of Wisdom is a free gift, it will yet come to be of high value to you, O searching spirit, when once you obtain it.' " Nevertheless wisdom goes about and looks for those who deserve it, [Nothing being made of nothing, the point of departure of the philosophic work is the finding and choice of the subject. The material to work upon, say the alchemists, is quite common and is met with everywhere. It is necessary only to know how to distinguish it, and that is where all the difficulty lies. We continually experience it in masonry, for we often initiate the profane, whom we should have rejected had we been sufficiently clear sighted. Not all material is good to make a mercury.

The work can succeed only if we succeed in finding a suitable subject; so masonry makes many inquiries before admitting a candidate to the tests.

(W. S. H., p. 87.)] She does this so as to write herself on the inner walls of their hearts and in each and every one meet their thoughts which wait upon her laws and counsel, [Obedience of apprentices. The laws of wisdom are meant.] and brings a kingdom with it which will be well worth sacrificing everything for. [Laying aside of all metal. The newly admitted brother is "through his unclothing" (which probably belongs here) to represent mankind symbolically, as he comes from the hand of nature, and to remind us that the freemason, in order to be continuously mindful of the fulfillment of his duty must be able to rid himself of all fortuitous externalities. See Note H at end.] But the greatest and most distinguished master work, says wisdom, consists alone in your keeping your spirit disciplined and learned, and making it a skilled worker or artist, to give it knowledge of what material, as well as in what number, weight and measure [Surveying, geometry.] to make this pure key, which [material] is the bright pure divinity in the number three, the mighty in truth.... It is distinguished as a surpa.s.singly mighty glory and lordliness which sits in a circle of heaven within the hearts of men. [The connection of circle (doubly significant) and heart is interesting. As is well known the circle is placed on the bleeding left breast. In the old English ritual the touching with the point of an instrument (sword or the like) is proved "Because the left breast is nearest to the heart, so that it may be so much the more a p.r.i.c.k in my conscience as it then p.r.i.c.ked my skin."] It does with the plumbline of its power measure the temple and inner court with those who worship there. [The line in connection with the temple: the "binding" on a carpet; an image of the curtain string in the holy of holies in Solomon's temple. "Just as this ribbon holds and closes the curtain, so an indissoluble bond unites and holds together all free and accepted Masonic brothers (also those who worship therein)." This is wisdom's key [Surveying, Geometry.] which will make our hands drop with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock (Solomon's Song, V, 5).

When now I opened your secret gate with this key, my soul failed within me and I had no strength in me, the sun of reason and the moon of my extended senses were confounded and vanished. I knew nothing by myself of the active properties of nature and the creature. "What have you seen as ...?"

"Nothing that reason can grasp."] The wheel of motion stood still and something else was moved by a central fire, so that I felt myself turned into a bright flame. Whereupon this word came to me: This is nothing else than the gate of my everlasting depths; can you stay in this fiery region, which is wisdom's dwelling and abode, in which it meets holy remote spirits and gives them a fiery principle? For if thou canst take heed such that thou comest hither at its order; then no secret shall be kept from thee. So far I have been permitted to approach the entrance to your house, where I must still stay until I hear further from you what is to be done.

(L. G. B., I, pp. 17-19.)

[As we hear it is therefore right to keep the spirit corrected and disciplined. "Why came ye ... to subdue my pa.s.sions-to subject my will...." We see two triads. A divine three (3 great lights), and then sun, moon and central fire, which second three can be called the lesser lights, as the "M. v. St." appears as a central fire. If we remember that the didactic voice proceeds, according to this symbolism, from a fire or light (Wisdom), this light is identical with the M. v. St. in the function, and it is determined by exactly that. The central fire is naturally also the blazing star. This stands on the tapis between sun and moon and it is designed to illuminate the innermost s.p.a.ce of the temple.

From alchemy we are well acquainted with [Symbol: Sun], [Symbol: Moon] and an intermediate and mediating light, namely [Symbol: Mercury]. This light can be also symbolized as [Symbol: Star of David]. To the alchemistic point of view correspond quite closely the three great lights of the Freiburg Ritual, G.o.d, man and St. John's light. This (the [Symbol: mercury]) is the intelligence and the talent in men which creates all science and shows us the truth. It is "the only authority that the freemason has to recognize unconditionally, namely, the divine ordinance in his own heart, the celestial fire in his ego."]

Several weeks later Leade hears again the voice of wisdom. It said to her: "Separate thyself and withdraw from thy animal sensuous life, it is too coa.r.s.e. I cannot appear till that is completely lost and vanished." [The alchemistic separation (separatio) and the masonic taking off of parts of their clothing. I have already made the most necessary remarks about it.

We have to be freed from the things which, as in the eclectic ritual "much r.e.t.a.r.d the soaring of the spirit and chain man to the earth." It has an expressly programmatical meaning (antic.i.p.ating a later phase) when, e.g., the system of the Grand Lodge goes back, for the deprivation from the metal, to "the temple of Solomon that was built of fully prepared stones, just as they were brought, etc.," so that no metal work was needed.] A short time after Leade is again driven to search after the secret being.

Wisdom requires it to know itself apart from its creature existence.

"Whereupon I was surrounded by gently burning flames that consumed and burned all thistles, thorns and accursed fluxes [the 'superfluities' of alchemy] which would put themselves forward.... Therefore Wisdom let her voice be heard and said: 'O thou troubled spirit, I am now come to tell thee what was required of thee, as I have not refrained from saying to thee, even at the beginning of my discourse with thee, what it would cost thee to attain this key. [First programmatically shown. The actual process will then follow.] I say to thee, G.o.d requires a sacrifice of thee.

Understand me then, thou hast an earthly element that has spread and covered [Like a garment.] thee, and consequently has got the upper hand and mastery of thee; these thrones and powers [king or father figure]

must, however, be overthrown and their place found no more. Thou hast deeply mourned that thou hadst to do without the ever near communion or union with G.o.d thy Creator, [Only the masters sit near the sun.] but be not surprised at that. The cause lies here in complete extinction because you are not yet deceased and dead completely in the mystical manner.

[Complete extinction first results in the third degree.] This is the first baptism that you must experience, but ah, how many have rushed into this too abruptly, because they have not given their earthly selfishness a single mortal blow right to the heart. [The circle or sword placed on the left breast alludes merely to the process of the clearing of conscience.

Here the whole ego is not yet annihilated.] So I recommend to thee my flaming sword. Be courageous and let it achieve complete execution in the field of nature [The weed in the field is exterminated where, as Jane Leade frequently says, ears of corn are to grow.] or banish completely all young or old, and turn from life toward death whatever in you does not bear my mark and name that is my image.' " [From this the psychological sense of the countersign is recognized. In connection with the field we are reminded especially of Shibboleth (Judges XIII, 6: The Ephraimites who could not speak it had to die). Leade often mentions the Ephraimites.

Directly pertinent to the above pa.s.sage is, of course, Revelations, pa.s.sim.] (L. G. B., I, pp. 21 ff.) The earthly is, as it were, to be sacrificed to G.o.d as a burnt offering or melted away in a fiery furnace, in a vessel of the purest metal. [Probably it will not be superfluous to remark that in the Bible the first worker in all kinds of metal was Tubal Cain, whose name is a pa.s.sword.] Jane Leade finds "the conditions or circ.u.mstances which thou [Wisdom] requirest of me to be very hard; especially do I find myself still dwelling in the offspring of a mortal shadow, where whole millions of spirits tempt me and employ all their ability and strength to hinder and hold me back from the high and n.o.ble exaltation and aspiration, [The seductive and restraining voices in the circuitous way or on the way to the Lodge according to the eclectic ritual. The band corresponds to the mortal shadow.] while I, alone and seeing the receptacle and fire before me, stood in thought about it and pondered the matter, and was willing, like Isaac, to ask, But where is the lamb? [The ap.r.o.n is of lamb's fleece.] She [Sophia = Wisdom] answered my unspoken question with these words: You yourself must be the paschal lamb that shall be slain. Thereupon I was instructed to say or to beg: Then give yet this life pulse a stroke so that it may completely return. And as I stretched out my neck, so to speak, to the love flaming sword, I felt that a separation or beheading had taken place. [Note the baring of the neck, the guttural and its meaning given according to the content of the old form of oath. The fate of the traitor befalls the man who is slain at this point; he has been a traitor to the inner true man. It is here the place to bear in mind the descending scale of marks (guttural, pectoral, stomachal). Man is to be trans.m.u.ted on rectangular principles, or in the language of alchemy, is to be tinctured with the divine tincture. This tincturing seizes first the most spiritual and advances steadily until the whole man is transformed. The trichotomy corresponds to the Platonic (and alchemistic) tripart.i.te division of the powers of the soul. Plato distinguishes the reasoning soul, which he places in the head, the intellectual in the breast, and the affective in the abdomen. The entire soul, even the vegetative, is to be illuminated by the highest light. If we a.s.sume that it is more than a pretty picture, Staudenmaier's view becomes of interest, namely that man may have an extraordinary spiritual perfection in bestowing consciousness through practice upon the centers that ordinarily work vegetatively without consciousness. In this way he gains power over a whole army of working powers that otherwise escape him.

Staudenmaier's own experiences teach that all the dangers of introversion are connected with such a training, and it may easily happen that we are defeated by the spirits that we invoke, instead of becoming their masters.

The absolute mastery of the rational ego is, however, evidently the foundation of the ethical work of perfection. Kenning's doctrine is related to the theories of Staudenmaier.] Oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to perceive the life blood flowing into the fountain of the same divinity from which it came." Whereupon wisdom opened more of her secrets to her.

(L. G. B., I, p. 24.)

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

I continue in the earlier series of forms. Jane Leade is required by wisdom to follow her. "But all of a sudden I was surprised by a mighty enemy, who pressed me hard while he accused and complained that I was breaking the laws of nature, to which I was still bound because I had an external body, for whose elemental wants I must take reasonable care, ...

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

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

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

"This idea and apparition and the account and explanation following thereupon were very powerful; so that I entered into the thoughts of it ever deeper, ... so that I ... also might perceive the explanation and meaning of the gates. For although my spirit saw naught but an infinite s.p.a.ciousness [compare previous pages] I perceived and felt [Infinite spread of the lodge in accordance with the examination.] still the blowing of so fragrant and refreshing a breeze, as if all kinds of flowers actually stood blooming there. [Does the question as to the mason's wind belong here psychologically? In any case the pleasant breeze comes from the east. Jane Leade often describes her flower garden as oriental.

Psychologically and mythologically the breeze has the value of a spermatic symbol. Anagogically it is concerned with the bestowing of a power or (to retain the procreation metaphor) the impregnation with such a power.]

Therefore this word was revealed and spoken to me: 'This is s.p.a.ce and place where the love realm is to arise and become verdant with its natural inhabitants, who have laid aside their cra.s.s self-love [selfishness] and left it behind them, as it might not come here; even as it is the one which makes the entrance so narrow and crowded....' Hereupon I saw in my spirit unexpectedly different persons, modified out of measure in their bodies, and they were so highly versed in this mystery that they breathed forth such a spirit from them that they could give being and existence to everything that they willed and desired. At times they spread golden tents and went in and out of them, at other times in places that appeared to be quite waste and desolate they made wonderful plants and trees to grow up, which actually offered their perfect fruit that appeared in a bright golden radiance; of which it was related that they were the magical nourishment and food on which the inhabitants of this land were supposed to live." [We may also say the masters of the art cultivate an uncultivated people, and provide spiritual nourishment at the drawing table.] "And although at my first entrance here it seemed that I saw nothing, yet I did see after a few moments this whole s.p.a.cious place filled with spirits of so high a degree that they attracted me at once.

Thereupon they set me divers philosophical questions [Catechizing.] which I did not understand. So one of them in a very friendly manner offered to instruct and teach me; said further that he would teach me the secret of their art.... Accordingly he brought me into a magnificent tent, and requested me to wait there so that I might advance into the pure acts or works of faith, because I would succeed thereby in becoming an adept in this high philosophy. Now when, thereupon, Wisdom herself appeared to me, I asked her who it was that had set me the philosophical questions?

Whereupon she answered me that they were the old and last living worthies, and they were the believing holy ones, taught by her in her inward and outward divine magic stone; and that the time was coming in which she desired to make new artists and poets in this theosophic wisdom, who should give a form to the things that had been so odiously disgraced and lay under a cloud of contempt, ignorance and disgrace. Especially, no other way besides this could be found than that the deep mine, in which the treasure had lain hidden so long, should be broken open and unsealed.

[The lost that must be found again is called in freemasonry the master word. The master wandering has the object of seeking what was lost there [in the East] and has [partly] been found again.] Hereupon the apostle John [Well beloved] spoke to me, to whom the secret was well known, and who was the person who had spoken so kindly to me before, with these words: 'Just as a natural stone, so is there also a spiritual stone which is the root and the foundation of all that the sons of art have brought visibly into being and into the light. And just as the external is corporeal, and consists in work of the hands, and consumes a great amount of time before it can be brought to perfection, so also is the internal elaborated from degree to degree....' Therefore I begged and asked the angel John in what manner I might go to work, to work out the same?" The "angel John" accorded her the permission. Just as a furnace is used for a chemical preparation, so also a furnace is necessary for the preparation of the spiritual Philosopher's Stone. This outer furnace is, however, the corporeal man, in which "the fire seeds of pure divinity itself are kindled by the essence of the soul, when he finds for it a hallowed and properly prepared vessel. The materia in which one must labor or work is the divine salt, which is placed in a pure clear crystalline gla.s.s, the pure spirit. Further shouldst thou know, that this divine salt is concealed in all men." (L. G. B., I, pp. 40-43.)

Here I must insert the discussion of the salt (also salt stone) and its effect. We must understand clearly that the salt stone of this symbolism is the same as the cubical stone of the masonics. That the salt is hieroglyphically represented by a cube, I have already shown. The concept stone is the parting of the ways for two symbol groups of similar meaning, both of which Jane Leade uses. The one group is the chemical preparation, as the angel John just now described it; the other is the treatment of the stone as a building stone (which is to be dressed, etc.) found in other pa.s.sages from Jane Leade, namely, in connection with the building of a temple, a sanctuary, the New Jerusalem. Important use is made of men as building stones preeminently in her "Revelation of Revelations." This one pa.s.sage from L. G. B. (II, p. 138) may be quoted: "Who will now blow this trumpet of mine that they may break loose from their iron yokes and bonds and come hither, so that they may become worthy to be built in as well-cut pillars for the temple of wisdom." The quadrangular form is several times mentioned also. Jane Leade is quite right when she says that the divine salt, the cubic stone, lies concealed in all men; the unprepared man is the crude stone and in him lies to be developed (potentially not actually) the cubic. In the preparation of the stone, the alchemistic as well as the building stone, it depends on the clearing away of the disturbing elements, not on ornamentation. The purification (rectificatio, purificatio, etc.) of the alchemistic stone exactly corresponds to the working over the raw stone with the pick. Crystallization produces the regular form; fixation, the density. The projection corresponds to the employment in the building of the temple (which appears infrequently in symbolism). Probably the most appropriate place for these pa.s.sages (L. G.

B., I, pp. 131 ff.) is in connection with this mention of building. "Only have faith, so I will go before you and reveal my name and show you the foundation of it [the city], wherefrom your strength increases and your victorious power shall be known. But who must be your architect to instruct you in this foundation work of yours but this Wisdom who was with the great G.o.d Jehovah from eternity, who gave you existence and being from the breath of the eternal Will? Therefore thus and in such manner the motivating power of the will must result and proceed.... Come therefore to me and I will show you where all these foundation stones lie. Look and see the material of the treasure in the circ.u.mference of your new earth....

Here you might spy out or find this foundation, [Cf. what was said previously about the new earth], for which purpose will be given to you the golden measuring line, or the plummet of my spirit." [The master stands on the pillar of strength. Jehovah was the last master word.]

We stopped where the angel John says we should know that the divine salt is hidden in all men. It goes on: "but it has lost its power and savor, and such is the principle of light that includes all other principles, because man, although quite unknown to himself, is an abstract and concept in brief of all worlds. Therefore he may find in himself all that he seeks; only it cannot happen before the salt alone, which has lain as dead, has been again raised to life through Christ the Freestone (who calcines the black to a jasper brilliance and to a beautiful whiteness).

This is the true theosophic medicine, which indeed gradually, or little by little, works out of itself, from itself, and into itself, even as a grain of wheat which when it is sown does, by the cooperation of the sun and the outer planets, forms itself into a body. Only one has to watch and pay attention so that no birds of prey come and pick it up [Cf. Figure 3, p.

199] before it comes to its maturity and full time. For just such a state [as with the grain of wheat] exists in the case of the gold stone, which lies hidden in the foundation of nature, is nourished by the warm fiery influence of the divine sun and through the moist seeds of the spiritual Luna [sperma luna] is watered, which makes it grow through the inner penetration and union of the planetary powers of the higher order, which draw the weaker and lower into themselves, impregnate and swallow them.

Whereby the mastery is obtained over all that is astral and elemental. In this manner the beloved John revealed to me the nature of the royal stone, as it was revealed to him in the island of Patmos (there by him was brought forth what he possessed in the spirit). And he told me further concerning this: that where the universal or general love is born in any one, such would be the true signature and token that this seraphic stone would there be formed and take to itself a bodily shape." (L. G. B., I, p.

44).

[Here we meet clearly the trinity [Symbol: Sun] [Symbol: Philosopher's Stone] [Symbol: Moon], sun, moon, and as an outgrowth of both the [Symbol: Philosopher's Stone] gold stone, the Philosopher's Stone, which unites in itself the [Symbol: Gold] and [Symbol: Silver] or which is the same [Symbol: Fire] and [Symbol: Water]. It is therefore not at all a mistake to see in the [Symbol: Water] a union of action and reaction. The G must be conceived in the anagogic sense, as the genesis of the Philosopher's Stone or as regeneration.] In L. G. B., I, p. 147, I find also this remarkable pa.s.sage: "The word of Jesus was revealed to me in the following manner: O you that wait upon Jerusalem. Through what gate have you entered? And what have you seen here that you are so desirous of living here? Have you not been taken in by the fire flaming eye? [The eye is the flaming star. In L. G. B., I, p. 196, is found the representation of a face that is equivalent to the eye. A moon is added to it. The eye [Symbol: Gold] is, as it were, the sun to this moon.] so that you intend not to go out again from here, till you get another heart [The pectoral learns who approaches to the flaming star.] which never could be completely changed?... O then be therefore wise, and await your nuptial spirit [Genesis] and the garment of the power unfailing. [i. i. d. St.] No one can ever get that outside of this treasure city, for in this Zion all must be born anew...." [Oswald Wirth regards the alchemistic concept Rebis as the expression of the perfect degree of community. "The initiated, who becomes in some way androgynous, because he unites the virile energy with the feminine sensitiveness, is represented in alchemy by the Rebis [from res bina, the double thing]. This substance, at once male and female, is a mercury [Symbol: Mercury] animated by its sulphur [Symbol: Sulphur] and transformed by this act into Azoth [Symbol: Mercury], i.e., into this quintessence of the elements [fifth essence] of which the flaming star is the symbol. It should be noted that this star is always placed in such a way that it receives the double radiation of the male sun [Symbol: Gold]

and the female moon [Symbol: Moon]; its light is thus of a bis.e.xual nature, androgynous or hermaphrodite. The Rebis corresponds otherwise to the matter prepared by the final work, otherwise called the journeyman who has been made worthy to be raised to the mastery." (W. S. H., p.99.)]

But to return to Jane Leade's magical journey. "Hereupon I was moved (because I well knew and was certain that this heavenly stone already had its birth and growth in me) [Rebirth = the cubical stone's change from potentiality to actuality] with great frankness to ask whether my external furnace [her own body] would keep so long, and not perish [die] before the stone would have attained its perfection. Whereupon this dear saint [John]

said to me in answer: Worry and trouble not yourself about this but be only patient in hope; for the true philosophic tree is grown and in a fair way to produce ripe fruit." (L. G. B., I, pp. 44 ff.) The preparation of the stone is now described by John according to the well known outlines.