Κυριακή 27 Μαΐου 2018

Το τριγωνικό βιβλίο (triangular book) του Comte de Saint Germain


Το τριγωνικό βιβλίο (triangular book) του Comte de Saint Germain

Έχω την χαρά να έχω και την άλλη πιο σπάνια έκδοση του τριγωνικού βιβλίου του Comte de Saint Germain που στο τέλος έχει μεταφρασμένο στα Αγγλικά όλο το κείμενο του βιβλίου αυτού, μιας και αυτό είναι γραμμένο σε κώδικα. 

Σας βάζω κάποια αποσπάσματα από εκεί για να πάρετε μια ιδέα :

527 TREATISE OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, WRITTEN IN CYPHER, IN FRENCH, 26 ll. cut to a triangular shape, on fol. 1 "ex dono sapientissimi comitis St. Germain qui orbem terrarum: percucurit " above a wyvern proper, the remainder written in cabalistic symbols, sheep gilt, worn, g. e. triangular (237 mm. by 237 mm. by 235 mm) c. 1750

The Comte de Saint Germain, sometimes called the Marquis de Betmar, was a celebrated adventurer whose activities extended over the greater part of the 18th Century.

This manuscript begins" La Magie sainte revelee a Moy[s]e, retrouvee dans un monument egyptien et precieusement  conservee en Asie sous la devise d'un dragon aile." It gives instructions for attaining three ends : the discovery of all treasure lost at sea; the discovery of diamond, gold and silver mines; and the prolongation of life to a century or over with  the freshness and vigour of the age of 50. A key to the cypher will be supplied to the purchaser. Only one other MS. is known of the Comte de Saint Germain, which is preserved in the Bibliotheque de Troyes and which was translated and published by the Phoenix Press at Los Angeles in 1933.




Page 7
do it at any other time but thou must carry upon thy person a figure similar to the one that thou seest here 

Page 8
Thou wilt take a clean (proper) vase, of any materiel, and thou wilt fill it with fire and thou will exorcise in the following manner :
O fire creature I exorcise thee

Page 9
by the one by whom all things were created so that thou may dispell from thee all phantoms. Bless him, o eternal fether by the glory of thy holy and permanent name, thou wlho rule throughout the centuries.
The one that thou wilt have with thee will answer. Amen.

Page 10
Thou wilt then bless the incense and four lamps in the following manner:
O eternal god, most sovereign, bless this incense snd these lsmps so that their strength end virtue may be augmented 

Page 11
for fear that their enemies may enter. Thou who live and thou rule throughout the centuries. (Respond/quickly. ?)  Amen. 

Thou will pour this blessed incense upon the fire and thou wilt light the Lamps be fore the operations. 

Σάββατο 26 Μαΐου 2018

The mysterious number 7



The mysterious number 7

In Revelation there are 7 churches, 7 candlesticks, 7 stars, 7 angels, 7 vials, 7 seals, 7 thunders, 7 plagues and 7 spirits of God; the Lamb has 7 horns and 7 eyes, the dragon 7 heads and 7 crowns, and the beast has 7 heads which are the 7 hills of the Whore of Babylon.

"Seven is the number of things sacred and mysterious, as the 7 veils of initiation. 

According to Philo 'nature delights in the number seven', for the astrologers know 7 planets, there are 7 stars in the Great Bear and 7 notes in music; God rested on the seventh day, a man's head has 7 orifices and his life proceeds in 7 year periods; the cycles of women and the moon occur in sevens, 28 days making the lunar month. 

'By reason of this the Pythagoreans, indulging in myth, liken 7 to the motherless and every virgin Maiden, because neither was she born of the womb, nor shall she ever bear;' "Seven is the Virgin because it is neither the product nor the factor of any other numbers in the decade, and the geometry of seven is developed from no other system of proportion nor does it give birth to any. 

Another reason is that the seventh division of a circle has an angle of just over 51.4° and 515 is the number of 'parthenos', virgin. Seven has no gender for, as St. Augustine writes, '3 is the first number wholly odd and 4 wholly even and these two make 7... Therefore is the Holy Ghost often called by this number " (...) There are 7 colors in the rainbow and 7 petals on the temple flower, the pomegranate, but the number seven is rarely apparent in physical nature, corresponding rather to the spiritual forces that regulate the cycles of time and human development. 

The gnostics drew attention to the fact that the name 'Iesous' has only six letters xhile 'Xristos' has 7 as evidence for their belief, against the teaching of the Church, that the body of Jesus was but the temporary mortal lodging of the ancient spirit of Christ...... Thus the body of the New Jerusalem is shaped according to the geometry of six, which is the image of matter, its construction simple and rational; but the construction of the geometry of seven is neither, ..."

From : City of revelation By John Michell

Δευτέρα 21 Μαΐου 2018

Mesmerism by William Quan Judge Theosophy mag. 1897


Mesmerism by William Quan Judge Theosophy mag. 1897

This is the name given to an art, or the exhibition of a power to act upon others and the facility to be acted upon , which long antedates the days of Anton Mesmer. Another name for some of its phenomena is Hypnotism, and still another is Magnetism. The last title was given because sometimes the person operated on was seen to follow the hand of the operator, as if drawn like iron filings to a magnet.  are all used to-day by various operators, but by many different appellations it has been known ; fascination is one, and psychologizing is another, but the number of them is so great it is useless to go over the list. Anton Mesmer, who gave greater publicity in the western world to the subject than any other person, and whose name is still attached to it, was born in 1734, and some few years before 1783, or about I775s, obtained great prominence in Europe in connection with his experiments and cures ; but, as H. P. Blavatsky says in her Theosophical Glossary, he was only a rediscovered. The whole subject had been explored long before his time-indeed many centuries anterior to the rise of civilization in Europe-and all the great fratemities of the East were always in full possession of secrets concerning its practice which remain still unknown. Mesmer came out with his discoveries as agent, in fact-though, perhaps, without disclosing those behind him- of certain brotherhoods to which he belonged. 

His promulgation were in the last quarter of the century, just as those of the Theosophical Society were begun in 1875 , and what he did was all that could be done at that time. But in 1639, one hundred years before Mesmer, a book was published in Europe upon the use of mesmerism in the cure of wounds, and bore the title, The Sympathelical Powder of Edricius Mohynus of Eburo. These cures, it was said, could be effected at a distance from the wound by reason of the virtue or dire dive .faculty between that and the wound. This is exactly one of the phases of both hypnotism and mesmerism. And along the same line were the writings of a monk named Aldericus Balk, who said diseases could be similarly cured, in a book concerning the lamp of life in 1611. In these works, of'course, there is much superstition, but they treat of mesmerism underneath all the folly. After the French Academy committee, including Benjamin Franklin, passed sentence on the subject, condemning it in substance, mesmerism fell into disrepute, but was revived in America by many persons who adopted different names for their work and wrote books on it. One of them named Dodds obtained a good deal of celebrity, and was invited during the life of Daniel Webster to lecture on it before a number of ·united States senators. 

He called his system "psychology," but it was mesmerism exactly, even to details regarding nerves and the like. And in England also a good deal of attention was given to it by numbers of people who were not of scientific repute. They gave it no better reputation than it had before, and the press and public generally looked on them as charlatan.,s and upon mesmerism as a delusion. Such was the state of things until the researches into what is now known as hypnotism brought that phase of the subject once more forward, and subsequently to 1875 the popular mind gave more and more attention to the possibilities in the fields of clairvoyance, clairvoyance, trance, apparitions, and the like. Even physicians and others, who previously scouted all such investigations, began to take them up for consideration, and are still engaged thereon. And it seems quite certain that, by whatever name designated, mesmerism is sure to have more and more attention paid to it. For it is impossible to proceed very far with hypnotic experiments without meeting mesmeric phenomena, and being compelled, as it were, to proceed with an inquiry into those as well. The hypnotists unjustifiably claim the merit of discoveries, for even the uneducated so-called charlatans of the above-mentioned periods cited the very fact appropriated by hypnotists, that many persons were normally-for them-in a hypnotized state, or, as they called it, in a psychologized condition, or negative one, and so forth, according to the particular system employed. 

In France, Baron Du Potet astonished every one with his feats in mesmerism, bringing about as great changes in subjects as the hypnotizers do now. After a time and after reading old books, he adopted a number of queer symbols that he said had the most extraordinary effect on the subject, and refused to give these out to any except pledged persons. This rule was violated, and his instructions and figures were printed not many years ago for sale with a pretense of secrecy consisting in a lock to the book. I have read these and find they are of no moment at all, having their force simply from the will of the person who uses them. The Baron was a man of very strong natural mesmeric force, and made his subjects do things that few others could bring about. He died without causing the scientific world to pay much attention to the matter. The great question mooted is whether there is or there is not any actual fluid thrown off by the mesmerizer. Many deny it, and nearly all hypnotizers refuse to admit it. H. P. Blavatsky declares there is such a fluid, and those who can see into the plane to which it belongs assert its existence as a subtle form of matter. This is, I think, true, and is not at all inconsistent with the experiments in hypnotism, for the fluid can have its own existence at the same time that people may be self-hypnotized by merely inverting their eyes. while looking at some bright object. 

This fluid is composed in part of the astral substance around everyone, and in part of the physical atoms in a finely divided state. By some this astral substance is called aura. But that word is indefinite, as there are many sorts of aura. and many degrees of its expression. These will not be known, even to Theosophists of the most willing mind, until the race as a whole, has developed up to that point. So the word will remain in use at the present. This aura, then, is thrown off by the mesmerizer upon his subject,. and is received by the latter in a department of his inner constitution, never described by any Western experimenters, because they know nothing of it. It wakes up certain inner and non-physical divisions of the person operated on, causing a change of relation between the various and numerous sheaths surrounding the inner man, and making possible different degrees of intelligence and of clairvoyance and the like. 

It has no influence whatsoever on the Higher Self, which it is impossible to reach by such means. Many persons are deluded into supposing that the Higher Self is the responder, or that some spirit or what not is present, but it is only one of the many inner persons, so to say, who is talking or rather causing the organs of speech to do their office. And it is just here that the Theosophist and the non-Theosophist are at fault, since the. words spoken are sometimes far above the ordinary intelligence or power of the subject in a waking state. I therefore propose to give in the rough the theory of what actually does take place, as has been known for ages to those who see with the inner eye, and as will one day be discovered and admitted by science.

 When the hypnotic or mesmerized state is complete--and often when it is partial-there is an immediate paralyzing of the power of the body to throw its impressions, and thus modify the conceptions of the inner being. In ordinary waking life every one, without being able to disentangle himself, is subject to the impressions from the whole organism ; that is to say, every cell in the body, to the most minute, has its own series of impressions and recollections, all of which continue to impinge on the great register, the brain, until the impression remaining in the cell is fully exhausted. And that exhaustion takes a long time. Further, as we are adding continually to them, the period of. disappearance of impression is indefinitely postponed. Thus the inner person is not able to make itself felt. But, in the right subject, those bodily impressions are by mesmerism neutralized for the time, and at once another effect follows, which is equivalent to cutting the general off from his army and compelling him to seek other means of expression. The brain-in cases where the subject talks-is left free sufficiently to permit it to obey the commands of the mesmerizer and compel the organs of speech to respond. So much in general. 

WE have now come to another part of the nature of man which is a land unknown to the Western world and its scientists. By mesmerism other organs are set to work disconnected from the body, but which in normal state function with and through the latter. These are not admitted by the world , but they exist, and are as real as the body is-in fact some who know say they are more real and less subject to decay, for they remain almost unchanged from birth to death. These organs have their own currents, circulation if you will, and methods of receiving and storing impressions. They are those which in a second of time seize and keep the faintest trace of any object or word coming qefore the waking man. They not only keep them but very often give them out, and when the person is mesmerized their exit is untrammelled by the body. They are divided into many classes and grades, and each one of them has a whole series of ideas and facts peculiar to itself, as well as centres in the etherial body to which they relate. Instead now of the brain's dealing with the sensations of the body, it deals with something quite different, and reports what these inner organs see in any part of space to which they are directed. And in place of your having waked up the Higher Self, you have merely uncovered one of the many sets of impressions and experiences of which the inner man is composed, and who is himself a long distance from the Higher Self. 

These varied pictures thus seized from every quarter, are normally overborne by the great roar of the physical life, which is the sum total of possible expression of a normal being on the physical plane whereon we move. They show themselves usually only by glimpses when we have sudden ideas or recollections, or iu dreams when our sleeping may be crowded with fancies for which we cannot find a basis in daily life. Yet the basis exists, and is always some one or other of the million small impressions of the day passed unnoticed by the physical brain, but caught unerringly by means of other sensoriums belonging to our astral double. For this astral body, or double, permeates the physical one as color does the bowl of water. And although to the materialistic conceptions of the present day such a misty shadow is not admitted to have parts, powers, and organs, it nevertheless has all of these with a surprising power and grasp. Although perhaps a mist, it can exert under proper conditions a force equal to the viewless wind when it levels to the earth the proud constructions of puny man. In the astral body, then , is the place to look for the explanation of mesmerism and hypnotism. The Higher Self will explain the flights we seldom make into the realm of spirit, and is the God the Father-within who guides His children up the long, steep road to perfection. Let not the idea of it be degraded by chaining it to the low floor of mesmeric phenomena, which any healthy man or woman can bring about if they will only try. The grosser the operator the better, for thus there is more of the mesmeric force, and if it be the Higher Self that is affected, then the meaning of it would be that gross matter can with ease affect and deflect the high spirit-and this is against the testimony of the ages. A Paramahansa of the Himalayas has put in print the following words : ' : 

Theosophy is that branch of Masonry which shows the Universe in the form of an egg. " Putting on one side the germinal spot in the egg, we have left five other main divisions : the fluid , the yolk, the skin of the yolk, the inner skin of the shell, and the hard shell. The shell and the inner skin may be taken as one. That leaves us four, corresponding to the old divisions of fire, air, earth and water. Man, roughly speaking, is divided in the same manner, and from these main divisions spring all his manifold experiences on the outer and the introspective planes. The human structure has its skin, its blood, its earthy matter called bones for the moment, its flesh, and lastly the great germ which is insulated somewhere in the brain by means of a complete coat of fatty matter. The skin includes the mucus, all membranes in the body, the arterial coats, and so on. The flesh takes in the nerves, the animal cells so-called, and the muscles. The bones stand alone. The blood has its cells, the corpuscles, and the fluid they float in. The organs, such as the liver, the spleen, the lungs, include skin, blood, and mucus. Each of these divisions and all of their sub-divisions have their own peculiar impressions and recollections, and all, together with the coordinator the brain, make up the man as he is on the visible plane. These all have to do with the phenomena of mesmerism, although there are those who may not think it possible that mucous membrane or skin can give us any knowledge. But it is nevertheless the fact, for the sensations of every part of the body affect each cognition , and when the experiences of the skin cells, or any other, are most prominent before the brain of the subject, all his reports to the operator will be drawn from that, unknown to both, and put into language for the brain' s use so long as the next condition is not reached. 

This is the Esoteric Doctrine, and will at last be found true. For man is made up of millions of lifes, and from these, unable of themselves to act rationally or independently, he gains ideas, and as the master of all puts those ideas, together with others from higher planes, into thought, word, and act. 
Hence at the very first step in mesmerism this factor has to be remembered , but nowadays people do not know it and cannot recognize its presence, but are carried away by the strangeness of the phenomena . . The very best of subjects are mixed in their reports, because the things they do see are varied and distorted by the several experiences of the parts of their nature I have mentioned, all of which are constantly clamoring for a hearing. And every operator is sure to be misled by them unless he is himself a trained seer. The next step takes us into the region of the inner man*, not the spiritual being, but the astral one who is the model on which the outer visible form is built. The inner person is the mediator between mind and matter. 

Hearing the commands of mind , he causes the physical nerves to act and thus the whole body. All the senses have their seat in this person, and every one of them is a thousandfold more extensive in range than their outer representatives, for those outer eyes and ears, and sense of touch, taste, and smell, are only gross organs which the inner ones use, but which of themselves can do nothing. This can be seen when we cut off the nerve connection , say from the eye, for then the inner eye cannot connect with physical nature and is unable to see an object placed before the retina, although feeling or hearing may in their way apprehend the object if those are not also cut off. These inner senses can perceive under certain conditions to any distance regardless of position or obstacle. But they cannot see everything, nor are they always able to properly understand the nature of everything they do see. For sometimes that appears to them with which they are not familiar. And further, they will often report having seen what they are desired by the operator to see , when in fact they are giving unreliable information. For, as the astral senses of any person are the direct inheritance of his own prior incarnations, and are not the product of family heredity, they cannot transcend their own experience, and hence their cognitions are limited by it, no matter how wonderful their action appears to him who is using only the physical sense-organs. In the ordinary healthy person these astral senses are inextricably linked with the body and limited by the apparatus which it furnishes during the waking state. 

And only when one falls asleep, or into a mesmerized state, or trance, or under the most severe training, can they act in a somewhat independent manner. This they do in sleep, when they live another life than that compelled by the force and the necessities of the waking organism. And when there is a paralyzation of the body by the mesmeric fluid they can act, because the impressions from the physical cells are inhibited. The mesmeric fluid brings this paralyzing about by flowing from the operator and creeping steadily over the whole body of the subject, changing the polarity of the cells in every part and thus disconnecting the outer from the inner man. As the whole system of physical nerves is sympathetic in all its ramifications, when certain major sets of nerves are affected others by sympathy follow into the same condition. So it often happens with mesmerized subjects that the arms or legs are suddenly paralyzed without being directly operated on, or, as frequently, the sensation due to the fluid is felt first in the fore-arm, although the head was the only place touched. There are many secrets about this part of the process, but they will not be given out, as it is easy enough for all proper purposes to mesmerize a subject by following what is already publicly known. 

By means of certain nerve points located near the skin the whole system of nerves may be altered in an instant , even by a slight breath from the mouth at a distance of eight feet from the subject. But modem books do not point this out. When the paralyzing and change of polarity of the cells are complete the astral man is almost disconnected from the body. Has he any structure ? What mesmerizer knows ? How many probably will deny that he has any structure at all ? Is he only a mist, an idea ? And yet, again, how many subjects are trained so as to be able to analyze their own astral anatomy ? · But the structure of the inner astral man is definite and coherent. It cannot be fully dealt with in a magazine article, but may be roughly set forth, leaving readers to fill in the details. Just as the outer body has a spine which is the column whereon the being sustains itself with the brain at the top, so the astral body has its spine and brain. It is material, for it is made of matter, however finely divided, and is not of the nature of the spirit. After the maturity of the child before birth this form is fixed, coherent, lasting, undergoing but small alteration from that day until death. And so also as to its brain ; that remains unchanged until the body is given up, and does not, like the outer brain, give up cells to- be replaced by others from hour to hour. These inner parts are thus more permanent than the outer correspondents to them. Our material organs, bones, and tissues are undergoing change each instant. 

They are suffering always what the ancients called " the constant momentary dissolution of minor units of matter," and hence within each month there is a perceptible change by way of diminution or accretion. This is not the case with the inner form. It alters only from life to life, being constructed at the time of reincarnation to last for a whole period of existence. For it is the model fixed by the present evolutionary proportions for the outer body. It is the collector, as it were, of the visible atoms which make us as we outwardly appear. So at birth it is potentially of a certain size, and when that limit is reached, it stops the further extension of the body, making possible what are known to-day as average weights and average sizes. At the same time the outer body is kept in shape by the inner one until the period of decay. And this decay, followed by death, is not due to bodily disintegration, per se, but to the fact that the term of the astral body is reached, when it is no longer able to hold the outer frame intact. Its power to resist the impact and war of the material molecules being exhausted, the sleep of death supervenes. Now, as in our physical form the brain and spine are the centres for nerves, so in the other there are the nerves which ramify from the inner brain and spine all over the structure. All of these are related to every organ in the outer visible body. They are more in the nature of currents than nerves, as we understand the word, and may be called astro-nerves. They move in relation to such great centres in the body outside, as the heart, the pit of the throat, umbilical centre, spleen, and sacral plexus. And here, in passing, it may be asked of the Western mesmerizers what do they know of the use and power, if any, of the umbilical centre ? 

They will probably say it has no use in particular after the accomplishment of birth. But the true science of mesmerism says there is much yet to be learned even on that one point ; and there is no scarcity, in the proper quarters, of records as to experiments on, and use of, this centre. The astro-spinal column has three great nerves of the same sort of matter. They may be called ways or channels, upon and down which the forces play, that emblem man inside and outside to stand erect, to move, to feel, and to act. In description they answer exactly to the magnetic fluids, that is, they are respectively positive, negative and neutral , their regular balance being essential to sanity. When the astral spine reaches the inner brain the nerves alter and become more complex, having a final great outlet in the skull. Then, with these two great parts of the inner person are the other manifold sets of nerves of similar nature related to the various planes of sensation in the visible and invisible world. These all then constitute the personal actor within, and in these is the place to seek for the solution of the problems presented by mesmerism and hypnotism. Disjoin this being from the outer body with which he is linked and the divorce deprives him of freedom temporarily, making him the slave of the operator. But mesmerizers know very well that the subject can and does often escape from control, puzzling them often, and often giving them fright. 

This is testified to by all the best writers in the Western schools. Now this inner man is not by any means omniscient. He has an understanding that is limited by his own experience:, as said before. 'Therefore, error creeps in if we rely on what he says in the mesmeric trance as to anything that requires philosophical knowledge, except with rare cases that are so infrequent as not to need consideration now. For neither the limit of the subject's power to know, nor the effect of the operator on the inner sensoriums described above, is known to operators in general, and especially not by those who do not accept the ancient division of the inner nature of. man. The effect of the operator is almost always to color the reports made by the subject. Take an instance : A. was a mesmerizer of C. , a very sensitive woman , who had never made philosophy a study. A. had his mind made up to a certain course of procedure concerning other persons and requiring argument. But before action he consulted the sensitive, having in his possession a letter from X. , who is a very definite thinker and very positive ; while A. , on the other hand, was not definite in idea ·although a good physical mesmerizer. 

The result was that the sensitive, after falling into the trance and being asked other question debated, gave the views of X. , whom she had not known, and so strongly that A. changed his plan although not his conviction , not knowing that it was the influence of the ideas of X. then in his mind, that had deflected the understanding of the sensitive. The thoughts of X. , being very sharply cut, were enough to entirely change any previous views the subject had. What reliance, then, can be placed on untrained seers ? And all the mesmeric subjects we have are wholly untrained, in the sense that the word bears with the school of ancient mesmerism of which I have been speaking. The processes used in mesmeric experiment need not be gone into here. There are many books declaring them, but after studying the matter for the past twenty-two years, I do not find that they do other than copy one another, and that the entire set of directions can, for all practical purposes, be written on a single sheet of paper. But there are many other methods of still greater efficiency anciently taught that may be left for another occasion.

For Katerina

Σάββατο 19 Μαΐου 2018

The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart By Jan Amos Comenius


The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart By Jan Amos Comenius

Chapter 54

THE CONCLUSION OF IT ALL

Suddenly the vision vanished from my eyes and I, falling on my knees and lifting my eyes to heaven, thanked my Redeemer as well as I could in these words:

"Blessed art Thou, O Lord my God, and worthy of eternal praise and exaltation, and blessed is the name of Thy glory, revered and all-glorious to all ages. Let Thine angels glorify Thee, and all Thy saints proclaim Thy praises. For Thou art great in power, and Thy wisdom is unsearchable; Thy mercy is above all Thy works. I will glorify Thee, O Lord, as long as I live, and will sing of Thy holy name as long as I exist; for Thou hast given me joy by Thy mercy, and hast filled my mouth with raptures; Thou hast snatched me out of violent torrents, and hast plucked me out of deep whirlpools, and hast placed my feet in safety. I have strayed far from Thee, my God, eternal sweetness, but Thou in Thy pity hast come nigh unto me. I went astray, but Thou hast recalled me. I have wandered about, not knowing where to g, but Thou has led me to the right path. I have gone astray , and have lost Thee as well as myself, but Thou hast overtaken me and hast returned me to myself as well as to Thee. I approached the very bitterness of hell, but Thou hast overtaken me and hast returned me to myself as well as to Thee. I approached the very bitterness of hell, but Thou hast pulled me back and hast brought me to the very sweetness of heaven. Therefore, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise to Thee. For Thou art higher than all height and deeper than all depth,wonderful, glorius, and full of mercy. Woe to the senseless souls which leave Thee, imagining to find peace elsewhere; for aside from Thee neither heaven, nor earth, nor the abyss possesses it; for in Thee alone is everlasting rest. Heaven and earth were made by Thee, and are good and beautiful and desirable because Thou hast made them; but they are neither as good nor as desirable as Thou, their Creator; therefore, they cannot satisfy nor suffice for souls seeking happiness. Thou art, O Lord, the fulness of all plentitude, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee. Late have I come to love Thee, Thou beauty eternal, for late have I come to know Thee. But I came to know Thee when Thou, O heavenly brightness, hast shined upon me. Let him refrain from praising Thee who has not known Thy loving kindness: but all that is within me confess the Lord. Oh, who shall grant me that my heart may be charmed with Thee, O eternal Fragrance, so that I may forget all that is not Thyself, my God! Do not hide Thyself from my heart, O beauty most beautiful. If external things obscure Thee, may no longer lose Thee. Restrain me, Lord, lead me, bear me, that I no longer stray from Thee and fall. Grant that I may love Thee with an eternal love, and beside Thee love no thing, except for Thy sake and in Thee, O endles love! But what else shall I say, my Lord? Here I am,Thine I am; I am Thine own, Thine eternally. I renounce heaven and earth that I may have Thee alone. Only do not deny me Thyself and I have enough, to all eternity, unchangeably, I have enough in Thee alone. My soul and my body exult in Thee, Thou living God; Oh, when shall I go and appear before Thy face? Whenever it be Thy will, my Lord and God, take me, for here I am, I stand ready; call me whenever Thou desirest,whichever way Thou desirest, and however Thou desirest. I will go whithersoever Thou commandest and will perform whatsoever Thou commandest. May Thy good Spirit guide me and lead me among the snares of the world as in a plain, and may Thy lovingkindness accompany me in my journeys. Lead me through this sorrowful darkness of the world to the light eternal. Amen and Amen."

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO

ET IN TERRA PAX
HOMINIBUS BONAE VOLUNTATIS*

*Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of goodwill.

The Stone Symbolism from The Visions of Zosimos of C.G. Jung


The Stone Symbolism from The Visions of Zosimos of C.G. Jung

4. The Stone Symbolism

126 Zosimos contrasts the body (σάρξ in the sense of ‘flesh’) with the spiritual man (πνεματικός). The distinguishing mark of the spiritual man is that he seeks selfknowledge and knowledge of God. 1 The earthly, fleshly man is called Thoth or Adam. He bears within him the spiritual man, whose name is light (ϕῶς). This first man, Thoth-Adam, is symbolized by the four elements. The spiritual and the fleshly man are also named Prometheus and Epimetheus. But “in allegorical language” they “are but one man, namely soul and body.” The spiritual man was seduced into putting on the body, and was bound to it by “Pandora, whom the Hebrews call Eve.” 2 She played the part, therefore, of the anima, who functions as the link between body and spirit, just as Shakti or Maya entangles man’s consciousness with the world. In the “Book of Krates” the spiritual man says: “Are you capable of knowing your soul completely? 

If you knew it as you should, and if you knew what could make it better, you would be capable of knowing that the names which the philosophers gave it of old are not its true names.” This last sentence is a standing phrase which is applied to the names of the lapis. The lapis signifies the inner man, the ἄνθρωπος πνενματικός, the natura abscondita which the alchemists sought to set free. In this sense the Aurora consurgens says that through baptism by fire “man, who before was dead, is made a living soul.” 4 5 The attributes of the stone—incorruptibility, permanence, divinity, triunity, etc.— are so insistently emphasized that one cannot help taking it as the deus absconditus in matter. This is probably the basis of the lapis-Christ parallel, which occurs as early as Zosimos 6 (unless the passage in question is a later interpolation). Inasmuch as Christ put on a “human body capable of suffering” and clothed himself in matter, he forms a parallel to the lapis, the corporeality of which is constantly stressed. Its ubiquity corresponds to the omnipresence of Christ. Its “cheapness,” however, goes against the doctrinal view. 

The divinity of Christ has nothing to do with man, but the healing stone is “extracted” from man, and every man is its potential carrier and creator. It is not difficult to see what kind of conscious situation the lapis philosophy compensates: far from signifying Christ, the lapis complements the common conception of the Christ figure at that time. What unconscious nature was ultimately aiming at when she produced the image of the lapis can be seen most clearly in the notion that it originated in matter and in man, that it was to be found everywhere, and that its fabrication lay at least potentially within man’s reach. These qualities all reveal what were felt to be the defects in the Christ image at that time: an air too rarefied for human needs, too great a remoteness, a place left vacant in the human heart. Men felt the absence of the “inner” Christ who belonged to every man. Christ’s spirituality was too high and man’s naturalness was too low. In the image of Mercurius and the lapis the “flesh” glorified itself in its own way; it would not transform itself into spirit but, on the contrary, “fixed” the spirit in stone, and endowed the stone with all the attributes of the three Persons. 

The lapis may therefore be understood as a symbol of the inner Christ, of God in man. I use the expression “symbol” on purpose, for though the lapis is a parallel of Christ, it is not meant to replace him. On the contrary, in the course of the centuries the alchemists tended more and more to regard the lapis as the culmination of Christ’s work of redemption. This was an attempt to assimilate the Christ figure into the philosophy of the “science of God.” In the sixteenth century Khunrath formulated for the first time the “theological” position of the lapis: it was the filius macrocosmi as opposed to the “son of man,” who was the filius microcosmi. This image of the “Son of the Great World” tells us from what source it was derived: it came not from the conscious mind of the individual man, but from those border regions of the psyche that open out into the mystery of cosmic matter. Correctly recognizing the spiritual one-sidedness of the Christ image, theological speculation had begun very early to concern itself with Christ’s body, that is, with his materiality, and had temporarily solved the problem with the hypothesis of the resurrected body. 

But because this was only a provisional and therefore not an entirely satisfactory answer, the problem logically presented itself again in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, leading first to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and finally to that of the Assumption. Though this only postpones the real answer, the way to it is nevertheless prepared. The assumption and coronation of Mary, as depicted in the medieval illustrations, add a fourth, feminine principle to the masculine Trinity. The result is a quaternity, which forms a real and not merely postulated symbol of totality. The totality of the Trinity is a mere postulate, for outside it stands the autonomous and eternal adversary with his choirs of fallen angels and the denizens of hell. Natural symbols of totality such as occur in our dreams and visions, and in the East take the form of mandalas, are quaternities or multiples of four, or else squared circles. 

The accentuation of matter is above all evident in the choice of the stone as a God-image. We meet this symbol in the very earliest Greek alchemy, but there are good reasons for thinking that the stone symbol is very much older than its alchemical usage. The stone as the birthplace of the gods (e.g., the birth of Mithras from a stone) is attested by primitive legends of stone-births which go back to ideas that are even more ancient—for instance, the view of the Australian aborigines that children’s souls live in a special stone called the “child-stone.” They can be made to migrate into a uterus by rubbing the “child-stone” with a churinga. Churingas may be boulders, or oblong stones artificially shaped and decorated, or oblong, flattened pieces of wood ornamented in the same way. They are used as cult instruments. The Australians and the Melanesians maintain that churingas come from the totem ancestor, that they are relics of his body or of his activity, and are full of arunquiltha or mana. 

They are united with the ancestor’s soul and with the spirits of all those who afterwards possess them. They are taboo, are buried in caches or hidden in clefts in the rocks. In order to “charge” them, they are buried among the graves so that they can soak up the mana of the dead. They promote the growth of field-produce, increase the fertility of men and animals, heal wounds, and cure sicknesses of the body and the soul. Thus, when a man’s vitals are all knotted up with emotion, the Australian aborigines give him a blow in the abdomen with a stone churinga. The churingas used for ceremonial purposes are daubed with red ochre, anointed with fat, bedded or wrapped in leaves, and copiously spat on (spittle = mana). 9 These ideas of magic stones are found not only in Australia and Melanesia but also in India and Burma, and in Europe itself. For example, the madness of Orestes was cured by a stone in Laconia. 

Zeus found respite from the sorrows of love by sitting on a stone in Leukadia. In India, a young man will tread upon a stone in order to obtain firmness of character, and a bride will do the same to ensure her own faithfulness. According to Saxo Grammaticus, the electors of the king stood on stones in order to give their vote permanence. The green stone of Arran was used both for healing and for taking oaths on. 12 11 A cache of “soul stones,” similar to churingas, was found in a cave on the river Birs near Basel, and during recent excavations of the pole-dwellings on the little lake at Burgaeschi, in Canton Solothurn, a group of boulders was discovered wrapped in the bark of birch trees. This very ancient conception of the magical power of stones led on a higher level of culture to the similar importance attached to gems, to which all kinds of magical and medicinal properties were attributed. The gems that are the most famous in history are even supposed to have been responsible for the tragedies that befell their owners. A myth of the Navaho Indians of Arizona gives a particularly graphic account of the primitive fantasies that cluster round the stone. 

In the days of the great darkness, 14 13 the ancestors of the hero saw the Sky Father descending and the Earth Mother rising up to meet him. They united, and on the top of the mountain where the union took place the ancestors found a little figure made of turquoise. This turned into (or in another version gave birth to) Estsánatlehi, “the woman who rejuvenates or transforms herself.” She was the mother of the twin gods who slew the primordial monsters, and was called the mother or grandmother of the gods (yéi). Estsánatlehi is the most important figure in the matriarchal pantheon of the Navaho. Not only is she the “woman who transforms herself,” but she also has two shapes, for her twin sister, Yolkaíestsan, is endowed with similar powers. Estsánatlehi is immortal, for though she grows into a withered old woman she rises up again as a young girl—a true Dea Natura. From different parts of her body four daughters were born to her, and a fifth from her spirit. The sun came from the turquoise beads hidden in her right breast, and from white shell beads in her left breast the moon. She issues reborn by rolling a piece of skin from under her left breast. She lives in the west, on an island in the sea. Her lover is the wild and cruel Sun Bearer, who has another wife; but he has to stay at home with her only when it rains. 

The turquoise goddess is so sacred that no image may be made of her, and even the gods may not look on her face. When her twin sons asked her who their father was, she gave them a wrong answer, evidently to protect them from the dangerous fate of the hero. This matriarchal goddess is obviously an anima figure who at the same time symbolizes the self. Hence her stone-nature, her immortality, her four daughters born from the body, plus one from the spirit, her duality as sun and moon, her role as paramour, and her ability to change her shape. The self of a man living in a matriarchal society is still immersed in his unconscious femininity, as can be observed even today in all cases of masculine mother-complexes. But the turquoise goddess also exemplifies the psychology of the matriarchal woman, who, as an anima figure, attracts the mother-complexes of all the men in her vicinity and robs them of their independence, just as Omphale held Herakles in thrall, or Circe reduced her captives to a state of bestial unconsciousness—not to mention Benoît’s Atlantida, who made a collection of her mummified lovers. 

All this happens because the anima contains the secret of the precious stone, for, as Nietzsche says, “all joy wants eternity.” Thus the legendary Ostanes, speaking of the secret of the “philosophy,” says to his pupil Cleopatra: “In you is hidden the whole terrible and marvellous secret. . . . Make known to us how the highest descends to the lowest, and how the lowest ascends to the highest, and how the midmost draws near to the highest, and is made one with it.” This “midmost” is the stone, the mediator which unites the opposites. Such sayings have no meaning unless they are understood in a profoundly psychological sense. 17 Widespread as is the motif of the stone-birth (cf. the creation myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha), the American cycle of legends seems to lay special emphasis on the motif of the stone-body, or animated stone. We meet this motif in the Iroquois tale of the twin brothers. Begotten in a miraculous manner in the body of a virgin, a pair of twins were born, one of whom came forth in the normal way, while the other sought an abnormal exit and emerged from the armpit, thereby killing his mother. 

This twin had a body made of flint. He was wicked and cruel, unlike his normally born brother. 19 18 In the Sioux version the mother was a tortoise. Among the Wichita, the saviour was the great star in the south, and he performed his work of salvation on earth as the “flint man.” His son was called the “young flint.” After completing their work, both of them went back into the sky. In this myth, just as in medieval alchemy, the saviour coincides with the stone, the star, the “son,” who is “super omnia lumina.” The culture hero of the Natchez Indians came down to earth from the sun, and shone with unendurable brightness. His glance was death-dealing. In order to mitigate this, and to prevent his body from corrupting in the earth, he changed himself into a stone statue, from which the priestly chieftains of the Natchez were descended. 21 20 Among the Taos Pueblos, a virgin was made pregnant by beautiful stones and bore a hero son, who, owing to Spanish influence, assumed the aspect of the Christ child. 23 

The stone plays a similar role in the Aztec cycle of legends. For instance, the mother of Quetzalcoatl was made pregnant by a precious green stone.24 He himself had the cognomen “priest of the precious stone” and wore a mask made of turquoise. The precious green stone was an animating principle and was placed in the mouth of the dead. 25 26 Man’s original home was the “bowl of precious stone.” The motif of transformation into stone, or petrifaction, is common in the Peruvian and Colombian legends and is probably connected with a megalithic stone-cult, and perhaps also with the palaeolithic cult of churinga-like soul-stones. The parallels here would be the menhirs of megalithic culture, which reached as far as the Pacific archipelago. The civilization of the Nile valley, which originated in megalithic times, turned its divine kings into stone statues for the express purpose of making the king’s ka everlasting. In shamanism, much importance is attached to crystals, which play the part of ministering spirits. 

They come from the crystal throne of the supreme being or from the vault of the sky. They show what is going on in the world and what is happening to the souls of the sick, and they also give man the power to fly. 29 The connection of the lapis with immortality is attested from very early times. Ostanes (possibly 4th cent. B.C.) speaks of “the Nile stone that has a spirit.” The lapis is the panacea, the universal medicine, the alexipharmic, the tincture that transmutes base metals into gold and gravel into precious stones. It brings riches, power, and health; it cures melancholy and, as the vivus lapis philosophicus, is a symbol of the saviour, the Anthropos, and immortality. Its incorruptibility is also shown in the ancient idea that the body of a saint becomes stone. Thus the Apocalypse of Elijah says of those who escape persecution by the Anti-Messiah: “The Lord shall take unto him their spirit and their souls, their flesh shall be made stone, no wild beast shall devour them till the last day of the great judgment.” In a Basuto legend reported by Frobenius, the hero is left stranded by his pursuers on the bank of a river. He changes himself into a stone, and his pursuers throw him across to the other side. This is the motif of the transitus: the “other side” is the same as eternity.

Παρασκευή 18 Μαΐου 2018

Women and Rumi’s Sacred Dance, Samaʾ By Zahra Taheri


Women and Rumi’s Sacred Dance, Samaʾ By Zahra Taheri

Rumi is among those mystics in the history of Sufism who believed in the sacredness of music and poetry, therefore music and poetry were at the heart of his spiritual practice (see p. 47). His inclination toward the sacred dance, samaʾ is generally considered to be the result of Shams-i Tabrizi’s teachings. Sultan Valad, however, relates a different account indicating that a woman played a significant role in encouraging Rumi to the practice of samaʾ before Shams-i Tabrizi’s arrival in Konya. As one of the loyal murids of Bahaʾ Valad and highly respected by him,33 this woman, namely the wife of Khaja Sharaf al-Din Samarqandi, after the death of her husband emigrated with his master’s family from Khorasan to Anatolia. She married her daughter, Gowhar Khatun, to young Rumi in Larandeh, and later came to be known as the ‘Great Kera’ in Rumi’s family. Aflaki directly quotes from Sultan Valad who considered her grandmother to be Rumi’s first samaʾ teacher: 

Before the appearance (arrival) of Shams, my grandmother Kera-ye Bozorg taught my father how to perform the sacred dance (samaʾ) in the movement of his hands, and thereafter Shams taught my father to dance in the movement of his feet.34 
This woman is believed to be the first to plant the joy of dancing in the garden of Rumi’s mind. 

Rumi’s belief in the sanctity of music had a great impact on his behaviour towards, and respect for, musicians including women musicians. His view of women musicians went beyond the commonly held beliefs and prejudices of religious scholars, and even the religious law, since music was not considered unlawful in his teachings. He believed that the sound of music is equal to the evening prayer in the sense that both call people to the Truth; the prayer calls one’s outer self to the service (presence) of God, and the music calls the inner self to love and knowledge.35 

He described the state of the men of God as a state of deadly thirst which has no cure other than being quenched with the water of music and dance.36 Rumi’s meeting with a female musician and singer named Tavus Khatun, who was residing with her concubines in Ziyaʾ al-Din Vazir’s caravanserai in Konya indicates that he was respectful of women musician’s gift and skill. Accepting Tavus Khatun’s invitation, Rumi entered her room and after saying his prayer there, blessed the woman with a piece of his turban.37 

There are also several accounts in Manaqeb al-ʿArefin indicating that Rumi’s female murids, particularly the above mentioned circle of royal women, had gatherings every Friday night and invited him for preaching and samaʾ. In these gatherings which usually took place in Shaykh-i Kavatin’s residence, after Rumi’s sermons on the meanings and mysteries of the path, women musicians played reed and tambourine for the samaʾ performed in his presence.38 It should be mentioned here that it was common for noble families in Anatolia to have skillful slave girl musicians and singers in their houses. 39 

While, as mentioned in Nizam Khatun’s case, women were allowed to arrange the samaʾ ceremony for Rumi and his murids in their houses, their participation in the samaʾ ceremony, and sometimes even their presence, was not allowed by other Sufis contemporary to Rumi. Awhad al-Din Kermani, a renowned contemporary of Rumi, once performed a samaʾ ceremony in Konya and strongly objected to the presence of a group of women who had performed the sacred dance in a separate section of the khaneqah, and expressed disrespect toward them. 40

There is no hero without a dragon By Estelle A Mare


There is no hero without a dragon By Estelle A Mare

There is no hero without a dragon: a revisionist interpretation of the myth of St George and the dragon By Estelle A Mare Department of Art History University of South Africa

The dragon in Western lore 

It could be that, in some pre-literate community, the skeletal remains of dinosaurs gave rise to the concept of dragons. In literate societies the dragon’s lineage is ancient and varied. In Oriental cultures, most notably Japanese and Chinese, dragons were imagined as benevolent creatures and depicted as atmospheric or celestial manifestations. Western dragon lore, by contrast, has its origins in Babylonian myth in which Tiamat was the mother of all Dragons and the daughter of primordial Chaos. 

Thereafter the Western mind associated the dragon with the serpent, which in the Genesis myth blames it for all evil that befell the human race. In the Apocalypse the red dragon is a seven-headed beast with ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads, which threatens the Virgin who is in labour, but is slain by the archangel Michael. In popular Western depictions and descriptions the dragon assumed monstrous proportions and is most often described as an enormous, winged serpentlike beast, half reptile, half mammal, with a scaly body and a powerful tail, four-legged like a crocodile, with protruding teeth and eyes, sharp claws and the capacity to exhale fire or noxious gases. 

Primordial dragons were associated with springs which flow day and night; they never sleep and their eyes are always open. Thus dragons were associated with springs, called “eyes” in Italian, Arabic and Hebrew in which “ayin” means both eye and spring. The eye of the fountain represents the dragon’s head and the serpentine movement of his hind part is the appropriate form for the flow of its water. A volcanic crater was also considered to be a fiery spring, so that the dragon could also be a fire-dragon spewing forth lava torrents, or exhaling noxious fumes. 1 However, there are also other interpretations of the dragon’s illusive nature. The earth dragon may become a cloud-dragon and cause ruinous thunderstorms, so that the dragon “can be considered as able to live either in water, air, or on the earth, and as a salamander, even in fire” (Burckhardt 1967: 138). Clearly, these four possibilities of dragonlife were derived from the ancient belief that the universe is comprised of four elements: air, water, earth and fire. 

Dragon slayers 

Because the dragon is, in the Western mind “the personification of life within the earth - of that life which, being unknown and incontrollable, is eo ipso hostile to man” (Douglas 1928:132), it follows dragons would be feared. It therefore comes as no surprise that Western people tell many legends of heroes who single-handedly engaged and vanquished ferocious dragons which threatened communities. Some famous dragon slayers are Perseus, Beowulf, Utter Pendragon, Deodatus de Gozon and Jason. In rare medieval depictions the Christ child is also represented as a dragon slayer. Because of the obvious symbolism of evil vanquished by a noble hero, many Christian dragon slayers were dignified with sainthood and acquired a dragon emblem as their popular attribute. These include St Martha of Tarascon, St Philip the Apostle, St Radeguix of Provence, St Clement of Metz, St Armentaire of Drahuignan, St Michael the Archangel, St Margaret, St Magnus, St Marcel and, most notably, St George. Depictions of these saint show them slaying a dragon with a sword or a lance and trampling it under foot, thus symbolising the triumph of Christianity over evil and the banishment of paganism from the earth.2

Perseus and Andromeda as the prototypical myth 

Passing through the land of Aithiopia Perseus found it suffering from the ravages of a great monster sent by Poseidon to punish the boast of Queen Kassiepeia that she was more beautiful than the sea-nymphs. In an endeavour to appease the monster in a manner counselled by an oracle, Kepheus, the king, bound his daughter Andromeda to a rock beside the sea, but Perseus arrived as the monster was about to devour her. Moved to pity and love at the sight of her as she cowered before the great creature, Perseus without delay forced from her father the promise that she would become his bride is he could succeed in releasing her. Then, approaching the monster, Perseus drew from his pouch the Gorgon’s head and turned the dragon into stone. 

The legend of St George of Cappadocia 

The St George that has always been venerated in the Greek Orthodox Church was said to have been born in Cappadocia in Asia Minor, of Christian parents. His father died for his faith and his mother fled to Palestine. When he grew up George joined the Roman army and served with distinction. On his mother’s death he used his inheritance to establish a position at the court of the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, who ruled from 248-305 CE. However, George did not avoid persecution when Diocletian turned against the Christians, but openly proclaimed his faith. Consequently, he was sentenced to die. It is told that he resurrected each time after a series of gruesome tortures, but eventually his head was chopped off and he died. His body was taken to Lydda in Palestine for burial. 

George’s popularity in the West dates only from the thirteenth century when the Legend aurea or Golden legend, written by the Dominican Jacques de Voyaging, became popular. The legend, which clearly hearkens back to the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, appertains that George, a Christian warrior, slew a dragon in a heathen country. The dragon which threatened the community had to be appeased by offerings of two sheep a day, then children and young people. Eventually the turn of the king’s daughter came, but before she could be devoured George arrived in the form of knight errant. 

He asked the princess what was happening; she told him and beseeched him to save his life by fleeing. George, however, stood his ground and when the dragon emerged he smote it with his spear, wounding it so seriously that it could be leashed and meekly led back to the city by the princess. There George made a brief oration, baptises the king and 15 000 others. Before he departed he killed the dragon and it is recounted that, at the place, a magic well sprang up whose waters possessed the power to heal those poisoned by the dragon and restore the wasted land.3 

First interpretation of the legend: the dualism 
between good and evil 

The world view that upholds the duality between opposites attributes to the dragon no other purpose than to be conquered by a saviour. The vision of the St George’s triumph over evil is based on earlier prototypes, for example Mithras slaying the bull in Roman ritual, or the archangel Michael slaying the dragon in Christian mythology. In this regard Helmut Appel (1938: 134) tells us that, “in the old (i.e., pre-Reformation) comfort literature ... man is the fighter. The devil and other hellish powers, as long as they appear at all are powerless adversaries over against the brave warrior of faith”. Besides the allegorical meaning of a hero’s triumph over evil, the legend also signified the triumph of the true faith over paganism. At times when schism threatened the Roman Catholic Church the dragon motif could also be adapted to signify heresy.

Representations in Christian art 

As a devotional image St George is most often shown in armour, either on horseback or on foot, slaying a dragon either with a sword or a lance and trampling it under foot. A first level of meaning of this act is religious because George is willing to kill the dragon to release the princess whom the monster held captive, provided the king’s subjects convert to Christianity. George triumphs over the dragon and becomes a Christian hero who forever after represents the triumph of Christianity over paganism. This interpretation dignifies George as the symbol of good and condemns the dragon as the personification of evil and this dualism is basically the theme of all emblematic en artistic representations of their combat, of which those by Raphael and Uccello are most notable.

Second interpretation: beyond good and evil and 
beyond dualism - the play of opposites 

No art historian has ever put forward an alchemical interpretation to the representation of St George slaying the dragon, and indeed it may be postulated that the artists themselves were unaware of the alchemical symbolism inherent in the theme. In the case of Raphael’s representation of the theme, art historians found references to contemporary ideas and ideals in the representation. No doubt, artists elaborated on existing representations and, ultimately, the myth of the hero survived without attributing to the dragon the meaning it originally had as a manifestation of the four elements.

The four elements with regard to alchemy, Titus Burckhardt (1967: 74) writes:

As applied to the soul, “earth” is that aspect or tendency which causes it to sink into the body and which attaches it to the latter. “Fire” has the same purifying as transmuting character as outward fire. “Water” is capable of assuming all forms. ... For the soul, “air”, free and mobile envelops all forms of consciousness.4 

Allusions to the dragon in medieval alchemy, considered to be a pseudo science whose practitioners were often persecuted, was part of the practice to develop 

misleading terminologies to dissuade the curious and keep necessary but uninitiated helpers in the dark. Simply stated, the dragon symbolised “matter in its imperfect unregenerate state”. The slaying of the dragon would reduce metals to a non-metallic state. ... Accompanying the treatises describing alchemical processes were illustrations in which the dragons for the most part conform to the European winged type ... (Canby 1995: 40-41).

However, the symbol of the dragon, is derived from complex sources. It “closely resembles that of the Far-Eastern world-dragon, which first lives as a fish in water, and then as a winged creature, soars into the heavens. It also recalls the Aztec myth of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent, which successively moves under the earth, on the earth, and in the heavens” Burckhardt (1967: 138). Most importantly, it is symbolically included in the alchemical macrocosm which shows the hemaphroditic creator and his/her creation within the elliptical outline of a cosmic egg (figure 6 in Mahdihassan 1976: 147) and the creation which consists of four elements: the dragon as water, flames from its mouth as fire, the winged globe on which he lies as earth and air. 

Having established the alchemical attributes of the dragon, the attention may now be focussed on the multiple tortures that St George the martyr underwent. During the first round he was body was hacked into 10 parts and thrown into a lake. Then he was put into a cauldron with boiling metal and what remained of his bones was buried in the earth. Then he was tortured with fire and left on a mountain where birds devoured his flesh. From this we may deduct that the corpse of St George was successively metamorphosed into water/earth; into air and water/fire. 

Thus Pol-Pierre Gossiaux (2000: 312) concludes that his body “Réalise ainsi l’alchemie de l’univers tout entier: il transcende les composants matériels du monde cosmique en éléments spirituels. Il est à la fois terre (comme le suggère l’etymologie même de son nom: “geos quod est terra et orge quod est colere” Voragine, lvi), eau (il rend vie aux arbres et ... il s’impose comme saint pluviator), air (corps offert aux oiseau) et enfin feu solaire et stellaire.” 

Given this analysis, the combatants in the fight between St George and the Dragon, seem to be constituted by the same elements. They both seem to strive towards the wholeness of their one and eternal prototype, as Burckhardt (1967: 125) explains:

Sulphur, the original masculine power, and Quicksilver, the original feminine power, both strive towards the wholeness of their one and eternal prototype. The latter is at the same time the reason for their opposition and of their mutual attraction - just as the masculine and feminine natures long for the integrality of the human state, and as a result of this seek both to separate from one another, and to unite with one another. By means of their physical union both try to re-establish the image of their common eternal prototype. This is the marriage of man and woman, sulphur and quicksilver, Spirit and soul.

The dragon-fight as a release of radiant energy from matter 

The primary meaning of the conflict between good and evil conceals an alternative interpretation, namely that of an alchemical transubstantiation. Allan and Griffiths (1979: 72) explain in this regard: “The dragon, or serpent symbol in alchemy, was a symbol of matter in its imperfect state which had to be slain; that is the base metals had to be rendered down as a necessary stage of transmutation.” The story of St George and the dragon is symbolic of the force of radiant energy which releases the power of dark and dense matter. 

At birth the human soul is like a coiled-up dragon which has the potential to be transformed into a being in whom the darkness of matter has been transformed into light. The spear of the saint represents the spiritual ray of light piercing the dragon of matter - the sleeping, coiled-up vortex of matter. The penetrating light awakens the dragon who keeps himself secluded in a dark cave. As he unwinds from the earth his energy spirals upwards through his spine to the crown of his head where it is transmuted into solar light, which manifests as the beautiful princess of the myth.5

Notes

1 For a survey of “Dragon history”, see
http://www.angelfire.com/sd/shedevil/DragonHistory.html.
2 See http//dragons.monstrous.com/dragons_killers.htm. 
3 See Weatherby (1987: 135).
4 Burckhardt (1967: 74-75) continues:

The signs of the four elements derived from the Seal of Solomon are particularly lucid when it comes to their application to the soul. From them can be seen that the plurality of the elements derives from the opposition of fire • and water –, that is, from the pair activity-passivity (which of course corresponds to the pair formamateria). It is the same opposition we shall ... encounter in the form of sulphur and quicksilver. Through the union of opposites b the soul becomes “fluid fire” and “fiery water”, and at the same time also acquires the positive qualities of the other elements, so that its water becomes “stable” and its fire “non-burning”; for the “fire” of the soul is that which confers stability on its “water”, while the “water” of the soul confers on “fire” the mildness and ubiquity of “air”. ... 

The highest meaning of alchemy is that the knowledge that all is contained in all, and its magesterium is none other than the realisation of this truth on the plane of the soul. This realisation is effected by means of the creation of the “elixir”, which unites in itself all the powers of the soul, and thus acts as a transmuting “ferment” on the psychic world and, in an indirect fashion, on the outward world also. 

Burckhardt (1967: 125) also explains: 

Sulphur, the original masculine power, and Quicksilver, the original feminine power, both strive towards the wholeness of their one and eternal prototype. The latter is at the same time the reason for their opposition and of their mutual attraction - just as the masculine and feminine natures long for the integrality of the human state, and as a result of this seek both to separate from one another, and to unite with one another. By means of their physical union both try to re-establish the image of their common eternal prototype. This is the marriage of man and woman, sulphur and quicksilver, Spirit and soul.

In this regard Peter Dawkins (1998: 8) explains: 

In the Indian Vedic tradition the radiant energy is associated with the three primary gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the spiral energy with their shaktis or consorts ... . The goddesses are also known under the name Kundalini, the dragon energy. Western tradition has a similar symbology, with the Triple Goddess, under the name of the three Marys, being the three consorts and dragon energy of the male trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The mythological story of St. George and the Dragon contains all this in allegorical form.

Sources cited

Allen, Judy and Griffiths, Jeanne. 1979. The book of the dragon. London: Obis.

Appel, Helmut. 1938. Anfechtung und Trost im Spätmittelalter und bei Luther. Leipzig: //////. 

Burckhardt, Titus. 1967. Alchemy: science of the cosmos, science of the soul. Translated from
the German by V Stuart and JM Watkins.  Longmead: Element Books. 

Canby, Sheila R.1995. Dragons, in Mythical beasts, edited by J Cherry. London: British
Museum Press.

Dawkins, Peter.1998. Zinc - the science of life: discovering the sacred spaces of your life.
York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weider.

Douglas, Norman. 1928. Dragons. Old Calabria (October): 132-138.

Gossiaux, Pol-Pierre. 2000. Quels dragons pour nos saints Georges? Cahiers Internationaux
de Symbolisme: 307-319.

Mahdihassan, S. 1976. Alchemy, with the egg as its symbol. Janus XLII: 133- 153.

Vorasgine, J de. 1508. Legenda aurea. Lyon: J Huguetan.

Weatherby, Harold L. 1987. The true Saint George, English Literary Renaissance 17(2): 119141.


Τετάρτη 16 Μαΐου 2018

Ποια είναι τα χαρακτηριστικά της φιλοσοφίας της Αδελφότητας μας;


Ποια είναι τα χαρακτηριστικά της φιλοσοφίας της Αδελφότητας μας;

Ποια είναι τα χαρακτηριστικά της φιλοσοφίας της Αδελφότητας μας;

Η απλότητα του λόγου, η καθαρότητα της σκέψης και η αγνότητα της πρόθεσης.

Η επιστροφή στην Μία Αρχή προϋποθέτει μια ασφαλή γνώση μέσα από την οποία η οδός προς αυτήν να περιγράφεται με σαφήνεια, δηλαδή μέσα από την περιπλοκότητα και την πολυσχιδή του εγώ να ξεδιαλύνουν όλα, να αποσυνδεθούν, ώστε να εναρμονιστούν ξανά, μέσα από μια διαφορετική συνθετική βάση εργασίας, η οποία εφόσον θα έχει βρει την ενότητα όλων εκφράζεται για την υπηρεσία όλων.

Για αυτό και πολλές φορές το εγώ σας δεν σας αφήνει να κατανοήσετε τις απλές μας προτάσεις, το οικοδόμημα αυτό στέκεται, στηρίζεται πάνω σε θεμελιώδεις αρχές, πυλώνες, οι οποίοι όταν βιωθούν εσωτερικά, η εργασία της μεταλλαγής έχει ήδη ξεκινήσει επιτυχώς.

Η Αδελφότητα μας είναι ο Καθρέπτης μέσα από τον οποίον το Φως του Θεού εκφράζεται για την βοήθεια όλης της ανθρωπότητας.
Επιθυμεί να φωτίσει κάθε απόκρυφη όψη ιδιοτέλειας, και αυτής της στρεβλής διαμόρφωσις αιώνων, μέσα από την οποία η σκέψη αφηνίασε σε τέτοιον βαθμό, που πλαστογράφησε σχεδόν τα πάντα, απομιμήθηκε κάθε ιερή γραφή διαστρεβλώνοντας την ανεπανόρθωτα, βλάπτοντας κάθε καλόπιστο άνθρωπο.

Το δηλώνουμε με έμφαση πως οποιοσδήποτε επιθυμήσει να εισχωρήσει μέσα στις τάξεις μας δεν χρειάζεται πρωτύτερα να έχει καλλιεργηθεί σε κανενός είδους εσωτερική διαμόρφωση, παρά ζητείται από αυτόν ένα πλήρες άνοιγμα μέσα στην καρδιά, από όπου και το πνευματικό του ον θα λάμψει.

Τα σχεδιαγράμματα, τα εμβλήματα, η ποίηση ή η τέχνη είναι εντελώς βοηθητικά και σε κανένα μέρος σε αυτά δεν υπάρχει κάποιο στοιχείο απελευθέρωσις.
Αυτά δεν είναι παρά ενδείξεις, εργαλεία μέσα από τα οποία η ψυχή μπορεί να φτάσει σε ενθύμηση και τίποτα άλλο, ώστε να μπορεί να πράξει ορθά από μέσα προς τα έξω και όχι από έξω προς τα μέσα.
Αγαπητοί φίλοι, το μήνυμα της Αδελφότητα μας είναι ξεκάθαρο και απλό, και έχει επανειλημμένως ειπωθεί με διαφορετικούς τρόπους και χρόνους μέσα στην ανθρώπινη ιστορία.

Η διαφορά είναι πως τα αρχαία χρόνια περιοριζόταν ο θερισμός μόνον σε μια μικρή μερίδα ανθρώπων μιας και η σωματική εξέλιξη του ανθρώπου δεν είχε φτάσει το απαιτούμενο σημείο ανάπτυξης.
Σήμερα όλα έχουν συγχωνευτεί μέσα σε αυτό που ονομάζουμε Συμπαντική Διδασκαλία, ένα σύστημα μύησης για ολόκληρη την ανθρωπότητα, ένας στόχος και σκοπός.
Και αυτός είναι και πρέπει να είναι η κοινή μοίρα για όλους τους ανθρώπους.