The Theory of Development.
§ 25. From the ascetic standpoint (and unfortunately, most mystics have been somewhat overfond of ascetic ideas), the development of the soul is only fully possible with the mortification of the body; and all true Mysticism teaches that if we would reach the highest goal possible for man—union with the Divine—there must be a giving up of our own individual wills, an abasement of the soul before the Spirit. And so the alchemists taught that for the achievement of the magnum opus on the physical plane, we must strip the metals of their outward properties in order to develop the essence within. As says Helvetius: “. . . the essences of metals are hidden in their outward bodies, as the kernel is hidden in the nut. Every earthly body, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is the habitation and terrestrial abode of that celestial spirit, or influence, which is its principle of life or growth. The secret of Alchemy is the destruction of the body, which enables the Artist to get at, and utilise for his own purposes, the living soul.”[37] This killing of the outward nature of material things was to be brought about by the processes of putrefaction and decay; hence the reason why such processes figure so largely in alchemistic recipes for the preparation of the “Divine Magistery.” It must be borne in mind, however, that the alchemists used the terms “putrefaction” and “decay” rather indiscriminately, applying them to chemical processes which are no longer regarded as such. Pictorial symbols of death and decay representative of such processes are to be found in several alchemistic books. There is a curious series of pictures in A Form and Method of Perfecting Base Metals, by Janus Lacinus, the Calabrian (a short tract prefixed to The New Pearl of Great Price by Peter Bonus—see [§ 39]), of which we show three examples in [plates 3] and [4]. In the first picture of the series (not shown here) we enter the palace of the king (gold) and observe him sitting crowned upon his throne, surrounded by his son (mercury) and five servants (silver, copper, tin, iron and lead). In the next picture (plate 3, [fig. B]), the son, incited by the servants, kills his father; and, in the third, he catches the blood of his murdered parent in his robes; whereby we understand that an amalgam of gold and mercury is to be prepared, the gold apparently disappearing or dying, whilst the mercury is coloured thereby. The next picture shows us a grave being dug, i.e., a furnace is to be made ready. In the fifth picture in the series, the son “thought to throw his father into the grave, and to leave him there; but . . . both fell in together”; and in the sixth picture (plate 4, [fig. A]), we see the son being prevented from escaping, both son and father being left in the grave to decay. Here we have instructions in symbolical form to place the amalgam in a sealed vessel in the furnace and to allow it to remain there until some change is observed. So the allegory proceeds. Ultimately the father is restored to life, the symbol of resurrection being (as might be expected) of frequent occurrence in alchemistic literature. By this resurrection we understand that the gold will finally be obtained in a pure form. Indeed, it is now the “great medicine” and, in the last picture of the series (plate 4, [fig. B]), the king’s son and his five servants are all made kings in virtue of its powers.
[37] J. F. Helvetius: The Golden Calf, ch. iv. (see The Hermetic Museum, vol. ii. p. 298).
PLATE 4.
A.
SYMBOLICAL ILLUSTRATION
Representing the
Coction of Gold Amalgam in a Closed Vessel.
B.
SYMBOLICAL ILLUSTRATION
Representing the
Transmutation of the Metals.
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