According to Khunrath (Amphitheatrum) prayer, work and perseverance lead to eternal wisdom by the mystical ladder of the seven theosophical steps. Perfect wisdom consists in the knowledge of God and his Son, in the understanding of the holy scriptures, in self knowledge and in knowledge of the great world and its Son, the Magnesia of the philosophers or the Philosopher's Stone. The mystical steps in general contain three activities, hearing (audire), persevering (perseverare), knowing (nosse et scire), that applies to five objects, so that we can distinguish seven steps in all. Only the pure may enter the temple of wisdom, only the worthy are intrusted with the secrets, the profane, however, must stay away.
In the fifth table of Khunrath's Amphitheatrum is pictured the seven pillared citadel of Pallas (Prov. IX, 1). At the entrance is a table with the legend Opera bona (= good works). Behind sits a man with the staff of Mercury. On each side is a four sided pyramid, on the top of the left one is the sun, on the right the moon. On the former stands the word Fides (= faith), on the latter Taciturnitas (= silence). Behind the man we read the word Mysterion, over the inner entrance Non omnibus (= not for all).
Alchemy frequently mentions two or three lights. By these it understood [Symbol: Sol] and [Symbol: Luna], [Symbol: Venus], [Symbol: Mercury], [Symbol: Jupiter], light of grace and light of nature, etc. The juxtaposition of [Symbol: Sol] [Symbol: Luna] and [Symbol: Hexagram] is interesting; no one can attain the desired end before, through the circular wheel of the elements, the fatness or the blood of the sun, and the dew of the moon are by the action of art and nature, united in one body in the image of the hexagram; and this can take place only by the will of the Most High, who alone imparts the unique boon of the Holy Ghost and priceless treasure according to his especial mercy. The above mentioned circular wheel is identical with the serpent that bites its own tail; it is a power that always consumes and always renews itself. This circle appears not to be lacking in the flaming star; it is the round eye or the likewise round fashioned “G,” which latter looks quite similar to the snake hieroglyph. The reference to Genesis has a good reason. Moreover, the hexagram represents in cabbalistic sense the mystical union of the male with the female potence [Symbol: Fire] with [Symbol: Water]. According to a rabbinical belief a picture is supposed to be placed in the ark of the covenant alongside of the tables of the laws, which shows a man and a woman in intimate embrace, in the form of a hexagram. In cabbalistic writings, as for instance, in those of H. C. Agrippa, we find the human form in a star, generally inscribed in the pentagram. The genitals fall exactly in the middle part and are often made prominent by an added [Symbol: Mercury] as male-female or androgyne procreative power. One of the snake [pg 198] shaped Egyptian hieroglyphs frequently turns into an Arabic [Symbol: gimel], i.e., gimel. I do not know whether this fact has any significance here. With respect to the above passages that mention the “will of the Most High,” I refer to the dialogue which concerns the “G”; e.g., “Does it mean nothing else?” “Something that is greater than you.” “Who is greater than I?” etc. “It is Gott, whom the English call God. Consider this mysterious star; it is the symbol of the Spirit.... The image of the holy fire, etc.”
Figure 2.
REBIS is represented as an hermetic hermaphrodite. The already mentioned figure with the two heads (figure 2) is found (as Höhler relates) in a book that appeared in Frankfort in 1618, called “Joannes Danielis Mylii Tractatus III, seu Basilica Philosophica,” though it is to be seen also in other books on alchemy. The hermaphrodite stands on a dragon that lies on a globe. In the right hand he holds a pair of compasses, in the left a square. On the globe we see a square and a triangle. Around the figure are the signs of the seven planets, with [Symbol: Mercury] at the top. In a cut in the Discursus Nobilis of John of Munster we see sun and moon, at the middle of the top the star [Symbol: Hexagram], also denoted by Y = γλζ (= matter) surrounded by rays. (Höhler, Herm. Phil., p. 105.)
In the cabala, which has found admission into the idea of the alchemists and rosicrucians, no small part is played by three pillars and two pillars.
Tubal Cain was renowned as a great alchemist. [pg 199] He was the patriarch of wisdom, a master of all kinds of brass and iron work. (Genesis IV, 22.) He had the knowledge not only of ordinary chemistry and of the fire required for it, but also of the higher chemistry and of the hidden elemental fire. After the flood there was no other man who knew the art but the righteous Noah, whom some call Hermogenes or Hermes, who possessed the knowledge of celestial and terrestrial things.
One devoted to art must be a free man (Höhler, l. c., p. 66). The ordinale of Norton establishes it more or less as follows: “The kings in the olden time have ordained that no one should learn the liberal sciences except the free and those of noble spirit, and any one who is devoted to them should devote his life most freely. Accordingly the ancients have called them the seven liberal arts, for whoever desires to learn thoroughly and well must enjoy a certain freedom.”
