Note G (317). The umbilical region plays no small part as a localization point for the first inner sensations in mystic introversion practices. The accounts of the Hindu Yoga doctrine harmonize with the experiences of the omphalopsychites. Staudenmaier thinks that he has, in his investigations into magic, which partly terminated in the calling up of extremely significant hallucinations, observed that realistic heavenly or religious hallucinations take place only if the “specific” nerve complexes [of the vegetative system] are stimulated as far down as the peripheral tracts in the region of the small intestine. (Magie als exp. Naturw., p. 123.) Many visionary authors know how to relate marvels of power to the region of the stomach and of the solar plexus. In an essay on the seat of the soul, J. B. van Helmont assures us that there is a stronger feeling in the upper orifice of the stomach than in the eye itself, etc.; that the solar plexus is the most essential organ of the soul. He recounts the following experience. In order to make an experiment on poisonous herbs he made a preparation of the root of aconite [Aconitum napellus] and only tasted it with the tip of his tongue without swallowing any of it. “Immediately,” he says, “my skin seemed to be constricted as with a bandage, and soon after, there occurred an extraordinary [pg 424] thing, the like of which I had never experienced before. I noticed with astonishment that I felt, perceived and thought no longer with my head, but in the region of my stomach, as if knowledge had taken its seat in the stomach. Amazed at this unusual phenomenon, I questioned myself and examined myself carefully. I merely convinced myself that my power of perception was now much stronger and more comprehensive. The spiritual clearness was coupled with great pleasure. I did not sleep nor dream, I was still temperate and my health perfect. I was at times in raptures, but they had nothing in common with the fact of feeling with the stomach, which excluded all coöperation with the head. Meantime my joy was interrupted by the anxiety that this might even bring on some derangement. Only my belief in God and my resignation to his will soon destroyed this fear. This condition lasted two hours, after which I had several attacks of giddiness. I have since often tried to taste of aconite, but I could not get the same result.” (Van Helmont, Ortus Medic, p. 171, tr. Ennemoser, Gesch. d. Mag., p. 913.)
Note H (381). For the old as for the new royal art the material is man, as man freed from all framework. “Not man of the conventional social life, but man as the equally entitled and equally obligated being of divine creation, enters the temple of humanity with the obligation always to remain conscious of his duty and to put aside everything that comes up to hinder the fulfillment of the highest duty.” (R. Fischer.) Compare with this what Hitchcock says of the material of the Philosopher's Stone: “Although men are of diverse dispositions ... yet the alchemists insist ... that all the nations of men are of one blood, that is, of one nature; and that character in man, by which he is one nature, it is the special object of alchemy to bring into life and action, by means of which, if it could universally [pg 425] prevail, mankind would be constituted into a brotherhood.” (H. A., pp. 48 ff.) [The tests] ... “begin with the stripping of the metals. Now alchemy recommends, once the propitious matter is seen, carefully examined and recognized, to clean it externally for the purpose of freeing it of every foreign body that could adhere accidentally to its surface. The matter, in fine, should be reduced to itself. Now it is an absolutely analogous matter that the candidate is called to strip himself of everything that he possesses artificially; both it and he ought to be reduced strictly to themselves. In this state of primitive innocence, of philosophic candor retrieved, the subject is imprisoned in a narrow retreat where no external light can penetrate. This is the chamber of meditation which corresponds to the matras of the alchemist, to his philosophic egg hermetically sealed. The uninitiated finds there a dark tomb where he must voluntarily die to his former existence. By decomposing the integuments that are opposed to the true expansion of the germ of individuality, this symbolic death precedes the birth of the new being who is to be initiated.” (W. S. H., pp. 87 ff.)
Note I (411). As to the Chamber of the Companion hung in red, it represents the sphere of action of our individuality, measured by the extent of our sulphurous radiation. This radiation produces a kind of refractive [refringent] medium, which refracts the surrounding diffused light [Symbol: Mercury] is meant] to concentrate it on the spiritual nucleus of the subject. Such is the mechanism of the illumination, by which those benefit who have seen the blazing star shine. Every being bears in himself this mysterious star, but too often in the condition of a dim spark hardly perceptible. It is the philosophic child, the immanent Logos or the Christ incarnate, which legend represents as born obscurely in the midst of the filth of a cave serving as a stable. The initiation becomes the vestal of this inner fire [Symbol: Sulfur]; archetype or [pg 426] principle of all individuality. She knows how to care for it as long as it is brooded in the ashes. Then she devotes herself to nourishing it judiciously, to render it keen for the moment when it finally should overcome the obstacles that imprison it and seek to hold it in isolation. It means, as a matter of fact, that the Son is put en rapport with the external [Symbol: Mercury], or in other words, that the individual enters into communion with the collectivity from which he comes.
Bibliography.
OLD. (Before 1800.)
Agrippa ab Nettesheym, Henricus Cornelius, Opera.
Alchemisten, Griechische, v. Berthelot, Hoefer (moderne).
“Allgemeine (und General-) Reformation der gantzen (weiten) Welt” vide “Fama.”