The Philosopher’s Stone: Spiritual Alchemy, Psychology, and Ritual Magic - Israel Regardie 2013
Commentary on The Six Keys of Eudoxus
Book Two Magnetism and Magic
At the outset the text informs us that the object of this first key is triple. That is, it opens up (a) the dark prisons in which the Sulphur or the Fire, that is the emotional life or vital magnetism or prana, is confined. (b) The Seed is the philosophic Salt, the opposite of the Sulphur on the Qabalistic Tree, that Salt which, when purified, serves as the vehicular foundation of the enlightened mind, or the seed from which the Aurific Stone is formed. (c) It forms the Stone by the conjunction of the Sulphur and Mercury.
Clearly, the Stone represents the union of Mercury, which is Consciousness, and Sulphur, the fire of emotion, the anima principle of the psyche, using Salt as their basis of action, the astro-mental sheath. The psychological interpretation in its theoretical aspect is still applicable here. As in the former commentary, the analytical method may be employed to induce the dissolution of consciousness in its own light; that is to say, by immersing its contents in that from which it originally issued, in the Unconscious. According to the magnetic theory, the approach to the first alchemical stage of dissolution is by means of the magnetic trance. Because of the transmission of great vitality from a skilled and initiated operator, consciousness suffers an eclipse, enabling the secondary consciousness, or the divine core of the Unconscious, to hold unrestricted expression. Exactly what occurs to consciousness during hypnosis or mesmerism remains even to this day a moot point. Some hold one view, others another. In Dr. Milne Bramwell’s book on hypnotism, some hundred pages or so are taken up in a consideration of the various opinions as to the true state of consciousness.134 A footnote by Mrs. Atwood in her Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery expresses the following opinion:
We adopt the term dissolve here in accordance with the old doctrine; varying theories have been proposed to explain the change that takes place in the vital relationship of the patient in the mesmeric trance; some have thought the sensible medium is drawn away by a superior attraction of life in the agent; others, that it is overcome, or included, or arrested, or destroyed; but the Alchemists, with one accord, say it ought to be dissolved; and, in default of better authority, shall we not suppose it so to be dissolved, or that it ought to be, the alkali by the acid, the dark dominion of the selfhood by the magnetic friction of its proper light, the sensible or animal into the vegetable, the cerebral into the ganglonic life? Corpora qul vult purgare oportet flux facere, says the author of the Rosarium, that the compact earthy body of sense may be rarefied and flow as a passive watery spirit. The beginning of the work, says Albertus Magnus, is a perfect solution; and all those that we teach is nothing else but to dissolve and recongeal the spirit, to make the fixed volatile and the volatile fixed, until the total nature is perfected by the reiteration, both in its Solary and Lunar form.135
2. The compound of metals, or the aggregate of the astrological planets, with which the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life and the metals are in correspondence, is the constitution of man. “Cavern” in symbolism quite frequently stands for the darkness of the bodily life, the womb and the dark creative interior of the Mother. Hence it is a generic universal symbol for the Unconscious itself; since it is from the vital dynamic urges and the inchoate mass of instincts that the conscious faculties gradually issue and evolve in the course of millions of years of evolution. The cave denotes an interior state or condition from which external things issue, or from which they are born—as in the case of the conscious intellectual life. In the Unconscious, then, are we to seek for the hidden Stone of the Wise. Our text affirms the speculation that every state of consciousness has associated with it, or functions in, a vehicle of substance of some kind. The Stone clearly represents the brilliant self-shining aura, the luminous emanation from the inner Body of Light, glittering like some rare and precious jewel. In its proper sense the Stone is the term used to denote the unity of the Aura or astro-mental sheath, the vital magnetism or pranic energy of the individuality, the vital spirit so-called, and the central core of consciousness itself. The latter is concealed within the depths of man. Its antecedents go back to the very beginnings of evolution in the dim hazy epochs of primeval times; thus it is venerable and sublime in nature. Eudoxus identifies it with the Collective Unconscious, the Sea of the Wise, using this term in its highest, widest, and all-inclusive sense as before implied. It is not only the psychic realm of the instincts, but also of the archetypal world of the higher faculties of discrimination, intuition, and spiritual wisdom and inspiration. For the instincts are but the reflection of the higher spiritual parts of the divine nature.
“Their mysterious Fish”! What an intriguing expression! It has its correspondences in the spermatozoon swimming in the seminal sea; in the foetus bathed in the intra-uterine amniotic fluid. It symbolizes the possibility of life, points to the realm of the future and great promise, and belongs to that class of eloquent symbols depicting rebirth and regeneration. In this connection there is an interesting illustration in The Book of Lambspring, one of the several books of the Hermetic Museum translated by Waite. It shows two fish swimming in a sea. Over the illustration we read: “Be warned and understand truly that two fishes are swimming in our Sea. The Sea is the body, the two fishes are Soul and Spirit.” The text accompanying the picture is as follows:
The sages will tell you
That two fishes are in our sea
Without any flesh or bones.
Let them be cooked in their own water;
Then they also will become a vast sea,
The vastness of which no man can describe.
Moreover, the Sages say
That the two fishes are one, not two;
They are two, and nevertheless they are one,
Body, Spirit and Soul.
Now I tell you most truly,
Cook these three together
That there may be a very large sea.
Cook the sulphur with the sulphur,
And hold your tongue about it;
Conceal your knowledge to your own advantage,
And you shall be free from poverty.
Only let your discovery remain a close secret.136
“Two Fishes” from The Book of Lambspring
We are now brought to the central definition of Alchemy, that it is the science of regeneration, of fermenting the individual consciousness so that it soars to its own high root of perfection.
The word fermentation conveys an idea of the perfecting principle and of the possibility of transmutation beyond any other word, and also of the fixation or everlasting preservation of which they speak (explains Mrs. Atwood); and so of immortality, it is the best image of the Divine Art which earthly processes give. Alchemy is a process of fermenting the vital spirit in and by its own light. The vital light is in the Universal as well as in the individual. In the Art the Individual draws the Universal.137
5. In each operation are certain implicits. The previously held confused, and automatic intellectual concepts, those which have helped to
crystallize consciousness and the emotional nature into a rigid and repressed entity, are to be broken down by a process of dissolution. The Raven must be decapitated. The root of evil, of imperfection and confusion lying latent in consciousness—that which primarily caused the inhibition of emotion, and the compulsive motivation of the mind by the repression mechanism—must be uncovered and recognized. Its clear recognition is in itself an act of destruction. For no man, unless he be psychically compelled or bound by folly and utterly without volition or common sense, will persist in a course of action which he knows will lead to his final destruction. With recognition comes an abreaction of the complex and a release of pent-up emotion and spiritual energy.
There is yet another sense in which this idea may be interpreted. As spirit is always in all systems of symbolism considered to be white in colour, pure in nature, and ubiquitous in its operation, so its opposite, the body and the personality, is symbolized by the colour black. By the decapitation of the Raven, a black bird, enjoined by Eudoxus, is meant a separation in understanding (thus the name of Alchemy, the Spagyric or separative art) of the head—the higher spiritual and intellectual principles—from the lower part of the body, the world of conflicting desires and instincts. In Splendor Solis, by Salomon Trismosin, there is a fine elaborate drawing in which is shown a raven with a black body but a white head, emphasizing this idea. It is the mystical death of the body. This can again be interpreted in the light of the quotation on a former page. That is to say, that the ancients considered two deaths to be possible. The one is the natural death which occurs to all men at the close of their particular span of life. This is involuntary and inevitable. But there is another death which the sages and saints cultivate, inasmuch as it culminates in life and in fullness of spiritual perception. This is the death induced through intense meditation and contemplation, when consciousness, indrawn into itself, and dissevered from its bodily senses and functions, dies consciously and deliberately to this earthly life to function in a higher and nobler sphere.
To whiten the black is part and parcel of the same type of operation. Likewise, to vivify the white, self-immersion, or the deepest state of introversion, leads to a stimulation of the depths of the Unconscious, and an upwelling or vivification of the libido, or vital spirit. Once the process of dissolution and separation is begun, the entire nature commences to undergo a transformation and equilibration.
Yet as averred by Eudoxus, it is in the first operation that the true and preliminary dissolution, without which nothing is of value, is begun. The dragon is the libido or vital spirit, undomesticated and untrained, as we have previously determined when examining The Golden Treatise of Hermes. Its blackness represents the degree in which it has become involved in matter and thus obscured; it symbolizes the evil in which it has become immersed by reason of its subordination to the tyrannical self-willed spirit, or consciousness. The blackness again signifies the preponderance of anxiety and fear generated by consciousness, weighing it down, impeding its free circulation in the blood and bodily system, and knotting it, so to speak, in the Unconscious levels from which it is unable to escape or by which it is constantly dominated. To destroy this anxiety and to release the libido—more or less synonymous or simultaneous operations—by means of the magnetic trance is the first work. “The fire of the natural life entering into and fermenting the natural fire—the same life in another, opens the last, and develops and excites and sets free the celestial Life and Light—that is one main principle …”138
The result of such a state is, naturally, that upon which the whole hermetic work can proceed. Released from restriction within the body by the impact of extraneous magnetism which is the external fire, the inward fire or vitality can form a new life within. Left to itself in its freed state, the Light will circulate and form spontaneously its own new centre and vehicle. The Western alchemical conception is practically identical with that of the East. In the Chinese text, so ably translated by R. Wilhelm, there are a couple of sentences which are particularly apposite in this connection.
The Heavenly Heart is like the dwelling-place, the Light is the master.
Therefore when the Light circulates the powers of the whole body arrange themselves before its throne, just as when a holy king has taken possession of the capital and has laid down the fundamental rules of order, all the states approach with tribute; or, just as when the master is quiet and calm, men-servants and maids obey his orders of their own accord, and each does his work.
Therefore you only have to make the Light circulate: that is the deepest and most wonderful secret. The Light is easy to move, but difficult to fix. If it is allowed to go long enough in a circle, then it crystallizes itself: that is the natural spirit-body.139
This is the astral Body of Light, white and resplendent, the glowing Stone of the Wise, whose purified and glorified emanations glow as the aura, some glittering and flaming jewel of incomparable scintillation, invaluable, ineffable. One very fine occult scholar, John M. Pryse, describes the aura in his work The Apocalypse Unsealed. Speaking of the kundalini, which is the hermetic secret fire, he writes that it is this force:
which, in the telestic work, or cycle of initiation, weaves from the primal substance of the auric ovum, upon the ideal form of archetype it contains, and conforming thereto, the immortal Augoeîdes, or solar body (soma heliakon), so called because in its visible appearance it is self-luminous like the sun, and has a golden radiance. Its aureola displays a filmy opalescence. This solar body is of atomic, non-molecular substance.
The psychic, or luna, body, through which the Nous acts in the psychic world, is molecular in structure, but of far finer substance than the elements composing the gross physical form, to whose organism it closely corresponds, having organs of sight, hearing, and the rest. In appearance it has a silvery lustre, tinged with delicate violet; and its aura is of palest blue, with an interchanging play of all the prismatic colours, rendering it iridescent.140
In the Pelican-phoenix references we have further rebirth symbols. Animals and birds always represent in dream symbolism—and such symbolism is the language both of the Unconscious and alchemical writing—libido substitutes. The type of the animal defines the degree of domesticity and civilization, so to speak, attained by the libido. Released from its restriction and the prison in which it has for so long been confined, the libido acts upon the entire nature through the blood, glands, and consciousness itself, to form a resplendent interior ideal form. But even this latter requires to be dissolved and fermented by its own analytical life—even as the Phoenix tears open its own breast in order to feed its young with its own life-blood. The vitality of the Stone destroys its own basis in order to renew itself. The new solar form is derived from and based upon the former crystallized mental sheath, as, of course, it must be. Compare with Osiris, who sings: “This is my body, which I destroy in order that it may be renewed.”141
Here the alchemical theory would seem not only to recognize but to develop the psychological theory so recently enunciated by Jung. The solution of the problem relating to the restoration of consciousness to its own divine integrity lies not exclusively in a conversion into its opposite, though this of course is necessary. Actually such a process is imperative, for without this conversion consciousness would be cut off from its archetypal roots and would tremble in mid-air without adequate support. But the true solution lies in the retention of the former values of consciousness plus a recognition of their dynamic opposites in the personal unconsciousness.
So that, in speaking of this particular stage represented as the Pelican —a definite stage of progress—alchemy announces that this libido-
symbol too is to be destroyed, or overcome. Its point of view is partitive—even as is that of consciousness whose nature is to be transcended. We have here, it seems to me, a description of the transcendent function described by that master of European analytical psychology. For the text says that the Stone as it exists at this juncture—that is, full awareness of the opposite of consciousness—is to be dissolved. That is, the libido, or the spiritual energy, retreating before the apparently insoluble conflict—the play between the conscious and the unconscious—regresses and goes back even farther than the memories of early infancy. It sinks back into the depths or deposits of racial or ancestral life, and the mythological images resident in these profound levels of the unconscious awaken.
Thus “begins the separation of the elements in a philosophical manner.”142 The task confronting the patient or the student is to differentiate the elements of his own personal unconscious from the primordial archetypes or dominants of the collective unconscious, to enable the psychical energy to well up, activating and vitalizing the faculties and powers of consciousness itself. This separation of the personal from the impersonal, and this differentiation of the ego and the non-ego, overcomes the intolerable pull of the opposites within the sphere of the patient, making possible a reconciliation which produces a therapeutic and integrating effect upon his consciousness.
The Pelican
The Pelican, it may be remarked in conclusion of this symbolism, possesses under its bill a great pouch in which it can preserve food, principally fish. If it wishes to regurgitate the food out of its crop to feed its young, it must rest its bill against its breast. It is conceivable that from this appearance there developed the legend that it tore open its breast in order to feed its young with its own life-blood. From early times the Pelican was therefore used as a symbol of Christ, who shed his blood to redeem mankind—markedly a collective symbol. The alchemists represented the Philosopher’s Stone, the red tincture, as a Pelican or the more fabulous Phoenix. For by its projection on the baser metals of its own personality it sacrificed itself and, as it were, gave its blood to tinct them. The libido thus no longer activates exclusively the primordial depths, but the ego, the child, can make use of it too.
Certain of the latter alchemists have employed the Christ symbolism to represent the Stone. Bringing Christ to birth within the soul of man is a fitting symbolism for such an operation.
In the second key is a continuation of the Pelican theme. The newly formed Stone must be dissolved. The purification has not proceeded sufficiently far to render it permanent. The work cannot be accomplished by one operation. The trance state must be continued again and again, and persisted in until consciousness finally eclipses itself, when it proceeds spontaneously to evolve in an entirely new direction. Again the separation of the pure from the impure must be achieved. The spirit, vitality, must be separated from every level and type of consciousness, its soul and vehicle. This accomplished, then the very elements which constitute the residue can be changed and sublimated—or redirected into new and worthier channels.
2. The central secret of the entire work is now approached. When employing the psychological method, we associated the emotions and feelings with the philosophical Fire. When using the magnetic interpretation, this correspondence did not seem very much to help us. We must look elsewhere for a further and more complete explanation. There is the interpretation that the Fire is the penetrating power of the intellect, and this sometimes is the sense in which the author of The Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery interprets the mystery of the secret fire. Various writers at various times have identified it with a spiritual principle permeating and pervading the universe. Others identify it with the fiery power of will. Possibly from all these hints we can proceed a step farther, and by amalgamation and synthesis produce a workable hypothesis.
“Behind will stands desire.” So runs an alchemical aphorism. This can be assumed to imply that desire directs will, and gives to it an object to achieve. Or else it may imply that the basis or background of the Will is desire or emotion, and that the former has grown out of the latter, as an evolution or sublimation, even as consciousness depends upon the Unconscious. The motive power of the instinctual life is the libido, desire, the vital spirit, while the motive power of the intellectual life is the Will. In its developments and peregrinations, in its eclipse by the magnetic trance state, the will loses its former sense of direction. But having almost reached the verge of annihilation, so to speak, reaching the nadir of its life, it restores itself by an effort which is mighty beyond words. One step towards this divine restoration is the fierceness of its fire and heat, as though desperation towards life urged forth every ounce of inherent vitality. At this stage, when it associates itself with and is given life by desire, the emotional nature, it is often called the Vitriol of Venus or the Green Lion, both implying the volitional power of penetration, fiery and crude, of immature but evolving spiritual energy.
But it’s because of the transcendent force
It hath; and for the rawness of its source,
Of which the like is nowhere to be scene,
That yt of us is named the Lyon Greene.143
So wrote the Vicar of Malden some centuries ago. Mrs. Atwood observes:
The cause of the dissolution appears to proceed from the action of the vital heat stirred up artificially in the blood, and which, being so continuously triturated, ignites and opens for itself a passage, endeavouring forthwith to absorb the circulating light by the efflux of its own abundant chloric spirit being transfixed.144
In reality it is more than a suggestion that we find here—obscure though the passage may be. In order to explain the implication of this passage, and the whole of the Atwood mesmeric hypothesis, it is necessary that we resort to various references in comparative religion, or at least to their practical aspects as may be perceived in such mystical arts as Yoga, Tantra, and meditation. From a study of Tibetan Yogic practices we know that the development of the so-called external psychic heat—which permits the anchorite to live on mountain heights several thousand feet above sea level clad only in a single cotton garment—is achieved by various forms of breathing. Let me quote a short passage from Dr. Evans Wentz’s recent work Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines, which deals precisely with this subject. He says:
The first of these (the six doctrines) is known to the Tibetans as Tummo, signifying a peculiar bodily heat, or warmth, of psycho-physical character, generated by yogic means. According to the secret lore, the word Tummo refers to a method of extracting prana from the inexhaustible pranic reservoir in Nature, and storing it in the human-body battery and then employing it to transmute the generative fluid into a subtle fiery energy whereby a psycho-physical heat is produced internally and made to circulate through the nerve-channels of the psychic nervous system … According to our text, in practising the art of Tummo the yogin must employ very elaborate visualizations, meditations, postures, breathings, directing of thought, training of the psychic-nerve system, and physical exercises.145
But as in Hatha Yoga and Tantra, great stress is laid upon the breathings themselves as the most important factor involved. The directions given in the Eastern texts as to the length of breathing, retention, and exhalation are very precise and elaborate. It is significant enough that any ordinary person can produce quite a copious perspiration within a few minutes by means of regulated deep breathing and retentions.
The Yoga theory, which is very similar, and is in fact that from which the Tibetan one has been borrowed, stipulates that in the air, quite apart from the combustible oxygen, is something which they call Prana, or life. But in order to illustrate the relationship of life and breath within the concept of the dynamic spiritual principle permeating all things, it is worth recapitulating the Hindu idea. Life, or prana, they say, is a universally pervasive principle. It is the vital ocean in which the earth itself floats; it permeates the entire globe and every being and object on it. It works unceasingly on and around us, pulsating against and through us for ever. In life we merely use a very specialized instrument, more so than any other, for dealing with both Prana and Jiva. Strictly speaking, Prana is breath. As breath is necessary for continuance of life in the human machine, the Hindu philosophy considers that that is the best word. Jiva, on the other hand, means “life,” and also is applied to the living soul, for the life in general is derived from the supreme universal spirit itself. Jiva is therefore capable of general application as referring to the infinite and ubiquitous spirit; whilst prana is more particular as implying that specialized flow of life which permeates the human frame.
Parts of the mystical training of Yoga demand a prolonged charging of the entire system with an enormous amount of Prana, thus rendering the body rather like a powerful storage battery. Since, according to the theory delineated above, there is some connection between air and spirit on the one hand, and between the rate of inspiration and the motion of the mind on the other hand, illumination and spiritual attainment may be achieved by this technical method. So also is the psychic heat attained by the Tibetan hermit.
From the practical point of view the Yoga theory demands a retirement from the world, or that a great deal of time and attention be devoted to these practices. Hours each day must be spent in mastering difficult postures, and in acquiring skill in pranayama and meditation. According to the record of one practitioner that some years ago was shown to me, eight hours a day was devoted to pranayama before finally a minor illumination flooded the mind. Clearly such a course is impossible for the average man of the West, no matter how great his sympathy for the Eastern ideal. He has at least two thousand years of incessant activity, commercial bustle, and materialistic preoccupation behind him. It would be a violation of his nature and his racial heredity to refute his ancestry and adopt the Eastern hermit life.
Hence it is by some contended that the alchemistic and mesmeric theory is almost an ideal adaptation principally for such an individual. It is a European version of the Eastern Yoga technique, developed essentially for the evolving Western man. Since one phase of Yoga has as its primary object the deliberate and willed absorption of enormous quantities of spiritual energy, the Western methods adopt the same theory in its broad outlines. But its practice proceeds along entirely different lines. Magnetism, or prana, is imparted from operator to subject by the usual magnetic practical methods and then thrown back again by the subject to the former operator. In so doing it undergoes a fermentation and acceleration. As the presence of power increases and induces power, so the continual trituration and friction of the vital spirit causes an increase both of the energy and its potency. Its intensity is augmented to a degree which is inconceivable. Its voltage, so to speak, is increased, the psychic state opened thereby transcending the mere impassivity of the ordinary mesmeric trance—developing slowly but gradually a charge or flow of libido which becomes so powerful in its intensity and quality as well to be named the Secret Fire of the Wise.
Having thus dilated and enlarged upon the fundamental bases of the Atwood hypothesis and compared it briefly with the Yoga practice of pranayama, it may be worthwhile to give Mrs. Atwood’s own theory in her own words. First of all she castigates the modern (about 1850) practice of the Mesmeric art in these terms.
If, then, we go out at once to throw our common life to common lives (that is, impart our own unpurified and undeveloped prana to equally unpurified subjects), what wonder we have only common results? That much depends upon the quality of the life imparted, general observation teaches; and with what sure corresponding consequences the moral leaven is attended may be understood, in a degree, by the recipient in the mesmeric trance. But the spontaneous fermentation which the Vital Spirit undergoes, and the change that is thereby effected in the Passive Subject, is not taken advantage of in modern practice or pushed to the uttermost; much less is understood that exact art of grafting and transplanting which the ancients practised, and by means of which a growth and sublimation of the Spirit was effected.146
And again, in describing the technical method whereby the grafting of the Vital Spirit proceeds, she declares:
As this life, being fermented by this life, its similar, leads into the common trance, or is entranced, so that consequent life, being fermented by its similar, leads into that third life which moves in and with the Creative Essence, so that the mind becomes in that case related to the Universal Vitalizing Power, and so can act Its will …147 The fire of the natural life entering into and fermenting the natural fire—the same life in another, opens the last and develops and excites and sets free the celestial life and Light—that is one main principle … When one life being fermented throws its life to another equally fermented, a greater perfection is produced in the patient than was before in the agent who imparts it. That is the law of progression of the vital force—sic itur ad astra.148
It is in this last couple of sentences where the really significant secret is contained. It is in the transference of spiritual vitality, consciously and deliberately, from operator to subject, and back again, and retransferring the dynamic charge to subject, continuing the process again and again, which develops the latent fire and awakens the life of the concealed and latent spirit. There are several methods already known to us for the fermentation or augmentation of the individual spiritual power interiorly. Several of these I have summarized and described in my former work The Middle Pillar.149 Simplest among such methods is the art of rhythmic breathing. The ordinary Yoga theory postulates that the most familiar mechanism for dealing with and thus controlling and augmenting prana is the machinery of the lungs. By deliberately establishing a slow, measured rhythm of exhalation and inhalation of the breath, whilst formulating in the mind the idea of absorbing vitality from the universe about one, the body and mind become very considerably charged with vitality. The method is exceedingly simple, requiring only a little patience and practice to become quite adept with it, and to benefit in no inconsiderable way by the increase of vitality and power which it imparts.
A second method, rather more complex than the above, is that known as the Middle Pillar technique, of which a brief description appears in The Art of True Healing.150 Its procedure is fundamentally simple, providing for the imaginative formulation of various centres of Light placed on a shaft penetrating the body from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. Names are imagined to vibrate therein, and the combination of thought, sound, and colour awakens these centres to an equilibriated activity within. Such an activity throws into the psycho-physical system vast quantities of high-powered spiritual energy. This power, too, can be transmitted from one person to another with the greatest of ease, and that by a simple manual contact. It is my contention that anyone, sceptic or otherwise, by following the simple directions so far as the practical instructions are concerned, can prove for himself the validity of the magnetic hypothesis. Using this method for working up steam, as it were, as a preliminary to the practical application of the more complex and advanced Atwood technique, considerable results should be obtained. In this connection it is worth stressing my belief that on the whole magnetic “passes” do not conduce to a satisfactory transmission of power. There is considerable wastage of energy insofar as the method is not sufficiently direct. The Eeman method as described in Self and Superman should be studied as being most useful.151 The technique described by de Puységur is extremely efficient, and is really a vast improvement on the passes. That is to say, the operator places one hand over the solar plexus or spleen of the patient and the other on the latter’s head. Linked up in this way, he imagines himself to be a storage battery absorbing power from the universe and “pumping” it into his patient. Within a very few minutes both he and the patient obtain the marked sensation of such transmission. Accompanying the Middle Pillar technique by rhythmic breathing enables the operator to absorb enormous quantities of vitality from the atmosphere and the universe about him, thus rendering fatigue an extreme improbability. So long as the operator definitely realizes, with humility and a lack of egotism, that he is but a channel through which the cosmic forces may flow, his ability to transmit energy is never impeded. If we consider the realm of therapy, it is only when successful cures imbue him with a sense of self-importance that trouble begins. He comes to consider himself as a powerful healer, stressing his own personal abilities and forgetting that the spiritual power is not his own. Thus the channels become blocked, and there is a temporary cessation in the flow of the spirit through him.
With the channels wide open, vitality flows without impediment through the personality, and the application of the techniques of rhythmic breathing and the Middle Pillar will enable both operator and subject to fulfill easily the requirements of the Atwood hypothesis. Vitality as ordinarily experienced is of little value. But the power that invades the personality during the Middle Pillar practice is of such a nature as will, when transmitted by the hands, ferment the being of the subject. If, after some time, the subject changes his role and becomes the operator and throws back the vitality to the former operator, who now becomes the subject, a considerable psychic change develops.
The common assumption that mesmeric methods are dangerous does not require much consideration. All forms of therapy in one sense or another are dangerous. The whole of life is dangerous. The mere attempt to cross a modern street is an undertaking which is fraught with the utmost danger when one considers the extreme probability that the turbulent surge of traffic may find yet another victim. All the hypnotic authorities refute the charge that the practice of hypnotism has a deleterious effect upon the patient. Many of them cite subjects who have been hypnotized hundreds of times without the least injurious result. On the other hand, it is easy to see that in the hands of an unscrupulous and dishonest operator serious harm may be effected. Nevertheless, this latter argument is true also of medical and psychological practice. One has to be certain of the integrity and trustworthiness of one’s physician or psychologist before submitting to treatment.
A second objection is likewise without foundation. It asserts that the practice of mesmerism interferes with the free function of the will, which faculty is precisely that which should operate in the study of occultism. Hypnotism has been defined as an artificial method of obtaining a concentrated or abstracted state. It thus resembles meditation or concentration, when consciousness or the attention has been withdrawn from the outside world and is focused upon one solitary idea. The difference is that in the former case the meditator is assisted by a second person, whilst in the other the state is self-induced. Thus, from one point of view, it is said that the latter is infinitely superior in that one is not dependent upon any other person, being self-reliant and capable of controlling both the mind and the psychic faculties. One advocate of this point of view, Dr. Evans Wentz, writing in his most recent book, asserts that European critics of Yoga have thought that such practices induce a sort of self-hypnotism. If, in some degree, the criticism be well founded, we must, nevertheless, take into account the fact that hypnotization by one’s own efforts has a far different result, insofar as experimental knowledge is concerned, than hypnotization by another person. In self-hypnotization the yogin is wholly the master of himself, whereas in hypnotic trance induced in one person by another the hypnotized subject loses mastery of himself and is more or less enslaved to the will of the hypnotizer, and upon being released from hypnosis has little or no conscious memory of the nature of the hypnotic state or the character of the mind’s reactions to the external stimuli inducing that state.
It is only necessary to observe that this phenomenon of amnesia can be remedied quite easily with repeated hypnosis and by training. In fact, to adopt what is in my opinion a balanced and sane attitude one might state that an ideal form of training would be the conjoining of the analytical procedure of psychology, the induction of the mesmeric or somnambulistic state, and the practice of one of the occult meditation techniques. By these three methods any deficiency inherent in any particular technique could be remedied, and consciousness itself could be considerably enhanced.
So far as concerns the accusation that Yoga or meditation practices induce self-hypnotism, since that is assumed in a derogatory manner, much depends on the definition of hypnosis. On this subject there exists so much confusion, fear, and wrong thinking, due probably to the past abuses of theatrical performers besides the romantic speculations of some too-imaginative novelists, that it is necessary to resort to a definition expressed on a former page. That is to say, in a few words, that the state induced by hypnosis is comparable in every respect to a condition of extreme introspection. The major difference is that the subject is assisted in the production of this one-pointed condition by a second person guiding his consciousness along a predetermined track. Being in a highly concentrated mood, consciousness is far more accessible to (a) upwellings of formerly unconscious material and to (b) the implanting of suggestions for the furtherance of certain ends and for the evocation of corresponding faculties within. It all depends on how this condition is used as to whether good, that is desirable, results shall follow, or whether failure be one’s reward.
The ideal of being “wholly the master of himself” in the case of the yogin is, from one point of view and from a legitimate and valid angle of argument, an instance of excessive individualism. In the East the idea of cooperation between groups of people has never risen to the practical heights that the West, regardless of other of its defects, has achieved. It is far more common for Europeans to work one with another than is the case in the East. There it may be a commonly observed phenomenon for disciples to flock to gurus, but in the majority of instances it is hardly an organized affair. Consequently, the Eastern system is prone to elevate its own weakness, making a sublime virtue of what in reality is a psychological and neurotic defect. It is the old story of the fox who lost his tail. In the West, cooperation as an ideal has gradually developed and slowly has been reaching its fruition. Therefore, even in spiritual and psychological things, we here see no harm in receiving assistance and support from some other person. We consider it the most natural thing to do so. And, so it is argued, there can thus be no harm in the use of mesmerism or hypnosis as a means of obtaining proficiency in the meditative art, provided in addition the subject is aware of two things. One, the integrity of his guide or teacher, so that he experiences no hesitancy or apprehension in submitting to the induction of hypnosis. And, two, that he realizes that in the last resort he must stand upon his own feet, and that to rely exclusively upon the operator is a confession of extreme weakness which can be dangerous to his spiritual welfare.
This, at any rate, seems to be the import of the Atwood technique—a method whereby the cooperation of two interested individuals is employed towards a certain end, and that a spiritual one. With the proposed disintegration of the astro-mental sheath by a magnetic surplus, so to say, the theory holds that it is possible for the locked-up libido to be released and ascend more readily to the higher levels of consciousness, there being available for general and immediate use. The two operations are synonymous and occur simultaneously. The deliberate breaking-down of the crystallized elements of the personal sphere spontaneously releases the power latent within them. This release is tantamount to a sublimation. That is to say it is a transfer of energy from a lower form of activity or level of consciousness to a higher. And, as our text indicates, until this locked-up energy is released no further steps are possible.
Indeed, this position is analogous to the Yoga system. No knowledge, true non-illusory knowledge, of the universe and of life is really possible without first having experienced some degree of Samadhi, the mystical experience. This attainment is engineered by several means, chief among them the technique of arousing the coiled-up, latent power called Kundalini, stored at the base of the spine. Once aroused, this power must be guided up the Sushumna in the spine to the brain. This ascent of vital energy to the psycho-mental chakra in the brain, or rather above the crown of the head, induces a condition of consciousness which is characterized by the immediate acquisition of intuitive knowledge and by the experiencing of an ineffable bliss which is unlike any other experience in life. At the same time the realization of complete and absolute freedom is obtained, as though every bond which tied one to the world and linked the world to one’s own self were severed. In a word, the mechanisms of introjection and projection of psychic qualities are realized in full consciousness, and overcome. Having thus experienced Samadhi, the Yogi, being free for the first time, detached, and no longer enslaved either by extraneous or subjective circumstances, can envisage life as it really is. As a consequence he can contemplate what further steps should be taken for his own evolution. And he will also see in a way that few other beings can see how be may help and not hinder his fellow man.
The second Key of Eudoxus informs us that the unfolding of the nature of consciousness cannot be undertaken without the preliminary dissolution of conscious restriction and inhibitions. The entire mental sheath must be broken down in order that its psychic constituents may be rearranged in a modified and better form. Following upon this, the sublimation of libido can be accomplished. This condition of sublimation achieved, then the conversion of the elements is possible—that is, reconstructing the Robe of Glory, the inner Body of Light—as well as the extraction and full realization in consciousness of the three Principles. These three Principles have been likened to Selflessness, with its opposite of Self for Mercury; Change, with its opposite of Stability for Sulphur; and Sorrow, with its implicit of Bliss for Salt. That is to say, these operations must permit the latent qualities and divine powers dormant in the various levels of the psyche, unknown and unsuspected by the ego, to expand and attain their maximum expression and development.
4. The Sun and Moon are astrological symbols for male and female, positive and negative, the psychological equivalents of Consciousness and the Anima (or Animus) principle. The union of these two dissevered constituents of the personality creates integrity and unity of being. And it is only the whole man, the equilibrated and balanced individual, who can truly initiate. The distillation is the spiritual energy which would circulate in such a person. It is this distillation which requires to be manumitted to the prepared subject. There it can ferment, and after repeated transferences arouse that interior secret fire of the spirit within the blood which will dissolve the dull and unpurified stone. The great Sea of the Wise is, as we previously determined, the Collective Unconsciousness, or the higher divine Astral plane, the ubiquitous all-pervasive storehouse of magnetism, vitality, feeling, and memory.
5. Dissolved in this way, into what, for lack of other and better words, may be termed a homogeneous magnetic fluid, the Stone may well be called the Vine of the Wise. As these hermetic processes go forward, and the fluidic substance matures and develops in the right direction, it is known as the philosophical Wine. The Wine is extracted from the Vine—that is, the dissolved constituents of the entire personality which, because of this dissolution, evinces a possibility of further and new growth. The Wine represents the same substance symbolized by the Vine, but on a higher plane. Because of the attention we have given to it, and the processes to which we have subjected it, the wine we extract and develop from the grape vine is a higher development of the source from which it came. In that sense it is an evolution. We could likewise suggest that the Unconscious is the Vine, and the libido, which issues from the hidden depths of the psyche, answers to the Wine of which Eudoxus so enigmatically speaks. So far as this alchemical Wine is concerned, as it continues to be subjected to the coction and influence of the fire, further development increases its virulence, so to speak, at which junction it is denominated as a most sharp Vinegar. It is an acid fluid continuing the process of disintegration yet further and in a more subtle way invading the entire mental and psychic sphere, as a preliminary to the reconstruction of the sphere of sensation on a better and diviner plan.
Some mention must be made of the consequent alteration in the bloodstream caused by glandular secretions stimulated and equilibrated by changes in both feeling and consciousness induced by the Great Work. It is an empirical fact that mental and emotional changes are capable of inducing changes in the bloodstream and in the tissue structure of the physical body. We are all familiar with instances of sudden and unexpected bad news at mealtimes which has induced vomiting. The study of neurosis has also provided us with innumerable examples of nervous and physical disturbances induced by adverse psychic activity. It is a psychological fact that neurasthenia, constipation, indigestion, arthritis, pruritis, and many other ailments are direct results of psychological causes. Sometimes to deal with the psychogenic factors eliminates or relieves physical symptoms. At others, direct physical therapy of different kinds is required to relieve mental symptoms of distress. In other words, mind and body may not be considered as two separate entities. The more accurate viewpoint might be that they are two poles of a single entity, two different functions adopted by that entity for the purpose of obtaining experience and dealing with external life. They constitute, with the additional postulate of occult philosophy of an astro-mental body, a direct continuum. Changes therefore occurring anywhere along that continuum, affecting any link, must produce inevitably a result or change in some other part of the chain. Though I am not aware of any definite experiments, it ought to be possible to show that the blood-specimens of hypnotic-trance subjects exhibit alterations and a slightly different chemical composition from those of ordinary persons. Hence in dealing with such powerful media as meditation, magnetism, and the reverse transmission of vitality, we are fairly certain to find that physical effects should ensue. Transmutation thus becomes an actual physiological and experimental fact, the entire physical frame becoming more sensitive, purified, and responsive to the delicate impulses transmitted to and from the consciousness dwelling within.
Third Key. As we proceed in the examination of these Keys, the material becomes more and more obscure. The only saving grace is that we are counselled to continue as we have begun. Because of this advice, and because I have been more prolix in the commentary to the two previous keys, I do not propose to examine the entirety of this third Key or those remaining. After noting certain points in the first half of this key, I see no further necessity to continue. The student, in the light of the preceding chapters, can examine the text as he wishes.
2. The principal operation to be undertaken according to the description of this Key is the extraction of the three principles of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury from the comparatively homogeneous base called the Water of the Wise, or our Mercury. This is accomplished, as Eudoxus informs us, by a “perfect dissolution and glorification of the body whence it had its nativity.”152 It is also furthered or engineered by means of the Spirit, or Sulphur—the end being the union of the soul with the body. Elsewhere this process is termed “fixing the volatile”. The soul would correspond to the airy volatile nature of consciousness, Mercury, and it requires to be fixed or coagulated in a more or less solid foundation of the Salt, the body. And the text further clarifies the issue in the next verse: “This is the Intention, and the essential point of the operations of this Key, which terminate at the generation of a new substance infinitely nobler than the first.”153
4. Slowly the issue becomes clearer, carrying on the exegesis from the end of the second Key. Eudoxus speaks of the homogeneous substance, the philosophical Water, concealing the Three principles which are comparable to the spirit, soul, and (subtle) body. Here Eudoxus emphasizes a fact which I stated above. For these three principles, like every other thing in nature, are not pure in their natural state, and to be purified need to be banished and separated prior to re-amalgamation. Hence the process begun originally requires to be continued so that a distillation is made of the homogeneous and amorphous astral base. A separation then occurs. A cleavage takes place, dividing the natural unity of Mercury and Sulphur, soul and spirit, from their vehicle, the Salt. This earth, or Salt, remains fixed within the physical body “like a dead, black, and dreggy earth.”154 Its life departed, the subtle sheath turns to putrefaction and decay.
5. But even this dreg is of untold value. Nothing in the alchemical art is discarded, for “Nature teaches us” so assert the Chaldaean Oracles, “and the Oracles also affirm that even the evil germs of matter may alike be made useful and good.”155 In her Memorabilia Mrs. Atwood remarks that “the principle of body is preserved in what they call the ashes, or Caput Mortum, and that, one principle being saved, the whole life is restored from it; Khunrath calls it ’our pigmy’, also the ’diadem of the body’ …” 156
6. Latent within the blackness of the ashes is life—interatomic life, which by no means can be snuffed out, and which sooner or later asserts itself, communicating movement and life to the mass. There is a Qabalistic aphorism which has it that “Kether” (spirit or whiteness) “is in Malkuth” (matter or blackness) “and Malkuth is in Kether, but after another manner”. And again, it is said that within the material extreme of life, when it is purified, the Seed of the Spirit is at last found. Ultimately, there can be no distinction made between spirit and matter. The latter is a crystallization of the former, and spirit is a rarefied and sublimed form of matter. Matter is composed of molecules, these of atoms. By analysis the atoms are seen to be composed of still smaller particles, protons and electrons. These are considered to be positive and negative charges of electricity, whilst the latter, as energy, is a light radiation, the manifestation of the spirit in action. It is by the persistent subjection of the dregs to the fire of the Wise that the innate and implicit spiritual life and energy is stirred to renewed and desperate activity. The blackness is cast off, and the Salt is washed and purified. By these purgative means it is fixed, becoming the blood or the life of the Stone, the immortal substantive and energetic basis of the regenerated consciousness.
7. Fire and Water, being opposite, are yet mutually attractive. It is the age-old philosophy which is here expounded. Spirit is the antithesis of Matter. Yet the attraction of the one for the other is so great that, like man and woman, male and female everywhere, without the other each is lost and incomplete. The union therefore of spirit and soul is enjoined on us with great and emphasized earnestness. The one is the universal, all-pervasive life force, whilst the other is an individualized particular unit of that energy, made self-conscious through experience and immersion in matter. This union, apparently, can only take place through a third thing. They themselves are so extreme that it would seem impossible for them ever to be conjoined. Just as, with regard to an attitude towards life, it is comparatively easy to choose some one extreme viewpoint and follow that to the end. But it is infinitely more difficult to envisage the two opposites in consciousness and attempt their union. Such an attempt is always foredoomed to failure. But one can succeed by formulating an entirely new point of view which does not consist exclusively of either of the two opposites. Or, to state it more properly, the ego reconciles them because it has risen above them. More technically, the spirit itself, or the libido, by regression to the Collective Unconscious, reconciles and unites them.
Thus it is that the alchemical tradition asserts that the union of the individual soul with the universal spirit can only ensue through the mediation of a third thing, the Earth, or the subtle Body of Light. It is this which is the medium and link between mind and matter.
8. To repeat and to emphasize is oftimes to clarify. The author of this cryptic text now adds that fire and water, though of different genders or polarities, are fundamentally and essentially of the same nature. These are separated from their material basis by the mechanical and continued application of fire. Having achieved a separation, the material basis, the Salt, is to be moistened occasionally by its water. That is, Mercury, actuated by Sulphur, which gives it volition, is to moisten or impregnate or indwell its former vehicle now in extremis.
What formerly took place in archaic prehistoric epochs as an involuntary act of nature, now occurs with the full consciousness of the spirit. There is a descent of the spirit into matter, even as the gods of the solar myths descended into the underworld—repeating the original operations or phases occurring in cosmic evolution. This descent moistens Earth with the Water, and also fixes the Spirit. The occurrence is dual in nature. The union of Salt and Sulphur, the two opposites, brings to birth once more the individual consciousness, formerly eclipsed by the magnetic trance and the vital transfer. It may at first be thought that the joining of spirit and matter in this manner after their previous separation produces the identical unity which prevailed before. In point of fact this is not so, and the alchemists are adamant in their insistence upon the difference. Just as, in a magical ceremony, the invocation of an element into a clearer space after its prior banishing is not the same element as obtained before, but a purer quintessence of it, so by the spagyric art the unity of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury appears “under a more noble and more perfect form that it was before”.
Another commentator chose to interpret this union as between Ruach, the mind or ego, and Neschamah, the Higher Soul or Fiery Mind, understanding. After this mystical union the elevated Ruach returns as master to its proper union with Nephesch, the animal soul, whose nature is thus fulfilled.
9. The Stone we have already determined to be a term covering several concepts. At times it is a multiple concept including the three alchemical principles together. At other times, like the word Mercury, it refers to the Quintessence, the crown and synthesis of the elements. On still other occasions it has application alone to the substantive principle of Salt, which is referred on the Qabalistic Tree to the Sephirah Hod, Splendour, to the element of Water, to the astrological planet Mercury, both these latter attributions representing energy and plasticity and fluidity of substance, the substance of the so-called astral sheath or Body of Light.
This paragraph teaches that from the Stone, the generic term for the homogeneous compound, issues Water. This divine Water can only be realized by our fiery dissolution. Here it becomes necessary to extend the significations of our elemental attributions. These symbols are infinitely elastic. In certain forms of occult symbolism, to the Sephirah Hod is attributed the symbol of the cup. This Cup has a special shape to express in symbolic form fundamental ideas. The base of the Cup is triangular, or rather pyramidal. Upon this rests a circle, or sphere, whilst above this is a crescent, the actual bowl of the Cup. This can be made to yield several significant meanings. The base, being triangular, is the type and symbol of fire. Being pyramidal, it represents every aspect of fire—astral, solar, and terrestrial fire. The circular symbol, by employing the symbology of the Hindu tattwa system, refers to the element of Air. Above the circle is the crescent, which by the same system of symbolism is attributed to the element of Water. But see the section on symbols in Volume One of The Golden Dawn.157
Now, in their broadest significations, these three elements refer to the three fundamental divisions or aspects of man’s psyche. The triangle of fire is attributed to the instinctive and emotional principle. Air, as we have previously determined, is the elemental characteristic of the mind; thus the circle represents consciousness. The spiritual part of man, his aspirations and higher yearnings, his intuition and imagination, is represented by the crescent. Thus Air, consciousness, is the reconciler between the opposites. Man, symbolized by this formal symbol, is thus represented as a complete psychic entity open always, if he will, to the influx of Kether, the universal spirit of life.
Cup Symbolism
The employment of Water at this particular stage in our alchemical text implies the gradual coming into operation of a spiritual principle. By the dissolution of the bonds that cramp and bind consciousness, chains that hold it in thralldom to purely illusory concepts in conflict with reality, the inner spiritual life is released. This spiritual life is that which is represented by Water.
10. Various properties and names are assigned to this fluid—depending upon certain stages reached in the working. But I gather that as the work is begun, through increasing the potency of the inward fire by a constant trituration and transfer, so it is continued. It is this which accomplishes the distillation.
That this Water has a lofty significance can hardly be doubted when one remembers the references in both sections of Scripture. Remember the passages in Revelations:
“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”158 And again: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”159
12. Reiteration continues to emphasize that dissolution again is the preliminary operation. The subtle body, now separated from its informing principle, must be dissolved into its own homogeneous astral base, the Salt. It is this further process of dissolution which actually releases the full fiery blast of the inner fire.
The first applications of the alchemical fire are slow and gentle. Necessarily so. Gradually its heat increases to a full and high intensity as the bodily and astral system slowly becomes accustomed to its force. And it is this which, in time, produces the blackness of putrefaction in the body, which is the signal so desired. Future success in this type of working depends entirely and exclusively on this condition having been reached.
The precept of Senior quoted in the text is an extremely interesting one, and those who have followed exegesis and have further applied their own intuitions may recognize its implication. The highest fume is the vital spirit which in its temporary eclipse is reduced to the depths. Mercury is the “divine Water” “descending from heaven,” which by invading the psyche reduces or breaks down the astral form to its component principles or element. More accurately, so far as interpretation is concerned, we may assume that the psychological method is best applicable here. Mercury is the intellect pursuing the reductive method at first, and then synthesizing all things. At all events, the balm of life, which is the divine fire—as distinguished from the cruder elemental fire characterizing the lower and earlier forms of procedure—is concealed within the black ashes of the disintegrated body.
As remarked earlier, our symbolism switches over to, or is extended to include, the Supernals. The latter is a triad of divine powers commonly referred to as a unity. The trinity may be likened to the noumena or the divine roots of the elements, or the three aspects or facets of the Higher Soul, of the core of the Self, the It, and its vehicles of Wisdom, Will, and Understanding. This unit is latent and completely dormant within the blackest ashes of matter and mind until, when apparently life itself is extinct, it stirs itself spontaneously into a new and emancipated revival. So awakened into renewed existence, its action upon its concealing form is that of a purifying fire, of cleansing water, eliminating the last remaining fragments of impurity and blackness and evil. “Your water shall be animated with this fiery essence, which works all the wonders of our art.”160
Caduceus Symbolism
There is another symbolic form representing the principles inherent within the psyche which may prove a little enlightening. Its basis is the Caduceus of Mercury. The mode of interpretation employs what are called the three Mother Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. These are Aleph, Mem, and Shin. These have elemental attributions. Since in the Qabalistic philosophy all things in the cosmos, and consequently within man’s psyche, have issued from the three major elements, rightly they may be called Mothers. On the Caduceus, the letter Shin, 
, three-pronged, is symbolic of the two overshadowing wings, with the central stem. In the middle is the letter Aleph, 
, to symbolize the two heads and necks of the crossing serpents, whilst below is the letter Mem, 
, symbolizing the rest of the intertwined serpents’ bodies. Thus we have the reverse of the Cup symbolism, which was a passive and receptive symbol, whereas the use of the three Mother letters is an active and masculine symbol. For above is the Fire, the letter Shin, whose numerical equivalent is a Hebrew phrase meaning the Spirit of the Gods, or the divine Spirit. It is reminiscent of that holy inspiring fire which descended upon the apostles, blessing and sanctifying them at Pentecost, endowing them with the gift of tongues. Inspiration, religious, mystical, and artistic, is the result of its descent into the barrenness of man’s psyche. Consciousness, the two serpent-heads, is the letter Aleph referred to the element Air, for varying reasons which elsewhere we have discussed. Below is Mem, the passional nature of man, his animal soul, watery, turbulent, and stormy at times; at others tending to reduce him to inertia and inactivity.
Other interpretations of this fundamental symbolism may occur to the reader. But it is hardly necessary here to enter all the intricacies of interpretation. My object was primarily to suggest various forms of exegesis, and provide the barest outline of a means of such interpretation.
Finally, and to conclude, there is one important and very difficult problem to consider. The basis of our interpretations, be they psychological, mesmeric, or magical, have all to do not with the physical substance known as gold but with the production of an illumined condition of the psyche. By comparison with the psychic state of the average individual, such illumination may well be gold as a symbol by way of comparison with the gross lead of normality. There are other interpretations, naturally, and quite possibly there is a legitimate metallurgical one. If such is the case, I do not know it. It may be left in the hands of metallurgists and chemists, for it does not concern my interests.
What is of concern, however, is the claim made by certain students of occultism and alchemy, which is this: that the production of spiritual changes within the psyche, and the accomplishment of the interior transmutation, brings to light hidden powers previously dormant and latent in consciousness. As a bald statement this is not so improbable. The protagonists of this theory, however, go further. They say that these powers are such as to give their possessor the ability, for instance, to perform a physical transmutation. It is not impossible, they hold, to turn lead or other base metals into gold through the mediation of the inner psychic and spiritual faculties developed and stimulated by the spiritual transmutation of the psyche. Whether any such illuminated person would consider it worthwhile to attempt such transmutation is quite another story, though history affirms such attempts—moreover, successful attempts.
Arthur Edward Waite, in his work The Secret Tradition in Alchemy, prefers to ignore fundamental facts in occultism as well as the evidence of contemporary psychical research. He uses his customary heavy artillery of criticism against this theory where a much simpler method of consideration would have been appropriate. He purports to despise this theory of the psychic transmutation of gold. In fact, he cites the protagonists of this theory as stating that although they realize fully the implications or possibilities of such transmutation they have not “proceeded to the praxis.” And from this Mr. Waite utters with attendant disparagements that such a feat is impossible.
While fully conscious of the philosophical implications of the spiritual interpretation of the alchemical theory insofar as it relates to transmutation, I join my predecessors in confessing that I too have not proceeded to the practice. But at the same time I am aware of the research and development which has taken place in the past and is proceeding contemporaneously in modern laboratories. The evidence of psychical research is material, which it would be unwise for any critic to ignore, let alone ridicule. The various phenomena which do occur, and whose accuracy and verisimilitude has been vouched for and attested by honourable and trustworthy men, indicates that within man are strange and wonderful powers but rarely active in the normal individual. Not only so, but that these psychic factors are able to affect and influence the objective world to an extraordinary degree. Consider, for example, the phenomenon of apports. Objects, living and inorganic, make their appearance in the séance-room out of the blue. It seems as if the magical power activated within the medium is able to transplant objects in complete disregard of the laws of the three-dimensional world with which we are familiar, and to which we have become accustomed. How can we explain this phenomenon? Flowers are whirled into a room, closed, locked, and barred—apparently through the floor, ceiling, or the four walls from somewhere exterior to that room. Whatever the true explanation, we are face to face with powers of the psyche that may act upon so-called solid matter and change and modify its nature solely by psychic activity. In the face of the vast body of testimony collected by psychical research, quite apart from spiritualism, we may say that any individual who ignores such testimony is one who is a coward intellectually, afraid to accept any truth which does not conform to his predilections.
This is one aspect of the subject. The other aspect may be less acceptable to critics, though its validity is attested to by vast numbers of individuals, and by tradition, secular and religious. In the Eastern spiritual philosophies it is a commonplace that devotion to the religious life, or the practice of spiritual techniques, quite definitely develops abnormal powers in the psyche. These are known in India as the Siddhis. Legend is rife as to the miracles, so-called, that may be achieved by fakirs, anchorites, and Yogis. Most of these with whom the average tourist comes into contact are manifestly hardly spiritual types. But for the purpose of our argument that hardly matters. These individuals have followed the primary rule of occult practice. By doing certain things, certain results will follow. This rule they have followed, and have achieved a certain control over mind and body, developing an enormous potential of will which is capable of acting directly upon material things. Such a philosophy of psychism, extended considerably so as to include spiritual development, is the only one which will explain the miracles of Scripture. Most Western theologians, unable to explain these phenomena, and incapable of accepting them in the face of scientific criticism, have thrown them overboard, thus interfering very considerably with biblical narrative and verisimilitude. By adopting the philosophy of Yoga, or any allied or similar art, we have a complete explanation to hand. Through the pursuit of a specialized and scientific study of the psyche, in various of its branches which are not included in modern psychological knowledge, the awakening spirit within manifests through the personality undreamt-of faculties and powers. The exercise of these spiritual powers are responsible for the miracles of both the Old and New Testaments and the scriptures of the East. Moreover, I suggest the interested reader consult Hereward Carrington’s excellent work on the psychic life of Christ entitled Loaves and Fishes.161
In view of both these lines of evidence, the Yoga philosophy of India and modern psychical research, I see on theoretical grounds no valid reason why the interior psychical or magical power should not be able to effect a physical transmutation. If this power can move a physical object without physical contact; if it can exude its own subjective astral substance into objective materialization; if, finally, it can pass one solid object through another without injury or damage to either, why then should it not be able to rearrange the atomic structure of a metal? Theoretically, there is no reason why it should not be so, and I feel confident that, although I have not proceeded to the practice thereof, the future will demonstrate and confirm the truth of what these ancient students have affirmed. In doing so, it will rout with dishonour carping and over-critical students who, because of their long study and supposed insight into the subject, should know better. It is time that such were silenced.
134. Bramwell, J. Milne, Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory (London: J. B. Lippincott, Co., 1903).
135. Atwood, Chapter III, “The Mysteries continued,” 203.
136. Waite, The Book of Lambspring, from The Hermetic Museum, 276.
137. Atwood, “Appendix: Table Talk and Memorabilia of Mary Anne Atwood,” 565.
138. Ibid., 567.
139. Wilhelm, “Heavenly Consciousness (the Heart),” from Secret of the Golden Flower, 24.
140. Pryse, The Apocalypse Unsealed (New York: Cosimo Inc. 2007), 12. Originally published in 1910.
141. From “The Prayer of Osiris,” published in Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 334.
142. See Chapter Six: “The Second Key,” paragraph 1.
143. “Hunting the Greene Lyon,” an English alchemical verse from Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Transcribed by Justin von Bujdoss (http://www.levity.com/alchemy/tcbglyon.html). Printed in Atwood, Part III: Chapter 1: “Of the Experimental Method and Fermentation of the Philosophic Subject, According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and Some Others,” 316.
144. Ibid., 310.
145. Evans-Wentz, W. Y., Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines: Seven Books of Wisdom of the Great Path (London: Oxford University Press, 1978), 156—57. Originally published in 1935.
146. Atwood, Part III: Chapter 1: “Of the Experimental Method and Fermentation of the Philosophic Subject, According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and Some Others,” 277.
147. Atwood, “Appendix: Table Talk and Memorabilia of Mary Anne Atwood,” 561.
148. Ibid., 567.
149. See Regardie, The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1998).
150. See Regardie, The Art of True Healing (San Rafael, CA: The Classic Wisdom Collection, 1991). Originally published in 1932.
151. Eeman, L. E., Self and Superman: the Technique of Conscious Evolution (London: Author-Partner Press, 1929).
152. See Chapter Six, “The Third Key,” paragraph 2.
153. Ibid., para. 3.
154. Ibid., para. 4.
155. From Psellus and Pletho’s Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles, See Westcott, “The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster,” Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. VI., 52, number 191. This quotation was incorporated into the Practicus Ritual. See Regardie, The Golden Dawn, 171.
156. Atwood, “Appendix: Table Talk and Memorabilia of Mary Anne Atwood,” 564—65.
157. See Regardie, “Fourth Knowledge Lecture,” The Golden Dawn, 70—71.
158. Revelation 22:1.
159. Revelation 21:6.
160. See Chapter Six, “The Third Key,” paragraph 13.
161. Carrington, Hereward, Loaves and Fishes (Kila, MT, Kessinger, 2005). Originally published in 1935 by Charles Scribner’s Sons.