by Marcus Katz
But you, my friend, concerning mystical visions,
with your journey more firmly determined,
leave behind
your senses and intellectual activities, sensible and invisible things,
all nonbeing and being;
and in this state of unknowing be restored,
insofar as it is possible, to unity with Him
who is above all essence and knowledge. For transcending yourself and all things,
by the immeasurable and absolute ecstasy of a pure mind, leaving behind all things
and freed from all things, you will ascend
to the superessential ray of the divine darkness.”
After the Passing Over: Magister Templi (Binah), Magus (Chockmah) and Ipssisimus (Kether)
As a conclusion, Bonaventure notes that during the final stages of contemplation and work, it is acceptance of death or unity with the ‘fire’ which alone can achieve a successful conclusion, in order that we may “pass out of this world to the Father.” If the work of the lower sephiroth is characterised by enquiry, and that of the middle sephiroth by being, then the work of the upper sephiroth is that of transcendence.
Bonaventure’s prose is extremely straightforward, despite a tendency to repeat a theme by listing aspects of it from many angles, and as such is quite accessible to the student of mystical attainment.
This fire is God,
and his furnace is in Jerusalem.
The Alchemical Amphitheatre
In this section, we learn of the place of our Work, the real Temple and discover the Hidden College.[5] The work of the Order of Everlasting Day is carried out in the Crucible, a network of activity which operates under ten temples, in which initiates work at the appointed time and fashion:
Malkuth: Temple of Anubis
Yesod: Temple of Harpocrates
Hod: Temple of Sothis
Netzach: Temple of Isis
Tiphareth: Temple of Ra
Geburah: Temple of Horus
Chesed: Temple of Amoun
Binah: Temple of Nephthys
Chockmah: Temple of Thoth
Kether: Temple of Maat
As these Temples are always available and functional (in either a virtual or realised sense), they operate within each grade. As an initiate passes through the work and experiences of each grade, they access intimations of these Temples at higher grades. In a spiral path we work a complete system of initiation. As there are passages between the grades, at any point – one may not have the necessity or grace to complete the work within any particular Temple – we make our way to the Shrine of Stars, to transition between the grades.
Beyond and above all, there exists the Sanctuary of Nuit which provides a contemplative space for those passing between Temples.
During the operation of the work of the Temple in which one is exploring, there are three forms of activity, which may be carried out sequentially or concurrently. These are modelled on architectural terms to suit the service the work provides in the building of our inner temple:
Pillar: Practice, ritual and workings (techne)
Archway: Contemplative, meditative work (praxis)
Passage: Ideas and principles, context, learning work (theoria)
These activities are bound together by the fundamental teaching of correspondence and experience – we learn to apply these to our actual and daily life, to engage it more fully, not escape it. Nor do we use our work as a prop or a substitute for anything else.[6]
In the Temple of Harpocrates, for example, we learn more of silence and secrecy. The god Harpocrates is often shown as a child or figure touching their finger to their lip in the universal sign of silence. In the Golden Dawn, this position is one of two positions given to the Neophyte to learn as representing their state.
As with any posture, it also signifies a mental state – a spiritual asana or attitude.
For the process of calcination, the slow burning fire, to complete successfully, it is silence and secrecy that must be observed in order to create an hermetically sealed vessel – yourself – with no leak at the seams.
This allows the alchemical work of change being wrought by the techniques and contemplations, methods and models, to intensify and work upon itself – inwards – to change your relationship and awareness of the universe. The more that is spoken, the more that is revealed, the less the Work can be done.
We say at this grade, “The worker is hidden in the workshop.” This idea, which comes from Sufism, is also prevalent in alchemy, which we turn to in order to see where we perform this work and upon what it is performed. Although the answer is obvious, it is worth stating, as later it may be that the obvious answer is experienced in a more profound manner.
Although most people believe that alchemy was mainly concerned with turning lead to gold, and other early chemical experiments taking place in secret laboratories, many alchemists also practised alchemy as a spiritual art and science. That the alchemical process is an internal process as well as an external process is intimated by Daniel Mogling (under the pseudonym of Theophilus Schweighardt) in The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians (1616).[7]
Here we see that although there are three aspects of the alchemical work – the ‘ora’ or prayer, the ‘labora’ in fields and streams, and the ‘atte natura’ or examination of Nature in the workshop, divided into both a primary and secondary work (‘ergon et parergon’) –the hidden skull symbolism and the textual reference to “climb down from the mountain and look with thy left eye (but with the right eye maintaining its precedence) into time and the creatures” both suggest changes in the state or awareness of the alchemist.
Indeed, Mogling furthermore stresses: “‘Know Thyself! Know Thyself!’ I say, and so thou shalt come to pansophic perfection...”
Theophilus Schweighardt, The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians (1616)
This movement to a spiritual (pansophic) working of alchemy is also evident in the works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1601), whose Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom[8] depicts a place of working where the laboratory has become a lab-oratorium; a place of prayer and meditation. Furthermore, such alchemists as Paracelsus “mainly regarded alchemy as important for the curing of disease and the prolongation of life” rather than just as an entirely external discipline. Although Paracelsus indeed calls alchemy an art, with Vulcan its artist – denoting a more practical aspect – he also states that alchemy means:
... to carry to its end something that has not yet been completed.
It is this unfinished business that the Great Work is concerned with: the idea that the universe is unfinished, and that we are co-creators in completing it by completing ourselves. This task is not only a singular ‘heroic’ journey but a mythic and universal one – as we have earlier seen within the framework of Naturphilosophie. The idea of co-creation in an evolving universe can be found as an idea as early as Plato in Timaeus and as contemporary a notion within astrophysics as in The Unfinished Universe by Louise B. Young.[9]
So universe is our Temple, our amphitheatre, our Work. The Self in relation to universe is our method, our aim and our currently present state. It is only in each moment that we may find the gold – the Philosophers’ Stone, the Summun Bonum, the ‘good end’ which is ever-present. It is this we must remember through all our techniques, which are only essential to bring about a remembrance of this state – this truth, this nature – and not to distract us further.
Heinrich Khunrath. Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae. (Hamburg, 1595)
On Dreams and States of Consciousness
Our main engagement in universe is through consciousness. It is here that we perceive of ourselves as a state or a process of being. Our awareness and attention present a changing state in which our perceptions interact with universe. In such a field arises a sense of identity and separation.
This situation – the ‘darkness’ from which the Neophyte is brought into the ‘light’ – is mapped on the Tree of L
ife by the path between Malkuth, the Kingdom and world of action, and Yesod, the Foundation and realm of illusion, ego and dreams (also the realm of the sense of self and separation). The tarot card corresponding to the path is The World or Universe. It is also the only path that has two correspondences in astrology: of Earth (space) and of Saturn (time). It simultaneously presents to us both reality and the illusionary sense of reality.
The engagement of the unconscious will become present in our Work as we progress, through dreams and visions. This shifting of state will be mapped by our later initiation into the grade corresponding to Yesod on the Tree of Life.
The development of such unconscious processes is also evident in the writings of the alchemists. Like those in psychotherapeutic analysis, these writings record the occurrence of vivid symbolic dreams and visions. C.G. Jung was aware of this, writing that “the alchemists themselves testify to the occurrence of dreams and visions during the Opus.” He references Nazari, the Visio Arislei, Ostanes, Senior, Krates, Ventura, and Khunrath all as acknowledging dreams as important sources of revelation.
This activation of the unconscious is evident in as early a text as the Visions of Zosimos (c. 300 A.D.),[10] to the literary construct of The Alchemical Wedding by J.V. Andreae (1616).[11] Compare the following two accounts from these works:
And having had this vision I awoke again and I said to myself “what is the occasion of this vision? ...”
and
Whereupon the trumpets began to sound again, which gave me such a shock that I woke up, and then perceived that it was only a dream, but it so strongly impressed my imagination that I was still perpetually troubled about it, and I thought I still felt the wounds upon my feet.
Or the poetic account given in the alchemical text, John Dastin’s Dream,[12] published by Elias Ashmole (1652), which indicates the same state – which is not so much dream-like (asleep) as more specifically a hypnagogic state:
Not yet full sleping, nor yet full waking, But betweene twayne lying in a traunce;
Halfe closed mine Eyne in my slumbering ...
As one proceeds through the work of the Crucible, we expect to notice an irruption of unconscious processes through dream, daydream and vision. It is this arising of new content that requires constant integration through the methods of the practical teachings.
The Guardian on the Threshold and the Inner Guide
At each stage of the work there is an assisting guide as well as a challenging guardian. In many ways, like Janus, the Roman god of transitions, these could be considered different faces of the same entity or experience. At first, this assistance is through an external teacher, book or course. At the same time, these teachers, books and courses cause us to rely upon their teachings and advice, increasing dependency, not releasing it. This is inevitable at the first stage but must become undone later.
We must remind ourselves that, in the end, we are alone in this path – although perhaps that loneliness is more profound and complex than it appears at present.
The constant interruptions and sudden challenges we meet in the early stages of the Work are notorious and common. The challenge can be boredom, distraction, trials, and tribulations, but they all serve a simple function – to pull us back into the world. This is the Guardian on the Threshold of the first stage. Often this can manifest as a dark and disturbing nightmare, where an actual presence is felt – esoteric and occult literature is full of such accounts.[13]
The Hermetic Garden of Daniel Stolcius (1624)
Guide Figure from the Book of Lambspring (1625)
Sometimes this happens in the world between sleep and waking, either as we drift into sleep or up into awakening. This is called the hypnagogic state. It has also been noted that the hypnagogic state often brings with it a sense of a presence outside of the individual.[14]
There are particular emblems in alchemical literature that incorporate the presence of a guide, often as a representation of Hermes Trismegestus, as from this image from The Hermetic Garden of Daniel Stolcius (1624). Or this image of the Guide Figure from The Book of Lambspring (1625).[15]
In even earlier texts, the guide – or sense of another presence outside the alchemist – is present, as in the works of Zosimos, where we encounter “a little man, a barber, whitened by years,” who responds to the question of his identity by describing himself as “a spirit and a guardian of spirits.”
We will return to this guide and to this guardian at another time. For now, it is enough that we are made aware that they are present and can recognise them when we encounter them – as we surely will.
The Invisible College
The Invisible college of the Rosicrucians, Theophilus Schweighardt Speculum sophicum rhodo-stauroticum, 1618
There is a building, a great building lacking windows and doors, a princely, aye imperial palace, everywhere visible, but hidden from the eyes of men, adorned with all kinds of divine and natural things, the contemplation of which in theory and practice is granted to every man free of charge and remuneration, but heeded by few because the building appears as bad, little worth, old and well-known to the mind of the mob who are ever heedless and seekers after things new; but the building itself is so precious, so delicate, artistic and wonderful in its construction that no wealth, gold, jewel, money, goods, honour, authority or reputation in the whole world can be named which is not to be found in that high reputable palace in high degree.
It is itself so strongly fortified by God and nature, and preserved against the onslaught of the ignorant, that even though all the mines, cannon, battering-rams and petards and such recently invented military devices were used against it all human endeavour and toil would be useless and in vain. This is the Collegium ad S.S. of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, this is the royal, nay more than imperial palace of which the brethren in their ‘Fama’ make mention, herein are hidden the inexpressible costly treasures and riches – let this be a sufficiently lucid account thereof.
Oh how many men go unknowing and without understanding through all the rooms, all the secret hidden places of this palace, unseeing, uncomprehending, worse than a blind man, or as the saying goes, as a donkey on a bagpipe, because they have not been sufficiently prepared and made worthy. He who hath ears, let him hear.[16]
The contemporary writer on alchemy, Adam McLean, suggests that the iconography of alchemy presents a psychological and spiritual opportunity for communication with the divine, as we will see in our contemplation work:
Alchemical emblems are not textual information encoded in symbols which can be precisely decrypted into a ‘meaning’, but they are instead dynamic gateways, before which we can stand and allow ourselves to enter into an inner dialogue with the imagery.[17]
Whether chemical, spiritual, spagyric, or philosophical, the enduring legacy of alchemy in psychology is evident in a range of titles both popular and academic.
We conclude in the words of Silberer, discussing the goal of alchemy, taking from H.A. Hitchcock:
Here lies one of the greatest mysteries of the whole of alchemy ... If, for example, it is said that whoever wishes to make gold must have gold, we must suppose that the seeker of truth must be true ...[18]
The Invisible College is before our eyes, as we have eyes to see. It is to this aim that we dedicate ourselves in the Crucible.
On Initiation and Calcination
When you continue this work of the Outer Court for several months, learning and practising the basic exercises, you may find yourself settling into a routine – a rather curious sense of boredom, even. Some students find disappointment setting in, and a little anxiety. Some students choose at this point to give the work up as not being what they expected.
The daily tasks of keeping a dream diary and a magical record seem to dry up in insight, which seemed to be present at the beginning. The tutor or texts being followed may even seem unresponsive and irrelevant.
This is – albeit a fact you must presently take on trust, or ask those who hav
e gone through this first year – all to be expected and essential to further progress. You might be surprised how common and predictable this stage is.
It is best described by alchemy. Although there are many versions of the stages of alchemy, the one I use ascribes the process of calcination to the first esoteric grades of Neophyte and Zelator. This first year is the work of the Neophyte becoming the Zelator – one who has ‘zeal’. As such, the process of calcination is seen as a dry, steady, gentle heat. It shakes out – quietly, slowly, almost unnoticeably – old habits and resistances, attachments and tired viewpoints, perspectives and memories. It gently dries them out into the boredom of the work, as the new – willed and magical – habits instil themselves as a framework. With the Lesser Banishing Ritual you are orientating yourself in space; with the Liber Resh observation you are orientating yourself in time. With the Middle Pillar exercise you will start to equilibrate yourself, and with the Rose Cross exercise which follows later you will come to equilibrate your environment. These four techniques are the four elemental parts of Malkuth, the Kingdom, which the Zelator inhabits.