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THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT IS MADE
PART VII
Those who have studied the writings of
the ancient alchemists have always been much mystified by what is said
concerning the philosopher's stone and the process of transmuting the base
metals into gold. These claims have naturally given rise to a great deal
of vague speculation. From time to time, students have asked for a direct
statement from the writer concerning this subject of paramount importance,
and as we are standing upon the threshold of a new age where this precious
jewel with all its power will be evolved and possessed by a considerable
number of people, we feel that it is important to divest the subject of
all the mystery that surrounds it and speak in plain terms concerning the
matter. Then all who really wish to take the trouble involved, for it
involves arduous labor, nothing worth having being ever gained without
cost, may know how to make for themselves this great gem.
We are taught that in the beginning God
created Heaven and Earth--the whole universe in fact, and we understand
that this great creative force expresses itself either as WILL or
IMAGINATION. By imagination the Great Architect of the Universe must first
have visualized everything as it now is, or as it was first created, and
then by His will the physical atoms were marshaled into this matrix of
thought, thus gradually bringing the universe into manifestation as
designed by its creator. Nor is this process complete, but will continue
until the whole has become perfect as originally designed.
The divine Hierarchies who have carried
out the plan of the great Creator also use the same dual creative force
when fashioning the crystal in the mineral, the leaf of the plant, or the
shape of the animal. Their powerful imagination pictures in the archetypal
region of the earth that which they desire to create, and their
concentrated will moulds the coarser matter into this matrix until it
assumes a definite physical form as desired.
Man, the spirit, has a like creative
power, and has through the ages, under the guidance of the Gods, learned
to build bodies of increasing value as instruments for his expression. But
his pilgrimage through matter was undertaken for the purpose of making him
an independent creative intelligence, and to attain that end it was
necessary that he should at the proper time, be emancipated from the
guardianship of the Gods, so that he might learn to create, not only for
himself, but also to aid and to teach others in the great School of Life.
During the course of his evolution, Man
has become more and more enlightened concerning the mystery of Life; but
nevertheless, it is only a few hundred years ago when life and liberty
were endangered by the expression of opinions in advance of the commonly
accepted views. It was for this reason that the alchemists who had studied
more deeply that the majority, were forced to embody their teachings in
highly allegorical and symbolical language. Their teaching concerning the
spiritual evolution of man, and their use of the terms SALT, SULPHUR,
MERCURY, and AZOTH, so mystifying to the masses, were nevertheless rooted
in cosmic truths, highly illuminating to the Initiate. The students of the
Rosicrucian teachings who have learned how the world came into being and
the process of gradual creation should have no difficulty in properly
understanding every part of the alchemist's language.
We know in the first place, that there
was a time when Man-in-the-making was a hermaphrodite, male-female, and
able to create from himself, and we remember also that at that time he was
like the plant in other respects. His consciousness was like that which we
possess in dreamless sleep and which is possessed by the plant. The vital
energy which he absorbed into his body was used solely for the purpose of
growing, until the time of propagation came, when a new budding body was
cast off to grow also. There was no incentive to action, but if there had
been, Man would have had no mind or will to direct it.
For the emancipation of humanity from
this negative condition, one-half of the creative force was turned upward
under the direction of the angels for the purpose of building a larynx and
a brain, that man might learn to create by thought as do the divine
Hierarchies, and express the creative thought in words. Thus man ceased to
be physically hermaphrodite and became uni-sexual. He can no longer create
from himself PHYSICALLY as do the hermaphrodite plants, nor PSYCHICALLY as
do the Elohim, the male-female Hierarchs, in whose image he was originally
made, and thus he occupies at the present time, an unenviable intermediate
position between the plant and the God.
At the time when one half of the human
sex force was diverted for the purpose of building a brain, men were
helpless and lacking in knowledge of how to overcome conditions. They did
not even have the consciousness to know that there was a difficulty, and
had no outside help been given the race must have died out. Therefore the
Angels from the Moon, who were the guardians of mankind, herded the sexes
together in great temples at times when the interplanetary lines of force
were propitious to propagation and thus they perpetuated the race. It was
also proposed that when the brain had been completed, the Lords of
Mercury, Elder Brothers of our present humanity who excelled in
intelligence, should teach us how to use the mind and make it truly
creative so that we would no longer be dependent upon the separate sexual
process of generation now in vogue. Thus by the work of these two great
Hierarchies, we were raised from unconsciousness to the first stage of
creative intelligence, FROM PLANT TO GOD.
We have also learned that this plan was
frustrated by the Lucifer Spirits, stragglers from the humanity of the
Moon Period, who lived upon the planet Mars. They needed a physical field
of action, but were unable to create one for themselves, hence for selfish
reasons they taught humanity how by cooperation of the sexes a new body
may be created at any time; and in order to give an incentive they
instilled into mankind the animalistic passionate nature which we now
possess.
Thus to the ancient alchemists, the
Angels from the Moon which rules the saline tides of the sea were
designated by the term "SALT." They had found that a certain amount of
salt in the blood is necessary to the mental processes, also that excess
salt in the blood produces insanity, as best proven by the experiences of
shipwrecked sailors who become LUNATICS when they drink water containing
the lunar element SALT. Thus also they established a connection between
the Moon and mind.
The fiery Lucifer Spirits who have taken
such a baneful part in man's evolution became associated with the fiery
element "SULPHUR." The alchemists said that man is rendered unconscious
and dies by continuous inhalation of this element; so man, the spirit, was
rendered unconscious of and dead to the spiritual realms by the teachings
which were instilled into him by the Lucifer Spirits.
The metal MERCURY, they contended, is
the most elusive of all metals. It will penetrate and evaporate through
most substances with which it is brought in contact; and therefore they
likened it to the Lords of Mercury who are past masters in penetrating the
secrets of nature by the mind. Mercury is also capable of freeing the
spirit from its physical prison house.
By the process of GENERATION carried on
at a propitious time under the guidance of the Angels, man was treading
the path from plant to God, following the highway of evolution as
originally planned.
From this path he strayed into the
byways of DEGENERATION, led by the Lucifer Spirits, and is therefore now
as it were in a slough from which he cannot extricate himself save with
the help of others further advanced than he.
When this becomes apparent to him and he
starts to search for light, he stands at the pathway of REGENERATION
guarded by the Lords of Mercury who with their wisdom will guide him
toward the desired goal. The method as outlined by the ancient alchemists
we shall discuss when we have summed up in a few words the points made.
These must be firmly fixed in mind to appreciate the full value of what
follows.
The creative force used by God to bring
a solar system into manifestation, and the force used by the divine
Hierarchies to form the physical vehicle of the lower kingdoms over which
they rule as group spirits, expresses itself in a dual manner as WILL and
IMAGINATION, and is the same as the UNITED creative force of the male and
the female which results in the creation of a human body. At one time man
was bi-sexual, male-female, and therefore each was able to propagate his
species without assistance from anyone else. But one-half of the creative
force has been temporarily diverted upwards to build a brain and larynx in
order to enable him sometime to create by his own mind, to form thoughts
and speak the word of power that shall make his thoughts flesh. Three
great creative Hierarchies were particularly concerned in bringing about
this change: the ANGELS from the Moon, the MERCURIANS, and the LUCIFER
SPIRITS from Mars. The Alchemists connected the Angels from the Moon,
which rules the saline tides, with the element SALT, the Lucifer Spirits
from Mars with the element SULPHUR, and the Mercurians with the metal
MERCURY. They used this symbolic presentation partly because of the
religious intolerance which made it unsafe to promulgate any other
teaching than that sanctioned by the orthodox church of that day, and
partly because humanity as a whole was not yet ready to accept the truths
which were embodied in their philosophy. They also spoke of a fourth
element, AZOTH, a name composed of the first and last letters of our
classical languages and intended to convey the same idea as "alpha and
omega"--that of all-inclusiveness. This referred to what we now know as
the spiritual ray of Neptune, which is the octave of Mercury and which is
the sublimated essence of spiritual power.
The alchemists knew that the moral and
physical nature of man had become gross and coarse on account of the
passions inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits, and that, therefore, a process
of distillation and refinement was necessary to eliminate these
characteristics and elevate man to the sublime heights where the splendor
of the spirit is no longer obscured by the coarse coating which now hides
it from view. They therefore regarded the body as a laboratory and spoke
of the spiritual processes in chemical terms. They noted that these
processes have their inception and their particular field of activity in
the spinal cord that forms the link between the two creative organs, THE
BRAIN, which is the field of operation for the intellectual Mercurians,
and THE GENITALS, which are the vantage ground of the sensuous and
passionate Lucifer Spirits.
This tripartite spinal cord was to the
alchemists the crucible of consciousness; they knew that in the
sympathetic section of the cord which governs the functions that have to
do particularly with the upkeep and welfare of the body, the Lunar Angels
were specially active and this segment was therefore designated as the
element SALT. The segment governing the motor nerves which expend the
dynamic energy stored in the body by our food they saw clearly to be under
the dominance of the Martial Lucifer Spirits, and they, therefore, named
that segment SULPHUR. The remaining segment, which marks and registers the
sensations carried by the nerves, was named MERCURY, because it was said
to be under the dominance of spiritual beings from Mercury. THE SPINAL
CANAL, contrary to the ideas of anatomists, is NOT filled with fluid, but
with a gas that is like steam in that it may be condensed when exposed to
the outside atmosphere, but may also be super- heated by the vibratory
activity of the spirit to such an extent that it becomes a brilliant and
luminous fire, the fire of purification and regeneration. This is the
field of action of the great spiritual Hierarchy from Neptune and is
designated AZOTH by the alchemists. This spiritual fire is not alike in
every man nor is it as luminous in one as in another. The state thereof
depends upon the spiritual advancement of the person in question.
When the aspirant to the higher life had
been instructed in these mysteries of symbolism and the time had come to
speak to him plainly, the following teachings were communicated to him,
not necessarily in these words nor in this manner. But at any rate he was
given to understand and it was made clear to him that--"anatomically man
belongs to the animals, and that below that kingdom in the scale of
evolution are the plants. They are pure and INNOCENT, their propagative
practices are untainted by passion, and their WHOLE creative force is
turned UPWARDS toward the light, where it manifests as the flower, a thing
of joy and beauty for all to behold. Yet the plants are unable to do
otherwise, for they have no intelligence, no consciousness of the outside
world and no free-will in action. They can only create in the physical
world, however.
"Above man in the scale of evolution are
the gods, creators upon the spiritual and physical planes. They also are
pure as the plants, for their WHOLE creative force is also turned UPWARDS
and is expended in whatever manner their intelligence directs; and knowing
good and evil, they always do good by choice.
"Between the gods and the plant kingdom
stands man, a being endowed with intelligence, creative power and
free-will to use it for good or ill. At present, however, he is dominated
by the passion instilled by the Lucifer Spirits and sends one-half of his
creative force DOWNWARD from the light to gratify his senses. In his
innermost soul he realizes that this is wrong, and hence he hides his
creative instinct in shame and is outraged when it is dragged into the
light. This condition must be altered ere spiritual progress can be made,
and, therefore, you must carefully consider the similarity between the
chaste plant and the pure spiritual gods who BOTH TURN THEIR WHOLE
CREATIVE POWER UPWARDS TOWARDS THE LIGHT. In the course of evolution you
have risen above the plant, which has creative power only in the physical
world, and have become like the gods possessing creative power, on both
the mental and the physical planes of being, besides intelligence and
free-will to direct it. This was accomplished by the diversion of one-half
of your sex-force UPWARDS for building a brain and larynx, organs which
are still fed and nourished by this uplifting half of the sex-force. But
while the gods direct their WHOLE creative force to ALTRUISTIC PURPOSES by
the power of mind, you still squander one-half of your divine heritage
upon desire and sense-gratification. If, therefore, you would become as
they, YOU MUST LEARN TO TURN YOUR WHOLE CREATIVE ENERGY UPWARD TO BE USED
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF YOUR INTELLIGENCE ENTIRELY. Thus only can you
become as the gods and create from yourself by the power of your mind and
the GREAT WORD whereby you may speak the creative fiat. Remember that
PHYSICALLY you were once hermaphrodite like the plant and able to create
from yourself. Look into the future now through the perspective of the
past and realize that your present uni-sexual condition is only a
temporary phase of evolution and that in the future your WHOLE creative
force must be turned UPWARDS SO THAT YOU SHALL BECOME A HERMAPHRODITE
SPIRITUALLY, and thus able to objectify your ideas and speak THE LIVING
WORD which shall endue them with life and make them vibrant with vital
energy. This DUAL creative force thus expressed through the brain and
larynx is the 'ELIXIR-VITAE' which springs from THE LIVING STONE of the
spiritually hermaphrodite philosopher. The alchemical process of kindling
and elevating it is accomplished in the spinal cord where the SALT,
SULPHUR, MERCURY and AZOTH are found. It is raised to incandescence by
high and noble thought, by meditation upon spiritual subjects, and by
altruism expressed in the daily life. The second half of the creative
energy thus drawn upward through the spinal canal is a SPINAL SPIRIT-FIRE,
the serpent of wisdom. Gradually it is raised higher and higher and when
it reaches the pituitary body and the pineal gland in the brain, it sets
them to vibrating, opening up the spiritual worlds and enabling man to
commune with the gods. Then this fire radiates in all directions and
permeates the whole body and its auric atmosphere, and man has become a
LIVING STONE, whose luster surpasses that of the diamond or the ruby. HE
IS THEN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE."
There are many other symbols and similes
taken from the world of chemistry and applied to the processes of
spiritual growth which eventually makes men living stones in the temple of
God. But enough has been said in the foregoing to show what was meant by
the ancient alchemists by such terms and the reason why they clothed their
teachings in symbolical language. The way of initiation is, however, and
has always bee open to anyone who really an truly seeks for enlightenment
and is willing to pay the price in the coin of self-denial and
self-sacrifice. Therefore, seek the temple door and you shall find it;
knock and it shall be opened unto you. If you SEEK prayerfully, if you
KNOCK persistently and if you LABOR manfully you will in time reach the
goal and you will BECOME The Philosopher's Stone.
CELIBACY AND MARRIAGE
In order to avoid misunderstanding, it
should be said that this lesson was only given to the aspirant to
discipleship to show him the reason why it is necessary for him to live a
pure and chaste life. It does not apply to the masses who have no
spiritual aspirations and are as yet unable to restrain their passions.
The Rosicrucians do not even advocate an entirely celibate life for their
pupils; indeed they regard it as a religious duty for the enlightened
mystic, man or woman, to wed a kindred spirit if such can be found, and
thus furnish incoming souls a particularly advantageous opportunity for
rebirth. When such a devoted couple perform the generative act in a spirit
of aspiration to serve a waiting ego, when the prenatal conditions are
pure mentally, morally and physically, when the early childhood days of
the ego thus born are spent in a home atmosphere of high and noble
thought, both parents and children are making wonderful progress. And as
great souls cannot be born to ignoble parents any more than water can sink
below its level, it would, indeed, be very wrong for aspirants to
discipleship to live an entirely celibate life for the sake of self-
advancement when conditions permit them to wed; furthermore, the
expenditure of the creative force at the few times in a life when it is
LEGITIMATELY REQUIRED for propagation would not seriously interfere with
the spiritual development undertaken to BECOME The Philosopher's Stone,
and the soul- growth gained by assuming the duties of parenthood would far
outweigh any possible loss.
What the Rosicrucians teach then is that
marriage between people who will limit their use of the creative function
to the purpose of propagation is eminently good, noble and productive of
great soul-growth, but that unmarried aspirant should live an absolutely
celibate life if they wish to attain the highest.
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