Tagged with 'Alchemy'

In hindsight, the external articulation and vibrant eccentricity of a vital essence for all living things in the universe is an innovation that probably originated with the Swiss physician, alchemist and philosopher Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim or Paracelsus (1493-1541).

In Bali, making an offering to the gods requires three things: holy water, smoke, and flowers.
They are wrapped in incadescent, almost neon green leaves, built in boxes of woven thatch and placed in entryways, near statues of ganesh adorned with a single flower petal, usually bright red, a vortex of welcoming infinity.

Sulphur first appears as a generative force in an eighth to tenth century tractate entitled Liber misericordiae within the alchemical compendium Corpus Jabirianum attributed to the Arab polymath Jabir ibn Hayyan, the Pseudo-Geber (c. 721-815).

Saturn or lead represents the first rupture of the prima materia, the initial expression of manifesting consciousness. This we can discern by looking at its esoteric symbol, a cross mounted atop a lunar crescent.

The formative force of the cosmos actively expressed by the planet Jupiter and passively by the metal tin represents a rupture that stands much closer to the feminine aesthetic pole of lunar consciousness than to the masculine aesthetic pole of solar consciousness.

Comprised of active planetary and passive metallic energies, the Martian formative force stands near the centre of a cosmological schema in which the masculine aesthetic, symbolized by the Sun or gold, and the feminine aesthetic, symbolized by the moon or silver, inhabit each end as polar opposites.

Contrary to what the occult dilettante or historical romanticist may think, the esoteric undercurrent known as Hermeticism has never been a distinctive philosophical edifice in its own right, nor has it competed for cultural prominence against the major monotheistic religions–Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

In contradistinction to the other four planetary forces and their metals which symbolise unique ruptures in the prima materia or first substance, the volatile and elusive mercurial power is a synonym for the entire cosmological process of becoming–in other words the coming-to-be of pure forms, of intellect or incarnated light from the receptive and creative mirror of the prima materia.

Thus far we have discerned that the metal gold and the Sun represent the active, masculine aesthetic polarity on the cosmological totem pole of pure consciousness. Alternatively, the metal silver and the moon are exoteric markers for the passive, feminine aesthetic polarity on the same cosmological design.

At the lowermost point of the ethereal cosmological ladder lies the passive, feminine pole. Anyone can penetrate the veil of corporeal appearances and see as well as understand the cosmological truths directly beneath by studying two intimately connected features–a primary source of light and its reflecting or refracting surface.

As the Occupy segment of our inspired mission meets its inevitable conclusion, REJOICE!, for we can now move forward into OPERATION VACATE AND DISPERSE. Then we begin WITHDRAWAL. Forgive me, but the localization of our effort was why Occupy was needed, and to avoid infiltration we should've vacated and dispersed a long time ago.

Influenced by my "Esoteric Symbols" blog tour, fellow esotericist Jen Francis begins working on talismans associated with each symbol. Pictured above are fire, air, water and earth, ordered according to the directions of their movement.

A word that's been bouncing around my skull like a slug from a .22 is RECUPERATION. Any of our Situationist friends out there may recognize this term- detournment's insidious flip-side; the assimilation of radical ideas into mainstream consciousness and their devolution into commodifiable forms.