this sacred place of deposite, wherein all naked the sublime Truth is
hidden; for he may be assured that he has found the True Light, the True
Felicity, the True Heavenly Good. Then may it truly be said that he is
one of the True Elect; for it _is the only real and most Sublime Science
of all those to which a mortal can aspire_: his days will be prolonged,
and his soul freed of all vices and corruption; into which" (it is
added, to mislead, as if from fear too much would be disclosed), "_the
human race is often led by indigence_."
As the symbolism of the Hall and the language of the ritual mutually
explain each other, it should be noted here, that in this Degree the
columns of the hall, 12 in number, are white variegated with black and
red. The hangings are black, and over that crimson.
Over the throne is a great Eagle, in gold, on a black ground. In the
centre of the Canopy the Blazing Star in gold, with the letter Yōd in
its centre. On the right and left of the throne are the Sun in gold and
the Moon in silver. The throne is ascended to by _three_ Steps. The hall
and ante-room are each lighted by _ten_ lights, and a single one at the
entrance. The colors, black, white, and crimson appear in the clothing;
and the Key and Balance are among the symbols.
The duty of the Second Grand Prior, says the Ritual, is "to see if the
Chapter is hermetically sealed; whether the materials are ready, and the
elements; whether the Black gives place to the White, and the White to
the Red."
"Be laborious," it says, "like the Star, and procure the light of the
Sages, and hide yourself from the Stupid Profane and the Ambitious, and
be like the Owl, which sees only by night, and hides itself from
treacherous curiosity."
"The Sun, on entering each of his houses, should be received there by
the four elements, which you must be careful to invite to accompany you,
that they may aid you in your undertaking; for without them the House
would be melancholy: wherefore you will give him to feast upon the four
elements.
"When he shall have visited his twelve houses, and seen you attentive
there to receive him, you will become one of his chiefest favorites, and
he will allow you to share all his gifts. Matter will then no longer
have power over you; you will, so to say, be no longer a dweller on the
earth; but after certain periods you will give back to it a body which
is its own, to take in its stead one altogether Spiritual. Matter is
then deemed to be dead to the world.
"Therefore it must be re-vivified, and made to be born again from its
ashes, which you will effect by virtue of the vegetation of the Tree of
Life, represented to us by the branch of acacia. Whoever shall learn to
comprehend and execute this great work, will know great things, say the
Sages of the work; but whenever you depart from the centre of the Square
and the Compass you will no longer be able to work with success.
"Another Jewel is necessary for you, and in certain undertakings cannot
be dispensed with. It is what is termed the Kabalistic pantacle ... This
carries with it the power of commanding the spirits of the elements. It
is necessary for you to know how to use it, and that you will learn by
perseverance if you are a lover of the science of our predecessors the
Sages.
"A great Black Eagle, the King of Birds. He alone it is that can fire
the Sun, material in its nature, that has no form, and yet by its form
develops color. The black is a complete harbinger of the work: it
changes color and assumes a natural form, out whereof will emerge a
brilliant Sun.
"The birth of the Sun is always announced by its Star, represented by
the Blazing Star, which you will know by its fiery color; and it is
followed in its course by the silvery lustre of the Moon.
"A rough Ashlar is the shapeless stone which is to be prepared in order
to commence the philosophical work; and to be developed, in order to
change its form from triangular to cubic, after the separation from it
of its Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, by the aid of the Square, Level,
Plumb, and Balance, and all the other Masonic implements _which we use
symbolically_.
"Here me put them to philosophical use, to constitute a
well-proportioned edifice, through which you are to make pass the crude
material, analogous to a candidate commencing his initiation into our
Mysteries. When we build we must observe all the rules and proportions;
for otherwise the Spirit of Life cannot lodge therein. So you will build
the great tower, in which is to burn the fire of the Sages, or, in other
words, the fire of Heaven; as also the Sea of the Sages, in which the
Sun and Moon are to bathe. That is the basin of Purification, in which
will be the water of Celestial Grace, water that doth not soil the
hands, but purifies all leprous bodies.
"Let us labor to instruct our Brother, to the end that by his toils he
may succeed in discovering the principle of life contained in the
profundity of matter, and known by the name of _Alkahest_.
"The most potent of the names of Deity is ADONAI. Its power is to put
the Universe in movement; and the Knights who shall be fortunate enough
to possess it, with weight and measure, shall have at their disposition
all the potences that inhabit it, the Elements, and the cognizance of
all the virtues and sciences that man is capable of knowing. By its
power they would succeed in discovering the primary metal of the Sun,
which holds within itself the Principle of the germ, and wherewith we
can put in alliance and six other metals, each of which contains the
principles and primitive seed of the grand philosophical work.
"The six other metals are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and
Luna; vulgarly known as Lead, Tin, Iron, Copper, Quicksilver, and
Silver. Gold is not included; because it is not in its nature a metal.
It is all Spirit and incorruptible; wherefore it is the emblem of the
Sun, which presides over the Light.
"The vivifying Spirit, called Alkahest, has in itself the generative
virtue of producing the triangular Cubical Stone, and contains in itself
all the virtues to render men happy in this world and in that to come.
To arrive at the composition of that Alkahest, we begin by laboring at
the science of the union of the four Elements which are to be educed
from the three Kingdoms of Nature, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal; the
rule, measure, weight, and equipoise whereof have each their key. We
then employ in one work the animals, vegetables, and minerals, each in
his season, which make the space of the Houses of the Sun, where they
have all the virtues required.
"Something from each of the three Kingdoms of Nature is assigned to each
Celestial House, to the end that everything may be done in accordance
with sound philosophical rules; and that everything may be thoroughly
purified in its proper time and place in order to be presented at the
wedding-table of the Spouse and the six virgins who hold the mystic
shovel, without a common fire, but with an elementary fire, that comes
primarily by _attraction_, and by digestion in the philosophical bed
lighted by the four elements.
"At the banquet of the Spouses, the viands, being thoroughly, purified,
are served in Salt, Sulphur, Spirit, and Oil; a sufficient quantity
thereof is taken every month, and therewith is compounded, by means of
the Balance of Solomon, the Alkahest, to serve the Spouses, when they
are laid on the nuptial bed, there to engender their embryo, producing
for the human race immense treasures, that will last as long as the
world endures.
"Few are capable of engaging in this great work. Only the true
Free-Masons may of right aspire to it; and even of them, very few are
worthy to attain it, because most of them are ignorant of the Clavicules
and their contents, and of the Pantacle of Solomon, which teaches how to
labor at the great work.
"The weight raised by Solomon with his balance was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; which
contains 25 times unity, 2 multiplied by 2; 3 multiplied by 3; 4
multiplied by 4; 5 multiplied by 5, and once 9; these numbers thus
involving the squares of 5 and 2, the cube of 2, the square of the
square of 2, and the square of 3."
Thus far the Ritual, in the numbers mentioned by it, is an allusion to
the 47th problem of Euclid, a symbol of Blue Masonry, entirely out of
place there, and its meaning unknown. The base of the right-angled
triangle being 3, and the perpendicular 4, the hypothenuse is 5, by the
rule that the sum of the squares of the two former equals the square of
the latter,--3X3 being 9; and 4X4, 16; and 9+16 being 25, the square of
5. The triangle contains in its sides the numbers 1, 2, and 3. The
Perpendicular is the Male; the Base, the Female; the Hypothenuse, the
product of the two.
[Illustration:]
To fix the volatile, in the Hermetic language, means to materialize the
spirit; to volatilize the fixed is to spiritualize matter. To separate
the subtile from the gross, in the first operation, which is wholly
internal, is to free our soul from all prejudice and all vice. This is
effected by the use of the philosophical SALT, that is to say, of
WISDOM; of MERCURY, that is to say, of personal aptitude and labor; and
of SULPHUR, which represents the vital energy, and the ardor of the
will. Thus we succeed in changing into spiritual gold such things even
as are of least value, and even the foul things of the earth.
It is in this sense we are to understand the parables of the Hermetic
philosophers and the prophets of Alchemy; but in their works, as in the
Great Work, we must skillfully separate the subtile from the gross, the
mystic from the positive, allegory from theory. If you would read them
with pleasure and understandingly, you must first understand them
allegorically in their entirety and then descend from allegories to
realities by way of the correspondences or analogies indicated in the
single dogma:
"What is above is like what is below; and what is below is like what is
above."
The treatise "_Minerva Mundi_," attributed to Hermes Trismegistus,
contains, under the most poetical and profound allegories, the dogma of
the self-creation of beings, or of the law of creation that results from
the accord of two forces, these which the Alchemists called the Fixed
and the Volatile, and which are, in the Absolute, Necessity and Liberty.
When the Masters in Alchemy say that it needs but little time and
expense to accomplish the works of Science, when they affirm, above all,
that but a single vessel is necessary, when they speak of the Great and
Single furnace, which all can use, which is within the reach of all the
world, and which men possess without knowing it, they allude to the
philosophical and moral Alchemy. In fact, a strong and determined will
can, in a little while, attain complete independence; and we all possess
that chemical instrument, the great and single athanor or furnace, which
serves to separate the subtile from the gross, and the fixed from the
volatile. This instrument, complete as the world, and accurate as the
mathematics themselves, is designated by the Sages under the emblem of
the Pentagram or Star with five points, the absolute sign of human
intelligence.
The end and perfection of the Great Work is expressed, in alchemy, by a
triangle surmounted by a cross: and the letter Tau, ת, the last of the
Sacred alphabet, has the same meaning.
The "elementary fire," that comes primarily by attraction, is evidently
Electricity or the Electric Force, primarily developed as magnetism, and
in which is perhaps the secret of life or the vital force.
Paracelsus, the great Reformer in medicine, discovered magnetism long
before Mesmer, and pushed to its last consequences this luminous
discovery, or rather this initiation into the magic of the ancients, who
understood the grand magical agent better than we do, and did not regard
the Astral Light, Azoth, the universal magnetism of the Sages, as an
animal and particular fluid, emanating only from certain special beings.
The four Elements, the four symbolic animals, and the re-duplicated
Principles correspond with each other, and are thus arranged by the
Hermetic Masons:
[Illustration]
The Air and Earth represent the _Male_ Principle; and the Fire and Water
belong to the _Female_ Principle.
To these four forms correspond the four following philosophical ideas.
Spirit: Matter: Movement: Repose.
Alchemy reduces these four things to three:
The Absolute: the Fixed: the Volatile.
Reason: Necessity; Liberty: are the synonyms of these three words.
As all the great Mysteries of God and the Universe are thus hidden in
the Ternary, it everywhere appears in Masonry and in the Hermetic
Philosophy under its mask of Alchemy. It even appears where Masons do
not suspect it; to teach the doctrine of the equilibrium of Contraries,
and the resultant Harmony.
The double triangle of Solomon is explained by Saint John in a
remarkable manner: There are, he says, three witnesses in Heaven,--the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and three witnesses on
earth,--the breath, water, and blood. He thus agrees with the Masters of
the Hermetic Philosophy, who give to their Sulphur the name of Ether, to
their Mercury the name of philosophical water, to their Salt that of
blood of the dragon, or menstruum of the earth. The blood, or Salt,
corresponds by opposition with the Father; the Azothic, or Mercurial
water, with the Word, or Logos; and the breath, with the Holy Spirit.
But the things of High Symbolism can be well understood only by the true
children of Science.
Alchemy has its Symbolic Triad of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury,--man
consisting, according to the Hermetic philosophers, of Body, Soul, and
Spirit. The Dove, the Raven, and the Phœnix are striking Symbols of Good
and Evil, Light and Darkness, and the Beauty resulting from the
equilibrium of the two.
If you would understand the true secrets of Alchemy, you must study the
works of the Masters with patience and assiduity. Every word is often an
enigma; and to him who reads in haste, the whole will seem absurd. Even
when they seem to teach that the Great Work is the purification of the
Soul, and so to deal only with morals, they most conceal their meaning,
and deceive all but the Initiates.
Yōd [[Hebrew] or י] is termed in the Kabalah the _opifex_, _workman_ of
the Deity. It is, says the _Porta Cœlorum_, single and primal, like
_one_, which is the first among numbers; and like a _point_, the first
before all bodies. Moved lengthwise, it produces a _line_, which is Vau,
and this moved sidewise produces a _superficies_, which is Daleth. Thus
Vau [ו] becomes Daleth [ד]; for movement tends from right to left; and
all communication is from above to below. The _plenitude_ of Yōd, that
is, the _name_ of this letter, spelled, is יוד, Y-O-D. Vau [which
represents 6] and Daleth [4] are 10; like Yōd, their principle.
Yōd, says the _Siphra de Zeniutha_, is the Symbol of Wisdom and of the
Father.
The Principle called Father, says the _Idra Suta_, is comprehended in
Yōd, which flows downward from the Holy influence, wherefore Yōd is the
most occult of all the letters; for he is the beginning and end of all
things. The Supernal Wisdom is Yōd; and all things are included in Yōd,
who is therefore called Father of Fathers, or the Generator of the
Universal. The Principle of all things is called the House of all
things: wherefore Yōd is the beginning and end of all things; as it is
written: "_Thou hast made all things in Wisdom_." For The All is termed
Wisdom; and in it The All is contained; and the summary of all things is
the Holy Name.
Yōd, says the _Siphra de Zeniutha_, signifying the Father, approaches
the letter He, which is the Mother; and by the combination of these two
is denoted that luminous influence wherewith Binah is imbued by the
Supernal Wisdom.
In the name [Hebrew: יהו], says the same, are included the Father,
Mother, and Microprosopos, their issue. He, impregnated by Vau, produced
Microprosopos, or Seir Anpin.
Wisdom, Hakemah, is the Principle of all things: it is the Father of
Fathers, and in it are the beginning and end of all things.
Microprosopos, the second Universal, is the issue of Wisdom, the Father,
and Binah, the Mother, and is composed of the six Numerations, Geburah,
Gedulah, and Tephareth, Netsach, Hod, and Yesod; is represented under
the form of a man, and said to have at first occupied the place
afterward filled by the world Briah [of Creation], but afterward to have
been raised to the Aziluthic sphere, and received Wisdom, Intelligence,
and Cognition [Daath] from the Supernal Wisdom and Intellectuality.
Vau, in the tri-literal word, denotes these six members of
Microprosopos. For this latter is formed after the fashion of
Macroprosopos, but without Kether, the will, which remains in the first
prototype or Universal; though invested with a portion of the Divine
Intellectual Power and Capacity. The first Universal does not use the
first person, and is called in the third person, [Hebrew: הוא,] HUA, HE:
but the second Universal speaks in the first person, using the word
[Hebrew: אני,] ANI, I.
The IDRA RABBA, or Synodus Magna, one of the books of the Sohar, says:
The Eldest of the Eldest [the Absolute Deity] is in Microprosopos. All
things are one: all was, all is, all will be: there neither will be, nor
is, nor has been, mutation.
But He conformed Himself, by the formings, into a form that contains all
forms, in a form which comprehends all genera. This form is in the
likeness of His form; and is not that form but its analogue: wherefore
the human form is the form of all above and below, which are included in
it: and because it embraces all above and below. The Most Holy so took
form, and so Microprosopos was configured. All things are equally one,
in each of the two Universals; but in the second His ways are divided,
and judgment is on our side, and on the side that looks toward us, also,
they differ.
These Secrets are made known only to the reapers in the Holy Field.
The Most Holy Ancient is not called ATHAH, Thou, but HUA, He: but in
Microprosopos, where is the beginning of things, He has the name ATHAH,
and also AB, Father. From Him is the beginning, and He is called Thou,
and is the Father of Fathers. He issues from the Non-Ens; and therefore
is beyond cognition.
Wisdom is the Principle of the Universe, and from it thirty-two ways
diverge: and in them the law is contained, in twenty-two letters and ten
words. Wisdom is the Father of Fathers, and in this Wisdom is found the
Beginning and the End: wherefore there is a wisdom in each Universal,
one above, the other below.
The _Commentary_ of _Rabbi Chajun Vital_, on the _Siphra de Zeniutha_,
says: At the beginning of emanation, Microprosopos issued from the
Father, and was intermingled with the Mother, under the mysteries of the
letter [Hebrew: ה]; [He], resolved in [Hebrew: דו] that is, Daleth and
Vau; by which Vau is denoted Microprosopos: because Vau is six, and he
is constituted of the six parts that follow Hakemah and Binah. And,
according to this conception, the Father is called Father of Fathers,
because from Him these Fathers proceed, Benignity, Severity, and Beauty.
Microprosopos was then like the letter Vau in the letter He, because He
had no head; but when He was now born, three brains were constituted for
Him, by the flow of Divine Light from above.
And as the world of restitution [after the vessels of the Sephiroth
below Binah had been broken, that from the fragments evil might be
created] is instituted after the fashion of the Balance, so also is it
formed throughout in the human form. But Malakoth, Regnum, is a complete
and separate person, behind Microprosopos, and in conjunction with him,
and the two are called man.
The first world [of Inanity] could not continue and did not subsist,
because it had no human conformation nor the system of the Balance, the
Sephiroth being points, one below the other. The first Adam
[Microprosopos, as distinguished from Macroprosopos, the first _Occult_
Adam] was the beginning, wherein the ten Numerations proceeded forth
from potence into act.
Microprosopos is the second garment or interposed medium, with respect
to the Elder Most Holy, who is the name Tetragrammaton; and he is called
Alohim; because the former is Absolute Commiseration; while in
Macroprosopos his lights have the nature of Severities, with respect to
the elder Universal; though they are Commiseration, with respect to the
lights of Malakoth and the three lower worlds.
All the conformations of Macroprosopos come from the first Adam; who, to
interpose a second covering, caused a single spark to issue from the
sphere of Severity, of whose five letters is generated the name Alohim.
With this issued from the brain a most subtle air, which takes its place
on the right hand, while the spark of fire is on the left. Thus the
white and red do not intermix, that is, the Air and Fire, which are
Mercy and Judgment.
Microprosopos is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, his
Severities being the Evil.
REGNUM, to which is given the name of Word of The Lord, superinvests
Heaven, as the six members of the Degree Tephareth are called, and these
become and are constituted by that superior vestiture. For every
conformation and constitution is effected by means of veiling, because
occultation here is the same as manifestation, the excess of light being
veiled, so that, diminished in intensity and degree, it may be received
by those below. Those six members conceived of as contained in Binah,
are said to be in the World of Creation; as in Tephareth, in that of
Formation; and as in Malakoth, in that of Fabrication.
Before the institution of equilibrium, face was not toward face:
Microprosopos and his wife issuing forth back to back, and yet cohering.
So above; before the prior Adam was conformed into male and female, and
the state of equilibrium established, the Father and Mother were not
face to face. For the Father denotes the most perfect Love; and the
Mother the most perfect Rigor. And the seven supernal sons who proceeded
from her, from Binah, who brought forth seven, were all most perfect
rigors, having no connection with a root in the Most Holy Ancient; that
is, they were all _dead_, destroyed, shattered; but they were placed in
equilibrium, in the equipoise of the Occult Wisdom, when it was
conformed into male and female, Rigor and Love, and they were then
restored, and there was given them a root above.
The Father is Love and Mercy, and with a pure and subtle Aur or
Benignity impregnates the Mother, who is Rigor and Severity of
Judgments; and the product is the brain of Microprosopos.
It was determined, says the _Introduction_ to the Book _Sohar_, by the
Deity, to create Good and Evil in the world, according to what is said
in Isaiah, "_who makes the Light and creates the Evil_." But the Evil
was at first occult, and could not be generated and brought forth,
except by the sinning of the First Adam. Wherefore He determined that
the numerations first emanated, from Benignity downward, should be
destroyed and shattered by the excessive influx of His Light; His
intention being to create of them the worlds of Evils. But the first
three were to remain and subsist, that among the fragments should be
neither Will, Intellectual, Power, nor the Capacity of Intellection of
the Divinity. The last seven numerations were _points_, like the first
three, each subsisting independently, unsustained by companionship;
which was the cause of their dying and being shattered.
There was then no Love between them, but only a two-fold Fear; Wisdom,
for example, fearing lest it should ascend again to its Source in
Kether; and also lest it should descend into Binah. Hence there was no
union between any two, except Hakemah and Binah, and this imperfect,
with averted faces. This is the meaning of the saying, that the world
was created by Judgment, which is fear. And so that world could not
subsist, and the Seven Kings were dethroned, until the attribute of
Compassion was adjoined to it, and then restoration took place. Thence
came Love and Union, and six of the parts were united into one person;
for Love is the attribute of Compassion or Mercy.
Binah produced the Seven Kings, not successively, but all together. The
Seventh is Regnum, called a stone, the corner-stone, because on it are
builded the palaces of the three lower worlds.
The first six were shattered into fragments; but Regnum was crushed into
a formless mass, lest the malignant demons created from the fragments of
the others should receive bodies from it, since from it came bodies and
vitality [Nephesch].