posted September 12, 2006 12:03 PM
Here's another interesting article on the Emerald Tablet...1. Truly, without deceit, certain and most veritable :
Hermes affirms that the inscription on the Tabula is true. Why ? Are these teachings so extraordinary that one might conclude to have been deceived by them ?
Compare Jabir's : "Truth ! Certainty ! That in which there is no doubt !" with the first verse of the second chapter of the Recital : "This is the book then in which there is no doubt, a guidance to the godfearing." (Koran, 2:1).
Why doubt ? This becomes clear in the following verses, which summarize the basic tenets of the Tabula, which are indeed formidable.
2. That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Entity.
The expression "So above, so below. So below, so above." has rightly been called the "Hermetical postulate". It was part of Ancient Egyptian ontology, with its emphasis on the just unification of the dualities which characterize existence (cf. the rise & withdrawal of the Nile, the rise and setting of the Sun, chaos or "isefet" versus order or "maât", the sky versus the earth, the visible versus the invisible, the abode of destruction versus the heavens, the justified versus the damned, the Two Lands, the two crowns, the two staffs, etc.). Pharaon, the incarnation of the sky-god Horus and divine son of Atum-Re, the creator-god, was from "above" but existed "below". Because of his presence "below", the order of the world "below" was blessed by the gods & goddesses who existed as beings of light in the sky "above" but who accepted (only) Pharaoh's offerings from "below". Because of Pharaoh, the miracle of the One Egypt of the Two Lands was guaranteed "for millions of years" ...
The inherent conflicts between the elements were mediated by Pharaonic rule, i.e. the physical, divine manifestation on Earth of the celestial creator-god of the Sun, Re. Pharaoh was the son of Re, and he alone was ontologically able to address the deities directly and by doing so establish order, righteousness & truth in the Two Lands. In fact, all cult was done in his name. Hence, he unified the dualities and guaranteed that a relapse into Nun's primordial chaos (which was always lurking in the dark) would never happen. Left by itself, the world and humanity would surely destroy itself. Without Pharaoh, the order of being would return into the primordial chaos (the pre-creational ocean of Nun) out of which all sprang as the result of the self-creation of the Sun (cf. Atum-Re).
In the Tabula, the Pharaonic rule was replaced by the idea of a correspondence or natural sympathy between the terrestial and the celestial and vice versa. Hence, the binding factor of old (Pharaoh) is done with and replaced by Hermes and his "nous", the One Mind. That the world, with its divisions, variety and constant changes, does not seem to support such sympathetic reflections between macrocosmos and microcosmos, may well be the reason why Hermes affirms their verity and exhorts us not to doubt their possibility. For the force of forces (superforce) at hand, is invisible & subtle, not gross & material.
Indeed, there is no longer an outer monolith of unity (like Pharaoh), for the correspondences are meant to accomplish something, namely the miracles of unity themselves. Miracles were the outcome of supernatural activity, and so Hermes explains that his Tabula is a tool to perform miracles. These lie dormant in the subtle, invisible order of things, but are manifested (accomplished) by the hermetist.
As the performance of miracles is a magical feat, we may well say that the ideas explained here are a "magical formula" of the highest order (cf. the higher mysteries). They are called "theurgical acts", for miracles (contrary to magical feats caused by an individual will) are Divine and thus escape the will of the hermetist as such (his total annihilation makes him do what has to be done).
Theurgy is "of the One Entity" or the "One Thing", called by Paracelsus an invisible box full of great force and power (Philosophia Sagax, 1537). The outside of this set is the essence of the Divine which for ever transcends all elements of the set. As an ever-escaping horizon, this Face of God is veiled, and remains veiled. The essence is only for God to be in. Nothing can be said about this, except eternal silence.
"Tat : What then, father, can be called real in the supreme degree ? Hermes : He alone, my son, and none but He, who is not made of matter, nor embodied ; who is colourless and formless ; who is changeless and unalterable ; who ever is."
Strobaei Hermetica : Discourses of Hermes to Tat, Stobaeus 3. 11. 31, vol.iii, § 15, in : Scott, W. (edit) : Hermetica, Shamballa - Boston, 1993, p.389.
But the alchemist may find the superforce a work in nature herself. As the One Thing is everywhere (all things are in it), it can be transformed all the time and everywhere. Hence, the true goal of the Tabula is to inform its reader how this may be done. The crucial factor being the First Intellect, which is nothing less than the eternal "nous" of the One Thing. This Intellect is not unbegotten, neither is it begotten. It is "cause sui", i.e. autocreative, called "the Self-Begotten One", and identified with the true inner being (or essence) of each human being who dares to see the Self.
The theology of the Emerald Table is pan-en-theistic (from the Greek "pan en theos", "all in God"). The absolute (God) is not exclusively outside the universe (as in theism stressing transcendence), nor is It exclusively inside the universe (as in pantheism stressing immanence), rather God is both the unmanifest & the manifest, the hidden & the outer, the remote & the near, the un-saying & revealed, etc. For the pan-en-theist, the absolute is qua essence (apophatic, God-for-God) outside (implicate in, veiled by) the order of creation, i.e. truly transcendent (qua nature a priori pre-spatiotemporal) AND qua existence (executive, God-for-us) inside (explicate as, manifest in) the order of creation, i.e. immanent (qua Will a posteriori spatiotemporal). Hence, insofar as the Divine Will decrees, Divine revelation, miracles and salvations are possible.
Pan-en-theism is revealed in the text from the Nag Hammadi Codex (NH, VI.6), called The Eight Reveals the Ninth or Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth. This title, instead of implying the pre-creational "Ogdoad" of Hermopolis and the "Ennead", or a family of Egyptian gods & goddesses, are in fact astrological.
In the Alexandrian view, the universe was conceived as a sevenfold, each strand being ruled by a planet : Saturn, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars & Jupiter (this is the qabalistic sequence, from 10.Malkuth to 4.Chesed - note that Saturn is attributed to Malkuth). The planetary sequence varies, giving rise to many conflicting systems of correspondences (another planetary sequence is : Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun).
The "eighth" is the abode were "each one receives what is his" (NH, VI.55.18-19), and the beings who hymn the Father in the Poimandres (tract I of the Corpus Hermeticum), are identical with the souls and the angels of the "Eighth". It is the realm of the Begotten One who rules the inferior Hebdomad and stays above the Seven Ousiarchs.
Above the Ogdoad, is the "kingdom of powers" of the Self-Begotten One. Finally, above the Ennead dwells the Unbegotten God, "who rules over the Kingdom of Power" (NH, VI.55.24-26). Hence, the Egypto-Alexandrian model was a tenfold (cf. the Pythagorean decad and the Ennead + Pharoah constellation of old).
The Unbegotten One is out of reach, but the Self-Begotten One (First Intellect or Mind of the One Thing) is the essence of one's own true Self (and culmination of the white tincture - cf. infra).
Pan-en-theism is fundamental to understand the Egypto-Alexandrian heritage, neo-Platonism (Plotinus, Proclus), Jewish qabalah as well as Islamic Sufism (especially that of Ibn'Arabî).
In the theology of Memphis, Ptah is the One Thing (Unbegotten One) who creates everything by uttering divine words in the form or image of Atum (the Self-Begotten One), who splits and creates the gods & goddesses (the powers ruling creation). In this scheme, the "Eighth" is absent.
With the advent of Christianity, pan-en-theism was rejected and replaced by a radical transcendent theism, with the result that the physical world (and with it, all things natural) was, as it were, driven out of the "divine plan" and its function attributed to an evil demiurge (as in Christian Gnosticism), to an eternal power of evil (as in Persian Manicheism) or to "the prince of the world" (as in Roman Catholicism). Hence, in these theologies of radical transcendence, no natural inquiry was possible without somehow offending God. This explains the reluctance with which the hermetic teachings were integrated in the theology of the Christian West, which oversimplified all matters theological (we find traces of it in the "symbolical" theology of ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite and we know that it influenced the Greek fathers of the church).
In the Sufism of Ibn'Arabî, we learn of "things" in two states : the thingness of fixity and "wujûd" (or "sheer being"). The word "thing", the most indefinite of the indefinites, may be applied to everything. But, as this word may also be used in reference to ALLAH, although Ibn'Arabî -not to be discourteous- rarely calls The God "The Thing". But, if ALLAH had named Himself "Thing" (a name He did not mention in the Koran as being one of the "Most Beautiful Names") he could have been called "The One Thing".
The phrase "One Entity" ('ayn wâhida) is coined by him to refer to "wujûd" itself and to contrast the oneness of being with the multiplicity and manyness of the things. Although the cosmos is a multiplicity, it goes back to the "One Entity". Hence, "One Thing" or "One Entity" implies the absolute in its absoluteness, i.e. as the essential unity of sheer being, the "Face of ALLAH" ...
The "miracles" (plural) of the One Entity are hence the many manifestations of the One. Hermes turns matters around. Instead of focusing on manyness (so that the One Entity is the sole miracle), he starts with the fundamental unity of all being (called the "One Entity"). Hence, each and every thing is a miracle, for do they not seemingly suggest the manyness of existence instead of its fundamental unity ? How can manyness be something other than a miracle, if on a fundamental level unity is a fact ? Is this not the path to the paradoxical and wonderous perplexity of the "station of no station" to which Ibn'Arabî concluded ? The implicate unity of all in all contrasts with the explicate variety of all against all. The series of "independent" things are the miracles performed by the One Entity.
The Hermetical postulate makes us realize that fundamental unity (above) and superficial plurality (below) interact, for every individual thing is a miracle of the One Entity, which underlines them all, and the One Entity is expressed in every individual thing, which -as we learn- may realize this fundamental unity of being as the strongest force ever (the one superforce uniting & transcending all other forces).
3. And just as all things come from the One Entity, through the mediation of its One Mind, so do all created things originate from this One Entity through transformation.
To understand what is implied here, three theologies are helpful : the theology of Memphis found on the Shabaka Stone, the "logos" as "second God" in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, and the Divine Names of ALLAH in Sufism, in particular, the philosophy of mysticism of Ibn'Arabî.
In the Ancient Egyptian theology of the creative verb, Ptah created all things by thinking the divine words in his mind and uttering them through his tongue. Between Ptah-on-the-Great-Throne (i.e. the Great One Alone) and the created things stands the mind of Ptah. In this mind, divine words appear and when these are pronounced, the whole of creation unfolds. The major divine word Ptah thinks and utters is "Atum-Re", the creator-god, in whose "image" or "form" Ptah made everything.
Ancient Egyptian theology remained dependent on mythical & pre-rational thought (and thus never realized the rational form, except for a brief period under Akhenaten). In the Hellenized Judaism of Philo, we arrive at a rational exposition of the distinction between God and the "logos" or "word". The latter is conceived as a "second God", responsible for the creation of the universe.
In neo-Platonism, this would trigger the ternary : being-for-itself (monos), being-in-relation (proodos) and being-in-return (epistrophe), which would influence the IVth century articulation of the Nicene dogma of the Trinity of Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
In Hermetism, God is the Unbegotten One (being-for-itself), the One Mind of the Logos (cf. Plato's "world of ideas") is the Self-Begotten One, Enneadic "First Intellect"), thought to have created the universe (cf. the "Christos Pantokratos" in Byzantine theology) through his "holy word". The latter "... is the son of God coming from his Intellect" (Poimandres), i.e. the Begotten One.
In Hermetism, the triad reads as :
God, the Unbegotten One, the essence of being, the Decad ;
the First Intellect, the Self-Begotten One, the Mind of God, the "Ninth" ;
the holy word or son from the First Intellect, the Begotten One above the Seven Governors, the "Eighth".
In Sufism, ALLAH wants His hidden treasure to be known. The essential unity of being (Decad) and the oneness of existence ("Ninth") are distinguished (Ibn'Arabî calls this "the most holy emanation"). The former being the ineffable essence of the absolute, whereas the latter is associated with the 99 Divine Names, which are the attributes of the absolute qua absolute. Everything is rooted in them and emanates from them (the so-called "holy emanation"). This happens "in the cloud", which is nothing other than the "Eighth", containing the essence of the created world.
Taken together, these Divine Names constitute the all-comprehensive name "ALLAH", "The God". With this name, the ongoing createdness of the universe is affirmed.
The One Entity is known to Its creation as the One Mind, which contains the "noetic" root of every individual thing that exists (cf. Plato, Spinoza). This Divine Mind (the attributes of the One Entity) allows all things to be transformations (adaptations, modi) of the One Entity :
the One Thing, or the totality of all things (creation, world, universe) plus the essence of being, the One Thing as It Truly Is, which is ineffable (the principle of being) ;
the One Mind, or the Oneness of the Divine Names which Self-express in many particular forms (the relationality of being) ;
the many things, or the plurality of expressions of existence, locus of the continuous theophany under the ægis of the holy Begotten One (the return of all actual things to their root in the Self-Begotten One Mind of the Unbegotten).
In its neo-Platonic form, this structure was recuperated by the theologians of Constantine, to form the Nicene trinitarian concept of the "One God", which is still the cornerstone of the Catholic concept of God today :
the Father : the good, heavenly and unique principle of absoluteness and transcendence ;
the Son : the unique divine and human son of the heavenly Father (Christ), who, as "logos", creates the universe and, as Saviour, mediates between humanity & the Father ;
the Holy Spirit : the love between Father & Son sets an example, is a comforter and a spiritual guide for Christians to return to the "house of the Father".
4. Its father is the Sun. Its mother the Moon. The Wind carries it in its belly. Its nurse is the Earth. The origin of all the perfections of the world is here. Its force is entire, if it is converted into Earth.
The "enantia" or elemental "opposites" inherent in the created order figure as a paradigm in Empedocles (cf. De Generatione et Corruptione, 330a30). Antinomic reality is structured as four elements : Fire and Air were the active elements and both warm (Fire was dry and Air was moist), whereas Water and Earth were passive and both cold (Water was moist and Earth was dry). In Ionic philosophy, they were viewed as the "arche" of the universe (Water for Thales of Milete, Air for Anaximenes of Milete and Fire for Heraclitus of Ephese).
In Ancient Egypt, these four elements were explicit in the cosmogony of Memphis, as well as in astronomy & ritualism. The foundation of creation was the primordial water before creation (cf. "Nun"). Creation was initiated by the emergence of the primordial hill (earth out of water) struck by a beam of the Sun (fire), which petrified (cf. the "Benben"). This caused the division between heaven and earth (air separating the two). Moreover, the Sun (fire) was considered as the subtlest of the elements for responsible for light (cf. the word "pyramid", from the Greek "pyr" or "fire"). The four elements were placed at the cardinal points of the horizon around the sacred objects (temples, thrones, coffins). They played a central role in ritualism and were called the "Sons of Horus" (Air in the East, Fire in the South, Water in the West and Earth in the North). In Christian times, these associations were projected upon the four evangelists (Luke as the Angel of Air -Aquarius-, Mark as the Lion of Fire -Leo-, John as the Eagle of Water -Scorpio- and Matthew as the Bull of Earth -Taurus-, but other correspondences have been suggested).
In the Tabula, the elements are used to describe the process which allows one to operate the miracles of the One Entity. As everything is a transformation of this One, the spiritual process is described in terms of physical realities, which is the method of alchemy. Indeed, the transformation of lead (Saturn, Earth) into gold (Sun, Fire) is not to be understood as the making of gold out of the gross "prima materia" represented by coarse lead. Physical realities are used as physical means to append or affix processes of a psychological & spiritual nature. The alchemist is thus somebody who performs the miracles of the One Entity in his or hers own consciousness, but who describes this process in terms derived from chemical events. Indeed, as the miracles are at work everywhere, why not standardize certain physical things (like metals) and their co-relative events (purification, mortification, evaporation etc.) to create what seems the language of a physical science, but which actually is a means to describe (in physical terms) what happens in the subtle, psycho-spiritual (inner) world of the alchemist.
That alchemy (also translated as "al-chem", "from Egypt", the "black" land) was rooted in Ancient Egyptian magical practices should not surprise us. In the "Ritual of Opening the Mouth" (used in the Old Kingdom and later to give live to the mummy), the Egyptian priests infused life in a cult statue. Here we see the principle described in the Tabula at work : a physical object (of clay, wood or stone), representing a natural law (a deity), is given "life" by associating it with a complex set of mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational patterns of thought, emotion and actions. Object (the physicality of the statue) and subject (its meaning for those who worship it) are fused. Complex incantations and rituals guaranteed that the physical statue triggered a co-relative spiritual state of consciousness. Once done, the "ka" (double) or "ba" (soul) of the deity in question could come down from the sky to dwell in the statue and assist those who offered to it. If these offerings stopped, the double or soul withdrew and the statue was "abandoned" by its deity ... (in the short reign of Akhenaten, it was said that the deities had left Egypt as a whole, for Pharaoh had ordered to stop all offerings, except those to his sole god, the Aten).
Sun and Moon (called "the lights" in astrology) are essential symbols. They form a bi-polar unity. The former being the radiant, creative, active, fatherly, pure & noble side, the latter the reflective, assimilative, passive, motherly, sullied & common side. The Moon was seen (by Aristotle) as a barrier between the "harmony of the spheres" and the sublunar chaos (on Earth). The "mysterium coniunctionis" (cf. Jung), involved (a) the purification of the Lunar current (usually done by negating all things physical & emotional), (b) the liberation of the subtle kept captive by the Earth, and finally (c) the harmonization of the purified lower Lunar ego with the radiant Higher Solar Self.
The Sun is the father of the One Entity. At face value, this statement entails a contradiction, for the One Entity is bornless and hence fatherless as well as motherless. The level of consciousness symbolized by the Sun is the only one in which the One Entity is revealed (as One Mind). It represents the end of the alchemical process and can therefore be equated with the Hermetic Ennead, the Self-Begotten First Intellect. To enter into the "way of immortality" (NH VI.63.10-11), a rite of regeneration is necessary. Its central mystery being the vision of oneself. In the 13th tract of the Corpus Hermeticum (CH) we read : "Father I see the All and I see myself in the Intellect.", which, in the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, returns as : "I see myself." (NH VI.58.8). This Enneadic Vision "is rebirth" (CH, XIII.13).
"No doubt for the Hermetic writer this luminous power is nothing but the Divine Intellect. It consists in divine self-contemplation and manifestation of oneself to oneself. Whoever sees himself by the power of the Intellect tends to become himself and to get assimilated to the Self-Begotten man. Then he can also see the source of the Unbegotten One."
Mahé, J-P. : A Reading of The Ogdoad and the Ennead, in : van den Broek, R. & Hanegraaff, J. (editors) : Gnosticism and Hermetism from Antiquity to Modern Times, State University of New York Press - New York, 1998, p.84.
The accomplishment of the miracles of the One Entity (the true object of the Tabula) is caused by the Sun, the Moon, the Wind and the Earth. Fire, Water, Air and Earth represent the creational sequence. This was also the case in Jewish mysticism, for in the qabalah (based on Greek number-symbolism), the four worlds are associated with the "Name" (YHVH) and with the four "cosmic elements" : Atziluth to Fire (Y, the father), Briah to Water (H, the mother), Yetzirah to Air (V, the son) and Assiah to Earth (H, the fallen daughter). To create anything, the One Entity, through mediation of its One Mind, moves from the subtle (Fire) to the gross (Earth). This is a downward movement, away from the essence of the One Entity towards its most gross transformations (cf. "exitus a Deo"). The most subtle (Fire) is thus converted into Earth. Then, and only then, is the miraculous force of unity entire, for only then does the One Entity, through mediation of the One Mind and a variety of transformations of its force, indeed prevail in everything, albeit in different forms, substances or existing things.
This is the affirmation of the omnipresence of the miracles of the One Entity. Indeed, if the (final) transformation of the One Entity into Earth were not, then the force of creation would not be everywhere and thus not be entire. It would be absent from the lowest plane of existence, which is exactely what both Manicheism as Christianity maintained. In contrast, the Egypto-Alexandrian model included all of existence in its concrete conceptualizations of the Divine, i.e. both the One Entity, Its One Mind and its myriads of elemental transformations according to the laws of Fire, Water, Air & Earth. In the theologies of Ancient Egypt (with the exception of Amarna religion), pre-creation itself was deified, for everything emerged out of the primordial chaotic ocean of Nun, the "father of the gods". Nowhere is the Divine absent, except as essence to its creation (cf. "Deus absconditus").
Sun and Moon represent the red and white tinctures respectively. These are stable stations of consciousness (rather than volatile states) accomplished by the alchemist, i.e. the person who executes the operation of the Sun and perfoms the "Magnum Opus". Sun and Moon are the two foci of the ellipse of initiated consciousness. Before initiation, the Moon eclipses the Sun, and consciousness exists in the illusion of its own circular solitude and isolation. The eclipse can only occur because of the Earth. Ignorance results when consciousness is exclusively informed by what enters via the senses, cut off from what comes down from the higher and hence more subtle transformations of the One Entity, called the "invisible", the "unseen", the "occult", i.e. the human soul & spirit.
The Tabula defines the formula given here as "the operation of the Sun", showing that the ultimate goal of Hermetism is the making of the Red tincture, the "stone of the philosophers", the "burning water" of incombustible Sulphur ... The white elixir is said to convey long life, health, beauty & peace (liberation or illumination), but not eternal life, creativity & wisdom (realization or deification). The white elixir being the culmination of the "lower mysteries" (witchcraft, magic), the red stone that of the "higher mysteries" (theurgy, or the synthesis of magic & mysticism).
The word "perfections" translates the Greek "telesma" or "rite" ("teleoo" means "to bring to an end" and "to initiate into the mysteries"), also found in the word "talisman", a physical object whose subtle vehicle (or etheric double) is a condensation of a spiritual state of consciousness. All these meanings are implied here :
the superforce accomplishing the miracles of the One Entity, according to the laws of the operation of the Sun, brings everything to its natural end, i.e. towards its completion, i.e. its return to the One Entity ;
the spiritual states of Sun and Moon can be fixated on the physical plane, enabling physical consciousness to rise more quickly above the gross vibrations of the lowest stratum of the universe ;
the control of this telesmic superforce, goes hand in hand with initiated consciousness, Lunar as well as Solar. In the former case, the white elixir has been prepared, enabling consciousness to remain focused on the Sun while existing in the gross & heavy Saturnine transformations of the One Entity (the physical world). In the latter, the philosopher's stone has been found, and consciousness abides in a state which has a continuous spiritual openness, leading to the unshaken spirit of the Divine Presence (cf. the "Shekinah" in qabalah).
5. Separate Earth from Fire, the subtle from the gross, gently and with great ingenuity. It rises from Earth to Heaven and descends again to Earth, thereby receiving the force of both things superior & inferior. In this way, you shall obtain the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly away from you.
Here, the working-principle of the telesmic operation is described : the separation of the subtle (Fire) from the gross (Earth).
To understand what is intended, one should realize that according to Hermetism, Earth (or Saturnine Salt), conscious identity (or Solar Sulphur) and cognition (or Mercury) are distinguished. Salt is related to the conditions of the physical plane (the body), with its gross and inert qualities. In this unpurified state, Salt pulls consciousness down, leading to materialism, spiritual poverty and overall unhappiness. The Solar element is eclipsed by the Lunar one. This type of consciousness is associated with "vulgar" Sulphur, for it burns quickly but leaves a dirty and unwholesome residue. When reflective activity is undertaken in this state, the sullied mind produces rational thought at the expense of all other modes of cognition (lower -instinctual- as well as higher -intuitive-). This is Mercury chained to the laws of Salt, which is the condition of the "homo normalis", an educated animal (bestial characteristics holding light captive and abusing it to serve the ends of the ego and the body).
The goal of Hermetism being the liberation of Mercury from Salt, i.e. the elimination from thought of everything which makes it gross, inert and materialistic. This is done by seeking the incombustible part of Sulphur, i.e. becoming conscious of the totality of one's being, which is represented by the Sun. Ultimately, this total consciousness liberates vulgar Mercury from Salt, realizing the "burning water" of "philosophical Mercury". This is firmly attained when the red tincture has been successfully prepared.
The two major steps feature in this process of separating the subtle out of the gross, namey the making of the white and red tinctures. The white tincture is preceded by the preparatory "black work" (black chaos), the putrefaction of the vulgar qualities of consciousness (the separation of the elements of the gross). The entanglement of Mercury with Salt being very strong, Hermes suggests to separate them gently and with great ingenuity. Why ? More than one initiate who tried to make the tinctures wrote that the alchemist has to fail and start the work all over again. This may happen several times.
Indeed, if traces of dirt are left without consciousness having noticed this (because not all shadow elements of one's personal unconscious have been thoroughly made conscious after the first putrefactions, which is nearly always the case), the inertness of Salt is such, that the whole operation of separation if cancelled, or worse, that consciousness -because of this drawback- abruptly aborts the operation and then falls back to a state which is even more wretched than before. Why ? Is physical life not more difficult to bear after one has failed to break its chains, and this especially when one has caught a few glimpses of true freedom ? Indeed, in the beginning, consciousness is often emersed by the flashes of light stemming from its own incombustible Sulphur. This may already happens after the first putrefactions. Mercury rises a little and joy is felt. But, many putrefactions are needed before all traces of dirt have been made conscious. Salt is not immediately purified and residual dirt causes Mercury to drop. He who experienced heaven, suffers more from its absence than he who thinks that the world stops at the end of the street. Thus violent putrefactions will likely cause a drawback, chaining consciousness to Salt in a way which opposes any further attempt to free Mercury. To separate Mercury from Salt gently & intelligently, will allow the aspirant to return to his putrefactions even after several failures.
When the destructive components have burned long enough, so that thought (Air), will (Fire), affect (Water) & body (Earth) are purified, the "fifth element" or "quintessence" emerges. This is the reflection of the light of the Sun by Mercury, which produces the white tincture. The Moon (ego) does not eclipse the Sun (Self), and this distinction between ego and Self causes consciousness to break away from its particular, localized, circular apprehension of itself and the world. Heliocentricity leads to an elliptical awareness of body, ego-mind & Self, and to a universalizing consciousness.
Compared with vulgar Mercury, the white tincture gives freedom, power and strenght. In this station, the conditions of Salt do not influence consciousness fundamentally. The negatives of this world do not affect one's inner peace. This is a major attainment. However, the white elixir is unstable. Continuous attention is needed to produce it, and special conditions have to be implemented to succeed in doing so. The tincture is not a "stone", i.e. a stable spiritual state. Compared with vulgar Sulphur, the white elixir is extremely stable and powerful. But this is relative. Indeed, the absence of a totalizing consciousness (in the uninitiated) is replaced by a continuous alertness and an effective shielding from all possible sources of negativity (the unpurfied Salt still present in one's physical environment). Hence, those unable to make the red tincture, are forced to reduce the efforts needed to make the white elixir. At best they are hermits, but they may also become part of so-called "spiritual organizations", which offers them a framework to protect them from too much interactions with the sullied world. This problem increases with time, for the aging of the physical body calls for more and more controls to avoid unnecessary loss of energy and the stabilization of habits (albeit wholesome ones).
The red tincture is nothing less than the realization of the "Sun behind the Sun", i.e. the fact that in the heart of one's soul (in the core of who one really is) the spirit abides. This spirit is conceived as the unbreakable, self-sufficient unity of incombustible Sulphur, philosophical Mercury and purified Salt.
The last phase of the operation of the Sun touches upon the direct experience of the Divine, i.e. mysticism. The directness of this experiences implies that it is not mediated. No images or symbols of external things are used. The "stone of the philosophers" is not a stone. It is nothing as "all possibility", i.e. the unlimited set of all virtualities. This is called "a stone", because this ultimate consciousness is stable, unborn and unchanging as such. One enters it as it enters in one. Once there (which is nowhere) it is never left. Hence, no special care to maintain this station is necessary.
The accomplished miracles encompass two movements : the already discussed downward movement from Fire to Earth ("exitus a Deo") and the upward movement from sullied to purified ("reditus in Deum"). The first is creational & universal, the second is anthropological and individual. In this way, the telemic force receives from all things (inferior as well as superior). Hence, it unites the division between "above" and "below", which enables one to obtain the glory of creation itself (cf. Pharaoh uniting the "Two Lands"). As all has been encompassed, no obscurity is left. Everything has been brought under the ægis of the Solar Light.
6. This is a force, strong with all forces, for it overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing.
Again, as the "telemic force" is at work in both the inferior (solid) and superior (subtle) strands of creation, nothing can rule it and it rules all. When it has ascended into heaven and descended into Earth, it becomes the strongest of all things. It is the superforce.
7. In this way the world was created.
The operation of the Sun is the paradigm of the creative process. All creative minds move through this sequence :
isolate & name the gross, unclean traces of consciousness (the effect of impure Salt on Sulphur and Mercury) and separate its elements (the black work) ;
purify body, consciousness and mind to allow Fire to escape Earth (breaking one's conscious identification with all forms of vulgarity) ;
realize and maintain a liberated Mercury (aware of Salt but able to shield itself from it and reverse the past negative effects it had & has - the white work) ;
realize a direct experience of the inner unity between one's innermost Self and the universal Divine Spirit which is hidden in its core (the red work).
8. From this will come many admirable applications, the means of which is in this.
All these principles can be used in a multiplicity of "words" or strands of creation. In the qabalah, four worlds are identified (corresponding with the four letters of the Name "YHVH"). The practical applications which ensue when the operation of the Sun is used in each of these worlds are called "admirable".
9. Therefore I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
The mineral, vegetal & animal kingdoms are the "natural" part of creation. With humanity, the "cultural" is introduced, implying choice & free will, cogitation & creativity (novelty, originality, ingenuity, intuitiveness). The author of the Tabula claims gigantic proportions for himself. Hermes is therefore the archetype of Hermetism. The use of the word "philosophy" is justified, for the teachings of the Tabula are clearly Alexandrian & neo-Platonic (Pythagorean).
10. What I have said of the operation of the Sun is finished."
To place the definition of the process dealt with in this Tabula at the end of the text, is more than just a literary device. For the essence of the telemic process is only revealed at its end (cf. "alpha et omega"). Perfection is a matter of finality. Because the end of the matter depends on the One Entity and its One Mind, one is perfected in the way of Hermes, by the presence of his stone, the "benben" of everlasting life or the "emerald" of the philosophers (for the Sûfî's, "emerald" symbolized the cosmic soul).
3.2 Concluding remarks.
Egypto-Alexandrian Hermetism, the art of Kemet, was the intellectual realization of the élite of Egypt, i.e. the native priesthood and the few Greeks who seriously investigated the Egyptian mysteries, teachings & temple ritualism (men like Pythagoras, Democritos and Plato). In the House of Life of more than one medium to large temple-complex, ancient manuscripts could be found, and although the rich spiritual literature of the Middle & New Kingdoms was available, the forms of the Old Kingdom were revered and copied.
Under the Ptolemies, funerary practices were kept in place and the syncretic bull-god Serapis, created during the early Ptolemaic period, became the state god. He existed as "Osorapis" (Osiris + Apis) prior to Ptolemy I Soter coming to the throne, and represented the synthesis of the two major aspects of Ancient Egyptian religion, namely (a) perpetual existence thanks to rituals, embodied by Osiris and (b) a Pharaoh to offer Maât to his father Re, embodied by the Apis bull of Ptah of Memphis, the mythical place of origin of the Dynasties (cf. Menes), Residence and place of coronation of Pharaoh. For Ptolemy I Soter, "Osorapis", now called "Serapis", was the quintessence of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. Moreover, he could easily be fused with the major Greek gods such as Zeus, Helios, Dionysos, Hades (Pluto) and Aesculapius or Hermes.
Hermetism linked with protection (cf. the old definition of "heka" or "magic"), the funerary rituals, healing & wisdom. Later, "Hermes Trismegistos" became the archetype of those initiated in the new syncretic teaching, which contained a Egypto-Alexandian grand philosophy (i.e. total picture of being) and a myriad of rituals and magical procedures to make nature bow to the telemic will of the adept (as it had done for Pharaoh). All kinds of practical techniques were incorporated. These teachers understood the importance of conveying information through activity & movement. Hence the use of dialogue to conceptualize the intellectual message (the use of dialogue as a literary device was used for the first time in the Middle Kingdom, namely in the dialogue between a desperate man and his soul). Plato's choice for the exclusive use of this literary device may well be the result of his study of the earliest form of Egypto-Alexandrian thought.
Another important feature of this early Egyptian form of Hermetism was its ability to internationalize the deities by the notion of "correspondence". The concrete contexts in which he deities functioned were compared, and similarities were sought and found. In this syncretism, the mythical and pre-rational background (which had made Amarna fail) is weakened, if not absent. The absent relapse into the geosentimentality of the nomes and their "tribal" temple, allowed a broader proto-rational perspective to emerge. This is not yet a universal religion based on rational principles (for polytheism is not superceded), but it surely (and this more than had been the case in the New Kingdom) called for an imperial concept of the deities, albeit limited by concrete factors, such as the deification of the "Basileus", and the cultic worship of the Hellenistic political rulers ...
This limitation was the last remnant of the "old world". It explains why the religions of the "old Mediterranean" never fully realized the rational stage of cognitive thought. Even Akhenaten, who realized that there can only be One Sole God, and who stood at the treshold of reason, had allowed his own deification to limit his "natural philosophy". Early Hermetism is not a rational philosophy yet. The divine Hermes, as well as the projection of subjective states & stations on physical objects & their properties, point to proto-rational thought.
Nevertheless, the basic categories of mysticism are found in the Tabula. We know that the Corpus Hermeticum influenced the Greek Fathers (cf. the "Orientale Lumen") and their conceptualization of the "scala perfectionis". The stages of the telemic process also form a triad : purification (the black work), illumination (the white work) & deification (the red work). In Jewish, Christian & Sûfî mysticism, the latter is not an ontological change from human to Divine (as had been the case in the "old world"), but rather a Divine spiritual unity which exists in one's innermost consciousness, calling for an enhanced ethical awareness, vivid compassion & unconditional charity towards all beings.
Cheers,
Silverstone
------------------
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.- Robert Frost~
Lindaland
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