Frontispiece:

Anamarae (1986): by Judy Osburn (original sculpture in gold and silver with Australian fire opal on
malachite.
Anamarae plunged to the bottom of Ocean riding her dragon searching for the Stone of the All-
wise Philosophers. Succeeding on the quest they arose from Ocean on waves of Argent Vive and
ascended into the firmament. The power of the Stone distorts space/time as she holds it aloft and
opens a Pore-tal to the Kore of the Great Mystery. Her dragon focuses Mercury and sets course into
the wormhole unfolding Paradoxa transcending Space/Time.

Better Living Through Alchemy

Volume I
Lynn Osburn

Copyright Lynn Osburn 2011 all rights reserved

Table of Contents
Author’s Preface 2008
Introduction
Part I Origins Of Alchemy
Ancient Alchemy East and West
Hindu Origins of Alchemy
Taoist Origins of Alchemy
Hermetic Origins of Alchemy
Esoteric Origins of Alchemy
Shamanic Origins of Alchemy
Alchemy and Time
Illustrations
Bibliography
Part II: Spiritual Elements in Alchemy
Stirring the Chaos
Psychological Elements
Philosophical Elements
Philosophical Principles and Elements
Mystic Elements
Inner Circulation
Cosmic Egg Metaphysics
Illustrations
Bibliography
 Author’s Preface, 2008
“Better Living Through Alchemy” began as an outline and notes for a lecture I conducted at the
Meeting of the Minds conference hosted by Chapman University in Southern California in 1994. The
presentation was given in a lecture hall in the science building on a Friday afternoon. I had enriched
the project with a slide show presentation of classic Alchemy artwork dating back to the 1500s. As
students left one class heading to another they came past the open door to my lecture and upon
peeking in were fascinated by the highly evocative symbolism in the artwork. This of course was the
goal of those ancient masters of Alchemy known as Adepts and Sages. The room filled with students;
many thought this was a new course added to the curriculum. After the presentation several came up
to me and wanted to sign up for the course.
Since that time my outline and notes grew into a book length project. Then it evolved and the
chapters began fusing into independent volumes. Segments from Origins of Alchemy have been
published in journals on the World Wide Web, including Alchemy Journal and Hermetic Foundation
Journal since 2001. Here for the first time I’ve made the complete Volume I available in electronic
format.
Lynn Osburn March 23, 2008

Author’s Preface, 2011

Volume I of Better Living Through Alchemy, Origins of Alchemy e-published in 2008 was in PDF
format. Since that time It has doubled in size and divided into two parts: Part I, Origins of Alchemy
and Part II, Spiritual Elements in Alchemy. This new edition completes the initial phase of this opus. I
am at work on the last phase of Better Living Through Alchemy, Volume II Alchemy Praxis, the
Magnum Opus.
Lynn Osburn September 4, 2011

Introduction
When I was growing up in America back in the 1950s and 1960s DuPont the chemical corporate
giant used the trademarked slogan “Better Things for Better Living…Through Chemistry” to advertise
their economic paradigm. “Better Living Through Chemistry,” (the variant used by a host of
corporations to avoid DuPont’s trademark) brought us poisoned groundwater, poisoned air, our
bodies poisoned with traces of synthetic molecules and heavy metals, our bodies poisoned with
artificially altered food products.
The list of woes and complaints generated from “better living through chemistry” continues to grow.
Yet there is nothing inherently pathological in the science of chemistry. Miracle drugs chemically
engineered have vanquished diseases and alleviated painful symptoms. The drug companies
promise even more in their advertisements. TV commercials claim one pill will give you energy;
another will make you feel young. One breath mint company’s commercials insinuate their sugar pill
will enhance the user’s problem solving skills while enabling the user to step out of conformity to
solve the problem—that’s a lot of magic from a breath mint.
 What the drug companies promise is quite alluring and generates billions of dollars in annual retail
sales. If advertisements for chemical concoctions claimed that ingredients were compounded with
magic spells to make them work miracles the government attorneys would accuse them of fraud.
However it is legitimate to proclaim that through the genius of science and the technology of
chemistry ingredients have been compounded that can work miracles. This scientific proclamation to
have produced a miracle-working pill finds acceptance because science has replaced magic as the
reality interface between people and Nature.
Magic has a certain spiritual vitality while science usually operates mechanistically seemingly
lacking in spiritual vitality. Science hasn’t lost its soul; for a very long time now its body has been
enslaved by national and corporate economic interests. Before that time the spirit that imbued the
scientific methods with creative genius was the dynamic soul, Alchemy. For thousands of years
alchemy technicians compounded pills called Stones that cured disease, alleviated pain, unleashed
energy and rejuvenated the body. The people experiencing these Philosopher’s Stones believed they
were magic; the alchemists always said the Stone was art and science coupled to the inspiration of
the divine.
Alchemy is a philosophical discipline utilizing proto-scientific principles that are applied through
scientific methods. Alchemy blossomed about 2000 years ago out of the culture chaos where East
met West at the beginning of the current epoch: an epoch nearing its end, an epoch where civilization
thus far has gone global on a tidal wave of technical knowledge.
The alchemist sages and adepts not only established the essential methods used in modern
medicine and the sciences of chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, psychopharmacology and
psychology; they also created the paradigm at the heart of the global counterculture and psychedelic
movement—the desire to know thyself and live in balance and harmony with Nature.
Alchemy is the spiritual discipline of the Initiate culture. The Initiates throughout history have run
afoul of the authoritarian hierarchy of rulers established by economies of governments and dogmas of
religions.
 The marriage of the decaying Roman empire to a fanatic religion of the masses, Paulist
Christianity, created the Holy Roman empire and through several ecumenical councils brought fourth
the Dark Ages and outlawed the pursuit of knowledge by declaring the Tree of Knowledge bore the
fruit forbidden by god. The resulting creative stagnation and spiritual repression banned all avenues
of communion with the mysterious and seriously inhibited Western cultural growth. The alchemists
took that psycho-social babble of religio-statesmanship and spun a golden thread through it that
tapped the creative energies despite prohibitions by the church-state. Alchemists devoted their lives
to the pursuit of self development under the guise of making gold. Early on they cooked the ancient
instinctual patterns and primordial drives of our ancestors distilling and congealing from them the
archetypal psychic structures that drive us today.
The goal of the alchemical “magnum opus” (great work) was no less than individual self-perfection
through physical transmutation and spiritual transcendence. To that end the alchemists
experimented with countless substances unlocking the mysteries of chemical composition and
probing the nature of energy/matter.
They worked in laboratories making profound medicines called tinctures, elixirs, cylssi, and stones
from a multitude of plants and minerals. The production of alchemical medicines they called the
Spagyric Art1. From the spagyric art came the sciences of pharmacology and psychopharmacology.
Spagyric preparations were for healing the body, clearing the mind, and some were capable of
extending life many years beyond the average lifespan.
The “great work” of alchemy on “metals and minerals” was undertaken in the laboratory. The
starting material was reduced to its “prima materia” (first matter) and broken down by and into the
“four elements,” then ultimately reassembled into a red and a white powder. Both were extremely
potent and deadly. The alchemists rarely ever revealed the detailed processes for making the red
and white “Philosopher’s Stones.” They believed it was essential for each “operator” to do the work
individually, so they obscured their recipes, simply describing the procedures as generally taking two
paths, the Humid and the Dry. The “humid path” operations took longer to complete but were not as
difficult as the “dry path” operations which required more subjective finesse and artful technical
discernment.
 Alchemy lore asserts an operator tested the efficacy of the powders by “projecting” a minuscule
portion onto any metal; lead, tin, copper or brass, were favorites. The powders acted like catalysts
transmuting the metal into silver or gold depending on which powder was used. If the transmutation
was successful the adept consumed an extremely dilute modified admixture of the two powders. A
profound transmutation began, causing a metamorphosis of being. The operator became immortal
and capable of transcending space/time—a universal navigator. Legends abound in the old literature
about transmuted alchemist sages appearing in times of great need and miraculously helping
humanity, then vanishing. Tradition has it that one of the last things an adept did before transcending
space/time was to leave a written record—a memoir and guiding light for those still in the labyrinth.
 Part I: Origins of Alchemy

Ancient Alchemy East and West

The Western philosophical discipline called alchemy crystallized around the second century CE.2
The earliest alchemical operators were centered in Alexandria, Egypt. “If there was an enormous
public library at Alexandria, there were also many private libraries of the inner schools dealing with
the sacred science of unseen things. It was precisely from these private circles that all the mystic
writings proceeded, and we can see from the nature of the Gnostic and other works of this kind which
have reached us, that their authors and compilers had access to large libraries of mystic lore. … And
not only was there a library, but also a kind of university, called the Museum, dedicated to the arts
and sciences and embracing among other things an observatory, an amphitheatre of anatomy, a vast
botanical garden, an immense menagerie, and many other collections of things useful for physical
research.
“It was an institution conceived on a most liberal plan, an assembly of savants lodged in a palace,
richly endowed with the liberality of princes, exempt from public charges. Without distinction of race or
creed, with no imposed regulations, no set plan of study or lecture lists, the members of this
distinguished assembly were left free to prosecute their researches and studies untrammeled and
unhampered.
 “… So far there had been no philosophy in the proper sense of the word; that did not enter into the
curriculum of the Museum. Hitherto Alexandria had had no philosophy of her own, but now she is
destined to be the crucible in which philosophic thought of every kind will be fused together, and not
only philosophy, but more important still, religio-philosophy and theosophy of every kind will be
poured into the melting pot, and many strange systems and some things admirably good and true will
be moulded out of the matter cast into this seething crucible. …

“Slowly but surely the wisdom of Egyptians, of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and its reflection in
some of the Jewish doctors, of Persia, too, and perhaps even to India, begins to react on the center
of Grecian thought, and religion and all the great problems of the human soul begin to oust mere
scholasticism…from the schools; Alexandria is no longer to be a mere literary city, but a city of
philosophy in the old sense of the term; it is to be wisdom-loving…”3
The early Alexandrian alchemists adapted ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Hindu metallurgical
procedures to pursue their investigation of the Spirit and Soul in the matter. These procedures
possessed magical and religious importance for the Egyptian and Babylonian priesthoods, especially
the methods used to refine gold and other metals from rock ore and to make synthetic stones of
religious significance. The Alexandrian alchemists proceeded with a proto-scientific philosophical
spiritual approach with emphasis on experimentation. They were also adept at preparing herbal
medicines and compounding powerful psychotrophic extracts. Many taught alchemy openly at the
Museum near the Serapis temple and library, the Serapeum.
However, the quintessential esoteric paradigm underlying alchemy, the pursuit of individual self
evolution, seems to be the offspring of the marriage between Hindu tantric alchemy and the teachings
of the enigmatic Taoist sages. Lao Tsu is the most well known among the Taoist sages; he lived in
China about 2400 years ago. Along with this marriage from the East was the fusion of philosophies
and praxis that has come down to us as the Gnosis or Gnosticism.
 In fact writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were found that dated from the 4th Century in the
collection of Gnostic manuscripts that became known as the Nag Hammadi Library. “We come to a
class of writings that one would hardly have expected to find in a Gnostic library. This consists of the
texts which, in some cases, reveal to us a teaching intermediate between Gnosticism and Hermetism,
whilst others belong properly to Hermetic literature. …As for the properly Hermetic writings of this
category, they are—significantly—grouped together, five of them in Codex VI—which was one of the
most in use, as we can see from the portions of feathers slipped in between the leaves to mark
certain places in the book.
“What remains so remarkable is the presence of these Hermetic writings in a library of which all the
rest is essentially Gnostic. Moreover, the gloss of the Gnostic compiler—‘This is the first discourse
that I have copied for you. But there are many others that have come into my hands: I have not
transcribed them, thinking that they have already reached you….’—greatly heightens the interest of
its presence in this collection. What it shows is that there was in circulation in Upper Egypt, in the
second half of the fourth century (the period of our codex), a far more important collection of Hermetic
treatises, already translated from Greek into Sahidic Coptic, and destined, no doubt, for use by
sectaries more or less related to those of Chenoboskion.
“The intentional juxtaposition of Hermetic writings and Gnostic treatises shows that some
interchange was then going on between the two schools of doctrine. Here, living once again before
our eyes, is that syncretic movement which associated the Gnostic prophets not only to the Hermes
of Cyllene, but also to the more learned Hermes of the Greek mystical treatises. This is precisely the
blend of ideas whose occurrence at the epoch had been suggested, but not satisfactorily proved, by
the little treatise of Zosimos the alchemist Upon the Letter Omega; in which myths derived from the
writings of Zoroaster, some of those of Nicotheus ‘the hidden’ and of the Jewish Gnosis, are treated
upon the same footing as writings On the Natures and On Immateriality, which are imputed to the
authority of the Trismegistus.”4

Hindu Origins of Alchemy

According to many historians alchemy was introduced into India by the Arabs. However “mercury”
was mentioned in the fourth century “Bower Manuscript,” and the transmutation of metals and ores
into gold was described in several Buddhist texts between the second and fifth centuries. The
Mahaprajnaparamitashastra of Nagarjuna, was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva over three
centuries before the zenith of Arab alchemy which occurred during the life of Jabir ibin Hayyan, aka
Geber around 760 CE. The discourse of Nagarjuna lists among the siddhi (miraculous powers) the
transmutation of stone into gold and gold into stone.

Another Hindu alchemical text, Avatamska Sutra (second-fourth century) reported: “There exists a
Hataka juice or essence. One liang of this solution can transform one thousand liangs of bronze into
pure gold.” Further details are given in Mahaprajnaparamitopadesha by Nagarjuna, translated into
Chinese 402-405 CE: “By means of drugs and incantations one can change bronze into gold. By
skillful use of drugs, silver may be transformed into gold and gold into silver. By spiritual strength
man can change clay or stone into gold.”5
“The Hatha-yogis and the Tantrists attempt to transmute their bodies into incorruptible ones. The
new body they call divine body of gnosis. The Hindu alchemist pursues the same goal: the
transmutation of the body indefinitely prolonging its youth, strength and suppleness. The tantric
Hatha-yogi works on the physical body and the mind while the alchemist works on substances. Both
aim at “‘purifying’ these impure materials, at ‘perfecting’ them and finally, transmuting them into ‘gold.’
...‘Gold is immortality:’ it is the perfect metal, and its symbolism rejoins the symbolism of the pure
spirit, free and immortal, which the yogi endeavors, by asceticism to ‘extract’ from the ‘unclean’ and
‘enslaved’ psycho-mental life. ...The alchemist hopes to achieve the same results as the yogi by
‘projecting’ his asceticism on to matter. Instead of submitting his body and his psycho-mental life to
the rigours of yoga, in order to separate the Spirit (purusha) from all experience belonging to the
sphere of the substance (prakrti), the alchemist subjects metals to the chemical operations which
correspond to the ‘purifications’ and ascetic ‘tortures.’ For there is a complete solidarity between
physical matter and the psycho-somatic body of the man: both are products of the primordial
substance (prakrti). Between the ‘basest’ metal and the most refined psycho-mental experience there
is no break of continuity.
 “All this is more easily understood if one studies the ideology, symbolism and techniques of
alchemy in their yogi-tantric context, and if one takes account of a certain Indian spiritual prehistory
embracing the belief in men-gods, magicians and immortals. Tantric yoga and alchemy have
integrated, and given a new significance to these myths and yearnings as, in China, Taoism and
alchemy have done with a number of immemorial traditions.”6
The great Hindu alchemist and sage Nagarjuna taught that the alchemical process of fixing
mercury, indeed the whole of alchemy, was revealed by the great god Shiva personally, and secretly
transmitted from one generation of adepts to the next. Nagarjuna described the alchemical adept:
“intelligent, devoted to his work, without sin and master of his passions...Those who are truthful, free
from temptation, love the Gods and are self-controlled and used to live upon proper diet and
regimen—such are to be engaged in performing chemical operations.”7

Shiva is called the god of mercury in the Rudrayamala Tantra. Shiva says his generating principle
is mercury and extolled its efficacy when it has been fixed (dead) six times. Mercury was also called
Harabija, “semen of Shiva” in the lexicon of Maheshvara. The Survarna Tantra asserts that by eating
fixed mercury (nasta-pista) a human can become immortal. The Rudrayamala describes the fixed
mercury as having no brilliance nor fluidity; it’s lighter than quicksilver and coloured. The
Rasaratnasamuccaya III delcares a human body can be transmuted into a divine one through the
action of an elixir obtained from ‘mercury.’ In that text Nagarjuna said he had developed remedies for
“wrinkles and white hair and other signs of old age...Mineral preparations act with equal efficiency on
metals as on the human body.”8
“This favourate metaphor of Indian alchemists illustrates one of their fundamental conceptions.
Like the human body, metals can be ‘purified’ and ‘made divine’ by mercuric preparations which
communicate the healing virtues of Shiva, for Shiva, to the whole tantric world, is the God of
deliverance. The Rasarnava recommends that mercury should be applied first on metals and then on
the human body. If we are to believe the Rasahrdaya Tantra, alchemy may even cure leprosy and
restore to old men their pristine youth.9
“From times of the greatest antiquity an important section of the Indian spiritual elite applied itself
to ‘experimentation’—the direct, experimental knowledge of all that constitutes the basis and
processes of the human body and the psycho-mental life....
“The Indian alchemist drew up the elements of a pre-chemistry the moment he abandoned the
strictly traditional plane of reference and applied himself to the objective study of phenomena and
experimentation with the aim of completing his knowledge of the properties of matter. Hindu scholars
were capable of exact observation and scientific thought... Metallurgical processes were described
with greater accuracy by Hindu writers three centuries before Agrippa and Paracelsus. In the
pharmacopoea, the Hindus achieved impressive results....
“Operational contact with the ‘substances’ was not without spiritual consequences—as was the
case in the West from the time when scientific chemistry came into its own. To work actively on ores
and metals was to touch prakrti, to modify its forms, to intervene in its processes. Now, in the
ideological universe in which the alchemist works, and which is that of tantrism, prakrti is not only the
cosmological principle of classical Sankhya and yoga; prakrti is the primordial mode of the Goddess,
of the Shakti.”10
 Taoist Origins of Alchemy
“Taoism goes back to the days of the guilds of smiths, custodians of the most wondrous of the
magic arts and the secrets of the primal forces. It was in Taoist and neo-Taoist circles that
alchemical techniques were propagated.... Their ideas of longevity and immortality belong to the
sphere of mythologies and folklore which is virtually universal. The notions of the ‘herb of
immortality,’ of animal or vegetable substances charged with ‘vitality’ and containing the elixir of
eternal youth as well as the myths concerning inaccessible regions inhabited by immortals, are part of
a primitive ideology going far beyond the confines of China....
“Chinese alchemy was built up, in so far as it is an autonomous discipline, by utilizing: traditional
cosmological principles; myths connected with the elixir of immortality and the immortal saints;
techniques pursuing the prolongation of life, beatitude and spiritual spontaneity.... There is a very
obvious and close connection between the ‘preparation of gold,’ the ‘drug of immortality’ and the
‘evocation of the Immortals’”11
Han dynasty historian, Ssu-ma Ch’ien lived in the first century 145-86 BCE. In Records of the
Historian he recounts how Taoist master sage, Lao Tsu, “having lived in Chou for a long time,
realized it was in decline and left. As he reached the pass, the pass-keeper, Yin-hsi, said, ‘You are
about to retire. Please try your best to write a book for me.’ Thereupon Lao Tsu wrote a book in two
parts, expounding the ideas of the Way and its virtue in over 5000 words and then [he] departed.
None knew how he ended. Probably Lao Tsu lived to be more than one hundred and sixty years—
some say more than 200 years—because he practiced the Way and nourished his old age.”12
Pass-keeper Yin-hsi became Master Yin-hsi, inspired by the teachings Lao Tsu had written for him
in the Way of Things, the Tao te Ching. From it master Yin-hsi developed a method to keep one in
harmony with Tao. He called it The Secret of the Golden Flower.
The Secret of the Golden Flower advances the Taoist “premise that the cosmos and man, in the
last analysis, obey the same law; that man is a microcosm and is not separated from the macrocosm
by any fixed barriers. The very same laws rule for the one as for the other, and from the one a way
leads into the other. The psyche and the cosmos are to each other like the inner world and the outer
world. Therefore man participates by nature in all cosmic events, and is inwardly as well as outwardly
interwoven with them. ...The fundamental idea is that Tao, though itself motionless, is the means of
all movement. [And life is] the multicolored play of nature which cannot evade the laws of the Tao.”13
The Taoists believed, and the secret doctrine proposed, that human consciousness is of two
natures. Body-consciousness is stimulated to react by phenomena and is bound to the laws of
physics. It is the emotional consciousness awakened by the five senses through unreflecting
reactions to impressions received from the external world. Spirit-consciousness prevails when body-
consciousness is quiet.
Psychic energy and vital energy flow out from the individual into the phenomenal world. Vital
energy is exhausted at death. Body-consciousness is linked to organic processes and decays
returning to the earth. Spirit-consciousness is linked to intellect and imagination and powered with
psychic energy. At death it rises from the earth then failing to maintain its energy output, dissipates,
or its energy is drawn into the common reservoir of life energy. The master of the Pass reasoned that
reversing the direction of energy flow from outward to inward would prolong life. He called the
process of reversing the flow of psychic and vital energies, “Circulation of the Light.”

Circulation of the Light:

“The work on the circulation of the light depends entirely on the backward-flowing movement, so
that the thoughts are gathered together. ...When the light circulates, the energies of the whole body
appear before its throne. ...You have only to make the light circulate: that is the deepest and most
wonderful secret. The light is easy to move, but difficult to fix. If it is made to circulate long enough,
then it crystallizes itself; that is the natural spirit-body. In carrying out this fundamental principle you
need to seek for no other methods, but must only concentrate your thoughts on it. When the light is
made to move in a circle, all the energies of heaven and earth, of the light and the dark, are
crystallized.
“...When one begins to apply this magic it is as if, in the middle of being, there were non-being.
When in the course of time the work is completed, and beyond the body there is a body, it is as if, in
the middle of non-being, there is being. ...There develops the seed pearl. It is as if man and woman
embraced and a conception took place. Then one must be quite still and wait. The circulation of the
light is the epoch of fire.
“...In the midst of primal transformation, the radiance of the light is the determining thing. The
radiation and dissipation of spiritual consciousness is chiefly brought about by this energy when it is
directed outward. Therefore the Way of the Golden Flower depends wholly on the backward-flowing
method. The decision must be carried out with a collected heart, and not seeking success; success
will then come of itself.
“...As soon as the heart stirs, there develops breath-energy. Breath-energy is originally
transformed activity of the heart. ...Since heart and breath are mutually dependent, the circulation of
the light must be united with the rhythm of breathing. ...Although the breath that flows in and out
through the nose is not the true breath, the flowing in and out of the true breath takes place in
connection with it.”14
By the ninth century The Secret of the Golden Flower had generated the “Religion of the Golden
Elixir of Life.” Practitioners of this esoteric and secret religion were met with tolerance and favor
during the T’ang dynasty. But over time, as it became more popular, adepts were accused of political
intrigues. Adherents were persecuted by hostile governments. In 1891 fifteen thousand members of
the Religion of the Golden Elixir of Life were murdered by Manchu hirelings.
From the third century BCE. to the third century CE. Taoist adepts inspired by the Secret of the
Golden Flower sought to produce a substance that would turn base metals into gold and give men
immortality. This philosopher’s stone created by artful diligence in the kitchen was to be crushed “into
a marvelous powder, a gold dust which ‘spread mistily like wind driven by rain’ through the five
organs. The universal medicine freed its owner from all worldly miseries. New teeth would grow,
dark hair would cover the old man’s baldness, and his sick wife would regain perfect health.”15
 Hermetic Origins of Alchemy
During approximately the same time period in Egypt, Greek colonists living in Alexandria partook in
a cultural synthesis that mingled elements of Egyptian religion and Greek philosophy together with
religious fragments from the Levant and the East.16 The god Hermes ascended from this crucible.
From then on he was a fusion of the Homeric Greek god Hermes and the ancient Egyptian god
Thoth, the divine inventor of magic, language and writing. Hermes “‘opens the doors of birth and of
death.’ He controls exchange, commerce and learning: he is the gods’ messenger, the mediator, the
reconciler.”17
By 200 BCE Hermes had become humanized, developing into a mythical king. His 36,000 books
on the Principles of Nature written over his 3200 year reign were reduced in number to a mere forty-
two, which the Christian patriarch Clement of Alexandria claimed to have seen carried in a solemn
procession. The books were anonymous writings on Egyptian philosophy, the offspring of Greco-
Egyptian philosophical intercourse. Those Sages writing under the pseudonym, Hermes, preserved
for us the composite wisdom called Hermetic philosophy.
Hermetic philosophy with its tradition of anonymous adepts was adopted by the early Alexandrian
alchemists. Many texts claim Hermes Trismegistus was the first master of alchemy. However
alchemy incorporated many elements of a more pragmatic nature, taking Hermetic philosophy from
the merely cerebral, and applying it to the phenomenal.
Very few of the manuscripts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus escaped destruction by the
emerging Roman-Catholic Empire. However when the Moslems invaded Egypt and settled there
after 640, they found manuscripts and inscribed tablets in the pyramids. Arabic writings on the
subject recount tales of discovering a tablet of mystical instructions in the tomb of Hermes. E. J.
Holmyard uncovered the oldest known version of it inserted in The Elementary Book of Foundation,
by Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyam), the greatest and most prolific Arab alchemist; it is dated to the eighth
century.18 There Geber recounts how the great magician sage, Apollonius of Tyana, discovered in a
tomb an engraved emerald tablet in the mummified hand of Hermes Trismegistus. Apollonius
flourished in the first half of the first century CE. His biographer Philostratus (170-230 CE.) detailed
Apollonius’ travels in India and his claim to be the reincarnation of Pythagoras. The tablet contained
the Creed of the Adepts—the legendary Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus.

The eighth century Emerald Tablet represents the quintessence of Taoist philosophy and its Secret
of the Golden Flower congealed into Western consciousness. It leaves nothing out in its brevity,
revealing the whole of the art and creation of the world in the sublime simplicity so loved by the Taoist
masters.
‘Tis true without falsehood, and most real: that which is above is like that which is below, to
perpetrate the miracles of One thing. And as all things have been derived from One, by the thought
of One, so all things are born from One by adoption.
The Sun is its father; the Moon is its mother. The Earth is its nurse; The belly of the Wind carries
it. Here is the essence of every Perfection in the world. Its strength and power prevail when turned
into earth; thou wilt separate the earth from fire, the subtle from the gross, gently and with great care.
It ascends from earth to heaven, descends again to earth and receives the power of the higher and
the lower. By this means, thou wilt have the glory of the world. And because of this, all obscurity will
flee from thee. Within this is the power, most powerful of all powers. For it will overcome all subtle
things, and penetrate every solid thing. Thus the world was created. Wonderful adaptations will
emerge from this; it is the Way.
And for this reason, I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of the philosophy of
the world. What I have said of the Sun’s operations is complete.19
 The first paragraph reveals the relationship between the macrocosm and microcosm. Man and the
universe are like each other, complete each other miraculously becoming One. All things are One
individually and One whole when taken together.
The second paragraph reveals One is a trivalent emanation born in the embrace of opposites: sun
and moon, light and dark, positive and negative, on and off, one and zero, existence and
nonexistence, etc. The union of opposites creates a body (Earth) or manifestation of that union. The
manifestation is the One thing derived from the two. The One thing continues as long as the body of
that union can be nurtured. One is the continuing embrace of opposites. In other words the trivalent
potentiality in all things is one of opposition, attraction, balance—or expansion, contraction, stasis—
the three conditions of the universe postulated by modern physics. To unleash the power of One
separate the subtle from the gross: separate the opposites, carefully.
Paragraph three describes the process and the results of separating the opposites, heaven and
earth, and separating One from them. The One is it that ascends to heaven and descends to earth
thereby gaining the power of the macrocosm and the microcosm. Paragraph two said the belly of the
Wind carries it. It ascends and descends on the air one breathes. All one has to do is separate it
from the air breathed in and circulate it as described by the Taoist alchemists and all obscurity will
flee from thee.
“It was in the fourth century, amidst the merciless fight which Christianity was waging against
paganism, that alchemy flowered. Zosimos of Panopolis, a writer of that epoch, appointed himself the
defender of the alchemical art. His allegories and comments are cited by medieval experts as the
most profound and venerable documents of the arcana.
“Zosimos declared the knowledge of metals, precious stones, and of scents dates back to the
epoch mentioned in Genesis: ‘The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.’ The
mysterious sons of God were believed to be fallen angels who had mated with women of antediluvian
times. [Grateful], the angels taught these women various arts, [desiring] their companions make
jewels, colorful garments, and perfumes with which to adorn their beauty.”20

A woman adept of the early period calling herself, Isis, had revealed in her treatise that Amnael,
the first of the angels and prophets, gave her alchemical wisdom because he wanted to have sex with
her. Many alchemists participating in the early original formative years of this new epoch were
women. Zosimos directs several of his tractae to his sister alchemist Theosebia who was openly
initiating apprentices though Zosimos advised against it.
Zosimos further revealed that Chemes, a very early master of alchemy, had written a book called
Chema, which the fallen angels had used to instruct their lovers, the daughters of men. The Greek
word “chemia” described the alchemical art until the Arabs added to it the article “al” from their
language creating the word alchemy.21 Al kimiya meant to the Arabs not only the elixir or
Philosopher’s Stone itself but also the medium of transmutation.

One of the earliest alchemist in the West was a mysterious Greek woman who wrote under the
pseudonym, Maria Prophetissa (also called Mary the Jewess). Zosimos and other alchemists have
identified her with Miriam, the sister of Moses. Maria was a skilled adept credited with inventing
several devices that demonstrate laboratory techniques routinely employed by modern science. She
designed an apparatus that enclosed a vessel in a box of hot ashes to produce low and steady heat
to initiate reactions of materials placed in the vessel. She devised the routine of placing the reaction
vessel into a dung heap to incubate alchemical principles, thus taking advantage of the prolonged
warmth produced by the bacteria composting the dung. She invented the double boiler to produce
still higher but steady heat necessary for other phases in the production of the Philosopher’s Stone.22
Unfortunately the alchemical writings of Maria Prophetissa are incomplete, surviving only in
fragments copied by later writers. In one treatise ascribed to her, “Practica Mariae Prophetissae in
artem alchemicam,” possibly of Arabic origin, she discusses matrimonium alchymicum (alchemical
wedding) with the philosopher Aros. From it comes the oft repeated alchemical dictum “Marry gum
with gum in true marriage.” The renown twentieth century psychiatrist and pioneering investigator
into the psychology of alchemy, C. G. Jung, wrote concerning the nature of that alchemical gum,
“Originally it was ‘gum arabic,’ and it is used here as a secret name for the transforming substance,
on account of its adhesive quality. Thus Kunrath declares that the ‘red’ gum is the ‘resin of the
wise’—a synonym for the transforming substance.”23 Had Jung been an initiate of alchemy he would
have known that gum arabic was itself a pseudonym for the true transforming substance—the red
resin of the wise—a gum gathered from the resinous flower clusters of female Cannabis sativa plants.
That highly fragrant reddish resin has been produced in India since time immemorial and carried to
the west by Arab traders.
Another early adept using the pseudonym, Cleopatra, wrote a book called Chrysopeia
(Goldmaking). In it she describes the Ouroboros, accompanied with an illustration of a snake
devouring its tail. The upper half with the head is dark. The lower half is light. Above it in three
concentric circles is written, “One is All, by him is all, and for him is all, and in him is all. The Serpent
is one; he has the two symbols (good and bad)...”24 The Ouroboros was a Gnostic creation that
transformed the evil serpent of Christendom into a symbol for the union of opposites in the Way of
One. The Ouroboros is the Western equivalent of the Taoist Yin-Yang: a circle dynamically divided in
two halves, one light, the other dark, each chasing the other and each containing a point of the other
within it. The Yin-Yang is the Eastern symbol for the union of opposites in the Way. The serpent and
the Tree of Knowledge became the most cherished symbols of alchemy.

The Ouroboros or serpent devouring its tail is perhaps the best symbol possible that demonstrates
the nature of Nature—the Green Economy. All biotic life on Earth exists as one collective biomass by
maintaining a balance where the living biomass consumes the dead biomass in an ongoing cycle
perpetuated by green plants.
Early Christian zealots believed the serpent that tempted Adam to eat the fruit from the tree of
knowledge had caused the downfall of Man. They also believed the fallen angels had sinfully given
women knowledge meant for god alone. So they cursed this forbidden knowledge that enabled men
to rival god. The dogmatist Saint Augustine wrote of the Christian disdain for knowledge admonishing
against “the vain and curious desire of investigation, known as knowledge and science.”25
Most alchemy manuscripts of the third and fourth century have come to us in copies from a much
later date. The Chyrsopeia of Cleopatra is preserved in a manuscript dating from the tenth or
eleventh century.
 Persecution of the alchemists was initiated while the art was still centered in Alexandria. The study
of medicine and alchemy was conducted in buildings adjacent to the Serapis Temple, the Serapeum.
Theophilus, archbishop of Alexandria, ordered the Serapeum destroyed, but the scholars resisted.
Then Emperor Theodosius, destroyer of paganism, forced the philosophers to retreat. The temple
was destroyed but the library was saved. Learning continued in the Museum until the woman adept
and teacher, Hypatia, was murdered there on the steps in 415. After that, philosophers sought refuge
in Athens where the Initiate Mystery cults were still protected from Christian fanaticism.
In 529, Emperor Justinian instituted the official suppression of ancient learning, science and
philosophy. Pantheistic culture disappeared but alchemy survived even though Theodosian law had
decreed that all alchemy books be burned in public with the bishop presiding. The conceptual
knowledge alchemy contained was essential to the further development of civilization in the West.
And alchemy was flexible enough in its traditions and concepts to re-postulate the formulae of the
Way in the language of the church.
The seventh century alchemist and Christian mystic, Stephanus of Alexandria, fused some
elements of church orthodoxy into alchemical doctrine and dedicated his Nine Lessons in Chemia to
Heraclius, emperor of the East. The alchemical writings of Stephanus made the quest for knowledge
and methods of science palatable to the church-state. By elevating the value of knowledge in the
eyes of the church, Stephanus opened the way for one of the few bright spots during the Dark Ages—
the perseverance of the Byzantine monk archivists whose love of knowledge set them to work
copying whatever old writings providence handed them. They devoted their lives to rescuing some of
the wisdom fanatically destroyed by their Christian brothers.
Alchemical poets appeared on the scene, inspired by the writings of Stephanus and the ancient
wisdom restored by the monks from the eighth through the eleventh centuries. Those early
alchemists that avoided persecution by using pseudonyms—Cleopatra, Isis and Mary—were then
venerated as was Hypatia though she was romanticized by later European authors outside the realm
of alchemy.
Valued as it was, this trickle of wisdom could not pull European thought out of the pit of ignorance
the catholic hierarchy and its flat-earth/flat-universe antinomianism had ordained for humanity. The
darkness was not dispelled until after the Moslems invaded Spain and from there some of the
learning of antiquity so assiduously preserved by the Byzantine monks of Eastern Christendom re-
entered the West.
The Islamic scholars found a ready audience willing to accept their advances in alchemy and
science. The new wave of European students of chemia enthusiastically absorbed the new Arabian
alchemy and made it their own. The resulting expansion of knowledge began the slow erosion of the
church-state worldview that dominated and inhibited Western thought.
The ultimate failure of the church-state to control thinking people was facilitated by the art of
papermaking introduced by the Moslems, and finalized not long after the invention of the movable
type printing press. Nowadays while people pray to god for help and look to science for salvation, the
mysterious spirit of the Way, and the underlying soul of the matter, live on in the body of alchemy

Esoteric Origins of Alchemy

Early alchemists Zosimus and Isis said alchemical knowledge came from fallen angels sexually
attracted to human women. The early Christian church fathers believed them and claimed the angels
had sinned against the orders of god. Who were these angels?
The Book of Enoch (Enoch 1), the Book of the Secrets of Enoch (Enoch 2) and the Book of
Jubilees contain more details about the fallen angels referred to in Genesis. Enoch 2 was probably
written by a Hellenistic Jew in the first century CE. Enoch 1 and the Book of Jubilees are Jewish
works of the intertestamental period written down in the second century BCE. The information
contained in them is much older than the date of these manuscripts.
Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah. Genesis 5: 22-24 says, “And E-noch walked with God
after he begat Me-thu-se-lah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of
E-noch were three hundred sixty and five years: And E-noch walked with God: and he was not; for
God took him.” The Books of Enoch describe how he was taken to the heavens after a tour of the
earth: “The Lord spoke, ‘Have no fear, Enoch, good man and scribe of goodness. Come hear my
voice. Go speak to the Watcher of Heaven, who have sent you to intercede for them. Tell them: You
should intercede for men, and not men for you. Why did you leave lofty, holy Heaven to sleep with
women, to defile yourselves with the daughters of men and take them as your wives...?’” After God’s
rhetorical admonition against his lustful yet loving angels he said to Enoch, “As for the Watcher who
sent you to intercede for them, tell them: ‘You were in Heaven but the mysteries were not revealed to
you. You knew worthless ones, and in the hardness of your hearts you revealed these to women,
and through these secrets women and men work much evil [on] earth.’ Say to them, ‘You have no
peace.’”26

After his audience with God, angels including the archangel Uriel took Enoch on journeys through
hell and heaven. From there the angel Raguel took him to the Seven Mountains in the Northwest and
the Tree of Life. “Fragrant trees encircled the throne. Among them was a tree like no other. Its
fragrance was beyond all fragrance, and its leaves and blooms and wood never withered....” Michael,
the leader of the angels tells Enoch, “As for this fragrant tree, no mortal is permitted to touch it till the
great judgment....”27 Enoch was instructed by the Lord to write down what had been revealed to him
and to teach the people this wisdom. He did so in 366 books. Scholars believe the meaning of the
name Enoch stems from a variant of the Hebrew root connoting “to train, to educate.”28
Scholars have been able to verify the general historical accuracy of the Old Testament by
comparing the biblical episodes to much older parallel chronicles written in cuneiform characters on
clay tablets from the ancient Mesopotamian kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia. The oldest of all are
from Sumer. Shumer is “land of the Watchers” in Akkadian, the root semitic language used by the
Assyrians and Babylonians.
 The Sumerian King List records all the rulers of earth back over 400,000 years. This huge stretch
of time coupled with reigns into the thousands of years has caused most historians to reject its
accuracy. However all the early rulers were gods—immortals. The King List does record the reign of
Enmeduranki whose name meant “ruler whose me connect Heaven and Earth.” A tablet described by
W.G. Lambert tells a story similar to Enoch’s: “Enmeduranki [was] a prince in Sippar, beloved of Anu,
Enlil and Ea. Shamash in the Bright Temple appointed him. Shamash and Adad [took him] to the
assembly [of the gods]... They showed him how to observe oil on water, a secret of Anu, Enlil and
Ea. They gave him the Divine Tablet, the kibdu secret of Heaven and Earth... They taught him how
to make calculations with numbers.”29 Anu, Enlil, Ea, Shamash and Adad were Sumerian gods
called Anunnaki meaning “those who from Heaven to Earth came.”
A tablet referred to as CBS 14061 describes an incident paralleling the Enochian marriage of an
angel to a human woman. The tablet tells of a young god named Martu who fell in love with the
daughter of the high priest of Nin-ab. Martu complained to his goddess mother, “In my city I have
friends, they have taken wives. I have companions, they have taken wives. In my city, unlike my
friends, I have not taken a wife; I have no wife, I have no children.” Martu’s mother asked him if the
woman he desired “appreciated his gaze.” Then the goddess gave her consent to the marriage. Enlil
the leader of the gods on Earth became increasingly upset over the pollution of Anunnaki blood by
these marriages and over the young Anunnaki gods becoming more interested in freedom and idyllic
life on earth than taking orders from Enlil. He said “I will destroy the Earthling whom I have created
off the face of the Earth.”30
The peoples of ancient civilization, Sumerians, Egyptians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians,
Hittites, Hebrews etc., in their sacred writings all describe gods that physically dwelt on Earth. This
was aside from their writings on philosophy and mysticism. According to the Sumerians these gods
came from the planet Nibiru, “planet of the crossing;” the Assyrians and Babylonians called it Marduk,
after their chief god. The Sumerians never called the Anunnaki, “gods.” They were called din.gir, a
two syllable word. Din meant “righteous, pure, bright;” gir was a term used to describe a sharp-edged
object. As an epithet for the Anunnaki dingir meant “righteous ones of the bright pointed objects.”31
The Sumerian pictograph for the word looks like a two-staged rocket with a pointed capsule at the
top.
 Sumerian texts break up history into two epochs divided by the great Deluge—the Biblical Flood.
After the waters receded “‘the great Anunnaki who decree the fate’ decided that the gods ‘were too
lofty for mankind.’ The term used—elu in Akkadian—means exactly that: ‘Lofty Ones;’ from it comes
the Babylonian, Assyrian, Hebrew, and Ugaritic El—the term to which the Greeks gave the
connotation ‘god.’”32
Returning to Genesis chapter six, after the sons of God took human wives, verse four continues:
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto
the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became the mighty men which were
of old, men of renown.” However the King James version erroneously translated the Hebrew term ne-
filim as “giants,” and shem as “renown.” If the original words are used the verse reads: “The Nefilim
were upon the Earth, in those days and thereafter too, when the sons of the gods cohabitated with
the daughters of the Adam, and they bore children unto them. They were the mighty ones of
Eternity—The People of the shem.” Nefilim stems from the Semitic root NFL, “to be cast down.”33
The first line of Genesis 6:4 means Those who were cast down were upon the Earth. They were the
fallen angels!
They were also the People of the shem. “The Mesopotamian texts that refer to the inner
enclosures of temples, or the heavenly journeys of the gods, or even to instances where mortals
ascended to the heavens, employ the Sumerian term mu or its Semitic derivatives shu-mu (“that
which is a mu”), sham, or shem. Because the term also connoted ‘that by which one is remembered,’
the word has come to be taken as meaning ‘name....’ Like most Sumerian syllabic words, mu had a
primary meaning; in the case of mu, it was ‘that which rises straight.’ Its thirty-odd nuances
encompassed the meanings heights, fire, command, a counted period...”34
 After Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II had rebuilt Marduk’s sacred precinct within fortified walls
made of fired brick and gleaming black marble, he recorded: “I raised the head of the boat ID.GE.UL
the chariot of Marduk’s princeliness; The boat ZAG.MU.KU, whose approach is observed, the
supreme traveler between Heaven and Earth, in the midst of the pavilion I enclosed, screening off its
sides.” ID.GE.UL means high to heaven, bright at night. ZAG.MU.KU means bright mu which is for
afar.35
The Mesopotamians believed the gods were immortal. The Sumerians said one year on planet
Nibiru, a sar, was equivalent in time to 3600 earth years. They also said Anunnaki lifespans were
120 sars which is 120 x 3600 or 432,000 years. According to the King List 120 sars had passed from
the time the Anunnaki arrived on Earth to the time of the Flood. However when the Lofty Ones came
to Earth their lifespans began to sync with Earth’s faster orbit and they faced rapid aging compared to
that on Nibiru. They discovered that by eating food from their home planet they could keep the aging
process synced to the pace of Nibiru.

The Sumerian god of wisdom Enki (Ea) was the leader of the first sons of Anu that came down to
Earth. He played the pivotal role in saving humanity from the global Deluge. He defied the Anunnaki
ruling council and told Ziusudra (the Sumerian Noah) how to build a ship on which to save humanity
from the killing flood. Ea would have been over 120 sars old at that time, yet his relationship with
humanity continued to be actively reported for thousands of years thereafter.
Within his sacred precinct “Mound of Creation” in Eridu, Enki unraveled the secrets of life and
death. His emblem was two serpents entwined on a staff—the basis for the winged caduceus symbol
used by modern Western medicine. Enki was the god who created the first humans: “In those days,
in those years, The Wise One of Eridu, Ea, created him as a model of men.” His name was Adapa,
Adam in the Old Testament: “Elohim created the Adam in His image—in the image of Elohim created
He him.”36
 Through Enki’s creative efforts “wide understanding he perfected for him.... Wisdom [he had given
him].... To him he had given Knowledge; Eternal Life he had not given him.”37 Anu wondered “why
did Ea, to a worthless human the plan of Heaven disclose—rendering him distinguished, making a
shem for him?”38 Enki “made him take the road to Heaven, and to Heaven he went up. When he
had ascended to Heaven he approached the Gate of Anu.” Enki had told Adapa that if Anu offered
him food, he was not to eat the Bread of Life nor drink the Water of Life because they were poison.
After Adapa answered Anu’s questions Anu said, “‘What can we do for him? Fetch him the bread
of (eternal) life and let him eat!’
“They fetched him the bread of (eternal) life, but he would not eat. They fetched him the water of
(eternal) life, but he would not drink...Anu watched him and laughed at him.
‘Come, Adapa, why didn’t you eat? Why didn’t you drink? Didn’t you want to be immortal? Alas for
downtrodden people!’
“‘(But) Ea my lord told me: “You mustn't eat! You mustn’t drink.”
“‘Take him and send him back to his earth.’”39
And so humanity missed out on immortality until the sons of the gods fell in love with the daughters
of men, married them and had children by them. Then not wanting their lovers to die they taught
them the secrets of immortality that Ea had discovered. Those secrets were the secrets of alchemy.
Ea’s youngest son was Ningizzida, Lord of the Tree of Truth, in Mesopotamia. He was revered as
Thoth in Egypt and Hermes in the West.
By the beginning of the current era philosophers had removed the physical existence of the gods
to the abstract, implying their powers were aspects of spiritual phenomena coincident to the forces of
Nature. The early alchemists of that time period still claimed like the ancient priests before them, that
the knowledge they possessed was a gift from the gods, and their pursuit of immortality was in
emulation of the gods’ pursuit of immortality.
 Shamanic Origins of Alchemy
The first maxim of alchemy is “That which is above is like that which is below.” If the religious and
mythical origins of alchemy represent a portion of the above, then the anthropological record
represents a portion of the below. Historian Mircea Eliade wrote extensively about the cultural origins
of alchemy. He showed that alchemy was possibly the first offshoot of shamanism and was
connected with the origins of agriculture and especially metallurgy. The divine smith was the
ancestor of the alchemist.
The shaman/smith highly regarded stones from heaven—meteorites. This celestial metal was
sacred. “It was inevitable that meteorites should inspire awe. They came from some remote region
high up in the heavens and possessed a sacred quality enjoyed only by things celestial.... They fall to
earth charged with celestial sanctity; in a way, they represent heaven. This would suggest why so
many meteorites were worshipped or identified with a deity....
“Rock crystals, supposedly broken away from the heavenly throne, do in fact play a special role in
the shamanic initiation ceremonies of the Australian aborigines, among the Negritos of Malacca, in
North America and elsewhere. These ‘stones of light,’ as they are called by the maritime Dyaks of
Sarawak, reflect everything that happens on earth.
 “They disclose to the shaman what has taken place in the sick man’s soul and the destination to
which his soul takes flight. ...The shaman is he who ‘sees,’ because he is endowed with a
supernatural vision. He sees just as far into space as into time. Likewise he can perceive what is
invisible to the layman—spirits, gods, the soul....40
“A mine or an untapped vein is not easily discovered; it is for the gods and divine creatures to
reveal where they lie and to teach human beings how to exploit their contents. These beliefs were
held in European countries until quite recently. The Greek traveler Nucius Nicander, who had visited
Liege in the sixteenth century, brings back the legend of the discovery of the coal mines of northern
France and Belgium. An angel had appeared in the guise of a venerable old man and had shown the
mouth of a gallery to a smith who had until then fed his furnace with wood.... In other traditions it is
also a demi-god or a civilizing hero, a divine messenger, who is the originator of mining and
metallurgy.41
“...The sinking of a mine or the construction of a furnace are ritual operations, often of an
astonishing primitivism. Mining rites persisted in Europe up to the end of the Middle Ages: every
sinking of a new mine was accompanied by religious ceremonies. ...One notes the desire to appease
the spirits guarding or inhabiting the mine....

“Let us note in passing the animal behaviour of the ore: it is alive, it moves at will, hides, shows
sympathy or antipathy to human beings—a conduct not dissimilar from that shown by game towards
its hunter.42
 “There is above all the feeling that one is meddling with the natural order of things ruled by some
higher law and intervening in a secret and sacred process. Consequently, every precaution is taken
that is considered indispensable to the ‘rites de passage.’ There is the obscure feeling that some
mystery is at stake involving human existence, for the discovery of metals has indeed left its mark on
man....
“Still charged with this dread holiness the ores are conveyed to the furnace. It is then that the most
difficult and hazardous operations begin. The artisan takes the place of the Earth-Mother and it is his
task to accelerate and perfect the growth of the ore. The furnaces are, as it were, a new matrix, an
artificial uterus where the ore completes its gestation.”43
In 1925 R. Eisler announced a hypothesis concerning the existence of Babylonian alchemy. This
was after the publication of Assyrian chemical texts by R. Campbell Thompson. The tablets were
from king Assurbanipal’s great library at Nineveh. Eisler believed these texts were the oldest
historical documentation of the idea of the maturation and perfecting of metals, and they constituted
proof of the Mesopotamian origins of alchemy. His argument was based on the interpretation of the
meaning of term ku-bu in the main text. He believed ku-bu meant embryos, divine embryos. Others
translated the term as “a sort of demon,” and an “abortion.” The text says:
“When thou settest out the [ground] plan of a furnace for ‘minerals’ [ku-bu], thou shalt seek out a
favourable day in a fortunate month, and thou shalt set out the [ground] plan of the furnace. While
they are making the furnace, thou shalt watch [them] and thou shalt work thyself [?] [in the house of
the furnace]: thou shalt bring in embryos [born before time..,]....
“Thou shalt kindle a fire underneath the furnace and thou shalt put the ‘mineral’ into the furnace.
The men whom thou shalt bring to be over the furnace shall cleanse themselves and [then] thou shalt
set them to be over the furnace.”44
In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, (Enuma elish, IV, 136, line 3) “ku-bu designates the monstrous
body of Tiamat likened to a foetus, whose demiurge is preparing to shape the world.”45 The
“demiurge” that shapes the world in the Epic of Creation is the god Marduk, the eldest son of Enki.
“To sum up: in the symbols and rites accompanying metallurgical operations there comes into
being the idea of an active collaboration of man and nature, perhaps even the belief that man, by his
own work, is capable of superseding the processes of nature.
“The act, par excellence, of the cosmogony, starting from a living primal material, was sometimes
thought of as a cosmic embryology: the body of Tiamat was, in the hands of Marduk, a foetus. And
as all creation and all construction reproduced the cosmogonic model, man, in constructing or
creating, imitated the work of the demiurge.
“It was an intervention in the process of growth, an attempt to expedite maturation or to induce the
expulsion of the embryo.
“It was from such ritual experiences, taken in conjunction with metallurgical and agricultural
techniques, that gradually there clearly emerged the idea that man can intervene in the cosmic
rhythm, that he can anticipate a natural outcome, precipitate a birth. ...That was the point of
departure for the great discovery that man can take upon himself the work of Time, an idea which we
have seen clearly expressed in later Western, texts. Here too lies the basis and justification of the
alchemical operation, the opus alchymicum which haunted the philosophic imagination for more than
two thousand years: the idea of the transmutation of man and the Cosmos by means of the
Philosopher’s Stone. On the mineral level of existence, the Stone was realizing this miracle: it
eliminated the interval of time which separated the present condition of an ‘imperfect’ (crude) metal
from its final condition (when it would become gold). The Stone achieved transmutation almost
instantaneously: it superseded Time.”46

Alchemy and Time

The ancient Persians created a religion of Time. Exoteric portions of it survived in the fragments of
the spiritual discipline of the prophet Zoroaster. The ancient Persian religion of Time has been called
Zurvanism after the name of the primal deity, Zurvan, whose name means Time.

“Zurvanism was evidently popular in pre-Islamic Iran, but none of its texts have survived. Zurvanite
theology has, therefore, to be reconstructed from such outside sources as orthodox Zoroasterian
literature and Christian and Arabic writers. The resulting account must consequently be tentative. The
ancient myth apparently related that Zurvan, the great God, existed alone. He offered sacrifice for a
thousand years because he wanted a son, but after so long doubted the efficacy of his sacrifice. At
the moment of doubt he conceived twins within his hermaphrodite self. Ahriman was the
personification of his doubt Ohrmazd the embodiment of his wisdom. …[Zurvan] granted rulership
over the world to Ahriman. To Ohrmazd he granted the high priesthood, sovereignty over the spiritual
world, and the final victory.
 “The point behind the Zurvanite myth appears to be a dissatisfaction with the Zoroasterian belief in
two independent and opposed forces in life. Zurvanism was concerned to find the Undifferentiated
One from which the two, the manifold, arose (a spiritual search which was perhaps stimulated by
Greek or Indian thought)…
“The keynote of Zoroasterian teaching is the overriding conviction that Ohrmazd is wholly,
absolutely and exclusively good, whereas Zurvan contains within himself the potential for evil.
Zurvanites, therefore, considered that good and evil were not polar opposites, and so questioned the
very basis of the Zoroasterian myths of creation and renovation.”47
Elements of the Zurvanite spiritual practice are quite similar to the methods and ideals found in
certain Hindu spiritual disciplines which are well documented. These practices were absorbed into the
Alexandrian crucible of syncretic fushion being forged in the first centuries of the current epoch that
began roughly about 2000 years ago. Elements of this praxis were incorporated into Alexandrian
alchemy and are still to be seen in the symbolism associated with the alchemical lion.
The newly fashioned praxis from there spread West becoming part of the initiation process of the
Mythraic Mystery cult which for a time was the most popular religious cult in Roman culture. The
practice was embraced by the highest social ranks of the Roman Empire through the Sol Invictus cult
of the Roman emperors and military.
“The image of this mystery was found in the ruins of the Mithra temple of the Roman port of Ostia,
where it was dedicated in 190 by a certain C. Valerius and his sons. A nude male body wears the
head of a lion. Four wings issue from his back, bearing the symbols of the seasons of the year. In
each hand is a key, and in the left a scepter of authority as well. A serpent winding in six turns up the
body rests its head (turn7) above the brow. And the symbol on the man’s chest is of the fiery
thunderbolt, which nothing can resist.
“But this symbol of the fiery bolt, in exactly the same form, is the normal attribute of a certain
aspect of Buddhahood, known as the BuddhaVajradhara, ‘Bearing the Bolt,’ who stands for that
Supreme Illumination of which the Buddhas who appear in time and space are but the visible
manifestations. Such a bolt may appear in the Buddha’s hand or engraved upon his chest, where it
signifies ‘the weapon or substance of adamantean truth and reality, compared with which all other
substances are fragile.’ The Sanskrit term vajra means both ‘thunderbolt’ and ‘diamond.’ As a
diamond cannot be cut by other stones, so do all things fall before the bolt; they belong to the merely
phenomenal sphere and can offer no resistance. And in that branch of Buddhism known as the
Vajrayana, ‘Thunderblot Way,’ which is an extremely bold and colorful, magico-mystical form of
Tantric Buddhist discipline, the Buddhist mystic, through meditation, postures, and the pronunciation
of spells, may substantialize the vajara power immanent within himself, which then can be applied
either to sorcery or to the attainment of ultimate Illumination.
“…We note in the lower left-hand corner the tongs and hammer of the god Vulcan, of fire and
metalcraft: the fire by which the metal is brought from its ore and by which the craftsman creates
forms. At the lower right is the cock, announcer of the new sun. Before him lies the pine cone
symbolic of the seeds of life produced by the ever self-renewing cosmic tree. And finally, the serpent
winding up the body of the lion-man is duplicated in the caduceus, which corresponds not only in
form, but also certainly in sense, to that of the cup of King Gudea of Lagash. The single serpent of the
main figure has become in the caduceus two—as Adam became Adam and Eve. And these wind up
the axial pole (axis mundi), the spinal line of the lion-man himself, who is the Alpha and Omega of all
the productions of time.
 “In other words, the syncretic mythic lore of this cosmopolitan period was in no sense a mere
hotchpotch raked together from every corner of the earth. The symbolism throughout was as
consistent as could be, and in accord, furthermore, with a common heritage shared by all from of old.
For, as all these religions of the agriculturally based high cultures had been developed, actually, from
a few (astonishingly few) insights of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages, locally adapted to
landscapes and to manners of somewhat (though not absolutely) differing requirement, so in this age
of intercultural exchanges they could be readily brought together again by anyone properly trained in
his own tradition.
“…We see that Zurvan Akarana is also a dual god: a naked lion-man enveloped by a snake of
seven folds. The lion is symbolic of solar light, which is eternal; the serpent, of the rhymic, circling
around the lunar tides of time, which never cease. Thus the figure is precisely what its name tells:
Zurvan Akarana, ‘Boundless Time,’ in which eternity and time are one yet two.”48
The adept Initiate transcending the seventh degree of the Mythraic Mysteries entered the realm of
Zurvan Akarana, boundless time or Eternity. The adept had become one of the immortals manifesting
the unfolding evolution of personal self divinity. The adept had become one of the gods.
The seven degrees of the initiatic processes became the seven stages of alchemy in Alexandrian
Egypt. The classic depiction of Zurvan underwent a metamorphosis as well. Alexandrian alchemists
were pragmatic experimentalists that considered results to be more of value than philosophical
rhetoric. Zurvan was transformed into Aion in the Western Mystery schools. He stands upon a globe
which represents the world or universe. With the alchemists Aion was transformed into Ion.
 “In the Mithraic religion we meet with a strange god, Aion, also called Chronos or deus
leontocephalus because he is conventionally represented as a lion-headed human figure. He stands
in a rigid attitude, wrapped in the coils of a serpent whose head juts forward over the head of the lion.
In each hand he holds a key, on his breast is a thunderbolt.
“In the Mythriac mysteries the snake is often shown as the antagonist of the lion, in accordance
with the myth of the sun’s fight with the dragon.... To be ‘entwined’ or embraced is the same as to be
‘devoured,’ which...means entering into the mother’s womb. Time is thus defined by the rising and
setting sun, by the death and renewal of libido, the dawning and extinction of consciousness....
Oromazdes (Ahura-Mazda) and Ahriman came into being through Zrwan akarana, ‘infinitely long
duration.’ So time, this empty and purely formal concept, is expressed in the mysteries through
transformation of the creative force, libido, just as time in physics is identical with the flow of energetic
processes.”49
Aion and Zurvan are basically one in the same and both bear a remarkable resemblance to
Phanes, the hermaphroditic god of the Orphic mysteries. Phanes has a human head, is entwined
with a serpent and has wings. Phanes means “Revealer.”50 He is “the Shining One, the First-
Created, the ‘Father of Eros....’ The significance of Phanes is akin to that of the Indian Kama, the god
of love, who is likewise a cosmogonic principle.... Numerous mythological and philosophical attempts
have been made to formulate and visualize the creative force which man knows only by subjective
experience.... We would be better advised, therefore, when speaking of libido, to understand it as an
energy-value which is able to communicate itself to any field of activity whatsoever, be it power,
hunger, hatred, sexuality, or religion, without ever being itself a specific instinct.”51

Aion, Zurvan Akarana, Ion, represented the continued emanation, evolution and individualization of
the creative force through Time earlier symbolized by Phanes in the Orphic mysteries. In the Mithraic
mysteries they also represent the syncretism of the Thunderbolt Way of Vajrayana Buddhism, an
extremely bold magico-mystical Tantric Buddhist discipline. The adept practitioner is able to manifest
the thunderbolt power, vajra, within himself and use it to attain ultimate illumination. Aion, Ion, Zurvan
was a personification of ultimate transcendence—of the Logos and Eros, Word and Sensation—into
absolute Gnosis where duality is fused into the profound Paradox and Mystery.
The Christian Roman Emperor Constantine’s victory in 312 at the Milvain Bridge marked the
beginning of the end for Mithraism in the Roman empire. Except for the brief reign of Pagan Emperor
Julian, the Mithraist philosopher, Christian prohibitions of religious freedom continued to tighten,
which merely forced expression of the human religious spirit into greater sophistication—Alchemy in
Alexandria.
 “Historians of the sciences distinguish three periods on the formation of Greco-Egyptian alchemy:
(1) the period of technical recipes for the operation of alloying, coloring, and imitating gold (for
example, the Leiden and Stockholm papyri, which date from the third century B.C.); (2) the
philosophical period, probably inaugurated by Bolos of Mendes (second century B.C.), which is
manifested in the Physika kai Mystika, an apocryphal treatise attributed to Democritus; (3) finally, the
period of alchemical literature properly speaking, that of Zosimos (third-fourth centuries) and his
commentators (fourth-fifth centuries). Although the problem of the historical origin of Alexandrian
alchemy has not yet been solved, the sudden appearance of alchemical texts around the Christian
era could be explained as the result of a meeting between the esoteric current represented by the
Mysteries, neo-Pythagoreanism and neo-Orphism, astrology, the “wisdom of the East” in its various
revelations, Gnosticism, etc. (this current was especially the concern of cultivated people, of the
intelligentsia) and the “popular” traditions, which were the guardians of trade secrets and magical and
technical systems of great antiquity. A similar phenomenon is found in China with Taoism and neo-
Taoism and in India with Tantrism and Hatha Yoga. In the Mediterranean world these “popular”
traditions had continued into the Hellenistic period a spiritual behavior that is archaic in structure.
[And] the growing interest in the traditional techniques and sciences having to do with substances,
precious stones, and plants is characteristic of this whole period of antiquity.
“...Attempting to connect a discipline that has haunted the Western world for two thousand years
with efforts to counterfeit gold is to forget the extraordinary knowledge of metals and alloying that the
ancients possessed; it is also to underestimate their intellectual and spiritual capabilities.
Transmutation, the chief end of Hellenistic alchemy, was not an absurdity in the contemporary
condition of science, for the unity of matter had been a dogma of Greek philosophy for some time....
“For rather than the philosophical theory of the unity of matter, it is probably the old conception of
the Earth Mother bearing minerals as embryos in her womb that crystallized belief in an artificial
transmutation, that is, a transmutation performed in a laboratory. It is contact with the symbolisms,
mythologies, and techniques of miners, smelters, and smiths that in all probability gave rise to the
earliest alchemical operations. But it is above all the experimental discovery of living substance, as it
was felt to be by the artisans, that must have played the decisive part. Indeed, it is the conception of
a complex and dramatic life of matter that constitutes the originality of alchemy in contrast to classical
Greek science. We have good reason to suppose that the experience of the dramatic life of matter
was made possible by knowledge of Greco-Oriental Mysteries.”52
In the original Greek text titled, “The Treatise of Zosimos the Divine, Concerning the Art,” two
different words were used interchangeably that were translated as “sacrificer.” One means “the
sacrificial priest who performs the ceremonies.” The other is “the prophet and revealer of the
mysteries.”53 The sacrificer tells Zosimos, “he who renews me is the sacrificer, by casting away the
grossness of the body; and by compelling necessity, I am sanctified as a priest and now stand in
perfection as a spirit.” Zosimos asks him who he is. He answers, “I am Ion, the priest of the inner
sanctuaries, and I submit myself to an unendurable torment.”54 The sacrificer is both priest and
revealer meaning the liberation of creative energy represented by Phanes in the earlier Orphic
mysteries also resides in Ion, the alchemical offspring of Aion.

With Alchemy the religious evolution of awakened humanity proceeded to unfold beyond the
realization of a personal savior within, and of the world savior without. The new ideal was personal
realization of divinity through artful manipulation of Nature inspired by Nature—a sort of self-induced
metamorphosis both physical and psychical. The pursuit of alchemy demanded experimentation in
order to manifest the spirit in the matter. Experimentation lead to more questions of Nature leading to
new hypothesis that developed into theories requiring greater synthesis and more experimentation.
Alchemy plunged headlong into the challenge. Its body segmented into the sciences whose life blood
was experimentation. Its spirit remained in the unrelenting pursuit of knowledge. And Ion, the divinity
inherent within the alchemical operator, became the force driving chemical reactions delineated by
modern Science orthodoxy—the positive and negative ion.

Illustrations:
 Anamarae, Frontispiece; Judy Tompkins-Osburn; Sculpture, gold and silver on malachite with
Australian fire opal; © 1986.
Arbor Philosophica, Pandora; 1550; from http://hdelboy.club.fr/ripley_scrowle.html
Donum Dei; 1550 from http://hdelboy.club.fr/ripley_scrowle.html
Alchemy Tree of Knowlwdge; from http://hdelboy.club.fr/ripley_scrowle.html
Alchemist Devouring Stone Controls Time, Atalanta Fugiens, Michael Maier; 1617
Ancient Alexandria, from http://www.legioiiicyrenaica.org/
Nag-Hammadi codices, from http://www.bible-researcher.com/cannon7.html
Chakras from http://www.freewebs.com/garyosborn/dimensiondoorways.htm
Shiva Drinking Poison, from http://www.dollsofindia.com/dosslofindiaimages/paintings/
Taoist Immortals Crossing the Sea, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals
Egress of the Immortal Fetus, Taoist Yoga, Alchemy and Immortality, by Lu Kuan Yu; Samuel
Weiser Inc. 1973.
Thoth, painting by Gary Robertson based upon the bas relief of Thoth opening the mouth of Osiris
in the temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt, circa 1300 BCE; from Awakening Osiris, by Normandi Ellis;
Phanes Press; 1988.
Hermes Trismegistus, Anonymous Renaissance portrait, from http://students.aces.uiuc.edu
Isis, from http://www.pantheon.org
Maria Prophetissa from http://altreligion.about.com/library/graphics/bl_prophetissa2b.htm
Ouroboros of Cleopatria, see http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Cleopatra.htm
Cleopatra’s Chrysopeia from http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Cleopatra.htm
Hypatia in Museum, from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/4/72341/16309
Hypatia of Alexandria, from http://www.malaspina.com
Tetramorph, from mosaic, Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos, 1213, from http://www.siegfried-o-
mueller.de
Eagle Headed Angels at the Tree of Life, ancient Mesopotamian; from Stairway to Heaven,
Zecharia Sitchin, Avon Books, 1980.
Bearded Angels picking fruit from the Tree of Life, ancient Mesopotamian; Stairway to Heaven,
Zecharia Sitchin, Avon Books, 1980.
Din Gir, pictograph, ancient Mesopotamian; from 12th Planet, Zecharia Sitchin, Avon Books, 1978.
Shem, two stage rocket, Tomb of Huy, 1320 BCE; Thebes, Egypt; from Stairway to Heaven
Byblos Rocket Coin; found at Byblos, ancient Canaanite-Phoenician city on the Mediterranean
Coast; from Stairway to Heaven, Zecharia Sitchin, Avon Books; 1980.
Ea with initiate, ancient Mesopotamian; King Gudea cylinder seal; The Summerians; C. Leonard
Woolley; W.W. Norton & Co; 1965.
 Emblem of Ningizzida; King Gudea’s Cup; Lagash, 2025 BCE; Stairway to Heaven, Zecharia
Sitchin, Avon Books, 1980.
Shaman, from http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kids/newwords.html
Demon of a Mine; Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, 1555
Alchemy Furnace, Ephesian Diana; from http://www.altreligion.about.com
Zurvan Akarana, Boundless Time; Occidental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell; page 262.
Aion, 2nd –3rd Century Rome; Psychology and Alchemy, by C.G. Jung; plate XLIV
Phanes in the Egg, Orphic relief, Modena; from Symbols of Transformation, by C.G. Jung, plate XII
Zosimos Ion Initiation, from http://www.livinghumanheritage.org/Arabic%20Alchemy.html
Negative Ion, from http://www.deeper-sleep.com/

Bibliography:
A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. II, by Mircea Eliade; University of Chicago Press; 1982
Alchemical Studies, C.G. Jung; Princeton University Press, 1967
Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, by G.R.S. Mead; London and Benares Theosophical Publishing
Society; 1900
Magic, Supernaturlaism, and Religion: A History of Magic and Its Influence of Western Civilization,
by Kurt Seligmann; Grosset & Dunlap, New York; 1968
Mythology, an Illustrated Encyclopedia; Richard Cavendish, editor; Barnes and Noble; 1993
Myths From Mesopotamia, Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others, a New Translation by
Stephanie Dalley; Oxford University Press, Oxford, NY; 1989
Occidental Mythology the Masks of god, by Joseph Campbell; 1964, Penguin Books 1982
Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy, by Manfred M. Junius; Inner Traditions International Ltd.,
New York; 1985
Psychology and Alchemy, by C. G. Jung; Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ; 1980
Symbols of Transformation, by C.G. Jung; page 281
Taoist Yoga, Alchemy and Immortality, by Lu Kuan Yu; Samuel Weiser Inc. 1973
The Eternal Hermes From Greek God to Alchemical Magus, by Antoine Faivre; Phanes Press,
Grand Rapids, MI; 1995
The Forge and the Crucible, the Origins and Structures of Alchemy, by Mircea Eliade; University of
Chicago Press; Chicago, IL; 1962
The Fulcanelli Phenomenon, by Kenneth Rayner Johnson; Neville Spearman (Jersey) Limited,
Great Britain
 The Other Bible, Ancient Alternative Scriptures, Willis Barnstone editor; Harper Collins, New York;
1984
The Secret Book of the Egyptian Gnosis, by Jean Doresse; MJF Books, New York; first published
in French, 1958
The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, translated and explained by Richard
Wilhelm; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; New York, London
The 12th Planet, by Zecharia Stichin; Avon Books, New York, NY, 1978
The Wars of Gods and Men, by Zecharia Sitchin; Avon Books, New York, NY, 1985
The Way of Lao Tzu, translated, with introductory essays, comments and notes by Wing-Tsit Chan;
Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., Indianapolis, New York; 1963

Part II: Spiritual Elements in Alchemy

Stirring the Chaos

Spiritual alchemy is the inner directed metamorphosis that causes a transmutation of being. The
process of transmutation develops through several stages. The first stage is stirring the chaos. The
chaos can be stirred gently by conscious effort through the Inner Circulation, or the chaos can be
shaken roughly by caprice or chance. Whenever the chaos is stirred the world-view changes.
 The Chaos that stirs
Analogs of unconscious dogs
Fermenting unreality
Better not to see
The chaos that stirs
Unknown ferments
Leviathan unrepent
Libido sent
The chaos that stirs
The waters below
Vortex out of time
Broken bits that used to be
More.
Chaos here means the result of loosening the dominant perception, myth or paradigm that gives
order to the world. Reality dissolves into bits that spin about as a new order attempts to coagulate.
The process perks along with ups and downs, ins and outs. The chaos can boil over causing
emotional distress, or worse. An intense spontaneous apprehension of chaos can rupture the vessel
causing psychosis and dementia. This can happen when worldview is dissolved in an instant. Such
can be initiated by a sequence of thoughts unfortunately timed or a cascade of neurotransmitter
scintillations. When the chaos is stirred it is best to proceed slowly. The Inner Circulation can
remedy the adverse psychic effects of too much chaos.
Once the chaos has been stirred the operator goes through several psychosomatic stages
alchemy loosely defines by color: negredo (black), albedo (white) and rubedo (red).
Negredo is the dark stage, the natural process of decay and putrefaction; the color is black. The
old alchemists called it the raven’s head. It is not enjoyable and involves negative feelings unrelated
to the happenings of daily life. Negredo imbues moods of depression, futility, failure, apathy,
abandonment and the loss of clarity. The conscious operator knows this is the symptom heralding
the decay of the first matter (old worldview).

Searing breath, dragon fire

Blowing black, darkness doom
Scorching courage, lost lair
Valiant lion, mane consume
Descending black on black

Numbing vaporous cavern

LIGHT’S meaning gone
Putrid smoking dragon
Victim’s hopeless caldron
Boiling black to black

Dissolving, timeless, aion

Prisoner, formless, lost
Surging, wreckless, oblivion
Darkening, mindless, cost
Fading black in black

Negred mood, empty goals

Spirit dead, bodies die
Endless void, lost souls
 Ancients lead, here lie
Negredo

Albedo is the bright stage; the color is white. Alchemists sometimes describe the prelude to the
white stage as the peacocks tail because a full spectrum of colors appear heralding the emergence of
the white queen. The full potential of feelings and kaleidoscope of psychic imagery issue forth a new
world of possibilities. Enthusiasm, clarity of thought, and feelings of universal brotherhood prevail.
Rubedo is strong; the color is red. Alchemists sometimes refer to this stage as the red king to
signify the power that brings unity. The red stage engenders confidence, sense of determination,
directed will and the perseverance of faith.
The operator is tinged with these alchemical hues as the internal metamorphosis or
innerstanding55 cycles through alchemical operations that dissolve and coagulate the first matter.
After each round of dissolution and reformation the prima materia is more purified until the
Philosopher’s Stone is realized. Very few operators have fixed the point opening a paradox and
distilled over into transcendence. Know thyself is the ultimate goal. How much self do you desire to
know? Everyone has personal limitations and every practitioner can accomplish gradual progress,
which is success.
 “Everything comes from the One and returns to the One, by the One, for the One. Thus speaks,
reassuringly, Ouroboros (a snake or dragon eating its own tail), the eloquent symbol of the Infinite
Eternal One, which represents perfectly the Great Cycle of the universe, as well as the Great Work
which reflects it: perfect stillness and perfect motion....
“The further one grows in the knowledge of the principles of this art, the richer one becomes in
intuitive comprehension, or ‘innerstanding.’ This naturally applies to all alchemical texts... The
student will at first be intrigued, then will be tempted to dismiss the whole thing as gibberish (the latter
word, ironically enough, derives from the dismissal of Jabir or Geber the Arab alchemist’s work as
unintelligible); then, if he is patient and humble enough (alchemists say that patients is the ladder of
philosophers, and humility the key to their garden), the first intuitive sparks igniting in his spirit will
encourage him to continue until he begins to be able to separate the subtle from the gross, the true
from the false. One must proceed with care, ‘softly, with great ingenuity.’”56
Professor of Psychology, Dr. Max Luscher, in 1947, unveiled his Color Test proving that accurate
psychological information about a person could be obtained through choices and rejections of colors.
Since then Dr. Luscher’s Color Test has been used the world over by psychologists and physicians
as a valuable aid in helping patients; the test is also used by industry for job applicant screening. Prof.
Dr. Max Lüscher is the head of the Institute of Psycho-medical Diagnostics in Lucern (Switzerland).
He studied clinical psychiatry, philosophy and psychology in Basel. He has held a professorship in
Amsterdam, teaching positions at the Universities of Paris and Rome, at Yale University in the USA,
in South America and Australia. The Lüscher-Color-Diagnostic has been in clinical use since 1947,
and has been translated into 27 languages.
“In the ‘Full’ Luscher Test there are seven different panels of colors, containing in all seventy-three
color-patches, consisting of twenty-five different hues and shades, and requiring forty-three different
selections to be made. The resulting test-protocol affords a wealth of information concerning the
conscious and unconscious psychological structure of the individual, areas of psychic stress, the
state of glandular balance or imbalance, and much physiological information of great value either to
the physician or to the psychotherapist....57
“We know that every specific color inspires not only the same perceptional stimulus, but also
exactly the same experiential stimulus in every single individual, no matter what that person’s culture
may be. Orange-red has a stimulating effect on everyone, and dark-blue has a relaxing effect on
everyone. Therein lies the universal validity of color psychology.
“The thing that is individual, however, is the personal liking, the indifference or antipathy that a
person feels toward a color, for example, toward stimulating orange-red or relaxing dark blue. A
person who desires stimuli and stimulation will find orange-red appealing. Someone who is
overstimulated and exhausted won’t endure red-orange... Thus every color has a certain objective
universal experience quality. But—and herein lies its secret—that same color produces an emotional
experience, an affect... Strong emotional experiences trigger bodily reactions. These bodily reactions
can be measured. But the things we cannot measure are the emotional experiences themselves....
“Just as music inspires feelings, renders moods, and expresses the very subtlest emotions, so too
the colors, through their hue, degree of lightness, and intensity, arouse the very same specific
sensations in every individual. Whether this sensation (like the exciting stimulus in orange) is
appealing or unpleasant depends on a person’s present emotional state—that is, the individual’s
sense of self.”58
The physiology of color, the mechanism by which color is seen and understood as color is not
completely understood. The physiologists have observed that light had a catabolic (breaking down)
effect, while darkness had an anabolic (building up) effect on the visual purple within the retina of the
eye. “White subjected visual purple to catabolism and broke it down; black, on the other hand,
brought about anabolism and restored visual purple to its original state. The same effects were found
to occur with red-green and yellow-blue, resulting in a ‘contrast effect’ applicable to all colors in terms
of their brightness or darkness....

“If it is psychically or physically in need of emotional peace, physical regeneration and release from
tension or stress, then the instinctive response will be to choose the darker colors. If the organism
needs to dissipate energy by outgoing activity or in mental creativeness, then the instinctive response
will be for the brighter colors.”59
Luscher observed that psychic life was a complex interplay of forces that often manifest in feelings
of many hues, and that emotionally and psychically humans were 4-color beings cycling psyche
through the colors, red, blue, green and yellow. The value in each color is dualistic. For instance red
as pleasure is love, appetite, or strength; red as displeasure is fury, disgust or overexcitement. In
comparison blue as pleasure is relaxation, satisfaction, or harmony; blue as displeasure is paralyzing
tranquility, deadly boredom giving rise to dissatisfaction, agitation and disquiet.
Red is the color of self-confidence and strength. Red is erotic; the red light district is the land of
unbridled sexual conduct. The artist Vasily Kandinsky gave a precise description of red saying it has
an internal effect “as a very lively, bright, unquiet color, which however, does not have the frivolity of
yellow, which exhausts itself in all directions.”60 The poet Rimbaud believed a woman who wore red
could be easily seduced. Red is the color of domination and rebellion. Red is energetic penetration
and re-creation when it is tinged with yellow. However red can also be threatening, signs are painted
red to warn of danger.
Blue is the color that embodies the ideal of unity and harmony. The mystic and poet Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe described the feeling-quality of blue as an “attractive void.” In his Theory of
Colors, Goethe wrote, “We like to follow an object that flees from us, and, similarly, we like to look at
blue, not because it presses in on us but because it pulls us after it.” Kandinsky described the
profound qualities of blue: “The tendency of blue to get deeper is so great that its deeper hues
become more intense and seem more characteristic, more intimate. The deeper the blue, the more it
summons man into infinity, arousing his yearning for purity and ultimately transcendence. Blue is the
typical celestial color. Blue very profoundly develops the element of calm.”61 Symbolically blue
corresponds to the female, horizontal direction, the left side.
Yellow is the color embodying the basic need for free development. Concerning the color yellow
Goethe wrote, “It is the color closest to light. In its utmost purity, it always implies the nature of
brightness and has a cheerful, serene, gently stimulating character.” Concerning the same point
Kandinsky wrote that “yellow tends so greatly toward lightness (white), that there can be no such
thing as very dark yellow. If one looks at a circle filled with yellow, one notices, that the yellow
radiates, a motion comes from the center and approaches us almost visibly.”62 Yellow is the color of
illumination and salvation.
Green is static—the stimulating quality of yellow and the relaxing quality of blue are preserved in
absolute green. The color green embodies pent-up potential energy. Green the color of fir trees
corresponds to stability, solidity, constancy, persistence, resilience of the will, and the sense of self-
worth.
Luscher’s “primary” Color Test utilizes four basic colors called the psychological primaries: dark-
blue, blue-green, orange-red and bright yellow; and four auxiliary colors: violet, brown, black and
neutral gray. The basic colors have particular significance as follows:
“Dark blue: represents ‘Depth of Feeling’ and is concentric, passive, incorporative, heteronomous,
sensitive, perceptive, unifying. Its affective aspects are tranquility, contentment, tenderness, love and
affection.
“Blue-green: represents ‘Elasticity of Will’ and is concentric, passive, defensive, autonomous,
retentive, possessive, immutable. Its affective aspects are persistence, self-assertion, obstinacy, self-
esteem.
“Orange-red: represents ‘Force of Will’ and is ex-centric, active, offensive-aggressive, autonomous,
locomotor, competitive, operative. Its affective aspects are desire, excitability, domination, sexuality.
 “Bright yellow: represents ‘Spontaneity’ and is ex-centric, active, projective, heteronomous,
expansive, aspiring, invesitgatory. Its affective aspects are variability, expectancy, originality,
exhilaration.”63
Violet is a mixture of blue and red implying attempts to unify the impulsive conquest of red and the
gentle surrender of blue. It’s sort of a mystic union with notions of sensitive intimacy leading to fusion
between subject and object.
Brown is darkened yellow-red; it is passively receptive and sensory. It represents sensation as it
applies to the bodily senses.
Black is the negation of color and represents the idea of nothingness and extinction. “Black is the
‘No’ as opposed to the ‘Yes’ of white. White is the virgin page on which the story has yet to be
written, black is the end beyond which there is nothing more. While white is included in the Full
Luscher Test, it does not occur in the eight colors, but white and black are the two extremes, the
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”64
Gray is neutral and free from any stimulus or psychological tendency. It is neither subject nor
object, neither inner nor outer. It provides a separation between contrasting areas. Gray implies non-
involvement and contains an element of concealment.
You can take a free personal color test online at: http://www.colourtest.ue-foundation.org/ and a
slightly different format at: http://www.colorquiz.com/
 Individuals respond to the intensity of light as it enters the eye and affects the visual purple and
makes its way to the cerebral cortex via the optic nerves and to the pituitary gland via a network of
nerve fibers that originate in the nucleus of the retina.
It is well known that light emission is related to lipid peroxidation in biological material, and that this
process occurs spontaneously in the brain.65 There is an inner sea, Cerebro-Spinal Fluid, where
GOD66 sprinkles light in the sweet nourishment that feeds the brain. Lipids in the inner sea emit
photons with wavelengths 420-450, 475-485, 510-540, 560-580, 625-640 nanometers during the
processes of oxygenation creating chemiluminescence.67 Those wavelengths of blue, green, yellow
and red light are effervescent scintillations into the inner sea where no eye can see even though the
Mind does.
Every nerve fiber connecting the billions of neurons is a coil containing chains of highly
unsaturated fatty acids that carry clouds of de-localized electrons called pi electrons.68 The clouds of
pi electrons carry electrostatic forces and emit photons as fields of energy wave over them in the
chaos of sensory input/response. The Mind sorts out the Chaos into a Cosmos flow illuminated by
light the Mind’s I can see. When two photons are in resonance they can unite forming a short lived
particle known as π0 particle which can break up into two photons again, without mass, as a pure
wave motion. Herein lies the foundation for the Theory of Relativity. This is the portal to the
Microcosm.
And when the Peacock’s Tail unfolds from within, colors flood the mind with ecstatic emotion and
transcendent meaning.

Psychological Elements
The father of analytical psychology, originator of depth psychology and modern investigator of the
human psyche par excellent, Dr. Carl G. Jung, spent decades trying to help thousands of mentally ill
patients, many institutionalized with severe symptoms of psychosis and schizophrenia. Jung found
that certain themes occurred among the thousands of patients. He began mapping those themes and
from them developed psychological functions and processes that he could apply to treat his patients.
Though he had read Dr. Herbert Silberer’s 1914 book on psychology and alchemy, Problems of
Mysticism and Its Symbolism (later re-titled, Hidden Symbolism in Alchemy and the Occult Arts), he
dismissed alchemy as “rather silly.” Only later did he write, “Light on the nature of alchemy began to
come to me only after I had read the text of the Golden Flower, that specimen of Chinese alchemy
which Richard Wilhelm sent to me in 1928. I was stirred by the desire to become more closely
acquainted with the alchemical texts. I commissioned a Munich bookseller to notify me of any
alchemical books that might fall into his hands.”69

Two years prior, in 1926, Jung had a dream where he was an alchemist living in the 1600s
engaged in the magnum opus or great work of alchemy. Jung believed the dream indicated alchemy
was the link connecting ancient Gnosticism with modern psychology. Through the dream his role in
reviving this link became apparent to him.
 Dr. Jung gathered the largest private collection of alchemical texts in the world. As he pursued his
investigations Jung was astonished to discover those functions and themes he mapped in his medical
practice were mirrored in alchemical texts hundreds of years old. Jung’s creative and inspirational
approach developed from his professional medical practice coupled to his intense study of ancient
alchemical texts generated voluminous commentaries. His published commentaries popularized the
nascent modern pursuit of spiritual alchemy.
Though he may have dismissed alchemy as “rather silly” on first exposure to it through Silberer’s
landmark work, Jung was nonetheless greatly influenced by Silberer’s revelation that alchemy was
really the pursuit of spiritual evolution and fulfillment. Silberer gave credit to A.E. Hitchcock for first
suggesting this in, Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists, published in 1857. Hitchock, was a
Major General in the U.S. Army, a philosopher soldier. He amassed a large collection of original
alchemical manuscripts. Perhaps because he was a professional soldier and not an academic nor
scientist Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists was overlooked by the scientific and academic
communities at the time, but it had a following among occultists.
Silberer was a Viennese psychiatrist psychoanalyst involved with the circle of pioneers in the field
of psychology surrounding Sigmund Freud, including Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. So through the
publication of Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbols, alchemy though long dismissed as foolish,
again came to the attention of professionals and academics. Sadly when Silberer presented a copy to
Freud he was severely criticized. He became despondent and hung himself. Had he not received
such a harsh response from his mentor Freud no doubt he would have pursued the subject in greater
detail many years before Jung became engrossed with it. Jung learned from the tragic fate of Silberer
and braced himself for rejection from Freud when Jung published his own theories on psychoanalysis
and psychology. Freud, upon reading Jung’s published theories severely criticized him also.
 Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, translated Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism in to English in 1917. In
his translator’s preface he adeptly summed up the newly emerging field: “Hence the products of mind
in evolution are more plastic—more subtle and more changing. They are to be found in the myths and
the folk-lore of ancient peoples, the poetry, dramatic art, and the language of later races. From age to
age however the strivings continue the same. The living vessels must continue and the products
express the most fundamental strivings, in varying though related forms.
“We thus arrive at a science which may be called paleo-psychology. Its fossils are the thought-
forms throughout the ages, and such a science seeks to show fundamental likenesses behind the
more superficial dissimilarities.
“The present work is a contribution to such a science in that it shows the essential relationships of
what is found in the unconscious of present day mankind to many forms of thinking of the middle
ages. These same trends are present today in all of us though hidden behind a different set of
structural terms, utilizing different mechanisms for energy expression.
“The unceasing complexity of life’s accumulations has created a great principle for energy
expression—it is termed sublimation—and in popular parlance represents the spiritual striving of
mankind towards the perfecting of a relation with the world of reality—the environment—which shall
mean human happiness in its truest sense. One of the products of this sublimation tendency is called
Mysticism.”70
 In his autobiography Jung wrote, “First I had to find evidence for the historical prefiguration of my
inner experiences. That is to say, I had to ask myself, ‘Where have my particular premises already
occurred in history?’ If I had not succeeded in finding such evidence, I would have never been able to
substantiate my ideas. Therefore, my encounter with alchemy was decisive for me, as it provided me
with the historical basis which I had hitherto lacked....
“I had very soon seen that analytical psychology coincided in a most curious way with alchemy.
The experiences of the alchemists were, in a sense, my experiences, and their world was my world.
This was of course, a momentous discovery: I had stumbled upon the historical counterpart of my
psychology of the unconscious. The possibility of a comparison with alchemy, and the uninterrupted
intellectual chain back to Gnosticism, gave substance to my psychology. When I poured over these
old texts everything fell into place: the fantasy images, the empirical material I had gathered in my
practice, and the conclusions I had drawn from it. I now began to understand what these psychic
contents meant when seen in historical perspective. My understanding of their typical character,
which had already begun with my investigation of myths was deepened. The primordial images and
the nature of the archetypes took a central place in my researches, and it became clear to me that
without history there can be no psychology, and certainly no psychology of the unconscious.”71

Jung used the term psyche to describe the totality of the intangible stuff comprising the human
condition. From it came the opposites, the archetypes and the functions. In classic mythology Psyche
was the personification of the human soul as a beautiful girl loved by Eros. In Gnostic religious
philosophy psyche refers to the human soul, one third of the triad of pnumen (spirit) and hylic (body)
that emanate from the One. In Neoplatonic religious philosophy psyche is the second emanation
from the One, regarded as a universal consciousness and as the animating principle of the world. In
psychology it has come to mean the mental or psychological structure of a person especially as a
motive force.
Dr. Jung developed considerable insight into the nature of the psyche during his long professional
career. He said “The psyche is part of the inmost mystery of life, and it has its own peculiar structure
and form like every other organism. Whether this psychic structure and its elements, the archetypes,
ever ‘originated’ at all is a metaphysical question and therefore unanswerable. The structure is
something given, the precondition that is found to be present in every case. And this is the mother,
the matrix—the form into which all experience is poured.
“A wrong functioning of the psyche can do much to injure the body, just as conversely a bodily
illness can affect the psyche; for psyche and body are not separate entities, but one and the same
life.
“The psyche consists essentially of images. It is a series of images in the truest sense, not an
accidental juxtaposition or sequence, but a structure that is throughout full of meaning and purpose; it
is a ‘picturing’ of vital activities. And just as the material of the body that is ready for life has need of
the psyche in order to be capable of life, so the psyche presupposes the living body in order that its
images may live.
“There is no difference in principle between organic and psychic formations. As a plant produces
its flowers, so the psyche creates its symbols.
“Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in
continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it
is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one
and the same thing.
“Every science is a function of the psyche, and all knowledge is rooted in it. The psyche is the
greatest of all cosmic wonders.
“Far from being a material world, this is a psychic world, which allows us to make only indirect and
hypothetical inferences about the real nature of matter. The psychic alone has immediate reality, and
this includes all forms of the psychic, even the ‘unreal’ ideas and thoughts which refer to nothing
‘external.’ We may call them ‘imagination’ or ‘delusion,’ but that does not detract in any way from their
effectiveness... Our much vaunted reason and our boundlessly overestimated will are sometimes
utterly powerless in the face of ‘unreal’ thoughts. The worldpowers that rule over all mankind, for good
or ill, are unconscious psychic factors, and it is they that bring consciousness into being and hence
create the sine qua non for the existence of any world at all. We are steeped in a world that was
created by our own psyche....
 “The ego, ostensibly the thing we know most about, is in fact a highly complex affair full of
unfathomable obscurities. Indeed, one could even define it as a relatively constant personification of
the unconscious itself, or as the Schopenhauerian mirror in which the unconscious becomes aware of
its own face.
”The psyche creates reality every day. The only expression I can use for this activity is fantasy.
Fantasy is just as much feeling as thinking, as much intuition as sensation. There is no psychic
function that, through fantasy, is not inextricably bound up with the other psychic functions.
Sometimes it appears in primordial form, sometimes it is the ultimate and boldest product of all our
faculties combined. Fantasy, therefore, seems to me the clearest expression of the specific activity of
the psyche. It is, pre-eminently, the creative activity from which the answers to all answerable
questions come; it is the mother of all possibilities, where, like all psychological opposites, the inner
and outer worlds are joined together in living union....
“Natural man is not a ‘self’—he is the mass and a particle in the mass, collective to such a degree
that he is not even sure of his own ego. That is why since time immemorial he has needed the
transformation mysteries to turn him into something, and to rescue him from the animal collective
psyche, which is nothing but an assortment, a ‘variety performance’....
“Just as a man has a body which is no different in principle from that of an animal, so also his
psychology has a whole series of lower storeys in which the spectres from humanity’s past epochs
still dwell, then the animal souls from the age of Pithecanthropus and the hominids, then the psyche
of the cold-blooded saurians, and, deepest down of all, the transcendental mystery and paradox of
the sympathetic and parasympathetic psychoid systems....
“Just as, in its lower reaches, the psyche loses itself in the organic-material substrate, so in its
upper reaches it resolves itself into a ‘spiritual’ form about which we know as little as we do about the
functional basis of instinct.
“Psychic processes therefore behave like a scale along which consciousness ‘slides.’ At one
moment it finds itself in the vicinity of instinct, and falls under its influence; at another, it slides along
to the other end where spirit predominates and even assimilates the instinctual processes most
opposed to it.
“Nowhere and never has man controlled matter without closely observing its behaviour and paying
heed to its laws, and only to the extent that he did so could he control it. The same is true of that
objective spirit which today we call the unconscious: it is refractory like matter, mysterious and
elusive, and obeys laws which are so non-human or suprahuman that they seem to us like a crimen
laesae majestatis humanae. If a man puts his hand to the opus, he repeats, as the alchemists say,
God’s work of creation. The struggle with the unformed, with the chaos of Tiamat, is in truth a
primordial experience.”72
Professor Jung taught that four functions enabled consciousness to become oriented in the field of
ectopsychic facts. The ectopsyche he determined to be a relationship system between the contents of
consciousness and facts and data coming in from the environment. It concerns the orientation
evolved from the interaction of external stimulus and the senses. In contrast the endopsyche is a
relationship system between the contents of consciousness and processes in the unconscious.

The four functions are sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition. The four functions are grouped into
pairs of opposites (or complements): thinking and feeling is one pair; intuition and sensation is the
other pair.
 “You can make the so-called cross of the functions. In the center is the ego, which has a certain
amount of energy at its disposal, and that energy is the will-power. In the case of the thinking type,
that will-power can be directed to thinking. Then we must put feeling down below, because it is, in this
case the inferior function. That comes from the fact that when you think you must exclude feeling, just
as when you feel you must exclude thinking....
“The same is the case with sensation and intuition. How do they affect each other? When you are
observing physical facts you cannot see around corners at the same time. When you observe a man
who is working by his sense function you will see, if you look at him attentively, that the axes of his
eyes have a tendency to converge and to come together at one point. When you study the expression
or the eyes of intuitive people, you will see that they only glance at things—they do not look, they
radiate at things because they take in their fullness, and among the many things they perceive they
get one point on the periphery of their field of vision and that is the hunch.”
Jung often described the psyche by using the metaphor of an onion with many layers. He also
summed it up lucidly by supposing “our mental sphere to look like a lighted globe. The surface from
which the light emanates is the function by which you chiefly adapt. If you are a person who adapts
chiefly by thinking, your surface is the surface of a thinking man....
 “In the diagram sensation is given as the peripheral function. By it man gets information from the
world of external objects. In the second circle, thinking, he gets what his senses have told him, he will
give things a name. Then he will have a feeling about them; a feeling-tone will accompany his
observation. And in the end he will get some consciousness of where a thing comes from, where it
may go, and what it may do. That is intuition, by which you see around corners. These four functions
form the ectopsychic system.
“The next sphere represents the conscious ego-complex to which the functions refer. Inside the
endopsyche you first notice memory, which is still a function that can be controlled by the will; it is
under the control of your ego-complex. Then we meet the subjective components of the functions.
They cannot be exactly directed by the will but they still can be suppressed, excluded, or increased in
intensity by will-power. These components are no longer as controllable as memory, though even
memory is a bit tricky as you know. Then we come to the affects and invasions, which are only
controllable by sheer force. You can suppress them, and that is all you can do. You have to clench
your fists in order not to explode because they are apt to be stronger that your ego-complex.
 “This psychic system cannot really be expressed by such a crude diagram. The diagram is rather a
scale of values showing how the energy or intensity of the ego-complex which manifests itself in will-
power gradually decreases as you approach the darkness that is ultimately at the bottom of the whole
structure—the unconscious. The personal unconscious is that part of the psyche which contains all
the things that could just as well be conscious... There is nothing in this particular sphere that is
necessarily unconscious in everybody. There are people who are conscious of almost anything of
which man can be conscious... The personal unconscious is really something very relative, and its
circle can be restricted and become so much narrower that it touches zero....
“Finally we come to the ultimate kernel which cannot be made conscious at all—the sphere of the
archetypal mind. Its presumable contents appear in the form of images which can be understood only
by comparing them with historical parallels. If you do not recognize certain material as historical and if
you do not possess the parallels, you cannot integrate these contents into consciousness and they
remain projected. The contents of the collective unconscious are not subject to any arbitrary intention
and are not controllable by the will. They actually behave as if they did not exist in yourself—you see
them in your neighbors but not in yourself....
“As a rule, when the collective unconscious becomes really constellated in larger social groups, the
result is a public craze, a mental epidemic that may lead to revolution or war or something of the
sort.”73
 Philosophical Elements
“The tremendous role which the opposites and their union play in alchemy helps us to understand
why the alchemists were so fond of paradoxes. In order to attain this union, they tried not only to
visualize the opposites together but to express them in the same breath. Characteristically, the
paradoxes cluster most thickly around the arcane substance, which was believed to contain the
opposites in uncombined form as the prima materia, and to amalgamate them as the lapis
Philosophorum. Thus the lapis is called on the one hand base, cheap, immature, volatile, and on the
other hand precious, perfect, and solid; or the prima material is base and noble… The material is
visible to all eyes, the whole world sees it, touches it, loves it, and yet no one knows it. ‘This stone
therefore is no stone,’ says the Turba, ‘that thing is cheap and costly, dark and hidden, and known to
everyone, having one name and many names.’
“…As the Tractatus aureus de Lapide says: ‘Our matter has as many names as there are things in
the world.’ The arcane substance is also synonymous with the Monad and the Son of Man mentioned
in Hippolytus: ‘Monoimos … thinks that there is some such Man of whom the poet speaks as
Oceanus [A condensation of the Iliad, XIV, 201 and 246: ‘I am going to the ends of the fruitful earth to
visit Ocean, the forbear of the gods … even Ocean Stream himself, who is the forbear of them all.’—
C.G. Jung], when he says: Oceanus, origin of gods and origin of men. Putting this into other words,
he says that the Man is all, the source of the universe, unbegotten, incorruptible, everlasting; and that
there is a Son of the aforesaid Man, who is begotten and capable of suffering, and whose birth is
outside time, and neither willed nor predetermined…. This Man is a single Monad, uncompounded
and indivisible, yet compounded and divisible, loving and at peace with all things yet warring with all
things and at war with itself in all things; unlike and like itself, as it were a musical harmony containing
all things; … showing forth all things and giving birth to all things. It is its own mother, its own father,
the two immortal names. The emblem of the whole man says Momoimos, is the jot or tittle. [The iota,
the smallest Greek character, corresponding to our ‘dot’ (which did not exist in Greek). Cf. Luke
16:17: ‘And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fall.’—C.G. Jung] This
one tittle is the uncompounded, simple, unmixed Monad, having its composition from nothing
whatsoever, yet composed of many forms, of many parts. That single, undivided jot is the many-
faced, thousand-eyed, and thousand-named jot of the iota.’
“The mystery of the smallest written sign, the point, is also known to alchemy. The point is the
symbol of a mysterious creative center in nature. The author of Novum lumen admonishes his
reader: ‘But you, dear reader, you will have above all to consider the point in nature … and you need
nothing else, but take care lest you seek that point in the vulgar metals, where it is not.’
 “John Dee (1527-1607) speculates as follows: ‘It is not unreasonable to suppose, that by the four
straight lines which run in opposite directions from a single, individual point, the mystery of the four
elements is indicated.’ According to him, the quaternity consists of four straight lines meeting in a
right angle. ‘Things and beings have their first origin in the point and the monad.’ The center of nature
is ‘the point originated by God,’ the ‘sun-point’ in the egg. This, a commentary on the Turba says, is
the ‘germ of the egg in the yolk.’ Out of this little point, says Dorn in his Physica Genesis, ‘the wisdom
of God made with the creative Word the ‘huge machine’ of the world. The Consilium coniugii remarks
that the point is the chick. Mylius adds that this is the bird of Hermes, or the spirit Mercurius. The
same author places the soul in the ‘midpoint of the heart’ together with the spirit, which he compares
with the angel who was ‘infused with soul at this point. (i.e. in the womb.)’ Paracelsus says that the
‘anima iliastri’ dwells in the fire in the heart. It is ‘incapable of suffering,’ whereas the ‘anima cagastris’
is capable of suffering and is located in the water of the pericardium.
‘Just as earth corresponds to the triangle and water to the line, so fire corresponds to the point.
Democritus stresses that fire consists of ‘fiery globules.’ Light too, has this round form, hence the
designation ‘sun-point.’ This point is on the one hand the world’s center, ‘the salt-point in the midst of
the great fabric of the whole world,’ as Khunrath calls it (salt = Sapientia). Yet it is ‘not only the bond
but also the destroyer of all destructible things.’ Hence this ‘world egg is the ancient Saturn, the …
most secret lead of the sages...’ The most perfect form is round, because it is modeled on the point.
The sun is round and so is fire, since it is composed of the ‘fiery globules’ of Democritus. …The point
symbolizes light and fire, also the Godhead in so far as light is an ‘image of God’ or an ‘exemplar of
the Deity.’ This spherical light modeled on the point is also the ‘shining of illuminating body’ that
dwells in the heart of man.’
 “The point is identical with the scintilla, the ‘little soul-spark’ of Meister Eckhart. We find it already in
the teachings of Saturninus. Similarly Heraclitus, ‘the physicist,’ is said to have conceived the soul as
a ‘spark of stellar essence.’ …Alchemy, too, has its doctrine of the scintilla. In the first place it is the
fiery center of the earth, where the four elements ‘project their seed in ceaseless movement.’ ‘For all
things have their origin in this source, and nothing in the whole world is born save from this source.’74
“It is by the straight line and the circle that the first and most simple example and representation of
all things may be demonstrated, whether such things be either non-existent or merely hidden under
Nature’s veils.
“Neither the circle without the line, nor the line without the point, can be artificially produced. It is,
therefore, by virtue of the point and the Monad that all things commence to emerge in principle.
“That which is affected at the periphery, however large it may be, cannot in any way lack the
support of the central point.”75

The Point is the beginning, a location without dimension; it is the first and last manifestation. The
Point is born from the marriage of Spirit and Body. Imbued with energy and presence, it is the first
Soul. When it moves the continuum has length. When it turns (changes direction) another point is
born; when they move apart the continuum has width. When the second point turns a third point is
born; when they move apart space unfolds. When all the points return to one, the continuum returns
to the point. The ultimate act of alchemy is to fix a point. The continuum collapses into the fixed point
opening a paradox of infinite possibilities. The point is the soul of the operator. When the spirit
moves the point it becomes unfixed into a new location anywhere in the universe. Then the operator
has become a universal navigator.
Existence is born from movement. Spirit/energy-matter/form react to potential differences between
existence and non-existence. Existence is everything. Non-existence is nothing. The universe is
ultimately everything and nothing, point and void, a paradox. Everything at once is chaos; nothing at
all is the unknown. The unknown is unconscious. Things coming into existence emerge from the
unknown. Things departing existence merge into the unknown. The periphery of existence is the
boundary of the unknown. The peripheral boundary of the universe is transcendent and intangible.
The Point can be fixed through the Inner Circulation of spiritual alchemy. Fixing the Point is
essential for the attainment of the Philosopher’s Stone. The inner path is the practice of a lifetime
that fixes the Point from within. The Point can be fixed from the outside as well. The outer work can
take a lifetime or an instant. Whether thrilling or dreadful it is ultimately pragmatic, but little progress
will be made without the development of innerstanding. With innerstanding the operator becomes a
navigator.

Philosophical Principles and Elements

Three Philosophical Principles
The three philosophical principles of alchemy formatting existence are Mercury, Salt and Sulfur.
They correspond to Spirit, Body and Soul. They are not the material substances with the same
names utilized by chemistry. The principles are called philosophical because they are transcendent
and intangible. Transcendent means functioning through all levels of existence in every dimensional
configuration potentiated. Intangible means elusive to objective measurement.
 Alchemy puts forth the proposition that energy and matter are one and the same thing, though they
are polar opposites. The spectrum between these poles manifests as movement through space/time
continuum. Spirit is the expression of energy, and Body is the form matter takes as it manifests the
movement of energy. Each body is individual and unique. The character of that uniqueness is Soul.
Philosophical Mercury, Sulfur and Salt mix to maintain the countless forms manifest as matter. In
alchemy the great work is to perceive the Spirit, the Body and the Soul in order to apprehend the
nature of things. This is accomplished by determining the relationship of Mercury, Sulfur and Salt in
the Elements under investigation.
Mercury is the life force, the vital power, the spirit, the volatile. It is considered anonymous and not
conscious. Absolute mercury is pure energy.
Sulfur is the soul, the personality general and specific, the individual soul is volatile sulfur and the
universal soul is fixed sulfur. Volatile Sulfur is imagination; Fixed Sulfur is will. Soul is consciousness
also the central point of consciousness. Sulfur is fiery, radiant, burning. Absolute Sulfur is pure
essence.
Salt is the body, the manifestation, the shape of matter; body is pure shape which is pure form and
is transcendent to matter. Absolute body is pure information.

Four Philosophical Elements

The union of the three Philosophical Principles appears to our senses as matter which manifests in
four possible conditions or states. Alchemy views the four states of matter as the elemental states,
earth, water, air and fire. Science views these conditions as states of matter, solid, liquid, gas and
radiation (heat). The four alchemical Elements share certain properties that allow bits in the matter
stream to combine into things occupying space through time. The properties are cold, moist, dry and
hot. Fire is hot and dry; air is hot and moist; water is moist and cold; earth is cold and dry. Because
of their dual qualities the elements can separate or intermingle. Earth and water are fixed elements
that draw down. Air and fire are volatile elements that rise up.
Within the constellation of the four Elements a fifth is hidden. It is called the Quinta Essentia or
Quintessence. It permeates the whole of creation. “The Quinta Essentia is the force that binds
everything, the foundation without which the Elements would be dead matter. It is the spiritual core of
all things and, according to Paracelsus, the extract of the Elements, that is, their incorruptible eternal
substratum. As such it is simultaneously the origin and the goal of all evolution. The Quinta Essentia
is the cohesive force of all living creatures and all existing things.”76
The liberation of the Quintessence from the substance under investigation is the immediate goal of
many alchemical procedures. The Quintessence is a manifestation of concentrated vital life force or
vital energy. The Quintessence fuels the transcendent metamorphosis of the soul which is the
ultimate goal of alchemy. To this end the adepts always proceeded in the same manner: solvite
corpora et coagulate spiritum: dissolve the body and coagulate the spirit.
 Mystic Elements
Jung wrote an extensive and detailed psychological commentary to Richard Wilhelm’s translation
of the Secret of the Golden Flower. Wilhelm’s translation and Jung’s commentary are scholarly works.
Neither makes any note of pragmatic Taoist breathing practices in relation to the text of the Secret of
the Golden Flower. By ancient tradition Taoist masters personally taught the actual breathing
methods to students. When the students became masters of the Inner Circulation they taught the next
generation of students. And so it is today. The Secret of the Golden Flower focuses more on the
philosophical aspects of the Inner Circulation that students of all Taoist breathing practices may find
beneficial and inspirational.
“Master Lu-tsu said, The decision must be carried out with a collected heart, and not seeking
success; success will then come of itself… Breathing comes from the heart. What comes out of the
heart is breath. As soon as the heart stirs, there develops breath-energy. Breath-energy is originally
transformed activity of the heart. When our ideas go very fast they imperceptibly pass into fantasies
which are always accompanied by the drawing of a breath, because this inner and outer breathing
hangs together like tone and echo. Daily we draw innumerable breaths and have an equal number of
fantasies. And thus the clarity of the spirit ebbs away as wood dries out and ashes die. [The Chinese
character for ‘breath’ (hsi) is made up of the character tzu, ‘of,’ ‘self,’ and the character hsin, ‘heart’ or
‘consciousness.’ Wilhelm]
“So, then, should a man have no imaginings in his mind? One cannot be without imaginings.
Should one not breathe? One cannot do without breathing. The best way is to make a medicine of the
illness. Since heart and breath are mutually dependent, the circulation of the light must be united with
the rhythm of breathing. For this light of the ear is above all necessary. There is a light of the eye and
a light of the ear. The light of the eye is the united light of the sun and moon outside. The light of the
ear is the united seed of sun and moon within. The seed is thus the light in crystallized form. Both
have the same origin and are different only in name. Therefore, understanding (ear) and clarity (eye)
are one and the same effective light.
 “How to use the heart correctly during breathing must be understood. It is a use without use. One
should only let the light fall quite gently on the hearing. This sentence contains a secret meaning.
What does it mean to let the light fall? It is the spontaneous radiation of the light of the eyes. The eye
looks inward only and not outward. To sense brightness without looking outward means to look
inward; it has nothing to do with an actual looking within. What does hearing mean? It is the
spontaneous hearing of the light of the ear. The ear listens inwardly only and does not listen to what
is outside. To sense brightness without listening to what is outside is to listen inwardly; it has nothing
to do with actually listening to what is within. In this sort of hearing, one hears only that there is no
sound; in this kind of seeing, one sees only that no shape is there. If the eye is not looking outward
and the ear is not harkening outward, they close themselves and are inclined to sink inward. Only
when one looks and harkens inward does the organ not go outward nor sink inward.”77
Since the publication of Wilhelm’s translation the actual breathing techniques taught by Ancient
Taoist masters have been published by their modern day disciples. An excellent one, Taoist Yoga
Alchemy and Immortality, by Lu K’uan Yu, is a profound training manual intended to develop Qi (chi),
Jing (ching) and Shen energy in the practiser through physio-psychic breathing exercises.
“My masters Liao Jan and Liao K’ung once said: ‘When beginning to cultivate (essential) nature
and (eternal) life, it is necessary first to develop nature…’
“When the heart (mind) is settled, one should restrain the faculty of seeing, check that of hearing,
touch the palate with the tip of the tongue and regulate the breathing through the nostrils. If breathing
is not regulated one will be troubled by gasping or laboured breaths. When breathing is well
controlled, one will forget all about the body and heart (mind). Thus stripped of feelings and passions
one will look like a stupid man.”78
Today one can find many variations of the Taoist breathing techniques published on the internet.

Inner Circulation
The Inner Circulation begins by inhaling a breath of air through your nose. Thou wilt separate the
subtle from the gross, gently and with great care. Subtle is the Spirit in the air. The belly of the wind
carries it.79 The alchemists call it the Quintessence. Though it is easily separated from the air, it is
in everything. The Taoists call the quintessential spirit of life-energy Qi.
The work on the circulation of the light depends entirely on the backward-flowing movement, so
that the thoughts are gathered together.

The inhalation:
Use your imagination and think of separating the subtle spirit of life-energy from the gross matter,
the molecules of oxygen, as you inhale. Inhale gently through the nose with your tongue tip touching
the roof of your mouth. Imagine the spirit separating from the air and arcing above your tongue filling
the brain and traveling down your spine as you complete the inhalation.
Spirit descending upon the air ignite the fire of life; energize imagination, inspiration and vitality.
The spirit will pulse up and down your spine. Hold it at the bottom. Then exhale slowly.
The exhalation:
Move your tongue tip from the roof of your mouth to the bottom front gums below your teeth. Then
exhale slowly through your mouth while imagining the energy pulse you held in your groin region is
steaming upward through your organs bathing them in warm moisture. As the exhalation ends the
steaming “water of life” condenses into an energy cloud-body focused in the front of your mind—you’ll
feel it as pulsations in the hemispheres of your brain..
Body rising through the earth fortify the water of life; manifest strength, determination, will-power
and health. Body rises like warm moisture through your viscera inducing a pulsing sensation as it
saturates various nerve plexi on its trip to the top. Body condenses in the field of imagination. With
the next inhalation Spirit joins Body and the spirit-body circulates again.
Practicing this simple Inner Circulation calms the body, reduces stress and focuses the mind.
Progress is slow but steady with daily practice. The Inner Circulation becomes akin to nutrition. With
proper nutrition a person functions optimally and considers this level of performance to be normal.
Poor nutrition becomes manifest as below normal performance. Likewise the Inner Circulation
occasions enhanced levels of personal functioning that are so gradual the operator considers them to
be normal. The operator notices a decline after missing the Inner Circulation for a few days and
returns to it, the same as returning to good nutrition, in order to regain optimum normal performance
levels.
This is just the beginning of the practice and focuses only on the simple main circuit or channel of
the Inner Circulation also known as the Microcosmic Orbit. The energy or “light” can be circulated in
either direction. Other methods teach the circulation starts at the groin, goes up the spine, the sea of
all yang channels, into the head on the inhalation, then down the front, the sea of all yin channels, on
the exhalation. There is a full circulation taught by Lu K’uan Yu that encompasses all channels. He
teaches a method of Jing sublimation through the main circuit. He also gives instructions for the
“distillation” of Shen. The latter requires much practice in the first two before any progress can be
made.
There are other methods or exercises to cultivate the three treasures, Qi, Jing and Shen. The three
treasures loosely correspond to the Western Philosophical Principles of alchemy: soul, body, and
spirit. Though they are three in one same mystery I have come to experience them as Philosophical
Powers, Qi being the power of continuation, Jing being the power of creation, and Shen being the
power of manifestation. One can explore the internet to find traditional and Westernized Taoist
practices popularly known under categories, Qi gong and Tai chi chuan, both being branches of
Taoist Nei Dan alchemy. Every practicer should explore the traditions and adapt the praxis best for
them.
Lu Kuan Yu advises that, “You should sublimate the three precious elements, namely the
generative force [ching, jing], (vital) breath [chi, qi] and spirit [shen] to restore their original strength
and the foundation will be laid when these three elements unite; only then can immortality be
attained.”
 “Question: I have read Taoist books which all urge the development of the light in the original
cavity or center of the spirit (tsu ch’iao, in the center of the brain between and behind the eyes) at the
start of practice but I do not see why. All Taoist schools regard this as the aim of the cultivation of
(essential) nature without giving details. Will you please tell me where true nature actually manifests?
“Answer: (The tsu ch’aio cavity in) the center of the brain branches out into two minor channels on
its left and right; the left one stands for t’ai chi (supreme ultimate) and the right one for ch’ung ling
(immaterial spirit); they are linked with the t’ien ku (heavenly valley) center above them and the yung
chuan (bubbling spring) centers in the soles of the feet after running through the heart in the chest.

“The Tan Ching says: ‘Nature is (in) the heart and manifests through the eyes; life is (in) the lower
abdomen and manifests through the genital organ.’
 “(Essential) nature is spiritual vitality in the heart that manifests through the two channels from the
center of the brain. So when seeing is concentrated on the spot between the eyes, the light of
(essential) nature manifests and will, after a long training, unite with (eternal) life to become one
whole. This union is called seeing the void that is not empty and he who is not awakened to this union
will achieve nothing in his practice.”80
In the center of the brain there exists a system of interconnected symmetrical cavities called
ventricles. Within the ventricles flows an inner sea of light emitting nutriments that feed and protect
the brain. This inner sea of Cerebro-Spinal Fluid, CSF, circulates through the brain and the spinal
column. The Lateral ventricles are shaped somewhat like tuning forks. When the power of the three
treasures are in resonance at threshold amplitude in the lateral ventricles energy vortex fields expand
along the axis of the Sylvius Fissures. Then the Supreme Ultimate and Immaterial Spirit activate.
“In his work on Rosicrucian anatomy, The Microcosmi Historia, Robert Fludd assigns the three
departments of the Empyrean (or mundane heaven) to the cranium of the microcosm (man). Fludd
calls the highest plane or division of the brain the Radius of Diety, or the Uncreated Light. The middle
he designates the Luminous Sphere, or the Created Light; and the lowest he terms the Spiritual
Sphere or the Empyrean. Fludd further visualizes these spiritual aspects as abiding in certan
recesses of the brain. He establishes the locaton of these compartments by recourse to the divisions
of the cranium laid down by earlier anatomists. In his astronomical teachings, Pythagoras taught that
the gods did not reside in the planetary bodies but, more correctly, in the interplanetary ‘intervals.’ In
accordance with this astromical concept, medieval desciples of Galen and Avicenna assigned no
organs to the ‘spirits’ (vital centers) in the brain, but gave them cavites (ventricles) in which to mingle
there essences. From this viewpoint, the soul was likened to a vapor, gas, or even a humidity, bottled
up during life in remote caverns of the body (i.e. the ventricles, arteries, etc.).
“For the most part, the ancients concerned themselves with only three of the brain ventricles, i.e.,
the laterals (considered as one), the third, and the fourth. In the earlier works of Albertus Magnus,
these cavities are represented by three circles of equal size filling the entire cranium. No effort was
made towards anatomical accuracy... It is the temperament of the twentieth centurary to take too
extreme an attitude towards matters of earlier learining. We have outgrown a little, so we can reject
all. The recently discovered ciphers of Roger Bacon are a warning against hasty conclusions, and
there is evidence that Albertus Magnus knew the true purpose of the ventricles, while we are
acquainted only with their shape.
“Hippolytus, the Ante-Nicean Father, writing in the early centuries of the Christian Era, published
several fragments from the arcanum of the Gnostics and other heretical sects. One of these
fragments, Against Heresies, is related to our subject. He speaks first of the brain as being the
dominant portion of the entire body and follows the concept of Aristotle that it remains calm and
unmoved, being isolated by a narrow isthmus from the contentions of the animal nature and
‘containing within itself the spirit.’ He then observes that, when dissected, the brain reveals within
itself a vaulted chamber, on either side of which are little wings which are moved gently by the motion
of the spirit.
 “According to Culpepper, imagination is seated in the anterior ventricle, memory in the posterior,
and judgment in the median cavity between them. This old physician, whose name will endure to the
end of science, further makes the front ventricle to be hot and dry, the central warm and moist, and
the rear cold and dry. Do these ventricles, then, contain the philosophical sulphur, mercury, and salt,
the ingredients of the Wise Man’s Stone, which Paracelsus, in his Nine Books of the Nature of
Things, declares to signify soul, spirit, and body? Among the figures of Nicholas flamel from, The
Book of Abraham the Jew, is one depicting the sun and moon pouring their rays into a small central
bottle. Is the third ventricle that vessel in which the ‘marriage’ of the sun and moon takes place?
...Robert Fludd makes each of the cavities twofold, a right and a left, in harmony with modern
science. The two lateral ventricles he terms sense and imagination; the halves of the third ventricle,
cogitation and estimation; and the halves of the fourth ventricle, memory and motion.
“The intellectual sphere and the imaginative sphere are oddly linked by a slender sinuous ‘worm.’
The two lateral ventricles are divided by a thin, transparent ‘skinlike,’ wall, called the septum lucidum
or speculum. The words septum lucidum are generally translated ‘translucent wall,’ but in their older
form they can also be interpreted as ‘the wall of light,’ and the word speculum means, ‘a mirror,’ or
‘that which catches reflections.’
 “According to Sir Kenelm Digby, the ‘species and similitudes of things’ have their abode in the
lateral ventricles, ‘where they are moved and tumbled about when we think.’ The speculum is, then
the magic mirror, upon the surface of which ‘spirits’ conjure up the shadows of ideas.
“In their search for the elixir of life, the alchemists discovered the occult properties of a certain
mysterious ‘dew’ and were moved to write thereof, but always in a most guarded manner. ... This
‘dew’ lost all its virtue unless it was gathered by certain means in especially purified vessels. One
ancient alchemist recommended four glass plates, another linen cloths that had been made
absolutely clean. The purified vessels, the clean glass plates, and the linen cloths refer, of course, to
the regenerated body of the alchemist, who has gained the right to discover the Universal Solvent by
cleansing, as it were, the inside of his own cup. The philosophers also revealed that this mysterious
‘dew’ drips down into the heart of the redeemed (baptism), by which such a man is empowered to
understand all mysteries.
“It has already been hinted that the ‘dew’ was to be found only in the most mountainous parts. This
of course intimates the brain, which is the high place so often referred to in the sacred writings. Lest
this analogy be regarded as far-fetched, let us turn to the Siphera Dtzenioutha—The Book of the
Concelaed Mystery—wherein it is said of the head of the great Universal Man that has been formed
in the likeness of the cranium, or skull (the monad) and ‘is filled with the crystalline dew.’ ...The
Rosicrucians were declared to have concealed their sanctum—the House of the Holy Spirit—from the
profane by surrounding it with what one of their writers called ‘clouds’ or ‘mists.’
 “A few quotations from the Ha Indra Rabba Qadisha—The Greater Holy Assembly—will give
further hints. ‘And from that skull distilleth a dew upon him which is external, and filleth his head daily.’
It may be well to mention here that the word cranium, or skull, is used in the Zohar to signify what the
Pythagoreans would call the monad (or wholeness). It is, so to speak, the seed of the world and is
referred to as a skull to symbolize its spherical shape. It is also written that the ‘dew of the lights is thy
dew.’ Are not these lights identical with the stars of Paracelsus, which must never be considered as
heavenly bodies but powers or centers of intellection? ‘All that intellect can conceive of,’ writes the
Swiss Hermes, ‘comes from the stars.’ and he adds: ‘The activity of the organism of man is the result
of the actions of the interior constellations of stars exisiting in his inferior world.’
“We have already learned that the Seven Builders seated upon their akasic thrones in the vast
cranium of the Universal Man have their microcosmic correspondences in the human brain. These
are the Seven Stars—the supernal ones—whose essences are carried by the ‘dew,’ even as the
sidereal ‘humidity’ carries the seven aspects of the astral light. Thus, Mars correspondes with the
cerebellum, Saturn with the corpora quadrigemina, Venus with the pineal gland, Mercury with the
same gland after it has been tinctured with Kundalini, Jupiter with the whole cavity of the skull filled
with akasa, the moon with the fornix, and the sun with the prana in the third ventricle.
“The crystalline ‘dew’ described by St. John and the oceans above the heavens indicated in the
opening verses of Genesis are not without their physiological correspondences in the human body.
The Ocean of Eternity and the Milky Way—are these not again hints as to the crystalline ‘dew’ of the
adepts? The amrita, or the ‘water of immortality,’ was obtained, according to the Vedas, from the
churning of the great ocean. The word means literally, ‘deathless.’ Here is the elixir of life of the
alchemists.
“Denuded of its symbolism and applied to the microcosm, all these allegories point to a secret in
occult anatomy. The activity of the human brain, which we have already seen to be filled and
surrounded by a subtle humidity, causes an akasic precipitation, a brain ‘dew’ which is more of a
luminous ether than a liquid. This ‘dew,’ however, is more tangible than a gas, and as the manna is
said to have fallen from heaven, so this ‘dew’ of thought trickles down between the two hemispheres
of the cerebrum and finally fills the third ventricle, which is the reservior, so to speak, of this heavenly
water. This ‘dew’ carries in suspension, or as the alchemists might say, is ‘tinctured’ by the mental
activity of the seven brain stars which form the northern constellation of man. ... Paracelsus thus
sums up the mystery: ‘The whole of the Microcosm is potentially contained in the Liquor Vitae, a
nerve fluid—in which is contained the nature, quality, character and essence of beings.’81
Energy configures a vortex field running parallel to the Sylvius fissures on both sides of the skull.
The fields extend about one foot from the head. At the same time two more energy vortices open.
One is at the base of the skull extending out a few inches away from the head. The other is a point of
energy located between the eyes just below the middle of the forehead. The energy point vortex also
extends out about one foot from the head.

When these four fields activate a void point opens at the crown of the head. The void potential
intensifies as the fields activate then extend from the head. If power is increased to the next threshold
output the vortex fields configured by the Lateral ventricles unfold downward along the sides of the
body. Then the void potential at the crown point on the head becomes extremely intense
accompanied by a powerful sensation of emptiness. As the extended Lateral ventricle fields unfold
sweeping downward the void point expands. Then the sensation of a vacuum powerfully pulling
against the unfolding ventricle “wings” becomes so great that a shaft opens in the void point. It rises
about one foot from the crown of the head. A brilliant ray of finely focused light sweeps out and It
looks upon Itself. It sees Itself in your life, an eye for an I. And you are It, but It is more than you.
If the Circulation can be maintained at that level one may see the shaft is a portal and the energy
cycling through you is shaped like a tall thin donut. The vortex shaft is opened in the center of the
donut which is in the long channel of the Inner Sea that courses through the spinal column. The wings
of the Lateral ventricles, Supreme Ultimate and Immaterial Spirit hold the portal open. The field at the
base of the skull stabilizes the portal shaft. And the floating Point between the eyes navigates the
portal. This portal is the bridge between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm: between space/time and
eternity. Through the floating Point one may navigate the bridge and thus the Universe as well.
The Spirit or Mercury is the eye carrying the I of the soul along the portal navigating through the
Universe. Should the operator be able to increase the energy to the next threshold the Spirit, through
the portal, can carry the body as well as the soul across the points in the Universe. This is a very
dangerous undertaking as most of the points in the Universe cannot support life of the human body.
At even higher energy input levels the body is burned to pure information which is indestructible. This
Philosophical information is transcendent to all points in the Universe therefore the operator can
navigate any point or point system in the universe.

How can this be? One might ask. The photons generated and exchanged in the mercury waves
pulsating CSF sea become entangled in the intense vacuum sensation when the vortex portal begins
to open as the Supreme Ultimate and Immaterial Spirit expand and unfold. In the donut analogy the
photon light entangled in the torroidal vacuum bends back upon itself and space/time is warped within
the vortex field generated.

Cosmic Egg Metaphysics

When the Supreme Ultimate and the Immaterial Spirit unfold, the Point at the crown of your head
opens and the light or tunnel or shaft leading to the Cosmic Egg is revealed.
The manifestation that you identify with as your life is really an infinitely complex inter connection of
systems of matter/energy cycles of movements that complete themselves periodically—your body in
the Macrocosm. And the ineffable secret of what you really are is able to exist in the turbulence of
these dependable cycling systems of matter/energy.
You become aware that you are none of these things within the pantheon of matter/energy that is
the great mother Void Chaos. Travel the Power through the Point at the top of your head and you will
know the essence of every thing is a projection perpendicular to the surface of the Cosmic Egg. As
each and every one of these individual surface qualities of the ONE cosmic egg move away from the
surface they separate connection from each other except at the source—the surface of the cosmic
egg. Once the quality has projected from the surface It becomes one manifest and transcends the
microcosm. The cycles of matter/energy cling to It and the thing is created in the Macrocosm.
When the body dies the cycles of movement cease within the human microcosm. Chi, ching and
shen exit the body through the Point at the top of your head, the gate between the Microcosm
(heaven) and the Macrocosm (earth). Matter/energy recyclers return your body to the collective
biomass. Chi, ching and shen—the Power of your qualities—return to the surface of the cosmic egg.
The surface is vast enough to entertain all possible qualities willing to manifest.
Beneath the surface of the cosmic egg qualities are fused akin to microcosmic plasma. This fusion
is the transcendent mystery of the great mother Void Chaos. At the center of the cosmic egg is ONE
Eternal Point that is No-Thing, the great father of All, from which your eternal essence springs.
If your physical body maintains the three Powers you can travel to the surface of the cosmic egg
and return. If your subtle body maintains the three powers you can travel heaven in the microcosm
and be cognizant of that reality. If your subtle body is not developed the microcosm will manifest as
fanciful dreamlike distortions. And only the rudest of correspondences between the higher and the
lower will be capable of manifestation, if at all.
I know this because I have distilled sufficient shen to open the Point and distill the subtle body into
the Microcosm. To do this you must create an alchemical elixir from macrocosmic substances. This
elixir must contain spagyrically enhanced chi, ching, shen in an energy/matter matrix. When the elixir
is taken into your body tremendous alchemical Power enters the inner circulation and floods the shen
collectors in the center of your brain. The shen channels on either side of your head extend out about
a foot then unfold downward around your body. This Power creates a field that pulls hard and away
from the feeling of center in the middle of your being. The center begins to feel low pressure
sensations that are pulling a vacuum in the center. The feeling sensation becomes void potential so
intense the emptiness forces the Point at the top of the head to open for It is at the center of the Void.
And It opens the Point.
 Power erupts tremendously through the Point of absolute void. It rises through the gate and looks
at Itself in the Microcosm. When It scans the surface of the cosmic egg all qualities that penetrate
every thing can be known. And through this all things can be known.
If in time the caprice of Fate smashes your physical body you abandon it to the recyclers for your
chi, ching, shen then empowers your subtle body. There you manifest transcendent to life and death.
When you can open the Point after distilling sufficient shen you will see All that exists, All of
existence extends from Points on the surface of the cosmic egg. The Points are located next to each
other and since they are without dimension the surface of the cosmic egg is without dimension. The
surface of the cosmic egg consisting of emerging points is a dimensionless continuum. At the surface
all of the Points are tinged with complexes of pure quality from the subsurface plasma making each
combination a unique individual. At the surface pure unique quality is caught by the potential
difference It creates with matter/energy. Matter/energy clings to It pulling It into the Macrocosm. There
It moves through the power of energy and persists through the substance of matter.
Matter and energy are one in the Macrocosm. Matter exists as gross qualities manifest as
substance. Energy exists as subtle qualities manifest as power. Qualities are non matter/energy;
qualities are subjective Points to which matter/energy clings thus manifesting the universe. The
universe is mysterium conjuctionis of the Microcosm of Eternity unfettered by the limitations of
dimension, and the Macrocosm limited by space/time continuum manifestations.
Science contends the universe started with a big bang where substance and power issued forth
from a single point. This was the birth of the Macrocosm—space/time continuum where the power of
energy shapes the substance of matter.
Alchemy contends the Point that gave birth to the Macrocosm is the surface of the Cosmic Egg.
And the Point that gave birth to the Cosmic Egg is eternal No-thingness at Its center. No-thingness is
the essence of ONE. It manifests as Power of number in Quality of substance.

Since No-thingness is the essential nature of It; this great mystery is absolutely unknowable. The
first thing clinging to the NOthing is energy. Energy is absolutely subtle and as such does not exist
outright but emanates Power which is pure persistence. Clinging to the pure persistence is pure
substance. In this pure undifferentiated form the Power-Substance plasma surrounds the Point of
NOthingness. Power and substance are Qualities of It. Qualities are subjectivities that gauge Power
and feel Substance.
 Congealing at the Power-Substance plasma boundary is the surface of the Cosmic Egg. The
surface is the interface between the undifferentiated plasma and the individualization of matter-
energy matrices in space/time. At the surface all Quality Points have substance; this Substance is
pure matter. Pure matter is substance empowered by patterns of motion that repeat in cycles. This
manifestation creates space for the movement to cycle through time. Thus all creation is on the
surface of the Cosmic Egg.
Physicists say the substance of the universe burst forth from the point of the big bang in less than
nano-seconds. From that substance matrix with the power propelling It the universe grew out,
changing little in fundamental principles over billions of years. All of the substance-power quality
points erupted at once in the smallest imaginable space in the smallest segment of time going forth
from the dimensionless continuum of the microcosmic Cosmic Egg out into the macrocosmic
space/time sphere of things.
All the points of matter on the surface of the Cosmic Egg in the dimensionless Microcosm manifest
as substance movement when individuated from the dimensionless surface. The points of matter
become individuated substances when power expands the substance in the point of matter. It has
nowhere to go but out away from the surface. Substance erupts forcing space to manifest. It does so
as empty points adhere to points of substance radiating from the surface matter of the Cosmic Egg.
The empty points multiply filling in distance as the substances all radiate away from the microcosmic
center and away from each other.

From what power are the empty points created? Entropy clings to the emptiness at the end as
energy clings to nothingness in the beginning. As substances move through space/time empty points
are created in order to manifest the points of substances reacting to the empowerment of energy-
matter. The empowerment of energy expands in all directions giving rise to substance. The
empowerment of matter transforms substances giving rise to cycles of change. Power drains from
energy into entropy during expansion; power drains from matter into entropy during substance
transformation. Entropy expires the power creating emptiness to contrast and define by opposition the
expansion of power and the transformation of substance. So at the periphery the expansion of energy
is consumed by entropy. At the periphery substance cannot cycle because Entropy consumed
Energy. Without energy entropy can make more empty points to envelope cycling substances by
draining the substance of projected matter power. This matter drain manifests as substance
disintegration. It cycles down into empty points in empty space enveloped by NOthingness. The
empty points collapse as Entropy the great emptiness desires to be filled. The collapse of Entropy
into emptiness is so profound the Nothingness clings to It until the center point of emptiness is filled
with NOthingness. Energy is reborn in the essence.
From this one can see the Macrocosm consists of aggregate points in an amorphous
conglomerate. The conglomerate expands or contracts depending upon energy-matter actions driven
by the point of NOthingness at the center of the dimensionless Microcosm.
The Universe consists of the eternal dimensionless Microcosm and the relative space/time
continuation of It in the Macrocosm. This mysterium conjuctionis comes about through the absolute
emptiness of ultimate Entropy. When NOthing exists Entropy is absolutely empty. In this state
Entropy absolutely desires to be filled with a yearning so complete that NOthing comes into Entropy.
This seed of NOthing penetrates Entropy and since NOthing evolves the coming is completely
contained in the evolving womb of Energy. This womb of Energy thus penetrated by the NOthing
evolves Matter. In this way Energy and Matter exist as plasma evolving power and substance
qualities from the coming of NOthing into Entropy.
At the surface of the Cosmic Egg NOthing evolves from the underlying plasma into unlimited points
of power and substance evolving into sets and subsets of quality matrixes. In this way the coming of
NOthing into Entropy creates the evolving Microcosm.
With the Microcosm thus complete Entropy emptied into the Macrocosm. The Macrocosm was
completely filled with an infinite number of points completely filled with Entropy still yearning to be
filled so completely in the macrocosm that NOthing evolving in every ONE of the points in the
microcosm came into the points of Entropy in the macrocosm. Thus the power and substance of
Matter and Energy unfolded into things that move through the qualities of space/time. Thus NOthing
evolves body, soul and spirit in the things that move through space/time.
Thus the Universe unfolds from NOthing to NOthing from Microcosm to Macrocosm. Thus
NOthing evolves continuous creative manifestations through power and substance
May your operations be fruitful on the Way of one and One.
 Illustrations:
Spiritual Pilgrim, Annomyous; 16th Century woodcut, from Occult in Art.
Chaos of the Elements, Robert Fludd; Utriusque Cosmi Historia; Oppenheim 1617.
Unfettered Opposites in Chaos, Marolles; Tableaux du Temple de Muses; 1655; British Museum.
Splendor Solis, Salomon Trismosin; plate 13; 1582; British Museum.
Splendor Solis, Salomon Trismosin; plate 9; 1582; British Museum.
Ouroborus, Synosius; date uncertain; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Ms Grec. 2327, f.297.
Geber, Arnold of Villanova, Rhasis and Hermes Trismegistus preside over Great Work, Norton’s
Ordinall; 15th Century; British Museum, London, Add. 10.302, f. 32v.
Splendor Solis, Salomon Trismosin, plate 16; 1582; British Museum.
Cabala, Steffan Michelspacher, 1616.
 Whole of Nature Image of Art, Robert Fludd; Utriusque Cosmi Majoris et Minoris Historia;
Oppenheim 1617.
Mercurial Dragon, Lexicon Alchemiae, Martin Rutland; 1612.
Four Functions, Psychology and Alchemy, C.G. Jung, page, 107; 1944.
Psychic System diagram, Psychology and Alchemy, C. G. Jung, page 49; 1944.
Bird of Hermes, Ripley Scrowle, Standish, 16th c., B.M. London. Add. 32621 (detail)
Speculum Veritatis, 17th Century, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. lat. 7286, f. 10.
Solidonius, 18th century, Bibliotheque de L’ Arsenal, Paris, Ms. 973, f. 12.
Four elements, The Alchemy Website: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/
Nei Jing Tu, Daoist Inner Circulation in Man; White Cloud Monastery; 1886.
Normal Cerebro Spinal Flow; http://wilkersonchiro.com
The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, translated and explained by Richard
Wilhelm; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; New York, London
Microcosmic Cauldron and Stove, Taoist Yoga Alchemy and Immortality, Lu K’uan Yu; page 9;
1973.
Ventricle System, The Brain: Mystery of Matter and Mind; U.S. News Books; 1981.
Ventricle System, The Brain: Mystery of Matter and Mind; U.S. News Books; 1981.
Dens Inferitur, Robert Fludd; Utriusque Cosmi Historia; Oppenheim, 1617.
Spiritual Brain, Robert Fludd; Utriusque Cosmi Historia; Oppenheim, 1617.
Appearance of Light, Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi Historia; Oppenheim, 1617.
Elemental Sphere, Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi Historia; Oppenheim, 1617.
Opus medico'chymicum, Johann Daniel Mylius, 1618.
http://www.lambertsblog.co.uk/?page_id=106

Bibliography:
Alchemy, the Secret Art, by Stanislas Klossowski DeRola; Avon Books, New York; 1973
Analytical Psychology, Its Theory and Practice, C.G. Jung; Vintage Books, New York; 1968
Flax Oil as a True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer and Other Diseases, Dr. Johanna
Budwig, Apple Publishing Company, Vancouver, British Colombia Canada, 1992.

MAN GRAND SYMBOL OF THE MYSTERIES, THOUGHTS IN OCCULT ANATOMY, Manly P.

Hall; Chapter X, The Ventricles and the Brain Dew; 1972; PRS Inc.
Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Carl G. Jung; Random House Inc.; 1961
 Mysterium Coniunctionis, C.G. Jung; Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1977
Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy, Manfred M. Junius
Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism, Herbert Silberer; Mofatt, Yard and Company, New York,
1917
Taoist Yoga Alchemy and Immortality, Lu K”uan Yu; page 2; 1973; Samuel Weiser Inc. New York.
The 4-Color Person, Dr. Max Luscher; Pocket Books; New York, NY; 1980
The Hieroglyphic Monad by Dr. John Dee (1564), Holmes Publishing Group P.O. Box 623,
Edmonds, WA 98020.
The Luscher Color Test, Dr. Max Luscher; Washington Square Press; New York, NY; 1971.
The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, translated and explained by Richard
Wilhelm; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; New York, London
The Alchemy Website: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/
AlchemyLab: http://www.alchemylab.com/
Alchemy Index: http://www.rexresearch.com/alchindx.htm

footnotes:

1
“In the word spagyria two Greek words are hidden: spao, to draw out, to divide; and egiero, to gather, to bind, to join. These two
concepts form the foundation of every genuine alchemical work, hence the often-quoted phrase ‘Solve et coagula, et habebis
magisterium!’ (Dissolve and bind, and you will have the magistery) — PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF PLANT ALCHEMY, by Manfred
M. Junius; Inner Traditions International Ltd., New York; 1985; page 1.
2
The oldest book on alchemy yet discovered is PHYSIKA KAI MYSTIKA, written by Bolos of Mendes around 200 BCE.; from THE
FULCANELLI PHENOMENON, by Kenneth Rayner Johnson; Neville Spearman (Jersey) Limited, Great Britain; 1980; page 12.
3
FRAGMENTS OF A FAITH FORGOTTEN, by G.R.S. Mead; London and Benares Theosophical Publishing Society; 1900; pages, 97, 107,
110-112.
4
THE SECRET BOOK OF THE EGYPTIAN GNOSIS, by Jean Doresse; MJF Books, New York; first published in French, 1958; pages, 241,
248.
5
THE FORGE AND THE CRUCIBLE, THE ORIGINS AND STRUCTURES OF ALCHEMY, by Mircea Eliade; University of Chicago Press;
Chicago, IL; 1962; page, 131.
6
Idbid; pages, 128, 130.
7
Idbid; page 132.
8
Idbid; page 134.
9
Idbid; page 135.
10
Idbid; pages 135-140.
11
Idbid; pages 109, 111, 112.
12
THE WAY OF LAO TZU, translated, with introductory essays, comments and notes by Wing-Tsit Chan; Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc.,
Indianapolis, New York; 1963; page 36; citing Shih chi (Records of the Historian), 63:1a-3b, Po-na-pen (Choice Works Series).
13
THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER: A CHINESE BOOK OF LIFE, translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm; Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich; New York, London; 1962; pages 11, 13.
14
Id., pages 21-44.
15
MAGIC, SUPERNATURLAISM, AND RELIGION: A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND ITS INFLUENCE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, by Kurt
Seligmann; Grosset & Dunlap, New York; 1968; page 140; citing resource The Background of Chinese Alchemy; Leading Ideas of
Early Chinese Alchemists, in Ciba Symposia, vol. 2, No. 7, Summit, New Jersey, 1940.
16
Id., page, 126; citing Etude sur l’origine des livres hermetiques, by Louis Menard.
17
Id.
18
THE ETERNAL HERMES FROM GREEK GOD TO ALCHEMICAL MAGUS, by Antoine Faivre; Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI; 1995; page
91.
19
MAGIC, SUPERNATURLAISM, AND RELIGION: A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND ITS INFLUENCE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, pages 128-129
version adapted into the present form.
20
Id., page 120.
21
Id., page 120-121.
22
Id., page 121; citing “The Greek Alchemical Papyri,” by William Jerome Wilson; in Historical Background of Greco-Egyptian
Alchemy, in Ciba Symposia vol. 3, No. 5, Summit, New Jersey, 1941.
23
PSYCHOLOGY AND ALCHEMY, by C. G. Jung; Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ; 1980; pages 160-161.
24
MAGIC, SUPERNATURLAISM, AND RELIGION: A HISTORY OF MAGIC AND ITS INFLUENCE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, page 134; source
Chrysopeia of Cleopatra, in LES ORIGINES DE L’ALCHIMIE, by Marcellin Berthelot, Paris, 1885.
25
Id., page 123.
26
The Book of Enoch, page 487 in THE OTHER BIBLE, ANCIENT ALTERNATIVE SCRIPTURES, Willis Barnstone editor; Harper Collins,
New York; 1984.
27
Idbid, page 489.
28
THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN, by Zecharia Sitchin; Avon Books, New York, NY, 1985; page 115.
29
Idbid, page 115.
30
Idbid, page 117.
31
THE 12TH PLANET, by Zecharia Stichin; Avon Books, New York, NY; page 169.
32
THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN; page 196.
33
THE 12TH PLANET; page 171.
34
Idbid; page 141.
35
Idbid; page 140.
36
Idbid; page 352-353.
37
Idbid; page 371.
38
Idbid; page 279.
39
MYTHS FROM MESOPOTAMIA, CREATION, THE FLOOD, GILGAMESH AND OTHERS, a New Translation by Stephanie Dalley; Oxford
University Press, Oxford, NY; 1989; page 178.
40
THE FORGE AND THE CRUCIBLE, THE ORIGINS AND STRUCTURES OF ALCHEMY, by Mircea Eliade; University of Chicago Press;
Chicago, IL; 1962; page, 19.
41
Idbid; page 53.
42
Idbid; page 54.
43
Idbid; page 56-57.
44
Idbid; page 71.
45
Idbid; page 74.
46
Idbid; page 75, 78.
47
MYTHOLOGY, AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA; Richard Cavendish, editor; Barnes and Noble; 1993; page44.
48
OCCIDENTAL MYTHOLOGY THE MASKS OF GOD, by Joseph Campbell; 1964, Penguin Books 1982; pages 262-266.
49
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION, by C.G. Jung; page 281
50
THE WOMAN’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS, Barbara Walker, p. 798.
51
SYMBOLS OF TRANSFORMATION, by C.G. Jung; pages 137-138.
52
A HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS, VOL. II, by Mircea Eliade
53
ALCHEMICAL STUDIES, C.G. Jung, p.59.
54
Idbid, p. 59-60.
55
ALCHEMY, THE SECRET ART, by Stanislas Klossowski DeRola; Avon Books, New York; 1973; refer to pages 14-17 for more on
innerstanding.
56
Idbid; pages 14-15.
57
THE LUSCHER COLOR TEST, Dr. Max Luscher; Washington Square Press; New York, NY; 1971; page 23.
58
THE 4-COLOR PERSON, Dr. Max Luscher; Pocket Books; New York, NY; 1980; pages 160-161.
59
THE LUSCHER COLOR TEST, Dr. Max Luscher; Washington Square Press; New York, NY; 1971; page 20-22.
60
THE 4-COLOR PERSON, page 164.
61
Idbid; page 166.
62
Idbid; pages 171-172.
63
THE LUSCHER COLOR TEST; pages 33-34.
64
Idbid; pages 79-80.
65
Effect of tert-butyl hydroperoxide addition on spontaneous chemiluminescence in brain, Inmaculada Azorin, M. Carmen Bella,
Francisco J. Iborra, Eugenio Fornas and Jaime Renau-Piqueras, Centro Investigación, Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain. Received 22
March 1993; revised 22 October 1993, 28 July 1994, 14 February 1995 and 18 May 1995; accepted 19 May 1995. ; Available online
14 January 2000.
66
“Glucose present in the CSF is oxidized by the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) to gluconic acid with the liberation of hydrogen
peroxide, which is converted into water and oxygen by the enzyme peroxidase (POD). 4 aminophenazone, an oxygen acceptor, takes
up the oxygen and together with phenol forms a pink coloured chromogen which can be measured at 515nm.” Guidelines on Standard
Operating Procedures for Clinical Chemistry [Online, 2006], Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF)
67
Oxygen- or organic hydroperoxide- induced chemiluminescence of brain and liver homogenates; Cardenas, Varsavsky, Boveris and
Chance; Biochemical Journal 198, 645-654 (1981)
68
FLAX OIL AS A TRUE AID AGAINST ARTHRITIS, HEART INFARCTION, CANCER AND OTHER DISEASES, Dr. Johanna Budwig, Apple
Publishing Company, Vancouver, British Colombia Canada, 1992.
69
MEMORIES, DREAMS AND REFLECTIONS, Carl G. Jung; Random House Inc.; 1961; page 204. .
70
PROBLEMS OF MYSTICISM AND ITS SYMBOLISM, Herbert Silberer; Mofatt, Yard and Company, New York, 1917; page iv-
v.
71
Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Carl G. Jung; Random House Inc.; 1961; page 200, 205,206.
72
PSYCHOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS, C.G. Jung; Bollingen Foundation Inc.; 1953; Princeton University Press; 1970; pages 3-26.
73
ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE, C.G. Jung; Vintage Books, New York; 1968; pages 16-17, 47-48.
74
MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, C.G. Jung; Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1977; pages 42-49.
75
THE HIEROGLYPHIC MONAD by Dr. John Dee (1564), Holmes Publishing Group P.O. Box 623, Edmonds, WA 98020.
76
PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF PLANT ALCHEMY, Manfred M. Junius; page 40.
77
Circulation of the Light and Making the Breathing Rhymical, Secret of the Golden Flower, Richard Wilhelm; page 40, 43; first U.S
publication, 1931; Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich 1962.
78
TAOIST YOGA ALCHEMY AND IMMORTALITY, Lu K”uan Yu; page 1; 1973; Samuel Weiser Inc. New York.
79
The ancients believed the cosmos rests on the number four. Four points connected is the minimum requirement to project a pure
mathematical body into three dimensional space and the field of existence. This mathematical body is the four-sided pyramid. The
pyramid is acute and unstable. Stability is attained when four is doubled. Eight points connected is the minimum requirement to
project a stable mathematical body into three dimensional space and the field of existence. This mathematical body is the cube. Four-
sided and eight-pointed it is the cornerstone of the universal theater. The atomic weight of oxygen is 16 and the quintessential spirit of
life-energy saturates it. Long before oxygen was known philosophers intuited that spirit is in the air.
80
TAOIST YOGA ALCHEMY AND IMMORTALITY, Lu K”uan Yu; page 2; 1973; Samuel Weiser Inc. New York.
81
MAN GRAND SYMBOL OF THE MYSTERIES, THOUGHTS IN OCCULT ANATOMY, Manly P. Hall; Chapter X, The
Ventricles and the Brain Dew; 1972; PRS Inc.