Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and Psychology
I have found myself recommending this book often lately. So I thought I’d give it some new light, as it was one of my very first “fly by night” posts!
“St. Thomas took the modern step of introjecting the theories of natural science, realizing that the terms we use come from our own minds. Being a great thinker, he went even further and asked why our own minds produced such ideas as meaningful connections and this he attributed to the “nous poietikos.”
This is the state of consciousness of the man who perhaps wrote the text we are now considering (Aurora Consurgens): “All good things came to me through her, the Wisdom of the South [literally, the south wind], which complains in the streets, calling to the people, and which speaks at the entrance to the town: “Come to me and be illuminated and your operations will not be ashamed. All you people who want me shall be filled with my riches.”
Come, my sons, and listen, for I will teach you the Wisdom of God, who is wise and who understands that about which Alphidius says that adult people and children pass it in the street, that it is stamped into the dung every day by the animals there, and of which Senior says nothing is outwardly more despised and nothing in nature more precious and God has not given it to be bought with money. She, the Wisdom, is that which Solomon says one should use as a light and he placed it above all beauty and all salvation, for even the value of gems and diamonds was not comparable to her value.Gold in comparison with her is as sand, and silver in comparison with her like clay. That is very true, because to ‘get’ her is more important than the purest gold and silver. Her fruits are more precious than the riches of the whole world and everything you may want cannot be compared with her. Long life and health are in her right hand and glory and immense riches in her left. Her ways are beautiful and praiseworthy works and neither despicable nor bad, and her paths are measured and not hasty, but connected with persistent continuous hard work. She is the Tree Of Life...” for everybody who understands her and a light which is never extinguished. Blessed are those who have understood her because the Wisdom of God will never pass away, to which Alphidius says that he who has once found this Wisdom will have legitimate eternal nourishment from her. Hermes Trismegistus says that if a man had this knowledge for a 1,000yrs and had to nourish 7,000 people daily, he would still have enough, and Senior says that such a man is as rich as the man who possesses the Philosophers Stone from which you can get, and so give, fire to whomever you wish.
Aristotle says the same thing in the second book, “About the Soul,” he writes that there are limits to the size and growth of every natural thing but the fire can grow eternally if given further nourishment. Blessed the people who find this science to whom the intelligence of Saturn flows. Think of her in all thy ways and she herself will lead you. Senior says only the wise and the intellectual, and the man who thinks accurately and the inventive man, can understand her, and only after their spirit has been clarified from the book of the aggregation. Because then the mind of such a person begins to flow and follow its desire. Blessed are those who think upon my words. And Solomon said: “My child, hang her round your neck and write her on the tablets of your heart and you will find." Say to the Wisdom you are my sister and call her your friend. To think about her is a subtle perfection which completely follows nature and brings wisdom to perfection.” He goes onto to quote many more alchemists about her being very precious but despised by ordinary people…that one has to work very hard to find her, and that the work is a kind of eternal nourishment, lighting fire after fire, and then suddenly it says that to find her only one thing is needed, a subtle perception of the true nature. Senior, “If you do this, then your mind will begin to flow.”’
Books mentioned:
Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and Psychology by Marie-Louise von Franz
