M. Jorgensen).

From “ Bibliotheca Chemical Ferguson , ii., pp. 66, 67.
INTRODUCTION.
’/THE ordinary vulgar idea that an alchemist was a foolish sort of man, who, greedy of gold and power, spent his strength, his wits, and his money in curious, if not fantastic, experiments, seeking to discover some powder which would, by projection upon lead or inferior metal, transfuse the substance operated upon into gold, and who, in order the longer to pursue this difficult work, sought also for a medicine, the Elixir of Life, has been the common belief of multitudes — one might say the multitude — for ages. It seems that for some time the success of these experiments was believed in — that in effect metals of the baser sort had, by some particularly clever and persevering students of the hidden art, been actually turned into gold. If so, the world has not benefited much thereby, and if the Elixir of Life has been discovered, we have not yet had a complete proof of its action. These beliefs certainly lingered on till, perhaps, the beginning of the eighteenth century, at which time, when the half of that century had passed, they began to be treated with absolute contempt. Those who, rightly or wrongly, had for years — for whole lifetimes — pursued these studies, were thenceforth regarded, not merely with a smile of scorn, but treated as impostors, if not as common swindlers. When the nineteenth century was but in its infancy, other thoughts began to prevail, and some even sought to doubt the truth of the characters, so black and nimious, bestowed upon the old alchemical students. A greater interest began to rise in these quaint, old-world studies. The forgotten works of the students of
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Nature began to be read again, and what had begun in curiosity was pursued with a deeper and completer interest.
In the year 1815 was published “The Lives of Alche- mystical Philosophers ; with a Critical Catalogue of Books in Occult Chemistry, and a Selection of the most celebrated Treatises on the Theory and Practice of the Hermetic Art.” This useful work has been partly republished, with supplementary items, by Mr A. E. Waite, along with a bibliography, 1888.
In the year 1850, there was issued from the London press of Trelawney Saunders, Charing Cross, a book which may well be described as “epoch making” in the matter before us. “ A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, with a Dissertation on the more celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers, being an Attempt towards the Recovery of the Ancient Experiment of Nature.” This work, anonymously issued, was subsequently recalled, and only a very few — it is said about twenty-five copies — remain in circulation. It has consequently become in- creasingly rare and valuable. The author, or authors, promise, in a fly-leaf at the end of the work, a further production — “ The Enigma of Alchemy and (Edipus Re- solved : A Poem in Five Parts.”
The “Inquiry” is said to have been the work of the Rev. T. South, a clergyman of the Church of England, and his sister, and that the withdrawal of the book from circulation was due to the fears of friends that it might cause trouble to the authors. It is, indeed, much to be desired, for the sake of the students of occultism, that the work was republished, with a memoir of the authors, aud some account of other manuscripts, which, it is stated, are still in existence, compiled by these accomplished writers. The “ Suggestive Inquiry ” is a work of the highest class. Its style — pure, cultured, and authoritative — is at once attractive, refined, aud shows great mental power, know- ledge of the subjects, and of antiquity. It was a bold venture.
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In the year 1857 (second edition, 1865) was published in America a work of this same nature, stated to be the production of General Ethan Allen Hitchcock— “ Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists, Indicating a Method of Discovering the True Nature of Hermetic Philosophy, and Showing that the Search after The Philosopher’s Stone had not for its Object the Discovery of an Agent for the Transmutation of Metals.” This smaller work, though interesting and convincing, is much less ambitious and able than the “ Suggestive Inquiry.” Its author shows diligence, not learning. It is not the work of a scholar, but of a mind pretty much taken up with one idea.
And the idea of both works is in a measure the same — that the alchemists, under all their labours, their uncouth expressions, and strange, unaccustomed language, hid a deep, solid, and most important secret; that those who took the trouble to study the subject would find that beneath all was hidden a great moral truth, that Alchemy, like Freemasonry, was a system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols, and that in the very heart of the alchemical treatises was hidden the greatest moral truth, the greatest moral experiment, which could be conceived ; that man himself was the “ Vas,” that the training of his moral life was the secret hidden under the stories of the furnace, the crucible, the changing experi- ments ; that the black state of the “ work ” represented man as we find him, that the red and white states were representative of his approach to and arrival at the “ perfect work ” ; all the alchemical processes signified stages on the road to this perfection. When it is asked, Why all this elaborated imagery ? the answer seems not to be so clear. Hints are thrown out that the alchemists were a sort of men who, regarding the official religion of the Middle Ages with semi-contempt, desired to hand on a purer tradition, and for that purpose employed their chemical formulae. But this is not very satisfactorily established. It is certain enough of most of the alchemists
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of whom we have authentic life particulars, that they did waste time and money in the attempts which they certainly made for the discovery of material gold. That in these experiments they made many chemical discoveries is undoubted. The progress of the world is a warfare, and they had their part in it. On the other hand, there is certainly good evidence to show that they had also an esoteric teaching to give to their more apt pupils. That from early ages secret colleges and societies existed in which this teaching was given is, it seems to me, an incontestible fact, and that many of the so-called sceptics of Italy, France, and Germany derived their views from such sources. The Hermetic Science had a secret moral teaching. It was founded both on Classic story and on Jewish Kabala. It had roots in Arabian and Saracenic learning, and had connection with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Grecian speculation. Opposed with desperate keen- ness by the Roman Church, in the dome of whose temple of St Peter, at Rome, runs the legend that St Peter himself was the “ Vas iusigne,” the deeper and the broader stream of philosophic thought taught that man, everywhere, in all religions, was the “ Vas insigne,” and that by the “ work,” that “ Vas ” could be made, not merely the instrument, but the restored and perfected work of Nature — Nature, which taught even in the flowers, the sweetest and most perfect, the story of the red and white work in the Rose and the Lily, or, rather, in the Rose itself, by nature both red and white.
According to the highest authorities, the Smaragdine Table of Hermes “ comprehends the working principle and total subject of the art.”
It runs thus at the beginning : — “ True without error, certain and most true, that that which is above is as that which is below, and that that which is below is as . that which is above, for performing the miracles of the One Thing ; and as all things were from one, so all things arose from this one thing by adaptation ; the father of it is the
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sun, the mother of it is the moon, the wind carried it in its belly ; the nurse thereof is the earth. This is the father of all perfection, a consummation of the whole World.”
Human mind is the imperfect Embryo which, by artificial aids, is made conformable to the Divine Wisdom whence it sprang. The eye must be turned away from sensible things, and be fixed for purification on regard to the supreme Intelligible Law within. Man is an epitome of the whole Mundane Creation, and has in him the “ germ of a higher faculty,” which, when rightly developed and set apart, reveals the hidden Form of Manifested Being, and Secrets of the Casual Fountain, identically within himself. Chemia being derived from Cham of Egypt — the blackness of soil — gave -origin to the term, the Black Art. Memphis was the city of the art, and there Pythagoras, Thales, Democritus, and Plato were, after being immured in solitude for a year, initiated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
The writers of the “ Suggestive Inquiry ” refer to our author in the highest terms — “ But of all those who have connected ancient fable with philosophy, and ex- plained them by the Hermetic Key, Michael Mayer ranks first ; and his works are more esteemed and sought after, even in the present day, than is easily accountable, since he is profoundly guarded in his revelations. Highly curious engravings and woodcuts adorn the works of these authors, and even the title-pages of many of them convey more idea and food for reflection than other modern tomes oftentimes throughout the whole of their development.”
The statement of Arnold di Villanova,1 in his “ Speculum,” clearly points out that the theory of Alchemy is simple — “ That there abides in Nature a certain pure matter, which, being discovered and brought by art to perfection, converts to itself proportionally all imperfect bodies that it touches.” 2 “ All is in mercury
which the wise men seek ” — the hidden fire, the anima
1 p. 55. 2 p. 68.
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mundi, the mighty Ether, the vehicle of light, the golden plumage of the Red Lion.
“ The light of life, the vital draught That forms the food of every living thing,
And e’en the high, enthroned, all-sparkling eye Of ever mounting fire ; the immense expanse,
The Viewless Ether, in his general arms Clasping the earth, Him call thou Lord and Jove.”
— Euripides.
The “ stone ” is described by these authors as the “ pure ethereality of Nature, separated by artificial means, purified and made concrete by constriction and scientific multipli- cation of its proper light.” Nothing is “ so closely allied to the spirit as gold.” The dragon, again, is the self-willed spirit, which is externally derived from Mature by the fall into generation.1 Maria Egypta, supposed to be one of the most ancient hermetic writers, remarks that “ the vessel is a Divine secret, hidden from idolators, and without this knowledge no one can attain to the magistracy.” It is “the living temple wherein alone the wise of all ages have been securely able to raise their rejected Stone and Ens of light.” 2
The question, then, is not so much of outward metals, but “ there is a nearer place yet in which these three, Mercury, Salt, and Sulphur — Spirit, Body, and Soul — lie hid together in one place well known, and where they may with great praise be gotten.” These are the words of Basil Valentine.3 Morienus has said — “ The thing, 0 King, is extracted from thee, in the which mineral thou dost even exist ; with thee it is found, by thee it is received, and when thou shalt have proved all by the love .and delight in thee, it will increase, and thou shalt know that I have spoken an enduring truth.”
The fall of man assures us that “ the wheel of human life has deviated from its axis into a line which terminates finally in dissolution, which nothing but their antimonial spirit, rectified by art, being in bright lines of attraction 1 pp. 91-94, 113. 2 p. 138. 3 p. 142.
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and repulsion, as it were a perfect magnet in a star-like circle of irradiated circulation, can contrariate or with- stand.” 1 The only mystery is existence. “ Man, then, is the true laboratory of the Hermetic Art ; his life the subject, the grand distillatory and the Thing distilled ; and self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition.” 2 Therefore was it that on the front of the Egyptian temple was inscribed the sentence, “ Man should know himself.”
“ The path by which to Deity we climb Is arduous, rough, ineffable, sublime ;
And the strong, massy gates through which we pass In our first course, are bound with chains of brass ;
Those men, the first who of Egyptian birth Drank the fair water of Nilotic earth,
Disclosed by actions infinite this road,
And many paths to God Phoenicians showed.
This road the Assyrians pointed out to view,
And this the Lydians and Chaldeans knew.”
— Oracle of Apollo.3
This is that Augean stable that was to be cleansed, that most famous labour of the philosophic Hercules, not the least of labours to turn the current of life into another channel, and purify the natural source.
The divine fire — “ a leaping fire enkindled in the soul — it will nourish itself ; the light beaming from our eyes if directed within, discovers at last that other light which is the substance of its own, until light meeting light, apprehends itself.”
The stone of the Apocalypse — that “ true crystalline rock without spot or darkness ” — this is the midnight sun of Apuleius, the wheel of fire of Ezekiel, the stone with a new name, that pure salt which our Divine Master mentions. It is the “supernatural centre of every living thing.” 4 Fire “ is the purest and most worthy of all elements, and its substance the finest of all ; for this was first of all elevated in the Creation with the Throne of Divine Majesty.” By that Divine infusion man becomes the microcosm. No eye can penetrate that fire which is in
1 p. 147.
2 p. 163.
p. 171.
4 p. 218.
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the circumference of the Divinity, it is so intense. This is the “ Divine Gloom ” described . by Dionysius. At present the fire within us is hidden, as the fire in the fuel un- kindled, as gold in the ore unseen. Then the souls of the initiated being made perfect, come, after an orderly passage through the progression of intelligible causes, to a contem- plation of their Highest Unity. Now they desire alone consummation with the Absolute.1 The “ discovery is this — to meet with Him, to be united to Him, and to see Him Himself, the alone with the alone. The Soul hastily with- draws itself from every other energy to Him.” This is “more ineffable than all Silence” — Light meeting Light.2 Paracelsus says that the “ true medicine is bound up in man, as milk in a nut.” Mind is the true separator. The golden bough is seen, but the tree itself is hidden. All the woes of the Iliad are true, there is but one race, one conflict— the war of Life. A second Achilles appears ; the Son of Man ascends. Boehme says truly — “ By death and contrition of the agent in the patient, and vice versa, the old life is finally crucified, and out of that crucifixion, by re-union of the principles under another law, the new life is elected ; which life is a very real and pure quintessence, the Mercury so much sought after, even the Elixir of Life, which needs only the corroborative virtue of the Divine Light which it draws, in order to become the Living Gold of the philosophers, transmuting and multiplicating the concrete form of that which in the dead metal we esteem.” “ Deus cum solus fuisset in principio, creavit unam substantiam, hanc primam materiam nominamus.” The epic circle of Hesiod is said by the Platonists to include the true philosophic secret of the Creation. The’ Philosopher’s Stone is “ Ruach Elohim,” which “ moved upon the face of the waters, the firmament being in the midst, conceived and made bodily, truly, and sensibly in the virgin womb of the greater world, viz., that Earth which is without form.” The whole of the Odyssey is an allegory, pregnant with 1 p. 241. 3 p. 243.
COUNT MICHAEL MAIER.
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latent meaning and the recondite wisdom of antiquity.1 This is the opinion of Maier. The Enigma of the Sphinx means, in other words, to penetrate rationally the darkened essence of man’s own understanding.” 2
The Genesis description of Creation in Nature must be applied to the soul of man, “ and ” then “ there was light.” 3 What in physico-chemistry is called “ fermentation,” is the union of man reduced to the simplicity of the monad with God. This is the whole “ work,” the reduction of two natures into one. This is immortality consummated. “ This is the work, this is the Hermetic method and its end. The line returns to form a circle into its beginning, and they join, not in Time, for their union is in Eternity. This, reader, is the true Christian Philosopher’s Stone, which, if it be a chimera, then is the Universe itself not stable, of which it has been proved to be the most exact epitome, having passed the test of experimental reason not only, but analyzed to the last extremity of contrite conscience, is confirmed in operation, visibility, and lum- inous increase, when rising in rational supremacy over sense and finite reflection the Ethereal Hypostasis revolves in its First Cause.” 4 Life is the nucleus of the whole Hermetic Mystery, and the key thereof is Intellect. Man is the proper laboratory of the whole art, the most perfect chemical apparatus. The ancient adepts “ discovered the fife of man therein circulated to be a pure fire, incorporated in a certain incombustible ethereal vapour . . . and
this is the greatest mystery, that man should not only be able to find the Divine Nature but to effect it.” 6
General Hitchcock, in language perhaps plainer, tells us the same story. “ This stone is the true Aurum potabile, the true quintessence which we seek.” 6 Love is the Divine Nature, the Divine Stone, the white stone with the name written on it — God Himself. Love is the philosophic gold. Through this symbolic language the learned then
1 p. 440. 3 p. 454. 3 p. 467. 4 p. 512. 6 p. 516.
8 “Remarks,” p. 78.
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communicated with each other all over Europe.1 The “ Roman de la Rose ” is itself the most complete specimen of philosophy extant. “ The Rose ” is the symbol of the philosophic gold.
“Three kinds of most beautiful flowers are to be sought, and may be found in the garden of the wise — damask- coloured Violets [Love], the milk-white Lily [Purity], and the immortal Amaranthus [Immortality], Not far from the fountain at the entrance, fresh violets do first salute thee, which being watered by streams from the great golden river, put on the most delicate colour of the dark sapphire ; the sun will give thee signs. Thou must not sever such precious flowers from their root until thou makest the stone, for the fresh ones cropped off have more juice and tincture, and then pick them carefully with a gentle and discreet hand ; if fates frown not, they will easily follow, and one flower being plucked, the other golden one will not be wanting. Let the Lily and the Amaranthe succeed with greater care and labour.” 2
“ A Three-headed Dragon keeps the Golden Fleece. The first head proceedeth from the water, the second from the earth, the third from the air. It is necessary that these three heads do end in One most Potent, which shall devour all the other Dragons ; then a way is laid open to thee to the Golden Fleece.” 3 The “ open way to the shut palace of the King ” is “ an open way to the knowledge of God.”
Thus “ hermetic philosophy does not waste its strength upon insoluble problems as to the origin or the destiny of man, but taking man as he is, seizes upon the heart and conscience, and, burying itself there, it lives altogether in the effort to purify and perfect this source of the issues of life.” 4
In his recent work, “ The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail,” 6 Mr Waite has explained shortly the rise and meanings of the alchemical work. “Alchemy may not 1 pp. 149-151. 3 p. 159. 3 p. 171. 4 p. 213. 5 p. 533, et seq.
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have originated much further east than Alexandria, or
O
alternatively, it may have travelled from China when the port of Byzantium was opened to the commerce of the world. In either case, its first development, in the forms with which we are acquainted, is connected with the name of Byzantium.” The records of these alchemists penetrated to Arabia and Syria. Then rose a cycle of Latin alchemy. Expositors have interpreted it as merely a process of transmutation of metals, “ while others have interpreted it as a veiled method of delineating the secrets of the soul on its way through the world within.” There are “ schools, experimental, existing in Europe, which claim to possess the master key of the spiritual work.” “ The name of this correspondence is the Holy Eucharist.” Maier was not unaware of this, and I shall give subsequently an account of his hint on this mysterious and awful subject. “ The same exalted mystery which lies behind the symbols of Bread and Wine, behind the undeclared priesthood which is according to the Order of Melchisedech, was expressed by the Alchemists under the guise of transmutation.” 1 Here, too, in the elements we have the mystic red and white. “ The higher understanding of the Eucharist and the mystic side of alchemy are concerned with the same subject, that is to say, with man, his conversion and transfiguration.” 2 “ Christ is therefore the stone, and the
stone in adept humanity is the union realized, while the Great Secret is that Christ must be manifested within.” 3 Henry Khunrath was perhaps the first who more elaborately disclosed the under secret of the alchemic mystery. Khunrath was a native of Saxony, born about 1560, and in 1588 received the degree of doctor of medicine at Basle. He practised at Hamburg, and afterwards at Dresden, where he died, 9th Sept. 1605. He published a number of works, now all rare. At Prague, in 1592, “ Observationes Zebelis regis et sapientis Arabum Yetus- tissimi ” — a work on astronomy and astrology ; a treatise 1 p. 541. a p. 547. 3 p. 548.
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on “ Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum,” issued from Strasburg, 1608; but he is chiefly remembered by his “Amphitheatrum sapientim teterme solius verae, Christiano- Kabalisticum, divino-magicum,” Hanoviae, 1609, in folio. Numei'ous earlier and other editions are reported, but they have been considered fictitious. In the edition of 1609, there is a preface and conclusion by a friend of the author, Erasmus Wohlfarht.1
This work is exceedingly curious, the plates being mystical and recondite, but have not the beauty, finish, nor strength exhibited b)T those in Maier’s works. The figures are accompanied by an introduction showing them to be illustrative of the universal and particular knowledge of Nature given in the books of Holy Scripture, the greater and the lesser world, and in theosophy and kabala. The plates illustrate the secret and mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone. It is entirely moral and religious. Experience, reason, the labours of wise men, Nature, the machine of God ; mind, the spark of the immortal Divinity — all lead onward to the discovery and possession of “ the Stone.” The Christian religion, the Holy Sacraments, and other unfathomable mysteries, lead upward. One plate shows how the world of Nature is the mother, but more the teacher, of the great school in which is to be learned what the “ Lapis ” really is. The divine wisdom can only be attained by labour, prayer, devout meditation. Diligence is displayed in this figure as absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of the work. Diligence in common daily labour would seem to attain this.
The “ Lapis ” is “ Ruach Elohim,” that Spirit which brooded on the chaotic waters, the internal power, form and genetrix of all things. This is the “ Vapor Virtutis Dei.” Chaos, vile, deformed, helpless, is vivified by the working of the physico-chemical art ; so in man’s being, the salt of
1 See as to Khunrath,* Ferguson’s “Bibliotheca Chemica,” i. 462, et seq., where lists of references and works are given ; article, “ Biographie Universelle,” 1818, xxii. 587-8, “Lives of Alch. Writers,” Waite, 159, &c.
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divine wisdom, the most ancient of “stones” is of universal virtue, and without it and the power of the mystic sun, all is useless.
The mystery of the stone is revealed in the heart of the true lover of wisdom. What, then, is the Ruach Elohim which broods upon the waters ? The spirit, the passage, the breath of the Holy, the holy, the flame, the warmth of the power of God — omnipotent, the emanation, the vital fcecundity, the first and highest, the mover, vivi- cator, issuing from the deepest recess of the Divine ; the word by which all things have been produced, clothing earth and water; the first of all material. Yet the Ruach Elohim is the form, the internal and essential form, of all things — the soul of the universal world — “ Anima Catholica Multiformis.” “ Meditate, therefore,” says the Theosophist, “and study theosophically to reduce the Ternary by the Quaternaiy, through the rejection of the Binary, to the simplicity of the Monad, that thy body and soul be gathered to rest in the name of Jesus.” “ Lastly, after the ashy colour, and the white and the yellow, thou shalt behold the Stone of Philosophers, our King and Lord of Hosts, go forth from the chamber of his glassy sepulchre, into this mundane sphere, in his glorified body, regenerate and in perfection perfected ; as a shining carbuncle, most temperate in splendour, and whose parts, most subtile and most pure, are inseparately bound together in the harmoni- ous rest of union into one.”
It appears to me that the difference between Maier and Khunrath consists in this : — Maier places the material alchemy first; Khunrath places the spiritual alchemy first. That the latter also claimed to have procured the material medicine seems evident from the following: — “I have travelled much, and visited those esteemed to know some- what by experience, and not in vain, amongst whom, I call God to witness, I got of one the universal Tincture, and the blood of the Lion, which is the gold of philosophers — I have seen it, touched it, tasted it, smelt it, and used it
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efficaciously towards my poor neighbours in most desperate cases. Oh ! how wonderful is God in His works.”
That Maier realised the depth of the spiritual teaching concealed under the alchemical figures is pretty evident from various passages in his works, and this is perhaps most noticeable in the later books.
Hercules is to Maier not merely typified by Samson, but by the Divine Master Himself, in his battle with Cerberus, the king of the powers of darkness. Has not the “ chair of St Peter at Rome” represented on it the “labours of Hercules and the signs of the Zodiac ” ? Does not the “mystery of the seven stars” in the Apocalypse of St John the Divine have reference to the seven planets with their supposed ineffable gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, ghostly strength, knowledge, true godliness, and holy fear? The number and the character of the labours of the “twelve apostles of the Lamb,” the revelation of God in the Temple, whose floor is of pure gold, its gates pearls, and its founda- tion precious stones, are typified by the labours of Hercules duly grouped. The twelve signs of the Zodiac were identi- fied with the twelve tribes of Israel. “The twelve tribes were considered by the old theologians to prefigure the twelve apostles, who were said to be analogous to the signs of the Zodiac. In the first century the sun had passed from the Ram to the sign of the Fishes.” 1 Thus St Peter the fisherman stands at the head of the twelve.
The red and white ornaments of the girdle of the Amazonian Queen taken by Hercules “ have reference to medicines a thousand times more precious than gold.”
We Christians, adds Maier at the conclusion of the “Arcana Arcanissima,” have revealed to us what was hidden in these old allegorical stories. We have been brought into the full splendour of the true light. Our God has brought us the medicine for both soul and body, truly precious and golden, once by Trismegistus, and now by our “ medicus,” Jesus Christ, who is the stone cut without
1 “ Canon of All Arts,” p. 102.
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hands from the highest of mountains, and the corner-stone rejected indeed by the nations, but placed as the cope-stone — the head and glory of the Eternal Temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
In his “Symbola Aurem Mensae,” Maier refers to the knowledge of the Holy Trinity as revealed by Hermes Trismegistus, and he himself was the creatoi* of all. Moses, he tells us, knew the art, else how could he have dissolved the fragments of the golden calf in the water, and made the Israelites drink them ?
But Morien was the first of Christian adepts. Thomas Aquinas has fathomed the truth of the work, for he declares that “ in the Hue Hermetic operation there is but one Vas, one substance, one way, one only operation.”
In the seventh triad of his “ Phoenix,” Maier clearly reveals this secret. “ Its deepest secrets,” he says, “ gave a lively image of our Creation and Redemption. . . Three
rivers watered Eden, so three streams water our work. . . All Adam’s posterity being subjected to death, the Creator in mercy remembered him, and resolved to save all the human race from death by the greatest of all mysteries. He became Man, born of a Virgin, shedding his Blood, died on the Cross, crushing the head of the Dragon, taking away his poison.” Lulliu^ in figures also displays this mystery. The pure comes to the help of the impure, and strengthens the metallic sulphur. “ He who sees how Jesus Chi'ist saved us from death, will understand the art, purification, and colour of metals. . . The fixed bodies will never
unite with the volatile, unless there is a sweet bond to bring extremes together — “a mediator must be found.”
The eleventh guest at Maier’s symposium is Melchior Cibinensis, the Hungarian. As a priest dedicated to the ministry of God, he considered himself exempted from serving in the wars against the Turk. As it was for Moses to pursue the war against the enemies of Jehovah, so it
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was Aaron’s place to raise his hands to God. Duly ad- mitted into the order of priesthood, Melchior understood the hidden mysteries of the hidden science, under the sacred form of the Mass. In this service this learned man saw the true mystery of the Philosopher's Stone. In the sacred nativity and life suffering the fire ; then the black and murky death ; and thence the resurrection and life in a ruddy and most perfect colour ; and he made this com- parison with the work of the salvation of men, that is, Christ in his natural life, passion, death, and resurrection, which are all commemorated in the divine service of the altar.
“ Aperi ergo oculos tuos et vide.” There is nothing on earth equal to this celestial work. The whole of the Christian faith is contained here. Thus is the true stone born into the light. Like the Phoenix, by a resurrection a new life is bestowed.
In the most sacred mysteries of the Consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar are hidden the highest and also the deepest secrets of spiritual alchemy.
From the time of Melchizedek, properly designated the priest not of Jehovah, but of the “ most high God,” we have the first intimation of this mystery, “ He brought forth bread and wine — the first time bread is mentioned in the sacred books.
And the Jews were not ignorant of this sublime secret, for the Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon were not without its symbols — in the cakes placed on the table of shewbread, and in the wine offering made at certain times. Insomuch was this the case, that for its better- observation, “ in the captivity of Babylon a postcceniuui was instituted by the Jews, with bread and wine for a thanksgiving and a memorial of their going out of Egypt, while being out of the land of promise they could not eat the Pascal Lamb, in imitation of which Christ instituted the Eucharist, to give thanks to God for the general deliverance of mankind,
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and in memory of Himself, who was the author thereof, by the sprinkling of His blood.” 1
“ The Eucharistic Bread signifies the super-substantial sustenance, and the Wine is arch-natural life. It is for this reason that the Alchemical Stone at the red has a higher tingeing and transmuting power than the stone at the white. The first matters of the alchemical work, to make use of another language of subterfuge, are sulphur, mercury, and salt ; but these are the elements of the Philosophers, and not those of the ordinary kind. In other words, common sulphur and mercury correspond to the Bread and Wine before Consecration, and the philosophical elements are those which have been transubstantiated by the power of the secret words. That which is produced is called Panis Yivus et Vitalis, and Vinum Mirabile, instead of the daily meat and drink by which we ask to be sustained in the Lord’s Prayer. The Salt is that which is called the formula of Consecration ; it is that which salts and trans- mutes the natural earth. . . It follows from these
elucidations that the higher understanding of the Eucharist and the mystic side of alchemy are concerned with the same subject, that is to say, with Man, his conversion and transfiguration.” 2
The sublime truth thus taught is that all Christian mysticism comes out of the Eucharistic service book, and the divineness of that service came out of the Sacred Heart. Christ is the Stone, and it is in the perfect service of the Most Holy Eucharist that the true transmutation takes place, that the union with Humanity is realised, and the true secret emerges. This is indeed “ Mysterium Fidei.” The “ Great Experiment ” wrought in the Eucharistic Con- secration is from that conveyed in power to, and then wrought out in, the hearts and lives of the obedient disciples. Thus is it that “the exalted mystery which lies behind the symbols of Bread and Wine, behind the un-
1 Sarpi, “ Hist, of Council of Trent,” Brent, 1676, p. 336.
2 Waite’s “ Hidden Church,” pp. 545-6.
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COUNT MICHAEL MAIER.
declared priesthood which is according to the Order of Melchizedek, was expressed by the alchemists under the guise of transmutation.” Thus Melchior, like his namesake of olden time, is one of the wisest of men. He it is who sees, amid all the turmoils of war and tumults of contend- ing parties and sects, the highest truth revealed to man — the fact that the alchemist himself is finally the stone. The natural man, enclosed in the “ Yas,” as the metal is enclosed in the vessel, becomes changed into a new life, so that eventually God abides in man, “for then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ, and drink His Blood, then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us ; we are one with Christ, and Christ with, us.”
“ In this stone there lieth hidden whatsoever God, and the Eternity, also Heaven, the Starres, and Elements con- taine, and are able to do ; there never was from Eternity any thing better or more precious than this ... he giveth us his body and blood to eate and to drinke, which the inward man borne of God receiveth, for the Body of Christ is every where present' in substance ; it conteineth the se’cond Principle, that is the Angelicall World, according to which God is called Mercifull, and the Eternall Good. . . For this is the Jewel — the noble Stone. The Diety brought the flesh and blood together with the Eternall Tincture in which the soul liveth (viz., the Eternall Fire, which reacheth into the Diety after the substance of the majesty, and allayeth, filleth, and strengtheneth itselfe thereunto), and of Mary in the Virgin into the Holy Ternary, into which the Word gave itselfe (as a life in the Tincture of the Eternity), and became the spirit, life, and vertue of that flesh which sprouteth out of the Tincture of that fire of the Soule ... so also in such a manner as this hath Christ, the true Sonne of God, our Brother, given to his Disciples his body to eate, and his blood to drink.” 1 1 Sparrow’s “ Behmen : Three-fold Life of Man,” 207-11.
ARCANA ARCANISSIMA hoc est Hieroglyphica ^Egyptio- Gneca, vulgo necdum cognita, ad demonstrandam falsorum apud antiquos deorum, dearum, heroum, animantium et institutorum pro sacris receptorum, originem, ex uno iEgyptiorum artificio, quod aureu animi et Corporis medicamentum peregit, deductam, Unde tot poetarum allegoriae, scriptorum narrationes fabulosse et per totam Encyclop^ediam errores sparsi clarissima veritatis luce manifestantur, suseq tribui singula restituuntur, sex libris exposita Authore Michaele Maiero Comite Palatii Csesarei, Equite exemto, Phil, et Med. Doct., &c., Caesar. Mai. quondam Aulico.
The title is surrounded by cuts labelled — Osiris, Typhon, Isis, Hercules, Dionysus, Ibis, Apis, Cynocephalus, and two pyramids, on which hieroglyphics are displayed. No date or place of printing. 4to. Dedication to Paddy on an entablature, p. 1. Dedication to readers, &c., pp. 8. Work itself, pp. 285. Index not numbered, 14 pp. My copy, in gilt edges, has binding in vellum, with floriated cross in centre of both boards, and four open roses at corners, all in gilt. There appears to have been two issues, with different engraved titles. One has an additional leaf preceding the preface. Copies of both, British Museum.
—Author’s Library.
The treatise is divided into six books : —
1. Treats of the Egyptian Gods, Hieroglyphics, Osiris, Isis,
Mercury, Vulcan, Typhon, &c. ; the Works and Monuments of Kings.
2. Concerning the Grecian Myths, the Golden Fleece and Jason,
the Apples of the Hesperides, which all have reference to the Golden Medicine.
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COUNT MICHAEL MAIER.
3. Genealogies of the fictitious Gods and Goddesses shown to
be really philosophic, chemical, and medicinary.
4. Concerning the ancient Festivals and Plays, in which the
charm of science was commenced.
5. Concerning the Labours of Hercules and their meanings.
6. Concerning the Trojan Expedition.
The “ Arcana ” is dedicated to Sir William Paddy, Doctor of Medicine, and President of the London College of Physicians, the patron and friend of the author.
The “ Ai-cana ” was the first work published by Maier, and although no date appears on the title, it is believed to have been issued anno 1614, and printed at Oppenheim. The author of' the “Alche'mystical Writers” says London,1 but the best authorities give Oppenheim.
Prefixed to the preface is a “ Hexasticon a Moino et Mimo distinguens.”
In his preface, the author, after referring to the false worships of old ascribed to the gods, and the abhorrence in which such cults are to be held by Christians, who have been taught the truth by the key-word of God, inquires whether these old stories may not have some other meaning, a meaning more secret and arcane. He desires a more original, a deeper, a truer meaning to be found in the old hieroglyphics and stories of these gods and daemons. The stories of Homer and Heroditus among the Greeks, and those of Livy and Virgil among the Latins, together with the poetic fables, may have other meanings more concealed, and the books of Jamblicus and others have an explanation, which under these stories may unfold to us greater and more wonderful things. Egypt, the most ancient of all, full of the most precious things of God, though its history may now in a measure be involved in darkness, yet to the acute mind may shed a light upon antiquity, and form a sort of grammar which may teach men how to read and explain many interesting things.
These old allegories, stories, and adventures of the gods
1 p. 292.
COUNT MICHAEL MAIER.
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may be properly understood as referring to scientific, philosophic, and chemical secrets ; their labours and re- searches into the powers of Nature, and even their wars and quarrels, may have reference to the labours, the strifes, and the convulsions in Nature and natural substance, for the evolution of new births. Then the stories of Prome- theus, Pallas, and Vulcan may be regarded as containing lessons, if not secrets, which may still be interesting, if not actually beneficial, to mankind. There is undoubtedly in the world “Arcana Arcanissima,” which, known only to the few, and understood only by a very small number of men, appear to others either like Momus or Mimus, monkey tricks or frightful monsters, but to the wise have true though deeper meanings.
Maier, after making a solemn declaration, “In Christo Spes ilia Deo mea amo Cruciatum,” concludes with some epigrammatic lines : —
“ Noil sedeo tepidus,
Non sedeo tepidus, Fervere est Cliristicolarum Non frigere animis, neve tepere suis.
bis genita aequaevi Proles veneranda Parentis Ore quia est tepidos evomitura suo.”