CHAPTER IV

AN, we are told, is the Microcosm or Little
World, the Universe in Miniature, containing in himself the counterpart of all that is in the Great World or Macrocosm, whence the injunction ‘‘ Gnothi Seauthon,” “ Know Thyself,” inscribed over the portals of the Schools of the Mysteries.
We are also informed in the New Testament that man has three bodies, analogous to the three worlds, and more or less parallel with the three principal divisions of the soul according to the Qabalah and the Platonists. ‘That is to say he possessed a spiritual, a psychic and a physical body, corresponding to the Archetypal, Psychic or Formative, and Material Worlds. ‘These are also found in the Upanishads, where they are called the Causal, Subtile and Gross bodies, and their analogues may also be found in the Egyptian ideas on this subject.
The Causal, otherwise Spiritual, Pneumatic or Neshamah body, is really but ill-described as a body at all, for it is of the World of Briah, the Archangelic, Creative and truly formless World. From it, however, the other bodies may be considered as being derived,
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and its manifestation to the eyes of the true seer—by which we do not mean the ordinary psychic or clair- voyant—would usually take the form of an oviform radiance or light, playing around the other, lower bodies, within which is the paraklete of the New Testament, which, in the symbolism which we are at present studying, is the Serpent, while the radiance or light is the ovum or egg. In the Greek this is called Speirema, the serpent coil, and in Sanskrit it is Kun- dalini, the annular force, which, in the Upanishads, is said to lie coiled up like a slumbering serpent. It is also the Dragon of the Alchemists and their internal fire.
So much nonsense has been written about Kundalini, relating it with physical sex currents, and indicating the most dangerous practices for arousing it, that we mention it with diffidence, at the same time reiterating the warning we gave in the previous Chapter.
This serpent is the good serpent, yet owing to the danger of it if quickened in the unpurified man, the Alchemists called it a poisonous dragon and many other kindred names, such as ‘Typhon, Apophis, Fire- drake, Satan, Aquafcetida, Ignis Gehenne, Mortis Immundities, Venomous Black Toad and so forth, though this latter term is usually only used during the mortification.
The rousing of this force, and the paetniget preparations therefor, are said to be symbolised by 36
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the Caduceus of Hermes, for the positive and negative currents represented by the two serpents must, it is alleged, be set in motion and equilibrated first before the Speirema can be stimulated, it being typified by the central rod. And this is further the Seed or Sperm or Ferment of the Alchemists, of the former of which it is said in the New Testament (1 Cor. xv. 36) “* That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.” Unless it die, that is to say, to the material world of the senses, desires and passions, it cannot be truly quickened.
The symbol of the Spirit is Fire, which reappears here as the Serpent or Dragon, and elsewhere in Alchemy as one of their various Lions, Green, Red or Black according to the stage of the work. For in Astrology the sign Leo is the Kerubic Emblem of Fire, while the form of the sign is the glyph of a serpent, and the Hebrew Letter Teth, to which it is referred in the Sepher Yetzirah or Book of Formation (probably the oldest book of the Qabalah), means a serpent and is also a glyph of one. It is also well worth noting that the Speirema is a Solar Force, and that Leo is the _ Astrological House of the Sun.
Thomas Vaughan, dilating further upon the symbol of the Serpent placed diametrically across the circle, which we considered in the previous Chapter, explains that the Serpent is the Fiery nature, Alchemically Solar, which, of course, is Spirit—though he does not say this—while the wings, he adds, indicate the volatile,
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airy nature, which, as Ruach and Pneuma both mean breath, is also Spirit. :** Lastly; he says, “* the ior in the tail tells you this matter is of a most strong composition, and that the elements are fast bound we. !
Now all of this is rather similar to the example of scriptural exegesis regarding the Exodus, which we gave in the previous Chapter, for the word used for fiery serpents is Seraphim, and Moses was instructed to make the brazen serpent in the form of a Seraph, and to set it upon a pole, which, as we have already seen, was the central Pillar of the Sephiroth, the Pillar of Mildness or Equilibrium.
The name of this serpent, which, as we have previously stated, is Nogah, is also significant, for this is also the name of the Sphere of the Planet Venus, a fact which has confirmed many in their Phallic errors ; nevertheless a very small acquaintance with the literature dealing with that aspect of things will serve to demonstrate that its devotees see Phallic symbols everywhere. Mercifully in the great bulk of Alchemical writings we do not come across it, Venus, even in her most fiery aspect, bearing quite another significance.
The connection between the serpent and Venus, which we have noted above, is not uncommon among the allusions of the alchemists, a sample of it occurring, for example, in the third key of Eudoxus, where he says: “So in the Art you can have no success if you 38
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do not in the first work purify the Serpent, born of the Slime of the Earth ; if you do not whiten these foul and black foeces, to separate from thence the white sulphur, which is the Sal Ammoniac of the Wise, and their Chaste Diana, who washes herself in the bath ; and all this mystery is but the extraction of the fixed salt of our compound, in which the whole energy of our Mercury consists.”
In the following passage from Lumen de Lumine by Thomas Vaughan, which is quite a good sample of Alchemical terminology, all these reappear, the twin serpents and the Dragon in his various metamorphoses ; the fire, the love and the mind, or wisdom and under- standing. He says:
“'Take our two Serpents, which are to be found everywhere on the face of the earth. They are a living male and a living female. Tie them both in a love-knot and shut them up in the Arabian Caraha. This is thy first labour, but thy next is more difficult. Thou must encamp against them with the fire of Nature, and be sure thou dost draw thy line round about. Circle them in and stop all avenues, that they find no relief. Con- tinue this siege patiently; and they will turn to an ugly, shabby, venomous, black toad, which will be transformed to a horrible, devouring Dragon—creeping and weltering in the bottom of her cave, without wings. Touch her not by any means, not so much as with thy hands, for there is not upon earth such a
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violent, transcendent poison. As thou hast begun, so proceed, and this Dragon will turn to a Swan, but more white than the hovering, virgin snow when it has not been sullied with the earth. Henceforth I will allow thee to fortify thy fire till the Phoenix appears. Itisa red bird of a most deep colour with a shining, fiery hue. Feed this bird with the fire of his father and the ether of his mother; for the first is meat and the second is drink, and without this last he attains not to his full glory. Be sure to understand this secret, for fire feeds not well unless it first be fed. It is of itself dry and choleric ; but a proper moisture tempers it, gives it a heavenly complexion and brings it to the desired exaltation. Feed thy bird then as I have told thee, and he will move in his nest and rise like a star in the firmament. Do this and thou hast placed Nature * within the horizon of eternity.’ Thou hast performed that command of the Qabalist : ‘ Unite the end to the beginning, like a flame to a coal; for God’ saith he, ‘is superlatively one and He hath no second.’ ” (Sepher Yetzirah, Cap. i, sect. 7.) ‘‘ Consider then what you seek: you seek an indissoluble, miraculous, transmuting, uniting union; but such a tie cannot be without the First Unity. ‘To create,’ saith one, ‘ and transmute essentially and naturally, or without any violence, is the only proper office of the First Power, the First Wisdom and the First Love.’ Without this the elements will never be married; they will never 40
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inwardly and essentially unite, which is the end and perfection of magic. Study then to understand this, and when thou hast performed I will allow thee that test of the Mekkubalim; ‘Thou hast understood in wisdom, and thou hast been wise in understanding ; thou hast established this subject upon the pure elements thereof, and thou hast posited the Creator on His throne.’”’ (Sepher Yetzirah, Cap. i, sect. 4.)
It is to be hoped that the above extract will not prove to be too disconcerting to the student, and we shall endeavour in subsequent Chapters to put forward one or two suggestions regarding the work that will, to some extent at least, throw light upon it. For the moment it will suffice to draw such parallels with what has gone before as may be seen between the toad and the passional nature; the dragon and the self-willed life ; the cave, which, as the habitat of both these, is the body; and finally the star, into which the other natures are finally transmuted, rising above the limi- tations of the material.
Before passing on to the next stage of our inquiry, it would be as well to draw the attention to two versions of the same idea which we have already several times encountered, namely, the necessity for dying to the material world, and leaving the world of sense, for we shall have to revert to them later.
And lest anyone should be disappointed at such an apparently trite outcome of all that has gone before,
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and retort ** This much at least we knew in advance,” we would reply that, as we shall hope to show later, our meaning is to be taken not merely as indicating the preliminaries, but also, in some measure, the means to our end.
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