Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts by Dr Herbert Silberer (1971)

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.Their language seems tosound as if they said, Our gold is not of this world. Indeedthey use expressions that can with absolute clearness be shown tohave this sense.Authors of this type did not weary of enjoiningon the novices of the art, that belief, scripture and righteousness [147]were the most important requisites for the alchemistic process.[With the sloppers it was indeed a prime question, how manyand what kinds of stoves, retorts, kettles, crucibles, ores, fires,etc., in short, what necessary implements they needed, for thegreat work.]He whose eyes are open needs no special hints to see, inreading, that the so-called alchemistic prescriptions did not centerupon a chemical process.A faint notion of the circumstance that114 Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Artseven in their beginnings, alchemistic theories were blended withcosmogonic and religious ideas, must make it quite evident that,for example, in the famous Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes [Its realauthor is unknown.] a noble pillar of alchemy, something moremust be contained than a mere chemical recipe.The languageof the Smaragdine tablet is notoriously the most obscure thatthe hermetic literature has produced; in it there are no clearrecommendations to belief or righteousness; and yet I thinkthat an unprejudiced reader, who was not looking specially fora chemical prescription, would perceive at least a feeling forsomething of philosophy or theology.[1.] Verum, sine mendacio, certum et [verissimum]: [2.]Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superiusest sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda [also: penetranda,praeparanda] miracula rei unius.[3.] Et sicut res omnes fueruntab uno, meditatione unius: sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac[148] una re, adaptatione [adoptione.].[4.] Pater ejus est Sol, materejus est Luna.[5.] Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo.[6.] Nutrixejus terra est.[7.] Pater omnis Telesmi totius mundi est hic.[8.]Virtus ejus integra est, si versa fuerit in terram.[9.] Separabisterram ab igne, subtile ab spisso, suaviter, magno cum ingenio.[10.] Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, etrecipit vim superiorum et inferiorum.[11.] Sic habebis Gloriamtotius mundi.Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas.Haec est totiusfortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem,omnemque solidam [solidum] penetrabit.[12.] Sic munduscreatus est.[13.] Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarummodus est hic.[14.] Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus,habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi.[15.] Completumest quod dixi de operatione Solis.Translation: [1.] It is true, without lies and quite certain.[2.]What is lower is just like what is higher, and what is higher isjust like what is lower, for the accomplishment of the miracleof a thing.[3.] And just as all things come from one and bySection III.The Hermetic Art.115mediation of one, thus all things have been derived from this onething by adoption.[4.] The father of it is the sun, the mother isthe moon.[5.] The wind has carried it in his belly.[6.] The earthhas nourished it.[7.] It is the father [cause] of all completionof the whole world.[8.] His power is undiminished, if it hasbeen turned towards the earth.[9.] You will separate the earthfrom fire, the fine from the coarse, gently and with great skill.[149][10.] It ascends from the earth to the sky, again descends tothe earth, and receives the powers of what is higher and what islower.[11.] Thus you will have the glory of the whole world,and all darkness will depart from you.It is the strength of allstrength, because it will conquer all the fine and penetrate all thesolid.[12.] Thus the world was created.[13.] From this will bewonderful applications of which it is the pattern.[14.] And so Ihave been called Hermes, thrice greatest, possessing three partsof the knowledge of the whole world.[15.] Finished is what Ihave said about the work of the sun.Sun and gold are identical in the hieroglyphic mode ofexpression.Whoever seeks only the chemical must thereforeread: The work of gold, the production of gold; and that is whatthousands and millions have read.The mere word gold wasenough to make countless souls blind to everything besides thegold recipe that might be found in the Smaragdine tablet.Butsurely there were alchemistic masters who did not let themselvesbe blinded by the word gold and sympathetically carried out stillfurther the language of the Smaragdine tablet.They were thepreviously mentioned lofty-minded men.The covetous crowd ofsloppers, however, adhered to the gold of the Smaragdine tabletand other writings and had no appreciation of anything else.Fora long time alchemy meant no more for modern historians [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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