Notes on Alchemy the Cosmological "Yoga"of Medieval Christianity

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Notes on Alchemy eagle, and in honey, it is
surprising that it is also
the Cosmological manifest in gold, that every
metal is gold which does not
"Yoga"of Medieval
know itself, and even in its
ignorance is a "state"of gold?
Christianity
If man has no other role than
to worship in the undivided
sanctuary of his body and of
nature, is it surprising that he
By Maurice Aniane
should "transmute" lead into
gold? Neither can sanctity be

divided, and the "miracle" of
transmutation reveals its
Article appeared in "Material for
Thought"Magazine ,San omnipresence.
Francisco,Ca.,Spring 1976, which we • Alchemy in the metaphysical
consider as the most detailed and clear and mythological traditions
explanation of Alchemy work had no more importance than
the dance which expressed the
( Opus Alchimicum ).
sacred nature of rhythm,
showed the worshipful
A
• lchemy in most circling of the dancers to be
the same as that of the stars,
"traditional"civilizations is
and, in the sudden immobility
none other than the science of
of the body, "transmuted"
the sacrifice of terrestrial
time, the sleep of lead, into the
substances, the liturgy for
pure gold of a moment of
transfiguring those crafts
eternity.
which deal with
"inanimate"matter. We find it • However, alchemy was
destined to have a special
everywhere from archaic
significance in the realm of
Mesopotamia to ancient China
the "monotheistic" traditions,
and in India throughout the
and particularly in
ages. In these traditions,
Christianity. Apart from traces
"mythological" in form,
of folklore which still exists in
alchemy is not restricted to
some rural communities of
any particular place: if the
Europe, alchemy, or, more
Spirit is everywhere,
generally, Hermeticism, seems
obviously it is also in a stone;
to have been the only
when the one and only light,
cosmological doctrine to
that of Divine Intelligence, is
survive in the Christian world.
manifest in the sun, in an
It has therefore been called been "incarnated"in a total
upon to play a major role order: there would have been
"beneath" a religion which monks and saints; there would
stressed "contempt of the not have been the sacred idea
flesh" and shunned of a nature which could endow
cosmology. the arts and crafts, and
• In fact, during the early heraldry, with their character
Middle Ages and up to the of "lesser mysteries".
beginning of Gothic Art, • In a time when we are
alchemy was no opposed to weighed down by heaviness, it
Christianity but completed it. is perhaps urgent to remind
Through it the Eucharistic Christianity that it not only
effusion radiated even into the accepted but, in the centuries
heaviest states of matter. It of its noblest incarnation,
was no longer only bread and animated a true "yoga" of
wine that were heaviness.
transubstantiated, but stone, • I. Outline of the Doctrine
lead, the lime of bones and
rocks. Vivified by Back to the top of page
Christianity, alchemy gave the
The meaning of Gold
latter a "technical" application
in the "psycho cosmic" realm,
which Christianity had • Despite the insistence of
historians of science, alchemy
neglected because its aim was
was never, except in its
not to establish man in the
degenerate aspects, a primitive
world, but to lead him out of
chemistry. It was a
it.
"sacramental" science in
• So alchemy could not have
which material phenomena
survived in the West without
were not autonomous, but
the tremendous initiatic
represented only the
effusion of Christianity: just
"condensation" of psychic and
as the archaic house only
spiritual realities. When the
exists because of the chimney
spontaneity and mystery of
by which it communicates
nature is penetrated, it
with "heaven", so there is no
becomes transparent: on the
possible cosmology except
one hand it is transfigured
around the "central" state,
under the lightning-flashes of
through which one can find a
divine energies, and on the
way out of the cosmos.
other it incorporates and
• But without alchemy
symbolizes those "angelic"
Christianity could not have
states which fallen man can
only glimpse for brief identity is realized." For gold
moments, when listening to is the most perfect of metals,
music or when contemplating the one whose luminous
a human face. Symbols are not density best expresses the
meant to be "stuck onto" divine presence in the mineral
things: they are the very realm: through spiritual
structure, the presence, and the continuity each metal is
beauty of things such as they virtually gold and each stone
are in the process of perfection becomes precious in God.
in God. For alchemy, the • This transfiguration of nature-
science of symbol, there was memory of Eden and
no question, as has sometimes expectation of the second
been said, of a "material" coming ( Parousia )- can at
unity of nature, but of a present only take effect in the
spiritual unity, one could heart of man, the central and
almost say a spiritual conscious being of the
Assumption of nature; for creation. Indeed, that being so,
nature, ultimately, is none "the eye of the heart" can see
other than the place of a gold in lead and crystal in the
metaphysical principle: mountain, because it can see
through man it becomes the the world in God.
body of the Word and, as it • Alchemy, like all the
were, the bride of God. "traditional"sciences, was
• This Assumption of matter is therefore an immense effort to
the key to the alchemical awaken man to the divine
work, which simply helps omnipresence. Its importance
substances "to plunge into the is to have emphasized this
Father-nature," that is, to omnipresence in the darkest
incorporate, according to their heaviness: there where the
mode of being, the greatest pseudo-mystical, "idealistic"
possible spiritual light. perspective would be least
"Creatures must plunge into likely to look for it; there, on
this Father-nature and become the contrary, where, according
Unity and only Son....," for to the analogical inversion of a
"...nature, which is God, seeks "sacramental" vision, the
only the image of God." divine omnipresence
"Copper, because of its nature, "contracts"and most strongly
can become silver, and silver, withdraws into itself.
by its nature, can become • If the production of metallic
gold: so neither one nor the gold has sometimes been
other stops or pauses until this achieved, then it was simply a
sign. It was no more of a its existence. The texts call
miracle than that of a saint him king; as secret king, he
whose look transforms a confirmed the order of time
sinner. Just as the saint sees in and of space, the fecundity of
the sinner the possibility of the earth producing grain and
sanctity, so the alchemist-sage diamond, as did the kings of
saw in the lead the possibility ancient societies, like the
of metallic sanctity, that is, of emperor of China up to the
gold. And this vision was beginning of the twentieth
"operative." century. In the second place,
• But the alchemist did not seek the alchemist, on the human
to make gold. That was not the plane, "awakening"substances
true meaning of his work. His and gold itself to their true
purpose was to unite his soul nature, used them to prepare
so intimately with that of the elixirs which gave "longevity"
metals that he could remind to the body and strength to the
them that they are in God, that soul: "drinkable gold" was a
is, that they are gold. The gold awakened to its spiritual
medieval alchemist actualized quality, and reflected in its
the Word of Christ to the order the "immortality
letter: he proclaimed the good medicine" as St.Ambrose said
news to all creatures. "The of the Eucharist.
stone is the Christ," all the • The true role of the alchemist
Hermetic texts of the Middle was to celebrate analogically a
Ages hopefully repeat. mass whose species were not
Through his vision of Christic only bread and wine, but all of
Gold, the alchemist could nature in its entirety.
transmute every "imperfect
metal": but he did it only The Logic of Alchemy
rarely, for as a saint, he knew
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that the time for cosmic
transfiguration had not yet
come. • The logic of alchemy implies
a twofold movement:
• The true role of the alchemist
"vertically," it was a symbolic
was twofold: on the one hand,
logic, leading manifestation
he helped nature, suffocated
back to its principle,
by human decadence, to
appearance to reality, word to
breathe the presence of God.
God : a logic of reintegration.
Offering up to God the prayer
" Horizontally," on the
of the universe, he achored the
humano-cosmic plane, it was a
universe in being and renewed
dialectic of complementaries
which emphasizes everywhere delivers Melusine from her
the living tension of ambiguous condition, revealed
contraries: a logic of war and in the nature which veils God
love. the nature which makes Him
manifest.
A logic of Reintegration • "Learn that the aim of the
science of the Ancients which
• Alchemy implied, in sensation elaborated simultaneously the
itself, a peaceful and detached
sciences and the virtues is that
love of the world. For the from which all things proceed,
world of alchemy, like that of
God invisible and unmoving,
the "mythological" traditions
whose Will arouses the
whose heritage is transmitted, Intelligence; through the Will
was a world at once living and
and the Intelligence the Soul
transparent, a great a sacred
in its unity appears; through
body, an immense Anthropos the Soul are born the distinct
in all respects resembling the
natures which, in their turn,
small one. Nature, it could be
generate all the compounds.
said, was at once the body of Thus one sees that a thing
God and the body of man.
can only be known if one
Everywhere was life,
knows what is higher than it.
everywhere soul, everywhere
The soul is higher than nature,
the holy breath of God. The and through it, nature can be
blood of the sun made the
known; the Intelligence is
golden embryo grow in the
higher than the Soul and by it
matrix of the mountains. The the Soul can be known;
seven planets in the sky, the
finally, the Intelligence can no
seven metals engendered by
more than direct us back to
them on earth, the seven what is higher than it, the One
centers of life which, from the
God, who encompasses the
sex to the head, gravitate in
Intelligence and whose
man around the sun-heart, essence cannot be grasped."
were so many embodiments of
• This text, which makes
the same structure of the
remarkably clear the
Word; and the seven notes of metaphysical background of
the scale manifest also that
alchemy, proves that it was
"music of the silence"which
essentially "inner"; the
bathes creation, haloes the "Science of Balance" weighs
saints, ands is immobilized in
and satisfies at once the desire
gold. of the Soul of the World
• That is why the alchemist, like which is concealed in each
the knight whose "proud kiss"
"nature", and the desire of the by the Latins). Now this
Divine Spirit which is "mesocosmos"is governed by
concealed in the Soul of the a logic of war, by essentially
World. The alchemist reverses "dual" forces whose never-
cosmogony: dissolving ending struggle is that of the
material "hardenings" in pure two serpents of the Caduceus.
life, he makes in himself, by In this domain, the alchemical
meditating on natural beauty work is wholly one of
and on that "sympathy" which mediation: it strives to
holds all things together, the transform war into love, so
unity of the Soul of the World, that it may culminate not in a
until, in its center, which is in sterile death but in a glorious
his own heart, he causes the birth.
solar fire of the Spirit to rise. • The "mode of operation" of
Then, the fire becomes Nature in the Universe of form
incarnate, through a higher consists of a continuous
Cosmogony in which the rhythm of "coagulations” and
Spirit, instead of involving "dissolutions." Form is
itself in matter, embraces and impressed on matter and
transforms it: transforms lead matter dissolves it in order to
into gold, and the body of man offer itself to another form.
into body of glory. Alchemy is Everything is alternation,
performed, as Henry Corbin evolution and involution,
has said, in a "physics of birth, life, death, and rebirth,
resurrection." solve et coagula. "Nature
disports itself with Nature" in
A logic of War and Love a play of perpetually
interacting tensions which
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neutralize each other at one
moment by their very
• Therefore, the proper domain opposition, and then destroy
of alchemy is essentially that
each other only to arise again
of the soul, that humane-
in a new guise. Nothing
cosmic environment psychic
symbolizes this "world of
in nature which links the
dissimilarity" better than the
world of "sensory"
dragons which devour each
appearances to that of
other on the pillars of certain
"spiritual” realities. It is the
Romanesque churches.
"intermediate world" of all the
• This never-ending war which
traditions, the
presides over the
"mesocosmos"of the Iranian
metamorphoses of nature as
alchemy of Jabir (called Geber
well as over the interactions Sulphur, of Gold, and of the
between men is related by Sun is a principle of stability
alchemy to the polarization of and of measure: a heritage of
the two "subtle” forces Greek thought, it is the virile
analogous to the Chinese ying principle of the "limit." But,
and yang : Sulphur and by itself, it is only a receptacle
Mercury. which tends to close up again
• Common Sulphur, by its over its emptiness: "...its
igneous nature, and mercury, aspect then is an acute and
because it is elusive and terrifying harshness, in which
cannot be grasped, indeed its binding, astringent quality
embody these forces in their affirms itself as exessive
dynamic aspect. Gold and attraction, constricted and
silver "crystallize" them in hard"; it becomes a force of
their static aspect, just as do individuation which
the sun and the moon." These transforms a necessary
two poles on either side of the protection into a refusal of
"intermediate world" regarded life. In the human being, it
as their "field of force," ends by breeding abstraction
participate closely in the two and egoism. Therefore, in
divine poles which preside order that the seed may die
over "manifestation": Pure and the heart may melt, the
Action and Total Nature in intervention of the
Sufism, Shiva and his Shakti complementary force, of the
in Tantrism. Sulphur, feminine principle, Mercury,
relatively active or essential, is needed.
represents Spirit in one way, • To Mercury-alchemists also
while Mercury corresponds spoke of Water, Silver, and
more directly to the passive the Moon- are attributed
and feminine nature of the "cold" and "humidity." Cold
Soul. or mercurial "contractivity"
• To Sulphur are attributed two offers itself as a womb to the
fundamental tendencies "fixing" will of Sulphur; it
symbolized by "heat" and envelops form and gives them
"dryness". Heat or sulphuric consitency and density. As for
expansiveness affirms life, the humidity of Mercury, it is
expands forms. Dryness or the power which "dissolves"
fixation incarnates in the vital these forms once their
flux the divine "signature," virtualities have blossomed.
which gives every being its • Mercury is untamed and
"face." Thus, the principle of necessary life, as ambiguous
as total Nature in which it utilizes the "cosmic sexuality"
intimately participates. It is of Sulphur and Mercury, first
the "burning thirst" which, if "neutralized" in Salt. The
unappeased, flares up and alchemists begins by
destroys itself; it is the dissolving these imperfect
"viscous humidity" which is coagulations and by reducing
wasted or dissolved in their matter to soul: then,
amorphous stagnation. In the between the Sun and the
human body, it manifests Moon appearing in their
variously as desire for purity, the alchemist brings
pleasure, insiatiable about a hierogamy which will
motherhood, dull laziness, and cause them to crystallize in a
morbidity. But is is also the perfect form: gold and the
humble service of life, the body of glory.
creative submission of the • Thus the stages of the Work
"Virgin of the World," who is appear in outline: first
always the servant of the "mortification," descent and
Lord. dissolution in the waters,
• "This Water subsists dissapearance into the womb
throughout all eternity," writes of the Mother, the Anima
Boehme. "It is the Water of Mundi, who devours and kills
Life which penetrates even her Son, that is, takes back
death..." It is also in the body into herself man who has gone
of man and the body of the astray in the individual
world. Nature, as seen by condition. This is the
divided man, is thus basically domination of Woman over
nothing but an inmense Man, of the Moon over the
battlefield strewn with Sun, until the Soul, restored to
corpses: corpses "precipitated" its original virginity, the
endlessly, in the chemical luminous center, the Spirit is
sense, by the collision of the manifested. Then the
two great forces which regenerated Sun, the solar
polarize the cosmic psychism. hero, is born: in his turn, he
The sensory world in its subjugates the Moon to the
opacity is then only a Sun, Woman to Man, and
"sepulchre" in which the soul trough the consumation of
has buried itself. "philosophical incest," he
• We now understand that makes his Mother into his
alchemy is at the same time a Wife and also into his
"science of balance" and an art Daughter.
of marriages. It elucidates and
• "The Mother generates the work" or "child's play."
Son and the Son generates the Through it man in fact
Mother and kills her." separates himself from
• "The Female must be made to appearances and lets himself
mount the Male, and then the be drowned in the cosmic
Male to mount the Females." feminine nature, the full
• "Once the Little Child has power of which he wishes to
become robust and strong awaken and master. The work
enough to combat Water and of blackening is thus at the
Fire, he will put the Mother same time a death, a marriage
who gave birth to him into his ( or better, a parturition in
own belly." reverse ), and a descent into
• These drastic writings hell.
introduces us to the phases of • "A being frees himself from
the Work. death through an agony which
is undergone in a vast
II.The Phases of the Work impression of anguish, and
this is the Mercurial way."
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The work of blackening,
which prepares Mercury, that
• The alchemical texts divide is, the world's subtle materia,
the work into three or four
presents itself as a death to
essential phases: "the work of
cosmic illusion in which the
blackening," Nigredo or
Mercurial waters are so to say
Melanosis--"the work of
"congealed." This is why the
whitening," Albedo or
texts call it "separation" or
Leucosis--and finally "the
"division." Man detaches
work of reddening,"which
himself from his separate
alchemists originally separated
existence; he extracts his vital
into two complementary
force from mental and bodily
moments, that of gold (
attractions, from dream and
Citrinitas or Xantosis ) and
from agitation. Painfully,
that of purple or transmutation
quietly, he re-collects it in
of venom ( Iosis ).
himself as still water. He
brings Mercury back to its
The work of Blackening
state of indeterminate
possibility: this is the "return
• "The work of blackening" is
to materia prima."
considered the most difficult
of the operations, in • He does the same in the
substances that he handles in
comparison with which the
his global perception of thins:
other stages seem "woman's
reversing the cosmogonic world, that particular vision
process of Genesis, he which fixes appearances in
dissolves hardened earth into their opacity and separation,
the unity of primordial water. and keeps man in his illusion
Through discretio of being awake, while he is
intellectualis, he distinguishes only a sleep-walker possessed
the presence of subtle forces by a "leaden sleep." Gichtel
and spiritual archetypes in the clarifies this view by situating
midst of the universe. He the Saturnian center in the
discovers the naturae brain and attributing to it,
discretae , the actual nature of following Macrobius, the
things, that "latent inner basis" ratiocinatio. This is why
of which Geber speaks and Saturn has to be "dissolved" in
which one could call the the lunar center, situated in the
"quantity" of the World Soul sacral region and representing
that each thing has taken for to phusikon, the totality of the
itself. vital energies. And Jupiter,
• Then he perceives nature and ("Masculine" center of the will,
his body as a cosmic interplay localized in the frontal region.) to
upon which the illusion of praktikon, the vis agendi, the
individuality is no longer will to power, must be
projected. "dissolved" in Mercury,
• The discovery of this interplay • ( "Feminine"center of the
is a marriage in which cosmic imagination, situated in the
femininity prevails over umbilical region ) that feminine
"imagination" which sees
masculine objectification. It is
nature as the scenery of a
a liberating dissolution which
dream, perhaps the dream of
draws the virile force back
from separative modes of God.
action and of knowledge in • This marriage in which the
masculine is dissilved is often
order to bathe it in the
described as a parturition in
baptismal water of universal
reverse. Just as in the
life.
cosmogonic process of
• In Gichtel's diagram of the
generation the Soul is
subtle centres, Saturn has to
"coagulated" in the human
be united to the Moon and
mind, so in the process of
Jupiter to Mercury. Saturn is
regeneration that could be
lead, the concretion of the
called "theogonic," the mental
spirit of weight: it will thus be
must be reabsorbed in the
above all the symbol of a
potentiality of the Soul. Man
certain way of seeing the