mundi. Purissimam partem hujus animæ esse naturam angelicam, et cœlum empyreum, quod intelligatur permistum esse omnibus rebus. Dæmones etiam particulas esse ejusdem essentiæ, sed malignæ materiæ alligatas. Omnes animas tam hominum, quàm brutorum, nihil esse aliud, quàm particulas ejusdem animæ. Eandem animam esse Angelum Michaelem, seu Mitattron. "Quartò. Quod est ampliùs, eandem mundi animam esse verum Messiam, Salvatorem, Christum, Lapidem Angularem, et Petram universalem, supra quam Ecclesia, et tota salus fundata sit. Hanc nempe esse præcipuam partem Philosophici Lapidis, quæcùm addensata rubescat, exinde dicatur esse sanguis Christi, quo emundati, et redempti sumus. Neque enim nos emundari sanguine Christi humano, sed hoc divino, et mystico. 66 Quintò. Hominem justum esse alchymistam, qui Philosophico Lapide invento, illius usu immortalis fiat. Mori tamen dici, cùm partes corruptibiles abijcit; Resurgere, cùm fit incorruptibilis; Glorificari, cùm proinde easdem dotes assequitur, quæ tribuuntur corporibus gloriosis. Homines, quihûc evaserint, 'FRATRES CRUCIS ROSEÆ' dictos, scire omnia, posse omnia, non arbitrari rapinam esse se equales Deo, cùm eadem in illis sit mens, quæ in Christo Jesu. "Sextò. Creationem non esse productionem rei ex nihilo, ut nos vulgò intelligimus nihil. Materiam (quam sæpissimè tenebras vocant) esse id, quod propriè appelletur nihil; ac proinde cùm Deus dicitur creare, aut facere aliquid ex nihilo, intelligi creare, aut facere ex materia. Moysen, cùm Creationem Mundi descripsit, fuisse alchymistam, itemque Davidem, Salomonem, Jacob, Job, et omnes alios ; adeò ut etiam veri Cabbalistæ nihil aliud quàm alchymistæ sint ; itemque Magi, sapientes, philosophi, sacerdotes, et alii." Marinus Mersennus significantly adds :-" Quæso autem, nisi ista sunt impia, quid potest esse impium ?" In the first place, the whole of the Sacred Scriptures are a grand mystical puzzle referring to ALCHEMY, and to the universal alchemic process. The mystical sense of the Old and the New Testaments is none other than the HISTORY OF ALCHEMY-originated in the "Cabala" (with the secrets contained therein), and the rationale of that called the PHILOSOPHERS' STONE." It matters not to the question of these secrets fixed what religions be professed; whether Christian, whether those of the " Sects," whether infidel and heathen. That only is "Catholic" which lies in the "Stone"-otherwise practical magic; whereby Demons are commanded, good spirits evoked, and the innermost hidden resources of nature, and the Spirits of Nature, laid bare and availed-of. ROSICRUCIAN MAGIC SYSTEM. 339 Secondly. When Deity is said to be "Light," pervading and vivifying all nature, He enters not in anything unless a mask of the object is adopted as the medium in which He fixes. This aura (or the deliquescence of the uproused light) is the infinite Ethereal Spirit. The spring or the moving spirits, or the means, of alchemy evolve out of it. They are fivefold in their exercise or delimitation. God is indeed identical with this supreme spirit. And the radiant or intense material-nucleus is the lucid conflux-spot, or the SUN stored (by its spirits) with vigour, sensitiveness, and intelligence. From this Intense Centre or Fiery Blaze of Power (the Sun), agitations and life vibrate in masterdom from the middle-point to circumference. God, thus, in producing, is said to be identified with Matter, and He so fills (and is) that there are not (nor can there be) secondary causes, except to Man; who can only know second causes. This, be it noted, is "Berkeleyism on the one side, and its opposite, or "Spinozism," on the other-both being the same thing in reality; looked-at from either side; or from before and from behind. Thirdly.-Composed of this "mask," and of this infinite medium or Divine Movement, is the general investment (or spirit) called the "Soul of the World." The purer part of this sensitive, responsive soul is, in its own nature, of the breath of the angels-for "the Angels were made"). The anima mundi is the Flaming Spiritual Region, in which all things live. Even the devils are portions of this efflux, which is the general life. But the Rebellious Spirits (the vis inertia, or the laziness, so to speak) of matter-dense, contradictory, inaccessible—are buried or lost-and were afterwards chained-in inapprehensive matter. All parti cular "sentiences "-whether of the brutes or man-are nothing other than parts of the whole lucid spirit. Of the same soul (in essence) is the Archangel Michael, or Mitattron. Also all the Angels in their Sevenfold Regions; both of the Bad, and of the Good; of the Dexter and of the Sinister Sides of Creation. Fourthly. Which is still more dreadful (in appearance), the same anima mundi, or Soul of the World, is the real Mes siah, Saviour, Christ, the "Corner - Stone of the Temple," the "Temple" itself (the universe), the "STONE" (Petram Universalem), or "Rock" (Peter-St. Peter), upon which the Church, and Salvation, is founded. This is the mystical end and scope of that longed-for Beatitude- or Magical Transfiguration-the "Philosophers' Stone," or "Foundation." Which (being to be obtained "out of the material" by "supernatural" means) when contracted into itself, and concentrated and intensified, glows (or martyrises) * into flaming red, or possession, or Glorified Agony (made Heaven). From thence it is said to be the "Blood" of Christ (and the "Cross" of Christ) which "blood" was shed for the redemption of the world from the penalties of the (First?) FALL ("by Which We Are"). By means of the "Great Sacrifice" mortality is purged into purity back into the celestial fire, and redeemed from Hell or Matter. However, we are not redeemed by the blood of a "Human" Christ, but by the atoning blood in a divine and mystical sense. (See accompanying plate.) Fifthly. The "Just Man made Perfect" is the Alchemist (or rather, Rosicrucian) who, having found the Philosophers' Stone (San Graal, or Holy Grail, or “Sang Reale," or " Holy Rapture," or Magic Birth into the Celestial Fire, or Flame of Self-Extinguishment, or of "Ecstacy "), becomes immortal (and disappears, or "dies" to the world. His "chariot of fire" being that of Enoch, or "Translation." To die is simply the falling asunder and disintegration of the mecha * Fire is contention-whether holy or unholy. Heat, intensified in the struggle, agitates furiously to FIRE. Fire, triumphing and mastering the matter which lends it its material and strength, when passing into victory brandishes into the calm and the glory of victory, and becomes yellow in its flaming precious gold, and quiet LIGHT intense as the grandest phenomenon-sprung-up skywards; or against gravity; therefore reversing nature's principal law. The intenser the darkness, or the mass of matter (the Rosicrucians' "other side" of Spirit, and of Light), the greater the Light, and the greater the spirit and vivacity and force in the Liberation into Light (and into Spirit) of the Darkness and the Matter; when its farthest-winnowed atoms are forced asunder in the darts of the fire, and turned "inside-outwards." See pages 337, 338, 339. †This is the "Holy Grail," or "Sangreal," or "Sang-Reale," or "Fire," or "Mighty Redeeming Magic," sought by the Champions, or the Knights, of King Arthur's Round Table. See Supplementary Note (No. 2), p. 368. THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR. From the Original, preserved in the Court-House of the Castle at Winchester. * TRADITION, that Judas Iscariot left the Table at the words of the Saviour-"What thou doest, do quickly!" and had no portion in the Last Rite. (Refer below.) "After the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, 'That thou doest, do quickly!' AND IT WAS NIGHT. |