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Alchemy Diffculties and Dangers in Its Pursuit “Non Ti Fidiare Al Alchemista Povero, O Medico Ammalato."

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Alchemy Diffculties and Dangers in Its Pursuit “Non Ti Fidiare Al Alchemista Povero, O Medico Ammalato. Theosophical Siftings Alchemy - Difficulties and Dangers in its Pursuit Vol 2, No 1 Alchemy Diffculties and Dangers in its Pursuit “Non ti fidiare al alchemista povero, o medico ammalato." by Parabolanus Reprinted from “Theosophical Siftings” Volume 2 The Theosophical Publishing Society, England Page 1 Theosophical Siftings Alchemy - Difficulties and Dangers in its Pursuit Vol 2, No 1 FROM the very cradle of the greatest civilizations of Antiquity, the precious metals, Gold and Silver, have formed the basis of commercial transactions, facilitated their expansion, and contributed to the mutual intercourse and welfare of mankind. Commerce made easy leads to mutual advancement, civilization, and the spread of knowledge. Gold and Silver must necessarily, at first, have been obtained from the localities where Nature had deposited them. When their great convenience had once established them in general use as the means of obtaining this world's goods — which are considered to be not only the necessaries of life, but also the product of the toil, industry and ingenuity of some classes of men, or of the luxuries and special fruits of one richly endowed soil and climate to be transported to other countries not so favoured — it is evident that the desire of men to possess as much as possible of the precious metals would stimulate some more ambitious and cleverer than their fellows to try to imitate the processes of Nature. From what we now know to be the extreme difficulty of it, we might reasonably suppose that no one, by the exercise of a mere physical intellect, would be able to succeed in doing so. Gold is mentioned at the earliest period of history, but before the time of Hermes Trismegistus there is no early record of anyone having in this way succeeded in Chrusopoieia. Whether there are not slight evidences of its having been so performed, under peculiar circumstances, in later times, we shall allude to further on. We may take it as presumptive evidence that it was not so done, because we may be sure that if it had been many would have done it, and Gold, which was then, at least, the scarcest of all metals, would have become so plentiful that the market would have been over supplied, and it would have lost its value and use as a convenient mode of exchange. The history of the primitive world gives not the slightest indication that this ever took place. Croesus is related to have obtained his immense wealth from the gold found in the sands of the [Page 6] river Pactolus in Lybia. It would seem he must have taken it all, for Strabo, the Geographer, says none was found there in his time. The scientific world and the generality of (so-called) educated men, notwithstanding the evidence of all Antiquity, and of, comparatively, more modern witnesses, such as Picus Mirandula, Helvetius, Athanasius Kircher, and others, still affect to doubt whether it ever was done. We have not the slightest wish to make any attempt to convince those who are guided by prejudice and feeling, or the shibboleth of a party, instead of the right use of the logical faculty in deliberately and carefully sifting the whole of the evidence for or against on any given subject. The scientific world is still swayed by loose reasoning and exploded prejudices. It is as well that such men should not believe it. We write not for them. The mark of the true Magus is, by the sternest self-discipline, to have rooted out all prejudices and to have left the mind perfectly free to receive as truth what the preponderance of evidence, as judged by the logical faculty, declares to be such, and utterly to disregard the fashion of the times on any subject. These only will give heed to what we say. "Unless ye become as little children, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven " may be understood to apply to the removing of prejudices and educational errors. We would not have presumed to offer our own ideas on the Golden Fleece were it not that, firstly, we have been strongly urged to do so, and, secondly, because at the present moment the revival of Occultism has brought in its train, as it always has done, a strongly awakened attention to that one branch of it called Alchemy. That many may not labour in vain at it, we would put before them a few considerations drawn, not from the practice exactly, but from the long contemplation of the lives and calamities of those who have, or, at least, are supposed to have performed this Magnum Opus. As a basis of what we would wish to submit to them is the very able and useful book recently published, " Page 2 Theosophical Siftings Alchemy - Difficulties and Dangers in its Pursuit Vol 2, No 1 Lives of Alchemistical philosophers," by Edward Arthur Waite. In the Introductory Essay to his book, followed by the Theory and Practice of the Magnum Opus, Mr. Waite, in eloquent phraseology, examines and comments on some of the latest modern writers on the subject, and with great perspicacity and justice weighs in the balances their probable errors, and declares his own firm belief in opposition to some of these modern Alchemical writers, that it was real material gold which the old Alchemists sought, and not solely the psychical regeneration and perfection of Man. Mr. Waite also shows the probable use of the "Intuitive Faculty" in those who have attained to the "Magnum Opus". Herein we most cordially agree with him. We have, at the beginning of this Paper, alluded to the extreme improbability of anyone reaching this greatly desired goal by the exercise of the mere physical intellectual powers, however elevated [Page 7] they might be above those of the ordinary run of mortals. We must look elsewhere for a confirmation of Mr. Waite's reasoning as to what was revealed by the intuitive faculties. Now, in ancient India there existed, of the glorious Aryan race, "Munis", or inspired men, i.e., intuitive. To them we are indebted for the sublime Sciences of Algebra, Astronomy, etc., and if to them we owe so much in this direction, we may safely presume that these were the men, if any, to penetrate intuitively all the secrets of Nature, and behold, by Divine Inspiration, how gold had been formed in the earth. As the Algebra they in this way invented has come down to us, or, more probably, some portion only of it, so we may reasonably conclude did some remnants of their knowledge of transmutation of metals. There are treatises in Sanscrit upon it. What exactly was the connexion between ancient India and Egypt, history does not tell us. That the Misraimites, or Mezzoranians, or Egyptians were skilled in the esoteric sciences is beyond doubt. Hermes Trismegistus was a reality. Possibly both were colonies from the ancient Atlantis, and had both brought with them the Science of Magic. Whatever the source, both Aryans and Mezzoranians had this Science, and by it Hermes Trismegistus made laws for and governed Egypt, giving it dynasties lasting through ages and ages. In Ragon's "Maçonnerie Occulte" he quotes from the " Oedipus Aegyptiacus " of the learned Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher (t. ii., p. 2, De Alchym., c. 1), expresses himself thus as to Hermes :- " It is so certain that these first men possessed the art of making gold, whether by extracting it from all sorts of matters, or by transmuting the metals, that he who doubted it, or would fain deny it, would show himself perfectly ignorant of history. The priests, the kings, and the heads of families were alone instructed in it. This art was always kept a great secret, and those who were possessors of it always maintained a profound silence, for fear that the laboratories and the sanctuary the most concealed of Nature, being discovered to an ignorant people, they would turn this knowledge to the injury of the Republic. The ingenious and prudent Hermes, foreseeing this danger which threatened the State, had then reason for concealing this art of making gold under the same veils and under the same hieroglyphic obscurities, of which he availed himself to conceal from the profane people that part of philosophy which concerned God, angels, and the universe." Ragon goes on to say: "It required the evidence and the force of truth to draw such an avowal from this most learned father, who, upon many occasions, has disputed the existence of the philosopher's stone.” One of these occasions is given in "Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique, par M. l’Abbé Langlet du Fresnoy" (Tom. ii. p. 51). A young man, an unsuccessful seeker of the philosopher's stone, was visited by a perfect stranger, [Page 8] who showed him a process for making it, did it with him, and with the powder Page 3 Theosophical Siftings Alchemy - Difficulties and Dangers in its Pursuit Vol 2, No 1 so made the young man did convert a large quantity of mercury into pure gold. At the stranger's dictation he wrote down the recipe. Yet he never could do it again, nor find the stranger. Kircher, in accordance with the practice of his church, intimated that the strange visitor was the devil. Ragon proceeds to say that the gold then found in all the mines of the world would not have sufficed for the expense of raising the extraordinary monuments, the sumptuous palaces, the immense works which covered the soil of Egypt, but infers that it must have come from the sacred laboratories. There is an abundance of testimony from other sources, that the Hierarchy or Priest-kings of Ancient Egypt were adepts in the transmutatory art, and, for some centuries, ruled with great justice and equity the rest of the nation by means of the great advantage which this and the discipline of Initiation gave them.
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