ALCHEMY

I have found the Rose at the center of the cube.

Alchemy
Those of you who attended my presentation at NYU Experimental Cuisine Collaborative may remember that I began with a discussion of science vs. alchemy and the following definitions:

1) an early, unscientific form of chemistry that sought to change base metals into gold and discover a life-prolonging elixir, a universal cure for disease, and a universal solvent alkahest

2) a power supposedly like alchemy, especially of enchantment or transformation (don’t you adore this definition!)

I also mentioned that ‘some people’ think that baking is alchemy. The ‘some people’ I had in mind included my husband Elliott. But I couldn’t say this because he was in the audience!

Afterwards I told him that I was referring to him and he said “yes—I knew that—but you always misunderstood. I didn’t mean it as a bad thing but as a good thing. I have little respect for scientific theories alone—it is the people who actually perform the experiments, i.e. the alchemists who understand…”

Thirty two years of marriage and it took this presentation to understand an important issue between the two of us. All these years I had been assuming that he was putting me down on some level and it was quite the contrary. I’m telling you, dear bloggers, communication is surely the source of most of the world’s problems. Anyway, let us all continue to be alchemists and “enchant and transform” our world.

[link to www.realbakingwithrose.com]

THE MIDDLE PILLAR


The Cube is said to contain the Great Secret of the Universe. In Alchemical terminology it is the Stone of the Philosophers. It is a symbol of the Sanctum Sanctorum or the Cubical Holy of Holies that contained the Ark of the Covenant on which rested the Holy Shekinah. The Cube is a symbol of the World and the Throne of the Deity. It is the Cubic Throne we see on certain Tarot Atu of Thoth upon which sit certain archetypal figures. The Cube is a symbol of the Perfect Word and the Heavenly Kingdom. It is Truth expressed on the physical plane. The Cube is made of six squares; it is the Folded Cross of six squares, which is the Rosicrucian Cross with the Rose in its center. The Rose is hidden in the Cube or Folded Cross; it represents the Great Secret of Man. By the unfolding of the Cube is this Great Secret revealed. It is also worth mentioning that it is written in The Book of the Law that the Cube is a symbol of Hadit, the Flame that burns in every heart of man and in the core of every star.

The numbers of the Paths of the Middle Pillar are 13 (Gimel), 25 (Samekh) and 32 (Tav). The sum of these numbers is 70. 70 is the value of the Hebrew letter Ayin which corresponds with “Path 26″ on the Tree of Life. It is the Path of the Exalted Phallus and the Pillar itself is a symbol of the erect Phallus. It is the Path of the Atu of Thoth called “The Devil”. The Devil is Pan, the God of Sexual Lust or Phallic Energy; and He is Baphomet, the Supreme Hieroglyph of the True Self of Man. The sum of the numbers of the Hebrew letters of each Path of the Middle Pillar is 463 (Tav = 400, Samekh = 60, and Gimel = 3). 463 is the numerical value of RA-HOOR-KHVIT (Lord of the New Aeon) and it is the number of MTH HShQD (A Rod of Almond). Note in this connection that Ra-Hoor-Khuit is, in the Thelemic Qabalah, the God of Kether. Also note that Almond is attributed to Kether on the Tree of Life, and Kether is the Crown of the Middle Pillar. The Middle Pillar is, in point of fact, a symbol of the nature of Kether unfolded as the Universe.

MENU OF TRANSCENDENCE..TRY EVERYTHING YOU CAN.


The Middle - Jimmy Eat World




[link to setiishadim.wordpress.com]




SAINTS DRESSED IN WHITE


Almond joy advert circa 80s




St. John Almond
Feastday: December 5
1612


One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. A native of Allerton, England, he was educated in Ireland and then at Reims and in Rome. After his ordination in 1598, he returned to England as a missionary, and was arrested in 1602. John was imprisoned in 1608 for a time and arrested again in 1612. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.

[link to www.catholic.org]


Hermeticism and the Golden Fleece
Joseph Caezza
Every century and upon every continent a handful of exceptional men are born who possess the innate ability to read the signatures of nature directly, to see immediately into the mystery of continuous creation and to know pristine reality revealed by the power of imaginal identification. Such vision differs radically from twentieth century pedestrian academic mentality. These sages have bequeathed us a legacy of artifacts fine as the thread of Ariadne in the form of the good texts of Hermetic Alchemy. These tomes speak from the vein of the forge and the crucible, a mother load in the vast mine of collective imagination about mankind's origin and ultimate destiny. They articulate with artful genius the same message of the hero's journey embodied in the great world myths. A generation ahead of mythic Cadmus, a generation behind Homer's Ulysses, Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece constitutes a fabulous example of the archetypal process of Nature referred to in the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Tristmegistus as "the operation of the Sun".
The greatest alchemical adepts, Artephius, Nicholas Flamel, Salomon Trismosen, Michael Maier, Philalethes, Dom Pernety and Fulcanelli among many others have spoken at once with pornographic explicitness and again with exasperating obliqueness about the bench-top laboratory manipulations revealed in the circumstances of Jason's voyage. Joscelyn Godwin in his brilliant forward to Antoine Faivre's contemporary survey, The Golden Fleece and Alchemy remarks that C. G. Jung anchors Jason's argo along with the Hermetic great work solely to the psychic level of personality integration while ignoring how, why, what and with what, adepts actually do in their laboratories. Faivre too, pays gross negligence to this central aspect of the royal art which concerns itself with a combination of prayer, study and working hands-on directly with matter. "ORA, LEGE, LEGE, LEGE, RELEGE, LABORA ET INVENIES", declares the motto of the Mutus Liber of 1677, "Pray, Read, Read, Read, Read Again and You Shall Find".

Western alchemy represents a highly specialized version of the age old quest for mystical communion with the essential archetypal process of Nature. Adepts seek to recapitulate this process with symbolically affective laboratory gestures, chemical manipulations and of course, with the indispensable cooperation of providence. But what do they actually do in their laboratories?

[link to www.levity.com]

[link to www.argostarch.com]