Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy - A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery by Mary Anne Atwood (2005).pdf - Mary Anne Atwood (née South) & Thomas South - morefaya2006

Mary Anne Atwood

Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy ~

A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

with a Dissertation on the more Celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers

Part I

An Exoteric View of the Progress and Theory of Alchemy

Chapter I ~ A Preliminary Account of the Hermetic Philosophy, with the more Salient Points

of its Public History

Chapter II ~ Of the Theory of Transmutation in General, and of the First Matter

Chapter III ~ The Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus Concerning the Physical Secret of

the Philosophers’ Stone, in Seven Sections

Part II

A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art and its Mysteries

Chapter I ~ Of the True Subject of the Hermetic Art and its Concealed Root.

Chapter II ~ Of the Mysteries

Chapter III ~ The Mysteries Continued

Chapter IV ~ The Mysteries Concluded

Part III

Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment

Chapter I ~ Of the Experimental Method and Fermentations of the Philosophic Subject

According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and Some Others

Chapter II ~ A Further Analysis of the Initial Principle and Its Education into Light

Chapter III ~ Of the Manifestations of the Philosophic Matter

Chapter IV ~ Of the Mental Requisites and Impediments Incidental to Individuals, Either as

Masters or Students, in the Hermetic Art

P art IV

The Hermetic Practice

Chapter I ~ Of the Vital Purification, Commonly Called the Gross Work

Chapter II ~ Of the Philosophic or Subtle Work

Chapter III ~ The Six Keys of Eudoxus

Chapter IV ~ The Conclusion

Appendix

Part I

An Exoteric View of the Progress and Theory of Alchemy

Chapter I

A Preliminary Account of the Hermetic Philosophy, with the more Salient

Points of its Public History

The Hermetic tradition opens early with the morning dawn in the eastern world. All pertaining thereto

is romantic and mystical. Its monuments, emblems, and numerous written records, alike dark and

enigmatical, form one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the human mind. A hard task

were it indeed and almost infinite to discuss every particular that has been presented by individuals

concerning the art of Alchemy; and as difficult to fix with certainty the origin of a science which has

been successively attributed to Adam, Noah and his son Cham, to Solomon, Zoroaster, and the

Egyptian Hermes. Nor, fortunately, does this obscurity concern us much in an inquiry which rather

relates to the means and principles of occult science than to the period and place of their reputed

discovery. Nothing, perhaps, is less worthy or more calculated to distract the mind from points of real

importance than this very question of temporal origin, which, when we have taken all pains to satisfy

and remember, leaves us no wiser in reality than we were before. What signifies it, for instance, that

we attribute letters to Cadmus, or trace oracles to Zoroaster, or the kabalah to Moses, the Eleusian

mysteries to Orpheus, or Freemasonry to Noah; whilst we are profoundly ignorant of the nature and

true beginning of any one of these things, and observe not how truth, being everywhere eternal, does

not there always originate where it is understood?

We do not delay, therefore, to ascertain, even were it possible, whether the Hermetic Science was

indeed preserved to mankind on the Syriadic pillars after the flood, or whether Egypt or Palestine may

lay equal claims to the same; or, whether in truth that Smagardine table, whose singular inscription has

been transmitted to this day, is attributable to Hermes or to any other name. It may suffice the present

need to accept the general assertion of its advocates, and consider Alchemy as an antique arifice

coeval, for aught we know to the contrary, with the universe itself. For although attempts have been

made, as by Herman Conringius (1), to slight it as a recent invention, and it is also true that by a

singularly envious fate, nearly all Egyptian record of the art has perished; yet we find the original

evidence contained in the works of A. Kircher (2), the learned Dane Olaus Borrichius (3), and Robert

Vallensis in the first volume of the Theatrum Chemicum (4), more than sufficient to balance every

objection of this kind, besides ample collateral probability bequeathed in the best Greek Authors,

historical and philosophic.

In order to show that the propositions we may hereafter have occasion to offer are not gratuitous as

also with better effect to introduce a stranger subject, it will be requisite to run through a brief account

of the Alchemical philosophers, with the literature and public evidence of their science; the more so,

as no one of the many histories of philosophy compiled or translated into our language advert to it in

such a manner as, considering the powerful and widespread influence this branch formerly exercised

on the human mind, it certainly appears to deserve.

This once famous Art, then, has been represented both as giving titles and receiving them from its

mother land, Cham; for so, during a long period, according to Plutarch, was Egypt denominated, or

Chemia, on account of the extreme blackness of her soil: --- or, as others say, because it was there that

the art of Vulcan was first practiced by Cham, one of the sons of the Patriarch, from whom they thus

derive the name and art together. But by the word Chemia, says Plutarch, the seeing pupil of the

human eye was also designated, and other black matters, whence in part perhaps Alchemy, so

obscurely descended, has been likewise stigmatized as a Black Art (5).

Etymological research has doubtless proved useful in leading on and corroborating truths once

suggested, but it is not a way of first discovery; derivations may be too easily conformed to any bias,

and words do not convey true ideas unless their proper leader be previously entertained. Without being

able now, therefore, to determine whether the art gave or received a title from Cham, the Persian

prince Alchimin, as others have contended, or that dark Egyptian earth; to take a point of time, we

may begin the Hermetic story from Hermes, by the Greeks called Trismegistus, Egypt’s great and far-

reputed adeptest king, who, according to Suidas, lived before the time of the Pharoahs, about 400

years previous to Moses, or, as others compute, about 1900 before the Christian era (6).

This prince, like Solomon, is highly celebrated by antiquity for his wisdom and skill in the secret

operations of nature, and for his reputed discovery of the quintessential perfectibility of the three

kingdoms in their homogeneal unity; whence he is called the Thrice Great Hermes, having the spiritual

intelligence of all things in their universal law (7).

It is to be lamented that no one of the many books attributed to him, and which are named in detail by

Clemens Alexandrinus, escaped the destroying hand of Dioclesian (8); more particularly if we judge

them, as Jamblicus assures us we may, by those Asclepian Dialogues and the Divine Poimander,

which yet pass current under the name of Hermes (9). Both are preserved in the Latin of Ficinus, and

have been well translated into our language by Dr Everard. The latter, though a small work, surpasses

most that are extant for sublimity of doctrine and expression; its verses flow forth eloquent, as it were,

from the fountain of nature, instinct with intelligence; such as might be more efficacious to move the

rational skeptic off from his negative ground into the happier regions of intelligible reality, than many

theological discourses which, of a lower grade of comprehension, are unable to make this highly

affirmative yet intellectual stand. But the subjects treated of in the books of the Poemander and

Asclepias are theosophic and ultimate, and denote rather our divine capabilities and promise of

regeneration than the physical ground of either; this, with the practical method of alchemy being

further given in the Tractatus Aureus, or Golden Treatise, an admirable relic, consisting of seven

chapters, attributed to the same author (10). The Smaragdine Table, which, in its few enigmatical but

remarkable lines, is said to comprehend the working principle and total subject of the art, we here

subjoin: from the original Arabic and Greek copies, it has been rendered into Latin by Kircher as

follows: ---

Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis / The Smaragdine Table of Hermes

"True, without error, certain and most true; that which is above is as that which is below, and that

which is below is as that which is above, for performing the miracles of the One Thing; and as all

things were from one, by the mediation of one, so all things arose from this one thing by adaptation;

the father of it is the Sun, the mother of it is the Moon; the wind carries it in its belly; the nurse thereof

is the Earth. This is the father of all perfection, or consummation of the whole world. The power of it

is Integral, if it be turned into earth. Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the

gross, gently with much sagacity; it ascends from earth to heaven, and again descends to earth: and

receives the strength of the superiors and of the inferiors --- so thou hast the glory of the whole world;

therefore let all obscurity flee before thee. This is the strong fortitude of all fortitudes, overcoming

every subtle and penetrating every solid thing. So the world was created. Hence were all wonderful

adaptations of which this is the manner. Therefore I am I called Thrice Great Hermes, having the

Three Parts of the philosophy of the whole world. That which I have written is consummated

concerning the operation of the Sun".

This Emerald Table, unique and authentic as it may be regarded, is all that remains to us from Egypt

of her Sacred Art. A few riddles and fables, all more or less imperfect, that were preserved by the

Greeks, and some inscrutable hieroglyphics are still to be found quoted in certain of the alchemical

records: but the originals are entirely swept away. And, duly considering all that is related by the

chroniclers of that ancient dynasty, her amazing reputation for power, wealth, wisdom, and magic

skill; --- and, even when all these had faded, when Herodotus visited the city, after the priestly

government of the Pharoahs had been overthrown by Cambyses, and that savage conqueror had

burned the temples and almost annihilated the sacerdotal order, --- after the influx of strangers had

been permitted, and civil war had raged almost to the fulfillment of the Asclepian prophecy, --- the

wonders then recorded by the historian of her remaining splendor and magnificence; --- what shall we

now conclude, when, after the lapse of many more destroying ages, we review the yet mightily

surviving witnesses of so much glory, surpassing and gigantic even in the last stage of their decay?

Shall we suppose the ancient accounts fallacious because they are too wonderful to be conceived; or

have we not now present before our eyes the plain evidence of lost science and the vestiges of an

intelligence superior to our own? For what did the nations flock to Memphis? For what did

Pythagoras, Thales, Democritus, and Plato become immured there for several solitary years, but to be

initiated in the wisdom and learning of those Egyptians? For what else, but for the knowledge of that

mighty Art with which she arose, governed, and dazzled the whole contemporary world; holding in

strong abeyance the ignorant, profane, vulgar, until the evil day of desolation came with self-abuse,

when, neglecting to obey the law, by which she governed, all fell, as was foretold, and sinking

gradually deeper in crime and presumption, was at last annihilated, and every sacred institution

violated by barbarians, and despoiled? "Oh, Egypt! Egypt! Fables alone shall remain of thy religion,

and these such as will be incredible to posterity, and words alone shall be left engraved in stones

narrating thy pious deeds. The Scythian also, or Indian, or some other similar nation, shall inhabit

Egypt. For divinity shall return to heaven, all its inhabitants shall die, and thus Egypt bereft both of

God and man shall be deserted. Why do you weep, O Asclepias? Egypt shall experience yet more

ample evils; she was once holy, and the greatest lover of the gods on earth, by the desert of her

religion. And she, who was alone the reductor of sanctity and the mistress of piety, will be an example

of the greatest cruelty. And darkness shall be preferred to light, and death shall be judged to be more

useful than life. No one shall look up to heaven. The religious man shall be counted insane; the

irreligious shall be thought wise; the furious, brave; and the worst of men shall be considered good.

For the soul, and all things about it, by which it is either naturally immortal, or conceives it shall attain

to immortality, conformable to what I have explained to you, shall not only be the subjects of laughter,

but shall be considered as vanity. Believe me, likewise, that a capital punishment shall be appointed

for him who applies himself to the Religion of Intellect. New statutes and new laws shall be

established, and nothing religious, or which is worthy of heaven or celestial concerns, shall be heard or

believed in the mind. Every divine voice shall, by a necessary silence, be dumb: the fruits of the earth

shall be corrupted; and the air itself shall languish with a sorrowful stupor. These events, and such an

old age of the world as this, shall take place --- such irreligion, inordination, and unseasonableness of

all good" (11).

Such is the substance of a prediction which, as it was supposed to have reference to the Christian era,

has been abused and reputed a forgery by the faithless learned of modern times. It is, however,

difficult to conceive why it should have been considered so obnoxious, for the early history of

Christianity certainly does not fulfill it; it was a falling off from Divinity tha was predicted, and not

such a revival as took place upon the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles. At that period

philosophy too flourished, and the Spirit of the Word was potent in faith to heal and save. If the

prediction had been a forgery of Apuleius, or other contemporary opponent of Christianity, the early

fathers must have known it, which they did not as is plain from Lactantius, and St Augustine

mentioning, without expressing any doubt about its authenticity; and though the latter (then adopting

probably the popular notion) esteemed it instinctu fallacies spiritus (12), he might subsequently

perhaps have thought otherwise, had he lived so long. Christianity was yet in his time glowing, bright,

efficacious, from the Divine Fountain; faith was then grounded in reality and living operation, and the

mystery of human regeneration, so zealously proclaimed, was also rationally understood. The

fulfillment, with respect to Egypt, appears to have taken place in part long previously, and in part to

have been reserved to later times, when sacred mysteries, too openly exposed to the multitude, became

perverted and vilified by their abuse.

But this prophecy carries us out of all order of time: it will be necessary, in tracing the progress of our

science, to pass again to Egypt. The period of her true greatness is, as is well known, shrouded in

oblivion; but, during the long succession of the Ptolemies, the influx of strangers, so long before

successfully prohibited, became excessive: her internal peace was destroyed, but her Art and Wisdom

spread abroad with her renown: foreigners obtained initiation into the mysteries of Isis; and India,

Arabia, China and Persia vied with her and with each other in magian skill and prowess.

Pliny informs us that it was Ostanes, the Persian sage accompanying the army of Xerxes, who first

inoculated Greece with the portentous spirit of his nation (13). Subsequently the Greek Philosophers,

both young and old, despising the minor religion of their own country, became anxious to visit the

eastern temples, and that of Memphis above all, in order to obtain a verification of those hopes to

which a previous spirit of inquiry and this new excitement had abundantly given rise.

Amongst the earliest mentioned of these, after Thales, Pythagoras, and a few others, whose writings

are lost, is Democritus of Abdera, who has been frequently styles the father of experimental

philosophy, and who, in his book of Sacred Physics, treats especially of the Hermetic art, and that

occult discovery on which the systems of ancient philosophy appear to have been very uniformly

based (14). Of this valuable piece there are said to be several extant editions, and Synesius has added

to it the light of a commentary (15). Nicholas Flamel also, of more recent notoriety, has given extracts

from the same at the conclusion of a very instructive work (16). That its authenticity should have been

disputed by the ignorant is not wonderful; but the ancients are nowhere found to doubt about it. Pliny

bears witness to the experimental fame of Democritus, and his skill in the occult sciences and practice

of them, both in his native city of Abdera and afterwards at Athens, when Socrates was teaching there.

" Plenum miraculi et hoc pariter utrasque artes effloruisse, medicinam dico, magiciemque eadem

aetate, illam Hippocrate hanc Democrito illustrantibus ", &c (17). Seneca also mentions his artificial

confection of precious stones (18); and it is said that he spent all his leisure, after his return home, in

these and such-like hyperphysical researches. (19)

During the sojourn of Democritus at Memphis, he is said to have become associated in his studies with

a Hebrew woman named Maria, remarkable at that period for the advances she had made in

Philosophy, and particularly in the department of the Hermetic Art. A treatise entitled Sapientisima

Maria de Lapide Philosophica Praescripta is extant; also Maria Practica, a singularly excellent and

esteemed fragment, which is preserved in the alchemical collections (20).

But amongst the Greeks, next Democritus, Anaxagorus is celebrated as an alchemist. The remains of

his writing are unfortunately scanty, and even those to be found in manuscript only, with exception of

some fragments which have been accidentally translated. From these, however, we are led to infer

favorably of the general character of his expositions, which Norton, our countryman also, in the

Proheme to his quaint Ordinal of Alchemy, lauds, thus holding him up in excellent comparison with

the envious writers of his age.

"All masters that write of this solemn werke,

Have made their bokes to manie men full derke,

In poysies, parables, and in metaphors alsoe,

Which to schollors causeth peine and woe;

Forin their practice wen they would assaye

They leefe their costs, as men see alle daye.

Hermes, Rasis, Geber, and Avicen,

Merlin, Hortolan, Democrit and Morien,

Bacon and Raymond with many moe

Wrote under coverts and Aristotle alsoe.

For what hereof they wrote clear with their pen,

Their clouded clauses dulled; from manie men

Fro laymen, fro clerks, and soe fro every man

Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy - A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery by Mary Anne Atwood (2005).pdf

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