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Sacred Knowledge

Pejman Fartash

Cover design by Christin Söder

@sacred.knowledge

sacredknowledge.se

Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand, Stockholm, Sverige

Book printing: BoD – Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Tyskland

ISBN: 978-91-7785-500-2

TABULA SMARAGDINA – PERSIAN VERSION

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Tabula Smaragdina – Persian version by Pejman Fartash

AN OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ALCHEMY

ALCHEMY IN ITS full meaning is the most extensive and exalted of all sciences and art forms and consequently bears the grand title of Ars Regia – The Royal Art. The origin of this name is found in Euthydemos in Plato’s dialogues, in which it expresses the science of true virtue in its highest possible perfection, and is identified with the supreme kingly art. However, its search leads us into an almost endless maze:

At last we came to the kingly art, and enquired whether that gave and caused happiness, and then we got into a labyrinth, and when we thought we were at the end, came out again at the beginning, having still to seek as much as ever.

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In the earliest alchemical treatises from the beginning of our era, alchemical wisdom is described as an ancient, self-governing and immaterial science derived from the Golden Age. Like an archetypal king with a divine mandate, it does not submit itself to any foreign influence but consecrates its adepts to become kings and queens of eternity. As for the name, the esotericist and philosopher Julius Evola writes:

The “royal” initiatory tradition, in its pure forms, can be considered the most direct and legitimate link to the unique, primordial Tradition. [ ] It is no accident that the hermetico-alchemical tradition should call itself the Royal Art, and that it chose Gold as a central royal and solar symbol, which at the same time takes us back to the primordial Tradition. Such a tradition presents itself to us essentially as the guardian of a light and a dignity that cannot be reduced to the religious-sacerdotal vision of the world.2

The purpose of the Royal Art is thus not merely to be able to achieve physical transmutations by learning about the hidden secrets and cycles of nature, but it should also bring about gnosis based on the esoteric teachings of the primordial tradition. It tells of the origin of humanity and the possibility of one’s purification in this earthly life. It describes the innumerable invisible powers and angels, good and evil, who seek to guide or seduce people, and how a person’s inner divine potential can be realised. It is a mystical philosophy and practice that seeks to redeem people by revealing the mysteries of matter, soul and consciousness.

From studies of alchemical works we can understand the immense wealth that humanity has explored, preserved and conveyed in the most sacred of all arts. It is

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the art of manifesting the highest and innermost potential of humanity, whereby one can become master and mistress of one’s inner throne and lead one’s kingdom with faith, hope and love. What follows is a brief summary of the history of alchemy in which we will follow the Red Thread of Ariadne in the alchemists’ quest to understand the basic elements of creation and how to work towards its completion.

We first need to turn to Egypt, one of the cradles of Western civilisation. The word alchemy 3 is often explained on the basis of its two syllables al and chem. Al is an Arabic and Judaeo-Christian divine name and final syllable,4 while Chem or Khem is the name of the ancient Egyptians for their own land – the black land. Alchemy was considered a divine science from the beginning and is often described as an Egyptian art. An alternative explanation for the word alchemy is that the ending originates from the Greek word chyma which means to combine or work with metals.

EGYPTIAN ALCHEMY

Egypt’s wisdom tradition did not distinguish between science, philosophy and religion. Everything living within and without was characterised and permeated by myths and ceremonies in which deities and humans co-existed in creation. The cycles of nature, including the vital annual flooding of the Nile, which made the country black from the sediment deposited on the banks, were included in this interaction between the various beings of creation. Pharaoh was the deities’ representative on Earth and had the task of establishing and spreading divine harmony, or the Law of Maat, in the land. Buildings were divine houses where one or more deities were worshipped and lived in the form of statues. We can still be impressed today by Egyptian buildings and visual arts which have withstood both human destruction and the destructive forces of nature. The goal of the chosen people was to avoid the second death by creating permanent bodies for consciousness. Through magical knowledge, after the death of the physical body, they could travel through all the dangers of the underworld to eventually become participants in the infinite kingdom of the deities, i.e. undergo a spiritual transformation into eternal life.

In the establishment of Egypt as a kingdom, the arts of building, farming, working with metals and herbs, making and dyeing fabrics, ceramics, and glass, and not least of all, writing were developed.5 These were all divine arts performed

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according to magical, religious, astronomical and astrological principles. Everything is thus part of the terminology alchemy, the divine art of the black country. To perform it was to perform the will of the deities. When the deities were satisfied, humanity lived in good health; when they were not satisfied, humanity suffered various disasters and pestilence. The religious myths explained what had occurred, what was occurring and what would occur – and the rites ensured this order.

There are no classic alchemical writings preserved from Egyptian high culture, but its multi-millennial tradition constitutes the foundation of alchemy from which many of its essential symbols and myths originate.

The male serpent is bitten by the female serpent, the female serpent is bitten by the male serpent. Heaven is enchanted, the earth is enchanted, the male behind mankind is enchanted.

Unas Pyramidtext 233 (ca 2350 BCE)

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Figure 1 – One of the earliest depictions of the Ouroboros swallowing its own tail Dama Heroubs papyrus (ca 1600 BCE)

However, there are many papyrus rolls regarding the treatment of diseases from recipes based on the plant, mineral and animal kingdoms – all linked to Egyptian mythology. Many of their constituents cannot be identified today as they have, according to alchemical tradition, been given fantasy-like cover names so that the secret art would not be revealed.

I n Papyrus Ebers we can read in clear text how Isis treated Ra’s headache with a recipe that was also used for humans:

1 part Berry-of-the-Coriander

1 part Berry-of-the-Poppy-plant

1 part Wormwood

1 part Berry-of-the-same-plant

1 part Berry-of-the-Juniper-plant

1 part Honey

Make into one, mix with Honey, and smear therewith in order to make him well forthwith. When this remedy is used by him against all illnesses in the head and all sufferings and evils of any sort, he will instantly become well. 6

In the same papyrus we find the spell to be used in the preparation of all medicines, which clearly demonstrates the relation of myth and prayer in the work.

WORDS TO BE SPOKEN IN THE PREPARING OF MEDICINES

As it is to be, a thousand times. This is the book for the healing of all diseases. May Isis heal me even as she healed Horus of all the pains which his brother Set had inflicted on him when he killed his brother Osiris! Oh Isis, thou great enchantress, heal me, deliver me from all evil, bad, typhonic things, from demoniacal and deadly diseases and pollutions of all sorts that rush upon me, as thou didst deliver and release thy son Horus! As I have penetrated into the Fire and have emerged from the Water, may I not fall into the snare of the day when I shall say: Little am I and piteous! Oh Ra, thou who hast spoken for thy body! Oh Osiris, thou who prayest for thy manifestation! It is Ra speaketh for his body; it is Osiris prayeth for his manifestation. Deliver me then from all

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possible evil, from bad, wicked, typhonic things, from demoniacal and deadly fevers of every sort. 7

GREEK ALCHEMY

When the Greek philosophers sought to apprehend and understand the nature and constitution of creation without relying on divine myths and legends, they came to leave a new mark on both Western science and the whole alchemical wisdom tradition. By contemplating and philosophising, seeking origin and causal relationship, and studying nature and human consciousness, insights were gained and paradigms formed, which in some cases were so overwhelming that they were only confirmed or ratified in modern times.

Are there one or more primal substances? What causes changes in existence? What is permanent? Is creation at its foundation monistic or dualistic? Does humanity have an immortal soul? What role does fate play in human life? How does one achieve lasting health? What is true happiness? And so on. Such were the questions they sought to answer and describe based on observations of the inner and outer worlds, and with which alchemists have worked ever since, regardless of religious or social affiliation.

By considering and studying nature and its changing cycles, the Greek philosophers of nature believed that there must be an element or principle – arche – that underlies all the changes of nature. Thales considered that water was everything’s primal substance and cause, while Anaximenes advocated air or fog. Heraclitus saw the constant movement and ephemeral nature of existence, noting that “everything flows” in a world of necessary opposites and competing forces that together constitute the whole. He called this basis of everything, logos, a pronounced principle of fire. Empedocles considered that there is not one substance but four: earth, air, fire and water. These are bound together and dissolved by two forces which he termed love and hatred.

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The Pythagoreans found the primacy of the universe in numbers. They saw creation as a cosmos, i.e. an ordered whole as opposed to chaos. In numbers, mathematical conditions and geometric figures, they saw the orderly principle in both the physical and the ethical world. Through the harmony of the spheres – sweet sounding, yet only heard by the higher mind – both macrocosm and microcosm are governed, and it is by viewing and contemplating external and internal things that we reveal the secrets of existence. The most sacred number was the tetractys, the ten enclosed in the series 1+2+3+4, which later became embraced in the Jewish and Christian alchemical traditions.

Figure 2 – The philosophical school in Athens where Plato points to heaven and Aristotle to earth which illustrates their respective philosophies. Fresco in the Apostolic Palace of Raphael (1509-10)

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Bless us, divine number, thou who generatest gods and men! O Holy, Holy Tetractys, thou that containest the root and the source of the eternally flowing creation! For the divine number begins with the profound, pure unity until it comes to the holy four; then it begets the mother of all, the all-compromising, the all-bounding, the first-born, the never-swerving, the never-tiring holy ten, the keyholder of all. 8

Anaxagoras believed that nature’s smallest parts, its seeds, grains or sperm, have “something of everything” in themselves, that the whole is in every little part and that all is in everything. The shape of the world was a result of the consciousness –nous – that governs everything and is the cause of everything. Democritus saw the indivisible atoms, eternal, unchanging and infinite in number, as nature’s invisible building blocks which unite to build up temporary bodies. Thus everything flows, but behind the forms there are unchanging atoms. Two basic principles exist: the atoms and the void. Furthermore, our world is just one of many in creation.

Socrates listened to his daimon and constantly sought to obey the call of the Oracle of Delphi to seek to know oneself. The soul – the psyche – is immortal and constitutes the most important and controlling part of a person. By living a virtuous life and doing the right thing, one becomes happy both in this life and after death. Philosophy is a preparation for death.

Figure

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The divine tetractys describing creation and its sacred key The following prayer shows its importance to the Pythagoreans.

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