The Hermetic Art Of Ecstatic Alchemy
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Introduction
The All Is Mind
Four Energy Zones
Cause & Effect
Embryology
Sacred Geometries
Rhythm And The Art Of Polarity
Memory
Organic Gravity
Resonance
Three Brains/Nervous Systems
Scientific Vegetarianism
Scientific Chastity
Conclusion
Written by Brother Zohar
Introduction
There are symbols in life, mnemonic devices, which guide the lower-mind into the unconditional ecstasy of being-consciousness-bliss, awareness, however intuitive the relationship, through light, sound, and life. These symbols include colors, music, meditation and movements, metaphors, archetypes (“I” deals not idols), principal aspects and characteristic attributes of architecture (not deifications), primal hierarchy of forces and elements, sacred geometric form(s), and the human being, not static but a living relationship and direct encounter with self. The Scarab beetle symbolizes the sun’s movement through the Zodiac, seasonal movement across a landscape, the transfiguration on the cross of the solstices and equinoxes, and the butterfly symbolizes the metamorphic promise of this transfiguration, the emergence from the chrysalis to spread wings into the light of the sun and fly. This teaching presents this relationship, a mono-synthesis of thesis and anti-thesis, as revelation for the Children of Living Light, and is inclusive of Alchemical methodology for opening a direct send/receive channel of communion with the “I AM,” for the co-creative evolution and ascension of all creation.
“The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding… Where fall the footsteps of the Master, the ears of those ready for his [her] Teaching open wide…When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with Wisdom.”—The Kybalion
This being said, however, I must tell you not to be discouraged if you are barely able to understand what is given in this course. Hermetics is a very scientific approach to spirituality, and is not for everyone. Many might say that spirituality should be quite simple and not depend on the mind’s ability to absorb knowledge, but Hermetics has a different approach. It may seem quite heady, and geared more for the intellectual types, but it is none-the-less a path to Truth just as the simpler approaches to spirituality are. Absorb what you can, and get a taste for Hermetics to see if it is for you. If you are the scientist type, this might be quite fascinating to you, whereas the person who goes more on intuition and a feeling sense of things might find all of this to be a bit boring or even overly intellectualized. Be assured that any path that is presented leads to the same place, ultimately, and that is the realization of Self as the Oneness in all things.
Hermetics is based on teachings from an ancient character name Hermes Trismegistus. (Please see UMS courses Gods, Goddesses & Mythology, Egyptian and Greek sections for more information on Hermes and his teachings.) This Teaching is in reverence of the cohesive interdependence and interconnectedness of all life within Earth’s bio-region, its bio-diversity and sanctity, recognizing symbiosis and synergy, it envisions sustainability and livability, applauding those who’ve not simply chosen a diet in harmony with nature, but an “I”deological return to forest dwelling to enhance the environment and quality of life, its deep-ecology, a return to the naturalistic and minimalist lifestyle, leading away from any centralized authority and their pseudo and ephemeral social laws, of no inherent value when not based foundationally on the utilitarian law of nature. This teaching envisions an intentional coming together of Children of Living Light, a tribal focus on interactivity and collaboration, mutual-aid and free-agreement, voluntary co-operation and communalism, free-trade and barter, an agrarian and pastoral vegetarian food economy and conservation of our eco-system, all for the purpose of synergy and communion. There is a living teaching evolving one-another in its song, chant, dance, meditation, art, healing, and sharing in the ritual of living in the presence and harmony of being, embracing and being embraced by love; not a love of mnemonic devices, impersonal mapping-systems for circumscribing and transcribing the spiral (radial) matrix of one poly-morphogenetic unified (universal) energy field, called the field, but a most direct relationship, not liberating the human being from nature, but liberating the human being to embrace all life within the All.
In hyper-time the seeker will find the mind of the All, not super-natural but super-normal and super-rational, eternally enduring the process of its symbolic ontology, from seed, to tree, to flowering and bearing fruit; and its symbol known as the human instrument is a fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in itself. There is no self-realization, there is only one self, humanity is of one mind experiencing itself subjectively and witnessing itself objectively, the “I AM,” and the life-form the human instrument takes may bear witness to the processes of creation from its vantage point in unconditional love. So it is, for the sake of existential transparency (being trans-parent), here continue axioms of Hermes Trismegistus (Greek: “Thrice-Great”), The Great Great, The Greatest Great, Master Of Masters, and a purport concerning the practical application of Hermetic Alchemy, hermetic meaning “secret” and/or “sealed”. Alchemy comes from the arabic al-khemie “black art” from the word al-khem “black lands,” symbolically denoting the journey across the shadows of the heart.