The Alchemy of the Rosicrucians

Alchemy is the art of transmutation; in particular, one of its keys is that of "transmuting devi vile metals into gold." This practice dated back to ancient Egypt and even earlier to Atlantis. However, such a saying had nothing to do with "fool's gold."

In fact, the greatest misunderstandings in the alchemical field arose from this idiom: thus in the late Middle Ages and even more so in the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, a part of those who wanted to become alchemists wanted it for the purpose of producing metallic gold, so as to enrich themselves outwardly. These false alchemists were called "blowers" because after basting their experiments, in an ill-understood way, in order to accelerate transmutation they "blew" with their bellows on the Athanor, the alchemical furnace that instead represents the soul of the human being. In this overheating process the blowers discovered as under produced what we now call chemical reactions.

Chemical reactions, require that we give and energy in the form of heat abruptly, even explosively. Unlike alchemical transmutations, which instead require slow, steady, gradual heat that allows each phase of the transmutation itself to be appreciated. Often divided into 3 phases: Nigredo, the black work, of decomposition; Albedo, the white work, of purification; and Rubedo, the red work, of sacrifice. To these three were added further stages, or descriptions of intermediate stages according to a certain numerical sequence, ranging from a 3-, 4-, 5-, 7- up to 12-step system according to the Mysterious Numbers, or Kabbalah.

In all this process, however, the Rosicrucian alchemist had no interest in the production of metallic gold, which could be at best a sub-product: the Rosicrucian was only interested in the spiritual counter-part of the alchemical experiments conducted, which is also called the Solar Mystery or, more anciently, Osirification. Such a process was the reconciliation of man with God, and his reintegration into the paradisiacal state although now in full consciousness of the fact that God is no longer an outer being, like the Elohim in the Earthly Paradise, but is an inner God, a little Sun of which the outer Sun is a symbol.

In other words, the Rosicrucians, having inherited the summa of hermetic, magical and kabbalistic knowledge of the Ancient Mysteries, particularly the Egyptian Service of Misraim, infused it into the knowledge of Christ, arriving in the 13th century at a synthesis of all esoteric systems in Rosicrucian esoteric Christianity. This knowledge was cultivated in small and very humble circles, of which outwardly it was only perceived that they were healers and medics.

Part of their oath was to communicate to other adepts about the discoveries they made. One of their tasks was to enable communication between peoples and unite them beyond the various kingdoms and religious aspects: in essence they wanted to realize the Templar ideal of spiritual Europe. However, at that time what was discovered could not be published directly, as both the church and the various kingdoms would have wanted to take possession of that knowledge, thus suppressing the outward vehicle of the spirit of the Rosicrucian movement.

Thus the Rosicrucian alchemists devised a symbolic language, drawn from their living ability to think, acquired through their experiments. Thus were born symbolic languages called by various names: the green language, for example, implying green as the color of the astral world; or again the language of birds, representing in allegories of birds and their behavior the various alchemical phases.

When these texts were published they were obviously read as much by those who could immediately understand the key to the symbolism, as Rosicrucian adepts, as then by those who did not have the keys at all but had lust for easy gains. Then when the search for gold by means of alchemy became widespread in the Renaissance, the puffers tried hard to be accepted into Rosicrucian circles, believing that they could finally decipher the symbolism of their alchemical books and obtain metallic gold...with very little luck!

Such esoteric knowledge of alchemy about the transmutation of lower bodies into the spirit through the soul was in fact the same as that of the Oracle of the Sun of Atlantis, whose High Priest was in charge of the preservation of life for all the other 7 Planetary Oracles: in this oracle, the so-called Melchizedek priesthood was practiced, i.e., the eucharist with bread and wine, which represents the first form of transmutation operated by the heat and light of the Sun, i.e., the Cosmic Ego united with the soul of the Earth, on the physical and etheric body of the Earth and man, the bread and wine. In other words, the transubstantiation of bread and wine during the  Mass is a reminder of this ancient Atlantean solar practice, which was the transmutation of the Earth element by the Sun.

Speaking of which, in the context of plant alchemy, "water of life" or "aqua vitae" was produced, which, as the name implies, is the etheric concentrate of the plant's astral substance, that is, the fruits or sugar substance. The sugar in fact corresponds to the astral substance. The alcoholic component was also called "spirit" since it allowed the preservation of substances that, without it, would decompose: just as the elemental body of man decomposes when the ego leaves it at the moment of death.

This process can also be seen from the point of view of the basic elements of organic chemistry, that is, of the living: carbon, which corresponds to the physical body; oxygen, the etheric body; nitrogen, the astral body; and finally hydrogen, the ego. Accordingly, carbon corresponds to the process of earth-solid, oxygen to that of water-liquid, nitrogen to air-gas and hydrogen to fire-heat. Carbon was called the "Philosopher's Stone" by alchemists because it could be found in both the less spiritual state, graphite, and the more spiritual state, carbon. To make the Philosopher's Stone was thus to transform the physical body into the diamond body (Spirit-Man) by means of the forces of the Ego, hydrogen, which interpenetrate the breathing process, nitrogen (Spirit Self), which from being an animal and thus producing the poison carbon dioxide, comes to invetrirai to produce oxygen, that is, life in the etheric (Life Spirit). In other words it is the 3 times Great Work accomplished by Hermes Trismegistus, precisely "3 times great."

In Kabbalah, this threefold spirit is the Hebrew letter Shin, which is precisely in the form of a trident with 3 flames on its tips, signifying the common root of the spirit in the ego, that is, in God who is simultaneously the Trinity. The meaning of the word designating the letter "Shin" means "tooth." The letter itself can be seen as a tooth with three cusps, like a solid tricuspid flame. The tooth is the absolute most durable part of the physical body due to enamel, the organic carbon substance closest to the characteristics of diamond. The teeth represent the will in which the most sublime spirit operates most deeply.

So what is the Philosopher's Stone if not at once the vilest and noblest substance?

It is between heights and abyss that the spirit operates vertically, so that it transforms that which is lowest into that which is highest. The feeling we have toward "waste," all that is discarded, is in fact the principle of spirit feeling, of heart thinking. Widar, the Archangel who replaced the role left by Michael in 1879 when he ascended to the rank of Archai, is that mysterious silent Archangel, who at the time of the Twilight of the Gods, will take all the materials that have been discarded by man in craftsmanship and form the boots with which he will rip open the mouth of the wolf Fenris, the atavistic clairvoyance that has now become entangled in matter, that is, in Ahriman. For as Christ reminds us, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was made by the Lord and is a marvel in our eyes?"

Such a stone is the ego that transmutes all that is lower into all that is higher and in so doing overcomes all dualism.