Copper is an unclean and imperfect body, engendered of ARGENT-VIVE, impure, unfixed, earth, burning, red (not clear), and of the like SULPHUR. It wants purity, fixation, and weight and has too much of an impure color, and earthiness not burning.
Metal copper, equivalent to the Vishudda chakra of the yogis, is the Venus planetary center in esoteric astrology. Notice the “weight” hint again from Bacon connected with this emotional body, the seat of desires. Basil Valentine observed: “Copper is generated of much Sulphur but its Mercury and Salt are in equality.” Again, they both agree. And again, the super-conscious (Mercury, Argent Vive) expressions are not a priority when desires are steeped in selfishness, and ‘wanting’ purity and ‘weight,’ that is, love for anyone but the lower, petty self. Our base desires must be transmuted to be transcended, a difficult task at the very least. Only persistent ‘decoction’ (meditation) can turn this center by gently pulling down super-conscious influence. The steady process of disciplined meditation will affect the desire natire in a most positive way. Base, selfish desires seem to melt away when our passions are abated through meditation.
Of the Nature of Iron
Iron is an unclean and imperfect body, engendered of ARGENT-VIVE, too much fixed, earth, burning, white and red not clear, and of the like SULPHUR. It wants fusion, purity, and weight and has too much fixed unclean SULPHUR and burning earthiness. What has been spoken, every Alchymist must diligently observe.
Metal iron is equivalent to the Svadishthana chakra of the yogis and the Mars planetary force center in esoteric astrology. Notice that Bacon’s descriptions above for lead, copper, and iron are quite similar. Basil Valentine describes the Mars Center:“Iron is found to have the least portion of Mercury but more of Sulphur and Salt.” Iron, or the Mars Center, is the seat of human volition, the will-sex urge, according to Qabalists. In generic humanity this is probably the most virile influence in our daily lives. Our pseudo sense of self importance derives most of its false identity through the misaligned influence of this force center primarily, and from the seat of desires (the Venus chakra, or Copper) secondarily. These two combined energies create most of mankind’s woes, individually and collectively. Our misdirected will-sex urges and desires have brought our planetary environment and ecosystem almost to its knees through our seemingly unconscious need to self destruct. Master Alchemists write of the “Iron Key” in their manuscripts, recognizing the bare fact that to turn the energies exuding from this center is paramount to turning all the others. The squandering of the ‘reproductive force’ must be abated and turned into the healing balm which restores living tissue and musculature at the cellular level. Once again, meditation is the basic healing balm.
All three modes of expression within each of these and the other metals must be balanced, purified, and sublimated by unification. Fully matured, “ripe mercury” (super-consciousness) must eventually flow and express through all seven force centers. When this is achieved, enlightenment may be forthcoming.
The triad of Yin, Yang and Qi (pronounced chee) serves as the basis for the medical theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Entire textbooks have been written about this subject in China, and one could argue that similar mechanisms are found everywhere in the universe, even at the molecular level. For our purposes we are going to simplify this philosophy as much as possible, while describing the terms as understood by TCM doctors. The most essential thing to know is that TCM doctors use these broad general medical terms to orient their medical thinking, diagnose disease and choose herbs. The purpose is to bring these three into balance. In Chinese theory this process is conceived as bringing Yin and Yang into balance with each other, which results in the production of Qi.
Yin represents the nutritive processes and substances of the body. When the Yin is strong, the body is strong, moist, well nourished and fertile. When the Yin is in excess, the body, or the individual organ, becomes sluggish and damp. When the Yin is weak, the body is weak, dry, deficient, and can flare up with heat. There can be sensitivity to heat, weight loss, insomnia, hot flashes, dryness and sometimes dizziness and heart palpitations. This presentation of symptoms is known as Yin deficiency, a very important TCM medical concept. To treat Yin deficiency, TCM herbalists use Yin tonic herbs. These herbs generally nourish and moisten the tissues and increase nutritive forces.
Some of the most commonly used Yin tonics are raw rehmannia root (sheng di huang/Rehmannia glutinosa), glehnia root (sha shen/Adenophora tetraphylla), scrophularia root(xuan shen/Scrophularia ningpoensis), ligustum berry (nu shen zi/Ligustrum lucidum) American ginseng root (xi yang shen/Panax quinquifolium), ophiopogon root (mai men dong/Ophiopogon japonicus) and wild asparagus root (tian men dong/Asparagus lucidis).
Notice that many of the Yin tonics are roots, used by plants to absorb nutrients from the soil. Interestingly, the Chinese use seeds, such as sesame seeds, as Yin tonics. At our clinic I often use nutritive oils such as fish oils, flaxseed oil (Linum usitatissimum) or evening primrose oil (Oenothera biennis) along with the other herbs mentioned above to moisturize and reduce inflammation.
Yang represents the heat and metabolic processes of the body. When the Yang is strong the body is energetic, warm and powerful. When the yang is in excess, the body becomes inflamed. When the yang is weak the body is fatigued, cold and weak, often to the point of exhaustion. There can be symptoms of low back pain, impotence, diarrhea, and weakness in the four extremities. These symptoms are known as Yang deficiency. TCM doctors use Yang tonic herbs to treat Yang deficiency. These herbs are generally warming and drying. Chinese research has shown that many of these herbs benefit the endocrine system (Bensky & Gamble 2004).
Some of the most commonly used Yang tonic herbs are prepared aconite (fu zi/Aconitum palmatum), dried ginger root (gan jiang/Zingiber officinalis), cinnamon bark (rou gui/Cinnamon zeylanicum), deer antler (lu rong (Cervus nipon) and morinda root (ba ji tian/Morinda officinalis).
Qi (pronounced “chee,” and sometimes written as “chi”) represents the vital energy of the body flowing along invisible energy channels. The balance of Qi is dependent upon the functional relationship between Yin and Yang. When the Qi is strong, the digestion is strong, the organs are well regulated, and nourishment and energy flow through and vitalize the organs. When the Qi is weak or blocked, the digestion weakens, dampness accumulates, and the corresponding organs exhibit pain, spasm or irregular functioning. There can be extreme fatigue, poor digestion, diarrhea, muscle atrophy, compromised immunity, or weakness in the lungs. This is called Qi deficiency. When Qi is weak, TCM doctors use herbs that supply Qi, known as Qi tonics.
The most common Qi tonic herbs are ginseng root, astragalus root, codonopsis root (dang shen/Codonopsis pilosula), licorice root, and white atractylodes rhizome.
The easiest way to understand the mechanisms of this triad as you learn is to substitute the word “nutrient” when you hear the word Yin, “metabolism/heat” when you hear the word Yang, and “vital force” when you hear the word Qi.
It may help you remember the triad by using the following analogy found in ancient Chinese medical texts. Think of the stomach as a pot of soup. The Yin represents the nutrients in the soup, and the Yang is the fire under the soup. The Qi is the nutrient-filled steam that rises up from the pot when Yin and Yang work together, This nutrient steam travels through tiny pathways (meridians), carrying its warmth and nutrients to the organs. If the pathways are blocked, the restrictive area becomes painful, and the organs beyond it wither from lack of energy and nutrition. If the blockage occurs in the larger channels flowing up and down between the trunk of the body and the brain, the person becomes depressed, constricted, and less creative. Because “the mind directs the Qi,” one major goal of meditation is to strengthen the Qi energy and use the mind to feel and direct its flow throughout the body.
All physical objects are made of vibrating particles of energy and even the space in which they sit is a sea of unseen energy or chi (qi). The human body is part of this universal energy-matter continuum. The Chinese traditional science of Feng Shui (literally “Wind-Water”) can manipulate this energy to bring about harmony in a person’s environment and create health and well-being in their body and mind.
The action of feng shui takes place through the invisible energy known as chi. Chi is a broad term for not only the energy that flows through the human body but all the energies that exist around us. “Feng Shui is based on the idea that subtle energies, in the form of Chi, can be influenced and directed by nature and its various elements, by the placement of objects of various shapes and colors in different configurations, by sound and by the human mind.”
Physicists coined the use of the word quantum to describe the smallest amount of something that can exist. They have determined that the smallest particles are subatomic and exist throughout the Universe as a collection of energy in the form of virtual particles. It is these particles that we influence when we practice feng shui. The things we consider to be real in our living spaces and work places are nothing more than virtual particles of the quantum field emerging briefly and then disappearing back into the universal field of quantum energy. Through the hidden quantum particle field, the chi of our body interacts with the chi of objects and living things in our surroundings.
(A monopole antenna is omnidirectional and receives signals from any direction)
Thanks to the work of Dr. Phillp S. Callahan, we know that all living organisms including humans have natural antenna arrays or systems for gathering and sending information. Experiments have shown that these acupoints act in much the same way that a monopole antenna functions in radio reception. Electromagnetic frequency radiation as well as other subtle energies in our environment “communicate with the internal physical and subtle substance of the body via” the network of acupuncture points of the body. These electromagnetic and other subtle energies are the “hidden” energies manipulated in feng shui. The impact they have via the acupoint antenna system explain how the adjustments of feng shui directly influence the human body-mind-spirit.
Influencing the nervous system through action upon the acupoints, creates powerful effects due to the stimulation of “the hormonal factories of the endocrine glands.” These glands and the hormones they produce influence just about every cell, organ, and function of our bodies. The endocrine system regulates mood, growth, tissue function, metabolism, and reproduction. Though separate from the nervous system, the two work together to help the body function properly. Since it is through the antenna array made up of the acupoints as well as other natural antenna arrays of the body that we receive the “hidden” energies produced by feng shui adjustments, you can begin to see why this ancient earth science is such a powerful tool on so many levels.
Besides the link between our health and the organs and the emotions, our mental states also have a direct impact on our state of well-being or lack thereof. Modern living creates much stress in our lives. Work, family strife, parental duties, financial worries, obsessions with sex and lust, alcohol and substance abuse—all these and more create anxiety and fear and obsession in our thinking. The mind is indisputably linked to the nervous system and mental imbalance upsets the emotions, which in turn create imbalance and eventual illness in the organs over time. Conversely, emotional disturbances upset the mind and one loses equilibrium in the meridians, which are linked to the organs. So, our emotional disturbances, as well as stress in our thoughts, are important internal causes of sickness through creating a stagnation in the flow of chi in the meridian systems and malfunctioning of the organs and their influence on bodily tissues and cell functioning.
Feng shui is a very real ancient earth science that impacts our lives by adjusting the different invisible energies to which we respond, both consciously and unconsciously. Moving objects according to proper placement, changing color in a room, the use of sound like falling water in a fountain or from hanging wind chimes—all of these seemingly innocuous things can have direct on your health, your prosperity, and your personal life, thanks to the influence our intention and participation have upon the unseen particles that make up the energy field masquerading as our physical reality. At a very fundamental level, it exposes the hidden workings of chi. In this instance, it is the chi or bioenergy of our bodies, which is being influenced through our emotions by directed intention.
Feng shui adjustments influence the sea of quantum particle energy or chi around us, thus bringing about a raising of our frequency level so that blocked emotions are released thus nurturing our well-being and our outlook on life. The hidden energies (chi) at work behind feng shui show themselves more and more as we continue to practice cures. Over time the relationship between chi and feng shui reveals itself as an effortless spiritual technology where everything is seen as a consequence of energy—Yin and Yang, Wind and Water and the coalescing of potential particles from the unseen quantum field of all creation through our directed intention. The final result will be that your personal spaces will become the poetry of your life. Feng shui is a very practical and intuitive art, which acts to create the most positive relationship possible between people and their environment through balance and harmony and applied on a larger scale, can even extend to the entire biosphere of the planet as well.
The means and manner of working we have already determined. Now we will speak of the Vessel and Furnace, of what sort, and of what materials they must be made. Whereas Nature by a natural fire decocts the metals in the mines and she denies the like decoction to be made without a vessel fit for it. If it is our purpose to imitate Nature in concocting, why do we reject her vessel?
Nature, through the natural sub-consious process, “meditates” the chakras on the surface of the glass vessel. She does not “decoct” the “completed” vessel itself, except in a crude sense. The Glass Vessel is the human aura, which has been present since birth, but it, too, must be refined through meditation, and imagination. The ‘image’ of a perfect vessel in meditation is required. The “ragged edged” of the natural aura must be refined to bring the entire vessel to its perfect proportions of five units wide by eight units high (5/8ths, the Golden Mean). This is a perfect egg-shaped body of light substance. At a certain point in our evolution self-consciousness takes up the intention to cooperate with nature to perfect the aura. Other authors of the Qabalah name this light body, כלי, klee, ‘vase, or vessel.’ Technically, and Qabalistically speaking, any desire can form aklee, a vessel or body of sorts, for the purpose of receiving light. At the level of the Magnum Opus, and the True Alchemy, however, the klee is a much larger body of imagined light-substance forming a very real egg-shaped body of Light surrounding the physical body. The human physical body is actually the ‘yolk’ of the Phoenix within this egg-shaped vase, the Glass Vessel. The gematria of כלי is 60, which equals the Latin, balneum, the ‘bath.’ The yolk is ‘bathed’ within the vessel, where the King and His Bride are conjoined.
Let us first of all see in what place the metals are made. It does appear evidently in the places of Minerals, that in the bottom of the mountain there is heat continually alike, the nature of which is always to ascend, and in the ascension it always dries up, and coagulates the thicker and grosser water hidden in the belly, or veins of the earth, or mountain, into ARGENT-VIVE. And if the mineral fatness of the same place arising out of the earth be gathered warm together in the veins of the earth, it runs through the mountain and becomes SULPHUR. And as a man may see in the foresaid veins of the place, that SULPHUR engendered of the fatness of the earth (as is before touched) meets with ARGENT-VIVE (as it is also written) in the veins of the earth, begetting the thickness of mineral water. There, through the continual equal heat in the mountain, in long process of time diverse metals are engendered, according to the diversity of the place.
The metals, like everything, are made of the universal mineral substance, AIN SUPh AUR, the Limitless Light. It is referred to as a mineral, but no mineral, and as a “mountain” (of spirit). It is simply indescribable (a stone, but no stone…a water that wets not the hands, and so on). In the previous chapter it was explained how Argent Vive and Sulphur are engendered by the co-mixture of prana (becoming Argent Vive) with chylus (becoming sulphur). “The continual, equal heat in the mountain” is the steady, sensible process of moderation in study, prayer, meditation, moral life, and sensible foodstuffs, by which “in a long process of time diverse metals are engendered.” Eventually, the energy flowing through all the chakras becomes balanced, transmuted, and sublimated.
What is a chakra? And how are they formed? Follow nature. Observe a caterpillar’s cocoon. Such a cocoon is formed of a single strand of silk, continually wrapped about the caterpillar. The single strand is barely visible by itself. We can see it mostly when sunshine reflects off it, it is that fine. However, repeated rounds of this single fiber, continually crossing itself, eventually wraps the caterpillar in a soft, tight, silk cocoon.
So, too, a single fiber-strand of invisible light energy, continually wrapped around the human body, forms an egg-shaped body of light. This is created and performed at profoundly deep levels of the sub-conscious, bordering the super-conscious, and prior to any physical incarnation. Alchemists name this depth of consciousness regio lucis, the ‘region of light.’ Some may refer to it as the astral plane or level. It is the region where spirits descending to matter are incorporated. This single strand of light fiber, criss-crossing itself repeatedly, forms hubs of light energy at the intersections. There are hundreds of these intersections. But there are seven major intersections through which human consciousness perceives the physical phenomenon of this world. The ‘hub’ intersections appear on the surface of the Glass Vessel as blurs of light with strands of radiation ‘appearing’ as spokes of a wheel. The Hindu sages, therefore, called them chakras which means ‘wheels.’ Native Meso-American shamans labeled these intersections ‘assemblage points’ in that a considerable amount of light power is concentrated or assembled about these intersections. Generic humanity is unaware of this phenomenon, but more are becoming aware. The raw light energy flowing through these ‘wheels’ in people not concerned with the alchemical process is considered ‘base’ by genuine alchemists, shamans, Qabalists, magicians and wizards. Meditation heals and hones the light energy flowing through them from the sub-conscious, involution qualities, to super-conscious, evolution qualities.
And in these Mineral places, you will find a continual heat. For this cause we are of right to note that the external mineral mountain is everywhere shut up within itself, and stony, for if this heat should escape, there should never be engendered any metal. Therefore, if we intend to imitate Nature, we must have such a furnace like unto the Mountains, not in greatness, but in continual heat, so that the fire put in, when it ascends, may find no vent, but that the heat may beat upon the vessel being close shut, containing in it the matter of the Stone. This vessel must be round and with a small neck and must be made of glass or some earth, representing the nature or close knitting together of glass; the mouth whereof must be signed or sealed with a covering of the same matter, or with lute. And as in the mines, the heat does not immediately touch the matter of SULPHUR and ARGENT-VIVE, because the earth of the mountain comes everywhere between. So this fire must not immediately touch the vessel, containing the matter of the foresaid things in it, but it must be put into another vessel, shut close in the like manner, so the temperate heat may touch the matter above and beneath, indeed wherever it may be, more aptly and fitly. Whereupon Aristotle says, in the light of lights, that Mercury is to be concocted in a three-fold vessel and that the vessel must be of most hard Glass, or (which is better) of earth possessing the nature of Glass.
The re-channeled reproductive energy heats the inside of the glass vessel. “Our glass” is the human aura – three-fold since it is composed of mercury, sulphur, and salt that co-mix and play within its limits. The space or area between the physical body (yolk) and the vessel’s shell philosophers compare with the white of an egg, the albumin. Alchemist Sir George Ripley exhorts us concerning the white water or liquor:
“…keep this water by itself in a glass well stopped…this liquor is called our blessed liquor, to be kept in a Glass Vessel very close stopped…keep pure by itself, it being called the basis and foundation of the work, Mars, our white fixed earth, or philosophers’ Iron.”
Within the hermetically sealed (through sexual continence) limits of the glass vessel, re-channeled reproductive force from purified iron, the Mars center, directs heat into the white liquor. The liquor slowly turns from the “watery state” into a humid, white, smoke-like humor or vapor called “humidity.” This is the alchemical bath wherein the virgin seed of sulphur maturates the yolk. It actually appears like this from a fourth dimensional viewpoint. It is sometimes seen in the three dimensional world by those sufficiently clairvoyant. The humid bath creates a moist heat, a sweat, on the inside surface of the aura. Alchemical writers describe the glittery effect from corpuscular droplets of light on the inside surface of the glass vessel as “fishes’ eyes.” Of this, alchemist Nicholas Delphinas wrote and illustrated in The Book Of Lambspring. Under figure XIV is the caption:
“Here the Father sweats profusely, while oil and the true tincture of the sages flow forth from him.”
In that picture a crowned king lies convalescing or sleeping in a cubical, canopied bed. The canopy suggests “something inner.” This is the stage after Saturn has swallowed his child (the Central Self within the Cube absorbs the separate child personality). Text accompanies the illustration:
“Here the Father sweats on account of the Son, and earnestly beseeches God, Who has everything in His hands, Who creates, and has created all things, to bring forth His Son from His body, and to restore him to his former life. God hearkens to his prayers, and bids the Father lie down and sleep. Then God sends down rain from heaven to the earth from the shining stars. It was a fertilizing, silver rain, which bedewed and softened the Father’s Body. Succour us, Lord, at the end, that we may obtain Thy gracious gift.”
The Dew of Heaven (AIN SUPh AUR outside the vessel) is the “fertilizing, silver rain.” The dew comes from the stars,Masloth, the Highway of Stars, Chokmah, and the Virgin Sulphur. When AIN SUPh AUR, the universal First Matter outside the glass vessel, matches or aligns with the threadlike light-fibers inside the aura, perception is achieved. It is so explained in the Yaqui Indian tradition throughout that series of books recorded by Carlo Castaneda (see bibliography). It is, however, in perfect agreement with Western alchemical traditions. In The One Hundred Alchemical Aphorisms, Baro Ubigerus states under Aphorism 41:
“Our mercurial water has such sympathy with the astrums, that, if not kept very close, and hermetically sealed, it will in a very short time, like a winged serpent, fly away in a wonderful manner to its own sphere, carrying along with it all the elements and principles of metals, and not leaving so much as one single drop, or the least remainder, behind.”
The light-fibers within and without the vessel are the same. What the aspirant does through the alchemical process (more accurately, what is done for him and to him by Almighty God) is gather up and close off a portion of the Limitless Light and separate it from the vast, volatile, boundless expanse. The separated portion receives a cleansing inside the vessel because the First Matter, in its original state, is a citrine “gross, vile substance.” The moist heat of the re-channeled reproductive force “bathes” or washes the Subjectum within the vessel. This magnetizes the light-fibers within. The aura changes. When it is sufficiently changed, energy is re-aligned. If the cocoon is not hermetically sealed, there exists no “hard glass” edge to the vessel or klee, and all energies dissipate into the vast unknown. This is described as the “steam, vapors or smoke” escaping from the vessel prematurely. In a relative sense, it is exactly what happens to a person’s most brilliant, creative imagery that conforms to cosmic law, for example. One gets an idea out of Akasha, the Universal Sub-conscious “mind-stuff” equally diffused throughout space. Rather than keep silent concerning the image, and begin to work it himself, he brags about the ideas indiscriminately and loses the energy momentum to bring the idea through the planes into physical manifestation. He drops the project after having given it a boost of his personal energy. It fades back into Akasha (the collective unconscious) to be picked up by another life sufficiently receptive and energetically inclined to make it real in the world of form. Then the first person, upon seeing his image manifest as some object or process, brags later that he thought of it first.
In brief, the vessel and furnace Bacon is concerned with in this little chapter is the etheric aura surrounding the physical body.
Occult Aspects 