Welcome brother Addy thank you glad to be here hope you’re doing great all good all good thank you brother Walter as usual welcome rean uh brother uh you don’t need to raise your hand at the moment welcome to the proceedings unless you have anything specific to say you’re welcome before we
Start well thank you glad to be a here welome Brian rean hello how are you been all good all good good okay we have got on to that time if our esteemed presenter Ike is ready uh we can start the introductions he’s trying to finish off something as he
Said on the presentation and we’re very happy to wait for him to complete his bits before we can start I think um no problem we can give you ready to go yeah ready to go it’s up to you yeah you know we can give you another few minutes if
You want to just get yourself maybe just one more minute I’m gonna actually just grab a glass of water you’re such a wonderful presenter will give you three how is that okay thank you and and no charge right hey we’ll talk about that afterwards you know if you’re Mason
There’s always a charge but it’s not a monetary charge well it’s a it’s a spiritual charge that’s yeah there you go welcome Denise hello are those your dogs Denise no they’re not I wish they were I did have d as a kid though there you
Go I’ve got two cats I don’t know how they would feel if I brought home a a dog we had cats too there odly enough they’ve got along I guess because they grew up together live in love peace and Harmony welcome Olivia welcome Steve thank you hey Steve that’s not you
Strumming the strings are is that yes that is hey nice one thanks you usually you have someone else’s image but there good to know this is a genuine uh object it is welcome anyway thank you brother IE are you are you watered fed and uh
Ready I am thank you so much for your patience no no problems no problems at all we got all the time okay everyone U uh I think the YouTube is live now and before I start let me start recording on my own system just in case we lose a recording
Okay firstly everyone welcome to this afternoon session and especially a warm welcome to our speaker uh dear brother Ike uh this is order number 402 which is rism alchemy and uh Freemasonry uh in uh in continuation of our series of public lectures we have the honor to host brother Ike Baker who
A blue and yor Mason from Asheville North Carolina as well as an initiate of several other initiatic lineages brother Ike is also a writer researcher and practitioner of the esoteric and he hosts all of the arcanium YouTube channel and podcast where he produces lectures and documentary style presentations on all aspects of Western
Esoterism as well as a as well as conducting conversations with such guests as brother Jamie Paul lamb Mark stavich Ste Stuart Cleland John Michael Greer pety Newman and many others in the field of freemasonic and esoteric research is currently producing a manuscript for Chia Prima press to be released in
2024 which will be a series of essays focusing on the history theory and practice of the western esot esoteric traditions you can learn more about brother Ike on on or book him for Masonic speaking engagement by visiting his website which is on our distribution uh document today or tune in to his
Weekly series and broadcast at youtube.com SL Arcadium brother Ike floor is yours thank you so much uh brother hu and um to everyone for coming uh this has been a really excellent experience for me I’ve I’ve enjoyed every minute of it I’ve enjoyed the feedback I’ve enjoyed
Connecting with you all so this is the third and final lecture of uh a series and that series is essentially um an esoteric or an examination of the esoteric underpinnings and aspects of Freemasonry uh it can that kind of uh exegesis can hardly be attempted in 10 presentations let alone three in order
To sufficiently pre prevent uh present the overwhelming presence of symbolism allegory and instruction giving information given information at large which is directly called from the Western esoteric Traditions uh it’s impossible to do that because in order to do it uh one needs to be intimately acquainted with and perhaps obsessively drawn to the
Traditions which are a part of broader Western esotericism that said uh let’s begin with a few cursory examinations of alchemy Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry I’m just going to take a moment now to share my screen okay the term Alchemy is a mixture of uh Greek and Arabic words the Greek root is
Kimia which meant to pour or mix together this was likely a word whose meaning became synonymous with such Arts as practiced by the ancient Egyptians particularly in their uh work of ancient metal smelting actually uh they they would melt metal down and they would diet for the purposes of religious
Statuary Kemet is also the name the ancian Egyptians gave to their own country meaning the black land um so we kind of see this um association with the you know this thing that the Greeks called chimia and what they were doing in ancient Egypt with metal smithing and and metal dying in
Particular it’s important to note uh that chimia was actually a relatively late term to come about in antique history in relation to early Alchemy uh even in the 4th Century CE which is basically where we find the beginning of uh of modern Alchemy starting to come to
The for in in the historical record we don’t find the word Kimia used to to make this distinction the art of alchemy uh along with much of the helenistic Roman esoteric and mystery Traditions was ousted from its native lands of the greater Mediterranean and migrated to the perso Arabic Islamic empire sometime
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the Arts Alchemy in particular were embraced and augmented that’s very very important they were developed in and during like by and during uh the Islamic Empire’s Golden Age so this is how we wind up with the Arabic indefinite article Al prefixed to
The Greek Kimia meaning the uh this has been alternately translated as meaning the art of mixing uh the black art the Egyptian art what have you it’s the origin uh not only in name but indeed of our Modern Chemistry the Arabic physician uh Abu Bakr Alid created a meticulously tabulated
Empirical system of classification for the materials of alchemy that was perhaps the first real uh seed of modern chemistry it was a prototype of the periodic table of elements now what much of what we commonly understand about alchemy uh comes to us really from the Renaissance onward in Europe through those translations at
Least in the west here um this is after the full uh reacquisition of the ancient particularly hermetic texts with marcelio ficino finishing his translation of the Corpus redum in 1463 and then going to going on to publish it in 1471 and also uh we do want to mention
Ludovico lazari who also produced a translation around the same time indeed uh right Alchemy is known as well known as the Hermetic art why is this and it’s because Alchemy is a philosophical methodology that is it’s a process and um it’s a process who sequencing and techniques rely upon hermetic
Philosophy we find most readily associated with Alchemy for instance uh the Emerald Tablet which extent translation we have today actually comes to us from an appendix to a 9th century Arabic alchemical Treatise it’s from this text that we get the uh certainly abused and most often misquoted hermetic axom quote
As Above So Below that’s a dras sort of uh simplification and and I would say mistranslation of that term so we find uh that Alchemy is typically associated with a few things right we all know the trans trans we all know the the transmute now that is turning lead a
Quote unquote base metal into gold a very precious metal the second thing would be the manufacturer of an enigmatic material called the philosopher stone which was thought to be a perfected material whose matter was quote the very same as the first matter of all things we’ll also
Group this in with something called the powder of projection which was thought to be able to instantly facilitate this process of transmutation nearly effortlessly uh once you had achieved the um the the stone of the philosophers and the third thing was the creation of an elixir of life right a universal
Panasia a universal medicine thought to cure all ills not merely physical but mental and emotional as well and to bring either very long or uh nearly everlasting life the powder and The Elixir as I mentioned were both products of first having achieved the philosopher stone the processes of accompl of
Accomplishing this uh are typically grouped into either four-fold or Sevenfold uh trajectories most generally um you know I guess I don’t really need to say it but we’re not going to go off into all the minutia and nuanced directions of of each of these because then this lecture would would probably become an
Entirely different lecture but suffice it to say the threefold uh which can also later be seen as as fourfold is comprised of the nego the blackening the alabo though the whitening and after this in some systems you’ll find the uh kinas or citrinus of yellowing and finally um right a lot of
Us would be confused we’d think that the final form of it would be the albo right the white that that kind of white light that you know the the Adept wearing the white robes and things like this but really in alchemy the final stage is the
Uh is um or the yeah the final stage that leads to the trans mutation is the rubo the reding so technically right we’ve got nego alido rubedo black white and red and where else do we see those very very frequently right Rosicrucianism in the rosie cross it’s
Frequently the their colors and uh and in just to to draw corollary here I’m not I’m not going to go off in Crazy directions like I said but templari those are their colors the Knights Templar so the Sevenfold uh path of the alchemical stages involves um calcination dissolution separation conjunction fermentation distillation and
Coagulation you see them here on written in in um in Latin on the on this this stairway here and they have interchangeable names but generally they all mean the same thing and this process is still followed today now we can really break the processes of alchemy the M Mo right the modus
Operandi in general the overarching scheme is is it’s it’s simple but not easy uh solve at coagula separate and recombined and recombine or to take apart and then to put back together that’s essentially the overarching process of alchemy it’s just assumed that what you have taken
Apart and what you have put back and the state in which you put it back together it’s uh basically a completely different thing interestingly you know even even in modern um I would say occult and magical communities people who are engaged in these sorts of things it’s
Very often thought to be an analogy particularly in our later generations and after the development of modern psychology as an academic discipline what you have to understand is that uh that didn’t exist when this stuff was being formulated um psychotherapists and Scholars like Carl Jung whose work is of
Great Value to be sure um they filtered Alchemy through the anachronistic lens of depth psychology uh but you know as a saying goes if you’re a hammer every problem looks like a nail um now that’s not to invalidate this component right it but it’s it’s it’s one aspect of a of
A many layered process and you know just just to be fair there’s also evidence to suggest that Jung was very much a Mystic um you know for instance his his writing of the uh septim sermon you know the seven sermons to the dead he wrote that very
Very early and he he he admitted actually that um uh that he had quote unquote received it as a species of of channeling from the the Gnostic B basales and if you read it it’s extremely it’s very very much in line with um with alchemical verbiage and and and mystical spirituality but he
Did receive some some uh push back let’s put it that way from the academic community of his time so uh you know he’s sort of prevented from showing his cards in the academic community so he wrote about you know it’s it’s very possible that he he he was writing about
These topics through the vehicle of that which he was an accepted expert on right I mean he his his degree and the the niche he had carved out for himself in society was as a an academic uh uh you know psychotherapist so that’s the way he
Presented this stuff uh and in that way he hid the medicine in the applesauce so to speak but um you know that’s only one part of it um I mention it a lot in my work you know there you you can’t really toggle uh there is no physical action
Without a spiritual consequence and and uh vice versa it’s really two sides of of the same coin there’s also an idea that the early Alchemists were quack quacks or frauds uniformly uh though many did die in abject poverty uh and some in jail I think like Edward Kelly right this does
Not rule out Al is a very real and very significant Endeavor it is inaccurate to suppose as much of uh as much as modern Academia does that this was a just purely a prototype of of early chemistry and and not a spiritual endeav as well but an Alchemists and Mystics alike
Understand that there can be no physical act that does not in some way affect the spiritual side of our nature and vice versa and that there can be no transformation without a quest lastly on this point quite significantly Alchemy is a powerful spiritual analogy indeed as The Alchemist works on themselves so is
Their operation a microcosm of the process of initiation that they wish to cataliz in themselves in their own sphere these highly refined substances then often known as quintessences let’s say in some Modern alchemical Traditions um not you just as an aside not all uh particularly I I wouldn’t say that even
Most alchemical Endeavors in the modern age are concerned with the transmutation of metals literally but they create these things called uh quintessences or the ends a lot of times and they’re said to have immediate and lasting effects on the physiology uh psychology and overall Consciousness and well-being of those who partake of
Them yet there is also another method of alchemical spiritual analogy which is referred to as alchemical initiation this is a process by which an individual referred to as the candidate is symbolically placed through a series of orals in order to reflect and catalyze By Any Other Name an alchemical transmutation of their own
Being the basis of hermetic philosophy uh informs us that this is not merely poetic but imminently possible because of a basic underlying pattern which is the substrate of all creation um we’re going to have a look at exactly this pattern in just a few seconds but first
We have to stress that it is by this pattern this common Elementary blueprint to the substrate of materiality the way in which matter must organize itself that the principles of alchemy are found to be holographic and fractal um and we find this through through the what they call the emerald
Formula hermetic philosophy shows us this now this seems very strange term right holographic what like what the hell do do holograph have to do with anything but let me explain what I mean by this analogy when I say holographic I don’t mean fake or illusory but rather I mean to by way of
Analogy point to the nature of a holographic image which means right this is how holographs work all the information of the image that it’s projecting the thing itself as a whole is encoded into every part particle or aspect of that thing it’s kind of like each light particle in a
Holographic beam having its own ZIP file of the entire program now if you take a mirror and you split a holographic beam what happens is you don’t end up with a split image you end up with two whole images and this is extremely significant because it’s essentially a modern
Analogy or way to understand the central doctrine of all Western esotericism which is the doctrine of the macrocosm and the microcosm that is the concept that every individual is a entire universe in miniature a copy of all the patterns Essences and and an expression of the
Total tilos of the cosmos and this goes back uh as far as we can trace it to Plato in his dialogue the timeus you see that’s why I started out with Plato in these lectures so we’re going to now have a look at the tetrac this diagram of alchemical
Principles I like to call this a triangle of creation I did not create this um this has been around for a while but here it is I’m going to explain this all to you this idea of the of the uh manifestation out of um the absolute or or Unity
Really and this is platonic neoplatonic uh hermetic Gnostic uni the big three of Western occultism um all subscribed to this model but this is it basically in in diagrammatic form and with particularly the Hermetic model uh espouses the the trio Prima in the middle I would say
That that is what is what is characteristically alchemical about this so we start at the top of this triangle here if you’ll follow my my cursor I don’t know if you all youall can see it but we’ve got here the manad or the first cause this is absolute uh indivisible unity and and
Essentially that is you know all creation must be one it cannot be otherwise there are um you know very very well-worn well-developed sophisticated and you know simple um philosophies behind this and that’s a whole other series of lectures but this is what we call the monad or the first
Cause and it retains its identity as a separate unity and generates a diad which is the dipole of creation right it’s like two ends of one two opposite ends of one Arc that a rainbow is able to project from um it cre this allows the space for all
Diversity but it is a a binary it’s a polarity and we call this on the left hand side I’m not sure if it’s mirrored or what but if you’ll just follow my cursor the minus sign we call that Celestial salt that is pure form the essence of pure form we’re
Talking about very very rarified things here we’re talking about the abstract concept of form and then on the other hand we have Celestial ner which is the abstract concept of form Force these two need each other for form without Force remains dead inert un enlivened and force without form its energies are
Expended they come to no the productivity they completely dissipate because they have no ground so Celestial salt Celestial n nigher this is the celestial diad from there is generated right you’ve got on the uh for Celestial ner highly highly active lots of activity um and Celestial salt inertia so Celestial
Salt uh or it creates uh the what we call the philosophic essential of salt which belongs to the tree of Prima then we have the celestial ner generating the philosophic essential of sulfur right that that sort sort of uh ous characteristic what do we know about sulfur it it’s it’s it’s flammable it’s
Combustible it ignites salt on the other hand is the principle of crystallization and then the interplay between the two of them for anyone who’s familiar with music when you play two notes uh it generates what’s called an overtone and when you play two notes and they’re vibrating harmoniously or or
Dissonant um a third note is created and that’s the triangle of of life right there and what happens is when Celestial salt and Celestial nider generate the uh philosophic essential of salt and the philosophic essential of sulfur this third thing is created and that is the philosophic essential of mercury the
Androgene it partakes of both it can be both or either right when we think even about the substance of mercury Quicksilver it’s a liquid metal um it’s very reflective it’s you know takes the shape of whatever container it’s in and and Associated ideas but we consider
This the Divine we consider this the the androgynous principle meaning not that it is neutral but that it is both and can be whatever it needs to be from the interplay of uh the philosophic essential of sulfur well well the philosophic essential of sulfur generates Elemental fire and the
Interplay of sulfur and Mercury generates Elemental air the philosophic essential of salt creates earth right most dense most dark and the interplay between uh salt and Mercury creates water right liquid but also dense heavy sinking so you see this spectrum here we go from essentially
Most inert to most active now air can be brought sort of to a liquid state and the liquid can be brought to a vaporous state and it partakes here of the the principles of mercury these are uh and and not only that but water can become um uh solid right turns into ice
Air Stokes fire so there’s this whole Spectrum here that’s generated by these principles and we’re going to focus very heavily on the trioa and we’re going to basically delineate symbolism in in in in the western esoteric tradition um as contained in Freemasonry that that alludes to the manad the diad the the
Trio Prima and the what we call the elements of the wise now I want to say that some people have pointed out it might be anachronistic to throw in salt salt into this uh this alchemical uh triangle here because it is largely believed that paracelsus was the first
One to add salt to um as the third philosophic essential but actually recent academic research um particularly by two Scholars named Everly and heg uh they actually found that Al razu Abu Bakr from um uh the Islamic Golden Age the man who who created that sort of material chart of the elements of
Alchemy he he was actually the furthest back that we can see in the 900s he developed um salt as the third philosophic essential and he was referring to it in relation to uh the other two sulfur and Mercury as the principle of body or crystallization now that might sound obscure but we’re going
To Hash some of this out big difference and one of the last things I want to say about alchemy in in regards to this presentation is uh that the main difference really between an alchemist and a a chemist I would say the most dramatic is um a belief in deity but
Also an invocation of deity prayer um a a great M magician once told me that the the main difference between an a chemist and an alchemist is that The Alchemist prays to God before he works so that we get this uh this Latin phrase which is initially a monastic phrase
That it’s appropriated by the alchemical community Aura at labora pray and work The Alchemist always invoked the blessings and assistance of deity Ora at labora praying work was not just another saying of the Alchemists it was their secret formula for uniting the inner and outer worlds to open a new
Dimension of reality that remains hidden from our modern culture and science that is Dennis William Hawke the alchemical tradition now undergoes a very distinct change around the early 16th century uh shortly after the Hermetic and alchemical texts have returned to Europe from the near East uh particularly though this change begins
To stir in northern Europe so even before ficino began his translations there was a slow and very quiet leak of manuscripts from the East to Europe uh it was more of a drip thing and this was during the Crusades we know for instance in a conquest uh called The
Siege and fall of Toledo as in Toledo Spain right Spain had a very large Arab population uh being an Islamic State in the southern region known as Al andalus uh so Christian Crusaders basically sacked the city of Toledo after besieging it and one of the things
That they gained access to and ated was their libraries which held these texts which had been missing in uh you know really Western Christian Europe for centuries um hermetic neoplatonic alchemical Etc uh these Works remained clandestine particularly what we call the Practical hertica right things like uh the magic of evocation things like
That that we see in the PGM the Greek magical papy some of those things leaked back to Europe and created the um the tradition so priests end up uh we find a massing private collections of works on Magic Alchemy and related subjects and uh this very well may have been the case
For uh yanus tmus the infamous Bishop initially of spanheim who served as an administrator of several monasteries in his lifetime typically typically making it his chief business to build up the respective Abbey libraries considerably he was known as someone who in his Leisure Hours departed with orthopraxy of the
Church and was reputed to practice magic because of this he was transferred several times and his name came to be surrounded in clerical Circles by this kind of Scandal but he was a Pioneer in cryptology perhaps out of necessity um having to conceal his correspondences from the watchful eye of the clerical
Authorities above him now what’s so important right in any event he ends up being mentor to two of the most well-known figures in Renaissance magic and Alchemy and those are Hinrich Cornelius agria and a man by the name of Philipus oriolus theopus bombastus Von hohenheim who is better known as
Paracelsus now Agrippa was a German polymath who would go on to write and publish his Three Books of Occult Philosophy which was a Renaissance Christian reconstruction of E amian theery and has become a text and Source book of Modern Magic um of interest uh to us later on in this presentation it
Had been assumed that paracelsus worked with um well it had been assumed that Agrippa worked with trmus to arrive at his final published work um but modern scholarship has revealed that he was actually in correspondence with a larger network of anonymous Scholars magicians and esotericists from all parts of
Europe so it seems as if a grippa were a funnel point a sort of public face for their collected ideas uh this is how the three books came to contain an encyclopedic amount of information yet however it’s not an encyclopedia and it’s it’s not to be
Used as such it it is a sequential systematic Manual of theurgic Christian Magic on the other hand we have paracelsus who was trained in Switzerland as a physician yet he also studied the hermetic philosophy underpinning Alchemy and was well familiar with alchemical Texs principles procedures and operations his main
Departure was in creating a new application of alchemy specifically in using the principles and methods of alchemy in order to create healing alchemical medicines um one of the things that he kind of Avers is like hey stop using Alchemy just to enrich yourself why don’t we heal the sick
And F funny enough right that is one of the central tenets of Rosie christianism as laid down in the manifestos what do we profess to heal the sick and that Grace for free so this new science of his he called speria and it was Allied to a uh
Material Meda encompassing a lot of people just associated with plants but it included plants minerals metals animal materials and and more so just to lay it out what we’ve got Happening Here is this reintroduction through uh mainstream and diffuse literary and intellectual channels of the Hermetic neoplatonic and
Arabic alchemical Works into Europe in the 1400s and then you’ve got trmus who was a collector of of rare books um by the thousands and a cleric training Agrippa and paracelsus who then go on to do massive things with their own work in the 1500s this brings us essentially to the
The Rony crucian manifestos um in the early 1600s a series of manifestos were anonymously published comprising what would come to be known as the rosie crucian manifestos these documents were a series of pamphlets outlining the existence beliefs Mythos and purpose of a quote unquote invisible Brotherhood whose leader frer
CRC was an initiate of the greatest learning and spiritual accomplishment who founded the order uh of the um uh the Rosie crucians in Germany recruiting assistants and like-minded Seekers of very high learning and serious piety he instructed them in the knowledge he had gained of quote unquote Alchemy and true magic
The F frat was the first of these documents to be published in Germany in 1614 this explained the backstory or legend of the invisible Brotherhood and its founding detailing the story of CRC traveling all over the known world of his time seeking and being granted initiation and tutelage in the Arts of
Magic philosophy and science as well as the construction of a meeting place the rosicrucians built a meeting place called the D spiritus The House of the Holy Spirit which was their headquarters CRC also built himself a vault or tomb within which he was buried and which place lay hidden from All Eyes
For 120 years before its accidental Discovery by a brother of the fraternity the confessio was published in 1615 and served um as a pretty brief completion of the farm speaking of the quote unquote true philosophy it established their Christian faith and was an admonishment to Christian Living the confessio is also emphatic about
Alchemy quote but whatsoever hath been said in the F concerning the deceivers against the transmutation of metals and the highest medicine in the world the same is thus to be understood that this so great gift of God we do in no manner set at knot or despise
It for conclusion of our confession we must earnestly admonish you that you put away if not all yet the most books written by false Alchemists who do think it but a Gest or a Pastime when they either misuse the Holy Trinity when they do apply it to Vain
Things or deceive the people with most strange figures and dark sentences and speeches and Co in the simple of their money as there are nowadays too many such books set forth which the enemy of man’s welfare doth daily and will to the end mingle Among The Good Seed thereby
To make the truth more difficult to be believed which in herself is simple easy and naked but contrarily falsehood is proud haughty and colored with a kind of luster of seeming Godly and of Humane wisdom and uh one of you texted me last night and said The more things change
The more they stay the same right nothing new Under the Sun year the third uh of the rosic crru manifesto is was called the chemical wedding of Christian Rosen cruits now this was written by Johan Valentine Andre a German Theologian and published in 1617 it detailed a long and strange
Series of seven Journeys made by CRC who is now identified in this tract as Christian Rosen cruds to attend the quote unquote chemical nuptials or chemical marriage of the uh the bridegroom King and his queen bride the imagery of this is strange absurd even it doesn’t really make much
Sense or have much significance just reading it um sort of off the cuff at least at first so it was admitted or at least claimed by Andre that he wrote the chemical wedding however he did not claim to have written the first two manifestos and we
See this in a massive departure of style and and and of of content and not only that but it contradicts the first two because in this one uh in the chemical wedding Christian Rosen cruits is initiated as an old man whereas that completely contradicts the story that he
Traveled as a very young boy in the you know in the F to be initiated but uh scholar and and biographer Tobias Chon wrote a book called The Invisible history of the Rosie crucians and it’s excellent It’s it discloses more recent evidence I would say with in the last 15
Years that the previous two manifestos the F and confessio were written by a circle of Scholars right think Agrippa um that’s exactly what he was doing he was in a connection of of anonymous Literati and intellectuals with one person being the face and this this was called the tubing
And circle associated with the University of tubing in there at the time and we do know that Andre was associated with this group group historian and professor of Western esotericism at the University of exiter Nicholas goodrick Clark wrote of the rosic crucian trilogy quote published as Anonymous manifestos these cryptic texts describe the
Discovery of a new philosophy based on Alchemy and related to medicine and healing but also to mathematics and mechanical Arts the dis this discovery represented a pan ophie or Universal wisdom as well as an illumination of a religious and spiritual nature the manifestos also declared stated intentions to enact a quote
Unquote Universal Reformation of mankind built on quote unquote truths of the esoteric or esoteric truths of the ancient past this esoteric science was alluded to by way of cabala hermeticism Christian mysticism and principally Alchemy right Christian Rosen Cruz uh he he believes that one who has achieved the alchemical transmutation is a master
And that’s actually why he decides to come out of his Solitude according to the the rosi Krishan manifestos um he feels he has accomplished a miracle specifically in alchemy he has accomplished an alchemical miracle and so he feels he must go and help people and teach people in this way the invisible
Fraternity seized the public imagination and a rosi crucian fur ensued the Literati and young intellectual and Pious men of Europe clamored to find the location of the domos spiritus Sanctus though the manifestos were very clear that it was quote unquote concealed from the world whether there actually was any
Such Brotherhood before the manifestos no longer mattered because these documents served as a kind of catalyst they brought exactly the things they said they would into the world a mainstream Resurgence of what we Now understand to be the occult Arts and Sciences occult meaning hidden specifically from the I in Latin agria
Popularized this word as well occult he said that magic was affected by means of what he called hidden virtues or qualities the Manifest seem to have an alchemical effect in themselves and from them a rosicrucian movement was born that would last for over 200 years at
Least yet as the initial furer began to die down around the late 17th century the birth of modern Freemasonry was taking place in Scotland Ireland and England now modern freemasonary doesn’t make any claims explicitly to possess nor instruct in alchemical knowledge nor does it claimed to have any historical
Affiliation with the quote unquote original Rosy crucians however we see these developing contemporaneously with several points of significance worth bearing in mind that said let’s take a look at modern Masonic ritual it was essentially constructed by a man named William Preston who after being initiated in England in
1763 began a seven-year-long project of Correspondence interviewing research and study with members of the faton the Masonic fraternity all over Europe who were his Elders masonically uh in order to find out what exactly the meaning of masonry was if there was any meaning to it at all the
Fruit of this investigation was a series of lectures taught as appended to each of the degrees with 12 lectures per uh each blue Lodge degree these were the Source documents for Modern Blue Lodge Freemasonry uh at least the United States and I believe in
The in the UK uh or or or England their degree lectures charges and opening and closing exchanges within them we see many symbolic elements some of which we will have a look at in just a few minutes William Preston’s early lectures were characterized by emphasis on a strong moral Foundation however his
Later work as pointed out by Colin Dyer quoting brother Percy James from an issue of uh the research Lodge arat coronatum tended toward quote a series of discussions upon factual matters which become more and more technical abstract and mystical it was based on a metaphysical notion of King Solomon’s
Temple which is looked upon as a sort of masonic University with excursions into platonic Theory and cabalism so this is very important this idea of platonic Theory and cabalism entering into uh Masonic education and and lectures it’s also known that John theil is desagu third Grandmaster of the
Premier uh Grand Lodge of England was involved in a brother named John byram’s uh quote unquote cabala club and this is an exceedingly interest interesting moment in the development of early Freemasonry um as well as for anyone who who who is aware of uh the Royal Society
Right that and the Royal Society was formed by uh Sir Robert Mor and he was also an early influential uh Freemason um we see a lot of cross-pollination we see uh you know Grandmasters of the uh of the um the highest administrative body for masonry at that time participating in these
Things we have uh men like Elias Ash Mo and Thomas vaugh um who was an alchemist all involved Isaac Newton who was involved in alchemy all these men were involved in these circles the the Royal Society um Freemasonry the cabala club and at this time I mean the
Beginnings of masonry as we know it were being formed so it’s to me it I mean it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to think that you know Freemasonry is completely divorced of any of these things if the earliest people who are literally shaping it creating it uh as
We know it if these were the things they were commercy in um then you know we have a wealth of symbols in masonry it’s a treasure Trove of symbolic images and we might do well to to consider uh contemplating them with that context in mind because it’s a reality
So the fact of these members of the Royal Society the cabala club um and Freemasonry um as I said including other members such as Isaac Newton and Thomas vau to name but a few uh moving in intersecting circles and having the same enthusiastic interests in alchemy hermeticism Rosie christianism and
Cabala it simply cannot be completely discounted further from Brother uh Kirk mcnalty he writes in his book on uh on his work on cabala and Freemasonry quote the first speculative Masons that we can identify positively speculative meaning you know masons in the modern traditional sense are Sir Robert
Moray and Elias ashol they were initiated into the order in 1641 and 1646 uh respectively both in the north of England both were closely involved with the Hermetic cabalistic tradition ashal was a significant contributor to the literature of that tradition and mor was the patron of The Alchemist Thomas
Vaugh now in in the publication of a letter from the grand Mistress of the quote unquote female frame Freemasons pend anonymously in the 1700s though later attributed to uh Jonathan Swift We read the following quote the branch of the lodge of Solomon’s Temple afterwards called
The Lodge of St John of Jerusalem is as I can easily prove the ancient and purest now on Earth the famous old Scottish Lodge of kill winning of which all the kings of Scotland have been from time to time Grandmasters without interruption down from the days of Fergus who was carely instru carefully
Instructed in all the Arts and Sciences especially in the natural magic and the cabalistic philosophy afterwards called The Rosy crucian so the imprint of this the first publication of this dates it to 17725 and if this is an embellishment we know it to have been in publication at least during Swift’s lifetime which
Places it no later than 1745 um now some people have pointed out that this might have been like a satire in response to uh something else that was published on Freemasonry but the thing as it at least reveals a sentiment however embellished that Freemasonry was considered Ed among
What we now refer to as the Western esoteric Traditions specifically right explicitly here tying it to Rosicrucianism again we take this as unequivocally confirmed by the association’s interests and uh interpretations of the many of the earliest and most prominent Freemasons indeed the Ry crucian Masonic connection has insinuated itself for
Centuries we find in a poem written uh 16 38 by Henry Adamson for what we do presage is not engross for we be Brethren of the rosy cross we have the Mason word and Second Sight things for to come we can foretell a right now given all this the next idea I
Want to move on to is the idea of initiation Freemasonry is an initiatory organization this is a key Fe feature while there are right we do have some lodges that do not initiate they require the membership and participation of you guest it initiates so while uh other later
Developed esoteric orders with a basis in Freemasonry such as the ORD golden Rosen cuta and uh the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn bore this idea out more explicitly there are traces of what is known as Elemental or alchemical initiation in the three degrees of craft blue Lodge
Masonry these allude to the concept of a spiritual Alchemy this is a process or trajectory of Spiritual Development by way of a systematic initiatory process in which the candidate acts as the material to be transmuted the earth now some people might say that’s an interpolation and very new AG a you
Know um the transposing of alchemical themes upon uh you know quote unquote Spiritual Development but these ideas go back to the time of Roman Egypt and the late helenistic period of Alexandria we find them principally in a figure known as zosimus of panopolis zosimus of panopolis was an ancient Greco Egyptian scribe priest
Born in Roman Egypt during the end of the 3 Century his special Duty as scribe priest right scribes were essentially foran because they were the ones who could write and could record and give instruction and read think of masonic Trestle board here um but his his special Duty as scribe priest was in
Overseeing the dying of metals for its use in Egyptian religious statuary he wrote the oldest extant books on the practice of alchemy which he called at this time kyoka meaning things made by hand right so even at this point in time as I mentioned earlier the word chemia
Was rarely associated with what we understand to be Alchemy sos’ work consisting of several commentaries on Ancient Greek philosophers uh contain vivid dreamlike imagery approximating surrealism and all manner of Illusions to processes both material and symbolic it is in the work of zosimus that we find a combination and
Correlation of the transmutation of metals and a transmutation of the body and soul he drew this from Gnostic and hermetic sources available in his day so there’s a lot of hardcoree Alchemists out there who basically say you know um it’s it’s not an allegory it’s not a
It’s not a spiritual thing it’s a real thing the the idea that it there’s somehow there’s some sort of spiritual alchemy that Alchemy is symbolizing rather than enacting by way of um you know the partaking of certain compounds and alchemical preparations um it doesn’t really jive with them but then
You have zosimus of Panopoulos who literally was conversant as as an Egyptian scribe priest in gnosticism hermeticism neoplatonism all the isms of his day saying at this this early point no this pattern is in everything so it can happen to everything it just has to happen with these particular operation
Has to happen according to uh the hermetic philosophy this is from uh Olivia Dua a a scholar writing on early Greek Alchemy quote contemporary Pye from nag hamadi as well as Gnostic and hermetic literature suggests that processes meant to change the color of textiles stones and metals served as a metaphor for the
Transm the transformation of the self in the 3 Century looking at explicit and implicit mentions of the afterlife in the works of zosimus show that his soteriology implied a similar transformation of the body and that his concern with the afterlife and the role played by matter in reaching the
Afterlife was shared by many late antique Scholars so yes throughout zosimus writings we find an assertion that through that though the processes of alchemy can be and are indeed applicable to organic materials such as minerals metals and plants they are not exclusive to these the processes he describes are
Applicable to everything in material creation because the processes themselves as as intimated in in the beginning of this lecture are natural processes which nature itself is perpetually undergoing and subjecting everything within her purview to therefore yes these processes are equally as applicable to the transmutation of the individual self and
Soul interestingly the symbolic imagery of these processes particular in his Works entitled visions and first lesson on virtue are those of men of certain medals for instance uh certain of his dreams um or trans characters refer to themselves as quote the man of copper or quote the man of lead these men of
Metallic Natures undergo certain punishments or penalties analogist of alchemical operations or processes which serve transmutative ends these include being uh having your throat cut having you you know being cut in half and having your bowels taken out um this is all straight out of os’s alchemical allegories from the third and
Fourth Century CE which is incredible again from Olivia du quote the first lesson on virtue lends itself to at least two different and compatible interpretations concisely presented the Visions describe how human beings sometimes described as metallic humans are undergoing sacrifices or punishments transforming them into Numa Spirit the
First type of interpretation consists in reading the punishments as metaphors for tentorial processes so now we talked about the alchemical you know the nature of of the the the elements and the trie of Prima and their involvement in in alchemical processes now if we’re talking about these These
Dreams as these kind of symbolic metaphors these these these mythic initiations meant to symbolize something deeper a process of development of of of body mind and soul then uh Brethren will call to mind the the typical the typically Elemental associations of the uh the penalties um given in obligations such as water air
And fire with the candidate the initiates ourselves being considered in this case the Earth or the material being active upon what we find throughout the zimian Corpus is in other words the body of uh of of zosimus writings is a trajectory of alchemical spiritual processes these correspond to the traditional alchemical stages
Calcination purification coagulation the stuff we mentioned earlier and they’re represented as a formula of death and rebirth a dissolution and then resurrection of the human in a more perfected form this is once again of interest to Brethren of The Craft regarding the master Mason’s degree significantly it is from The
Works of zosimus that we inherit the concept of the philosopher stone he is the first on historical record to refer to this he calls it a quote stone with which is not a stone and elaborates that it is formed of diverse metals and fused under a particular astrological
Condition I highly recommend for anyone who’s interested in the this line of research with regarding um exactly what we’re talking about here Dr Shannon Grimes wrote a phenomenal book called becoming gold so I would a th% recommend that for anyone who’s interested in really fleshing this stuff out
So now taking this idea of the philosopher stone in connection with Alchemy again we find it of interest to to to Freemasonry right we find that the the cultivation of a perfected stone is the central task uh of a of of a Mason right so in the same kind of way or
Tradition that of which Alchemy speaks of such things as philosophical salt and philosophical gold and the elements of the wise the rough ashler and perfected Stone of Mer masonry is in much the same way an illusion to the cultivation of personal character rather than an actual physical Stone as in operative
Masonry so also significantly it’s it’s we also find in this early Greco Egyptian Roman period around the 4th century uh CE that Alchemy begins to in the mainstream of its of its Pursuit take on it its distinctive designation uh as the transmutation of metals so really I mean
Modern Alchemy as we understand it came together at this time the 4th Century CE so we’re going to be referring back to several other of zosimus as alchemical allegories and Illusions as they pertain to Freemasonry a little further on uh in this presentation but first we should set ourselves up to move
On to the more visual aspect of this presentation we’re going to be examining particular symbolic images therefore we have to include a note about these Alchemy has from its earliest iterations been an art and Science steeped in symbolism without a nuanced and technologically informed scientific jargon right they couldn’t they didn’t
Have microscopes and and and hadron colliders and things like that so in the absence of being able to inform that kind of scientific jargon the earliest Alchemists had to find ways to refer refer to these strange and ostensibly miraculous processes which they found to occur upon their learned participation
In these newly discovered interior or let’s call them occult hidden processes of Nature and then to communicate them to others in a way which made sense now from the 3D century B CE we have a document known as the chopa of Cleopatra chopa means gold making now this is not the famous
Cleopatra of the talic Greek Dynasty which ruled over Egypt but rather Cleopatra The Alchemist whom zosimus also refers to it is a single sheet document this is it you’re looking at it uh a collection of images relating to Alchemy and the transmutation of metals into gold so even at this early date
This this is what an alchemical text looked like it’s just a bunch of symbols it’s drawings we see the oroboros here right that in the middle there says entan in uh in in in um what is likely adct Greek and that means um uh the one in all all things are one
The one is in everything it can kind of you it can go a couple of different ways but what what were we talking about we’re talking about that hermetic neoplatonic um you know cosmogony of ultimately look it’s it’s the manad that generates everything and that’s important we’re gonna we’re going to talk about
Why Alchemy like much which attempts to communicate ultimately mysterious and Transcendent processes must utilize symbolic methods we saw this as well in the first lecture right discussing platonism that that’s how Plato communicated too he just did it with a written word in the form of of of dialogues and scenarios therefore alchemical texts
Have historically been some of the best sources of very elaborate obscure and interesting images from Antiquity now Rosicrucianism at least as it developed as a movement after the publication of the manifestos was in large part a collection of symbolic libraries there literary output was a collation of alchemical and cabalistic
Diagrams such Rosy crucian text say the domma Codex the Ripley scroll the rosarian philosophorum and the secret symbols of the rosie crucians all of which we’ll be looking at today are collections of alchemical and cabalistic diagrams with attendant commentary let us once again call to mind what masonry has to say in
Definition of itself Freemasonry is a beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols so let us take then as a starting point for the purposes of this the following experiment we’re about to do that Freemasonry contains a symbolic language which represents the moral and spiritual purification of the candidate
By means of initiatory spiritual Alchemy utilizing the alchemical essential right the tetrace diagram the trio Prima the quote unquote elements of the wise Celestial ner it’s utilizing all these Concepts so we discussed um Also earlier the third and perhaps most abstruse or obscure of the rosac chrishan manifestos the chemical
Wedding let’s let’s look at a couple of points main points of its symbolism right it really details the main process right there’s seven Journeys that the initiate undergoes um maybe like this the seven stages and uh it’s about the wedding of the king and the queen now at various times uh
There are these strange scenarios where they they are in weight for one another there are um strange processes of of men having to crawl out of a crypt or a pit um there uh there’s a kind of death that um The Sovereign has to has to undergo before this this
Marriage but it’s about the the the coming together of the quote unquote king and queen the the bridegroom and and the bride and what’s most important here is their their conjoining right conjunctio their conjunction which was we saw the final stage in the seven-fold process in alchemical terms yes it’s
Called conjunction but it happens by several stages it is successive there are purifications explicitly that that have to take place now remembering that that was penned in 1617 16116 we’re going to turn now to the rosary of the philosophers or the Rose Garden of the philosophers the rosarium
Philosophorum this is a 16th century alchemical Trea is published 1550 okay that’s before the chemical wedding in where Frankfurt Germany it’s a text composed of 20 wood Cuts with captions some of these woodcuts dating as far back in their Origins as the 1400s they detail what is called the Yos
G sacred or holy marriage which we see here depicted uh in an extremely similar kind of um un of a king and a queen this culminates right in what is called the Hermetic andr Gene also known as the Rebus the Rebus that’s basically uh this compound word resina in Latin dual
Matter now this is a sort of hermaphroditic right take note of that term and its associations with Hermes okay and then also who was Hermes in the Roman Pantheon Mercury this being a union of opposites male and female here shown holding the Square and Compasses of masonry boom boom this depiction predates historical
Freemasonry yeah this right here this was from the theori of philosophy hermetic this was this picture was published in 1617 uh guess where Germany again the Rivas dubbed dob Tales no pun intended with the figure of the double-headed bird now I say bird because many birds are employed in
Alchemical symbolism all of which means something slightly different we find in alchemical symbols different birds sign signifying specifically different aspects or stages there we have it 33rd degree of the Scottish right this is uh this right here is representative the 33rd degree is is representative of the
Completion of the Scottish right and it is a double-headed Eagle this has been dubbed by some Scottish right jurisdictions as being emblematic of the Rebus Albert Pike who reformulated the Scottish right in the mid- 1800s admitted that he thought the double-headed Eagle was ultimately an alchemical symbol we look here over the
Over on to the right I believe I think this is from the Ripley scroll but I’m not 100% sure maybe somebody could correct me in the chat if I’m wrong but uh we have here you know uh an early alchemical text and we’ve got here a double-headed eagle and you can really
You can look I mean there are multiple double-headed Birds here but you and then the Rebus or or some kind of Rebus on the bottom you can see this throughout if you just look up you know double-headed bird double-headed Goose double-headed Eagle double-headed Phoenix um it’ll pull up a lot of stuff
For your own investigation so let’s Recon let’s reconsider what we have examined regarding Alchemy its processes and materials as s summed up so eloquently by The Alchemist uh Robert Bartlett quote in Practical Alchemy there is only one thing right and topan the manad and all that we perceive is an
Adaptation of that one the one takes on the quote unquote clothing of the four elements the three Essentials of sulfur Mercury and salt it is the work of The Alchemist to separate purify and recombine these basic principles until they are in perfect proportion and harmony with each other Alchemy is all
About bringing things to a greater state of perfection this really at the most fundamental level is the basis of alchemy hermetic philosophy espouses an ultimate unity which hermetic texts such as the Pander for instance refer to as the quote unquote father of all the story of creation is the emanation of
Multiplicity or variety from that Unity the aim of alchemy is going back to Unity from Multiplicity let us consider the motto of the lodge of perfection within Scottish W masonry quote whom virtue unites death cannot separate and there’s definitely something here of a marital
Essence so next I want to take a look at and consider the idea of the trio Prima salt Mercury and sulfur you see them here United in the Sun this is important so again right and what do we find the black the red and the white so the salt being the most
Dense most solid or most inert of three embodying the principle of crystallization and stability is really ju opposed as the the the the dipolar opposite of sulfur red being the most volatile the most active so we can conceive of this in the analogy of the solar trajectory of the
The Stations of the officers within a masonic lodge which We examined in Greater detail in the first lecture on platonism and Freemasonry but sulfur ignites it is indicative of flame uh we can place it in the East right over here and at the seat of the worshipful Master as the source of
Light salt is the most dense we can compare this in our three-fold scheme of officers to the west and the senior Warden as in the place of the Setting Sun yet Mercury is the balance point between either comparable to the junior warden in the South write quote unquote the Sun at Meridian height
Meridian being the highest point in the sky sky before it descends towards the West starts to set it is at a central point the point of equal balance and this is beauty Perfection let us have another look at this from a cabalistic perspective in the three pillars of the tree of life
Now what I want you to do here is I want you to kind of turn this so that the mentally in your head picture this seat right here the south over here where teerth is on the tree of life okay here’s the Tree of Life here’s your your broad Strokes now you’ve
Got right the three pillars of Freemasonry wisdom strength and beauty now we find these in the three pillars of the cabalistic Tree of Life wisdom HMA okay that’s that heads the pillar of Mercy gebura the most well-known and active expression of strength SE representing the pillar of severity and their combination their
Middle point the mediating balance being into fith Beauty wisdom strength and beauty and what do we find across from beauty where the north would be doth the abyss Darkness again uh to to draw more correlation to this in terms of a Triad we want to think about what’s
Presented to us in Masonic lecture as chalk charcoal and Mercury chalk being saltlike you know take a piece of chalk I mean it’s brittle it’s it’s stiff it’s you know likely the hardest of these things though it is brittle charcoal that ignites takes flame sulfurous and then Clay is malleable
It’s like Mercury it can be molded I want to address another Masonic symbol again from the Scottish W now brother Chuck Dunning and I just recently had a wonderful conversation and I decided to shoehorn this in here because um there’s arguably for me he is
One of maybe like two or three people um that when I have a conversation with just all juices are flowing in my head and and it’s just uh I’m on I’m on high alert and high creativity so I really appreciate the insights that he helped
Me to glean um from this because he does cover it in his book uh um he covers certain aspects of it in his book uh Rose qua oratory which I highly recommend in fact I’ve I’ve been vocal that this this is the book I wish I
Wrote so take that for what it’s worth but we see the Jewel of the the the the rose quad degree here um it’s a pelican tearing open its breast right this is of the Scottish right by the way uh we see the Pelican tearing open its breast to
Feed its young on its own blood from its heart now this is a symbol of self-sacrifice and of a giving and of you know perhaps right perhaps a death it’s it’s essentially if it’s tearing its heart open its breast open it’s probably it’s likely going to
Die but in order that more life may ensue you need has all its um its young there but there are several important distinctions to be here made in regard to alchemy that the Pelican for one is a supremely alchemical symbol there’s a tradition within certain alchemical texts to encode specific operations
Based on the particular either uh things they do like bubble or vaporize or the equipment they resemble and it’s very well known for instance that we have something in in uh in alchemy called the the Pelican um uh the the Pelican glass the distillation I thought I had put that in
Here let me take a look real quick ah here it is yes so we have this is the Pelican uh distillation apparatus and they call it this because it looks like a pelican but also for other reasons um well we’ve got here that this is an operatus an apparatus for continuous distillation
Um we’ve got flask we’ve got almic two sidearms to feed the condensed Vapors back into the main body uh so there’s distillation processes happening here and what is distillation it’s a process by which a substance is heated bottom heated typically and by which certain Vapors are produced now in typical herbal
Preparations not specific necessarily to Alchemy those vapor would contain what we call Essential Oils of say a plant so in order to get like essential oil of lavender or Rosemary um you you need to distill the plant material and from the vapors uh of of the water the distilled
Water that passes through it it’s you’re going to capture that what’s called The Essence now I want to make this point in very very very basic [ __ ] Alchemy like speria 101 let’s say we’re doing an operation involving a certain plant matter um well we would say that the sort of ineffable spiritual constituent
Uh which is carried in the alcohol distilled from certain plant matter say as in grapes would be its Mercury and we would call it its Spirit right we call liquor Spirits don’t we then we have the essential oils and other constituents uh that separate out through RW distillation that would be considered
Its sulfurous aspect its so and finally the leeched biomass that was left over right the the plant that’s just been kind of it’s all mushy and kind of spent that would be its salt its body and that’s how we conceptualize these things very generally within a a basic [ __ ]
Framework so in this distillation we find we are to get an oil a sulfurous aspect perhaps which is red the color and viscosity of blood some kind of oil here being referred to we also find distillation of other kinds referred to Birds because they fly
And Vapor Rises we see here by the bird flying in the background in the upper third of the diagram and and the clouds potentially you know representing uh uh a vaporous um sort of operation and perhaps most interestingly for me we we find the acronym i i n r i
Inry and where else do we find this we find it right written across the top of of of uh of the Cross of Christ in in one translation um yesus nazarus reud uh Jesus and na Nazareth King of the Jews well there’s another translation um an alchemical translation IGN renovat
Integra the fire of nature renews the whole and it’s here at the bottom beneath and around the nest right that heat that alchemical fire heating the whole distillation process but we see also the just deposition between the Pelican and the aforementioned Eagle uh this kind of consideration of another alchemical and
Mystical bird the Phoenix again implying death and self-sacrifice by fire and then rising from these ashes continually I would say that the Pelican represents the the the the death um aspect and I and or the self-sacrificial aspect which which Begins the ascent and then the the double-headed Eagle is the culmination
Of that Ark and that the Phoenix perhaps represents um uh the the operation in its entirety now the Phoenix doesn’t just die once it dies continually over and over it implies an ongoing circuitous operation rather than a one-time deal um and it’s no secret that the circuit of death and
Rebirth is is certainly a central theme in masonry and in the western esoteric traditions in general another alchemical acronym isol Vita intific in ven them visit the interior of the earth and rectifying therein you will find the hidden stone this is uh vitriol right it’s an acronym uh comprised of seven letters
Corresponding themselves to seven words and then what do we have what’s the ultimate thing right the ultum lapid them the hidden stone and every once in a while you’ll see it as vitriol because there’s there’s sometimes it’s appended to the to the end of it uh verik which would
Would um break from the Sevenfold structure which is why this is more popular but basically that says uh which is the true medicine visit the interior of the earth and rectifying therein you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine that’s kind of the whole thing
And the stone again is a central theme in masonry um we see it not only in blue Lodge in reference to the the uh the the rough ashler and the perfected Stone um right being the rough ashler perhaps representing the Prima Materia but also in the Royal Arch right where the the
The stone that the builders refused becomes the Cornerstone this is a very very Biblical reference the seven words themselves correspond to the seven metals and the seven planets of alchemy when you talk about metals in alchemy you’re also talking about the planets you’re never not talking about uh because they’re
Tied together the metal is a special example of the essence of the planet it’s tied to it by like what you know just I mean completely as an analogy I don’t mean that they believe this kind of it’s kind of a species of this belief but it’s the planet and the material are
Tied as if by like an invisible string so and what do we know about how many anciently constituted Lodge of ended apprentices seven and here at the top we see the twin luminaries of the moon and the sun right the staffs of the Junior and senior deacons respectively guide guiding the movement
Of the candidate below this diagram right this actually is from the secret symbols of the rosie Christians I highly recommend um if you’re an esotericist to find that an English translation of a PDF it’s not that that easy but hit me up and maybe
I’ll I can uh send it to you if I’ve got enough time but we see at the bottom here well first of all I also want to say that one of the things that you have to notice about this entire thing right is that it’s circular and it’s got this
Kind of like Emerald border and to me this represents the the stone itself this isn’t just a formula for how to make the stone this is a diagram of the stone right this circular thing um and we see it by the presence of the planets and the conjunction of the Sun and the
Moon at the top and there’s kind of a cabalistic scheme to this it looks like the Tree of Life almost but uh we have another name for the Hermetic text of the Emerald Tablet here at the bottom ver secretorum hertis or the secret words of Hermes the secret
Word so her Hermes is he figures very very prominently it’s the Hermetic art of alchemy um we see him we see this Hermes Mercury connection uh and the sort of Master magician Master Alchemist embodied by Hermes TR magistus we’ve seen uh from a wide variety and penetrating cross-section of
Reearch including by by brother Nate shik who who was on this podcast uh this uh lecture um program not too long ago Hermes is is sort of by way of its consonant it’s almost cognate with hyam right HRM Hermes hyam the central figure of the Master Mason uh Mythos the
Allegory right that’s who ham was and which officer which officer is hirum at least in the in the in the Carolina District he’s the junior Warden he sits in the South he wears the Jewel of the J of the junior Warden at the place of balance the androgene the Rebus the Herm
Aphrodite now a couple of things I want to mention incidentally that are just of interest to me and may be of interest to you before we move on to sort of our final look at uh at at at um Alchemy and and Freemasonry in the zimian Corpus right
The body of work which we have uh is that is attributable to zimus a penopolis he goes to Great Lengths to synthesize and describe the spiritual teachings of his day implying that if not all one then at least all are compatible pointing toward that one thing of alchemy but he uses certain
Images and allegories that are very particular to masonry we mentioned earlier the penalties however he also speaks in his visions of a particular operation requiring him to Traverse a staircase of no less or more than 15 stairs leading to an altar he also mentions Acacia in connection with the
Alchemical stone he talks about the first Alchemist a woman named Maria the Jewish who created most of the essential equipment for Alchemy now we have her name for instance today immortalized in the Bane Marie a French Corruption of the Latin Balo Maria Mary’s bath but Mar
Also being the root in Latin for the word sea or water and that’s why it’s the Bane Marie is a water bath it’s essentially what it is it’s it’s like induction heating and through water now this is a little tenu little tenuous but it’s something that I’ve
Just pondered and I just want to share with you for your own ponderings where wherever they lead you but there might be a connection and I know it’s a stretch but it’s interesting there might be a connection to hyam as the Widow’s son you know as as we know that that
That hyam uh Ham’s mother was was um was was Jewish and from the tribe of naftali according to the biblical passages which are associated with this Mythos um and and and Maria the Jewish or Maria the propheus was um according to zosimus the mother of alchemy but moving away from these more
Incidental aspects for consideration I want to cover two more things uh because we’ve we’ve we’ve looked at our manad and our diad in the Rebus right the two becoming one and we’ve looked at the trie of Prima and our officers and their attendant symbols as well as their
Reflection in uh well to to draw to mind really the trio Primo also uh the the King Solomon and the two hyams are also representative of that now where do we stand for our elements other than perhaps The Three Degrees acting as Elemental preparations or purifications of the candidate who is
The earth um the physical material to be transmuted we find it in the layout of the lodge itself again we pointed to the three stages stations and darkness in the north but if we take the lodge as a whole and follow our circum ambulations
Um from east to west by South we see a quaternary division nonetheless it is dial or a 24-hour cycle of daytime to nighttime but it is also seasonal and annual in the movement from fall in the place of the Setting Sun that’s in the west the west gate is where you
Wi to death and darkness of winter in the north to rebirth in spring right the sun just coming over the horizon the dawn to lighten life and then to the summer the Sun at greatest Meridian height and then only to fall again in the West in this way it truly is an
Elemental microcosm of our world there is at last that’s the final symbol I’d like to point out and it is perhaps the most significant in the lodge it is a symbol of unity upon which we are both received throughout the degrees as well as obligated this is obviously the square
Encompasses we see it here again in our diagram of the Rebus one holds the square one holds the compass but why what can this mean well I draw your attention to one of the most ancient allegories with within our uh symbolic mystical lexicon a problem or allegory
Known as squaring the circle and here we have it I mean this is I think this is BCE right this is in uh ah I forget it Emperor new or something like that this is Chinese compass and squares it’s the same thing except they were I think they were
Brother and sister this in this in this Legend very very interesting right all the Far East and way before um and any of the the German alchemical manuscripts were written so we’ve got the squaring of the circle that is a preeminently I mean alchemical diagram right you’ve got the people confuse this
With the Deathly Hollows of Harry Potter so just don’t don’t do that um but right here we’ve got the square and the circle now this is a geometrically intractable problem unsolvable one cannot perfectly Do It um if in terms of physical geometry it’s it’s not 100% perfect so
It’s been something that geometers like uid and and mathematicians like Pythagoras throughout the ages um have uh have scratched their heads over but we also find this idea of it in alchemy because this symbol here that you’re looking at with the squared Circle in the center that is the alchemical symbol of the
Philosopher Stone this is the stone of the philosophers that you’re this this diagram so what does a square make right what’s it used for angles right angles a square makes a square the compasses circumscribe a circle and here they are united they are two of the three great
Lights and they’re presented to us in several different ways given with several different teachings and interpretations but throughout masonry here they are together and where else right in the grand symbol this symbol right here so it’s interesting because mathematics in former times was considered akin to Magic in fact uh John
D was once arrested for quote unquote calculating but um it’s because they didn’t see math the way we do today back then um I you know it’s a it’s a product of our times and you know a poor way of of reducing mathematics down to to Mere
Commercialism but math uh is a miracle for us because it’s the only unchangeable thing in this world if you go anywhere in the world anywhere in the universe everything will be different the time of day uh how dark it is how light it is the temperature gravity
Which will affect your weight uh and the your ability to move um atmosphere Direction but math will always be the same two plus two will always equal four this is what Plato and the ancient Mystics before him like Pythagoras this was their definition of of philosophical
Reality what is real things that are not subject to change it’s the only real thing to Plato and to his his philosophical forebears in in in that sort of uh you know post Socratic line but also inclusive of Pythagoras hence are we admonished in masonry to study geometry above all
Other Sciences in esoteric or sacred geometry a square is representative of the material right the inherent stability of the final product of the four elements the monad the diad the Triad making material reality 90 degrees is the most stable material angle all Builders know this look around the room
You’re sitting in right now just take a second look around almost everything is based on some kind of right angle square or rectangle that’s just what it is materiality the Circle however is a symbol of the Eternal having no beginning and no ending this is a symbol of the marriage
Of the material and the spiritual this is the central theme of all capital M mystery traditions of which masonry is the true custodian in the west if we would but understand it to be such we may realize thousands of years of spiritual Heritage lie and wait for us
In positioning the Square and Compasses as we have it in masonry we see it as such the square is at the bottom the compasses reach upward conjunction the joining of the above with the below and finding the the space in between the universal Mercury the underlying first matter in
Common with all the universe right there at the center now at this point I I I I didn’t get a chance to insert my last slide which was that picture of Charlie Day with like all the conspiracy stuff on the wall and making all those nebulous connections and uh I thought that was
Funny that was what I felt like at about you know midnight um putting a lot of this uh stuff in its final form but I I I truly want to thank you all for um for joining me for this lecture and for this series of lectures which
I’m so happy I got to give as a part of this incredible educational resource to Masons and non-masons alike uh I appreciate you guys uh Brother David brother hu um and for everybody who stuck this out with me um if you haven’t please check out the previous two lectures uh platonism and Freemasonry
And um magic in masonry the early order of the Hermetic the Order of the Golden Dawn and for more you can visit me at Ike baker.com which has everything I do uh and specifically for the Arcanum podcast and and and lecture stuff you can check out
Youtube.com Arcanum uh typet with a v um I usually think we might want to take a a bathroom break at this point I mean what do you guys think about that uh I yeah I if you wish to I think that may be appropriate because I think everyone’s been stuck to their chairs
And glued to their screens for just under two hours so I kept this one I kept this one under three hours though which I it’s it’s a marathon for you but imagine uh the amount of work you put into it but all I can say is every superan member uh listener or viewer
Appreciates the amount of work you put into the doing this presentation you know you you draw so many strings together and try to create a central theme which is beautiful and unique and you know to do that much work and to put that much effort for the benefit of uh
All of us I think you know it it deserves an Applause thank you I think you know there’s nothing better that than that but as you said if everyone wants a five minute break please go for it and we’ll we’ll start in five minutes if um if you’re okay I yeah
Absolutely thank you so much no worries so okay five is break and everyone can have a conversation while those who want to have their break carry on I I think this is this what this is what I would call if it was a movie The Ben her of movies you
Know but it’s so beautifully interconnected and done and you know presented in such a Simply Fun manner if that can be used as a word simplified For You Know M mere non researchers to understand the concepts and I I don’t think we’re going to let ik go uh just
After three presentation I’m sure that we will be looking for him to come back to uh this forum again and you know do a few more for us let see desert wolf I’m curious about your music uh I am in a um a kiss tribute band in Las Vegas okay ah
Okay with or without all the uh the fancy makeup in outfits 99% of the time it’s with the wigs the platforms the makeup the costumes yeah yeah you’re going to do it yep if you’re G do it you got to do it right yes yes as we’re talking Alchemy I think
It’s the process isn’t it you got to put the ingredience into create the atmosphere and create the product yeah absolutely and it’s a whole mind change as well it’s it’s a very much a magical uh operation you know going from who I am to performing like that on stage so
The makeup and all it’s a change of mind well done Olivia how are you getting on with your uh masonry in uh it’s it’s going good um I do realize that my my French um is getting a lot better I’m learning a lot new a lot of new uh
Vocabulary so that’s really good um and uh we’ve got I think our lodge is normally Mondays so nor tomorrow’s is um is Lodge so it’s it’s going good and I I really like how most of the speakers always bring in some information about the the structure of the lodge and
Things like that but um you know it’s always I’m starting to kind of each time we get into Lodge I’m like okay that’s North that’s South that’s it’s that West I’m like putting things together slowly but surely it’s it’s like a it’s like a slow um it’s like a slow build of of
Layer upon layer of information it’s and each time I go in I’m like oh that’s what that means really it’s a it’s a great I suppose masonry Freemasonry or you want to describe the word masonry or Freemasonry is the anchor for all this you know it gives us the condition to
Understand when you’re in a launch all these uh other elements that surround us to contemplate on those just not just on that large meeting and what happens in there m yeah it’s exactly that there’s these there’s these um um it’s almost like the it becomes a scaffolding I’m starting to
Realize because I was I was with one of your lectures when the speaker spoke about the Tree of Life cabalist the cabalistic tree life and how that could be overlaid on onto something and I realize these things are like scaffolding structures they become a structure whether you call it you know whichever whichever
Um how can we say this I sometimes lose my French and English and I they start to do this when you start learning a different language you’re like which word should I use but it’s it’s it’s becomes a scaffolding on which I’m starting to build and an understanding
Of your your foundation and then you’re building the super structure as we describe in maery oh okay so okay that’s interesting that’s yeah I welcome back okay so we will follow the usual uh format we’ll ask uh you to raise your hand uh if you any questions comments uh
Observations please it’s an open Forum so please um let’s go for it and I’m sure I will be more than delighted to uh respond ah brother from Illinois ler research so can you uh it’s been embarrassing calling you Illinois lord lord of research it might be better if you know your
Name go ahead unmute yourself okay excuse me ex I think that and greetings brother um I think that the thank the Lord is just my opinion I but the V and Alchemy rism all go around this Prem and I suppose going into the later Middle Ages do with
Pism that time but in the frame of a Persona only again I don’t I tried my best not to dig up others work um I Heard the name of parisel was mentioned and this is this this other guy who’s tobius uh Chon during he’s Brit’s leading scholar in the field of Western na
Teris he brings mention to Paras as well um schanfield Caspar schanfield Johan I heard mentioned as well and Ash moo um parel is you know he’s known coming in through the uh the During the helenistic period in Alexandria regarding those current Transmissions those are these are Transmissions of the current so it’s
Probably like the expansion of the results he’s coming in post that um regard to hermeticism all right and he’s a Swiss physician we learned all right I want to contrast him with SH Swank fa excuse my Western English he’s an influencer and a developer and a leader little bit more of a
Broad um description uh compared to someone like parel is kind of he may matter he may not he’s one of those that fits the MTO dare to know or superiority because he’s post something you know the Hermetic current transmissions and uh that’s not really stapling him anywhere
Looking at these other ones that are going around Johan most significantly he’s a spiritual advisor on the writer so he’s pretty much in you know higher a higher realm and U ashm is a politician and Freemason officer arms out of them all I find the connection that helped me
You know with the cabala Alchemy and Ros crism and Freemasonry based on ashm Mo because he’s the only one that’s listed to be a Freemason that dug in a little bit and then I went to see that um in Johan Valentine Andre the spiritual advis on writers whole dial the whole piece that
Whoever posted the um data about him it reads right on the top of the page where things that he’s done are listed as he supposedly done he’s not really giv credit to say Johan did this Johan did that but it does try to skirt around or
Skate around the edges of the pie pie crust and say Jo was into something but it says he supposedly did supposedly and I’m thinking wow look at the controversy he’s facing okay and this is in all in light of the Rosa crucian movement um so
I said okay so ashm MO is known for carrying the hermic current forward there’s a connection between him and Paris celus and some of that opening might be because of what uh Johan is experienc he’s not getting on page credit for work um and it’s like leaving
Him as just some hangnail which is unfair if he’s gonna if it’s posted in my opinion but um definitely who becomes the underdog here is kaspar schield the influencer and the developer and the leader and uh that’s because cabala in my opinion and what what I’ve understood is that it explains the
Relationship between God and the universe this will bring light to these guys and what it is they work for all in the regard of Freemason specifically and that’s because in the Jewish discipline and Method um it’s rather esoteric and there is a school of of there is a school
Based on it school of thought it focuses on mysticism and there’s been adaptions in Western esotericism um since then and so those aren’t adoptions those are adaptions and so it has it’s spread um if you will um but more or less it’s become a foundation for mystical
Interpretations Juda so we can then get into some family we can kind of like lay a little bit around on Freemasonry um well it’s it’s um it there’s a couple of of of interesting points there uh you know paracelsus was um as Tobias Chon points out and several
Others point out it he was revered by the rosie Christians at least in the rosie Christian Movement um and they subscribe to a lot of is uh the the sort of you know he wrote a lot there’s a whole collection of alchemical and hermetic writings of paracelsus that are
Um combined there’s also what are known now uh I’m not sure I think there they were attributed falsely there might be a few fragments in there that are truly paracelsian but the uh the arched doxes of magic um so he was you know he was he was unabashedly what I love about
Paracelis is that he did not give a [ __ ] uh what anybody thought thought about him he’s going to talk about magic he’s going to talk about alchemy um uh we’re g to um you know he’s he’s going to tell people he he mean he made fun of the the
Alchemists of his day chided them for not wanting to heal people and uh you know whereas you get somebody like like uh Andre I mean he basically in his in his autobiography he talks about like I created I wrote the chemical wedding but he calls it like a Librium uh like a
Satire or a play thing or kind of this um I don’t know joke that that that he had going and I think that one of the things that you know uh it’s not proven that he that he wrote uh the first two but he was associated with the tubing in
Circle but one of the things that you got to remember about these guys is they were Christian clerics you know they’re not allowed to to be doing any of this stuff you know I mean like and they’re very rare you could be like Thomas aquinus level like no no no I’m just I’m
Just trying to see if like if I make gold with Alchemy if we can actually use it you know then then it’s that’s like a whole different uh investigation that’s kind of why guys like aquinus got a little more leeway and he of course was frer or um he was albertus magnus’s
Student who was the great experimentor of the church but um these guys were all clerics so they had to do this stuff on the hush hush but the interesting thing about paracelis is that even though I believe he was trained as a as um as a cleric he ultimately was a physician
Um and a lot of times back then like these guys got into this stuff I mean I would assume just to learn how to read and write because right there was no not necessarily any guarantee that you were going to be be taught the way we’re taught you know like formalized
Educational institutions the way we understand them didn’t come around till like the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century um but but there you know there’s that uh piece to it and yes absolutely agree with you it’s it’s it’s transmission of um of hermetic knowledge but what’s interesting is that with
Paracelsus it takes a turn um and he says uh you know I want to make medicine I want to heal people and he starts talking about being able to heal the masses through through this um you know alchemical application and the interesting thing that we find is that
Yeah the the the rosic chrisian manifesto being I mean more or less right within the span of History contemporaneous right he’s in Switzerland he’s in Germany he speaks German all this stuff I was trying to drive the point home like where do this get written Germany where did this guy
Live Germany where was this drawn Germany so um there’s that trajectory where it’s it’s kind of like safe to say that in the manifestos when they referen this quote unquote you know New Philosophy informed by the principles of alchemy by which to heal the world I
Mean that sounds a lot like Paras solsis to me so um it’s it’s just very it’s very interesting because some of this stuff happens in very very concerted way I want to point that out to anybody who’s listening some of this stuff is you know the circle of SC Anonymous
Scholars planning with Agrippa the circle of anonymous Scholars with Andre writing the manifesto the tubing in circle you know the um uh the circle of Scholars uh doing all sorts of things as the rosy Christians claimed to be right they claimed to be this this secretive group it’s very very clandestin and it’s
Very very intentional on the other hand there’s always this element this providential element of chance of randomness of chaos and and that finds itself like okay well then how did trmus get the books you know how did how did we how did this stuff come over here and
It happens in things like the Crusades you know you break into a library in it’s in a city you just conquered and you’re like oh you know we’ve been looking for this this for a hundred years that’s an element that’s not as it’s very haenan you know to a degree um
It’s not as necessarily intentional so it’s this really beautiful interplay and um you know it even says that in the rosicrucian manifestos you know it it has this whole idea of Providence and of the the um the rosy crucian order uh being a chain or a link or themselves really link
In the great chain of initiation which goes back to the distant past so they don’t even see themselves necessarily as like they’re one expression of of that transmission um Walter do you have a question I see your hand is raised uh Walter go ahead yeah not so much a question a couple of
Comments uh first off don’t underestimate Harry Potter uh Alchemy and masonry were were JK Roland’s two greatest influences in the creation of the Harry Potter books take a look at my presentation on Harry Potter this Harry Potter a masterm Mason it’s kind of fun but remember remember that even Hermione
Granger her initials are HG Mercury and that was deliberately chosen because she is the what brings Ron and Harry together so she is the central column on on the basic tree of life also I wanted to mention that’s that’s wonderful I have I have a Christmas tradition that I
Just finished every year uh for seven years I’ve watched all the Harry Potter movies leading up leading up to CH it’s I’m I I say it all the time if if JK Rowling was not an initiate she was she had studied well the great Arcanum uh
Because it’s it the entire series um is is is the capital M Mysteries right there right down to the death and Resurrection oh when I read the last book I just threw it over my shoulder I said I give up masteration degree you know two
The other thing I want to bring up is uh Carl Young’s the red book I have it I haven’t read it but look at the symbol and his you know things coming out ofous quite spectacular and uh of course we know that from his uh psychology and
Alchemy book and and his symbols of transformation those are two of the key books of uh to understand what Young was getting at when he was trying to study Alchemy as well I just want to add those bits and pieces yeah yeah no I mean that’s that’s
Very I mean the red book is actually what got me into uh got me into young and it’s highly you know he never intended it to be to be published it was a collection of his personal journals and I mean I I I’ve read some of that
Stuff and it’s it’s really I found it when I when I started my own my my when I joined the Golden Dawn I was initiated it was just starting to come I think it it had been like publicly released maybe like a year before but um and uh it it I just we
Were even though he’s very vague and very obscure and very poetic and emotional I understood every everything you know like it’s it’s like it’s those those Staples of experience that allow you to understand each other when you know you’re talking about mystical and and symbolic things like that but thank
You Walter for for for coming again um I’m very very happy that you uh you enjoyed the last one enough to be here also real quickly uh there is a book called the alchemical Harry Potter essays on Transfiguration in JK Rollins novels so you might want to check that
Out absolutely thank you man a fun it’s a fun book it uh edited by an memory m m a r y great thank you Olivia you got your hand up uh yes I do hi uh thanks again for a great um uh lecture it’s it’s always really cool
How things come together and how you connect ad dos it’s awesome um I have a question about color and especially the three colors in the um when we talk about the negredo and then the the alchemical uh queen and king so you’ve got the black red and white um I I
Started painting in 2019 and I was I was doing um skill lives so it was um very realistic still lives but I was completely drawn by those three colors so every still life that I had was a black background with red and white um and I went through a series of that not
Really understanding anything because I didn’t I I haven’t started my studies yet and it got to the point where I had five or six little paintings and they made a great scene a great um collection but um I started thinking why am I constantly using red black and white and
I started doing a bit of research and it turns out that those three colors play a big role in ancient symbology going further back and then also when we talk about cave paintings and the and the pigments that were available and I’m just and your last lecture that you did
About um the the Golden Dawn and the color theory um I it’s not really much a question I’m just also putting the the dots together in my own head but the three colors are there is there anything deeper than that in those three colors uh yeah yeah just just that’s that’s it
Well so this is uh one of the most interesting things to me those are the first three colors that babies see that’s exactly what it what they see they first first they see light and Shadow and then they see red because it’s indicative of danger things like
Blood heat stuff like that these are these are all very deeply deeply ingrained the collective uh unconscious and and they’re Universal you know stop signed Red because it’s like what’s going to happen if if you ignore it you know a that that kind of stuff but um uh according
To I would say so the thing is you what you got to understand about alchemy is that Alchemy is not a unified tradition they were the we have we have ancient um Dost texts the DST Cannons of of alchemy internal alchemy that go back to the BC
We don’t have that in the west right um but they they they take meticulous care of their records I think even when they’re you know when one culture comes in and tries to stamp the other regime out they’re just kind of like well well be careful with this this is important
You know but um uh that could be the case but what we find is that it’s the the the vernacular is not unified we find that the the the the the pathways as we would call them is not unified the objectives are not unified but what we find is consistent similar ities
Throughout the Spectrum um from east to west from antique to Modern from you know uh ancient to to to monor and um so it’s it’s virtually impossible to say with any certainty about what these things as broad as they are definitively represent but you can take
Sections and look at it that way that’s why the whole zimian period the helenistic period is so important because that’s when this stuff really started getting codified the transmutation of metals the philosopher stone and Alchemy as a spiritual trajectory that that happened then you know or at least that’s on
Where in the historical record were that bottleneck and we still have the records and so we can go and look at it and it’s very very interesting um but I would say that a a a modern interpretation meaning maybe in the last 300 years which really
Makes sense to me to me is the idea of this you have the black and the white are typically a a a dipole in the color magic of the Golden Dawn you begin your orations when you’re consecrating uh particularly something that has to do with the 12 colors of the the Zodiac and
Or even the seven colors of the planets let’s say you have a wand right you have a Lotus wand you have a phoenix wand the Lotus wand has 12 colors representing the the this color wheel right here turned into a a line a straight line that’s your wand is the color wheel um
But you you know the heavens shine above and the Earth is below and the and between them the colors vibrate and so you’re in in esotericism a lot of times you have um the white light which is indicative of unity the Beyond and you have the the darkness which is the the
Ignorance the Blackness of materiality a lot of people especially with this postmodern new AG kind of like you know we’ve destroyed Eastern Traditions here in the west and we’ve kind of shoehorned them into what feels good and what was on Oprah’s Book of the month club but um
So people automatically want to think like well yeah that’s the white light I have to I have to Aspire to yeah but that way lies dissolution it’s untenable for a human form you have to die to go there right is like you’re like your eyes can’t look upon face of God and
Live so the the final form is actually uh the redness is the I guess you would call it create the the the refle the microcosmic reflection that is created fire of the uncreated fire and what that is is fire as the vehicle of spirit in the material that is the the renovating
Fire of the spirit that moves through everything and that gives us this onus right not just I have reached Enlightenment I will now sit on a mountain peak no that’s go out and spiritualize matter go out and do something right I just had a a a um a a
A an interview with um with Michael R Osborne and he said something that I mean I wanted to stand up and just start applauding quietism does not help people’s life for the better you know quietism does not do that you have to go out and be active in this world this is
A world of of Duality we live in Duality the thing is you’re never going to escape it no matter how long you meditate because that’s escapism but what you can do is live in Duality with unity in mind and then your actions have to represent that Unity coming through
You like a prism you must be initiated and initiate with that spiritual fire and it’s also like the the the color of blood the thing that moves through your body that makes your body move is red Okay so and and that’s it’s right they call it the lifeblood I mean that’s that’s what
The heart moves the heart keeps you keeps the brain alive you know it not vice versa really because the thing is the heart has the SA node it has its own nervous system it’s not dependent on the on the nervous central nervous system for survival um you know it the the
Heart keeps everything uh the the whereas the I I believe the the brain requires 750 milliliters per like second of blood or or minute per blood uh um uh of blood in order to to to keep its function so the brain needs blood you know the whole thing so yeah that’s
Exactly to your point it’s that sulfurous oil that Essence um that’s that’s that has to you know do things right because then to say that like we’re here and the the point is to like Escape um negates the purpose of of Creation in the first place right and
It’s basically saying like ah they’ll figure it out um I’m just not I’m not going to contribute to the to the bad the bad stuff but and that doesn’t mean that you got to go out and hit the streets and be an activist it it means that you are to initiate people show
Them what you know teach them what you know not just intellectually but experientially because true initiation has an empirical transmittable uh experiential component thank you thanks all right before we move on to said a couple of things that I’ve been listening very intently to what you’ve been saying and
You know you talked earlier on about the religious uh developers of esoteric thinking they were priests or the clergy and it’s very similar to what happened uh in sort of the creation of English masonry Anderson Preston they all came from you know Samuel Heming who wrote a lot of the ulation ritual was
Part of the blood that was founded specifically to create the unified ritual with the Ancients so the element has always been there though it was said they were instructed not to remove the religious context within Masonic ritual in fact they gave it to the people uh
The men of the cloth to create Masonic ritual which is very interesting but other thing is also I was just thinking about this you know that what we talking about esoteric thinking and all that and we as in our daily existence we only think of the seven colors of the rainbow
But you know when you start thinking esoterically and you think Beyond you start looking at those colors that combine and create hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of thousands of different shades we’re still using the seven primaries but the human mind creates and starts visualizing others other Shades
Other colors other Concepts so I think it’s very interesting that you know so what you’ve been presenting has been trying to sort of move move us away from just looking at the seven colors and trying to see how when you combine those they become something different but yet
They attached to the Seven original original colors now the other thing is also I was going to say is that um you know we talk of uh our Aly and chemical processes but we forget that we live within a chemical process nature itself is a huge alchemical cauldron is
Bubbling away and creating and recreating and redistributing everything that exists but when I I once I’ve tried to get but I’ve got you know you you’ve been mentioning about the East and the Eastern Traditions that have been forgot but I’ve got a wonderful book that I
Will try to get to it’s called Indian Alchemy so the Vaders uh and I will try to S of if you can see it yeah bit F it’s a little blurry but but send me maybe maybe oh I see it s in the v vaa oh that’s awesome but the thing is the
Great thing about the book is the author has also connected uh the thinking with Western esoteric thinkers and writers you know going back to whatever you know from the Arab Arabic connection to the European connection is put loads of references I think for someone like you who’s doing research and you know
Delving deeper than we would I think it’ be a perfect uh addition to yourself creating new links in the chain yeah I appreciate that VC philosophy was the first I studied in com comparative religions I essentially went from I had a Catholic background um and you know
You my mother taught CID and everything and I baptized confirmed so I learned a lot about that but then my the first thing really was uh the vdas the upnishads and um uh Bita I I I spent a lot of time learning these things they’re very similar in Parable format
There were you know epic stories and things like that in mahabarata and and and and it was wonderful because that’s the same way the gospels talk yes you know and then and then you also have that very kind of um abstract component in in some of the vadas and and and
Things like that but um uh I I I moved on to to Daoism after reading uh the The Da ching and I got into esoteric dosm and I guess I studied ayurveda I mean here in the west you’re not going to learn it unless you go there but but but it’s it’s definitely
Something this is an area I’m very hungry to get my hands on I just I don’t know where to look reli you know for Reliable stuff so I appreciate that I’ll definitely get that book no yeah yeah probably you may not be able to find it because I get them from India oh
Somebody uh somebody gets so fortunately a brother came over last week from India and he’s bought me four copies because I’d like to share them out with brother anyone who has a deep deep uh research uh uh inclination so I will try to get
One uh somehow to you uh if I have your address details and everything absolutely put on chat or you know put it on the whatever way through David if you give David the details I’ll be delighted to uh pass it on to you thank you so
Much great Sid sorry to have uh kept you waiting please go ahead no no no problem uh Hassel um I’ll come back to the the subject remind me um um your Indian books if you can uh if you have any links with Russia or Russian Freemasonry uh follow that up but I
Believe there’s a link there with India but I’ll come back to that maybe later um those of you who don’t know me I usually make notes and uh first I say ik uh thank you for a tremendous presentation uh I’ve only seen this one from you okay very interesting um my
Interest is uh probably rosac chanism and templarism um anyway you asked about the source of that picture with the Eagles the double-headed Eagle um I’ve seen the books I’ve seen different copies I’ve seen different versions I’ve seen some amazing uh uh copies using real gold and real silver
And uh the the the the pictures in with silver they turn black because of uh the years um some amazing uh original Works going back to the 1500s um there’s also a copy it’s been copied uh called Pandora if you check up do a picture image search with
Pandora um this is alchemical book they’ve they’ve basically I believe copied from it um the name of the original book it’s called U book of the Holy Trinity in German in old German that’s that’s where I live I I I enjoy reading old German books so that’s
Pandora if you want to see something in English um Adam McLean’s gallery of alchemical im images oh he’s great I love him where that picture is from actually that you showed um alchemical symbolism cruci if you do a search the crucified Christ Eagle you’ll find that
And he’s written up some nice stuff in English about that symbol uh now the double-headed Eagle uh that goes way way back a very very long time and is linked to the Order of the Golden Fleece so those of you who know me I always come back to this again um and their
Symbolism um where we got before no she’s already gone no Oliver Olivia you’re still there okay Olivia I sent you a little message please drop me a line um via email and I’ll send you um I’ll send you some very special pictures from an old building um linked to female
Freemasonry I would be delighted thank you so much um very very beautiful symbolism um when I found it there was a very strange coincidence because close to it there was a a music shop and um I had the intuitive idea to look up and that’s where I found it and in the
Music shop uh somebody had left on on the glass uh table um a CD of Freemason Masonic music a beautiful CD so I was really bit knocked out about that um unfortunately um when I found it it well it had the original painting the original colors
But since it’s over 20 years years ago since then they’ve all they painted over everything okay but it’s got the Beehive there it’s got this beautiful symbolism um but I’ll send that to you anyway thank you so much you uh you mentioned the colors so I’m coming back to hassu on and India
Um Russian Freemasonry is very special so I’m not an expert so please remember that um between Moscow free Masonic lodge and St Petersburg Masonic Lodge systems so I’m going back to the the German and the Russian Links of Freemasonry in Russia okay and uh the Masonic Lodge that um his his
Name was labin so you have two key Freemasons one in Moscow and one in St Petersburg who translated amazing works from old German in and and the yet the the books of uh are the works of yakob buma okay and um Lain he was initiated at age
17 uh into Freemasonry and into um martinism okay uh and he he was the man who created a system now I don’t know if it’s active probably isn’t um so from from the Masonic Lodge you have a rosan lodge okay and they created so if you have a
If you visualize the symbol the first triangle so it’s a white triangle with point up that was the martinist work so above that there was a red triangle point up that was the Templar work and the highest was the black triangle which was the rosac crucian work now I don’t know
If it’s still active um but that I wanted to put that in there because you mentioned colors um regarding the Pelican Ike I unfortunately don’t have the source but but um the Second Source I do have but the First Source it was an old book old German book going way back
Um I regard as a few German old German books um original works of instruction I’ll call them that okay and they they they mentioned the Pelican and the Pelican is not feeding her chicks with blood she’s Awakening them now that link I found again in um some amazing Engravings
Um the Palm order if you remember the in tubing and circle there’s also a group called The Palm order their other name was um fruit Bringers the Bringers of fruit so here’s we’re coming back to the link with the Order of the Golden Fleece and that goes back because Herman fish
You’ve got the gold rose cross Rose crucians Herman fish said the secret is in in the chain so here you have the chain of the Golden Fleece uh The Links of the chain now that’s the steel and the stone okay that’s what you’re doing in in a masonic lodge you’re you’re
Hitting the steel and the stone and a spark is created okay um now in the Palm order Engravings this uh amazing amazing book uh from the Palm order the the pelicin there are two diagrams uh two Engravings uh the pelicin is Awakening her chicks and the ones who have awakened are feeding off
Grapes and that’s in one of their sorry to their Engravings um what El I got um double hear okay back to um interesting point you mentioned the the farmer frateris and the rose chrisan manifestos um if you write down the years if you place the years the numbers
Of the years you got 1614 1615 and 1616 you put those numbers together and multiply those numbers you will get the number 2592 okay and divide that by 72 you get 360 so what we’re doing is a system of cycles that will also take us back to to
The chemical wedding that’s the axis the axis of these Cycles okay um that brings me uh you me okay the the farmer fraternity arties there there are two two types there’s the original text just the farmer for attorney tatis um and the main ones that we all know
Contains the 77th advert of Tiano balini I’m sorry if I’m signing an expert I’m not okay no no absolutely you don’t know okay fine but I’m not an expert um Triano balini um the story is he was murdered before actually his work his main work was published now he can he
Create he he wrote this amazing work of satire a huge work it’s like you have small um newspaper articles or very big newspaper articles and the farmer fraternity Aris uh Reformation of the whole worldwide whole wide world is the 77th advert okay in the first year so sorry
So his book contains 200 years so the first 100 years that’s the 77th not in the second hundred years the 77th it’s a different article so they took the 77th advert or advice sometimes it’s called an advice and it’s it’s it was translated uh in in into English so
You’ll find it the complete work but the the 77th advert to find it is very difficult um if you read the first page of the advert you will find something that is impossible now that which is impossible uh to heal the sick if you saying to heal the sick um it’s it’s so
Difficult and so challenging what the goal of the adct is supposed to be or is um that is it is represented by a symbol represented called impossible it’s also written in French impossible okay um in the German word they’ve got a different description but the the English version
Is well worth trying to find balini Triano balini you’ll find two versions on Google Books on if you’re if you’re lucky you’ll get uh a very good scan um that’s let me see work S I think i’ I’ve got hold on let me see I’m sorry sorry I’ve got
Second page here just uh hasle cut me off if it’s getting too much too much okay you carry on this is your opportunity uh the the word the process I I always use that and I I I use it for a similar reason um so I’ll I’ll I’ll before I’ll do that
Um Things Fall Apart that the center cannot hold and this is why groups lodges whatever fail they fall apart and that has to do with a with a with a law in fact it’s the law also from kunat kunat speaks of the three Perfections and the three Perfections is
Past perfect present perfect and future perfect that has to do with synchronization okay now synchronization is linked to the process which is a law it’s a it’s a the movement of a law or the movement of energy which is a law like the law of the triangle want to put
It that way um you can experience it perhaps as the um what do you call it the the the Eternal the Eternal uh what do you call it you know that that figure Infinity yes thank you that’s that’s basically what I wanted to say um synchronization is something else it
Might take too long there uh the three Perfections so that’s from krad um right monad of course okay monard uh regarding the the monard with the 10 figures if if you’re interested you would like to create or make sorry make um a tetraedron like you can see in the
Pictures of HRI kunat the plates uh all you need is uh 20 table tennis balls and you you create the triangle with 10 tennis balls and then you build it up and you can glue them together and you’ve got your tetrahedron um as as a meditation tool it’s also worth looking into
Um remember that Things Fall Apart that the center cannot hold so we’re back to the circle and the importance of the center point it’s um um regarding too you mentioned uh Toledo in the old books I’ve seen they always refer to the place of magic so anyone interested in Magic they would
Going back then anyway going back and I mean and I mean that’s where the Zohar was written too yeah um it’s also the place where they made swords and probably still do I think I believe but that an important Center maybe um now I’m coming back to Colors
Uh you know what Druids are but Druid Druids um okay what what happened there the Phoenicians came to the UK or came to England or the island the Phoenicians came and their wise men were called Druids or they had the title Druid and they had a special kind of
Clothing um and that’s why they were called the purple people because the die on the clothing they were noticed either on the whatever on their throat or on their hands or whatever um and then that uh the wise men from Phoenicia coming over to the English Isles
Um I guess they transferred their wisdom and then turn created the Druid system or Druids so as far as I know the term Droid comes from Phoenicia um Healing The Sick okay um we are trapped my personal opinion my understanding we are trapped within the contract so we’ve already we chose we
Made that choice okay to enter the contract so the contract um so we’re talking about the creation so you have in your systems you have the creation the story of creation and and and then we’re born so we enter into the waters we we normally lose our memory okay
Um now the so I’m coming back to the four rivers four rivers of the Soul so this is not me this is Julius sperber another important German uh writer Julius sperber um he’s one of the only Engravings I’ve seen of calling him a cabalistic master um okay um Healing The Sick
Now the need to heal the sick you you need to become an adep and the adep has to enter the waters above okay and the reason we’re unable to do that is because the knowledge has always been misused okay and it’s still being misused now so what was what happened 20
Years ago is already here okay in principle so we can repeat this um until we um make other choices different choices um movement of the law the contract to okay the ships of fools also need water and air to sail okay now in in some of the old
Older Masonic buildings over here you might see I I know one beautiful example a ship like the golden uh I I’ve shown it before but uh ship and some of these Engravings you probably um may not notice ship in the background or uh a fish so fish needs
Water to swim it also needs water to live so here are other examples of um so the a my my perception is that a functioning Lodge a seriously functioning Lodge uh to heal the sick um would be a sailing ship within the waters above um the the waters according to Uli
Spba uh his his book was so amazing I had to translate it into English it was just so I’ve I’ve done a draft translation of one of his books um he’s talking about the four rivers uh of the Soul or the four rivers of the world so
This water source so you got you know you have one you have one two one two three then you have one two 3 four so you understand what I’m talking about okay well well one maybe maybe fire but the fire of water so that’s that’s the source of the purest Source coming down
Okay that’s but you can find those in other other occult books yeah it’s Sim similar to similar to the four worlds of the cabala but there’s also there’s also the the the four the four rivers obviously taken from Genesis that they are incorporated into the um the the the
Uh the holy symbol of the rosian Cross by the the inner order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn yeah well the the thing with the Golden Dawn is they’ve copied from a lot of materials from old German sources but they hav given their sources um in a lot
Of the work uh I I know some I think France Hartman did some amazing work um and he gave his sources with giom Mantia and stuff like that it’s if you if you study the Golden Dawn curriculum as it is um because a lot of it’s been a lot
Of it has been added to um but there’s a good you know there’s a good amount that that is is original it’s it’s not that hard to find where they got uh a lot of their stuff from um but you know you have to kind of you have to go back
Which is what I did in the in the the last lecture I gave the the early hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and how it came out of Rosie crucian free masonry you’re talking about you know the ordin schwat and Rose you know over there in Germany the order of the black
Rose and that and and Herman fold stuff and uh uh loot Becker’s work with um licked lean lean Lodge and then obviously everybody knows the golden Rosen crza was where I mean every they got everything uh in terms of this idea of of of the order being alchemical and
The grade titles and the grade sequencing and placing that on the tree of life things like that so so a lot of and but the thing is truthfully the more I research I’m still finding new stuff like oh my God this is this is this is this is verbatim just this one paragraph
Came out of this thing so but um yeah you’re you’re absolutely right with it being Mo I would say that most of it is it’s German and with with a with some some French peppered in there I mean obviously Agrippa too figures extremely heavily the basically their entire system of hierarchies and their
Corrupted form of Hebrew uh is is directly from Agrippa um okay if I may one one last Point uh my personal opinion though um in in principle we’re trapped within the cabal cabalistic tree okay uh and then when the P when the penny drops uhhuh okay we’re within
A process then then the next question is how do we how do we uh come out of this and what do we what needs to be done and now when you you made a you’re one of the first people that actually I has actually made that point regarding As
Above So Below um I’ve criticized that a number of times uh but even kunat writes I believe uh As Above So Below now kunat could write that because he was an adct I believe because there there are two parts of the secret As Above So Below
Now to achieve that then he is a or she is able to heal the sick um and actually work uh okay okay that that’s me thank you for uh thank you for a great presentation I uh I’m sorry I missed no I mean they’re they’re up there you can
Go and watch them on the superiority YouTube channel I appreciate your thoughtful insights and you know one one of the last things that I want to tack on to what you’d said since you finished up with that idea is that I had TR I have training so to heal the sick I
Don’t think is a straightforward like you’re saying I don’t do not think it’s like go out there and and Patch people up and give them you know herbs and things like that I could be part of it if that’s what you’re called to but ultimately um it’s it’s it’s a spiritual
Sickness and um it requires um when I was in I I trained to be um an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist and one of the most amazing things that you know once you get into the higher levels if you you kind of ingratiate yourself with certain teachers and they see you
Have an esoteric proclivity they start revealing to you things that uh it’s an extremely esoteric science extremely they’re not able to reveal a lot of that because it’s it’s just the you know in the the workplace it’s not really it doesn’t it’s not appropriate in certain
Venues but um at least in the west but uh one of the things that I was admonished was that um two things this is pretty this is pretty obvious when you walk in and you greet a patient the first thing that you really have to assess and then confront them with is
Before we go any further here are you willing to stop doing what is making you sick that is um that’s a huge thing but then also this idea was that at a certain level the practitioner the doctor like you’re saying being an addict um having done internal Alchemy and things like that
The mere presence walking into the clinic room the the the the patient coming making setting the intention and making the appointment to see you Begins the healing trajectory your presence alone because of the fact that you have made yourself the stone you become you radiate a universal penasia you know you
Are and and and and in that way kind of you know we keep lighting lighting further Flames further candles and no when when when a candle continues to be lit by its previous Flame the previous flame doesn’t diminish in any way it’s just you’re just going along and and
Doing that sort of thing and this was the ideal of the what I would say the classical um Chinese medicine uh practitioner was and I was astounded to hear that and how similar really that seemed to what I had you know known or been been trained to understand about rosik chrisian adep
Hood thank you thank you Sid thank you um we are coming on to three hours so Ike how are you doing for time because we have to take into consideration your availability in your time as well don’t take advantage of it yeah I appreciate app that um I’m just glad it looks like
A lot of people have have stayed on I’m going to say this I let’s do like two more questions but I want to give everybody the chance to reach out and if you if you can’t think of anything you don’t you know you’d rather just have a one-on-one or you think of something
Later just reach out to me go to ik baker.com there’s a little form there or if you’re on Instagram and you follow me you can message me there I I attempt to make myself available and uh I will get to your question event eventually I I promise as long as it’s appropriate but
Everybody here is great so um just couple of points before we move on to our brother from Illinois Grand Sid mentioned about Russia and Russian rism if I recall right and David will be the one who will correct me on this many many moons ago when we just started this
Uh Forum we had a brother from Russia who presented a uh you know a whole piece on rism in Russia so maybe if you can if I can remember it or David can dig it out we’ll share it with everyone and also the other thing is it brother
Kmian brother kmian I it yes yes it was quite a while ago but I can’t remember the number but I’m sure we’ll dig it out and maybe share it again and the second thing was that Sid you mentioned about Druid and I was watching a wonderful YouTube documentary on a t called B
Brady and he’s of the old GIC order predating uh The Druids and it’s fantastic because he was the last of the line and you know it’s a beautiful documentary if you want to uh view it is on YouTube but sorry I thought you I just put our a couple of bits in there
Um go ahead you raise your hand brother yes um looking at this origin the origins of it and belief it’s going into France was mentioned earlier 12 13th century Spain and Southern France and um so this this predates um the rosan Ruan movement I want say rosan crucian ism but this
Movement and in tandem if you will with the cabala in my understanding because a cabala I felt it to be uh something positively um perhaps psychological if it’s in the right hands and right care because it explains and as psychology is defined in some instructors uh view it’s it’s an
Observation of the relationship between two variables right so it’s not really playing any part it’s on the outside and as I understood kab the cabala to be versus what I my assumption of it was which was something tangible it explains the relationship between God and the
Universe and so it’s been dealt with but then it so in philosophies it can it can enable um because of it you know potentially being a primordial blueprint to um to world religions uh an an evolving tradition more or less are your back I I really want to know though about the difference
Between not the difference but we have a circle that’s the Jewish tradition and then one inside of the circle that’s the Jewish cabalists in uh contrast to what the cabala is and how that makes the impact because of the nature of what the cabala is and the nature of human
Cabalists yeah I mean if I understand the the the the question correctly I think my my main contention in having researched um to a fairly you know extreme level which you know you could study this stuff for the rest of your life and I like to say all
The time you know today’s wisdom is is tomorrow’s Folly new evidence will pre present itself that will somehow contradict every very definitive indelible statement you attempted to make but um the the thing is what I’ve what I understand about the Hebrew cabala first of all there’s no there’s
No one Hebrew cabala I mean the tree of life itself is a relatively later development um I would say that um personally I I have a very controversial view of these things I believe Christianity itself and the cabalistic a uh and meraba variations of Hebrew mysticism are direct result of those people’s uh
Exchanging in cultural and religious synthesis in uh Alexandria Egypt and and and and larger the larger you know um Mediterranean During the helenistic period because that’s when I mean you know that’s when you see marava mysticism those documents and things like that we have the
The ear one of one of the earliest sects right St Marcus brings Christianity to Alexandria in 42 CE and then from there this massive Gnostic Renaissance takes place they find the nagam cuses just outside of Alexandria you have all of this helenistic Roman Egyptian interplay and then hellenized Judaism
Creates uh its mysticism which we understand today really um at least for which we have his exent historical record of course there are talmudic Traditions that you know that that that predate that of course but the whole thing is that the method of cabalistic exegesis of those documents
Did not exist at that time as we understand it um and so uh I find I just want to say that I find lanic cabala to be the most direct descendant of the neoplatonic Gnostic current um because you find his tree lanic tree directly modeling the neoplatonic uh
Agoad and the the the cosmos the nested spheres descending down from from the the the non-causal realm that Plato Intimates in book 10 of the Republic in the myth of ER and then people like platinus and people like poery start talking about well they pass through these spheres and as they pass through
The Spheres these accretions are given to them by the planetary spheres they put on their astral garments and here we have ethos anthropos Diamond as her heraclitus put it you have your character and you have your fate and you got that as you pass through these spheres it’s essentially the same model
That Isaac luua uses and then he also talks about um you know the klipot and the tun and this idea of rectification is a very Gnostic idea that we live in a very imperfect realm and that we have to attempt to spiritualize it and that that should be our
Soteriology um and that’s very very reminiscent of uh of of neoplatonic um ideals that were being cultivated and really just spread wholesale everywhere that’s what Alexander came to do the alexandrian conquest were to introduce these Greek ideas but you know then you research more and you realize like oh
Solon phes Pythagoras Plato they all learned this [ __ ] in Egypt in the first place so it’s you know it’s these things that keep coming back they keep cycling back and I I guess if you if you want to if you’re asking about the distinction between cabala and cabalists I would
Very much tack I would just borrow what uh what Olivia had said um I I view it as a scaffolding you know I don’t view it as this concrete indelible reality I think I mean Plato himself talks about it in the dialogues and it’s it’s part of a spiritual tradition is that every
Time I take a concept A Spiritual reality and I attempt to talk about it every word is a tiny coffin I aerify the concept I chop it into ever lar smaller pieces in in order to attempt to communicate it but we need these scaffoldings in order to to convers in
This stuff and Inspire each other and they they are a finger pointing in the right direction just the thing is like Bruce Lee said don’t focus on the finger focus on where it’s pointing and and so I think that that’s the main that’s how cabalism becomes so you know
Multivarious and so diverse and they’re they’re all even Isaac laua says you know this is such it goes back it just keeps going people think that this idea of like ascended masters and inner contacts is like a blavatsky thing it got wonky around then right because then
Everybody started doing it you know and it’s like well who who’s that really talking to in your head you don’t know you have no idea but but but if you look at Lauria he T he he talks he says specifically I got all this information from The Souls of dead rabbis I
Conversed with them in my dreams and and things like that and and so yeah he you know everybody’s getting their piece of it and putting their kind of P filtering it through their perspective lens and um the thing is and what I try to do people
Have commented that I try and find the threads I’m just trying to find the Naked Truth underneath all the dressing and and I’m just I’m just trying I’m trying that’s all I’m not even saying I’m succeeding but that’s what I think that’s what you have to attempt when you because I’ve
Experienced some of it I I have personal nosis but the only way I can communicate it is by trying to point it out historically sorry I I was just going to say that if you look at the you know everyone thinks that after Alexander failed to conquer India as it as we call
It now that was the end of the sort of the Greek connection but if you read the further history there were so many interactions there were so many who intermarried into the nobility and you know created many kingdoms and many um many nations so you know
I think that’s all s disappears in the midst of time and everyone just thinks that was a line and that’s it that was a and that’s I think where where you also coming in and saying there’s no ly it’s only what imagination is there’s no line
Right and and and and the thing is even like so look at look at the right the neoplatonic Neo neoplatonism right it was that philosophy was enough of a diversion or or or development out of platonism to Merit its own title right it’s not late platonism anymore it’s
Neoplatonism and that starts really with platinus and who was plotinus’s teacher who taught him all this stuff it was amonia sakas and the thing is that’s not a name that’s a title that’s an epitet Amon sakas the cian teacher the cian sage this guy came likely from Parts
East India you know and and one of the things that we have is that poery says in his life of platinus after he studied with ammonia sakas he was so involved that he made plans to travel to India and study it there but the thing has happened is um the regiment he was
Supposed to travel with a military regiment uh I think the the the commander fell ill or died or something and the trip fell apart but there’s I mean they called Alexandria the city where East Meets West so yes you’re right I I do not believe it’s one or the
Other and it’s interesting the word you use Sak Sakai is still used in Indian language to mean uh a place for teaching a school that’s amazing yeah yes um we’ll take the last question Mike there’s nothing no questions on YouTube you still got five uh participants uh uh and
Michael will make you the last person uh at the last question please unmute yourself and go ahead thank you for that brother uh just I guess I wanted to I’ve been listening to all of the comments and the different points of views and it’s amazing how much um esoterism and esoterics and uh
You know the different uh houses have to bring to Enlighten a soul and a person to go through their different processes but I just want to tie it back to um I guess what you end it with which is Freemasonry and everything else that was actually embedded into Freemasonry uh
Many of the books of the um beginnings of freemer in 1717 and maybe and so on talks uh different people being into the different houses and bringing these ideologies in right uh and in the symbolisms you could actually see it as you go to degrees uh even if you extend
Yourself into different houses um I guess my question would be in today we’re in some uh places let’s just put it that way the this notion of this practices have actually just become a do it on your own yourself and it’s being neglected um which I think to my in my
View is that is actually important primordial to the survival of the fraternity self um How do you handle that how you how do you tackle that uh because I know that a couple of things came to mind you know as you guys were talking uh which is actually action
Which is speaking and um also uh you know staying centered to what is actually being given so the LOD won’t die um I’m just paraphrasing someone else’s uh thought or quote um so that that will be my my thought or something that comes to mind because you see it embedded in
Everything um in in in the rituals and Etc thank you yeah um so if I understand your your question correctly it’s kind of a two-part thing how do you keep how do you keep the the community the lodge alive and and and the tradition alive now because we’re having um this very
Highly indiv individualistic I’m going to go my own route is that is that essentially what you’re asking yes thank you uh I for capturing my thoughts yes yeah no it’s not it’s not that it’s it’s about um you know I’m my mind’s a little stretched so I’m just
I want to make sure I’m I’m on my aame right now as much as I can be but I appreciate your your um your comments and your question um this is a big thing for me it’s not it I have spent I mean probably every thinking about this since
I joined my first um order esoteric order thank God uh I feel I was I was I I I to Me free Will and determinism are just opposed completely and perfectly at the center of this this issue you are yes absolutely we are trapped we are subject to the laws of materiality and
The consequence es of our of our own actions but the thing is that we do have there are intersections where we have uh Free Will based on whatever Choice it’s not infinite free will it’s here you get two three choices you got to pick one it’s a fact it’s a subjective SP fact
Right we could rationalize it and and break it down into these little uh you know um kind of uh nistic um semantic arguments but at the end of the day the evidence of your eyes and years your lived experience tells you like yes I chose this thing over the
Other um and that that that comes into play greatly because again there’s that element of of chance of Providence um that I talked about earlier in the transmission of this stuff and I truly believe that it’s right intention it’s the same thing the Rosa Christian said they said the same
Thing don’t look for us we’ll find you and you’ll be made ready to become a brother when your intentions you know when you’ve got that in interior kind of component rectified and it’s got to be very strong and I think that that is what drives people into where they
Should be um like attracts like to a to a large degree um we gravitate towards certain I would call them egregor that’s a huge component of symbolic teachings um there is a stream of esoteric thought that says that the symbols themselves are the teachings the symb themselves are the alchemical
Catalysts and everything else is commentary and to to a greater or lesser degree I agree with that completely and so when you begin to align yourself with let’s say in my instance right uh early on the symbolism of the that the the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn uses
Well I was given a choice I I got closer and closer to it is magnetic attraction kind of despite myself and I was given a choice uh particularly through cabala and I denied that choice I ran away I was a no call no show for my first
Initiation uh as a Neo fight because I chose that this is too much I got cold feet a million different excuses many years or several years later my life completely fell apart and immediately that burning desire for initiation was still there and I went back and so I took the circuitous route
I took the I took the long way I mean that’s me it’s just what I do you know I took the long way to get there and I think but I ended up where I needed to be because my intentions were were in the right place right because that’s
That’s that fire that heart heart fire it was still there and it brought me eventually where I needed to be not everybody’s going to have that same heart fire um uh and not everybody’s going to have those same intentions I I don’t I don’t begrudge anybody for wanting to live an exoteric
Life as a matter of fact sometimes I live an a life steeped in es terorism to a fault to the detriment of that delicate balance of material and spiritual practice but I think um it’s that’s the best way to keep something alive but at the end of the
Day nothing as as you know our brother Sid pointed out um nothing stays forever only the Eternal only the center remains um you know everything else kind of eventually has to permutate it has to change but we can contribute to what that looks like uh based off of what we
Do with our Free Will and our and our and our choice and and always trying attempting to act in the interest of our highest possible inclinations there’s a lot of post-modern [ __ ] rationalization behind this idea that there is no good there is no bad uh but
We know that that’s not true and we’re experiencing this bifurcation of our own Souls right now that is is turning us into these automatons we have have to stuff down we have to stuff down the the the the the the uh uh you know aberration against our souls uh and and
Cover it with materiality and identity and and and and pile more different identities onto me and and and and at the end of the day the soul is screaming we know what is right um so sorry sorry to interrupt go on no that’s it but but I mean I have found
That I have continued been around those types of people people that that are inspired and inspire me and I thank God every day for that but it comes with seriously checking in with where am I what are my intentions am I still following the promptings of my hire or
Is this become the ike show you know that’s not what you want you do not want to be you don’t you don’t want you behind the wheel I promise you but but uh but but I can I just interrupt say you need someone to lead with a staff
Yes and the ik show is good enough for many of us so yeah well I mean you can thank whatever’s whatever has has has forced me to submit to this this yoga this yoke this discipline you know because it’s not you know it’s not always easy but to
Finish that last thing off is that um things I I brought this up I did an an episode called what is Freemasonry it’s the first part of a two or three-part series and I talk about how numbers have dwindled and how at the same time that hearth fire that Central fire has been
Paired but it’s it’s being nurtured and nourished and blown on kindled and that’s that’s kind of the whole purpose of when things get small organizations get small they because it’s just this ever it’s this continual Flux Of expansion contraction expansion contraction so you can only control what’s going on inside of you
And then how you act on what’s going on outside of you and then you have to just kind of give the flow and like you’re saying like you know you have to be led by by certain promptings and and if if look let’s say right I have a Golden
Dawn Temple you got let’s just say hypothetically we got 50 people on the books how is that any better than having like 8 to 12 seriously dedicated people it’s not it’s not any better so you know numbers and groups aren’t you want the quality you want the intention and don’t
Be scared when things get small totally I want to thank you for your comment there are my thoughts uh smaller is never uh bad a bad thing because it’s more intentional uh so thank you thank you for that yeah thank you Anna you got a comment on there either you know if you
Want to unmute and just read your comment and then s will give you a last opportunity if you just want to finish off Anna do you want to read your own comment uh it was sure I can that was just a statement that I always thought that uh knowledge it
Should never be bo boxed in it should always be allowed to grow with us the way we grow and the W the way we grow and um it’s a stepping stone and it’s not a cofin that was basically what I was trying to say fantastic great have it in
Your own words is the best thing rather than me reading it and finally finally said uh and we’ll make that the last uh uh comment of whatever you say said um very very very short if you make one promise to me hassu um let Ike have the
Last word um of course he will he’ll have to close I would just like to mention something for Christmas um most of you if not all of you know this very funny film with Eddie Murphy okay it’s called Trading Places oh yeah love it now if you at the beginning uh they both
Of those Brothers they bring in Eddie Murphy and they’ve got gold and they’ve got bacon and everything lined up on the table in front of him do if you remember it’s right at the beginning of the film and when he mentions gold the old guy talking about the gold
Behind him there’s an oil painting on the wall and that is an oil painting of a Freemason and the first Ros crucian who traveled to the new world and that was General or sorry not General he wasn’t General a young guy called Lafayette um now that oil painting is in
That building it might be even the original uh I just wanted to put that in there because he is according to my information he was one of the first Rosa crucians coming from France to the new world and he was a personal friend of George Washington and
He spoke uh as a a young Freemason uh in front of the Miss uh the the the Washington Lodge I believe twice was that was that is that Marquee de Lafayette Washington rightand man yeah oh that’s amazing yeah I had no idea he was a Ros Christian yes well that’s that’s my
Information wow he’s one of the first actually that came to the new world from France so and wasn’t Benjamin Franklin also member of the lodge in Paris where he belong they belong to the same Lodge well I’m not wrong I may be wrong but thank you for a great thank you ik thank
You guys I I the last uh was words are your wisdom and your thoughts uh um I’m not sure I have wisdom more than I have some thoughts um one thing that I I want to um one thing that I want to say is that you know uh well I’ll how about this
I’ll promote I’ve got a book that’s that’s going to come out via Tria Prima press um they’ve done uh they did brother Nate chick’s last book um and and uh they’ve published some stuff by Jamie lamb and and brother pety Newman um this is going to be basically a broad
Survey of the western esoteric Traditions kind of in this vein following that kind of underground stream or that that aradan thread I guess uh from um the the alexandrian conquest uh really I mean even since the Mesopotamian astrologers uh to the current day but uh uh that should be out probably spring of
2024 and uh I have for Christmas I and I’m praying that I stay on track because it’s it’s not easy but I’m doing for anybody that did watch the the other uh superia a lecture that I did on um on hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn I’m
Doing a full scale multi-part series on on the history of the Golden Dawn it’s going to talk about theosophy it’ll talk about um you know the Stella matutina talk about the German Rosie crucian orders that it came out of up until you know far raw and the uh and
The cisero lineage um so for that should be on the channel Arcanum with a V uh this winter I just want to encourage you all to this is a very stressful time of year for many of us in the holiday season um you know I hope that you all
Have wonderful celebratory season season whatever you celebrate um and just stay find a way to stay calm and just you know invoke a lot of that the spiritual disciplines that we’ve trained ourselves with to to remember um to be the light shining in the darkness so I appreciate you guys
Thank you so much for for everything and for challenging me with your comments and questions and and also allowing me to to to have this space I appreciate you thank you thank you I thank you for that and this we I’m sure is not going to be the last time you’re going to
Appear on this forum we this is just a pause great so we look forward to seeing you again and obviously uh this will be also available on YouTube to download uh for an opportunity to see all the three together and make the full story as a presentation uh thank you
Very much anyone who wishes to download the comments section can do that now um for another couple of minutes I’ll keep the uh recording on and in the meantime we look forward to seeing everyone again sometime I’m not sure when the next presentation is but I’m sure David will send out the
Notifications hello David is he unmuted himself but uh so thank you everyone and look forward to seeing you all again and wishing you all a good week ahead take care take Care
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