English
When the priests and officers of what was blasphemously proclaimed as religion were chiefly concerned with murdering, robbing, and tortur- ing all who stood in the way of their profitable tyranny over popular belief, the alchemists were endeavouring to learn how by self-denial and purity of life, and loftiness of unworldly purpose, it might be possible to elevate that human nature, which for the most part wallowed around them in such ignoble debasement, and were struggling in their own way, which hardly seems to have differed in any essential characteristics from our way, to get upon what we call the path of occult progress, leading on to the goal—or perhaps only the intermediate goal—of, Adeptship. But why, it may be asked, did they write books at all if the unfavourable conditions among which they lived were such as to make it impossible for them to write in a way any one less wise than themselves would understand ? If they had taught their doctrine of salvation plainly they, and their books with them, would instantly have been burned by the authority of the Church. Was it worth while, then, to teach these doctrines in language that could not reach the intelligence of any one requiring the lesson ? The apparent reply to this question is twofold. First, they who knew what they meant, seem to have imagined that their meaning would become intelligible to persons spiritually ripe for profiting by occult teaching. Whether this expectation was often or ever realised we cannot now be sure. But secondly, it would be easy to see why the true alchemists should write, even if they did 374 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. not expect to be understood by any one in need of teaching. They may have written to introduce them- selves to one another. -Anybody who could write a book about alchemy, about the. manipulation of lead, sulphur, and mercury, the red and white powder of projection, and so on with all the “ gibberish ”’ that would be used about crucibles and sublimations, about coagulating the fugitive tinctures, and so on, and who could at the same time weave into this the esoteric doctrine con- cerning the path of occult progress, which we in this day are privileged to discuss openly, would be recog- nised as a genuine occultist by any other occultist who might take up his treatise. Bearing all this in mind, however, we must remember that besides the genuine occultists who wrote on spiritual progress under cover of alchemical symbology, a great host of sordid hunters for gold, altogether failing to understand the loftier purpose of real alchemy, took up the research in the hope of acquiring riches, and of actually manufacturing the precious metal. The real alchemists were constantly giving out warnings against this mistake in language as plain as it could be made compatibly with not betraying their secret in unequivocal terins, but none the less was the avaricious world always fermenting with the notion that alchemical processes might be a short and easy road to wealth. In this way a great many persons, entirely outside the range of .the description already given of the real alchemists all through the Middle Ages, spent time and money on trying experiments with physical mercury, salt, and sulphur, and all the chemical drugs and pre- THE THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 375 parations they could get knowledge of, with the manu- facture of tangible gold as their object and disappoint- ment their only harvest. Some of these may have written some of the innumerable alchemical treatises which exist, recording the experiments they may have carried out, and setting forth their own conjectures as to the reason why such experiments may have failed ; and such deluded and disappointed searchers after the philosopher’s stone may here and there have stumbled on bits of chemical discovery so far vindicating the profoundly stupid view of alchemy at large, common to modern encyclopedias and conventional belief. This idea, of course, is that from A to Z all the alchemists were self-deluded gold hunters who failed to accomplish their object, ex necessitate rer, but in their futile struggles after it, laid the foundations of modern chemistry. They really did immeasurably less in that direction than they have been credited with; but the modern commentators who are foolish enough to suppose that a long procession of learned men, whose writings abund- antly prove them in many cases,—alchemy apart,—to have been broad-minded, philosophical, and intelligent, were all the victims of an empty, avaricious dream, afford in themselves the saddest spectacle of self- delusion that the history of alchemy brings to light. Before we come to closer quarters with the alchemical books themselves one more general conclusion on the subject may conveniently be set forth. Leaving out of account the host of alchemical chemists—the deluded experimentalists who sought the philosopher’s stone on the physical plane in order to get precious metal by 376 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. its means and grow rich—and concentrating our atten- tion entirely on the real alchemical philosophers who were on the path of spiritual progress and concerned with far higher objects than the transitory experiences of this life can afford, we have to consider by the light of what we now know concerning occult mysteries what would naturally have been, for the real alchemist, the consequence of discovering the real philosopher’s stone, the secret that is to say of real spiritual attain- ment. Remember that while esoteric progress rests, as on a primary foundation, on the ethical principles which are taught, though often sadly mistaught, by exoteric religions also, it contemplates a very much larger result than the attainment of an unintelligent spiritual beatitude. Exoteric religion says in effect, be good and devout on earth, then you will be taken to Heaven and be happy evermore. Esoteric teaching says, be good and devout to begin with, to put yourself in tune with the higher planes of Nature, and then aim at the expansion of your knowledge faculties and states of consciousness in accordance with the latent possibilities of the Divine principle within you. The world contains a kingdom of beings, so to speak, above the human kingdom, into which men may rise if they set to work to climb in the right way. Now the real alchemists were aspirants for ‘“‘ Adeptship,” as we should express the idea in modern Theosophic language, and it is quite obvious in various ways to the student of occultism, that some of them attained that condition of being. But if any of them were Adepts, then such persons would, by the assumption, have acquired THE THEOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 377 powers over the obscurer laws of Nature, and knowledge concerning the forces lying beyond the physical plane, which would amongst other results have invested them with the power of influencing matter in a way that is entirely beyond the capacity of the physical-plane chemist. Occult phenomena have taken place of recent years, within the knowledge not merely of some Theosophical students, but also in great abundance in presence of spiritualistic wonder seekers. Many of these are not less bewilderingly unintelligible than the trans- mutation of one metal into another would be. Apart from all questions of evidence, therefore, any occult student would recognise that the transmutation of one metal into another would be most likely well within the range of the occult phenomena, that anyone who could at all be called an Adept, would be able to produce. This reflection leads us up to the correct appreciation of one surprising discovery to which anybody who takes the trouble will be led by the study of alchemical literature. The evidence to show that certain of the alchemists really did accomplish the much-talked-of physical experiment and turn out metallic tangible gold, that could be coined into money in considerable quantities, is simply overwhelming. Modern obstinacy and prejudice in dealing with the subject of alchemy ignores this evidence, and all branches of the history of the alchemists which tell unfavourably on its own pig-headed and self-sufficient view, but with as much confidence as we can speak of any historical transaction, we may say that Nicholas Flammel and Raymond Lully 378 : THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. among others actually accomplished the physical trans- mutation. Were they, it may be asked, as a consequence of their extraordinary power, people of great wealth and magnificent living ? Not at all. Flammel certainly gave away enormous sums for the building and endow- ment of churches, and Lully supplied Edward IT. with great quantities of gold to be spent on the Crusades ; but it invariably appears that the Adept who could make gold, has been himself far too spiritualised a philosopher to Jive a mundane life of luxury or profusion. That ought to be readily comprehended, and the objec- tion that alleged real alchemists sometimes lived in obscurity and apparent poverty, as an objection to the theory of their power, is no less vulgar-minded and gross thar it is unintelligent. Moreover the alchemists, whether real Adepts or fraudulent pretenders, were subject to very embarrassing treatment by the genera- tions among which they lived—always liable to be imprisoned and tortured to extort confessions of their secret. One of the true philosophers of alchemy, Alexander Sethon, author of a remarkable treatise called ““ An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King,’ writes: “As if driven by the furies, I am compelled to fly from place to place and from kingdom to kingdom. . . . And thus though I possess all things I have no rest or enjoyment of any except in the truth which is my whole satisfaction. . . .