Liu I-ming on How to Read the Hsi-yu chi (The Journey to the West)

[image from www.innerjourneytothewest.com]

 

Translated and Annotated by ANTHONY C. YU
Additional Annotation by DAVID L. ROLSTON

1. The book, The Journey to the West, is the great way transmitted from mouth to mouth and from mind to mind by the sages, generation by generation. What the ancients dared not speak of was spoken of by Patriarch Ch'iu [Ch'iu Ch'u-chi 丘處機, 1148-1227]; what the ancients dared not relate was related by Patriarch Ch'iu [in this book]. When the heavenly mysteries are revealed so abundantly, this is a matter of the utmost consequence. Wherever this book resides, there are heavenly deities standing guard over it. The reader should purify his hands and burn incense before reading it, and it should be read with the utmost reverence. If he becomes bored or tired, the reader should close the book and return it to its place on high so that it will not meet with disrespect. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
2. The rhetoric of The Journey to the West is quite similar to the mysteries of Zen. The real message completely transcends the actual words of the text. Sometimes it is hidden in vulgar or ordinary language, sometimes it is conveyed through [the description] of the terrain and the characters. Sometimes truth and perversity are distinguished from each other through a joke or jest; sometimes the real is set off from the false in the space of a word or a phrase. Sometimes the real is made manifest through the false; sometimes truth is upheld in order to vanquish perversity. There are countless variations, appearing and then vanishing like gods or demons, and it is most difficult to divine their depths. The student must undertake a regimen of profound reflection and research; to be satisfied with but the surface meaning of the text is like scratching an itch with your boots on. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
3. The Journey to the West is a book of gods and immortals, quite different from those "books by and for geniuses" [ts'ai-tzu chih shu 才子之書]. "Books by and for geniuses" talk about the way of the world, and although they may seem true, they are actually false; the books of gods and immortals speak of the way of Heaven, and though they may seem false they are actually true. Since literary technique is what is valued in those "books by and for geniuses," the language is ornate but the meaning shallow. Since the meaning is what is valued in those books of gods and immortals, the style is plain but the ideas are profound. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
4. The Journey to the West is a book that is permeated through and through with the truth of the unity of the Three Teachings [Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism]. This truth is found in the Diamond Sutra and the Lotus Sutra in Buddhism; in Confucianism it is found in the Ho t'u 河圖 [The Diagram of the Yellow River], the Lo shu 洛書 [The Book of the Lo River], and the I Ching 易經[Book of Changes]; and in Taoism it is found in the Ts'an t'ung ch'i 參同契 [The Kinship of the Three] and the Wu-chen p'ien 悟真篇 [Poetical Essay on the Primary Vitalities]. Therefore the story of the acquiring of the scriptures in the Western Heaven is used to expound the mysteries of the Diamond and Lotus Sutras; the principle of Nine Times Nine to Return to the Real 6 is used to explain the secret of the Ts'an t'ung ch'i and the Wu-chen p'ien; and the T'ang Monk and his disciples are used to expound the meaning of the I Ching, the Ho t'u, and the Lo shu. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
5. In The Journey to the West each episode [an 案] has its own meaning, each chapter has its own meaning, and each word has its own meaning. The Adept [Ch'iu Ch'u-chi] never spoke without purpose or used a superfluous word. The reader must pay attention to every line and every phrase, not even a single word should be permitted to slip by. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
6. In The Journey to the West is to be found an exhaustive treatment of the principles of the mundane world and of the Tao, of the seasons of Heaven and the affairs of men. As for such as the method of learning the Tao, the art of self-cultivation, and the proper way to conduct oneself in the world, there is not one of these that is not dealt with completely. Among the various alchemical classics past and present, this is the number one extraordinary book. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
7. The Journey to the West possesses the power to alter [the processes of] birth and death and appropriate the secrets of Creation. [Like the Great Man], when it precedes Heaven [hsien-t'ien 先天], Heaven does not contradict it; when it follows after Heaven [hou-t'ien 後天], it never contradicts Heaven's timing. It is against complete immersion in one's own mind and thoughts and the mere playing with the concepts of vacuity [k'ung 空] and nirvana. The student must not become too preoccupied with the "monkey of the mind" [hsin-yuan 心猿], the "horse of the will" [i-ma 意馬], "the transformed body" [hua-shen 化身], or the "bag of flesh" [jou-nang 肉囊]. He ought rather to begin without any conception of form or image and from there work toward the apprehension of the real nature and pattern [of the cosmos]; only then will he not labor in vain. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
8. The great way of The Journey to the West deals with the methods of prefiguring Heaven [hsien-t'ien 先天] before it reveals itself in form; it has nothing to do with the various perverse manipulations of form and appearance after Heaven has revealed itself [hou-t'ien 後天]. One must first discard such things as the making of internal elixirs of immortality through refinement by brazier and fire. Only then can one go on to investigate thoroughly the correct doctrines and obtain success. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
9. As for the episodes [kung-an 公案] of The Journey to the West, some of them take up the space of one or two chapters, some take up three or four chapters, and some take up five or six chapters; the number of chapters is not equal. The central idea of each, however, is always to be found at the very beginning of each episode, where it is plainly and clearly pointed out. If one passes carelessly over these parts, the rest of the episode may seem completely without focus. Not only will the subtle meaning of the episode then be difficult [for the reader] to realize, but even the literal meaning of the sentences and phrases will be hard to construe. The reader will obtain results only by first distinguishing clearly the important points of connection [lai-mai 來脉] to the rest of the novel and then going on to read carefully what follows in the episode. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
    
10. The subtle meaning of each chapter of The Journey to the West is to be found in the titular couplet [t'i-kang 褆犅 (not sure about these characters -the transcriber), and the crucial words of the titular couplet are never more than one or two. Take for example the titular couplet for the first chapter: "When the spiritual root is nourished and brought to term, the origin emerges; / Once the moral nature is cultivated and maintained, the great Tao is born." The crucial words of the first line are "spiritual root" [ling-ken 靈根]; in the second line the crucial words are "moral nature" [hsin-hsing 心性]. We can see that the spiritual root is the spiritual root and the moral nature is the moral nature, but the spiritual root is used to cultivate the moral nature &emdash; it is not the case that the cultivation of the moral nature is [the same as] the cultivation of the spiritual root. How clear, how plain is the meaning! Again, take the couplet for the second chapter: "Thoroughly comprehend the true and wondrous doctrine of the Boddhi; / Destroy mara, return to the root and unify the soul." "Thoroughly comprehend" [wu-ch'e 悟徹] would be the crucial words of the first line, "destroy mara" [tuan-mo 斷魔] would be the crucial words of the second line. One must comprehend a principle thoroughly before one can act, for it is comprehension that unifies action, while it is action that verifies comprehension. When knowledge and action are seen to be mutually reliant, then one can return to the origin and unify the soul. Within the chapter, there may be thousands of words and countless transformations, but they are always contained within the central idea of the titular couplet. It is the same with all of the chapters, and the reader should pay strict attention [cho-yen 着眼] [to the titular couplets]. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
11. The acquisition of the true scriptures by means of The Journey to the West actually means the acquisition of the true scripture of The Journey to the West. Apart from The Journey to the West there are no other true scriptures to be acquired. The Journey to the West is transmitted through the story of the transmission of the scriptures by the Tathagata Buddha, that is all. If one can truly understand The Journey to the West, then the three baskets of the true scripture will be found within it. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
12. At the conclusion [shou-shu ch'u 収束處] of every episode [kung-an 公案] in The Journey to the West, there are two lines of summary [tsung-chieh 總結] which provide, as it were, the skeletal structure [ku-tzu 骨子] of the entire episode. Countless subtle meanings are to be found in these pairs of lines. They must not be lightly skimmed over. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
13. The Journey to the West treats the truth of the union of [the] Three and [the] Five 12 and that of "after firmness arises origination" [chen-hsia ch'i yuan 貞下起元]. This is why the T'ang Monk begins his journey in the thirteenth year of the Chen-kuan reign period [A.D. 639], why he takes on three disciples during the journey, and why he returns to the East after fourteen years. One must scrutinize [cho-yen 着眼] such passages carefully. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
14. The official rescript that serves as a passport [for Tripitaka] in The Journey to the West is in effect the certificate or license of one who practices the Tao. It is a key item [kuan-mu 關目] in the entire book. This is why it has stamped on it precious seals of the various nations and why it was obtained [from the emperor] at the beginning of The Journey to the West and returned [to the emperor] when the pilgrims returned to the East. From beginning to end, it has been handled with care and reverence, never leaving [its owner] for a single moment. One must think carefully and discriminate clearly before one can apprehend the truth behind this. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
15. There are many inconsistencies [p'o-chan ch'u 破綻處] in The Journey to the West, but those are the very places where secret formulas are likely to be found. For it is only by means of inconsistencies that the suspicion of later readers may be aroused. Without such suspicion, the reader will not ponder [the meaning hidden in the text]. These are places on which the Adept [Ch'iu Ch'u-chi] expended a lot of thought and where he employed his most subtle brushstrokes. Take, for example, the fact that Sun Wu-k'ung, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is refined in the Brazier of the Eight Trigrams and attains an indestructible, diamond-hard body. How then could he be imprisoned beneath the Mountain of the Five Phases [by the Tathagata Buddha]? Hsiian-tsang was born in the thirteenth year of the Chen-kuan reign period. By the time he avenges his father's murder eighteen years later, it would already be the thirty-first year of the Chen-kuan reign period. How could it be that it is still the thirteenth year of the Chen-kuan reign period when he begins his journey to acquire the scriptures? In the Lotus Flower Cave [episode], the fact that Sun Wu-k'ung has already killed Mountain-climbing Tiger and Sea-reclining Dragon was already known to the old fiends [the Gold-Horn and Silver-Horn Demons]. Why then does Sun Wu-k'ung change into [the form] of Sea-reclining Dragon when he tries to steal the magic gourd later? One must pay special attention to such places in the text. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
16. That the official rescript in The Journey to the West has been stamped with the precious seals of the various nations is the subtle message of the book. It makes the book a place where a person who practices self-cultivation may bring peace to his life and establish himself. It is, in effect, a formula for immortality when abroad. Concerning such places [in the text] one must tenaciously seek out the true reason for them. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
17. Every time the pilgrims pass through an ordeal in The Journey to the West, the author invariably records the year and the month first before continuing the narration. The hidden allegorical meaning found in the compression of years into months, months into days, and days into hours is similar to the device of relating how the official rescript issued in the thirteenth year of the Chen-kuan reign period is returned after the pilgrims return to the East with the scriptures. This is the so-called "after firmness arises origination" [chen-hsia ch'i yuan 貞下起元]. Within a single hour, the elixir of immortality is complete. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
18. Among the crucial and climactic episodes [cho-chin ho-chien ch'u 着緊合尖處] in The Journey to the West, there are none that surpass the episodes of the Plantain Cave, the Heaven-reaching River, and the Scarlet-Purple Kingdom. The way in which the "temperature, timing, and sequences" [huo-hou tz'u-hsü 火候次序] of alchemical refinement are treated in [the episode of] the Plantain Cave, the way that the "weighing out of medicinal substances" [yao-wu chin-liang 藥物斤兩] is treated [in the episode of] the Heaven-reaching River, the way that the process of "summoning and integrating the soul" [chao-she tso-yung 招攝作用] is treated in [the episode of] the Scarlet-Purple Kingdom may be said to be profound and exhaustive indeed. If the student will delve deeply into such places, he may be assured that he will come to understand a large part of the Great Way of the Golden Elixir. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
19. There is both unified narration [ho-shuo 合說] and separate narration [fen-shuo 分說] in The Journey to the West. The first seven chapters are [an example of] unified narration. They move from activity [yu-wei 有為] to nonactivity [wu-wei 無為]; and from the cultivation of life-store [ming 命] they proceed to the cultivation of nature [hsing 性]. The sequence of elixir formation and the labor of refinement by heat — none of this is not completely covered there. The rest of the ninety-three chapters treat either the orthodox or the heterodox, nature or life-store; or they speak of nature along with life-store or life-store along with nature; or they relate the true fire-times [huo-hou 火候] or point out the errors in the fire-times [of the alchemical refinement of the elixir of immortality]. They amount to nothing more than making analyses by means of single incidents and do not depart from the subtle truths [embodied] in the first seven chapters. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
20. [The heart of] The Journey to the West is the same as the teachings of Confucius on the exhaustive investigation of truth [ch'iung-li 窮理], the perfection of nature [chin-hsing 盡性], and the fulfillment of one's life-store [chih-ming 至命]. When the Monkey King learns the Tao at the West Aparagodamya Continent, this is illustrative of the exhaustive investigation of truth; when he thoroughly comprehends the wondrous doctrine of Boddhi, this also illustrates the exhaustive investigation of truth; when he destroys mara and returns to the origin, this is illustrative of the perfection of nature. His acquisition of the gold-hooped rod and full battle dress and his erasure of his name from the Register of Life and Death, his becoming Great Sage Equal to Heaven and his entering the Brazier of the Eight Trigrams to be refined are illustrative of the fulfillment of life-store. Kuan-yin's redemption of the three disciples and her search for the scripture pilgrim are illustrative of the exhaustive investigation of the truth. Again, the T'ang Monk's passing the Double-Fork Ridge and arriving at the Mountain of the Two Frontiers are illustrative of the perfection of nature, while the taking of the three disciples and the crossing of the Flowing-Sand River exemplify the fulfillment of life-store. Similarly, the episodes that relate the pilgrims' passing through countless foreign regions, traversing a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters, their arrival at Cloud-transcending Stream, and [their sailing in] the bottomless boat are all illustrative of such teachings. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
21. The Journey to the West has passages that have the power to strike a blow at perverse doctrine in order to bring the reader back to sound doctrine and there are passages that have the power to verify sound doctrine in order to strike a blow at perverse doctrine. For example, in the episodes of the marriage in the Land of Women and of becoming an imperial son-in-law in India, you have the attacking of perversity in the midst of the verification of sound doctrine. In the episodes of subduing the three fiends at Lion-Camel Kingdom, the submission of Yellow Brows at the Little Western Heaven, and the elimination of the leopard at Mist-concealing Mountain, you have attacking perverse doctrine in order to bring the reader back to sound doctrine. The reason why the Adept [Ch'iu Ch'u-chi] used such a double-edged [shuang-kuan 雙關] style and expended an immeasurable amount of compassionate care on this was surely his desire that every person might become an immortal or a Buddha. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
22. In The Journey to the West there are passages that expound orthodoxy, and there are those that attack heterodoxy. The passages that portray the various monsters in different mountain caves are attacks on heterodoxy, whereas those treating the kings and rulers of various lands expound orthodoxy. This is the fundamental significance of the entire book. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
23. The so-called monsters in The Journey to the West are of two kinds: they are either monsters of the orthodox tradition or monsters of the heterodox tradition. Monsters like those of Little Western Heaven and Lion-Camel Cave belong to the heretical or heterodox tradition. Monsters like the Bull Monster King and the Raksa Woman, the Great King of Miraculous Power, Jupiter's Rival, and the Jade Hare are unenlightened monsters who nonetheless belong to the orthodox tradition and are thus different from the other monsters. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
24. Among the hexagrams and their images from the I Ching expounded in The Journey to the West, some are used more than once but, since each is used because of a particular incident, although the hexagram might be the same, the meaning is not the same. Therefore it does not matter that some are used more than once. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
25. In The Journey to the West, there is the method of first striking down the false when one wants to show forth the true [yü shih-chen erh hsien p'i-chia chih fa 欲示真而先劈假之法]. For example, when the author wishes to describe the true tiger [nature] of Pilgrim at the Mountain of the Two Frontiers, he first uses the ordinary tiger of Double-Fork Ridge to lead into [yin 引] the topic. When he wishes to describe the true dragon [nature] of the Dragon King of the Eastern Ocean, he first uses the serpents and snakes of Double-Fork Ridge to lead into the topic. When he wishes to describe the true yin 陰 and yang 陽 of Pilgrim and Pa-chieh, he first uses the false yin and yang of Kuan-yin Hall to lead into the topic. When he wishes to describe the dragon horse of the Serpent-coiled Mountain, he first uses the ordinary horse given by the T'ang emperor to lead into the topic. When he wishes to describe the true earth [nature] of Sha Monk, he first uses the false earth [nature] of the Yellow Wind Monster. Such a device is used extensively throughout the work. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
26. In The Journey to the West, there are some passages that are very difficult to understand, but are nevertheless really very easy to understand. Take, for example, the fact that Tripitaka's three disciples have attained immortality. How, then, could Sun Wu-k'ung end up pressed beneath the Mountain of the Five Phases? How could Chu Wu-neng [Pa-chieh] get reincarnated into the wrong womb and Sha Wu-ching [Sha Monk] be banished to the Flowing-Sand River? Why did they have to embrace Buddhism before they could truly attain ultimate fruition? That the three disciples must still embrace Buddhism points to the fact that they have perfected their life-stores but not their natures. Moreover, the episodes of the Mountain of the Five Phases, the Cloudy Paths Cave, and the Flowing-Sand River point to the fact that the T'ang Monk has not perfected his life-store though he has perfected his nature. This use of the same pen to treat two sides of a problem at once [i-pi shuang-hsieh — 筆雙寫] shows the truth that there can be no cultivation of nature without the cultivation of life-store and no cultivation of life-store without the cultivation of nature. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
27. There are many passages in The Journey to the West that seem to deal with different incidents, but ultimately refer to the same thing [pu t'ung erh ta-t'ung-che 不同而大同者]. The Journey to the West, for example, takes its name from the story of the T'ang Monk's journey to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven. Why, then, does the story of Sun Wu-k'ung appear in the beginning? What the reader overlooks is the fact that Sun Wu-k'ung's birth in the Pūrvavideha Continent is analogous to the T'ang Monk's birth in Great T'ang of the Land of the East; that Sun Wu-k'ung's learning the Way in the West Aparagodānīya Continent is analogous to the T'ang Monk's acquisition of the scriptures in the Thunderclap Temple of the Western Heaven; that Sun Wu-k'ung's return to his mountain after attaining enlightenment is analogous to the T'ang Monk's return to his country after the acquisition of the true scriptures; and that Sun Wu-k'ung's being caught in Buddha's palm after getting out of the Brazier is analogous to the T'ang Monk's return to the Western Heaven after the transmission of the scriptures. Though the incidents are different, the meaning is the same, for they are all summed up and unified in the [idea of a] Journey to the West. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
28. Whenever a most difficult or perilous situation occurs during The Journey to the West, Pilgrim seeks assistance from Kuan-yin. This is a most important feature [kuan-mu 關目] of The Journey to the West, for it embodies the most crucial lesson for the person practicing self-cultivation. Success in the cultivation of life-store and nature is entirely dependent on the assistance of the superintending gods and spirits. [Both Ch'en Shih-pin and Liu I-ming insist on the importance of the teacher in self-cultivation and the impossibility of the project without external help.] Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
29. The first seven chapters of The Journey to the West proceed from life-store to nature, from activity to nonactivity. The remaining ninety-three chapters proceed from nature to life-store and return from nonactivity to activity. The profound truth of the entire work is nothing more than this. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
30. In The Journey to the West, Tripitaka represents the substance [t'i 體] of the Supreme Ultimate, while the three disciples represent the energies of the five phases. Tripitaka's acceptance of the three disciples thus refers to the control of the five phases by the Supreme Ultimate, while the fact that the three disciples make their submission to Tripitaka means that the five phases are what constitutes the Supreme Ultimate. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
31. When The Journey to the West speaks of the T'ang Monk and each of his disciples, two different sets of names are used, and they ought not to be thought of in the same breath. For example, [the names] Hsiian-tsang, Wu-k'ung, Wu-neng, and Wu-ching refer to the substance [t'i 體] of the Tao, whereas [the names] Tripitaka, Pilgrim, Pa-chieh, and Monk refer to the function [yung 用] of the Tao. Since function does not exist apart from substance nor does substance exist apart from function, therefore there are two names for each of them. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
32. The references in The Journey to the West to the T'ang Monk and his disciples have both primary and auxiliary functions [yung 用]. Take, for example, the names Ch'en Hsiian-tsang, Tripitaka T'ang, Sun Wu-k'ung, Pilgrim Sun, Chu Pa-chieh, Chu Wu-neng, Sha Wu-ching, and Sha Monk—these are made to serve the primary function. The names T'ang Monk, Pilgrim, Idiot, and Monk are made to serve the auxiliary function. The primary function serves solely to explicate the substantive truths of life-store and nature, whereas the auxiliary function serves simultaneously to give form to the meanings of the ordinary world. People should not regard them as if they were all the same. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
33. The Journey to the West uses the three disciples to represent the great medicine outside of the five phases. This belongs to the category of prenatal endowment [hsien-t'ien 先天] and is not to be compared with the perverse five phases that belong to the postnatal condition [hou-t'ien 後天], where they possess shape and form. One must clearly distinguish the true source of things and not try to locate it on the bag of flesh or skin [i.e., the body]. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
34. The Journey to the West describes all three disciples as having hideous features. Hideous features are, in fact, distinguished features, and distinguished features are marvelous features. They may be said to be hideous, but what they do is marvelous. Moreover, they possess neither "egotistical" features nor "popular" features, neither the features of the moral multitudes nor those of the long-lived ones. That is why, wherever the three disciples go, people fail to recognize them [for what they really are] and become afraid or amazed at the sight of them. In such places [in the text], one must take careful note of this feature. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
35. The Journey to the West describes all three disciples as having different abilities. Sha Monk is not capable of transformations at all, Pa-chieh knows thirty-six transformations, while Pilgrim knows seventy-two transformations. Though his number of transformations is said to be seventy-two, Pilgrim is actually capable of countless transformations. Why is this? He is the Metal within Water, the true yang principle external to one's self. Belonging to the category of life-store, lord of hardness and motion, he signifies the primal breath of all living creatures and unites the strategic nodes of the seventy-two time periods [hou 候] of the year. [These time periods were made up of five days each. There may be a pun involved here, as the name of the time period and the word monkey [hou 猴] are homonyms.] There is nothing that is not included in him, nothing that is not perfected by him. A perfect substance [t'i 體] having a great function [yung 用], he is an all-pervading principle of unity. That is why he is capable of boundless transformations, unimaginably wonderful and mysterious. Pa-chieh happens to be the Wood within the Fire, the true yin principle internal to one's self. Belonging to the category of nature, lord of pliancy and quiescence, he holds the handle by which the illusory body is controlled, but he can only change into substance that is posterior to Heaven [hou-t'ien 後天] and not the true treasure that is anterior to Heaven [hsien-t'ien 先天]. His transformations are incomplete, and that is why, of the seventy-two transformations, he is capable of only thirty-six. As for Sha Monk, he is the true Earth, and he lives to guard the Central Quarter and to harmonize the yin and yang. He is incapable of any transformations. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
36. There is great significance in The Journey to the West's description of the divine weapons belonging to the three disciples. Both Pa-chieh and Sha Monk carry their divine weapons along with them in their hands. The gold-hooped rod of Pilgrim, however, can be transformed into the size of an embroidery needle; it is then stored in his ear and taken out only when needed. Why is this so? The rake and the priestly staff, you see, though treasures in themselves, represent the practice of the perfection of form by means of the Tao. Once the matter has been pointed out by the teacher, the person himself can attain its realization. The gold-hooped rod, on the other hand, is actually the secret truth that has been transmitted from mouth to mouth by sages through succeeding generations, a secret that was whispered from ear to ear. It is the technique of prolonging one's life through magic, fabricated out of nothingness. It is so huge that it has no circumference, so small that it has no interior. It roams at will between Heaven and Earth, with nothing to withstand it, and that is why it must be stored in the ear. These mysterious and marvelous functions [of the gold-hooped rod] are as different as night and day from those of the rake and priestly staff. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
37. In The Journey to the West, the three disciples represent the substance [t'i 體] of the five phases, while the three weapons represent the function [yung 用] of the five phases. When the five phases are compressed together, [fully integrate the five elements] then both substance and function are perfectly present. This is why they can successfully escort the T'ang Monk to fetch the true scriptures and meet the real Buddha. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
38. There are many accounts in The Journey to the West of how Sun Wu-k'ung triumphs over the most difficult of obstacles by pulling off pieces of hair from his body and transforming them. The pieces of hair, however, are not all the same nor are the transformations. Sometimes he pulls off pieces of hair from behind his head or from either his left or right arm, sometimes he pulls off pieces of hair from both arms or from his tail. There are great differences here, and one must not be careless in distinguishing between them. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
39. When The Journey to the West describes Sun Wu-k'ung's changing into someone else, the accounts vary: sometimes he himself is transformed, sometimes he uses his rod, and sometimes he uses pieces of hair. The transformations of himself and his rod are true transformations, whereas the transformations of the pieces of hair are false transformations. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
40. In The Journey to the West, Sun Wu-k'ung is called the Great Sage and Pilgrim. These two names are vastly different from each other and they ought not to be thought of in the same breath. One must look to the source. If the source is real, then everything is real; but if the source is false, then everything is false. Never confuse the real with the false, or the false with the real. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
41. Sun Wu-k'ung calls himself Sun Wai-kung 孫外公 [Maternal Grandfather Sun] everywhere he goes and always mentions "that bit of business five hundred years ago." Now, Sun Wai-kung actually refers to the emptiness within, while "five hundred years ago" actually refers to that which is anterior to Heaven [hsien-t'ien 先天]. One must realize that the vital force anterior to Heaven originates from nothingness. It is the formula for immortality external to oneself and not something that one can produce within oneself. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
42. After Sun Wu-k'ung attains the Tao on his Journey to the West, he can neither be drowned in water nor burned by fire. When he caused a great uproar in Heaven, even the divine warriors of the various Heavens could not prevail against him. Why, then, is he repeatedly overcome by monsters when he is accompanying the T'ang Monk to acquire scriptures in the Western Heaven? The reader must take such problems and carefully distinguish the issues involved; only then can he discover their true meaning. If he just muddles through his reading, he will never gain any insight. Remember that the name Pilgrim is a nickname given by the T'ang Monk to Sun Wu-k'ung. Now this nickname may be explained as referring to someone who has understood the truth but who must still engage in action or as a name for any person practicing self-cultivation. The Pilgrim who is overcome by monsters refers, in fact, to any pilgrim practicing self-cultivation. Do not confuse one with the other. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
43. Whenever the T'ang Monk and his disciples pass through a country in The Journey to the West, the official rescript must first be examined and stamped with the precious seals [of the country] before they are permitted to proceed. This is a matter of primary importance in the whole enterprise of acquiring scriptures. One must seek out the true meaning of this matter. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
44. The Journey to the West has been annotated [chu-chieh 注解] countless times. As for quality explanations, there is not one per hundred. The Chen-ch'üan 真詮 [True Explication] of Wu-i-tzu [this refers to The True Explication of the Hsi-yu chi 西 遊真詮, 1696] may be considered the foremost set of annotations for this book, but it is unavoidable that even it overlooks certain things. The reader should not read only the annotations and neglect the text itself. He should rather read the annotations only from the perspective of the text. In this way he may avoid the mistake of compounding the errors of others. Only he who knows this can read The Journey to the West.
     
45. The reader of The Journey to the West should first exert great effort on the text itself. He should again and again strive to comprehend its meaning, and he should not rest until he has savored its true flavor and truly gained insight [into its real meaning]. If he has indeed gained some insight, he can then read annotations [chu-chieh 注解] done by others in order to enlarge his understanding. This will enable him to distinguish between that which should be accepted or rejected in the other interpretations, and he can also find out the validity or speciousness of his own perceptions. If he persists in such efforts for a long time, he will certainly arrive at an advanced state of understanding. But even then he must not consider himself always in the right. He should seek out teachers for further illumination. Only then will he be able to see the bright flame of real knowledge and avoid the mistake of regarding the semblance of truth as truth itself. The foregoing forty-five items constitute the essentials of how to read The Journey to the West. I have carefully recorded them at the beginning of this volume as an act of friendship extended to the appreciative reader.
     

Titus Burckhardt on Sufism and Alchemy

Image from Burckhardt's Mystical Astrology According to Ibn 'Arabi

 

The following is excerpted from Titus Burckhardt's Introduction to Sufi Doctrine:

---

The term "alchemy" is very suitable as applied to the art of concentration considered in itself because, from the point of view of this art, the soul is like "a matter" which is to be transformed even as in alchemy lead is to be transmuted into gold. In other words the chaotic and opaque soul must become "formed" and crystalline. Here, form does not mean a fixation within certain limits but on the contrary a quasi-geometric coordination, and hence even a virtuality of deliverance from the limiting conditions of the arbitrary psychic tyranny, just as gold or crystal manifests on the level of solid substances the nature of light, the second both by its geometrical form—the propagation of light being rectilinear—and by its transparence.

According to the same symbolism—the nearest to alchemy properly so called—the soul, fixed in a state of sterile hardness, must be "liquefied" and then again "congealed" in order to be rid of its impurities. This "congelation" will in its turn be followed by a "fusion" and this again by the final "crystallization". In order to bring about these changes the natural forces of the soul are actualized and coordinated. They may be compared to the forces of nature—heat, cold, moistness, and dryness. There is in the soul an expansive force which normally shows itself as confident joy (basṭ) and as love and so as "heat", and there is a contractive force—a "coldness"—which shows itself as fear, its spiritual form being the extreme contraction (qabḍ) of the soul, in face of death and eternity, into the single point of the present.

As for moistness and dryness these correspond respectively to the "liquefying" passivity of the soul and the "fixing" activity of the spirit. These four forces can also be connected with two complementary principles which are analogous to the "Sulfur" and "Mercury" of the alchemist. In the Sufic method these two principles are to be identified respectively with the spiritual act—the active affirmation of a symbol—and the plasticity of the psyche. Thanks to the intervention of Grace the voluntary affirmation of the symbol becomes the permanent activity of the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) while the plasticity or receptivity of the soul takes on a cosmic amplitude. [According to Muḥyī-d-Din ibn 'Arabī the universal meaning of Sulfur is the Divine Act (al-Amr) and that of Mercury, Nature as a whole (Tabī at al-kull).]

The fiery quality and the "fixative" quality are connected with the active pole which corresponds to Sulfur, while the contracting quality and the "moist" dissolving quality are connected with the passive pole, which is the Mercury of alchemy. Thus it is easy to see how the different "natural" qualities of the soul are combined in different states. Sterile hardening of the soul results from an alliance between the fixing quality (dryness) of the mind and the contracting quality in the psyche. Dissipation, on the other hand, comes from a link between the expansive force of desire and the dissolving power of the passive psyche. Moreover these two states of disequilibrium may be piled one upon the other, as is often the case. Equilibrium of the soul consists in a steady alternation of expansion and contraction, comparable to breathing, and in a marriage of the "fixative" activity of the spirit with the "liquid" receptivity of the soul.

In order that it may be possible for this synthesis to take place the powers of the soul must not let themselves be determined in any way by impulsions coming from outside; they must instead respond to the spiritual activity centered on the heart. [This corresponds to what in alchemy is called the "hermetic sealing" of the vessel.]

The art of concentration has been indicated here in alchemical terms because these bring out the correspondence between the powers of the soul and the natural forces—the physical forces one might say—of the human organism. The process of harnessing these powers brings this aspect of Taṣawwuf near to the methods of Raja Yoga. Clearly the technique in question can be described by means of different symbolisms. Sufi writers usually treat of this question implicitly by indicating the use of the symbols which are the object of concentration; indeed the "alchemical" work, in the sense in which it is envisaged here, cannot be separated from the nature of the symbols used as "means of Grace" and these symbols are the intermediary through which the "alchemical" aspect of spiritual work is linked with its intellectual aspect. The pre-eminent spiritual means of Taṣawwuf is the verbal symbol repeated either inwardly or aloud with or without a synchronizing of the breath; hence the various phases of the inner alchemy—the successive "liquefactions" and "crystallizations"— appear as permutations (taṣrīf) of the symbol in the soul in conformity with the different Divine Realities (ḥaqā'īq) it expresses.

[...]

The hierarchic "placing" of the faculties of the soul is one aspect of the reintegration of the soul into the Spirit. The state of a soul which has been spiritually regenerated has already been compared to a crystal which, though solid, is akin to light both in its transparence and in its rectilinear form. The various intellectual faculties are like the facets of this crystal, each one reflecting in its own way the unique and limitless Intellect.

The faculty which is specific to man is thought (al-fikr). Now the nature of thought, like the nature of man, is two-faced. By its power of synthesis it manifests the central position of man in the world and so also his direct analogy with the Spirit. But its formal structure, on the other hand, is only one existential "style" among many others; that is to say it is a specific mode of consciousness which could be called "animal" were it not distinguished, for better and for worse, by its connection with man’s unique—and intrinsically "supernatural"— function from those faculties of knowledge that are proper to animal species. In fact thought never plays an entirely "natural" part in the sense of being a passive equilibrium in harmony with the cosmic surroundings. To the degree that it turns away from the Intellect, which transcends the terrestrial plane, it can only have a destructive character, like that of a corrosive acid, which destroys the organic unity of beings and of things.

We have only to look at the modern world with its artificial character devoid of beauty and its inhumanly abstract and quantitative structure in order to know the character of thought when given over to its own resources. Man, the "thinking animal", must necessarily be either the divine crown of nature or its adversary, [In animals there does not exist, as in man, a refraction of the intellect which is at the same time subjective and active, a refraction which would stand between the intellectual essence immanent in the form of the species and the individual psychic organism. For this reason animals are more passive than man in relation to the cosmic surroundings. At the same time they more directly express their intellectual essence. The beauty of a sacred art—an art divinely inspired—heightens that of virgin nature, while the creations of a civilization that is profane and practically atheistical, such as modern civilization, are always hostile to natural harmony.] and this is so because in the mind "to be" becomes dissociated from "to know" and in the process of man’s degeneration this leads to all other ruptures and separations.

This double property of thought corresponds to the principle which Sufis symbolize by the barzakh, the "isthmus" between two oceans. The barzakh is both a barrier and a point of junction between two degrees of reality. As an intermediate agent it reverses the pencil of rays of the light it transmits in the same manner as does a lens. In the structure of thought this inversion appears as abstraction. Thought is only capable of synthesis by stripping itself of the immediate aspect of things; the more nearly it approaches the universal, the more it is reduced as it were to a point. Thought thus imitates on the level of form—and hence imperfectly—the essential "stripping bare" (tajrīd) of the Intellect.

The Intellect does not have as its immediate object the empirical existence of things but their permanent essences which are relatively "non-existing" since on the sensory plane they are not manifested. [When certain modern thinkers would see in the act of knowing a sort of annihilation—relative and subjective—of the object of knowledge considered as pure existence they merely reproduce the unreal and implicitly absurd character of thought which has turned aside from intellectual principles and ended by emptying itself of any qualitative content. The crude and undifferentiated "existence" which these philosophers oppose to the intellectual act of the subject is nothing but the shadow cast by this absence of intuition in their own thought: it is pure unintelligibility. What is real "in itself" is essence; if perception does not simultaneously grasp all aspects of a sensory object that is because both the level of manifestation and the knowledge are alike relative.]

Now this purely intellectual knowledge implies direct identification with its object and that is the decisive criterion which distinguishes intellectual "vision" from rational working of the mind. This "vision" does not, however, exclude sensory knowledge; rather it includes it since it is its essence, although a particular state of consciousness may exclude one in favor of the other.

Here it must be made quite plain that the term "intellect" (al-'aql) is in practice applied at more than one level: it may designate the universal principle of all intelligence, a principle which transcends the limiting conditions of the mind; but the direct reflection of Universal Intellect in thought may also be called "intellect" and in this case it corresponds to what the ancients called reason.

The mode of working of the mind which is complementary to reason is imagination (al-khayāl). In relation to the intellectual pole of the mind imagination may be considered as its plastic material; for this reason it corresponds by analogy to the materia prima on which the plastic continuity of the "cosmic dream" depends just as, subjectively, it depends on imagination.

If the imagination can be a cause of illusion by binding the intelligence to the level of sensory forms it none the less also has a spiritually positive aspect in so far as it fixes intellectual intuitions or inspirations in the form of symbols. For imagination to be able to assume this function it must have acquired in full measure its plastic capacity; the misdeeds of imagination come not so much from its development as from its being enslaved by passion and feeling. Imagination is one of the mirrors of Intellect; its perfection lies in its remaining virginal and of wide compass.

Some Sufi writers, including 'Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī, have said that the dark pole of the mind is al-wahm, a term which means conjecture and also opinion, suggestion, and suspicion and so mental illusion. This is the reverse of the speculative freedom of the mind. The power of illusion of the mind is, as it were, fascinated by an abyss; it is attracted by every unexhausted negative possibility. When this power dominates the imagination, imagination becomes the greatest obstacle to spirituality. In this context may be quoted the saying of the Prophet that "the worst thing your soul suggests to you is suspicion".

As for memory, this has a double aspect; as the faculty of retaining impressions it is passive and "earthly" and it is called al-ḥafẓ in this relationship; in so far as it is the act of recollection (adh-dhikr) it is directly connected with the intellect, for this act refers implicitly to the timeless presence of the essences, although they cannot appear as such in the mind. The recapitulation of perceptions in recollection may be inadequate and in a certain sense even must be so since the mind is subject to the attrition of time, but, if recollection were not implicitly adequate, it would be only pure illusion—something which does not exist. If recollection can evoke the past in the present it is because the present contains in virtuality the whole extension of time; all existential "flavors" are contained in the "flavorlessness" of the present moment. This is what is realized by spiritual recollection (dhikr): instead of going back "horizontally" into the past it addresses itself "vertically" to the essences which regulate both past and future.

The Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) is both Knowledge and Being. In man these two aspects are in a way polarized as the reason and the heart. The heart marks what we are in the light of eternity, while the reason marks what we "think". Seen from one angle the heart (al-qalb) also represents the presence of the Spirit in both aspects, for it is both the organ of intuition (al-kashf) and also the point of identification (wajd) with Being (al-Wujūd). According to a divine saying (ḥadīth qudsī) revealed through the mouth of the Prophet, God said: "The heavens and the earth cannot contain Me, but the heart of my believing servant does contain Me." The most intimate center of the heart is called the mystery (as-sirr), and this is the inapprehensible point in which the creature meets God. Ordinarily the spiritual reality of the heart is veiled by the egocentric consciousness; this assimilates the heart to its own center of gravity which will be either mind or feeling according to the tendencies of the particular being.

The heart is to the other faculties what the sun is to the planets: it is from the sun that these receive both their light and their impulsion. This analogy, which is even more clear in the heliocentric perspective than in the geocentric system of the ancients where the sun occupies the middle heaven between two triads of planets, was developed by 'Abd al-Karīm al-Jīlī in his book Al-Insān al-Kāmil ("Universal Man"). According to this symbolical order, Saturn, the most distant of the planets that are visible to the naked eye, corresponds to intellect-reason (al-'aql). Just as the heaven of Saturn includes all the other planetary heavens, intellect-reason embraces all things; moreover the "abstract", cold, and "saturnian" character of reason is opposite to the solar and central nature of the heart, which marks intellect in its "total" and "existential" aspect. Mercury symbolizes thought (al-fikr), Venus imagination (al-khayāl), Mars the conjectural faculty (al-wahm), Jupiter spiritual aspiration (al-himmah), and the moon the vital spirit (ar-rūḥ). Anyone with some knowledge of astrological "aspects" can readily deduce from this outline both the beneficent and the harmful "conjunctions" of the different faculties represented by the planets.

Images from Burckhardt's Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul

From another point of view the heart is compared to the moon which reflects the light of the divine sun. In this case the phases of the moon correspond to the different states of receptivity of the heart direct "enunciation" of Being. Both these aspects are to be found in the Greek word Logos which means principle and also idea and speech; in the same way man is defined either as a "thinking animal" or as an "animal endowed with speech" (ḥayawān nāṭiq).

From the principial point of view the idea is dependent on the Word, inasmuch as it is an intellectual reflection of Reality, but in man the idea precedes speech. In the rite of invocation (dhikr) the principial relationship is symbolically re-established since the revealed speech— the sacred formula or the Divine Name which is invoked—affirms the ontological continuity of the Spirit whereas thought is—practically speaking—cut off from its transcendent source through being the seat of individual consciousness. In this way the faculty of speech, which is a faculty of action, becomes the vehicle for knowledge of Being.

The Book of Comarius

portrait of Cleopatra from Hermetico-Spagyrisches Lustgärtlein

The Greek text of the Book of Comarius [also known as "Cleopatra and the Philosophers"] reads like a translation from another language, or perhaps it was written by someone whose Greek was inadequate. It is certainly far removed from classical Greek. There are, in addition, textual corruptions introduced by the scribes. Texts that were put to practical use were often tampered with. The successive owners of such handbooks were no doubt practicing alchemists themselves, and they probably annotated their copies. Or if they copied a text, they were likely to leave out material that was of little interest to them. Hence, these treatises have survived in diverent versions or "recensions," and it is therefore impossible to reconstruct an archetype.

The language is that of a mystic in trance and can, perhaps, only be fully understood by other mystics. Or else it uses words with hidden meanings and is a language that must be learned by those who have been initiated.

An additional problem is created by the apparently deliberate gaps left in such texts by authors who were unwilling to reveal all the secrets of their art and who therefore forced their readers to study with a teacher. Certain things are to be explained later, but the explanations never come, either because the text is incomplete or because the author forgets his promise. (We encounter the same diffculty in astrological literature: none of the treatises we have is a complete textbook enabling the beginner to become a master in a series of steps, following practical examples. This was apparently not the way these subjects were taught.)

The Book of Comarius is dedicated to "Cleopatra the Divine," also called "the wise woman," but not necessarily the famous queen. The prayer at the beginning, with its unmistakably Christian character, must be considered a later addition, perhaps by a Byzantine monk who copied (or edited) a pagan treatise. For a long time alchemy was not banned by the Church as a form of magic: on the contrary, as centers of learning, the monasteries were probably among the few places where alchemy could be studied and where texts were available. The prayer at the beginning of this text was perhaps designed to give an edifying character to the work and to place it above suspicion.

Comarius begins with a brief cosmogony and then turns to practical matters such as metals, colors, and apparatuses. A group of philosophers (i.e., scientists) is then introduced, and Cleopatra delivers to them the knowledge she has received from Comarius.

From the more practical precepts, the reader is led to general discourses on the wonders of nature. The symbolism is rich, the language mystic, and the frequent exhortations to the reader to listen to what clearly cannot really be understood increase one's frustration. In the concluding section, alchemy is described as providing a key to the mystery of resurrection, another reason for a Christian to study the subject.

Book of Comarius, Philosopher and High Priest Who Was Teaching Cleopatra the Divine the Sacred Art of the Philosopher's Stone, excerpts (3:289-99 Berthelot)

Lord, God of all powers, Creator of all of nature, creator and maker of all the celestial and supercelestial beings, blessed and eternal ruler! We celebrate you, we bless you, we praise you, we worship the sublimity of your kingdom. For you are the beginning and the end, and every creature visible and invisible obeys you, because you have created them. Since your eternal kingdom has been created as something that is subject to you [?], we implore you, most merciful ruler, in the name of your unspeakable love for mankind, to illuminate our minds and our hearts so that we, too, may glorify you as our only true God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with your all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and forever and ever. Amen.

I shall begin this book with the account concerning silver and gold that was given by Comarius, the philosopher, and Cleopatra, the wise woman. The book at hand does not include the demonstrations concerning lights and substances. In this book we have the teaching of Comarius, the philosopher, addressed to Cleopatra, the wise woman.

Comarius, the philosopher, teaches the mystical philosophy to Cleopatra. He is sitting on a throne. He has devoted himself to philosophy, which he ignored before [?]. Even now [?] he has spoken to those who understand mystical insight, and with his hand he has shown that everything is One and consists of four elements.

As an [intellectual] exercise he said: "The earth has been established above the waters, the waters on the tops of mountains. Now, take the earth that is above the waters, Cleopatra, and make a spiritual body from it, the spirit of alum. These things are like the earth and the fire, in respect of their warmth to the fire, in respect of their dryness to the earth. The waters that are on the mountaintops are like the air in respect of their coldness, like the water in respect of their wetness with the air and the fire [?]. Look, from one pearl, Cleopatra, and from another one you have the whole [technique of ] dyeing."

Cleopatra took what Comarius had written and began to put into practice the applications of other philosophers, to divide into four parts the beautiful philosophy [?], the one [that teaches that] the matter derived from the natures, as it has been taught and discovered, and an idea of the operations of its difference [?]. Thus [they say?], searching for the beautiful philosophy we have found that it is divided into four parts, and thus we have discovered [?] the general idea of the nature of each of them, the first having blackness, the second whiteness, the third yellowness, the fourth [?] purpleness or refinement. On the other hand, each of these things does not exist from its own general nature [?], but they depend [?] generally on the elements, [and so?] we have a center from which we can proceed systematically. Thus, in between the blackness and the whiteness, the yellowness and the purpleness [?] or refinement, there is the maceration and the washing [out?] of the species. Between the whiteness and the yellowness there is the technique of casting gold, and between the yellowness and the whiteness there is the duality of the composition.

The work is accomplished by the application of the breast-shaped apparatus, the first experiment consisting in separating the liquids from the oxides [?], and this takes a long time.

Next comes the maceration, which consists [?] of the mixture of water and wet oxide [?].

Third, the dissolution of the species, which are burned seven times in an "Askelon vessel." This is how one operates the whitening process and the blackening process of the species by the action of the fire.

Number four is the yellowing process by which one mixes [the substance?] with other yellow liquids and produces wax [?] for the yellowing, in order to achieve the desired goal.

Number five is the fusion, which leads from the yellowing to the gilding.

For the yellowing one must, as mentioned above, divide the composition into two halves. Once it has been halved, one of the parts is mixed with yellow and white liquids, and then you can blend it for any purpose you have in mind.

Again, if the fermentation is a refinement [of the species?], that is to say that refinement and fermentation [constitute the?] perfect transmutation of the composition of the gilding. This is the way that you, too, must proceed, my friends, when you want to approach this beautiful technique. Look at the nature of plants and their origin. Some descend from the mountains and grow from the earth; some ascend from the valleys; others come from the plains. Look how they develop, for you will [must?] harvest them at special times, on special days; you will pick them from the islands of the sea and from the highest place. Look at the air that is at their service and the nourishment that surrounds them, to make sure that they are not harmed and do not die. Look at the divine water that moistens them and the air that governs them, once they have been incorporated into one essence.

Ostanes and his followers answered Cleopatra: "In you is hidden the whole terrible and strange mystery. Enlighten us in general, but especially about the elements. Tell us how the highest descends toward the lowest, and how the lowest ascends toward the highest and how the one in the middle approaches the highest to unite itself with it and what is the element (that acts) on them. And (tell us) how the blessed waters descend from above in order to see the dead that are lying around, in chains, oppressed in darkness and obscurity inside Hades, and how the remedy of life reaches them and wakes them up from sleep and awakens them to an awakening [reading eis gregorsin for tois ktetorsin vel sim.], and how the new waters flow toward them, at the beginning of the descent and borne on the couch, descend approaching with the fire, and a cloud carries them, and out of the sea ascends the cloud that carries the waters."

Considering what had been revealed to them, the philosophers rejoiced.

Cleopatra said to them: "When the waters come, they awaken the bodies and the spirits that are enclosed in them and are weak. For again they suffer oppression, and again they will be shut up in Hades, and in a short while they grow and ascend and put on different glorious colors like flowers in spring, and spring itself rejoices and is glad at the beauty they wear.

"For to you who are wise I say this: When you take plants and elements and stones from their places they appear to be mature and [yet they are] not mature; for the fire tests everything. When they are clothed in glory and in shining colors from the fire, then they will appear to you as greater ones through their hidden glory, and [you will see] their exquisite beauty, and fusion [will be] transformed into divinity, for they get nourished in the fire, just as an embryo, nourished in its mother's womb, grows slowly. When the appointed month is near, nothing prevents it from coming out. Such also is the power of this admirable art.

"They suffer in Hades and in the tomb in which they lie from waves and ripples that follow each other, but when the tomb is opened, they will ascend from Hades like the babe from the womb. When the philosophers have contemplated the beauty [of this], just like a loving mother [contemplates] the baby to which she has given birth, they seek to nourish, like a baby, this art, [but] with water instead of milk. For the art imitates [or: is like] the baby and, like the baby, it takes shape, and [there comes a time] when it is perfect in every respect. Here you have the sealed mystery.

"From now on I shall tell you clearly where the elements and plants lie. But first I shall speak in riddles. Climb to the top of the ladder, up the mountain covered with trees, and see: there is a stone on top. Take the arsenic from the stone and use it for whitening divinely. And see: in the middle of the mountain, underneath the arsenic, there is its bride [mercury?, or yellow arsenic, as opposed to the white one?], with whom it unites itself and in whom it finds its pleasure. Nature rejoices in nature, and outside of it there is no union. Descend to the Egyptian Sea and bring back from the sand, from the source, the so-called natron. Unite it with these substances, and they bring out the all-coloring beauty; outside of it there is no union, for the bride is its measure. See, nature corresponds to nature, and when you have assembled everything in an equal proportion, then natures conquer natures and rejoice in one another.

"Look, scientists, and understand! Here you have the fulfillment of the technique of bridegroom and bride having been joined and becoming one. Here you have the plants and their varieties. Look, I have told you the whole truth, and I shall tell it to you again. You must look and understand that from the sea ascend the clouds carrying the blessed waters, and they refresh the earth and make the seeds and the flowers grow. Similarly, our cloud, coming out of our element and carrying the divine waters, refreshes the plants and the elements and does not need anything that is produced by any other soil.

"Here you have the strange mystery, brothers, the completely unknown [mystery]; here you have the truth that has been revealed to you. Look how you sprinkle your soil, how you sprinkle your soil and make your seeds grow in order to harvest when it is ripe.

"Now listen and understand and judge correctly what I say. Take from the four elements the highest arsenic and the lowest arsenic and the white and the red, equal in weight, male and female, so that they are joined to each other. Just as the bird hatches and brings to perfection its eggs in warmth, so you, too, must hatch and polish [or, bring to perfection?] your work by taking it out and watering it in the divine waters and [warming it] in the sun and in burned places, and you must roast it in a gentle flame with the virgin milk and hold it [away] from the smoke. And enclose it in Hades and move it in safety until its structure becomes more solid and does not run away from the fire. Then you take it out of it, and when the soul and spirit have joined each other and become one, then you must throw it on solid silver, and you will have gold [of a quality] that the storehouses of the kings do not have.

"Here you have the mystery of the philosophers. Our fathers made us swear never to reveal it and never to divulge it, since it has divine shape and divine power. For divine is that which is united with the Godhead and accomplishes divine substances, in which the spirit is embodied and the mortal elements are animated; receiving the spirit that comes out of them, they dominate each other and in turn are dominated by each other, just like the dark spirit, which is full of vanity and despondency, the one that has power over the bodies and prevents them from growing white and receiving the beauty and the color in which they were clothed by the Creator (for body, spirit, and soul are weak because of the darkness that stretches over them).

"But once the dark, evil-smelling spirit itself has been disposed of, so that neither the smell nor the color of the darkness appears [any more], then the body is illuminated, and the soul and the spirit rejoice, because [reading hoti for hote] the darkness has gone away from the body. The soul calls out to the illuminated body: Wake up from Hades! Resurrect from the tomb! Come out alive from the darkness! Enter the process of becoming spiritual, of becoming divine, for the voice of resurrection has sounded, and the remedy of life has come to you. For the spirit rejoices again in the body in which he is, and so does the soul, and it runs fast and full of joy to embrace it, and it does embrace it, and the darkness does not gain power over it because it depends on light, and it cannot be separated from it forever, and it enjoys being in her house, because, hiding it in darkness, she found it filled with light. It was joined with it, since it had become divine according to her [?], and it lives in her. For it put on the light of godliness, and the darkness ran away from them, and all joined in love — the body, the soul, and the spirit — and they have become one in the one that hides the mystery. In the act of their coming together, the mystery was accomplished, the house was sealed, and a statue full of light and godliness was placed there, for the fire brought them together and transformed them, and from the lap of its womb it came forth.

"Similarly, from the womb of the waters and from the air, which ministers to them, it also brought them out from darkness into light, from grief to joy, from sickness to health, from death to life. And it clad them in divine spiritual glory, which they had never worn before, because in them the whole mystery is hidden, and the divine is there unchanged. For it is because of their courage that the bodies enter along with each other and, coming out of the earth, put on light and divine glory, because they grew according to their nature and were changed in their appearance and arose from sleep and came out of Hades. For the womb of the fire gave birth to them, and from it [the womb] they put on the glory. And it brought them to a single unity, and the image was perfected in body and soul and spirit, and they became one. For the fire was subordinated to water, [as was] the earth to the air. Similarly, the air is with the fire, and the earth is with the water, and the fire and the water are with the earth, and the water is with the air, and they are one. For from plants and ashes the One came into being, and it was created divine from nature and by the divine, capturing and controlling all of nature. Look, the natures controlled and conquered the natures, and through this they changed the natures and the bodies and everything from their nature, for he who fled entered into the one who did not flee, and he who controlled entered into the one who did not control, and they were united with each other.

"This mystery that we have learned, brothers, comes from God and from our father, Comarius, the Ancient. Look, brothers, I have told you, the whole hidden truth [handed down] from many wise men and prophets."

The philosophers said to her: "Cleopatra, you have given us ecstasies by telling us what you have. Blessed is the womb that bore you!"

Again, Cleopatra spoke to them: "What I have told you concerns heavenly bodies and divine mysteries. For through their changes and transformations they change the natures and clothe them [?] in an unknown glory, a supreme glory that they did not have before."

The sages said: "Tell us this, too, Cleopatra, Why is it written: 'The mystery of the hurricane... the art is a body, and like a wheel above it; just like the mystery, and the course, and the pole above, and houses and the towers and the most glorious encampments'? "

Cleopatra said: "The philosophers were right to put it [the art] there, where it had been put by the Demiurge and the Lord of all things. And, look, I tell you that the pole will move as a result of the four elements, and that it will never stop. These things have been arranged in our own country, in Ethiopia, and from here the plants, the stones, and the sacred bodies are taken; the one that put them there was a god, not a man. Into everyone the Demiurge placed the seed of power. One greens, the other does not green; one is dry, the other wet; one tends to combine, the other to separate; one dominates, the other is subordinate; and as they meet, some dominate the others, and one rejoices in another body, and one imparts splendor to another. One single nature results that pursues and dominates all natures, and the One itself conquers the nature of fire and earth and transforms its whole nature. And look, I tell you what is beyond it: when it is perfected, it becomes a deadly drug that runs through the body. For just as it enters its own body, it circulates in the [other] bodies. For by decomposition and warmth a drug is obtained that runs unhindered through every kind of body. At this point has the art of philosophy been accomplished."

(Excerpted from: Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts by Georg Luck)

Multum in Parvo

Transcribed from the Manly P Hall collection

The Eagle's Gluten is our Double Mercury, called Azoth [composed of our Luna and secret fire].

The Blood of the Lion is Gold, Mercurialised and volatilised in the Azoth.

The Chalybs of Sendivogius is ∆∆∆♁♂, which is the first and the Coagulated Mercury of the Philosophers, but it must be highly pure.

The other Chalybs of Sendivogius which he calls, the beginning of our work, is Azoth.

The Child [gold] becomes food for the parents [namely the ☿ of ♁ and ♂, i.e. the ∆∆∆♁♂] by the medium of ☿♎ in the Azoth.

The Philosophical sublimation is a subtilisation, ascension and descension in fumes, in one vessel.

The Sal Ammoniac of Sendivogius and Artephius, and the Ostriches Stomach of Paracelsus is ☿♎, our second Philosophical Mercury, the Mover and Secret Fire

Count Bernard's Fountain is our mineral mercurial water, that is Azoth, from the mine of Saturn: — That is ∆∆∆♁♂ and ☿ of ☿♎ āāāted together, not by hands, but by Nature, in which the King [☉] bathes himself.

The Philosophers Mercury, which dissolves gold and silver, is a dry mercury, otherwise it could not be coagulated with the perfect metals.

This is our Azoth, the Philosophers water, which is a dry water, revivified by Nature in Azoth

The central sulphureous Salt of the perfect Red Sulphur, of the Red Stone, is extracted for a glorious medicine by Rectified Spirit of Wine. This gives a quintessence of a Ruby colour of much sweetness, and of a fragrant smell; which must be taken in White Wine.

The two mercurial substances of Count Bernard Trevisan, are ∆∆∆♁♂, and ☿♎, of one root, namely of the Root of Gold.

These three united form Azoth the Fountain of Count Bernard, in which the King bathes himself, dies and is regenerated; and himself, his queen and the fountain are united in death and resuscitated in a glorified spiritual body [R. alba et rubea].

The Philosophers Garden in Flamel is the Glass; the Earth or Ground is ∆∆∆♁♂ purissimus; the Tree, Root or Seed is ☉ in Rebis.

The water or dew is Azoth, the ☿ of ☿ in our āāā.

The Vinegar of the mountains of Sol and Luna mentione by Artephius is Azoth, our philosophical mercury amalgamated and washed, [not manually, but by Nature in the Glass].

The preparation of our Sophic ☿ [the first coagulated mercury] requires a strong heat; but the digestion of Azoth must be commenced with a gentle heat and continued so, until a circulation of vapours, which are mercurial, is established; which vapours dry up; complete putrefaction takes place, in a black dry substance, which remains a long time; the matter liquifies again, and then increasing the heat a little the vapours circulate again and finally dry up, and passing through various colours, the work terminates in a bright silver-white powder.

Finis.

The Process of Leona Constantia

Lady Abbess of the Convent of Clermont.

---

Translated from the German Work, entitled, The Sun-Flower of the Wise. [Sonnenblume der Weisen, 1704(?)]
Transcribed from the Manly P Hall collection
(Fairly certain this is a copy of exceprts and annotations by Bacstrom, MS. 46)

---

From a pure motive I will sincerely teach the earnest enquirer after Our Stone, in open language, how and by what means he may prepare the Great Tincture:

Let the two heroes Saturn [♁] and Mars [iron] fight together. Though the former inclines to peace let them have three or four violent assaults. After this they will be reconciled and as a token thereof they will erect a glorious banner, resembling a Star [ That is add ♂ to ♁ and make the Stary ∆∆∆: this will be effected by using nitre in its cleansing which occasions the battle here alluded to]

To these heroes, now reconciled, who have fatigued themselves much by the battle, you must admister (sic) the Water of Life [our Secret fire] which water must have been well rectified [well cleansed by sublimation].

By the use of this Water of Life these conquering warriors will make an eternal indissoluble alliance [being resolved into unctuous azoth] and as a token of this the two Doves of Diana will appear, carrying the olive branch in their bill.

That the whole world may be informed of this peace a Herald appears who proclaims this peace seven or nine times — The contrary natures are united — after many heavy storms which tore the rocks asunder, after earthquakes, after the all devouring fire has ceased, a still, soft rest ensues. Whosoever has ears, let him hear. [The seven or nine heralds seem to allude to the number of months required to perfect the work].

In these few words our whole art lies concealed. The coagulation of our water [water of life] and the solution of our earth [viz Rebis; for ☉ must be joined to our Luna before adding the water] are the two greatest and most difficult labours.

Every person knows how to boil water over a fire, but if they knew how to boil fire in water their knowledge would show them a different work from that of the Kitchen.

Finis.

---

There appears to be some mystery regarding the author of the Sonnenblume der Weisen, this copy (1749) is annotated with "Leade", and McLean also notes the identification of Constantia with Jane Lead (or "Johanna Leade"). Now, a "Leona Constantia" was admitted to Comte de Chazals's Sociatas Rosae Crucis in 1796. But Jane Lead died in 1704, and according to Liborius ab Indagine, Leona Constantia died in 1716. The issue appears completely confused.

Lully's Theory of the Philosophers Fires Explained by Ripley

images from Hermetico-Spagyrisches Lustgärtlein text transcribed from the Manly P. Hall collection

LULLY's THEORY

of our Fires, without whose knowledge the Majistry is not perfected.

In this there are contrary operations, because as Fire against Nature resolves the spirit of a Fixed Body into the water of a cloud, and the body of a volatile spirit is thereby fixed into congealed earth; so, on the contrary, the Fire of Nature congeals the disolved spirit of a fixed body into a glorious Earth, and resolves the fixed body of a volatile spirit, not into the water of a cloud but into the water of Philosophers. Because that which is fixed by virtue of the Fire of Nature becomes volatile; a spiritual body into a spirit; humid into dry; heavy into light —; and on the contrary fire against nature changes volatile into fixed, and fixed into volatile; body into spirit and spirit into body: humid spirit has the form of the water of the cloud and a constrictive ponderosity.

Understand by this that fire against nature is so called because it is against all natural operations, for the [form?] which the fire of nature composes this always decomposes and destroys and carries to corruption unless the nature of fire be added.

Hence we say that such fire in the operation of Nature is not of the virtue and operation of our magistery, but that fire only which is purely natural.

There are Four Fires

I Natural which is in our Ardent water perfectly rectified.

II Unnatural, as the heat of a dunghill, a vintage &c.

III Elemental, which is common fire

IV Against Nature, a heat corroding all things, as aqua fortis, which is drawn from vitriol, salt petre & sal armoniac and other mineral things.

And you must know that the heat of the Elemental fire can never draw sulphur of nature from the veins of a body, which nevertheless the Fire of Nature by its own attractive virtue easily does.

---

RIPLEY'S EXPLICATION

of the aforesaid Theory of Raymund Lully

"Fire against Nature" namely corrosive Aqua fortis "disposes the spirit of a fixed body" such as [sun] or [moon] "into the water of a cloud" penetrating its parts by the power of its igneity and joining itself in the ratio of its humid substance

"And the body of a volatile spirit" namely [mercury] vulgar "is fixed into congealed earth" by sublimation of it from vitriol in which it is projected. That fire against Nature which ascends in the belly of quicksilver, when separated is called our invisible sulphur. But "the fire of Nature" that is the heat of Ardent water as aforesaid "congeals the dissolved spirit of a fixd body" (that is the subtle and spiritual made earth of the body of Gold & Silver, first separated from corrosive water and calcined for 8 days, or until it increases and is augmented like a [sponge?]) and draws it upwards by its own attractive virtue into the [sun], or Gold of Nature, which appears resplendent and crystaline like the eyes of fishes —; into a glorious earth —; which is done in a cold place.

Hence he says "it Congeals" & not that it coagulates, because coagulation takes place in heat but congelation in cold; and therefore it follows that "the body of a volatile spirit is fixed —; by fire against Nature", by whose virtue the aforesaid quicksilver is drawn back into the form of a congealed earth and becomes fitter for fixation under the Elemental Fire, until it shall be unwilling to smoke, but shall become an earth, giving no fusion, because it receives fusuion from the oil of the Stone "it is resolved" &c namely by the attractive virtue of the said Ardent water "not into the water of a cloud but into the water of philosophers" which is a dry water; because the dissolution of the one is the congellation of the other, in which congellation the said spiritual body becomes foliated earth, which is called sulphur of Nature, and thus, by virtue of the attractive water, volatile; namely that which by virtue of the fire against Nature inherent in itself had been made fixed by elemental fire, as was said before.

And for this reason he says "because that which is fixed by virtue of the Fire of Nature becomes volatile, and a spiritual body", that is [mercury] fixed, "into a spiritual nature" and volatile from fire; in which matter there are two bodies, flying silver and spiritual gold, that is the white and cloudy tincture of the mineral stone; which although at that time it has not the redness in act, nevertheless, as will afterwards appear in practice, it has the power of making red. And —; "Humid into dry", namely because ardent water is dessicated and congealed by the dissolution of the secreted gold in its belly, which also makes the stone volatile and at the same time fixes according to the will of the operator

And "ponderous, light" that is, the body of quicksilver, which in its crude and unfixed nature is heavy, becomes light, because it is elevated after the digestion of its aridity into crystalline earth —; which has not its pristine ponderosity.

"And, on the contrary, Fire against nature", (that is the aforesaid great corrosive, which is called the acute water of Philosophers, or the spirit of vitriol itself [devoted?] by mercury from its veins) "changes colatile" that is quicksilver sublimed "into fixed" "and the fixed" namely the body of gold and silver "into volatile" by disposition and separation of its parts mutually.

And the "body" namely of a fixed metal "into spirit."

"And spirit" namely of quicksilver "into body."

"The humid spirit has the form of the water of the cloud and a constrictive ponderosity" because it is our unctuous humid which is the nearest matter of our philosophical mercury, which is our menstruum and our lunary, perfectly rectified upon its own proper earth.

And it is fire against Nature which enters our minor alchemical works, but not our greater physical work or natural work, and therefore in the end he says "such fire" namely against Nature "in our operation is not of the virtue and operation of our majistry", but that which is of its virtue and operation "is fire which is purely natural" —; namely the fire of our ardent oily water which is purely natural, and therefor to human bodies is a chief medicine. And therefore Guido the philosopher [ed. Guido de Montanor] says of it "the whole benefit of the our stone is made by virtue of the Fire of Nature." But of fire against nature says Lully "all alchemic gold made from corrosives corrodes and destroys nature, wherefore it enters not human medicines."

And observe in what manner it is understood by what is said above, as it is said "Azoc and fire would suffice thee if thou knewest the manner of the fire" Azoc is mercury & Fire is that menstrual heat both which would suffice if thou knewest the manner of the fire, that is with what fire thou shouldest complete the majistry, which without the attractive virtue of the fire of Nature that is in the menstruum never will be done.

Agreeably to this the Philosophers say "Take fire and put fire in fire until fire melts in fire." That is take Mercury sublimate, which is fire against nature, and having put it first to be fixed by Elemental Fire; when fixed put it into the fire of Nature, that is in our water, until fire in fire liquifies: —; that is until that fire against Nature liquifies in the menstrual fire of Nature —; that is be resolved into the substance of a soul (anima) —; that is of water; which after its fixation, by virtue of an oiliness acquired from the menstruum will have a liquifying virtue which before, on account of its siccity, it had not. For after its first fixation it was a calxy earth, and being deprived of its extraneous humidity, by the virtue of desiccation and fixation in Elemental fire, in so much that for siccity it be melted, because, as the Philosophers say, spirits are not fixed until they become earth and hence they give no fusion.

Wherefore it behoves that for its lost radical humidity it should regain a new humidity, much better, because not aqueous, such as that was, but oleaginous that it might be melted; since the ingressive and penetrative virtue of the Elixir is chiefly made by virtue of the oil not burning, which is to be acquired partly from our menstruum, partly from the ferment, which is gold or silver.

Thus it is clear that the fire of Nature clothing itself with its own vegetative power revivifies every dead body, and rescusitates into a crystaline matter, which is called the salt of Nature and our Philosophical quicksilver sublimated; and that it matters not out of what earth that be elevated as long as it is that earth fixed, that white and subtle earth exempt from all humidity; because mercury implanted in such an earth, namely our oily mercury, makes it fusible and apt to receive any form whatsoever.

And therefore the Philosopher Guido said of the earth "It need not be mended of what unclean substance it be, provided it be fixed." And Maria the Prophetess says "The body, which is taken out of the little hills, is a white clear body, suffering neither putrefcation nor motion."

Such an earth in its calcination requires a great ignity in itself, and mercury has the power of tinging it and of rendering it fusible, whence Guido says "Earth and fire desiccate water and air." They drink them up and fix them because every metal consists only of two namely of sulphur for the earthy part and mercury for the watry part; and the antient Philosophers, inventors of this science endeavoured to do upon the earth, namely of metal in a few days, what Nature scarcely effects in the earth in a thousand years.

We are not to mind of what earth, of what substance it be, if however it be fixed, subtle and igneous, that it may be in the place of sulphur for the earthy part, if mercury be well combined with it, namely our mercury which is humid and unctuous, until it be perfected into a matter fit to be reduced, by addition of the ferment, to the nature of metal, that in all things we may seem to be the least repugnant to the intention of the Philosophers. For what is Gold and Silver but red earth and white earth oilifed as well from mercury pure and unctuous that they may be melted; from which mercury earth is tinged, and perfected by congellation into white and cloudy.

Hence Avicene says of gold and silver "take away from them quality and there will not be contention." But in this Art is weaker than Nature, because without the ferment the Stone is not reduced to the nature of metal, whereas Nature acts contrarily in its operation creating from Sulphur and quicksilver, within the earth, in a long time, without requiring a ferment, most perfect gold and silver.

If from mercury alone thou canst draw out this medicine thou wilt be the investigator of a most precious work, which is done by the separation of humid from dry and by the iterated composition of the same parts one to another, until they become fit and disagree not.

Finis