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THE ELEMENTAL MANDALA
ALCHEMY IS THE STUDY of how to dialogue with the beings that stand behind nature as archetypes of substances found in the manifest world. When an alchemist is successful in harmonizing his or her mental state with a particular archetypal being, the lesson of the being is given as an insight into how to transform a particular substance. The substance is considered to be the sign of a process in nature that has some significance for the alchemist emotionally. The sign has a specific relationship to a specific challenge or dilemma hidden in the alchemist's soul. When the soul has been sufficiently prepared through inner thought purification, the being of the spiritual archetype standing behind the substance can approach it with an insight. These activities of transforming the lower impulses by realizing the nature of the True Human constitute the work against nature, or, for short, the work. An alchemist understands that any work on oneself is also a work on nature and that an adept can transform nature in more efficient or, we could say, magical ways than are available to persons not undertaking the work of the alchemical marriage.
The archetypal beings that are guardians of the secrets of nature provide visual images for educating striving esoteric students. The images are primarily dream images that come to the student, or artist, when the proper stage of inner development has been reached. To be effective, the dream images need to be transformed into the language of the awake state. The purpose of this book is to present techniques for this transformation.
In the past, the artist/student in the alchemical tradition was charged with the vow of secrecy so that the sublime secrets given by the archetypes did not fall too early into the unpurified consciousness of the general populace. It was felt that if the secrets were given to unprepared minds, insanity accompanied by a lust for power could be the result. The alchemist might then become a sorcerer or dark magician and stray from the narrow path of humble dialogue with, and service to, the doorkeepers and archetypes standing behind the forces found in substances. Over time, the techniques of these masters were passed on through symbolic maps and charts that enabled student alchemists to journey through the dangerous places and achieve the work without the danger of revealing the secrets too early. This precaution explains why so many manuscripts were arcane and seemingly written by unbalanced persons. The thought was that if you wished to get into the secret places you had to do it slowly and thoroughly and with a mood of reverence for the mystery beings standing behind the phenomena in the laboratory. An old alchemical mantra states that you must be able to “work and pray” without expecting any results. The alchemists sought to reveal the mystery, while modern science seeks to solve the mystery. Thinking you have solved the mystery can easily become a dangerous Faustian conceit.
The charts for the alchemical journey most often take the form of a mandala or sacred wheel, because the sacred journey never ends and usually brings you back to where you started. However, when you come back you have changed; you now know where you have been. The mandala is a dynamic map of the stages of development necessary for the transformation of the soul.
The most basic mandala form is the four-step diagram known to adepts as the rotation of the elements (figure 1). There are four stages, one for each of the classical elements. Earth is followed by water, followed by air, followed by fire, which returns us to earth. This pattern follows the laws of nature where earth is on the bottom with water next, then air, and then fire. This is the normal sequence.
Beginning to work on oneself is seen as the act of putting fire under earth – a work against nature. When putting fire under earth, the alchemist is working against the natural order of things. Cooking a meal is working against nature, according to these ideas. From this viewpoint, we can see that for an alchemist not much that human beings do technically follows natural law. The legacy of this work against nature can be seen today in such things as pollution and the overtaxing of natural resources. Remember that in the past the alchemist was expected to purify the self at each stage of the work, which meant saying a sacred mantra while cooking dinner, saying grace before meals, and praying before doing a scientific experiment. These common safeguards were employed by alchemists so that their work against nature would not result in personal inflation or the actual destruction of nature, a sobering consideration for modern scientific researchers. To guard against such hubris, safeguards are necessary at each step of the way, sequences of questions the alchemist should ask.
Earth/physical thinking is the fundamental stage in problem solving. Facts and data are gathered by asking, What is different? The answers to this question result in abstract categories.
In water/living thinking, the facts are arranged into sequences of typical movement or flow patterns by asking, What is changing? The answers to this question result in morphological systemic thinking.
In air/simultaneous or reciprocal thinking, the patterns are considered from the point of view of how they were likely to have evolved to where they are today by asking, What is reversing? The answers to this question result in an inner experience of the reciprocal nature of all solutions. At this stage it is understood that all systems go through the process of reversal.
In fire/pure thinking, the rhythm of the problem-solving process is considered from the point of view of what the problem is likely to look like in many years by asking, What is the whole? There are no “answers” to this question since it is asked by being completely silent inside. What is revealed from a fire question is a better question.
These four stages are an archetypal pattern underlying most interactions between humans as well as most patterns of change in the natural world.
Practice in recognizing and implementing knowledge about these patterns is an invaluable aid to group process and personal growth. These questions can be arranged in the form of a mandala that is useful when undertaking alchemical transformative work on the lower self in order to perceive the True Human.
SALT, SULFUR, AND MERCURY
In figure 2 we can see a further modification of the elemental mandala. A diagonal line through the center separates earth and water from air and fire.
Earth and water are elements related to the physical process of precipitation in which salts settle out of solution. Air and fire are related to the physical process in which a physical element is incinerated, or, as alchemists called it, “calcined.” They used that term because if anything organic is burned to ash, the ash usually contains a great deal of calcium or calx, which is chalk.
The alchemical forces of salt and sulfur are also known as coagula and solve. The salt coagulates or precipitates from the solution, and the sulfur is a solvent form of a mineral. Alchemists called sulfur “rock grease.” The two forces of salt and sulfur, or coagula and solve, are also considered to be forces in the human soul. Salt is the coagula quality in the thinking process, and sulfur is the solve aspect of the will. Thinking comes into being like a salt crystal falling to the bottom of a jar of brine. The unknown suddenly appears to solidify in the mind and then can be grasped. The will, on the other hand, is constantly slipping away from the grasp of the human being, even as it is being employed to do something. The esoteric trick is to unite the salt and the sulfur. Then the crystallized thinking can be softened by the sulfurous will and take on more of the dynamic nature of the will. When this happens, the newly transformed thinking can dissolve the crystals of what is known and find a new solution to the problem. At higher levels of the work, the will becomes thoughtlike and precise in its effectiveness, while the thinking becomes creative and fluid. The union of these two soul forces is described as the alchemical marriage.
For the alchemical marriage to take place, however, another soul force needs to be brought into the mixture. Alchemists know this soul force as mercury. Figure 3 describes the relationship of the other two forces and the four elements to mercury.
We see that the center area is designated mercury/akasha. The force of mercury is seen as the quality of consciousness needed to get salt to marry
sulfur. Mercury is the great healer that, through rhythm, influences all polar opposites to integrate into new and higher orders of being. We also see in the diagram that mercury/akasha is likewise present at all other levels of transformation. It is the agent of transformation from earth to water, which is
achieved through the process of putting fire under earth. Only a being endowed with the capacity for recognizing consciousness, or, we could say, a being who could be self-conscious or self-aware, can bring fire under earth and transform nature. Mercury is rhythm, akasha is consciousness; together they make rhythmic consciousness or consciousness of rhythm. This quality accurately describes the necessary force needed to get salt to marry sulfur. A rhythmic consciousness is one in which a daily practice of stilling the mind creates a dynamic wave in the spiritual world. Time is telescoped and concentrated by such a rhythmic consciousness, and the will becomes an organ for thinking.
The four elements are transformed through the rhythmic interplay of the three forces. When this happens the center of the mandala is filled with akasha, or consciousness. The artist/student then rises to the level of adept and the fertilization of the Spirit Embryo by the activity of the True Human can begin. Establishing a practice to work with these ideas is of paramount importance to the soul life of a human being and was the content of the mystery schools from the most ancient times. The practice is the most fundamental tool of the adept. The other tool in the tool bag of the aspiring adept is the development of living picture imagination, otherwise known as “seeing.” To understand “seeing” we can refer to the mandala of the last figure as we go through the process.
