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SPECIAL REPORT: IN DEFIANCE OF SCIENCE 2 -- The Alchemical Marriage; Science & Prescience;
The Apple Dude | INSPIRATIONALS 1 and 2
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. The
Alchemical Marriage

 . .
. The marriage of alchemy to science was its saving grace.
But the Christian Church had turned a blind eye on the
blasphemous alchemists and their magical practices for
centuries. At a time when little old ladies were being
incinerated for not much more than having a handful of
herbs and a talking cat, the Catholic Church was allowing
alchemists -- who were practising REAL magic -- to get away
with it. How come? The answer is simple. In the main, they
were the alchemists. And their quest was clearly a holy one.
They were searching for the myserious Philosopher's Stone
that could change base metal into gold, and -- as we all
know -- there is no higher purpose under Christ
than the pursuit of gold.

 .... . mercury into gold. In 1666, med-
ical pioneer Helveticus performed
the same remarkable feat. Ten
years later an alchemist convert-
ed both copper and tin to gold in
the presence of Emperor Leopold
1 and, subsequently, turned silver
into gold; when a medallion cast
from the alchemical gold was
examined in 1888 it was found
to have a specific gravity between
that of silver and gold.
....Remarkable stuff. But what was
truly remarkable was that they
. lchemy, as everyone knows, is the basis of modern science.
But is it as fledgling scientists that we see those pioneering
seekers after knowledge? In their low-tech laboratories, lit by
furnaces that barely cut through the fumes and smokes emanat-
ing from retorts and crucibles, with sinister liquids dripping from
alembics and strange substances waiting to be mixed into some myst-
erious brew .... Scientists? Sorry, wrong ‘s’ word. Sorcerers, that is the
word we are looking for. The robe might be straight out of the Mickey
Mouse bit in Fantasia but the sentiments are not. For it is in the image
of the archetypal sorcerer that the ancient meaning of alchemy per-
sists. Disguising itself as science or not, alchemy was and is one of
 .... . could actually work out where to
start. If the making of the Stone
could only be achieved by one
who had acquired a profound
understanding of the deepest
mysteries of the universe, the
alchemists were damned (and
they probably were) if they were
going to make the knowledge
available to just anyone. Anyway,
such mysteries could not be
. the principal
ritual magic systems pract-
ised in the West.
...It was, of
course, the
heretical nat-
ure of alchemy
that made the		 . . stated in plain language; they
could only be conveyed through a
richly .confusing system of sym-
bolism and allegory.
...Thus it is that the ‘Golden Tract-
ate of Hermes Trismegistus’, the
majority of which dates from the
4th or 5th centuries BC, says:
‘Take one ounce and a half of the
humidity; and of the Midday Red-
. long but not totally successful
cover-up a matter of life or death
necessity. Throughout Europe, the
Inquisition were barbecuing folk
for a lot less than the alchemists
were doing. But, despite the fact
that in its origins, philosophy,
methods and objectives it was
clearly in almost total opposition
to everything the Church held
dear, somehow alchemy survived.
....The survival of alchemy, a
heart-warming tale of a hypocrit-
ical and dishonest Church being
trapped in a web of its own mak-
ing, would be remarkable under
any circumstances. Given, how-
ever, the true nature of the
alchemical heresy it is truly
improbable. Drawing on many
strands of arcane knowledge few
of which even come into the same
ballpark as Christianity, alchemy
 .... . ness, the soul of gold,
take a fourth part which
is half an ounce. Of the
citrine Seyre take simil-
arly half an ounce. Of
the Auripigment take
half (which are eight)
thus making a total of
three ounces; and you
must know that the Vine
of the Wise is drawn
forth in three, and the
Wine of it is perfected
in Thirty.’
....Honestly, that is what
it says. You work it out.
We can’t. But, somehow
or other, the alchemists did.
....Alchemy has given
us so much. The word
'gibberish' is a corrupt-
ion of Gerber, the name
by which one of the most
.


was a complete anathema to the
Church.
.....Alchemy is a complicated art
(yes, we know we said it was
‘science’ but in its full value it is
much more of an art) within which
many opposing elements are
reconciled. At the heart of the
alchemical process is the search
for the Philosopher’s Stone. A
legendary substance that turns
base metal into gold and grants
eternal life, the Philosopher’s
Stone is found through an elabor-
ate series of processes that are
both mystical as well as chemical.
If alchemy is a process of chem-
ical reaction and purification, it is
also one of spiritual transformat-
ion from a state of earthly impurity
to one of heavenly (but not nec-
essarily Christian) perfection.
...It was not, however, the pros-
pect of eternal life that kept kings,
 . .
tubes. It was the desire for gold.
...If the possibility that there might
be some substance capable of
changing base metal into gold
seems bizarre to us, it was not the
least improbable for Al and his
chemical friends. Not only was
there an elaborate rationale that
explained everything — if you
could only understand it — but
there was also considerable hard



evidence.
.....Drawing on the earliest pre-
Christian sources, the alchemists
found repeated references to the
Philosopher’s Stone. In a medi-
eval Arab text, 'The Book of
Ostanes,' there are 84 different
names for the Philosopher's
Stone. And, as alchemy found its
feet, there was even harder
evidence.
...The 1600s were the happening
period for the alchemical consp-
iracy. Coins were produced from
alchemical gold for Christian of
Denmark in the 1640s. In the
 . . famous Arab alchemists, Jabir
ibn Hayyan (c. 722-815,) was
known in Europe. But the contri-
bution alchemy was made to
society is much richer and more
influential than mere words.
Almost all of our knowledge of
metallurgy, chemistry and labor-
atory practice comes straight out
of alchemy. And, indeed, many
alchemists are numbered among-
st those who have been instru-
mental in changing our view of the
world and how it works.
....If the influence of alchemy and
all it stands for has long since



been assimilated by society, it
would be wrong to think that the
ancient art is dying or dead. While
science and technology have left
the arcane sciences way behind,
that is how all those involved
would wish it to be. Generally now
perceived as the scientific alleg-
ory that it always was, alchemy
can assume its true role as a
magical art. Alchemy lives on
. . . and, indeed, flourishes. In a world
that is so spiritually barren that
Westerners must look to the East
for a spiritual heritage, alchemy
and ritual magic offer the only real
alternatives to Christianity. It is,
however, a sorry state of affairs
that the West can only call upon
. popes and almost everyone with
some money and a mind scouring
the impenetrable alchemical texts
and slaving away over hot test
TOP OF COLUMN
 . . same year J. B. van Helmont, a
chemist and inventor of the term
‘gas’, described the Stone which
he used to turn eight ounces of
TOP OF COLUMN
 . . three distinctly homegrown phil-
osophical/spiritual traditions.

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Sir Isaac Newton (1642 -
1727), now there is an
enigma. The man who invented
gravity (or was it gravy?),
. . ..
. The pure discipline of science as we know it today emerged out of a 2000
year struggle during which it had tried to shake off its ancient links with magic
and mysticism. For those two thousand years, science did not exist as a separate
discipline but as a ‘limb’ of philosophy. Over the course of the 15th, 16th and
17th centuries, however, a new view of nature emerged. In the face of the
obvious, science came to take the perverse view that nature was not an organism
but a machine. And, out of the
 . .
. window went the ancient qualitative
view of the Cosmos and in came the
quantitative one we all understand.
Responding to its own misconceived
rationale, science closed its ranks and
tightened up its administrative proced-
ures. A new experimental method was
developed that sought irrefutable ans-
wers to somewhat limited questions
that were only relevant in the context
of a framework of specific theories.
Instead of asking ‘why’, scientists
were suddenly asking ‘how?’ And that
 . .
ection, we were condemned to pursue
the external world as if it had some
meaning that would eventually explain
the Cosmos. In the process, our vision
of Creation has changed. What we
should be seeing is a Cosmic-view but
our vision has become focused on a
world-view with all the limitations
that implies.
....That we have become estranged
from the Mother that produced and
nurtured us is clear. That we can no
 . . he is renowned as the first
physicist. Less well-known is
his connection with the
mysterious science of
alchemy. And as for his
association with the
Knights Templar, of Holy
Grail fame, that does not
get a mention at all in my
encyclopaedia.
. longer identify
ourselves as
being part of a
larger organism,
no longer feel
ourselves to be
part of the whole
of life, that we
are isolated,
alienated and alone is reflect-
ed in so many
behavioural
modes.We are
the ultimate
dysfunctional
family -- the
 . . Every kids’ encyclopaedia has a picture of the Apple-Dude getting it on the head. Mine shows a member of Status Quo sitting beneath a tree gazing intently at the offending fruit as he creates the new science of physics.
It seems that even before he got into the band, old Isaac was quite a guy. Some time before he became the Apple-Dude, he had already made a name for himself for his discoveries in the field of optics. These laid the basis for the conclusions (not to say contusions) he arrived at following his grapple with the apple.
On the basis of his discovery of
gravity he proposed a scientific
. changed everything.
....At the end of this dramatic period
of change, it is not too much to say
that science had replaced Christianity
as the focal point of European civilis-
ation.
....If the transition point can be placed
anywhere or with anyone during this
explosive period it is with Sir Isaac
Newton. A mysterious and mystical
 . . family of man -- and abuse is rife.
One has only to look around at the
devastating effects of the exploitat-
ion of the planet on which we live to
appreciate just how far we have
moved from any kind of understand-
ing of where we come from and why.
....It is, however, hardly surprising
that the spectre of such dissociative
behaviour has risen and continues to
 . . system that stated that everything in the physical world happened according to a set of consistent and rational laws. Essentially, those laws became the basis for modern science and, in particular, for physics.
Seeing nature as a complex billiard game in which matter and energy stay within set rules, makes it unnecessary to theorise about a hidden world;
. . . everything that happens is aboveboard, no more than a predictable cause followed by a predicted event.
Despite the fact that the workings of nature cannot be explained in terms of rationality let alone those of solid bodies, straight-line motion and fixed constants proposed by Newton, for the
. genius — the father of physics and
an active alchemist — who defined
science as we know it today, Newton
was instrumental in removing the last
vestiges of philosophy (or superstition,
as it had long since become) from
science. With the need to ask ‘why?’
removed, it was easy to believe that
‘how?’ was all that mattered.
 . . rise. It is our heritage from history
and science and is based on a world
view that is defined by external per-
ceptions, constrained by rationality
and confirmed by the exclusion of all
subjective data. Without some means
to change that world-view into some-
thing a little more Cosmic, we are lost.
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 . . scientific establishment the allure of objectivity proved stronger than the call of commonsense. If nature functioned in the same way as a machine, according to consistent laws, rationalised the scientists, everything must be capable of reduction to a math-
ematical formula.
And that is where we are today.
But if Newton was a man of the future,
. ....By that time, however, we had not
only long forgotten our own intuitive
ability to tune-in to the Cosmos but
also lost the ability to identify those
who might have managed to retain
some vestige of that vital link and who
might, therefore, guide us. In biting
into the forbidden apple in the Garden
of Eden we had, indeed, gained the
world but lost ourselves. For, without
the ability to access the essential
element common to all nature that
exists within each and everyone of
us, we would inevitably lose our belief
in the sanctity of our part in the bigger
picture.
....Without that connection, without
that belief, without the help of a
kindly hand to guide us towards the
spiritual values that underwrite the
meaning of existence, we were lost.
Floundering in a morass of miscon-
ceptions and with no foundation on
which to rebuild that essential conn-
TOP OF COLUMN
 . . he was also a man of the past. It is hardly surprising that Newton took up the alchemical arts since they were the basis of science as we know it. Chemistry and physics are, however, not what alchemy is about. Alchemy is a spiritual journey that is merely described in chemical terms. It is, indeed, a science of philosophy. Despite this, alchemy does involve chemical processes and through these and the philosophical texts associated with them, Newton made many of his discoveries.
More interesting is the
association of Newton
with the ancient Knights Templar. Thought to have survived their enforced


. . disbandment in 1307 only as the Freemasons, the Knights continued as a secret organisation known as the Priory Sion. Committed to protecting the ‘great secret’ that had brought them untold power and wealth, the Priory Sion was traditionally headed by a descendent of the Merovingian dynasty ofShamanic priest/kings. On the few occasions when there was no suitable candidate to bear this singular honour, the Priory sought to recruit a Grand Master from outside. Such was the power of the secret it held, that the Priory was able to recruit the greatest minds of the age to serve in this role. It is thus that we find Newton listed in the roll of the Grand Master of the Priory Sion alongside such interesting names as Leonardo da Vinci , Botticelli, Victor Hugo and Jean Cocteau.



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