de christen en de alchimist, Satan en Mercurius.....

[Hein van Meeteren]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Let op:

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This is how I understand the "brazen serpent" symbol. You are right in
saying that it is analogous to the crucifixion, but the meaning is
different. The "serpens mercurialis" is actually sometimes shown nailed to
a cross instead of a tree. I understand it as an "expanding consciousness"
symbol. The breaking up of the Urobourous into a straight serpent, would be
to take the spirit from its´ unconscious state of infantile wholeness in
Prima Materia.
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Jouw hele verhaal, Marc, gaat dus over het ontwaken van bewustzijn. Dat
verhaal gaat gepaard met parabels, symbolen en metaforen. Doordat dat
verhaal pre-rationeel is, al eeuwen en eeuwen bestond vóór de Ratio haar
intrede deed in de Westelijke menselijke geest. Dus ik vrees dat je je
laat verbinden door de metaforen en beelden, en het are verhaal erachter
verkeerd interpreteert, namelijk als als iets Satanisch. En is Satan
deel van deze geschiedenis?

Lees!
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 The breaking up of the Urobouros circle has been discussed
at length earlier, but as "womiting tail" (which seems to be a more
compulsive variation of the theme). To a Christian the black serpent would
undoubtedly be interpreted as Satan. To the alchemist, however, it is
Mercurius.
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Jij husselt dus twee symboolsystemen door elkaar heen! Je gebruikt het
Christelijke symbool voor Slecht en Kwaad (Satan) en projecteert dat op
het Alchimistische Systeem (Mercurius)., en dat kán niet!

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 But as Satan is the devil of God, so is Mercurius the devil of
the alchemist. This nailing to the tree of the serpent is the same thing as
enclosement of serpent, or entombment of serpent. This is what the
alchemist does first - he takes the serpens mercurialis and locks it up in
the alchemical vessel. This has a similar meaning as the nailing to the
tree; the nailing fast to the ground; the enclosement in the tomb. The
primitive spirit has his freedom restricted. This is exactly what God did
with his devil; Satan. He threw him in jail down in hell where he sits
enclosed (but sometimes manages to escape). Odin nailed Loki to the rock.
And Prometheus was also treated in a similar way by Zeus.

Now, the alchemist does the same thing as God. He threws his devil into his
little hell, which is the Vas Hermeticum under which the fire burns. When
the primitive spirit is locked up, the conscious spirit can break
completely free from him.

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Dis het enige dat de Hemeticus, oftwel de Alchimist doet, is het
PRIMITIEVE geest opsluiten om de ontwikkelde geest de ruimte te geven!
Niets Satan! Het draait om de ontwikkelingsgeschiedenis van de vrije
geest, om de VRIJZINNIGHEID! Dus jouw verhaal vertelt juist de
ontstaansgeschiedenis door de eeuwen heen van vrije geest, van de
vrijzinnigheid, maar dan in alchimistische termen. Je zit er dus
vierkant naast, Marc!

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Lees!!!!!:

So the tertiary spirit leaves the primitive
wholeness and flies away, higher and higher, and develops his understanding
to become a beautiful blue dragon. So the breaking free of the spirit from
Prima Materia means that a part of it, "the hopeless one", - the black,
wingless dragon - must stay behind and be enclosed so he cannot run around
freely, creating projections, lures and temptations for the mind. So this
is why "freedom of the spirit" is achieved by enclosing (or brazing) the
primitive Spiritus Mercurius.

The differentiated tertiary spirit of the Godhead is the Holy Trinity. It
broke free from its´ primitive conjunction with Satan when he was cast into
the abyss. But a wholeness must again be achieved, so God must descend from
his lofty height of supreme wisdom and again unite with the left behind
dark force. He descends with his body Jesus Christ and undergoes the
conjunction in the vessel of the grave. However, He was not quite
successful since He couldn´t carry his cross and had to be nailed to it.
But at the second coming of Christ, He will be strong enough to go through
with it, and the Godhead becomes a four-unity. So God does with himself
what he earlier did with Satan. Satan was "crucified" and cast down into
the tomb of earth. Now, He lets himself be crucified and entombed. But this
actually means a unification of spirit and matter, of Heaven and Earth.
There will be no split no more. Heaven is here on Earth. And this is what
Jesus says in the Gospels.

Its´ the same with the alchemist. He does the same to himself as he earlier
did with serpens mercurialis. He descends into the grave of the Vas
Hermeticum to achieve a new wholeness and nigredo ensues. Here he will be
transformed. (But a crucifixion of the alchemist would probably mean a
physical death i.e. a conjunction, but at the same time a failure. This can
happen when the alchemist cannot "carry his cross" and go through with the
descent and conjunction. It would be a kind of failure similar to Christs'
- although the latter could hardly be called a failure).

===>So the ascent of the spirit then - the expanding consciousness - is
achieved by the traditional Christian virtues; locking the little
distracting devil up and concentrating on spiritual things. And it also
means becoming conscious of the shadow, deviced by Jung. <===

So, for me, Mercurius is the alchemist's Spirit of Matter, while Satan is
the God's Spirit of Matter. But you may be right in saying that the
Mercurius could be interpreted as the grand conjunctive symbol of Satan and
Christ, of spirit and matter. Since Christ is the matter of the spirit (or
body of the spirit) while Satan is the spirit of matter, the Mercurius could
very well mean the unified spirit and matter. But this needs a little
digging to be established.

 ===>Then he would be the real symbol of the Self
(Jung´s concept). <====

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