Rectificatur Invenies Ocultum Lapidum

Pallas Renatus, frequent commenter and interesting blogger who should post more, mentioned on my last post, "Oh dear, it must be Mercury Retrograde again."

And then I felt all Satanic.

Which is because I'd been reading Wake World again, and was reading the entrance to the Sun via a Gate from Mercury, which is Ain on the Kircher Tree, the path between Hod and Tiphareth, the Devil card of the Tarot:

"But in the first we came to a mighty throne of gray     granite, shaped like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw, and set up on a desolate heath. It was midnight, and the Devil came down and sat in the midst; but my Fairy Prince whispered: "Hush! it is a great secret, but his name is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World." And that was very funny, because the girl next me thought it was Jesus Christ, till another Fairy Prince (my Prince's brother) whispered as he kissed her: "Hush, tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviour of the World."

We were a very great company, and I can't tell you of all the strange things we did and said, or of the song we sang as we danced face out-wards in a great circle ever closing in on the Devil on the throne. But whenever I saw a toad or a bat, or some horrid insect, my Fairy Prince always whispered: "It is the Saviour of the world" and I saw that it was so. We did all the most beautiful wicked things you can imagine, and yet all the time we knew they were good and right, and must he done if ever we were to get to the House of Gold. So we enjoyed ourselves very much and ate the most extraordinary supper you can think of. There were babies roasted whole and stuffed with pork sausages and olives; and some of the girls cut off chops and steaks from their own bodies, and gave them to a beautiful white cook at a silver grill, that was lighted with the gas of dead bodies and marshes; and he cooked them splendidly, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Then there was a tame goat with a gold collar, that went about laughing with every one; and he was all shaved in patches like a poodle We kissed him and petted him, and it was lovely. You must remember that I never let go of my Fairy Prince for a single instant, or of course I should have been turned into a horrid black toad."

Good times! And then after she goes through the other two paths to the Sun, via Luna and Venus, she says,

"We came by and by to the Sixth House. I forgot to say that all those three paths were really one, because they all meant that things were different inside to outside, and so people couldn't judge. It was fearfully interesting; but mind you don't go in those passages without the Fairy Prince. "

They all meant that things were different inside to outside, and so people couldn't judge. Not shouldn't, but couldn't. Because what things look like is not what they are. The things in the path of AIN are gross and disgusting, but they are also holy and divine. They are gates to illumination, even though they are debaucherous. There's a danger, of course, for those who let go of their HGA for even a second on this path. People can turn into horrid black toads if they are pursuing Illumination through depravity, but there is a way through it that makes even the most depraved act holy if it's done for the right reasons, and you never lose sight of the goal. The Cainite Gnostics come to mind. So easy to slip into utter oblivion on that path, but still a viable method of attainment if you can hold onto the Guide, and not lose sight of the Goal.

The depraved acts are, in truth, Evil. The depraved acts, done in innocence and without malice are, in truth, Good. It's dualism at its finest, really. Truly evil and truly good. But there's more to it than the apparent evil and the occult good. Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis. The Third Truth is that you cannot judge them to be either good nor evil, whether by merit of their appearance or the result. The real truth is that there is no good or evil other than your likes or dislikes.

This third truth is essential to the accomplishment of the Art/Temperance tarot card that represents the path of SAMEKH between the Moon and the Sun. You cannot make the Philosopher's Stone unless you have rectified the Red Lion and the White Eagle, if you haven't found them in a pit of nasty filth where they were savage, if you haven't raised them to be faithful and good by always treating them kindly. You have to see beyond the apparent filth and savagery to get to the point where you have the refined faithful companions, the refined pure ingredients to create the Stone. You have to reach the third truth, that appearance and essence are often at apparent opposite ends of the spectrum, but their utility is only attained by balancing both.

The third truth is essential to passing the Third Path as well, the Path of NUN, the Death card of the Tarot. All who incarnate will walk down this path, and only one will emerge from the end, and yet the One and the Many are again the Outer Appearance and the Inner Truth, and again they are both illusions, references to the thing and not the thing itself.

So when Pallas Renatus said, "Oh my, Mercury must be retrograde" in response to the previous post, I realized that I'd better make some things clear, just in case. The apparent hubris of the post is the outer truth, the message it contains is the inner truth, but its true purpose was simply to entertain.