Hermaphrodite Child of the Sun and Moon IV

Translated by Mike Brenner. Copyright Mike Brenner 1997. Permission given to freely copy this, as long as this copyright remains attached.
Back to Hermaphrodite Child of the Sun and Moon.

EXPLANATION OF FIGURE 4

The face on the Sun shows a different emotion in Figure 4 (The
Mystical Substance) from the Sun in Figure 1 (The Physical Substance)
in order to highlight the following differences between the two
substances.

(1) The Physical Substance evolves naturally and is called the lesser
substance of the Stone, while the Mystical Substance is manufactured
by the Adept and is called the greater substance of the Stone.
Compounding these two Substances together completes the first
Rotation, by fulfilling the seven circulations of the Water. This
symbolically prepares the Earth to accept the Astral Seed. The
queen has sex with the king and conceives the Child.

(2) The three clouds represent the three principles of Mercury,
Sulphur, and Salt appearing from the four elements.

(3) The planets around the horizon differ in their order.

(4) Mercury, the hermaphrodite spirit balancing passion and
conscience, is the first symbol on the bottom because Mercury is the
first to work on the Hermaphrodite Child. The Child's material
attachments lead to Saturn dominating it from above, to teach it that
its animal nature is illusionary.

(5) Saturn, the mythical ancestor of the planets, swallows the golden
Child of the Sun (which Mercury made) into his pitch-black belly.
Saturn is next above Mercury and stays for seven time seven days.
Then Saturn tires. His predecessor Mercury, with help from celestial
Mercury, forces Saturn to spit the Child back out, and to hand the
Child, undamaged, over to Saturn's follower, Jupiter.

(6) Jupiter lovingly nurses the vomitted Child in the cosmic kingdom
of the Air and gives the Child a beautful form like a well polished
noble jewel.

(7) Venus, the snow-white crystal liquid Mercury comes next, the
Amazon queen, already on the other side of and ruler of the cosmic
kingdom of the Air. The Child begins to grow aggressive. Venus, the
nurse-mother, uses her virgin milk to suckle and wash the Child and
make the Child grow.

(8) Mars is next under Venus. The Child grows strong and fiery from
the virgin milk of Venus, solid as Mars himself, yet liquid as Venus.
When this perfect balance is achieved, the blackness of the Child
gives way to a rainbow of colors. Finally, the colors all join together
to form white light.

(9) The Moon is now directly opposite below the cosmic kingdom of the
Air, the solid, snow-white Diana, the white Stone, the crowned queen,
who supervises the seven circulations of the Air, and becomes the
solid Tincture, which transmutes all incomplete metals into the
finest Silver.

PARAGRAPH 4

Norton, Philaleth's instructor,
Drew me
In my correct form
And he saw me clearly.
Everything good is in me,
Which you and everyone can do.
In the middle is my crowned figure,
My silver Mercury,
Which the educated call argentum,
And which is known as quicksilver.
Two hazy materials must be made very clear,
Maria writes, to perform the Work:
Those two are my frozen Water
And my brother Mercury, subtle and pure.

EXPLANATION OF THE PARAGRAPH 4

People enjoy expounding about the height of the sky, the depth of the
sea, and the location of the center of the earth, but they are quieter than
Pythagorean neophytes about the nature of the Universe. And without
knowing the nature of Being itself, the rest of their speculations are
worthless.

In this Work, there are uncountably many seekers of the Stone.
However, they do not know the keys which are called quicksilver or
mystical Mercury, or the Medium between two bodies, the
conjunction of passion (CAPRICUM) and conscience (BE-JAH). Finding
the Stone seems like untying the Gordian knot or bumping into a brick
wall, because modern speculators imagine they are looking for
earthly, physical things instead of mystical, spiritual things.

Norton, the Adept who taught the famous Philaletha, hints that we
should seek and find quicksilver or philosophical Mercury in the
Medium of the One Substance.

Maria the prophet says it even clearer what this Medium is, namely,
two invisible gases, composed of black-red material,
appearing to the adept in crystal clear liquid form.
Now comes the key, when she says that this Medium should be harnessed to
lead the entire Work. She adds that the source of these two hazy
chemicals is Aqua Composita and its esoteric gaseous Mercury.

CANON 4

I am the good unicorn of the ancients.
Dissociate me into two,
And then bond us back together,
So that my mortal remains no longer decompose.
That is how to get the most powerful medicine.
Pay no attention to my wild and poisonous nature,
Because, God willing,
I cure all sickness and give long life.

EXPLANATION OF CANON 4

The One Substance is above all a unity, symbolized by the one horn of
the unicorn. Denying this unity would overlook important mechanisms
and laws of nature. The One Substance is a single material with both
male and female gender. It is the One Glass for the adept blower, but
which Aficentia [sic] calls a duality, and Hafilio [sic] and others call a
trinity. It is the One Oven producing flames with as many degrees of
cold and heat as you can find on a thermometer, and a similar number
of degrees of wetness and dryness. The degrees are determined by the Element
appearing in biggest proportion, which willingly and gently gives It
its form. The one plan and recipe for the Work is: Dissolve and
Coagulate; this formula creates the entire world, according to the
occultist Dicentes [sic].

Keep dissociating (dissolving the coagulation) and bonding (coagulating
the solution) until the moisture is completely overcome from the
dryness and soldified. Then you have that powerful medicine, that the
modern world cannot understand, and that makes fools of those who
pretend to be wise.

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