Dr Pavi Ramhota
When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills. This is a Chinese adage.
The Grand Orient de France (GOF) is celebrating 250 years of existence. Initiates have been toiling hard to chisel their stones and be master of oneself in order to help others in their paths towards perfection. The freemasons ‘n’aspirent pas au repos’. I strongly believe in two concepts: alchemy and astrology. There is a strong chemistry between these two concepts. I will go further to say that they are two oldest sciences known to the universe. Alchemy was the secret of the land of Khem, the ancient name of Egypt. The beginning of both sciences were extended back into the obscurity of prehistoric times.
The earthly body of alchemy is chemistry, for the chemist does not realise that half of the Book of Torah is forever concealed behind the veil of Isis, and that so long as they study only material elements they can best discover but half of the mystery. Astrology has crystallized into astronomy, whose votaries ridiculed the dreams of the ancient seers and sages, deriding their symbols as meaningless products of superstitions.
What is life? What is intelligence? What is force? These are the problems to the solutions of which the ancient consecrated their temples of learning. Who shall say that they did not answer these questions?
Here, I would like to pay my most priceless homage to one of my bosom friends whom I considered my elder Brother Michael Lingaya who bestowed upon me this knowledge of the Egyptian masonic tradition. He was someone of high calibre and he told me that through his readings that according to the fragmentary writings of those early peoples, alchemy was to them no speculative art. They simply believed in the multiplication of metals; and in the face of their reiterations both the scholar and materialist should be more kindly in their consideration of alchemical theorems. Evolutionists trace the unfoldment of the arts and sciences up through the growing intelligence of the prehistoric man, while others, of a transcendental point of view, like to consider them as being direct revelations from God.
During the Middle Ages, alchemy was not only a philosophy and science but a religion. Those who rebelled against religious limitations of the day concealed their philosophic teachings under the allegory of gold-making. In this way they preserved their personal liberty and were ridiculed rather than persecuted. Alchemy is a threefold art, its mystery well symbolized by a triangle. Its symbol is three times three. I won’t elaborate more.
Alchemy is the science of multiplication and is based on the natural phenomena of growth. “Nothing from Nothing comes”, is an extremely ancient adage. Alchemy is not the process of making something from nothing; it is the process of increasing and improving that which already exist. If a philosopher were to state that a living man could be made of stone, the unenlightened would probably exclaim ’impossible’. Thus they would reveal their ignorance, for the wise it is known that in every stone is the seed of man. A philosopher might declare that a universe could be made out of a man, but the foolish would regard this as an impossibility, not realizing that a man is a seed from which a universe may be brought forth.
Go is the ‘within’ and the ‘without’ of all things. The supreme manifest Himself through growth, which is an urge from within outward, a struggle of expression and manifestation. There are no greater miracle in the growing and multiplication of gold by the alchemist than a tiny mustard seed producing a bush many thousands of times the size of the seed. If a mustard seed produces a hundred thousand times its own size and weight when planted in an entirely different substance (earth), why should not the seed of gold be multiplied a hundred thousand times by art when that seed is planted in its earth (the base metals) and nourished artificially by the secret process of alchemy.
Alchemy teaches us that God is in everything; that He is One Universe Spirit, manifesting God, therefore, is the spiritual seed planted in the dark (material Universe). By art it is possible to grow and expand the seed that the entire universe of substance is tinctured thereby and becomes like untothe seed-pure gold. In the spiritual nature of man this is termed as regeneration; in the material body of the elements it is called transmutation.
Wisdom cannot be imparted to an idiot because the seed of wisdom is not within him but the wisdom can be imparted to an ignorant person, however ignorant he may be, because the seed of wisdom exists in him and can be developed by art and culture, hence a philosopher is not only an ignorant man within whose nature a projection has taken place.
I would quote one of the great axioms: “Within everything is the seed of everything.” Although by the simple process of nature, it may remain latent for many centuries, or its growth may be exceedingly slow.
Every grain of sand contains not only the seed of the precious metals as well as the seed of the priceless gems, but also the seeds of the sun, moon, and the stars. As within the nature of man is reflected in the universe in miniature, is every grain of sand, each drop of water, each tiny particle of cosmic dust ; are concealed all parts and the elements of cosmos in the form of tiny seed germs so minute that even the most powerful microscope cannot detect them. I got this wisdom from one of my friend Professor R., who has a star in his name.