Hermetic Symbolism

By Sagittarius

With due apologies, our editor is too much of a theoretician.¹ In India Tantrism may still be a living path that people can follow; but in the West Hermetism, its Western equivalent, is not. Therefore its study can have no more than an academic interest. It is certainly not one of the "paths available to seekers in the conditions of our modern world" which The Mountain Path, by its own announcement, professes to clarify.

Once a tradition dies it cannot be revivified. Understanding its symbolism does not enable one to follow it as a path. For that there would have to be an unbroken transmission of its technique through a chain of gurus, and this is just what is lacking; in fact that is why it died. Alchemy as a spiritual science has long ceased to exist. Masonry is no longer an operative technique of building cathedrals and characters simultaneously. Some few astrologers delve into the symbolism of their science but the skill has long vanished that could use it as a technique of the quest. This is a time when more simple and direct techniques are needed. Therefore they are available; because Divine Providence always makes available what is needed.

Having said this, it may, be interesting (though no more than interesting) to see how Hermetic symbolism was used in former times. There are a number of great Renaissance writers - Cervantes, Shakespeare and Rabelais among them whose work contains symbolism of the Quest, in one or another of its many forms. Malory's Morte d' Arthur is a veritable treasure-house of symbolism. It was natural that writers who had a precious lore which they knew to be vanishing should wish to leave a record of it; and just because it was vanishing few people would care to read a direct exposition of it. So it was wrapped up in symbols in works whose sheer literary excellence carried it through the ages until the time should come when men were again interested to seek and to recover records of past search. That time has now come. Granted that the masses, both of the ignorant and the learned, are more unenlightened spiritually than ever before, nevertheless a new impetus is driving small groups and isolated rebels to reject modern ignorance and seek the perennial philosophy that has been lost.
___________________
1 - Rebuke merited. EDITOR

Moreover Hermetism is by its very nature symbolical and lends itself to symbolical treatment. With its roots in alchemy, astrology and masonry, it is or was an intricate science for the rectification and harmonisation of the experimenter, leading stage by stage through the lesser mysteries to the greater. It is interesting to note that, like Tantrism in India, it was not a science for the recluse or the celibate but was open to the laity, just as Tantrism was to nonBrahmins.

Another Christian development with a basic resemblance to Tantrism was the cult of the Madonna, the 'Mother of God'. Closely allied to this was the troubadour's adoration of his lady who, according to the rules of the art, was supposed to be humanly inaccessible to him. In fact the wife of some person of higher rank was often cast for the part. However that does not concern us here.

The masonry may have used much the same symbolism that Free Masonry does today, but it was also an operative science by which the building of the highly symbolical Gothic Cathedrals was at the same time a technique of training for the builder. Not only the general form but all the proportions were, rigidly determined by the laws of symbolism.

Spiritual alchemy was a science by which the baser elements in oneself were transmuted into pure gold. This was no poetic fancy. Nor was it mere theory or philosophical speculation. It normally did involve actual experimentation with physical substances but, strange though that may appear, these symbolised microcosmic and macrocosmic forces are aimed at developing the stunted faculties and rectifying the warped impulses of the experimenter and conversion of his lower tendencies into higher. It was only the bogus alchemist and the quack who was impelled by greed of gain and whose object really was to make gold and grow rich quick. From this point of view, what comes nearest to alchemy in modern times is psychoanalysis; but alchemy was more Complete and more scientific.

The central and most important difference is that the aspirant was guided towards higher states of spiritual equilibrium and even realization by guides who had themselves attained these states, whereas psychoanalysis knows nothing of any such attainment and has no guides to it. A psychologist may disbelieve in religion, like Freud, or believe in it, like Jung, but this is not a question of belief but of knowledge and attainment. The state of 'individuation' to which Jung's treatment is supposed to lead is merely the state of the ordinary mundane man bounded by sense experience and rational understanding, who may (or may not) be competent to begin the course of training for higher development which was the sole purpose of Hermetism. At least one modern psychologist, Dr. Hans Jacobs, has been percipient enough to see that Hindu sadhana (and one could say the same of Western Hermetism) begins where Western psychotherapy ends.²

A second important difference, resulting from the first, is that Hermetism insisted on moral purity. It is difficult to generalise, about modern psychologists, since they are divided into so many schools, but it can be, said on the whole that they reject the idea of sin and teach their victims not to feel guilt for wrong things done but to explain them away, while there are some who, in certain cases, advise the exorcising of harmful impulses by indulging them. In contrast to this, Hermetism insisted on purity and dedication before even beginning the Great Work. It had to be undertaken in a spirit of reverence and devotion. So far was it from being motivated by greed for gold that the experimenter was pledged to desirelessness and poverty. He was warned that without perfect purity his experiments could not succeed. This attitude was not merely an unthinking echo of a pious age but was rigorously scientific. It is egoism that warps a man's impulses and stunts his faculties, giving rise to anger, fear and desire and destroying his peace of mind. A valid training will, therefore, insist on the abandonment of all conscious egoism while hunting for the hidden roots of unconscious egoism. It is only when these are torn out that serenity and equilibrium will be attained. Any course of treatment which connives at egoism can at best change the nature of the dis-equilibrium but cannot cure it.
____________________________
2 - See Western Psycho-Therapy and Hindu Sadhana, Allen and Unwin.

The love and purity that were demanded were not mere emotionalism, such as one finds too often in a modern religious revival, but were combined with knowledge, without which no solid achievement is likely to be made. Together with the symbolism of alchemy, that of astrology also was used. The use of astrology for prediction was a practical adaptation analogous to physical experimentation in alchemy. It might be very effective when properly handled, nevertheless the element of selfseeking in it brought it into contempt, and was ultimately largely responsible for the condemnation of astrology as a whole. Its higher and purer use was as a Hermetic technique for the training of aspirants. Lest this seem a vague statement, a brief outline follows of some of its main features.

From the aspirant's horoscope were seen the various harmonising or conflicting qualities in him, indicating what particular course his training should take. Jacob Boehme, the great mystic philosopher of the Renaissance period who left an explicit record of the vanishing science, declares quaintly that if a certain planet becomes too obstreperous it should be whipped and stood in a corner. In other words, if the tendency symbolised by a planet dominates too much, distorting the equilibrium of one's nature and finding expression in inadmissible ways, it. must be disciplined and held in check.

The symbolism was both real and intricate. The sun in a person's horoscope is his deepest and most genuine nature (how he reveals himself in moments of sudden crisis or bare sincerity) and may be quite different from the impression he makes on others and on himself in daytoday living. The moon, on the other hand, is his emotional, temperamental nature. So, for instance, one who has the sun in Aries and the moon in Taurus will be easygoing, conservative, restful, in his daily life but when necessary will show a capability for enterprise and initiative which will surprise those who think they know him. On the other hand, one who has the sun in Taurus and the moon in Aries will be lively, alert and original in manner and speech, but one will gradually come to see that his initiative is in defence of security and established order, not in defiance of them. Furthermore, the sun and moon may be in harmonious or inharmonious relationship with one another; the solar nature may reinforce the lunar or clash with it. The Hermetist whose training was based on a study of his horoscope would be taught to make his solar nature dominate over his lunar when there was need for a decision. If the two clashed he would have to temper one with the other, see which impulses stemmed from one and which from the other and decide which were appropriate in the given circumstances.

We say that 'he' must undertake this adjustment, but who is this 'he'? Obviously the mind; and the mind is Mercury, that is Hermes, the presiding spirit, of Hermetism, the intermediary, the messenger of the gods, the hermaphrodite, neither male nor female, neither aggressive nor receptive, whose function is to inform and understand, even to manipulate, the planetary forces. His nature too is indicated by his position in, the horoscope: it may show, for instance, the sympathetic understanding of water, the intellectual understanding of air, the passionate, ardent understanding of fire, or the sober, practical understanding of earth. Insofar as he is the manipulator he may be regarded as the most important planet in the horoscope, and yet he too can be dangerous and require discipline. Being a ruler of dual signs, he can be undecided; being neither male nor female, he can be sterile; governing air and earth, he can lack the sympathy of water and the ardour of fire. If not watched he can degenerate into the dry scholar or timid critic, afraid to act.

Next come Mars and Venus, male and female, aggression and conciliation, the only real opposites in the horoscope (for although Jupiter and Saturn are in some ways opposite, as will be shown below, it must be remembered that zodiacally they are not, Jupiter being opposite to Mercury, while Saturn is to the sun and moon). But the opposition can be harmonized into a wedding; and it is significant that in Graeco-Latin mythology they are indeed husband and wife.³ An element of aggression, assertion, enterprise, is necessary in everyone who takes the path; without it he, would never venture and therefore never attain. But an element of harmony and conciliation is also necessary or he would rush headlong to ruin. A study of the horoscope will show of what nature each of these is and in what relation they stand to each other as well as to the other planetary forces, indicating how they need to be developed, co-related, disciplined, which needs to be strengthened and which toned down, and in what direction to watch out for dangers.
____________________________
3 - I am speaking here only of the symbolical basis of Western Hermetism. In Hindu astrology Venus is male.

And finally the mighty couple of Jupiter and Saturn. The entire quest is a twofold process of expansion and contraction, symbolised by these two planets, expanding a man's faculties while at the same time crushing him to the point of 'selfnaughting', as the mediaeval mystics put it. Christ said that a man must be poor enough to pass through the eye of a needle. He also said that when a man attains the kingdom of heaven all else shall be added to him. This represents two successive stages: first contraction of the ego to nothingness, then infinite expansion. But in actual practice the two stages are seldom clearly divided. The adding and subtraction or expansion and squeezing go on side by side, and that is the trouble. An aspirant may go through alternate phases of expansion, when grace floods his heart and the quest is a lilt of joy, and contraction when he seems to have lost everything he had gained on the path and to be squeezed to the bones, when all is dryness and he is tempted to despond and can do nothing but grit his teeth and hold on with grim perseverance. In this sense, Jupiter is the benefic and Saturn the malefic; but there is also another sense in which Jupiter represents a grave danger to the aspirant from which only the stern discipline of Saturn can save him. That is when the process of expansion takes the form of new powers and perceptions on the subtle plane which may seduce him from his path, as Circe did the companions of Odysseus. Like Circe, they may also turn their victims into swine, A true guru will encourage no such things. Let them come after the kingdom of heaven has been attained, as Christ said. The Maharshi said that even when powers come unsought they should not be accepted. They are like a rope to tether a horse.

This outline may serve to show how vital and at the same time how intricate the symbolism was. However a concrete example carries more weight than generalisations so, let us trace Shakespeare's use of astrological symbolism in Twelfth Night.

The Duke and Olivia are the sun and moon. The Duke is lovesick for Olivia, but a sickly, romantic love for a beauty he has never seen. This represents the man who pines nostalgically for the ideal state of a lost childhood or imagined perfection. No such state can be recaptured. A person who retains the mind of a child when he grows up, thereby avoiding the 'fall' into adult sophistication, becomes a monstrosity. What was lovable in the child becomes offensive in one who should have outgrown it. The virtual or ideal perfection of childhood cannot be recovered; it must be actualised as the virtual perfection of the Earthly Paradise is to be actualised in the realized perfection of the Heavenly Jerusalem. This, to bring in another item of Mediaeval symbolism, was the 'squaring of the circle'. The circle represents the virtual perfection where no point strays further from the centre than any other. But a man is dragged out on one side by desire and pushed in on another by fear until all symmetry of form is lost. Then, when he takes up the Great Work, he sets himself not to recover the lost circle, which would be impossible, but to hammer the form foursquare.

Attainment of actualised perfection is brought about by the 'Hermetic marriage', that is by the interposition of Mercury (Hermes in Greek, whence the name 'Hermetism') between sun and moon. Mercury is the Messenger of the gods. He is equated with intellectual intuition and therefore more or less equivalent to the Hindu buddhi. The ancient Greeks symbolised him also by the phallus, another instrument of union. It was a saying of the alchemists that Mercury is the true Christ, the Mediator between God and man. He is represented in mythology as hermaphrodite, as having both sexes or none. Astrologically he, is the ruler of Virgo, the virgin sign, and Gemini, the heavenly twins. And this brings us back to 'Twelfth Night', where Mercury appears as the twin sister and brother, Viola and Sebastian, who intervene between sun and moon, Duke and Olivia.

Olivia, the 'moon', the human nature or temperament according to astrology, is the person needing treatment. Her household (horoscope) is in a terrible state of disarray. Sir Toby Belch is the very picture of a degenerate Jupiter his expansiveness degenerated into gluttony, his magnanimity into boastfulness, his grandeur into riotousness. He is in conjunction with Mars, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, in Taurus (as he himself says). Taurus, it will be remembered, is the 'detriment' of Mars, where he is apt to be quarrelsome but cowardly, which is just what Sir Andrew was. Malvolio, a hypocritical Puritan, scheming and coldly ambitious, is just as much a caricature of Saturn as Sir Toby is of Jupiter or Sir Andrew of Mars in detriment. Olivia's pert, pretty, flirtatious maid is Venus. Although Mercury as a Divine Agent is represented as the twins, Viola and Sebastian, Mercury in a human sense, as an ingredient in Olivia's household or horoscope is the Fool: clever, pert and flippant.

With brilliant wit and technique the twins are introduced into this ménage and restore order in it by accomplishing the 'Hermetic Marriage', the male twin wedding Olivia and the female the Duke, while the disordered 'planets' are disciplined and brought to order. Here is evidence enough that humanist as he was, Shakespeare was more also. He had knowledge of the hidden Hermetic science which, even in his day was being forgotten and abandoned. To some extent it is still possible to study it but not to relive it. To think otherwise would only be fooling oneself. And others.