"Saturn eats its young" is frequently heard in astrological circles and refers to the effects time has on all of creation. What is created will at some point become uncreated. What lives will die. Nothing in the material world is permanent. The entire Buddhist philosophy is based upon this simple truth. The Egyptians embraced death, knowing that it was forever their destiny as mortals. Yet even here we see an attempt to cheat death, be it through enlightenment or the rites of mummification. Jews and Christians in their own ways also seek to cheat death through the belief in the possibility, or even the guarantee, of physical resurrection of the dead.
Other occult philosophers locate the Luz bone along the spine or in the skull at various locations. For our purposes, we will discuss the symbolism of the Luz from the perspective of Agrippa. Luz means "inward-curving," and it is easy to see how it can refer to the base of the spine.
If we take the modern zodiacal wheel and place Leo and Cancer at the Midheaven and Capricorn and Aquarius at the low Heaven, we can begin to see how the planets and astrological signs match and suggest planetary correspondences for the psychic centers. Now, this distinction is important. We are referring to psychic centers, not the psychic body of a physical organ or the planetary energy of a physical organ, but specifically to a point of contact between the physical and the psychic in the etheric body that transmits energy in the physical body.
This point of contact can be described in astrological, elemental, or planetary terms, and depending on your perspective, that is how they will be experienced. This multiplicity of seemingly contradictory correspondences for the various psychic centers can be easily resolved if each set of correspondences is looked at separately as an independent system. Second, you must consider the designations given to each center in terms of function. What is it that the psychic center is supposed to do within the system? This will help you to understand why certain symbolic relationships were established. This ability to focus and keep ideas in context is important. Similar qualities does not mean interchangeable. Correspondences means that things are alike or similar to each other but does not mean they are equal. "Equal" is a mathematical term that means "interchangeable." The relationships presented in psychic anatomy are complex and cannot be reduced to simple ideas of universality and interchangeability. Use psychic centers and their symbols as starting points of energy, not as endpoints. With over seven hundred psychic functions in the human body, there will always be areas of disagreement between systems and models, as these are but humanity's crude attempt to put into concrete language, set in time and space, experiences that are synthetic, dynamic, and changing depending on an individual's degree of initiation, or personal integration.
The order of correspondence given to the psychic centers relates directly to the path one is working. While centers are stimulated by the work, not all are opened in the same order or to the same degree in all Paths. Only at the very beginning of the work, when each being is in ignorance, and at the end, when each is Illumined, can they be said to be "equal." It is foolish, time wasting, and in some instances dangerous to interchange systems and correspondences as if they were parts of a child's toy.
• Alchemy has three aspects: chemical-metallurgical, physiological-macrobiotic, and spiritual-ethical.
• Transmutation, healing, and longevity are concrete expressions of inner states of consciousness.
• Interior purification and transmutation must occur prior to external transmutations.
• Light is the key to magic (and alchemy); light is life; matter is solidified light.
• Gold is the perfect expression of matter, and therefore light, in the material world.
• The endocrine, nervous, and circulatory (blood and lymph) systems are all stimulated and brought to higher levels of functioning by alchemical experiences.
• Fire is energy. Colors represent the stages of the work, or intensity of energy and degrees of perfection of the matter.
1. Review your experiments to date. Pay attention to how well you were able to handle the fire or energy aspect of the operations. Were you in a hurry? Did you push the fire up and down constantly to either speed up the experiment or prevent damage to the matter? Has your tolerance for heat, light, and work requiring patience increased since you began your alchemical work?
2. Obtain a general text on human anatomy and become familiar with the basic systems and functions of the human body.
3. Read a book on general astrology. Pay attention to the idea of cycles and character influences as a result of cosmic radiations.
1. Imagine yourself as having completed the Great Work of alchemy, as being in possession of the Philosopher's Stone, the panacea to cure all ills, and the Elixir of Life. What does it feel like? What is it that you need to make this visualization a reality?
2. Imagine that your creative-sexual-etheric energy radiates outward from the sexual center and permeates your entire body, continuing to radiate in a bluish violet light (sometimes bluish gray, but it must be bright), interacting and penetrating everything it contacts.
3. Imagine your sense of self, your spiritual power, radiating out from your heart and permeating your entire body as a reddish golden light. Imagine that this light and energy continues outward, interacting and penetrating everything it contacts.
Prepare yourself for meditation and then continue as follows:
1. Contemplate a brilliant sphere of light above your head for two or three minutes. Breathe in and feel the energy going directly toward your solar plexus, about three to four inches below the heart, and imagine a line of light in extension from above.
2. As you continue breathing, focus on your solar plexus and imagine that it is a brilliant sphere of red, reddish gold, or reddish purple light. Imagine and feel its magnetic field, and feel that it is a massive concentration of life energy.
3. Simply continue to breathe, either four-square or at your own rhythm; focus your whole being in your solar plexus with the feeling of perfect harmony, balance, and maximum life force concentrated within you.
4. As you progress, sense this focal point of energy growing strong and solid, and with it, its magnetic sphere penetrating in a spherical fashion your body and aura. Continue with this until you can easily sense your aura as having a firm surface about ten to twelve feet from you in all directions, filled with this powerful energy that radiates from the central "Stone" in your solar plexus.
1. Imagine a brilliant solar energy in the area of your heart. Feel its heat and warmth emanate outward. Feel the vast magnetic field of energy around it as you would feel the heat radiating from a lamp or an electric bulb. As you inhale, imagine the little sun growing brighter, and as you exhale, imagine its sphere of influence, the magnetic sphere radiating from and around it, expanding. Do this several times.
2. Move your attention to your head and imagine that there is a brilliant crescent moon in the center of it. Imagine it silvery white in color. Feel its cold, contracting nature, as if everything that comes near it is caught in its inward pull. Feel a cool magnetic field around it, which expands as you inhale and contracts more strongly as you exhale. Do this several times.
3. With your attention still focused on your head and the lunar crescent, imagine that the magnetic pull of the lunar energies brings the solar energies of the heart up to them as you exhale. Each time you inhale, the magnetic pull of the lunar energies increases, and as you exhale, the solar energies expand to meet or mingle with them.
4. Imagine now that these combined energies move down into your body, into the region of your solar plexus. As you inhale, the balanced lunar-solar energies grow stronger, and as you exhale, they are radiated throughout your physical body, even into the space around you.
5. Note any experiences you may have had when you have completed this meditation. Write them down in your notebook.
Using the information contained in this chapter, develop your own meditations for the three essentials.