Chronos Apollonios' "Home On Olympus"
Within Alchemic literature, there is some disparity, as “Powders of Projection”, “Powders of Sympathy”, “The Philosopher’s Stone” and various “Elixirs” are sometimes spoken of as different substances, and sometimes spoken of as if they may all be one in the same. We may yet discover that that nature has Provided, or such serendipitity occurs because of the holographic nature of reality, that what accounts in the end for the success of the Doctorine of Signatures/ Correspondences also provides that indeed they may be, and like the plants, if they cannot conquer a problem in one fashion, they are readily capable of solving them in a number of others.
Thus in attending the issue of Palingenics, formulas for the fabulous Elixirs may have already been unwittingly provided.
So, too, it is not unfamiliar, that the Rose which may be implicated in some cases of Palingenics if by nothing else than the Rosicrucian fascination with it, as if to stand “sub-rosa”, one might look up and see one’s mortal salvation-- hopefully with the advantageous grace of initiation, for to withhold such things is to judge others, and that forbidden by the creeds of men.
Still, it is an issue of such great import, and one that threatens to take advantage of people, as we hear all too often it has in the past, that some shopping around and looking carefully into the issues and mechanisms is quite appropriate.
Furthermore, there are such a number of biological markers of aging, that we should not allow any system, science or magick, to unintentionally create the illusion that we have an overly limited set of choices to work with. Aging may be complicated, and yet, making war with man on many fronts, it has many angles from which it is vulnerable. There are already many recognized ways of slowing down and perhaps even stopping the biological clock.
There are a number of formulas aside from the Elixirs of the alchemists, some existing as legend or seeming to be magickal fantasy: the gathering of dew from certain plants, or certain charms, or different herbs... I have made the effort of an initial disclosure on the webpage I have devoted to the Holy Grail. Perhaps we can spark even more light into the matter by looking at neighboring themes; also in respect to the significance of such a quest, let us look at some of them.
The Comte (de) St. Germaine has perhaps the greatest reputation of any alchemist, and there are existing anecdotes that have certain details which are quite stiking. One story, basically, is that he gave an amount of a certain Elixir to a member of royalty, only to have an ailing attendant take it as a medicine by mistake. The attendant is said to have promptly fallen asleep and woke up by all appearances, decades younger than before, on account of having consumed the entire portion of the Elixir.
While there may be those who have little better to do than concoct such stories out of sheer fantasy, there are reasons not to dismiss it hastily. A striking feature, not impossible to fabricate, but intriguing none the less, is that St. Germaine’s instructions to the recipient of the Elixir were that it was to be properly used in observance of the phases of the moon. To the Wise, such stipulations are anything but unfamiliar, and there is indeed something that this implies... this alone might ultimate prove enough to determine the nature of, or even the very identity of, the substance in question.
The certain formulas that require the gathering of dew sound questionable; even so, one wonders how often such things are truly followed anymore, since they superficially lack rationality. Still, there is a remarkable amount of consistency- we also encounter the gathering of dew in the formulas that may pertain to Palingenics!- so if we cannot at this point fathom the reasons, whether there is some unknown power in dew, or the powerful agency is on account of a handful of plants- sometimes obscure- that these methods call for, such as oxlip, let us refrain from dismissing them for now, and perhaps toward the end of our quest we may return to the matter with the exact expression to fit the riddle.
Idries Shah, “Oriental Magic”, pg 172:
“ETERNAL LIFE:
Like all other people, the chinesehave always been highly
interested in the possibility of securing eternal life. Many believe that the following method
will secure it, but that it does not always function satisfactorily:
A silver-colored insect-the “silver-fish”-(Lepidisma Saccharina) is captured, and made to eat a piece of paper upon which the characters Shen-Hsien have been inscribed. This formula, signifying “immortal-spiritied”, will, it is though, cause the creature’s body to take on multi-color hues. Anyone eating the prepared silverfish will then be protected form death for ever. The magician recommending this process warn that it’may take months of experiment before a suitable fish be found, whose bodies will react correctly, and will display several colors.”
Still, in light of chemical investigations into the insect realm-- and as learned magicians!-- Do we not know already that little in magick is what it appears to be, only that what is too good to be true can be taken at face value, and the rest dances behind the colorful expressions of both wordly cerebral alchemists, and ordinary folk alike, our “eye of newt” and “wing of bat” and other morbid ingreedients being nothing more than fanciful names for parts of certain plants--
Perhaps we are wisest to first try to rule out some activity in the mundane... but the truth may be these interesting chemicals that occur in the biochemistry of insects are, some of them, like similar chemicals that occur within humans and mammals, promotors of human growth factor (hGF), a compound which, when introduced artificially but consistently to elderly people in significant quantities, shows remarkable regenerative properties...
Provided it is truly the silverfish that is intended, and not a euphemism describing some silvery herb or silvery agent... and yet so often the Macrocosm and Microcosm provided that all that may be intended may be meaningful.
While the elixirs in legend and in Alchemy seem too rarely applied, in perhaps the incorrect method of ingestion, and in perhaps far too little quantity to indicate a promotor of human Growth Factor, we may still not be able to rule out the possibilities that certain substances and molecules occuring as exotic matter due to particular components of the formula, perhaps having taken on heavy electrons, otherwise known as muons , and acquired perhaps many hundreds of times their usual potency or other relevant characteristics or attributes...
Likewise, we have not asked yet what the ink was made of. One possibility is an India Ink, whose chemical stucture is also like that of our own neutrotransmitters and promotors of hGF, but were we to find that the role of the ink lie in its possible content of vitriol, we would still be walking close to the formulas of the Alchemists, and indeed, the often metioned vitriol may at times be less a euphemism for something else, and more a literal reference to the substance once used in inks.
Not only the potential role of magnetics in Palingenics implies exotic matter and muonization of molecules in alchemic powders, since magnetization of non-ferromagnetic matter is characteristic of the involvement of muons, but some of the unusual properties of vitriol and related substances, such as biological magnets, might eventually be attributed to muonization... so, too, the profound changes in behavior of calcium, used in scientific demonstrations of the possible basis of astrology... or perhaps we now speak in the regard of the formidable Jakob Boehme, and others, of "the sideral" or sidereal(see plates preceeding text in Lewis Spence's "Encyclopaedia of Occultism")
So too, when we read of the history of Costmary (Chrysanthemum balsalmita), a mint scented Chrysanthemum whose taste is possessed of a bitterness to rival- and to imply some of the magical properties are shared- of Wormwood. It has received the common name, “Bible Leaf” for being used as a bookmark which prevented silverfish from eating Bibles; perhaps there is the irony that marks the appearance of a magickal initiate in a high or unusual place, for had the silverfish been allowed to do so, they might have produced an Elixir of Rejuvenation and Immortality!
The Alchemists might mean by Silverfish a plant that repelled the silverfish, a lunar plant, the moon itself, or some element or energy... but in the magical world, a world of interconnection and repeating form and function, of correspondences and Signatures, of macrocosm and microcosm, we may find the good fortune that all well considered interpretations may lead us to success; likewise to look at the science, for as we speak of the magicks of Calcium as it repeats here, for the aspects of alkali ions relating to Costmary’s unusual properties of rooting from stem cuttings placed in water, a trait remarkably rare for members of it’s particular family, the Asteraceae (Compositae)...
We have recalled customary concerns about Ginseng and the issues of why the famous man who lived nearly three hundred years by the use of it, may have followed certain rules about consuming the underground parts of plants.
So too, this color change, and possible ones more stiking, may be telltale clues causing the peacock, the chameleon or salamander, the rainbow, and other multi-colorful things, to have served as icons in Alchemy.
So again, perhaps some of these references refer to certain herbs, even the ones which are implied by the legend of the Holy Grail.
Herbs have again and again received recognition in folklore for as remarkable of regenerative properties as we are intending to find.
One such herb, mentioned in the legend of Gilgamesh, may find its closest existing counterpart in Euryale ferox, a peculiar aquatic member of the Gentian family, known for providing bitters of modest medicinial and rejuvenating power. Euryale ferox is an agent of use in TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Furthermore, it bears a number of resemblances to another plant of amazing repute as an agent of immortality, the Egyptian Lotus. More properly it is a Water Lily, being of the genus Nymphaea rather than Nelumbo as is the Indian Lotus, yet its close relationship may grant it virtues that may have earned the Indian Lotus similar mythical status as a plant of great sacredness and power.
So whether it is Evolution and Biosystematics, or Signatures and Correspondences that may have earned such a plant such legendary status, it would be too soon to dismiss such a notion, especially as tragically overlooked by research that Euryale ferox is, especially under the circumstances.
The place to discuss Soma, a plant from India’s Vedic Mythology, is beyond the present work; Gordon Wasson, the famed ethnobotanist, attended the matter in one of his works, looking at over a hundred candidates for this fabled plant of immortality, and the search has never proved conclusive. Not to say that in the hands of a true Wise One, that all his candidates couldn’t become the fabled Soma in one way or another, nor that such a person couldn’t identify some common denominator which all of the candidates might posessess, but I would rather simply mention and recommend his remarkable work on the subject rather than try the lengthy task of giving it fair coverage here.
For now let this page serve as an introduction, where I have already endeavored to say many things that are very rarely said; please bookmark this page and perhaps soon when you return I will have a far greater glimpse into these matters to share with you.
Blessed Be!
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