Knowledge-p.174

The Alchemy of Knowing

“One in the All”, 14th Century

This selection 👇 comes from my book The Other Road Ahead

MY COMMENT

This is a common theme throughout the book that goes along with the idea that nothing is really hidden. In this selection we examine the concept of striving. In some Buddhist traditions the thought of “purposeful striving” is discouraged because it becomes striving for its own sake.

Searching for a particular idea or memory or concept in the name of self aggrandizement can often lead nowhere. When we are done looking we are still ourselves.

In alchemical thinking there is something called prima materia or the original universal material from whence everything else came from. The absolute source. Practitioners of alchemy have spent a lifetime and a fortune seeking this substance.

They burnt, melted, froze, gassed, smashed, ripped and tore all sorts of elements then combined the product of their labors with complex formulas and methods. In the process many were themselves burnt, gassed, poisoned, exploded, injured, and occasionally killed as a result of their efforts.

No useable prima materia was found that we know about. The great Christian mystic and philosopher Jacob Boehme (✝1624 AD) commented on the processes and materials of alchemy by saying this, “It doth not cost any money, but what is spent upon the time and the maintenance, else it might be prepared with four shillings. The work is easy, the act simple. A boy of sixteen years might make it, but the wisdom therein is great, and it is (the) greatest mystery.”* It is the Mysterium Magnum we seek in everyday life.

In pursuit of knowledge we must be aware that the “what and why” may not be the most important aspects. Boehme says the motivation for striving must include the Holy Spirit** who is the key to alchemical knowledge not the trivia of hard labor and exotic materials.

The only universal substance is the process of our own frailty and ultimate demise therewithin that gives a context to a career of striving. Yet inside the gossamer threads of life is the mysterious adventure of discovery following the advice of Boehme.

*Alchemists Throughout the Ages, A.E. Waite, p165

**Berdyaev and others have identified this as Lady Sophia. So in this cosmology the Trinity: God (the Source), Lord Christ (the Logos), and Lady Sophia (the knowledge of Wisdom)

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