For the alchemist, upper and lower and inner and outer were linked by hidden connections and identities (fig. 000.01) :
AOP Pg 003 (xx) FigNo000.01
The Mountain-Cave of the Adepts
Symbolic Résumé of the Alchemical Opus. Michelspacher, Cabala, (1654)
What happens in heaven is duplicated by what happens on earth, as indicated in this alchemical verse:
AOP ¶ 0Heaven above
Heaven below
Stars above
Stars below
All that is above
Also is below
Grasp this
And rejoice
The planets in heaven correspond to the metals in the earth, as shown below:
AOP ¶ 0Sun = gold
Moon = silver
Mercury = quicksilver
Venus = copper
Mars = iron
Jupiter = tin
Saturn = lead
As the planets revolve around the earth, they gradually spin their corresponding metals into the earth, which people can extract by their chemical operations (fig. 001.01)
AOP ¶ 0AOP Pg 003 (b-1) FigNo001.01
Macrocosm and Microcosm Interconnected
The Hermetic Museum, trans. by A. E. Waite
ARCHETYPAL CONSTITUENTS
OF THE EGO
Psychologically we can understand this image as referring to the archetypal constituents of the ego. The building blocks of the ego are divine qualities stolen from the gods or products of the dismemberment of a deityearthly representatives of transpersonal principles. Such imagery is still alive in the modern psyche as indicated by the following dream of a middle-aged businessman and commercial artist who had no knowledge of alchemy:
AOP ¶ 0Dream:
Metal-clad Figures
Four metal-clad figures descend toward me from the sky. They float down over an ancient Roman wall. Each suit is made of a different metal. One is bronze, another lead, another iron, and the fourth is made of platinum. The platinum-suited figure separates himself from the others and approaches. “We are seeking metal,” he says. “The metal we seek matches the material of our suits.” The figures remain suspended in the air by some unique method
DREAM COMMENTARY
The metal-suited men correspond to the planetary deities of the alchemists. Since they have no weight, they are spirit beings and inhabitants of the sky. Thus they would represent archetypal images of the objective psyche. Their descent in search of their corresponding metals indicates that each metal-spirit is seeking his own earthly embodiment. They want to be concretely actualized in the conscious experience of an individual ego
AOP ¶ 0This is an archetypal dream and clearly has a collective as well as personal meaning. The gods we have lost are descending on us, demanding reconnection. Like Baucis and Philemon, modern individuals are being visited by and asked to provide hospitality for transpersonal factors with which they have lost connection
AOP ¶ 0The dream is also relevant to our efforts to understand alchemy. The spirits of alchemythe symbolic images who have come down to usare asking for their earthly counterpartsthat is, their meaningful realization in modern experience
AOP ¶ 0Many gifted and devoted people offered up their whole lives to the quest for the Philosophers' Stone. By understanding the images they served we can redeem their lives from futility and recognize them to be witnesses to and carriers of the mystery of individuation
AOP ¶ 0