Dearest friends:
I hasten to send you this engraving entitled….
..MYSTICAL NIGHTS OR THE KEY TO THE MYSTERIES
I add a variant of the engraving below:
This print was the work of Karl Von Eckartshausen. It was published in 1791.
It bears the name you are observing because the artist, as a connoisseur of Alchemy, knew very well that the fruitful work in this magisterium has to be done in the nocturnal hours. Hence its title: MYSTICAL NIGHTS…
This beautiful illustration shows us the search for our Philosopher’s Stone with many of its details.
First of all, we must emphasize at the top of the illustration the triangle representing the divinity or also known as three primary forces of creation ─Father, Son and Holy Spirit─. It is the BEING, the Father, God, who really does the inner work. That is why we see him in the radiant zenith and sending his rays or effluvia toward a couple that interlaces their arms laterally.
On both sides of this couple are two olive trees that symbolize the two witnesses before the throne of Jehovah. We refer to the two canals, called by the Hindustanis Ida and Pingala, by which our mercurial matter is to ascend through the offices of alchemical transmutation.
At the base of this image is a Latin phrase that reads: “And two olive trees, one on the right and one on the left…”
It is important to note that the rays emanating from the triangle that is in the sky form another triangle that crosses the bodies of the couple. By this we are told that the three primary forces must crystallize in us, as Gnosis teaches us.
On the sides of this couple are ruins of a temple, broken columns, etc., to indicate that humanity lost its divine status and it is necessary to recover it.
The woman who accompanies the man shows a part of her thigh, for this was a sign that existed among the alchemists to recognize each other, that is, to make the other understand that they participated in the mysteries.
In the second part of this wonderful engraving one can see the Divine Mother observing humanity, and, specifically, the couple of our engraving. What is very striking is that our Divine Mother carries with her the instruments proper to transmutatory work, namely: the cross and the chalice. She has her hand outstretched to signal that she is willing to guide those who want to live the Secret Path… It is clear that the cross represents the crossing of masculine and feminine forces during coitus, called the Arcanum A.Z.F in our studies. For its part, the chalice refers to the hermetic vase, sacred vase or feminine yoni.
In the second part of our engraving we see the alchemical couple ─a man and a woman─ searching in the night for a woman who appears reflected on a wall.
Likewise, the man in our example has one of his feet chained to the world. This chain symbolizes our humanity which, unfortunately, is tied to Samsara, to life, and needs to free itself from the horizontality of each day.
Behind the man and the woman, we see an angel. This angel symbolizes the solar hierarchies that try to help the human species achieve the status of Real Man. This angel has the finger of his right hand in an attitude of closing his mouth, that is, of maintaining the secrecy in which the divine dynasties work.
The woman who accompanies the man carries a lamp, which indicates the help of light in our journey, and on the other hand to indicate that through the help of the Eternal Feminine we achieve our spiritual goals.
Undoubtedly, all our works are aimed at achieving that our Mercury, our alchemical chaos, goes through the phases that are necessary until reaching the red coloration or the character of Red Tincture. Therefore, that other nude woman who we see reflected on a wall and which the couple of our study pursues, is none other than one of the metamorphoses of our mysterious water, the one in which our quicksilver has already become a white elixir. In this regard, the words of the Venerable Adept Fulcanelli tell us:
“We believe ourselves obliged to warn the reader that, in very thinly veiled terms, our analysis contains the revelation of what has been agreed to be called the secret of the two mercurys. […] It was appropriate, however, to draw attention to the different qualities that affect in order to show – even at the price of a twisting of reason or an implausibility – how they can be distinguished, identified and how it is possible to extract directly the woman herself from the Sulfur [Devi-Kundalini], mother of the stone, from the womb of our primitive mother [the creative energies]“.
That is the reason why we see the couple looking for that second testimony of Alchemy in a secretive but at the same time zealous way. On the other hand, the piece of cloth carried by the nude figure that appears on the wall allegorizes that a part of our laboratory work has been revealed.
I give you now some sentences that deserve to be reflected upon:
“If we were to examine ourselves from time to time, the natural result of that examination would be our greater perfection.”
Montaigne
“Happiness that does not perfect is a lie, perfection that makes people miserable is not true.”
Concepcion Arenal
“In what is good, for it to be a virtue there must be perseverance.”
Quevedo
“To be pessimistic, it is enough to take a superficial look at things: the contrast of light and shadow –more shadow than light– is immediately revealed even to the least perceptive sense. To be optimistic, one requires a very deep and reflective penetration of the facts; it is necessary to delve profoundly into the bowels of life and surprise its wonderful logic.”
Amado Nervo
POST COITUM OMNE SAD ANIMAL.
─‘After the coitus, every animal is sad’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
