Dearly beloved companions of the path:
I am writing to send you some explanations of another of the seven engravings illustrating the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. On this occasion we will comment on engraving No. 2, which is entitled…
…SPIRITVS INTELLECTVS
─’The Spirit of Comprehension’─
This engraving was made between 1560 and 1618 by Adrien Collaert, and it shows a lady, in turn representative of comprehension, as one of the animic faculties that should be present in our lives. Let us not forget that one of the seven virtues that hasten the advent of the Sacred Fire to our organic and psychic anatomy is, precisely, the one that speaks to us of the need for COMPREHENSION.
But through this engraving we now understand that, certainly, the Third Logos, the Holy Spirit, spouse of Kundalini Shakti, can grant us as a gift the marvelous faculty of comprehension, indispensable not only to come to understand our weaknesses, their secret springs, their functionalisms, but also the defects or weaknesses of our fellow men.
It is urgent to develop understanding toward our fellow man in order to try to incapacitate the “I” so that the latter does not continue to organize trickery or false speculation toward others.
Let us begin by trying to describe the lady in our engraving and the additions she presents in her clothing and in her physiognomy in general.
On her head she wears a headdress made up of a winged crown that in turn has a kind of pearls added. Behind this headdress we see flames of fire in the manner of flaming forces that illuminate it. Obviously, this is a clear allusion to the gift of enlightenment, which allows us to comprehend the incomprehensible.
As part of her clothing, she also wears a pectoral that has twelve squares inside it. These twelve squares refer us to Arcanum 12 of the Tarot, which alludes to sacrifices, and for this reason the representative plate of this Arcanum shows a man hanging upside down by one of his feet. To set these sacrifices in motion, it is necessary to cultivate patience in order to endure them indefinitely. Let us recall here the trials to which Saint Job was subjected by God. They were very hard, terrible, but finally Job endured them, so he became beloved of the Lord.
Further down on her waist, this lady wears a belt, which is intentionally displayed. That belt reminds us of the belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, which Hercules himself had to steal as part of one of the twelve labors imposed on the solar hero by the Gods of Olympus as a sine qua non condition to allow him to return to their sacred abode. It is necessary for you, patient readers, to know that this belt represents the faculty of knowing how to understand men and women in any situation, place or time.
Descending on the enigmatic clothing of the lady in our engraving, we observe at the height of her sex a row of objects made up of three little bells and three spheres. What is all this? Answer: The little bells symbolize the musical octaves of refinement during the practice of the Arcanum A.Z.F., for without refinement there is no progress in our descents into the Ninth Sphere. On the other hand, the small spheres are the good coagulations of our Philosophical Mercury thanks to the fecundations that the Sacred Fire ─the Sulfur of the sages─ makes on it. Let us remember those words that the famous alchemist named Heinrich Khunrath wrote to synthesize all the work in the Great Work: SOLVE ET COAGULA, ‘to dissolve and to coagulate’. It is urgent to dissolve the EGO and coagulate the Gold of the Spirit –namely: the BEING–……..
That is the reason why the maiden of our subject carries in her right hand some rays ─fire─, which appear in the form of arrows, to indicate the human passions dominated and controlled. Precisely, and for this reason, she also carries in the same hand such electric forces converted into a kind of curl as if to tell us that human passions must be tamed until they are transformed into soft energies capable of constituting something delicate and beautiful.
It is important to note that the woman in our engraving is between two serpentine columns. We must not forget that the conquest of ourselves is based on the wise use of our sexual secretions combined with the Secret Fires of our adorable Kundalini Mother. These are the two main columns that in Gnostic Freemasonry we continue to call Jakin ─the one on the right─ and Bohas ─the one on the left─.
The Latin text appearing at the bottom of the drawing reads as follows:
«Vir in multis expertus cogitabit multa: et qui multa didicit, enarrabit Intellectum. Eccles. 34».
Translation: ‘A man experienced in many things will think many things: and he who has learned many things will narrate his understanding.’
I will now add for you the words of Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, which go from verse 9 to verse 13; let us see:
“9. People who have traveled know many things,
and those with much experience think wisely.
10. The inexperienced know few things,
11. but those who have traveled acquire much cleverness.
12. I have seen many things in my travels and I understand more than I can express.
13. I have often been in danger of death, but have escaped because of these experiences.”
Allow me to give you now a few phrases to be reflected upon:
“To understand everything is to forgive everything.”
Madame de Staël
“By repeating strange conversations, they vary so much because they have not been understood.”
Goethe
“Do not cry, do not be indignant, but understand.”
Spinoza
“Each one understands only what he carries within himself.”
Amiel
NUDA VERITAS.
─’The naked truth’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
