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All Contents on this page are Copyright 2006 by Robert Baird Socrates and Sagesby Robert Bruce Baird You can easily see why it takes more than an Encyclopaedia to be able to follow what is going on from just this little quote. There are many twists and turns to follow in the pursuit of knowledge and its power that has been the purpose of many secret agencies since 'his'-story began. Even before the records of history that extend (by way of stones and symbols) to the beginnings of man's thoughts. These beginnings did not start with language due to some God-given gift and they did not need alphabets or other form and structure such as Locke's 'tabula rasa' would have us believe. Here we see the Jewish and Muslim as well as Catholic myth-makers were involved in cryptic or coded information. It is important to remember that the Islamic people didn't have as complete a 'Dark Ages' destruction of knowledge despite the efforts of Caliph Omar. Hermes Trismegistus is reckoned by many to have been the cause celebré or namesake of Hermetics and yet Barrett would have us believe he and his work did not exist until the Catholic Churchians had developed Hermeneutics. Talk about 'revisionist history' or Hellenized plagiarization! "Hermes TrismegistusThere is considerable doubt as to when the works of Hermes Trismegistus
were written, but it is certain that no one person by that name ever
existed. The name means Hermes the thrice-greatest, Hermes being the Greek
God of the spoken word - the 'logos' - identified with Mercury, the winged
messenger God of the Romans, and with Thoth, the Egyptian God of writing,
itself a magical activity not understood by the common man {Emphasis
added.}.(Note that Mercury - both the astrological planet and the liquid
metal - was of supreme importance in alchemy.) Thoth was the historian,
and the creator of the all-important calendar by which not only history,
but the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars could be measured. {Marshack
is a well-respected authority and has proven a 15-30,000+ year old
calendar of great precision existed in the Iberian region of Portugal.} As
the scribe of the Gods Thoth was the custodian of all knowledge. Knowledge
is power; knowledge known only to the few is even more so. Under the
intermingling of philosophers and religious scholars of different cultures
{Read propagandists or myth-makers}, Thoth/Hermes became the God of
esoteric knowledge and power. A priest, philosopher or magician whose
works were ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, was the human amanuensis of
the Gods. Whoever or how many people 'he' was {If Moses, then it would have
involved his sister Mariae, who has alchemic treatises intact and credited
to her, it might mean 'he' is a 'she'.}, Hermes Trismegistus was the
author of what became known as the Hermetic texts, or the 'Corpus
Hermeticum', a vast amount of writing on esoteric religion. (The complete
'Corpus Hermeticum' in English translation fills three large volumes.) {We
will see more factual reference to thirteen.} It was thought at one time that Hermes Trismegistus lived at around the
time of Pythagoras, or perhaps of Moses; references in the Hermetic texts
to the teachings of Jesus {Iesa would have been the original name in
another language. Jesus of Nazareth was named after this concept of the
sun [son] and 'Brotherhood of Man'.} were believed to be prophetic
foreshadowings of these great truths. {If Jesus studied to find discipline
and truth 'within' 'the living father' so should everyone. Thus the idea
of an easy and accessible, by 'special dispensations’ and confessions type
of 'Salvation' would not have such credibility or market acceptance.
Pardon my coarse use of business terms to apply to the effort of these
'religious scholars' who like to be thought of as having 'Divine
Inspiration'.} Later scholarship, however, has shown that the 'Corpus
Hermeticum' was written sometime in the first five centuries AD, largely
in Egypt, as a fusion of Greek and Egyptian esoteric teachings. {But Michael Grant, in his well-respected 'The Rise of the Greeks'
makes note that the cult of Thoth/Hermes and its equivalent 'Imhotep/Asklepios'
was the main intellectual belief during the time of Pythagoras. Others
know Pythagoras as a Therapeutae ['Dead Sea Scrolls Deception' by Baigent
and Leigh, as well as Rabbis galore.] which is the origin of the Essenes
that Gardner tells us are an outgrowth of 'The Great White (not racial)
Brotherhood of Master Craftsmen'. The real answer is far more ancient, as
we shall see, but for now it is important for you to know these things at
a minimum, in order to judge what is being said.} The Hermetic texts were known to Islamic scholars in medieval times,
but it did not come to the attention of the West until they were
translated into Latin in 1471 {There are others who even dispute this
date. How did Albertus, Aquinas and Bacon get their knowledge? etc.} by
the Italian Marsilio Ficino. The texts included works on religion,
philosophy, magic, medicine, alchemy and astrology, all of which were
closely linked. They include among many others the 'Emerald Tablet', or 'Tabula
Smaragdina', which begins with the saying usually shortened to 'As Above,
so below', {There is a great book of recent date by this name in New Age
bookstores. Barrett uses the Dictum of Hermes Trismegistus on his back
cover flap as it is taken from Macoy's 'General History, Cyclopedia and
Dictionary of Freemasonry', 1850.} and which discusses the Philosopher's
Stone; 'Poimandres', 'The Good Shepherd', a Gnostic text about the
infinite light of God, and man's journey to enlightenment, and the
'Perfect Sermon of Asclepius {A variant of Asklepios which was mentioned
before.} which speaks of the divine Unity above a hierarchy of spiritual
beings, and of man, who possesses both body an spirit, having a divine
nature." (2) Thus you see the 'living father within' that Jesus taught about; and
even Barrett admits the 'Source' of the teaching of Jesus is the Grail
which has a lot to do with the Dag (or Nag) Hammadi 'finds’. These were
deciphered from Coptic in 1971 and I highly recommend 'The Gospel of
Thomas'. So the 'churchians' in hot pursuit of this knowledge the Gnostics
hid in protective urns when they were defending Alexandria's Library
through four attacks, also wanted to keep people 'ignorant'. Jesus did
not! The Cathars were later genocidally dealt with in a Crusade. This IS
serious business, and it was not long ago that anyone speaking such things
would be the victim of 'Blasphemy Laws' (ended in 1951 in England) or
worse. I can attest to major problems in my own life despite our apparent
freedoms; but this is not the forum for such digressions. It is important to deal with his assertion that Islamic scholars 'in
medieval times' knew hermetics or alchemy. He seems to suggest in a
back-handed way that there was no earlier date for these things even in
the relatively free Islamic world. This is a lot like the 'flat earth' and
a host of other fictions that seek to minimize knowledge before the
obvious Empire-builders had destroyed the egalitarian (Gaian or
matriarchal in some cases) truth, of even better times. Better than any
yet achieved, not just better than Greeks who made an art of slavery and
Romans who the Greeks correctly called 'barbarians'. Forensic analysis is the science and art of detective work. It comes in
handy to have been an owner of a Public Relations firm (after being an
auditor) for twelve years as I wade through the possibilities of
'spin-doctoring' at work by the Bible Exegesists. They sometimes call
themselves hermeneuts or other high-falutin' names that would get any bum
a coffee, and some change. Here is the real perspective of the Arab
scholars from a highly credible Encyclopedia from 1996: "THE SOURCES OF ALCHEMY AMONG THE ARABS Pythagoras is often mentioned in Arabic philosophy and in gnomic
literature. Jaldake calls him 'al-mu' lallim al-awival' because he
acquired the science from hermetic texts. SOCRATES {Teacher of Plato and Aristotle, also mentioned as an
alchemist in Mark Haeffner's 'Dictionary of Alchemy along with these same
people. Yet no anthology of Aristotle in my local library mentions his 'Secretum
Secretorum'.} Socrates is considered not only as a wise man but also as an alchemist
{HIS teacher Archelaos was too.}. Jabir calls him 'the father and mother
of all philosophers' and considers him as the prototype of the real
chemist. From Socrates to Jabir, there is a continuous tradition which
attributes entire treatises to him {All kept from unwarranted viewers.}.
Jabir affirms that Socrates was opposed to writing down of alchemic
knowledge to avoid its exposition to the ignorance of the masses. Most
references to Socrates refer to his arithmetical speculations (theory of
balance) and also to artificial generation {Homonunclus to be covered more
later.}. PLATO In reference to his book the 'Liber Quartorum' he says: 'The contents
of this book are mainly alchemic but it contains also information on
geometry, physiology and astrology. The ancient authors cited are
Aristotle, Ptolemy, Hipparchus, Proclus, the Sophists {Not alchemists and
too open about their knowledge for the liking of Socrates who compared
them to prostitutes who sell their beauty for money.}, Ostanes, Hermes,
Asclepius and Hippocrates ARISTOTLE He wrote a book on alchemy for his disciple Alexander… It includes
three chapters (l) About the great principles of alchemy; (2) Alchemic
operations; (3) The elixir. Pythagoras, Democritus, Asclepiades, Hermes,
Plato, Ostanes, and Balins are mentioned in the text. We also have a
dialogue between Aristotle and the Indian Ykh+n sent by the Indian king as
messenger to Alexander... Zosimus and his contemporaries {Third century AD. much after these
others, and in line with what Barrett says.} who collected their
predecessors' traditions insist on their connections with the Egypt of the
Pharoahs or with the Persia of Zoroastra and Ostanes. We can find texts
under the name of Agathodaiman compared with Hermes. Some written pieces
even say that alchemic texts were engraved in hieroglyphs on steles
{Stones that could be rubbed with charcoal and parchment would pick up the
symbols and formulas - thus ancient libraries.) but it was absolutely
forbidden to divulge them. HERMES AND HERMETIC LITERATURE According to Ibn al-Nadim (351, 19) Arab alchemists considered the
Babylonian Hermes as the first one to have mentioned the art of alchemy.
Exiled by his countrymen, he came to Egypt where he became king {Guilds
and knowledge were prerequisites to achieve high office in ancient times,
for example the Tuatha de Danaan leader - Lugh.}. He wrote a certain
number of books on alchemy and was equally interested in the hidden forces
of nature. The 'Fihrist' gives a list of thirteen books of Hermes about alchemy
but in fact some of them are about magic." (3) At the very least we can be assured that someone knows alchemists
weren't hermits hiding in caves working on making manure into gold. That
is the way many books and even Time/Life Video portrays them. They called
Carl Jung an alchemist as well. That may be, in some definitions of the
word; but I never read where Jung thought of himself in that manner even
though he wrote a book on Psychology and Alchemy. His interest was more in
the archetypal primordial symbology, and the truth aspects of it. If we
were to accept Jung as an alchemist, then all Masons or at least the high
level ones in Rosicrucianism are alchemists. It is true that some of the
attendees at Eranos were alchemists and that Jung was a hermeticist, I
suppose. It is not an easy title to throw around and I have been a student
of these things for many years, but still wouldn't call myself an
alchemist and certainly not a Spagyricist. Many of the items and people mentioned will be dealt with as we proceed
but there are many others who have traveled this awesome road in pursuit
of something less than what is right. Personally I agree with Mr. Barrett
about no one person being able to truly know so much. The
'Thrice-greatest' appellation is either psychopompous braggadocio or a
guise to mislead. The Three laws of the magi require intense study and two
would likely be the maximum that anyone has actually achieved unless we
are to go back to the designer of the Great Pyramid. The application of
all knowledge that exists in that one monument is beyond the perception of
all but a few writers, among the hundreds of thousands who hold forth on
its meaning. It would be interesting if the Russians really did have the 'Philosopher's Stone' that some claim they are selling under the name of 'Red Mercury'. Atomic research is only one way of getting this kind of knowledge and I believe it requires spiritual knowledge and attunement as well. This perception is shared by alchemists who I have befriended, and by Rosicrucian inner sanctum people who think highly of my knowledge in the area. Paracelsus was a prodigy in the field and I have his formula for making the 'Stone'. It would not avail me any good to try to make it, unless I had prepared myself in the manner attributed to Jesus as he spent forty days in the desert without food and water. For esoteric scholars who have not traveled any distance along the path towards such attunements it makes little sense for them to comment on alchemy. Israel Regardie was Aleister Crowley's personal secretary and he wrote books on the subject as well as an educational approach from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (HOGD). In his book 'The Philosopher's Stone' he said the whole meaning was metaphoric for a spiritual transmutation only. Twenty-some years later when he did a reprint, he knew better.
The above article is part of Robert Bruce Baird book
on Alchemy: Related Links
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