Once and Future Science
Once and Future Science
Once and Future Science
The art and science of Alchemy has been an integral and inseparable element in the biblical faith
which has produced the culture and civilization of the West. It is also called the Q.B.L. as well as
Hermetic Philosophy, and the awareness of it - as the art and science of creation - was lost in the
Age of Enlightenment and in its renaissance of pagan Grecian thought. But while the Christian
church would then lose her very essence and the vigor of her faith, there were the Jews of Eastern
Europe, who carried on the alchemical practice in their ghettos - until it all perished in the
Holocaust.
As alchemy it gives the purpose and the means for man's sojourn here on the earth. As the Q.B.L.,
it gives the mode on how it was revealed from God as the eternal source of all knowledge. And
"hermetic" is an allusion to Malkizêdeq, the biblical patriarch whom the Greeks had known as
Hermes Trismegistos, the Three Times Great Hermes who was the great and ancient master of
this heavenly art. It was the prerogative of emperors and kings and in time became known as the
Wisdom of Solomon. And no dynasty nor bloodline shall prevail forever who do not have in
their possession the command and the practice of the Wisdom of Solomon.
The knowledge of alchemy cannot be gained from books or from "within" (there's no such thing
as, "the inner master") or from others, nor can it be obtained by profound study and one's own
experience, and there are no secret formulas. But it is given from teacher to pupil in harmony
with the divine textbook - the biblical creation account without which there cannot be any valid
physical science.
And the teacher who was called to roll back the veil of this age of godless reason and disperse the
fog of mysticism and restore, and make known again these laws of creation and as they're
presented here in the following pages - the Voice of God whom Paracelsus had forseen as the
Artist Elias, was Frater Albertus.
The Letters
I have carried these letters around with me for over a decade in my notebooks. I share them for posterity
sake.
I have transcribed them because they touch upon the subject of an adept or alchemist's calling and his
responsibility in transmission of what's received from the source. I can only hope that you will consider the
correspondence a revelation of a sort, and see the value for what it's worth. Regarding Frater Albertus, I
think he has been considered in a light that bestows upon him a critical assumption at times, that he didn't
know THAT much about alchemy but was somehow a Spagyrist only, and knew what he knew but no
more. I met quite a number of his students and the stories I can tell, but that's for another posting...
A.M.W. House
August 14, 1999
Letter A
Dear Johnathan,
September 19, 1988
Here are a few lines on five important issues that must be clear in the beginning, and I hope to arrive right
in the wake of this letter.
First, with Gurdjieff, we must know "The Authoritative Source". There is but one authoritative source of
knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and Gurdjieff as well as Frater Albertus had been in contact with
it. To find that authoritative source will not be easy, and Gurnamanz replies to Parsifal's question, "Who is
the Grail?":
We therefore recognize the significance of Frater Albertus' calling: He had been chosen to point towards
that source, which all present systems of learning avoid and even deny. But because his students had been
adherents of these systems he did not dare speak openly and directly, resorted to all kinds of games and
foremostly, to blandishments. Such persons can neither receive nor recognize truth and are full of their own
ideas; they used the study groups as sounding boards for these pseudo-esoteric beliefs. This includes all,
without one single exception who ever were paid employees or executives at Paralab: That was Paralab's
purpose, a deselector to weed out the unfit.
Second, the purpose why I mention Amo is that he not only gives the source, even with name, but is Frater
Albertus', and consequently our connecting link thereto. A further detail is important because it fortifies
that link. It also lets you see the neurotic reactions of the unfit who know nothing and let their phantasies
imagine all sorts of things.
Third, Frater Albertus had taught three groups, or circles of students: The first circle was taught
individually and may include a few of his peers; the second circle was the Paracelsus Research Society, and
the third circle was the Paracelsus College, with which latter he approached the outside world.
Two pupils of the first group were accepted for further studies in centers in northern India (Pakistan) and
are not available at present. The second group must provide conscious assistants, above all to those of the
third group who would have to be in charge of projects in the world.
Fourth, somebody may say "how come you know this; he (Fr. A) told me differently." To which I must
reply that of all of Fr. A's students I have attended the largest number of advanced classes, including the
three crucial septa study groups of 1977, 1980, and the elective 1981, which was for former P. R. S.
students conducted as the final septa study group. I am also one of his oldest students in association, and I
have been his laboratory Engineer and Designer for sixteen years. This certainly does give my word some
weight, and I can prove my statements through knowledge and experience.
As an example for the latter, I must mention that most of Frater Albertus' laboratory equipment is
worthless. There are no furnaces (gas burners and stoves are not furnaces). It is chemist's equipment and
was used in classes to point towards an operation, resp. illustrate it without revealing the arcanum of the
operation.
A soxhlet extractor, e.g., illustrates the operation of extraction, and a gas burner setup may illustrate the
operations of calcination, or making antimony glass. But that is not how an alchemist proceeds. That's how
they show it in the movies. Their are no soxhlets in an alchemist's lab.
A further example would be a naturalist's preference of grain over synthetic alcohol, as he had been set, in
his pseudo-esoteric training, on the "natural is better than synthetic" hobby-horse. It takes considerable
alchemical insight to know that for most spagyric and alchemical purposes, as herbal tinctures,
menstruums, and alcahests, the high-purity, reagent grade synthetic alcohol is by far the preferable. For
herbal tinctures it can be taken right from the bottle - grain alcohol should not be used on herbs.
Fifth, there is the notion that an alchemist must not make gold in order to make a living. That's not quite
correct; an alchemist, and even the artist who is not yet an alchemist, after he has been chosen and
commisioned (in the case of an alchemist, also ordained), must first of all strive to get out of the rut of this
world, and preferably so by "turning lead into gold" Bishûm Adunnâ Yâishue Nazrâya - In the Name of
Our Lord Jesus of Nazareth.
After an apprentice has demonstrated his disinterest in the riches and pleasures of this world, and has been
chosen and commissioned, he must first of all strive TO MAKE GOLD or other precious metals for a
living, and for the relief of the sick and poor. At least, that is the case for the first and second group (the P.
R. S.) students, who must stand back and not become involved in worldly affairs. If the same was explained
to Paracelsus College students, I do not know.
But the removal of the essence from a matter also is the main operation for the Preparatory or
Spagyric Work of alchemy. "Spagyric" derives from the Greek, spâow, to drain; agathôs, good
and êiray, assembly. The idea is to drain from a matter its essence (all six essences) in usually
several steps and then to assemble, to pour these the good, the useful or essential parts together
into one vessel while the drained out physical body will be left behind.
Here is the source of great confusion, because the present mystic societies have confounded this
issue by mistaking the essential body - which we introduced in Section II as the principle of
spatial order (the salt that preserves) of the essence - for the gross physical body. Whereas we
shall view the essential body (or salt) as the interface of the essence with the physical body, from
which the physical body will derive its support and its strength.
And it is in this context that the physical body - after having its essence extracted - is known in
the spagyric work as Caput Mortuum or the Dead Head, and also as the Feces while the essence
is its Virtue. And whereas the essence, the virtue of a substance is obtained for its medicinal
qualities, the feces without virtue are what our enlightened age with its pursuit of pleasures (Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Pleasures) all has come to be about.
The main concern now of the Preparatory Work is to obtain the virtue of the mineral-metal
Antimony. And as lead with its planet Saturn occupy the sphere of Binah (Understanding), so
will antimony with its planet Uranus occupy the sphere of Chakhmah (Wisdom), its symbol
being the Orb - the letter Taaw (a cross) above a circle: The salvation (the fourth phase Asiyah!) of
the world. Thus antimony is the great purifier and shall cleanse and renew our blood to eternal
vigor and youthfulness. This purification of the blood is necessary before the artist (or apprentice
alchemist) will have the clarity and strength of mind to successfully begin with the Great Work:
The production of the Philosophers' Stone.
The Spagyric Work or the LAW OF POLARITY therefore, is also called, Mental Alchemy - and
above it and a godly life, knowing good from evil and persistently CHOOSING GOOD AND
REJECTING EVIL with charity for the sick and poor, there's no need for hocus-pocus like
qabalistic or magical or theurgical rituals, or spiritual and mental exercises, or prayers in an
oratory.
And Basil Valentine who lived about a hundred years before Paracelsus, writes in THE
TRIUMPHAL CHARIOT OF ANTIMONY on the Preparatory Work:
"We apprehend the essential properties of a thing, the circumstances by which it is conditioned,
its matter, its form, its operation and their source, whence it is infused and implanted, how it is
generated by the Stars, formed by the elements, produced and perfected by the three principles
(or three essentials).
Again, it enables us to understand how the body of anything can be dissolved, i.e., resolved into
its first matter or essence: To this change I have referred in my other writings as the
transmutation of the last substance into the first, and of the first substance into the last."
The last paragraph here again defines the Preparatory Work: How to resolve anything into its
FIRST MATTER or essence. While the paragraph before describes how it had come into being
through the FOUR WORLDS: Infused, generated, formed, and finally perfected by the three
essentials via the Earth Element, which fixes the FIRST MATTER or essence and its three
essentials into the SECOND MATTER of a (continued on next page)
Continued...
breaking forth from on high and across the abyss like a shooting star - infusing and challenging
these dark clouds of the roaring chaos with its heavenly design.
Now as was shown above, man was placed on earth to finish its fourth phase, the phase of the
perfection and completion of that heavenly design. And besides completion, there are parts and
aspects of the whole work, like ourselves, which had been damaged or not come out right in the
previous phase, in the third phase of formation, and which must be repaired and healed and
restored.
All this can best be carried out by creating new seedstones for the matters concerned and putting
them into the right spots: That is the purpose of alchemy here on earth at the present time.
And as the great work of the sons of God is producing Philosophers' Stones, and implanting
them into al-khame or into the blackness of an abysmal chaos, and they in this manner bring to
pass the transmutation of that blackness - al-khame or al-chemy - the transmutation of alchemy
into planets and suns and into worlds of light, even without end:
That's why the manufacture of the Stone, the coveted goal of the alchemists has been referred to
at last as - THE GREAT WORK.
Appendix A: The Etymologies of the Q.B.L., The Kabbalah, and The Ineffable Name.
The FOUR WORLDS of the Ancient Wisdom also are seen in the facade - besides in its layout of
Nave, Choir, Sanctuary, and Tabernacle - of the Gothic cathedral of France. There (above the
crypt which shows demons and vices, symbolizing our Fifth World of the Illusions) we will see at
the west front over the main portal the Messiah as the King of kings, which symbolizes His future
rulership over the MATERIA TERTIA, the Fourth World of Perfection and Restoration - a
pattern which is repeated in the transepts. The keyword here is Malkôoth or Mâlkooth, meaning
Kingdom.
This the Fourth World of Perfection, of course, is symbolized by the earth, which shall be made
perfect to become His kingdom.
In the next story, right above the portal, there is the rose window or head window. It shows the
MATERIA SECUNDA as an orb in the Third Phase of Formation, its keyword being Y'sôwdh
and meaning Foundation: "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth" (Is.48:13), and
that was carried out in the Third Phase
Continued...
of Formation, naturally! And this the Third Phase or Realm of Formation here is symbolized by
the moon.
The arcades above the rose window then are the MATERIA PRIMA, or the Second World of
Creation with its keyword, Tiph-êreth - meaning Beauty and Glory: "For thine is the kingdom,
and the power and the glory". Here in the Celestial Realm the Elowhêem, the Philosophers of
Heliopolis are taking counsel for the creation of the worlds.
That Second Phase and Realm must certainly possess the attributes of beauty and glory, for it is
the reflection of the celestial glory of the First Realm of the Beginning and therefore is
represented by the sun.
We have found therefore in the masonry of the Gothic cathedral a well-known threefold pattern:
The MATERIA PRIMA which manifests the Celestial glory of the spiritual creation, represented
by the sun; the MATERIA SECUNDA, which manifests the Terrestrial glory of the terror and
trial of forming gross matter, and which is symbolized by the moon; and the MATERIA TERTIA,
which manifests the Telestial glory of perfecting and completing (Gr. teleo, to complete) the
work, symbolized by the planet earth.
The apex of the nave, at last, as well as those of the transepts denote the First Realm of "In the
beginning" or b’reisheeth (Gen.1:1) or b’rowsheeth, where the last letter "th" stands for the
Hebrew letter "taaw" and means - cross. And the cross will section the "rowsh" which means,
head, into four quarters, and so we have the rowsheecross or rosicross, meaning Headquarters.
These headquarters therefore are the PRIMA CAUSA - the Beginning or Rosicross, where the
Archetypes of all living things are being guarded by the Rosicrucians - who are the eternal
guardians of these archetypes or mysteries of creation.
The apex is adorned sometimes with a cross, with a circle around its center (which is the glyph
for the Attic letter "tau"), the area of which thus is again sectioned into four quarters, and so that
glyph is the symbol for the rosicross, for the headquarters of the Creator God JHWH the LORD:
The Alpha and Omega, the Aalef and the Taaw, the Beginning and the End - the PRIMA CAUSA
of all things.
Its keyword is Kêther, which means Crown, and authority and revelation from on high:
PRIMUM MOBILE, Reishêeth HaGilgoolêem, the Beginning of the Swirlings!
The Ancient Tradition always is a living tradition, which means two things: First, it's being
carried on by groups or societies of living persons and is not just in the books. Second, there must
be attached some useful work; theory must be connected to practice, as for example the healing of
the sick, the production of food, or the construction of temples.
It is revelation and practice, which safeguard the Ancient Tradition against becoming corrupted.
The Ancient Tradition was revealed to man in order to complete the Creation and bring it,
himself included, to perfection in its Fourth and Final Phase.
It stands in opposition to humanist and western thought which deny the Name of the LORD,
and which are aimed not at the perfection of man: For their end is the glorification of man's
potential and thus in essence, they are violations of the First Commandment.
Now if the apices of Gothic cathedrals, as shown above, represent the First Realm of the
Beginning, the Divine Headquarters - then the Crown Tabernacle, the triangle on the face of the
attic, right below the apex is the residence of JHWH the LORD - because He resides in a
tabernacle which means a tent.
Please note that the English "attic" is the Aramaeic/Arabic/Hebrew "atêeq," "ancient" (e.g. Dan.
7:9, "Atêeq Yowmêen," an Ancient of Days), and again is the English "antique." Therefore, the
attic of the nave or transept naturally is the Holy of Holies where the Atêeq Yowmêen, the
Ancient of Days resides - and whence revelation and light do proceed.
Enigma in the Desert: The Salt Lake City Mormon Temple.
In the architecture of the historic temple of the Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah this is
expressed in the cloud stones and rays of light shooting downward out of the clouds: "And the
light shineth forth from the darkness; and the darkness apprehendeth it not" (Jn. 1:5).
The cloud stones therefore (besides the temple's six spires) show the First of the FOUR WORLDS,
the PRIMA CAUSA, the writ of revelation. And in that manner, they complete the FOURFOLD
PATTERN of the Ancient Tradition, which thus has been revealed anew in the temple:
The Earth, Moon, and Sun Stones, eclipsed by the Revelation Stones.
And there are in the masonry the Ten Laws, which Moses abridged into the Ten Commandments.
And there further are the Three Pillars of Rulership: The Middle Pillar of Peace through
submission to God's will which would represent the faith of Islam; the Right Pillar of Grace and
Mercy which would represent Christianity and which the masons know as Yâa-kheen ("He shall
establish"); and then the Left Pillar of Justice and Strength which would represent Judaism and is
known to the masons as Bôw-az ("in Him strength").
Also, the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple, like the Gothic cathedral of France, is easily recognized
as a stone-hewn monument for the Sephirotic Tree of Life - of which its present owners know
nothing, or are no longer aware of.
As a corollary, we can lay to rest now the issue of the style of the temple as it is clearly Gothic
even in the absence of pointed arches, flying buttresses and ribbed vaults. It is the spiritual
significance and not the cosmetics which decides whether a structure is in the Gothic style: The
divine FOURFOLD PATTERN for the creation of the worlds must be manifest therein.
And thus, the masonry of the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple, like its designer Truman 0. Angell
has explained, and like the Gothic cathedral will show us "some of the great architectural works
above."
In Search Of Arcane Knowledge: Joerg Lanz Von Liebenfels
Like Sir Arthur Trebitsch-Lincoln, the greatest adventurer of the twentieth century, Joerg Lanz
von Liebenfels was an enigmatic but determined figure behind the scenes of power in the years
before the end of World War II; both men claimed to be in possession of arcane knowledge
obtained from Hermetic societies, and they pursued their lifes' objectives under the cover of
pseudonyms.
But unlike Trebitsch-Lincoln, who faded into oblivion, has the impact which von Liebenfels'
eccentric writings have made on the world view of the German and Austrian people and which
had led to the holocaust of the Second World War, been clearly established in history.
Lanz von Liebenfels was born at Vienna, Austria as one Adolf Joseph Lanz on July 19, 1874. At
the age of 19, he became a novice at the Cistercian monastery of Heiligenkreuz in Vienna on July
31, 1893. It was here at the monastery, that he made contact with a group of monks who carried
on the Ancient Tradition there under the umbrella of the Catholic Church.
Lanz was not unprepared for his encounter with destiny. As a youth already had he keenly been
aware of the changing Zeitgeist, and that something there was seriously amiss in the age of
reason which had spawned the advent of science and the industrial revolution.
And he knew of the Kulturkampf (and not just the Kulturkampf which Bismarck was waging in
Germany against the Catholic Zentrum party) between the Protestant modernists, who grafted
their faith onto the findings of science that challenged the traditional beliefs, and the Catholic
anti-modernists whom the First Vatican Council had enjoined to ignore the modern world, and to
seek careers as administrators and as lawyers and bankers, but not to become scientists or
engineers.
Epilogue: The Ancient Tradition – The Laws Involved.
Tauhara Hall.
In February 1968, Frater Albertus gave a lecture, "Ancient Orders" (reprint ESSENTIA, Autumn
1983) at Tauhara Hall, an affiliation of the Golden Dawn in New Zealand, which he closed with
the following words (emphasis ours):
"Men like Franz Hartman, Surya, Bernus, Chilar and the like known in the occult world for their
various contributions are not among us anymore. Others have not taken their places as was
commonly expected by many...
It is indeed a sad picture to conceive the future when those to take over are not qualified enough
to be at least the equal of those who relinquish such positions of trust. Those following should
become even superior to their predecessors by building upon the knowledge, which is theirs by
right of succession.
If such leaders to come will have to probe again into rituals and ceremonies, the time has just not
come to make known again what the entire world is waiting for, namely to have the laws
revealed whereby men may become masters over their destiny. Unfortunately this search still
goes on among so-called brotherhoods and fraternities who lack the teachers of this wisdom to
prove the laws involved by actually demonstrating their validity on both planes of manifestation
according to the law of polarity.
As long as any order cannot produce a teacher or teachers who can demonstrate this ancient
wisdom they are not in valid association with the ancient orders, manuscripts and documents
notwithstanding."
Secrets of the Rosicrucians.
This heading is the title of the original German edition (GEHEIMNISSE DER ROSENKREUZER)
of the report A ROSICRUCIAN NOTEBOOK (Samuel Weiser 1992) by Willy Schroedter. It shows
the very advanced know-how of universal laws which sundry hermetic societies had possessed -
most impressive the chapter "Transmutation" with the account on Benjamin and Abraham Jesse
which also is abridged in Raphael Patai's THE JEWISH ALCHEMISTS (please see chapter I in the
main section).
It should be noted that all of these hermetic societies were Rosicrucian orders although they
would never use this name. The first mark of a Rosicrucian order is never to refer to themselves
as Rosicrucian. The term "Rosicrucian" does not derive from the rose but is the name of the
authoritative source of all knowledge and wisdom (as we have already seen in "The Mystery of
the Cathedrals" in Appendix B) in a transliteration from the Hebrew language.
Willy Schroedter's book does set a standard by which contemporary occult or esoteric
organizations must be measured, and it exposes their ignorance of even the most fundamental
hermetic laws. But instead they have created a fog of mysticism which wallows up with fancy
names, and besides "Rosicrucians" we can find the "Ancient and Hermetic Order Rosae Crucis",
the "Brotherhood of Light, the "Brotherhood of Wisdom", the "Church of Light", the "Church of
Science", and the "Keepers of the Arcanum" and "Agartha's School of Enlightenment". Further
there's the "Kabbalah Association", the "Merlinist Order", the "Gnostic Order of the Ascended
Masters" and the "Fraternity of the Hidden Knowledge", the "Order of the Golden Sunset", the
"Lectures on Miracles", the "School for Hermetic Studies", and the "Fellowship of St. Germain",
the "Collegium Rosicrucianum", and last but not least, there's the - much fancied about- "Great
White Brotherhood"!
And so today - to quote Frater Albertus again - the search goes on for that elusive Ancient
Wisdom and for the Laws involved therein: "It is indeed a sad picture to conceive the future
when those to take over are not qualified enough to be at least the equal of those who relinquish
such positions of trust. Those following should become even superior to their predecessors by
building upon the knowledge which is theirs by right of succession to make known again what
the entire world is waiting for: Namely to have the laws revealed whereby man may become
masters over their destiny."
Thus to disperse the fog of mysticism and roll back the veil of this age of godless reason by
eradicating the monopolies of a racist, of a white supremicist inferior Aryan scientific world
view, and of classical (and pedophile) humanism, which had brought on the Holocaust and
destroyed the Jewish-Hermetic Renaissance in eastern Europe, and has plunged mankind into an
abyss of godless and mindless thought that is the root of all its evils. And to demonstrate the
ancient wisdom and complete the Unfinished Workpiece, and to reveal these laws of creation
whereby men may become masters over their destiny, as they are presented here in the preceding
pages - and thus pay restitution and atone for the blood of the eleven million innocent men,
women and children of God's chosen people:
That's why this report, THE ONCE AND FUTURE SCIENCE, must now be brought to public
scrutiny - at long last and to the chagrin of many - on the Internet.
Christiandom Beware: The Final Warning.
Now whereas Judaism, as shown above, made a persistant and valiant effort to carry on and to
restore the sacred teachings, the legacy of the holy men of God, and then would pay for that a
devastating toll in suffering and blood, it is the Christian Church - Catholisism, Protestantism,
Mormanism and Jehovah's Witnesses to mention a few - which not alone had stifled the divine
truths that challenged the modernist belief systems, but they became the substrate on which
Catesian and modernist thought would monopolize into the dominant world view of the world.
So it is the Christian Church, it is the Christian denominations which are the root of all evils.
Since they had remained silent about the Holocaust nor would they redress the social and the
environmental and biological disasters that had sprung up in its wake, and they have indulged
their modernist, science-reconciled-with-religion phantasies for so long without a word about it.
Even this current report on The Once and Future Science has been on the Internet now for eight
months (since August 14, 1999) and there's never been one single E-mail, or even one single
inquiry to its website, even though it had far over one thousand contacts (hits).
And as the Pope now has admitted and apologized for the persecutions and the extermination,
for the blood of whole nations of "heretics", which the Christian Church has dripping from her
hands: A mass murderer's confession will not spare him execution - one cannot afterwards say,
"well, I am sorry ...".
That's why the Christian leaders must oppose the death penalty, and organize world vigils
whenever there's another execution in Texas: They're on death row themselves, and they'll be
next! So this report is the final warning to the sundry Christian denominations, which must be
well aware of their impending doom from a passage in their own holy book - Revelation chapter
18: ".....Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues.....And the kings of the earth.....shall bewail her and lament her, when they shall see
the smoke of her burning...."