Page 101

"In many countries the Divine King was allowed to reign for a term of years only , usually seven or nine or multiples of those numbers".

Page 24

note 24

"In the, sixteenth dialogue of the  Corpus Hermeticum for example, Thoth Hermes declares that the meaning of his work 'will be entirely unclear when the Greeks eventually  desire to translate our language to their own and thus produce in writing the greatest distortionÖ But this discourse, expressed in our paternal language, keeps clear the mean-ing of its words.The very quality of the speech and the sound of Egyptian words have in themselves the energy of the objects they speak of. '
"Öwords even individual letters ,can be the equivalent of storage cells, repositories charged with a form of divine or magical power as a battery is charged with electrical energy.
" In general Hermeticism is a mystical tradition , a mystical body of teachings, a mystical mode of thought.
Instead it emphasizes and extols the mystical or numinous experience-direct and first hand-apprehension of the sacred , direct knowledge of the absolute."
 
Page 25

" The word gnosis simply means direct knowledge. To that extent Hermeticism is indeed 'gnostic' in orientation."

Page 26 / 27

" For hermeticism,Ö"  ' Öthere was ultimately only one everything . Reality in all its aspects was embraced as a single all - persuasive ,all - encompassing totality, a single whole in / which all dichotomies, all distinctions between body and soul , spirit and matter were accommodated and harmoniously integrated. Everything in its own way was valid. Everything was incorporated in the comprehensive  design.'
" Within this harmony, everything was interconnected with everything else through a mesh of interlocking relationships. Such relationships rested on the principle of anology. Things echoed other things, reflected other things, mirrored other things, parelleled other things, corresponded to other things. Reality comprised an intricate, incessantly  vibrating  and living web of correspondences. These correspondences were like notes or chords of music, recurring in ever new combinations and permutations, and thus contributing to a single grand symphony. Or they could be compared to a multitude of different coloured threads, interwoven with each other to create a single seamless fabric or tapestry. According to the Emerald Tablet ' the above comes from below, and the below from above - the work of the miracle of the One'

Page 27 note 26
Page 27 note 27

In a more widely circulated version , 'that which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above.'
 
"This premise has often been abridged to the simple formula ' As above so below'. "
 
Page 28 note 28

The Way of Hermes
"The Emerald Tablet elaborates further:  'The structure of the microcosm is in accordance with the structure of the macro-cosm' In other words the lesser mirrors the greater  and the greater the lesser. The structure of the atom mirrors the solar system, while the structure of the solar system mirrors that of the atom. Man mirrors the cosmos and vice versa "
"The world within and the world without mirror each other. The universe contained within the human psyche mirrors
the external universe,which can be conceived of as the 'psyche of the living and sentient totality ..."

Page 28

For the Hermeticist,the analogies or correspondences con-necting  the diverse skeins of reality were best expressed by symbols. Thus for example,the interelatioship between microcosm and macrocosm was traditionally denoted by the famous ' Seal of Solomon ' -  a six pointed star "
" Such symbols were not however, merely  a convenient shorthand .On the contrary, they were like sounds letters and words "  "Örepositeries or storage cells of power ,batteries holding a latent charge of energy. These symbols often called 'seals ' or  'signatures',were like cross -  stitches in the fabric of reality, the interlacing holding the mesh together."  "ÖAnd what was more ,these symbols could be ' activated 'in a practical manner. Symbols could be manipulated , like elements or molecules in chemistry to form new compounds ,new amalgams of possibility.By virtue of such manipulation change could be effected. The process whereby it was ,constituted a form of magic:     'Recent research '

/Page 29 note 29  /  

has done  much to show how important a place  the practice as well as the theory of Theurgy - that is the"performing of divine actions", chiefly with the aid of magical " symbols "or symbola - occupied ...'
From page 3 up to and including page 32 (notes 32 and 33) there are 33 text notes .Page 33 denotes a Chapter change.

Page 30

"Hermetic thought provided the basis for a new orientation"
As a result of the new orientation  man ceased to be merely a victim of reality. He ceased , likewise to be merely an observer of world around him

Page 31 / 32

"And there were women  alchemists as well, female Faust figures . One practioner for example, was known as
Cleo-patra and is  credited with a statement strikingly similar to' /  the opening of the Emerald Tablet:  ' Tell us how the highest descends to the lowest and how the lowest rises to the high-est. "  note 31

From page 3 of this book up to and including page 32 (notes 32 and 33) there are 33  text notes .Page 33 denotes a chapter change.

Page 124.

"And here indeed our tale issues into mysteries, and our signposts are lost in the endlessness of the past, where every origin betrays itself as but an apparent halt and inconclusive goal, mysterious by its very nature - since that has to do not with distance but with the sphere. For distance in a straight line has no mystery. The mystery is in the sphere. But the sphere consists in correspondence and redinte-gration; it is a doubled half that becomes one , that is made by joining an upper and lower half, a heavenly and earthly hemisphere, which complement each other in a whole, in such  a manner that what is above is also below; and what happens in the earthly repeats itself in the heavenly sphere and contrariwise This complementary inter-change of two halves which together form a whole and a closed sphere is equivelant to actual change - that is to, to revolution. The sphere rolls - that lies in the nature of spheres. Bottom is soon top and top bottom, in so far as one can speak of top and bottom in such a connection. Not only do the heavenly recognise themselves in each other ,but , thanks to the revolution of the sphere, the heavenly can turn into the earthly the, earthly into the heavenly, from which it is clear that gods can become men and on the other hand men can become gods again."

Page 33
                                       " In the account of the emerald tablet given by Roger Bacon in the Secretum Secretorum it is stated that
These precious sentences of Hermes were found by Galienus Alfachim the physican, on a plaque of emerald in a cave, clasped in the hands of the corpse of that mysterious legendary figure Hermes Trismegistus, The Thrice Great" The reader is exhorted  "to preserve the strictest secrecy from all except men of good will, this treasured text,even as Hermes himself had hidden it within the cave."
 
Page 33 / 34

"It may be well to quote another and freer translation of this historic text;"
 
I speak not fictious things, but that which is most certain and most
True. What is below is like that which is above , and what is above
is like that which is below to accomplish the miracles of One
Thing. And as all things were produced by the One Word of
One Being , so all things were produced from the One Thing by
adaptation, Its father is the Sun , its mother the Moon , the wind
carries it in its belly, its nurse is the earth. It is the father of all
perfection throughout the world. The power is vigorous if it be
changed into earth. Separate the earth from the the fire , the subtle
from the gross, acting prudently and with judgement.Ascend with
the sagacity from  the earth to heaven , and then again descend to
the earth and unite together the power of things superior and
things inferior. Thus you will obtain the glory of the whole world
and obscurity will fly far from you.This has more fortitude than
fortitude itself,because it conquers every solid thing and can
penetrate every solid . Thus was the world formed . Hence pro-
ceed wonders which are here established .Therefore I am called
Hermes Trismegistus, having three parts of the philosophy of the
whole world.That which I had to say concerning the operation
of the sun is completed.  
 
Page 205

"As above, so below," is an expression which refers to cosmoses.
Thus spake the prophet Gurdjieff.



Page 214

"Now you have some idea of the laws governing the life of the macrocosmos and have returned to the earth. Recall to yourself: "as above, so below" I think that already, without any further explanation, you will not dispute the statement that the life of individual man - the microcosmos - is governed by the same laws - "Glimpses of Truth."
Thus spake the prophet Gurdjieff.



                                                                    The Magic Mountain
                                                               Thomas Mann  1875-1955
Page 510

"The higher degrees of Freemasonary were initiates of the 'physica  et mystica ,'the representatives of a magic natural science, they were in the main great alchemists"
"ÖAlchemy :transmuting into gold, the philosophers stone, aurum potabile ."
"In the popular mind, yes. More informedly put, it was purifi-cation, refinement,metamorphosis,
transubstantiation ,into a higher state , of course; the lapis philosophorum, the male female product  

/ Page 511  /

of sulphur and mercury,the res bina,the double-sexed prima ma-teria was no more ,and no less, than the principle of levitation, of the upward impulse due to the working of influences from with-out. Instruction in magic if you like."


Page 511"

The primary symbol of alchemic transmutation "
"was par exellence the sepulchre." "The grave? " "Yes, the place of corruption .It comprehends all hermetics, all alchemy, it is nothing else than  the  receptacle, the well - guarded crystal retort wherein the material is compressed to its final trans-formation and purification."

Page 195

" As Prince Stanislas Klossowski de Rola expresses it:
'It will thus be clear that the alchemical process of creation, is a
microscopic reconstitution of the process of creation, in
other words a re-creation. It is effected by the interplay of forces symbolized by two dragons, one black and one white, locked in an eternal circular combat. The white one is
winged, or volatile, the black one wingless, or fixed; they are
accompanied by the universal alchemical formula solve et

/ Page 196   /  

coagula. This formula and this emblem symbolize the alternating role of the two indespensible halves that compose the whole. Solve et coagula is an injunction to alternate dissolution, which is a spiritualization or sublimation of solids, with coagulation, that is to say a re-matrialization of the purified products of the first operation. Its cyclic aspect is clearly expressed by Nicholas Valois: " Solvite corpora et coagulate spiritum " ; " Dissolve the body  and coagulate the spirit." ' note 1
Ö'But when we marry the crowned king to our red
daughter, and in a gentle fire, not hurtful she doth conceive
an exellent and supernatural son, which permanent life she
doth also feed with a subtle heat, so that he lives at length in
our fireÖThen he is transformed, and his tincture by help

/ Page197 /

of the fire remains red, as it were flesh. But our son the King
begotten, takes his tincture from the fire, and death even,
and darkness, and the waters flee away. The Dragon shuns
the sunbeams which dart through the crevices and our dead
son lives; the king comes from the fire and rejoins with
his spouse,the occult treasures are laid open, and the
virgin's milk is whitened.'                            - Tractacus aureus, or Golden Tracate of Hermes.

Again, the far yonder scribe watched in some amaze the Zed AliZed, in swift repeat scatter the nine numbers amongst the letters of their progress. At the throw of the ninth arm when in conjunction set, the far yonder scribe
                                                                       made record of the fall.
                                                                                  

Page 273

"These he joined to the 360 days of which the year then consisted (emphasis added)."
"Elsewhere the myth informs us that the 360 -  day year  consists of  "12 months of 30 days each" Note 6
And in general,as Sellers observes , "phrases are used which prompt simple mental calculations and an attention to numbers ". note 7
"Elsewhere the myth informs us that the 360-day year consists of  '12 months of 30 days each'.  
Thus far we have been provided with three of Seller's precessional: 360, 12 and 30.  The fourth number,which
occurs later in the text, is by far the most important.  As we saw in Chapter Nine, the evil deity known as Set
led a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Osiris.  The number of these conspirators was 72."