The Egyptians' Apis-bulls were chosen quite early when between calf and young bull.
Right: Golden calf, 15th century BC (Moses' era), found 1990 in Ashqelon, the Dan-tribe's coastal area.
 

Moses as Alchemist - Well-known among Scholars of Antiquity

In manuscripts from the Alexandrian era, Moses is also mentioned as an alchemist equal to King Solomon and to the famous female alchemist also known as the Jewess Maria (Miriam). Influenced by contemporary mystery cults "the sister of Moses" can be seen added to her name, and Moses can be seen in comparison with Hermes Trismegistos, the personified epitome of Egyptian alchemy.
          One reason for this can be found in the perception that the Egyptians had taught Moses alchemy - and later at Sinai the Qainites did so; like the Medianites they were experts in handling metals.
          Generally, among the ancient descriptions, in which Moses is mentioned as an alchemist, it seems that none of them refers to episodes of the biblical Moses narrative which contains obvious alchemist characteristics.
          One of these episodes is the biblical narrative about the Golden Calf, which by order of Moses was destroyed to pieces and the pulverized, after which the gold dust was mixed into the drinking water for the Israelites. The incident is mentioned as a punishment - a peculiarity. In alchemy this kind of "consumption" of gold is known as a special phase (rubedo) of an alchemist process.
          This process may have been introduced to the Israelites as a symbolic action, which also demonstrates a detailed knowledge of alchemy reaching further back than hitherto known regarding ancient Egyptian and Babylonian tradition.

          When alchemy was known for leading to a special kind of medicine production, thus there also could be produced substances aiming at an opposite reaction, i.e. provoking of illness. In another other episode, Aaron and Moses participated in the preparation of one of the "ten plagues of Egypt" mentioned in the "Book of Exodus" (9:8-11) and they were thus instructed:
                    "... Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beasts ... And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; and the boil was upon all the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. ..."
          Chemical processes producing a special chemical material must have taken place in the furnace. It must have been dangerous, as the pulverized material spread in the atmosphere and caused what seems like real infectious abscesses and blisters among the Egyptians and their cattle.
          An alternative explanation might be that secretly and under cover of the night Moses had his many agents poison the most important wells with a rapidly infectious remedy - and then participate in the mentioned performance in order to give the impression that he might have been the reason for the epidemic. Whatever the method, the goal was achieved.

A Philosophical and Spiritual Discipline

At the European Universities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance astrology as a philosophical system was a subject for prescribed studies - first and foremost in order to better understand the philosophers of antiquity who dealt with these matters.
          Concerning alchemists' concept and goal, also the alchemy indeed was philosophical system to be practised as a holistic work performed with intensive devotion - in some way like Buddhism which in spite of intensive devotion neither was a religion originally, but a philosophy to be practised - for spiritual advancement.

          The work by the alchemists included dealing with carefully selected plants - e.g. together with "influenced" water, i.e. dew collected in the mornings at certain times of the year. Also by this
herbal medicine the "spagyrical" art was in action, an expression the alchemists used as connected with to "separate and to join together" (solve et coagula).
          In addition, the alchemists worked much for that the process should result with the "philosopher's stone", lapis philosophorum, a legendary product which, when pulverized, was included in the process of transmuting common metals into gold - as well as contributing to creating the panacea. 

Alchemy - Practised by the Rosicrucians and Astrologers

In approx. 1100-1300, i.e. the zenith of the knights templar, they are said to have adopted a special knowledge carried on from biblical and old Oriental traditions including Egypt. When all of a sudden they were persecuted and disappeared from history, many parts of the ancient knowledge and treasures could be found in preservation with other fraternities (e.g. the Scottish Order - or the Portuguese Order of Christ, where Prince Henrique O Navigador was Grand Master) and other societies to which the escaped knights templar were admitted.
          Supporters of the old Egyptian-Oriental knowledge of the "Corpus Hermeticum", the ancient work of Hermes Trismegistus, are called Hermetics. When the Hermetical and alchemist orientated Tycho Brahe took auguries from astrology about Europe and wrote about these in his "De nova stella" (1573), he brought biblical references into a non-clerical, broader cohesion like the Hermetists did.

          Many others were inspired by the ideas in "Corpus Hermeticum", as the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons included in their systems this work's special impression together with the interest of the still so mysterious Egyptian wisdom.
          In the Renaissance, "Fama", a famous book on the philosophical knowledge of the Rosicrucians, also informs about Christian Rosenkreuz or Rosenkreutz (1378-1484), the founder of the society, that he was studying in the Orient: alchemy and the "secrets of the universe", as well as the metaphysical text(s) of Hermes Trismegistus, i.e. "Corpus Hermeticum". And he studied in Morocco with Oriental Jews, who had maintained secret traditions, e.g. the Cabbala in a pure form.
          "Fama" was printed in 1614 in the German city of Kassel, residence of Prince Mouritz of Hesse, who knew Tycho Brahe, who had visited his father, the previous prince. They cooperated extensively and corresponded about astronomy and alchemy. Also Michael Maier, a known German Doctor, published several texts about alchemy knowledge while he was employed by the princely court of Hesse.

          Many quacks tried to practise the knowledge, especially alchemy, but also some mysterious cases are known and which are not seen being explained as illusion and fraud: the "forever young" Count of Saint Germain. Voltaire himself wrote about this man that he was "... a person who does not die and who knows everything ...". When finally he died after all - in 1784 during an unfortunate poison research - this took place still at this royal house, now with Carl of Hesse as the Head.
          In England, Sir Francis Bacon was inspired by the Rosicrucian knowledge. And Robert Fludd, an Oxford educated doctor, who became the philosophical heir to John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I's court astrologer, published in 1616 a defence for the Rosicrucians (whom he - as being a Hermetist - could support). In this he pointed out: that they were the true Christians and the spiritual descendants of Hermes Trismegistus.

Alchemists’ retort-oven, a version from the Renaissance.

Great scientists as Tycho Brahe and Isaac Newton were also seriously occupied with astrology and alchemy.
          Tycho Brahe stated that he had spend as much time for the stars as he had spend for the alchemy which he called “the earthly astronomy” - a special art of science which later also Newton intensively attended to.


Was Isaac Newton also Occupied With Astrology?

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) - who, based on Kepler's laws on planetary movements, eventually found the principles of the law of gravitation (published in 1687) - dealt with astrology like Kepler and even like his brilliant colleague in Germany, Leibnitz. Their interest in astrology was, not the least, in connection with weather forecasts, with which Tycho Brahe already had experimented.
          Nevertheless, it has been tried later to reject that the impressive capacity of Newton with his reputation for having "the highest IQ in history" - only comparable to few persons, e.g. Goethe and Leibnitz - should have accepted "superstition" of this kind or the similar.
          One of the most distinguished Newton Researchers, D.T. Whiteside, Historian of Science, has said (quoted by T.G. Cowling, 1977) that he had never found any reference to astrology among the many millions of words preserved from the hand of Newton. However, something is peculiar also here: all his life Newton was extremely interested in alchemy, and this implies unavoidably that he must even very detailed have dealt with astrological conditions.
          All modern, serious science historians with this period as their subject have to know this, so why repress this matching relation?

Isaac Newton's Million Words On Alchemy

What several Newton researchers could not explain away was the fact that in addition to his own collection of 169 books on alchemy, Newton left many manuscripts of his own with near a million words about alchemy.
          A similar amount of written material on mysticism were also found including codes (!) contained in The Revelation of St. John the Divine - all his life he was occupied with this biblical text.
          Newton was also occupied in details with the numbers of the dimensions of the Solomon Temple as well as with other biblical prophecies and chronology. (Others claim that he was secretly attached to an order of the Knights Templar, the later main residence of which, i.e. Rosslyn Chapel, has the same exact measures as the Solomon temple).

          All his life Isaac Newton, who in addition learnt Hebrew, worked most of his life also with the codes of the Bible, inspired from his reading of "the last days" in "the Book of Daniel" and "the Revelation" he believed he was on the track. Based on this, Newton computed the end or radical change of the world to be in the year 2060.
          When John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), the political or national economist, found Newton's notebooks, originally stowed away at the Cambridge University in 1696, he was very surprised to here to find - and this let alone what concerns esoteric theology - also almost one million words especially about a hidden code in the Bible.
          In 1936 Keynes bought the Newton papers at an auction and translated their code language. The Jerusalem University bought 4,000 other Newton papers. Keynes' work, "Essays and Sketches in Biography" (1956, pp. 280-290), Newton wrote that:
                    "... the Bible and the universe are a cryptogram created by God Almighty ...", - and:  "... the essence of the Bible is a prophecy about the history of man ...".

          Regarding the creation of the world as presented by Moses in the Bible, Newton also wrote:
                    "... Moses, that ancient Theologue, describing and expressing ye most wonderful Architecture of this great world, tells us that ye spirit of God moved upon ye waters which was an indigested chaos, or mass created before by God ...", - and:
                    "... Just as the world was created from dark chaos through the bringing forth of the light and through the separation of the aery firmament and of the waters from the earth, so our work brings forth the beginning out of black chaos and its first matter through the separation of the elements and the illumination of matter. ..."


Correspondances Among Stars and Elements

Concerning alchemy, it can be pointed out that for example Tycho Brahe openly confirms the connection between alchemy and astrology. In 1588, in one of his letters he wrote:
                    "... it is important to demonstrate that the celestial planets are corresponding to the seven kinds of metal on Earth and in human beings to the seven most important organs. All this is even so beautifully and harmoniously arranged that it seems close to be one and the same function, kind, and nature. In this way the sun and the moon are corresponding the most outstanding metals to gold and silver, and, by man, to two of the most important organs, the heart and the brain ...".
          And when Brahe was producing medicine it was developed on the basis of a general point of view that the planets could be related to human organs. This meant for instance that because the sun was related to the heart, a heart disease cure might be drinking of water containing pulverized gold.

          Brahe and other alchemists seem to have been working among other things from basis of a special correspondence between the matter of sulphur and the brightest shining star in the sky, Sirius, activated when passed (i.e. passing the Sirius meridian) by the sun which was connected to gold in an alchemy-conditioned way.
          In an introductory oration to the course of lectures Tycho Brahe gave at the University of Copenhagen in 1574, he defended astrology on the grounds of correspondences between the heavenly bodies, terrestrial substances (metals, stones, etc.) and bodily organs (medical astrology).
          The correspondence between alchemy and astrology was understood to be extremely close. Tycho Brahe named his astronomical research: "the celestial alchemy". And correspondingly, in his autobiography "Mechanica" he wrote about his commitment in alchemy:
                    "... I have spent far from a small amount of care concerning alchemy investigations and chemical experiments. The material they deal with, includes a good share of analogy with the celestial bodies and their effects, which is why I usually call this science ‘the earthly astrology' ...".

          Tycho Brahe states in his book "De Nova Stella" on his discovery of the supernova (1572) that his findings do not contradict Moses' account about the creation of the world with its heavens and elements.
          In fact, among alchemists this very first biblical event, the Genesis, which Moses presented, was always considered an alchemy-process!

          In later time it has been criticized why a man of Newton's intelligence was established "only" as the country's coin master by the British state. However, this was not only providing a good, regular income for him, but the office may also have been entrusted to him because of his alchemy-knowledge about metals. Some kinds of practice of alchemy was not prohibited - for instance John Dee resumed his practising alchemy and got an official licence for this from Queen Elisabeth I.
          Also, King Christian IV of Denmark (1596-1648) was occupying an alchemist as his coin master - who had his work shop in the gardens of Rosenborg Castle at Copenhagen. A similar kind of work - besides to be an adviser - was apparently promised to Tycho Brahe by Bohemian Emperor, Rudolph II.


Newton's Experiments With Regulus, the 'Basilisk'

Special expressions are found in the Newton papers on his alchemy experiments, e.g. "the Starry Regulus of antimony and Mars" or "Martial Regulus", as well as "Lunar Regulus" and "Venusian Regulus". Thus Mars, Luna (the moon), and Venus are references to iron, silver, and cobber, the parent metals. And antimony - from Greek anti  plus mono means that ‘this does not come alone' - was often used as the name of antimony, the very metal, which later was also called stibium. It is being extracted from stibnite, a mineral appearing in the form of prismatic crystals.
          And finally the designation Regulus, which is the name of one of the five brightest stars in the sky, the constellation of Leo's main star, also mentioned by its original Greek name, i.e. Basilikos. Copernicus, the astronomer, successfully re-named it by translating it into Latin as Regulus, and the name is apparently mutually inspired by alchemy terminology. In Greek basilisk means ‘a savage monster, the basilisk', as well as ‘little king'; the latter is also the meaning of Regulus, the Latin form of the name.

          The "empirical philosophers", i.e. the alchemists, had great expectations to the aid of antimony (insensitive to air) mixed with gold - a homunculus feature (cf. little king) - and that this silver-white coloured metal, i.e. antimony, would lead them to the development of "the philosophers' stone", the miraculous material.
          An alchemy process involving antimony may develop into a special raw metal result called Regulus, a name just introduced here by the alchemists. Among them it was first and foremost related with antimony. The classical parent metals could be used for extraction of antimony (stibnite) in order to "trim" (reduce/cleanse) the metallic substance - which then became for instance Regulus of Venus (with cobber) or Regulus of Jupiter (with pewter) etc.
          When metallic antimony is being purified in coal fire, it must sink to the bottom in a container or a melting pot, and the appearing small, regularly shaped lump must be subject to several purifications in order to "develop" Regulus the Star. On the bottom of the container is placed what will appear to be the little king.

          Metaphorically, there are many references to constellations for instance the Raven (Corvus) or the black crow, which is a constellation in the celestial section of Virgo. Or the Eagle - the celestial constellation Aquila, (Jupiter's) Eagle, which in alchemy was an amalgam containing Mercurium, i.e. mercury. Newton is referring directly to that "the black crow" (black scoria) and 2 purgations (purifications) with potassium nitrate (may take 3-4 purgations) will develop a silver-shining largely serrated star.
          Unless this stage with the star is passed, "the right regulus" or (continuation of) his work is not present. Newton writes for instance about such a process that "... the Regulus - after a purgation or two - starred very well ...". The nuclear structure seems to be changing during purification - improvement.
          Newton used the expression "starred" in the most literate perception: when cooling of crystal forms on the fluid metallic surface created triangular branches around a centre point and produced the image of a real geometrically structured, considerably large "silver" star!

                    

Left: Creation of Regulus(-Martial) showing clearly the
starry pattern in the substance of antimony metal.
Right: Title page of the Tycho Brahe autobiography also showing
his Hermetic motto - "What I see upwards, I see below".

Moses describing the Creation of the World - an Alchemical Process

The alchemists considered the biblical Genesis, i.e. on the creation of the world - according to tradition described by Moses - being a gigantic alchemical process, "the Opus of God".
          In ancient history, Moses as highly educated in Egypt became famous among the later Greek philosophers because he was the first and earliest known person in history to teach and write about the very idea that "anything, at all, existed before the creation". The Bible's opening statement in Genesis introduces the concept of pre-creation elements, including light, darkness, will, and distinction, all of which are substantial qualities of what was required to initiate primal patterns that would structure and urge creation.
          The alchemist idea of a process of one element transmuting into the next element and so on - today being considered "outmost difficult" concerning the alchemists' favourite metals - is actually taking place every time a star changes into a supernova and opens for the strongest outburst of energy in the universe. Up till then, the star has all the way during its lifetime transformed helium via fusion into more and more heavy elements, until the metal of iron has been acheived.
          The universe is structured as patterns of tension-systems of infinite differences. By this, already Pascal and, in turn, Arnauld, Leibniz, Helmholz, Planck, Einstein, and Bohr predicted nuclear power: tensions so immense that a tiniest wobble in the balance may cause destruction of all existence. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a father of the nuclear bomb, recognized this kind of forces already stated in the religious-philosophical text of ancient India, "Baghavad-Gîta".     
 

Alchemists as Empirical Philosophers

By the alchemists both the transmutation of more common metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect, diseased, corruptible and ephemeral state towards a perfect, healthy, incorruptible and everlasting state; and the philosopher's stone then represented some mystic key that would make this evolution possible.
          By months' - and even years' - repeating and repeating of certain purification processes and observations, a great experience then becoming an empirical knowledge was founded by the individual alchemist.
          Many alchemists viewed the metaphysical aspects of their work as the true foundation of alchemy; and organic and inorganic chemical substances, physical states, and molecular material processes as mere metaphors for spiritual entities, spiritual states and ultimately, spiritual transformations.
          Applied to the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment, and the stone represented some hidden spiritual truth or power that would lead to that goal. During the era of the Inquisition this could bring alchemists under charges of heresy.
          To alchemy, again and again the world of stars and planets is intimately connected, a fact often much absent in modern attempts of describing alchemy. In the world of matter in an alchemist version, for instance from Basil Valentine (Basilius Valentinus, 15th century), the sulphur by having the ability of "dealing with fire", represents an ability of the soul, while mercury was representing the spirit, and salt representing the body being a motive power of transformation. The concept makes a certain astro-alchemical interplay more clear when the sun (as a main radiating point of light), represented by gold (incorruptible and by itself imperishable as the soul), in the sky conjuncts the meridian of the most important and largest star, Sirius, representing sulphur.

          An alchemist world picture was that the material universe was composed of - in essence - mercury and sulphur. According to another stage, it was gold and sulphur. And for representing the soul directly there was the gold, always incorruptible, always known for its ability to resist decay and chemical attack. The Chinese alchemist Ko-Hung was quoted for saying: "... Yellow gold, if melted hundred times, will not be spoiled. ..."
          Gold being the universal prize in all cultures, in all ages, and to most people gold becomes valuable because it is scarce - but to alchemists all over the world gold was precious because it was incorruptible. The oldest preserved written reference to alchemy might be from Egypt but behind alchemy's allegoric terminology it would hardly be recognized by the Egyptologist, however, another most ancient source is from China and tells how to make gold and use it to prolong life.
 

The Fire - Prometheus' Gift - a Factor of Transmutation

In alchemy fire was one of the most important factors - purifying and transforming - and hereby rejoining material elements into new combinations. A special mystery is connected with man's relation to fire being the only one of the four Greek elements that no animal has.
          The Greek myth about Prometheus - his name means 'forethought' - relates that he stole the element of fire from the gods and gave it to the human beings.  There was, certainly, much more to it than no longer having to eat raw food or shiver in the cold of the night - and the animals naturally fearing the warning light of fire no longer dared attack.
          The idea of Prometheus' action was well-known in antiquity. According to ancient India's religious texts, the Rig Veda (3:9.5), the hero Mataricvan recovered fire, which had been hidden from mankind. In an ancient Finnish (not Samian) poem, later re-written as the "Kalevala", original Middle East features can be found about the fire light was hidden but then given as a spark handed over by a divine, reborn sun-prince who - like Moses - came up from a chest floating on the river.
          In the Americas, in the Cherokee myths, Algonquin myths, and among Creek Indians and also various Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest - the narrative was that the fire was stolen. And in Polynesian myth, too, the fire was stolen and brought to man.
          Prometheus' bringing of the divine fire unleashed a flood of inventiveness and productivity. By getting the fire Prometheus had acquired secret knowledge. "Adam ate the fruit of knowledge and was thrown out of Eden for it" - and Prometheus stole fire and was severely punished for giving man the power to become as gods, the immortals.
 

The Tinder Box

          Many folk tales - often from original parables used in the initiation cults - contain a psychical language with many conspicuous alchemist symbols. Inspired from e.g. the Scandinavian folk tale, "The Spirit in the Candle", Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) used such elements in his fairy tale "The Tinder Box" (1835). This magic fire tool could control three very big, magical dogs. (Andersen also wrote a novel about the misery of an alchemist: "Valdemar Daae and his Daughters", - and Andersen's friend, the Danish pharmacist H.C. Oersted, was the great discoverer of electro-magnetism, a significant leap regarding that this Dr. Oersted's academic teacher also was an alchemist).
          Concerning Andersen's "The Tinder Box": - the star Sirius, by alchemists connected with sulphur for obtaining gold, had, all over the ancient world, an extra name, Greater Dog (in Egypt Sirius also connects with the jackal-dog god Anubis), and was placed in the sky very near other dog-stars, e.g. Procyon. The three dogs in Andersen's fairy tale are arranged in the "right" alchemist order sitting on their treasures, respectively of copper, silver, and gold - with the gold hidden under the biggest dog.

The concept of the alchemists' the Great Work goes far back in history. A late use of the term for it was very much seen in medieval European alchemy - and refers to the successful completion of the transmutation of base matter into gold, or to the creation of the philosopher's stone - as well as the idea of personal transmutation. The last phenomenon was much re-studied and discussed by Carl Jung.


Alchemy - Hermeticism - Psychology

The alchemists often called their practice simply, magnum opus, Latin for 'the Great Work'. This was much used as a metaphor for spiritual transformation in the Hermetic tradition, i.e. the handed over practice based on ancient Egyptian-Greek wisdom from much older sources, which later in antiquity was collected in a book called "Corpus Hermeticum".

          The opus or the Great Work was known as a sequence of stages with exotic Latin names. The mystic interpretation of the opus' three stages would often be:
-  Nigredo(-putrefactio), blackening(-putrefaction): individuation, purification, burnout of impureness - also called Sol Niger;
-  Albedo, whitening: spiritualization, enlightenment;
-  Rubedo, reddening: unification of man with god, unification of the limited with the unlimited.
          There is a persistent belief in alchemic and Hermetic tradition - and in some esoteric astrology as well - concerning the existence of two suns: a hidden one of pure "philosophical gold" consisting of the essential fire conjoined with the earlier supposed lightbearing medium, the ether (aether), - and the apparent one of profane "material gold".

          The number and sequence of stages differs depending on the goal and the person's experience - and could also be:  - Solutio, - Nigredo, - Calcinatio, - Coagulatio, etc.
          It is well-known that the alchemist process - having many stages with parallels to the individuation process - expresses the alchemist's road map and in fact reflecting many of the steps of initiations in the mystery cults.

The Great Work of Psyche and Matter

Alchemy concepts occur in the psyche as part of the reservoir of mythological images drawn upon by the individuals in their dream states. Therefore Swiss psychiatrist pioneer Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) interpreted the old alchemical texts in terms of his analytical psychology as being means for obtaining individuation, actually corresponding with the old manuscripts' account on the act of alchemy - to the successful completion of the transmutation of base matter into gold or the creation of the philosopher's stone - thus having seemed to improve the mind and spirit of the alchemist.
          Jung draws an analogy between the great work of the alchemists and the process in the modern psychiatric patient's psychological goal or 'great work' of psychic and spiritual reintegration or wholeness through the individuation process.

          A development through the individuation process means a lot more than being a true individuality. It involves a profound maturation, responsibility, ethics, experience, and universal insight, however not two persons or their developments are equal or fulfill a 'perfect' ideal, and there would still be much for them to take care of in their new situation as a competent initiation level to operate from.
          In the jungle cultures a hunter can untiring pursue his prey for many days and nights, and when having tuned himself in by some magic rituals he unites his mind and spirit with his prey  and will be able in advance to understand its course by how it feels and reacts. He respects the animal almost as it was a sacred being, and in his mind he makes a pact with it so that all what is going to be done to this prey should serve a higher order. By his state of being humble and pure, in his own soul this man has set his will to win - and he wins. Likewise the alchemist, untiring, is carrying out his demanding work almost ritually, pursuing the goal, and literally uniting himself with his opus' material - it all opens his mind to insight into the universe and the life essence.

Swiss psychiatrist and influential thinker, Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), was
exploring the worlds of dreams, mythology, world religions, Eastern and Western
philosophy as well as alchemy, astrology, sociology, literature, and the arts.

The Mathematical-Geometrical 'Fixation'

From all the ancient cultures exists accounts about the smiths and metalworkers who obtained amazing skills by their transforming metals from impure to pure, and from hard to flexible and again to a new hardness - or in perfection of alloys. The smiths learned special "mantras" of special length to chant for making exact time measures to the precise length of each step of melting or casting. The smiths were often regarded as a kind of magicians and priests.
          According to Moses, the first smith was Abel's son, Qain (Cain) - it is a Semitic word for 'smith'. Although this symbolical account in the Bible presents Qain killing his brother, it also says that he was - in connection with a promise or a pact  - provided with a mark on his forehead, - later often seen interpreted as "the third eye", thus a special insight. The biblical narrative also says that Qain's descendants often were smiths and musicians. It was exactly from a smith that Pythagoras learned - by "the different sounds from hitting spots on different distances on the anvil" - so he could construct his mathematically based distinction and structure of the notes of music.

          Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), was a true true polymath - with his works of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism, and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part dramatic poem Faust.
          The name "Faust" seems inspired from Faustulus, the royal herd who found the two princes, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, being feed by the wolf-dog, symbol of the star Sirius. When Faust walks with his student Wagner they are followed by a dog - a poodle. Goethe's phrase in German, "des Pudels Kern" ('the core of the poodle'), means the real nature or deeper meaning of something (that was not evident before). The dog, the poodle, is significant here and transforms into the devil, and Faust makes an arrangement, a pact, with the devil for Faust's mastering the material or matter. According to Carl Jung, "Faust" is an alchemical drama from beginning to end.
          Doctor John Dee, the Elizabethean mathematician, astrologer, philosopher and magus, had attempted and was said to have succeed in creating a homunculus (i.e. 'little man', by certain conditions as a 'little king'). The same was said about Paracelsus. And it could have inspired Goethe so that the sorcerer Faust's student, Wagner, creates a homunculus.

          Later, the great composer bearing the same kind of name, Wagner - Richard Wagner (1818-1883) - always wrote even the scenario and libretto for his works himself. Also he was so much inspired by folk tales and the ancient myths - and used a psychical language also with alchemist symbols.
          A Danish writer, Jurij Moskvitin, mathematician, philosopher, concert pianist, and composer (1938-2005), told about a dream he had a night in the autumn of 2004, and also repeated his account in a television documentary:  he was standing on a moving band, moving as an assembly line, but suddenly it broke and he fell off. He was about to mend the band or tape when voice from above said it actually would take care of itself, and he saw it turning into the special double helix, the dna-molecule. In the same time there was loudly Richard Wagner's music of "Tristan and Isolde" - and in that moment Jurij discovered that in a special level Wagner with his musical notes had been mathematically exact expressing the dna-geometry, completely fitting. A message with a most important discovery of the unity of such universal factors, and that no stop is real, the dna ensures a continuity. (However, what Jurij did not knew consciously - and so sadly a loss to us, his good friends - it was also a message of his own death, 6 months later).             

          In the greater picture Carl Jung believed that the "world contains divine light of life" and that this essence was enmeshed in a mathematical "trap", presided over by a demiurge, Lucifer, the 'Bringer of Light'. Lucifer contained the insight of light within this reality, until a time when it would be set free. (Jung seems to have borrowed the expression "trap" from his great studies of the insightful but sometimes pessimistic Gnostics).
          One of the first operations of alchemy is the process of transformation - the true, creative opposites emerge and begin their interaction designed to bring the alchemical, complete union of anima and animus. The conscious and unconscious become integrated and assimilate the ego, after which the Self emerges. In this ultimate union, known as the coniunctio, according to Jung the previously confined light is redeemed and brought to the point of its ultimate and redemptive fulfillment.
          The alchemists expressed this paradox through the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In the ancient image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, self-contained, - again, the very art of processing the elements was all about man - (the) Adam - himself. And to Jung, self realization is the final of the stages of development - becoming a true individuality.
          A much discussed, enigmatic "first stuff", the Prima Materia, was brought out of the Paradise by Adam, according to writings of antiquity. An addition, in the biblical narrative - what Moses tells in the Genesis (2:11) about a river of Paradise leading to a place with gold, "... and this gold is good ...", actually guaranteed such goal is genuine and that here is the first beginning of the process of man, Adam.
 

Moses and a Royal Road in the Alchemy

Did the alchemists ever produce the metal gold? Almost any researcher would deny it because the idea was only to gain individuation development and wisdom recognition, and because it would seem technically impossible (and these scholars or researchers are right according to present-day knowledge, but not necessarily according to other, now unknown conditions which maybe also could appear in a future).

          The individuation process was also seen alchemistal visualized as "the animus" (masculine personification of the unconscious) coming up in the conscious psyche - a development from a powerful monster (the basiliscus) via a crown prince (the "little king") to a king (to" be the king of oneself").
          According to ancient traditions in the teachings for the initiated there existed the idea about a well among the stars of the sky. On the bottom of the there is the main star of the Leo constellation, the "royal star" Regulus  or Basiliscos, Latin and Greek respectively for 'little king', and in Greek also meaning 'a wild monster'. (The constellation opposite in the sky - the top of the celestial well, so to speak - is the Well Pitcher, the earlier name of the Aquarius). 
          A significant episode in Moses' narrative in the Bible's "Book of Genesis" (37:9-37) is about Joseph and his dream in which the Sun, the Moon, and 11 stars (constellations) in the situation appear like being his subjects. His brothers' reaction is to throw him down on the bottom of an empty well and then sell him to Egypt. The brothers tell their father that "a wild monster" has devoured Joseph - in fact, from here Joseph started off a new development, and he became "little king", i.e. vizier, and eventually viceroy of Egypt, pharaoh’s substitute.

          Through a huge part of the history, in principle the kings were to be initiated - also the coronation itself was an initiation ritual. Some of the kings may even have tried practising alchemy, as did the emperor Rudolph of Bohemia whom Tycho Brahe served in his last years. Emperor Rudolph became mentally ill eventually, probably from breathing evaporated mercury of the experiments, and for the rest of his life his brother had to rule on his behalf.
          In Antiquity alchemy seems to have been connected with the last of the 'native' Egyptian pharaohs, Nectanebo II - and with the biblical King Solomon.
          Especially in the early Greek culture we hear about the Lydian king, Croesus (560–546 BC), with his enormous treasures of gold (the name Croesus is from Greek krysos, 'gold') and his special dealing with fire - and also about the Phrygian king, Midas, known for being able to transform everything to gold - Midas' famous the golden touch obtained by dipping his hand in the River Pactolus; - in certain rivers both in Phrygia and Lydia gold could be  washed out, an extra basis of the wealth of the economy of these countries. In the legend Midas had ass's ears - this could point to the alchemistic work's ancient connection with Sirius, which, besides of being known as the "Greater Dog" this star or constellation was also called the "(heart) of the Ass".
          This wealthy state Lydia also seems to one of the oldest countries with a coinage. The earliest coins are from 7th century BC and some of them are produced from "white gold" or "electrum", the natural alloy of gold and silver - also well-known by the alchemists.
          Also King Midas was claimed to be a myth only, but Alexander the Great visited Gordion, the city of the wealthy King Midas and Midas' father, King Gordion. At the site a cultic tradition with cultic initiation had continued - and here Alexander advanced to an important step by going through a ritual of cutting through the Gordian knot. In 1957, American archaeologist Rodney Young opened King Midas' grave mound, close to Yassihöyük in Turkey. Here was the site of the ancient Gordion. Whatever any modern theory will assume next about the dating, it is a fact that the exact, scientific dating of the contents to around 750 BC is precisely in accordance with data of the so-called myths.

          In all tradition by the ancient Rabbinical Writings of the Jews, and by the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church too, the authorship of the Bible's "Book of Job" was always and unambiguous connected with Moses.
          The Hebrew Bible's "Book of Job" (28:1) says: "... For there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine ..." and (23:10)  "... But he knows the way that I take - after I have been tested I will come out as gold ..." - the process as to comparing to a spiritual alchemist process.

          Carl Jung emphasized the cosmos containing the divine light of life. By this he also states - almost as in the ancient philosophy of the Veda texts in India or the Buddhistic learning - in his book, "Mysterium Coniunctionis, an Inquiry Into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy" (1956) - that the collective unconscious was not just comprising the psychology of human beings but the whole universe.

          By observing and recognizing advanced and spiritual factors included also in the process of exact research (McGuire & Hull, eds.: "C.G. Jung Speaking. Interviews and Encounters", 1978) Jung’s statement is demonstrating brilliantly the most profound relation to genuine science:
          "... The irrational fullness of life has taught me never to discard anything, even when it goes against all our theories (so short-lived at best) or otherwise admits of no immediate explanation. ..."

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Ove von Spaeth,  writer, researcher - copyright © 2005 and © 1998

The article includes extracts from Ove von Spaeth's books "The Vanished Successor", "The Secret Religion", and "Prophet and Unknown Genius", all from his  series "Assassinating Moses". All the books can be read independently. Information: www.moses-egypt.net

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Alchemists' reagent bottle with a homunculus, here - as a stage in the individuation process -
at advanced shape as a "little king", considered as connected with the Basiliscos star, Regulus.
Right:  the Ouroboros-serpent, by the alchemical process symbolically eating its own tail - turning oneself into a circulatory process - reflecting the constellation Draco of same positure in the sky.

From most ancient times the basilisk appeared in connection with cosmology, the stars, or
alchemy. The mythological symbols of the basilisk are: its head as a cock and its tail as a snake.
Manuscript illustration of a basilisk; from 1633 (Royal Danish National Library, Folio 51r).
 

Archetypical patterns seen in constellation forms and planet orbits

Geometry is "space dimensioned mathematics". Mathematical primal images are archetypical and divine logical like crystalline geometric structures or the combinations of relations in musical harmony of notes - and may in a natural way cause religious "excitement" by the perceiving person.
          This was not a question about everything symbolizing everything. In the tradition concerning understanding of the exact sky lines and their image creating - with archetypical patterns and structures - these were not seen as a result of contingencies or subjective interpretation. The many very precise astronomical conditions by themselves are exact control-able factors for instance concerning time and measures.
          A wide spread method of the ancient people's observations of certain patterns of some of the constellations during the nocturnal course, was like this example: Just after sunset it could be observed in the first night-sky that while the constellation The Greater Bear (Big Dipper) is setting partly below the horizon, the constellation Cassiopeia rises - not opposing with precision, however, from the opposite side, all being in action in the northern sky. By midnight Cassiopeia is close to its upper culmination (most high in the northern sky) while The Greater Bear simultaneously reaches its utmost lower position. Just before dawn The Greater Bear rises, now from the opposite side, while Cassiopeia is going down.
          The so far most comprehensive encyclopaedia of antiquity and ancient history is the "Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Enzyklopädie der classischen Wissenschaft" (Stuttgart 1894-1980). In this work there can be found some very fine material about many "connecting lines between stars". Some of the articles contain information presenting a survey on the interplays of "rising and setting of stars" in ancient times.
          Other stars have a further precisely shaped pattern concerning their visual related risings and settings. For instance, such can be observed by the very precise relation - supported by the exact connecting line - between the stars Aldebaran and Antares, the two of the four "royal stars".
          The celestial-geometric "archetypes" in lines of connection and sight to distinctive stars - often with special positions and characteristics - were connected to a system of conception focusing on cosmic interplaying patterns, almost just as the modern quantum physics-like conditions and synchronicity relations. Altogether, this belongs to a world of ideas long forgotten, a world with its own consequent logics, however, still recognizable in surviving fragments.

The oldest documented Greek horoscope depicted is a relief in the tomb of
king Antiochus I, in the Taurus Mountains. Here the time of this king's coronation
(7th of July, 63 BC) is visually noted. Above the lion's back: Jupiter, Mercury,
Mars – the Moon is on the mane - all in conjunction in the Leo constellation.

'Little King' - at the Celestial Geometry Mysteries

According to Greek astro-mythology the supreme god Zeus descended in the shape of the Swan - the constellation situated close to Lyra, the big star most high in the sky - and fertilized earthly Leda (Ionic for 'the woman'), representing Sirius, the Egyptians' Isis. Lyra and Sirius are situated on exactly the same straight line of sight, with Sirius at the part outside the ecliptic's celestial circle, which the line is crossing almost perpendicularly. The off-spring of Zeus and Leda became expressed or transferred as the pair of stars known as the Twins.
          According to similar principles it was by a special understanding that the line was seen leading from "the Father" as the supreme, divine principle - here related to the Swan and especially the Lyra star. This line was a frequently used line of sight (the World-axis, latest seen in use by astronomer Ole Roemer, ca. 1700) and it leads as a basic line (hypotenuse) from the Lyra star down to "the Mother", i.e. Sirius. In this way appear a perfect Pythagorean triangle with a top angle (rectangular) in "the Son", the Prince, i.e. in Leo's main star, Basiliscus, the "little king" ("royal son, Prince").
          By the esoteric celestial geometry - and in the present case with the cardinal numbers of 3, 4, and 5 of the Pythagorean triangle - the number of the Father is to be expressed as 3, i.e. the length of the triangle-side being opposite the vertex of the father. Thus, the number of the Mother is 4 and is the triangle-side between the father and the son. The number of the Son is 5 and is expressed by the connecting line (the hypotenuse) from the father to the mother.
          With the Father in the sky (Paradise), the Mother outside (earthly), and the Son exactly at the very ecliptic circle ("having a foot in both camps") - this son, "the Crown Prince", the human being, i.e. the Son of Man, appears partly earthly, partly divine. The concept: the principles of the Father, the Mother, and the Son - is known in all the great religions. And even the starry duplicate of the idea with the Father in the centre and the Son at the circle can be seen as late as in the 17th century in the beginning modern, western European science.

As late as around 1700 AD the World-axis was used like in antiquity:
 as a line of sight and reference. The illustration was made 300 years ago
for Ole Roemer, Danish astronomer and discoverer of the speed of light.

The Star of the Royal Births

In parables Jesus talks about himself as "the royal son". The Gospels' statements about his family is reaching back to King David who is registered among his royal ancestors - all this is, apparently, not the only relating. On the summer's day when the sun passes the star Basiliscus-Regulus, i.e. "the little king" or "the (royal) son", probably may be the day of the birth of Jesus. Only 350 years after the time of Jesus, the church decided that his birthday should be determined to be on the birthday of Mithras, the Initiation God, - it was the day of winter solstice, i.e. 25th December.
          At the years around the birth of Jesus, Basiliscus-Regulus was situated at the ecliptic circle at a place right on the border between Cancer and Leo - all computed on the basis of the position of the point of equinox at that time.
          Also, on the same "day of Basiliscus" in the summer Sirius with its other name, The Greater Dog, started the 30 "dog days" - which they are still called - after that Sirius had disappeared for 70 days and now returned to be above the horizon.
          And then the celestial Pythagorean triangle, i.e. the Father, the Mother, and the Son could be observed simultaneously at sunrise (while the sun passed/covered Basiliscus). The day was especially marking the Egyptian New Year on ca. 20th July - which in the Roman calendar was the day of the Tammuz Festival and was signified as "the Day of Adam". The idea was imported from Babylon: a syncretism, cf. the Roman use of elements of other religions - e.g. the Roman version of the Egyptian Isis cult.
          Jesus was also called "the Son of Man" and "the Saviour" - Paul called him "the other Adam", and Pilate called him "king". One more king, Alexander the Great, was also born on 20th July - Alexander is Greek for 'Saviour of Man'. Likewise, Julius Caesar was favoured by 'royal' prestige from the fact that he was born very close (only a few days prior) to this date.

The constellation Leo, by Johs. Honter's woodcut (inspired from Albrecht Dührer's map, 1515) in a
publication – printed in Basel in 1541 – of Ptolemy's book "Omnia quae extant opera". Correctly
for that time the Leo main star, Basiliscus-Regulus, is placed in the middle of Leo's 3rd decan.

The Serpent Hatching the World Egg

Today the basilisk is mostly known as an American lizard among the group of tree-iguanas, and this special type is also called the Jesus Christ Lizard because of its ability to walk on the top of water, in reality by running 10-20 metres across the water surface with very many steps per second to avoid sinking. It got the basilisk name because of the scary look of the basilisk described in ancient Middle East myths where the traditional basilisk appears as a monster with the head of a cock, claws with dangerous spurs and wings of a cock, and a snake-like tail.
          The characteristic of this basilisk (cockatrice) was that a snake had hatched this monster (or a toad, cf. "little king") from a spherical, yolkless egg, laid during the days of Sirius (the Dog Star) by a seven-year-old cock (rooster)!
          Some of the myths add that the basilisk spit out such powerful venom that plants withered, and animals died when being hit. The eyes of the monster were flashing sparks - and had such a sinister power that everything it looked upon died. Therefore it could not endure to look at its own reflected image. Only the cock (and weasel) had some power - when the basilisk heard a cock crow (metaphoric for the sun's rise and appearance), it disappeared into the ground.
          During the ages the basilisk was mentioned by European writers, such as Pliny the Elder (1st c. AD, in his "Natural History", Book 8:33), Lucan (1st c. AD, in his "Pharsalia", Book 9:849ff), and Isidore of Seville (7th c. AD, in his "Etymologies", Book 12, 4:6ff). In the middle ages the church dignitar Pietro d'Abano wrote about the subject.
          And later by poets, e.g. in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", William Shakespeare's "Richard III", and Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to Naples". Also in modern times the magic of the basilisk catches, such as in the book "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret".
          The basilisk appears in Leonardo da Vinci's "Bestiary" and in his Notebooks. Theophilus Presbyter gives a long recipe in his book for creating a basilisk in order to convert copper into "Spanish gold" (De auro hyspanico). And Albertus Magnus' "De animalibus" gives Hermes Trismegistus - but possibly not correct - as a source of the legends and as the creator of the story about the basilisk's ashes being able to convert silver into gold.


The stars and the alchemy

Again and again the idea about the basilisk appears with alchemists and astrologically initiated persons - even in late European history. The Italian theologian, Marcilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Platonician renaissance philosopher at the Medicis, wanted to re-create a magnificent synthesis of the greatest ancient ideas and knowledge - and also including the teaching of stars.
          In his work, "De vita coelitus compranda" (pp. 394-398), Ficini says about a type of magic that "... based on sage cleansed by means of manure - and while the sun and the moon were in conjunction in the second third of Leo - some Persian magicians once produced a bird similar to a black bird with the tail of a snake. After the creature had been pulverized to ash they put it into a lamp resulting in that the house suddenly becoming full of snakes. That kind of magic is empty and hazardous to the health and should be avoided. But the other (magic), the necessary one, that connects astrology to medicine, should be maintained. ..."
          The mentioned manure and ash powder played an important part in alchemy. Especially the esoteric-astrological features are unmistakable: at the time of Ficino, the movement of precession had caused that the Basiliscus star was now situated in the second (or middle) decan of the star sign of Leo.
          Here the sun, consequently, would be in direct conjunction with the star and the new moon's culmination. The sun is known connected with the cock in numerous old narratives. And the expression "... a bird similar to a black bird (though in Latin is here used merula, 'a blackbird') with the tail of a snake ..." points directly to traditions of Babylonian star knowledge - well-known earlier in the Greek-Roman tradition, which was much occupying Ficino.
          Vega (alpha Lyra), one of the most luminous stars - originally the North Star - was in Babylonian named Tartugallu, i.e. the 'King Cock' (Rooster), and later the Arabs changed this to Black Hen or Cock. (Cf. Babylonian tartu, 'cock' - and gal-lu, 'king', this with the association that the expression in reverse order, i.e. lu-gal, meant 'man', 'human being'). The "tail of a snake", see the following.
          Through the mystery initiations belonging to the ancient cults special information was communicated in the form of parables - often known as fables - a tradition later also being used frequently by Jesus. I one fable is presented an image of a cock on the back of a dog on the back of a donkey. This simply expressed the previously mentioned World-axis (not to be mistaken for the axis of the earth) stretching along the Milky Way across the sky all the way up to Lyra.
          The World-axis was believed to reach from the star Canopus - of the ancient constellation the Donkey (with its underlying constellation Argo Navis) and up through Sirius (The Greater Dog, Canis Major) - up till Lyra-Wega close to the Swan. (The Swan, Cygnus, in European tradition, but The Cock in Babylonian perception).
          The idea of this image was connected to the esoteric parable about the cock (from ancient times, relating the principle of the sun) which from top of the World Axis laid a special egg, i.e. the earth (it was well-known in Antiquity that the earth was round, a sphere) then hatched by the snake surrounding it (the lunar orbit). The principle of the concept is recognized from the previous Greek narrative about Zeus from the starry world creating a connection to earth. Thus the basilisk was hatched as a creature of special powers which, uncontrolled, could be terribly destructive.

In the teachings of the initiated the moon's orbit - the snake-like
revolving path around the earth - was depicted as the coiling Cosmic
Serpent hatching the World Egg. From this the Basilisk was hatched out.

The Snake Coiling the Earth

From Egypt is known the powerful sun god Ra - with his vehicle, the sun disc Aton - adopted by the Greeks as the sun god Apollon, with his vehicle, the sun as Helios, the largest celestial body. However, Apollon was the powerful figure, also in destructive connections - in Greek apollon was also a word for 'destruction' and was used, for instance, in this meaning in the Bible's New Testament.
          The up till five annual moon eclipses can only take place in 35 special points at the ecliptic. The 35 points are - from year to year a little variously distributed but with their mutual distances of almost one decan (10°). Between these points the lunar orbit's placements - when seen through the