Alchemy and Magical Initiation
Alchemy and Magical Initiation
All artistic creations have the possibility of being expressions of the inner core, and be vehicles of personal progression. For most artists the why behind artistic creations is unconscious or of very limited depth, which makes the entire process and result shaped and formed by outer cultural and spiritual molds and thus amplifying and strengthening them.
In rare cases artists become unconscious channels of higher intelligence, but generally for brief periods of time. History shows that artistic work be it painting, writing or music often included an esoteric and spiritual aspect - to really be worthwhile and true, art had to have a deeper meaning. The aim of art was to express and spread this magical energy and consciousness. This concept have often been linked to alchemy, since alchemy is using outer material tools to mirror the inner workings of the mind and soul in progression. The classical outer alchemy work with athanor, crucibles and metals is mainly symbolic and alchemy in all its forms is firstly concerned with self-deification and magical initiation.
The term alchemy derives from the Egyptian word kēme (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 khmi ), meaning 'black earth', which corresponds to the fertile and gold-bearing soil of the Nile valley. According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge, the Arabic word al-kīmiyaʾ is translated "the Egyptian science", using the Coptic word for "Egypt", kēme. This Coptic word can be traced to ancient Egyptian KMT. This ancient Egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour "black" Egypt was the "black land”. The mysteries of life and fertility that the black earth of Egypt gave rise to is closely linked to the concept of Alchemy. We find here the interesting idea that black is associated with life, and not death.
During Hellenism around the beginning of our era, all the ancient wisdom met and merged with both Greek, Persian, Gnostic and Christian ideas. Here one could say, the classical Western Esotericism was born, rather dormant during the middle ages, escalating during the Renaissance.
The common idea was that the divine energies coming from the sun or even further away was hindered on the way to the earth. The planets influenced the divine so that when it reached us it was tainted and erroneous. Thus one had to neutralise the influence of the planets with astrology and magical rituals. This is something that is found everywhere, not least in the Qabalistic structure of Sephiroth/Qliphoth where one is working ones way alchemically through planetary spheres.
The planetary qualities was necessary in Creation, since the divine had to be separated and certain cosmic structures were needed to enable Creation. Saturn for example was needed to separate things; we cannot experience anything if all is one. But Saturn then, is also death and was seen as the Devil. Like Shiva who destroys the universe to enable its rebirth, Saturn/Satan could have been seen as a more positive god in a more benign spiritual climate. Without Saturn there is no separate existence, individuality or freedom of thought. The price is loosing the constant contact with the spirits and the astral worlds which existed in ancient man. The reason why Saturn or Satan are so important to the initiatory magician is because this power separates the divine seed which enables individual divinisation.
After the separation of man from the ancient immanent state of mind, mankind now needs to re-establish the contact with the spirits, the astral world and the divine energy. This is done by the means and methods of magical initiation. Passing through the planetary spheres one neutralises the negative impacts of the planets, but in true initiation one goes even further. Not only the Sephirotic neutralisation but also going down into the depth of the soul, the Qliphoth, and awakening and conquering the planetary powers in oneself, to make it part of ones inner core.
As created beings we exist already on all four levels, material, astral, mental and divine, but most people are conditioned to only perceive the material level. When we are born into the flesh we have the potential of experiencing all four levels, even if the divine level may be somewhat limited. The nature of the society, family and spiritual structure one finds oneself in will determine how one is conditioned. Generally one is taught to exist merely on the physical plane, how to see, touch, hear and perceive only the so called reality.
There are many interesting theories around how reality is actually a projection. From a magical point of view this makes sense, and a magician is aware of how belief influences reality. In initiatory magic and esotericism there has always existed an understanding that reality has to do with visualisation. Like in the example of consciousness as an egg that one projects ones belief onto, people see not the true reality but an imagined visualisation. This is also echoed in Plato's cave example. We always see with our inner eye, third eye. But through conditioning we are taught to ignore this information and instead merely perceive the projected false reality that we are imagining to be true. Since most people are convinced this projection is the only reality, one needs to be able to participate in the projection to be able to exist in modern society. Those cannot wholly or at all take part in this limited projection of our imagination are considered insane and have traditionally been left out, often with disastrous results for the individual. Only in societies that includes the higher levels of reality has such individuals been included, often as visionaries, prophets or magicians.
There is furthermore numerous research and experiments that highlight that humans generally perceive what we expect to perceive. The brain saves energy by assuming things are as we expect all the time. It takes a lot of energy to constantly see all the detailed information we are presented with. People who are on the autism spectrum for example are often unable to achieve this filtering and instead take in details to an extent that exhaust them, thus making daily life a challenge. If we always see an object in a certain place, and are convinced that object is there, it will be there in our perception. If we see this on a grander scale, the reality we were conditioned to perceive is there because we expect it to be. Seeing with our inner eye we will see the energies and deeper layers behind this projection. When the eye of Shiva is opened the universe is destroyed – i.e. the limited projected universe we have imagined and conditioned.
By understanding the huge creative power of mankind and how it can influence, alter and progress the perceived reality, music is a magical key to unlock any mysteries within and without, the production and listening experiences are creating and influencing the here and now.