Secrets of Life
Disclosures about important questions of life
- Chapter 35 -
THE ALCHEMISTS
6 July 1871
PRELIMINARY remark taken from a letter: "And so you must be induced by words coming from the Lord to make known secret desires and doubts, so as to receive me detailed explanation of this desired topic from the Lord Himself and so listen:"
"My dear son, when in those days in these works (by the alchemists, etc.), you sought Me, your Father, you did not realize what was true and what was wrong in these books, and fared like many people nowadays, who likewise fail to understand the Bible because they cannot find its spiritual meaning.
Those men, who since time immemorial have concerned themselves with the dark side of science and were called magi, astrologers, alchemists, all those men had a vague idea that something greater, more sublime was hidden behind that which nature visibly revealed to man.
In the stillness of the night they watched the course of the stars, studying mostly at night, because at night the spirit could concentrate better than during the day. In the darkness of night the quietly working great Spirit, which permeates My entire universe, surrounded them. They surmised its influence, but they did not know the Spirit itself, and why? Because they themselves were only worldly orientated, only intent on their own advantage and on using everything they could find towards the enhancement of their own influence and position.
This is the reason why they all found nothing (worthwhile), neither "the philosophers' stone" nor "the arcanum longae vitae" (elixir of life). They did not become more enlightened and, like all people who are born, had to die.
That which these erring children denoted, sometimes in Latin and sometimes in Greek terms, as the universal spirit, is, was and remains nothing else but My will or the forever active power, which sustains everything, then destroys it and creates everything anew, in order to lead everything back onto the spiritual path to Me on a gamut of intricate processes and transformations.
Sometimes an inspired thought flashed through the brain of such a nocturnal student. However, he tried to grasp with the intellect what was not of the intellect, calling it by an unknown name and giving it a mystical semblance only to render what was silly even sillier, and tried to make other people believe what he himself did not believe, namely that he knew more than others. So he assumed a mantle of high learning and no one saw that out of his mystical apparel as magician, alchemist or astrologer a pair of tremendously big donkey's ears were sticking out.
What the pseudo-philosopher mentioned by you termed saltpeter, as active force which the wind had carried in its belly and which was the spirit he was looking for, is nothing but the active life force which every wind and every breeze contains. For what really is saltpeter, what is salt? And what is the active vital spirit in creation?
Look, My dear son, this is all one and the same, only you must examine it a little more closely. Comp. The word: Sugar, Salt and Vinegar). Saltpeter, or salt, is a substance resulting from the breaking up of other elements that, in turn, breaks up everything with which it is mixed.
What does breaking up mean? You see, breaking up in My language is nothing else but stimulation, the developing of life activity, the freeing of bound substance.
When saltpeter precipitates in crystalline form from other decayed elemental substances, it is, out of the whole substance, the finest Spiritual and, compared to the former, on a higher level. Then, as it combines with other substances, it develops a higher life and, thus spiritualizing itself and liberating everything else through the breaking up, paves the way for spiritual progress.
Its corroding property, like that of salt, is the awakener, the stimulant to higher life and thus nothing else but My mighty will, which drives everything created along on its course.
If your philosopher says that the wind carries the sought-for spirit in its belly, it means in other words: The created movement in the air that stimulates the metabolism is the mother of active life. For just as the live animal and the woman carry the future fruit in their belly for maturation, also in the air everything is ready for further conveyance, noticeable in a faster movement, a faster process of precipitation, as wind or air movement, and urges on towards a decision. It is the spirit, which I laid into My nature and which, stimulating everything, must break up and create everything anew.
And when the alchemists of former times had a foreknowledge of an eternal, indestructible life, it was not their earthly-physical life but the life of the spirit laid into them which, however, in their nocturnal inspirations by a higher spirit-world they did not understand and interpreted wrongly.
The earth's father or mother is neither the sun nor the moon. The Father of everything created am I, and the mother who constantly gives birth and incessantly works, stimulates, sustains and newly creates is My will. It is expressed through all the substances in the ether, all of which carry within them the impulse like the salts to stimulate, coerce to new forms, to embody them and again break them up as salts. Thus, in new combinations, they draw nearer to the spiritual cosmic edifice from where they came and to where, driven by My will, they must again return on their circuit.
These substances, My son, have been, and still are, the actual carriers of My creation.
It is My will as "active force", which as magnetism attracts, as electricity repels, as light stimulates, as warmth develops, and as fire destroys. Finally, as the great awakener, it coerces what has been changed by the salts and acids to go into new forms, but more spiritualized titan before, through another cycle of creations.
And what is your own life? Is it something different?
Look, My child, the various ramifications on the road of life are the salts, the stimulants, the awakeners. They stimulate you into feeling, thinking, acting.
They break up the impressions absorbed from the outer world.
From this process emerges the character or the actual spiritual physiognomy of man.
These experiences further your spirit and purify, liberate and tie together life's impressions into a whole.
My will, as a spiritual wind, wafts through your soul, there to give birth to new thoughts, new ideas turning into actions which guide you onto better roads, thus shortening your road to Me considerably.
This is the saltpeter and the salt of life that you find everywhere, on mountains and in valleys, in caves and also in your own home. It is the stimulating principle of coincidence (a linking together of events), just as in the whole of creation the incessant attraction and repulsion of like and unlike substances.
Thus the world faces its change, and thus you face yours.
Here you have in a few words your images from your ancient books elucidated, spiritualized.
From time immemorial the thinker had a need to unravel the unknown, and the less he could reach or unravel it, the more it fascinated him, be it in the material or in the spiritual-psychic realm.
This is where all the aberrations of the human spirit originate, so that today only a few people see and recognize their mission quite clearly.
You, My child, have now stepped from darkness into the bright light.
Follow My tenets and My words and you will, not with the intellect, but with the heart, read from the whole of nature surrounding you and realize that it is your Father, who from all objects and from all the corners of your heart calls out to you: There is only One God, One Creator and One Lord! But also only One Father, who with His will, as the universal vital salt, awakes, inspires and guides everything, so that it may ultimately, as an entity originated in the spiritual SELF of His Being, be able to return to that source! Amen.