Daily Meditation: Sunday, April 12, 2009

Alchemy has been condemned by the Church, even though the …

04/12/2009

Alchemy has been condemned by the Church, even though the popes themselves have been known to practise it. And the builders of the cathedrals also possessed alchemical knowledge: the architecture and sculpture of the Middle Ages bear frequent testimony to this. They carved in stone all the phases matter passes through during the preparation of the philosopher’s stone. Even the Old Testament story of the Flood, which we often see carved on cathedral walls, can be considered from the alchemical point of view. Rain falls for forty days and forty nights, forty being the number of death. The ark, in which Noah and his family shut themselves with a pair of each species of animal, represents the alchemical vessel in which the transmutation occurs. As for the crow, Horev, and the dove, Iona, which Noah releases one after the other to see whether dry land has reappeared, these represent an essential stage of the Great Work: the passage from black to white, the symbol of resurrection.