Alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, Right Effort, Depression and Pain

"And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." - Luke 2

Let us start our lecture today. First of all, we must reconsider and study, tirelessly, everything related to the Philosopher's Stone.

In alchemy there is always talk about the two doves of Diana. It is said that she always receives hugs from Venus and this is something of great value...

It is very well-known that after the seven days of purification, Mary and Joseph present the child in the temple, carrying as a present two doves or two pigeons (an extraordinary alchemical symbol, wonderful).

This double Mercury has precisely these two birds as its symbol. In alchemy there is talk, for example, in several texts, of the "hen's milk" (something that would seem absurd, but we find it in many texts of medieval alchemists). They say that "by pouring a yolk into a glass of milk, we have the hen’s milk"... In all the alchemical texts one is very surprised when one finds data like that of the "milk from birds," the ornithological mystery that leaves us wondering...

Undoubtedly, these two doves of Diana (so loved by Venus) explain everything. It is, simply, the two Mercuries, so necessary to manufacture the Philosopher's Stone.

Behold, and I emphasize this issue again, that Joseph and Mary present the child in the temple and after seven days of purification, they take, I repeat, as a present, two doves.

For that child, in himself, is the Philosopher's Stone; that's obvious. As for Joseph and Mary, they represent the Father who is in secret and the Divine Mother Kundalini...

Therefore the two Mercuries are constituted by the two poles of life: masculine forms and feminine forms, the eternal masculine and the eternal feminine, the Father who is in secret and the Divine Mother. In the merely concrete field, it is the man and the woman; that's obvious, since, everything has to have a concrete representation or exponent in the physical pole.

So necessary are the two poles to be able to elaborate the Philosopher's Stone, that a single pole could not elaborate it. I mean that with a single Mercury the stone could not be elaborated; both Mercuries are needed: the masculine and the feminine.

Now you will understand why in the temple of the serpents, that is, in the temple of Quetzalcoatl, in Teotihuacán, we find a water well when entering and another water well when leaving, as if to talk to us about the two Mercuries, and this is quite interesting.

Those who think that the Philosopher's Stone can be made with a single Mercury contradict the Christic Gospel, because it was not one turtledove but two turtledoves that Joseph and Mary offered when they took the child to the temple, and after seven days of purification.

“And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Joshua, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Luke 2: 21, 24

Let us think that Elohim made the world in six days, and rested on the seventh day and blessed it.

And, the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And in the seventh day Elohim completed the work which had been done and rested on the seventh day from all the work which had been done.  And Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it rested from all the work which Elohim had created and made.” – Genesis 2: 1-3

And you have to know how to understand this. Genesis is not something that belongs to a past; Genesis is of immediate relevance and all of us have to work with Genesis, as it is written in the Bible.

That is the great work. What Elohim did by creating the world, we have to do by creating our own inner universe. If Elohim took six days or periods, we will have to take as much; and if Elohim rested on the seventh, we also have to rest on the seventh (the seventh day is for purifications). The Resurrection is always in the eighth day, and this must be understood...

So, my dear brothers and sisters, whoever gets to elaborate that stone, has, for this reason, all powers. One without the Philosopher's Stone (as I told you the other day), is worth nothing, is nothing more than a wretched worm of the earth and that's all.

The Golem

In Prague (Czechoslovakia) during the Middle Ages, magic and esotericism flourished in a transcendental manner. There was freedom of speech, although the Inquisition was terrifying throughout Europe. The most liberal people of the time were there and there was a Jewish neighborhood or community: "the ghetto" was undoubtedly the most important within the Jewish neighborhood. Then there were some really strong Hebraic magicians who knew how to make the golem. And what was the "golem"? Those magicians made a statue and then, on its forehead, they wrote the word "teme," but in reverse: "emet אימת"; they conjured it, exorcised it liturgically. That statue came to have a life of its own and could be transported (through the fourth vertical) from one place to another, bringing things to the rabbi (objects at a distance, etc.). Of course, the day he erased the word "emet" from his forehead and took away the verbs of power, the statue was immediately reduced to dust.

That golem, then, was extraordinary. But obviously, the golem has a much deeper meaning, and symbolizes the Philosopher's Stone. Whoever possesses it can perform all kinds of portents and wonders...

The word that was written, therefore, on the forehead, was "terror" (written from left to right, in the Judaic style: "emet"; that is, "terror of losing your stone, because if you lose it you fail."

Sure, it takes a lot of work to make it and losing it is one of the biggest nonsenses, right? So, I think you are understanding...

Right Effort and Understanding

It is obvious, then, that in order to manufacture the stone, tantrism, tantra is needed; you need to eliminate the undesirable elements, the ego entities, etc. One could not truly make the stone if one did not eliminate the entities that constitute the ego. That's clear, you have to know how to understand all of that...

The work, then, is usually difficult, but not impossible. Effort is needed, that's obvious. But there are two kinds of effort: there is mechanical effort and there is cognizant effort.

One type of mechanical effort, for example, is that of the circuses, who execute a series of efforts that are useless, absurd (aerobics, etc.), which are of no importance.

Cognizant effort is different. For there to be cognizant effort there must be a definite purpose and full knowledge of what you want to do.

It is not enough just to know or study, let us say, the body of doctrine. That is a part, but it is not all. It is necessary to reach the union, we could say, of the doctrine or the doctrinal principles (that is, of knowledge) with the Being. When the Being and knowledge are integrated, then, from there, cognizant effort is born.

How does one know that a person has knowledge, or rather, that a person really has understanding? I am going to tell you: from the union of the Being with knowing comes understanding.

It is, let's say, understanding the medium that connects the Being with knowing. A person may have knowledge, but if that person hasn't succeeded in uniting that knowledge with the Being, then that person won't have understanding (Binah).

And how does one know that a person has knowledge, but does not have understanding? Very easy: the one who only has knowledge, does nothing but repeat it, memorize it; but if a person (who has that knowledge memorized) is required to expose it in the most diverse ways, and from different angles, spontaneously and naturally, he will not be able to do it; he will content himself with repeating, more or less, what he has accumulated in his memory and that is all.

But whoever has understanding can talk about any part of the doctrine in a cognizant manner, and explain it from the most diverse angles. Why? Because he has understanding, because he has reached understanding, and this understanding results, as I already told you, from the union of the Being with knowing; that's clear.

Thus, there is a need to unite this knowledge (what one learns), to unite it with the Being.

But how could such a union be achieved? Through the force of longing, through inspiration. Only in this way could the Being with knowing be united.

When one is comprehensive, when one comprehends the teachings, then one can truly work, in a cognizant manner; make cognizant efforts to get to make the Philosopher's Stone; that's obvious. Thus, mechanical efforts are useless.

It has been said, for example, that every day we have to eliminate the Dry Mercury and the Red Salt... That's obvious.

What is that “Dry Mercury”? We already said: the inhuman elements that we carry inside.

And the "Red Salt"? We have already said: that it is that Arsenical Sulfur, or fire, let us say, of the Kundabuffer organ.

All of that needs to be removed.

But the works must be done consciously. The efforts must be cognizant. Efforts should not be made when it is not necessary, or efforts (in this or that direction) should not be made beyond what is necessary. When the efforts become mechanical, they are no longer useful, and that is something that we must never forget...

Why the Universe Exists

It could be objected to us, for example, that there is no need, or why do we insist too much on the subject-matter related to sexual transmutation.

As an example, this would be a reasonable basis in order to insist... Let us think: the sacred Absolute Sun would dissolve if the Logos had not created the universe. It was necessary for the Logos to create the universe for the sacred Absolute Sun to be sustained... This means that the force that comes from the sacred Absolute Sun, when colliding with this universe that was created, well, let's say, reverberates or receives a shock or returns multiplied to the Logos. Upon returning to the sacred Absolute Sun multiplied, then that life is received by that sun, and it is sustained, it lives. But if it were not for that shock, then, the sacred Absolute Sun could not live; it would dissolve.

It was ready to dissolve during the deep night of the great pralaya. It was necessary for the common eternal cosmic Father to have created this universe. This is how the mahamanvantara dawned, that is, the cosmic day.

If the forces of the sacred sun collide against the worlds and when they bounce, when they collide, let's say they bounce, they re-ascend, they return to the sacred sun, and of course, they sustain it.

Thus, the abode of the uniexistent and of the omnimerciful eternal common cosmic Father, who is the sacred Absolute Sun, was prevented from dissolving. But that shock of forces exists in everything created, absolutely in everything.

Regeneration or Degeneration

The creative energy of the third Logos descends through the seven magnetic centers of the universe, to take shape, we could say, in our sexual glands.

Obviously, the circuit could not be broken either; it continues to circulate towards the merely animal generation, or then we will be forced to imitate the sacred Absolute Sun: by means of a shock, transmute that force and return it inwardly and upwardly.

If we do neither the one nor the other, but simply retain the sexual potential in our glands, the result will be that the sexual secretions of the woman, or the sacred sperm of the man, will devolve, degenerate.

How do you know that this sperm has devolved and degenerated? We see it in certain medieval monks: some too fat, obese, full of fat; others terribly skinny and full of pimples.

As for the psychological characteristics of these monks, they are already too well known: externally, extreme fanaticism; intimately: expert cynicism, to a high degree. Those inquisitorial monks burned people at the stake; they were terribly fanatical, and after committing the crime, terrifyingly cynical.

These are the characteristics produced by the devolution of sex, the devolution of the sperm or sexual secretions, and this is quite clear in itself...

If the sacred Absolute Sun did not need a shock, that is, an opposition of masses or worlds so that its energy would return multiplied, we, obviously, would not need it either.

In this case the energies, both his and ours, by themselves would be transmuted and changed into higher types of forces. But it is not like that; it lives, the sacred Absolute Sun lives, thanks to transmutation; thus, this is how it subsists.

It might be asked why. Let me explain to you: these forces descend through the seven magnetic centers of the universe, until colliding with the merely physical masses, which are the planets. Of course, in the collision the forces are changed from one to another, that is, they are transmuted and return upwardly. That is indubitable.

For this reason, if we want to return to the sacred Absolute Sun, then we have to do the same as he does, and if we try to violate that law, the only thing we would achieve would be the degeneration of the sacred sperm and sexual secretions located within the body, with their corresponding psychological results.

What are they, for example? The development of the abominable Kundabuffer organ and charging us with terribly malignant poisoninoskirian forces.

There was a time, during the night of the great pralaya, when the sacred Sun was, let's say, autoegocratic; it supported itself, but it was already beginning to lose volume. That is why the uniexistent, wanting to save it, created the universe and the day dawned, the mahamanvantara, and that is how it managed not to dissolve and sustain itself.

There was also an event, within the sacred Absolute Sun, which was extraordinary: many souls, or many adepts, initially entered the sacred Sun, but since they still possessed inhuman elements inside, inside, the result was terrible. The mixture of the aura, let's say, of those beings with the aura of that solar world, became disastrous.

That was the most terrible critical period, but fortunately it passed. Such a period has been called Choot-God-Litanical where the Theomertmalogos was altered. Well, this contact of these beings with the sacred Sun is called “Geneotriamatzikamnian,” a rather difficult term, right?: Ge-neo-tria-mat-zikamnian. And that the Theomertmalogos, that is, the Logos-teomertma (essential word), suffered alterations, and the result was felt throughout the solar universe, throughout the system...

People who were manufacturing the superior existential bodies of the Being were impregnated with that radiation that was already altered, and many individuals who went to adepthood, in the superior parts of their Being, received damage. That is why it became necessary for the uniexistent, the common eternal cosmic Father, to create a secret world of purification, which exists in the solar system.

In that secret world, those who want to enter the holy Sun must stay for a while. There they eliminate the residues that remain and then pass to the sacred Absolute Sun, and the inhabitants of the sacred Absolute Sun (in turn) who were harmed, because they went on to dwell on that planet that is well known by the name of "purgatory”.

Well, we had already discussed all of this roughly with you and today I repeat it with one sole purpose: to make you see that only through transmutation can the Philosopher's Stone be created, and that by transmuting, we imitate the sacred Absolute Sun, we act in tune with him, because that is how it lives and sustains itself.

Now, transmutation alone would not be enough; this has to be accompanied by the elimination of the undesirable elements that we carry inside.

Effort is needed to be able to eliminate such undesirable elements, but right effort, that is, cognizant effort, not mechanical effort, which is useless.

The emotional center needs to work in order to be able to do something useful, because only the mind, only the cold intellect wanting to work, does not do anything.

Influential Forces

In any case, we must not ignore that there are three types of forces in the world. We would call some of them “A influences”: these are all those prejudices of humanity, all those laws, all those businesses, all of that which is called “family," "environment," etc.

The "B influences" are different: they are formed by currents of an esoteric, occultist, or at least pseudo-esoteric or pseudo-occultist type, etc., etc., and there are "C influences," which are formed by, or they belong, shall we say, to something quite different from mechanical humanity. C Influences depart directly from cognizant humanity or divine humanity, from those who have already achieved self-realization.

It is clear that C-type influences could not be accessible to us if they did not become B-type influences, because I am sure that you would not truly understand a group of resurrected adepts...

If you came to a room where a group of resurrected adepts were talking, you simply would not understand them. Or more: if you had to live with a group of resurrected adepts, in a monastery, well, frankly, you would never understand them; their way of being, their way of acting, etc., is so different from yours, the form of knowledge is so different...

Here, for example, I have to explain to you what the two Mercuries are in detail. Now, among them, there are no explanations: it is understood with a look or with a word, and if it was not understood, then "one is screwed up."

There are no explanations there: this or that thing was said in a language that one knows if you understand it, and they are not going to go to the trouble of having to explain it to you, because we are talking about a group of resurrected masters with whom you were to live (as a concrete example); they simply would not understand you.

From them come the influences that we could call “C influences," and in order for humanity to understand them, they have to become B influences.

When one then understands that there are not only the A influences, that is, the customs, laws, business, concerns of this world with family, etc., etc., when one understands that there are also influences that one finds in books, in literature, in stories, when one knows through various information that there is a divine humanity, where the C influences come from, then one feels, for the first time, a very special emotion, a very intimate emotion that makes one think, simply, of working on oneself to achieve liberation, to have the happiness of entering, one day, among the group of divine humanity. This is how that emotion arises in one and then the work becomes cognizant; this is how you work consciously.

So, it is necessary for the brothers and sisters to put emotion into the work.

It is not about merely intellectual or mechanical work, because it is useless. All work is done with emotion. There has to be emotion. There has to be longing. There has to be aspiration.

Willpower for the work: where does willpower come from? It has to come out from the emotional center. The strength for the work cannot come out from the intellectual center.

If we analyze the intellectual center, it has two aspects: the positive and the negative. And so, it has to be, otherwise the comparative process of choice, the analytical process, the logical confrontation, could not exist if this did not have positive and negative poles.

Thus, the intellectual center has two poles. Positive is the “yes," negative is the “no," but the center that gives true value to the esoteric work is none other than the emotional center; this is the one who values the ​​work, and from such a center comes cognizant will that allows one to do the work. Not the mechanical will, which is useless, but the will of the Being, the cognizant will, which is what counts. Only with that kind of will can one persevere in the work, until succeeding.

So, to transmute is one part and to eliminate is another part. To eliminate the Dry Mercury of alchemy, that is, the various egos or psychic aggregates that together constitute the myself, the ego. But to remove these aggregates, there needs to be cognizant effort, not just mechanical effort. One has to work with the emotional center, not the intellectual.

As the brothers and sisters learn about the technique of the work, they will work more efficiently; that's clear. But it would not be enough, only, to be informed about the technique of the work; you have to work, because one thing is knowing about the work, or being interested in the work, and another thing is working.

Depression and Self-remembering

The worst thing in the work is depression [loss of enthusiasm, feeling defeated]. When depression arises, then work is suspended and if we let it take shape, then it will continue indefinitely.

In depression, the five centers of the machine, let's say, sink into the water and no longer work; then comes failure. But one can get out of depression. How? By means of the remembering of the Being.

Many will say that they always remember their Being. That is false! An individual could live twenty years locked up in a room, without going out to the street at all, and yet he has not remembered his Being for a single second; he has always been "away from home."

What is called, then, "to remember one’s Being"? Well, simply, "to exhaust the thought process," even for a few moments, or to exhaust all currents of desires, emotions, thoughts, sensations, even for a few minutes. At that moment one has remembered his Being; one has come to realize that one is neither a thought, nor desires, nor emotions, nor passions, that the Being is beyond all that... the Being...

But those are rare who, even for a minute, suspend the current of thoughts, desires, passions, etc.; and you have to do it daily: remember your Being. When one remembers one’s Being, it is obvious then that the depression passes; it is exhausted, and the emotion for the work arises again.

Depression is problematic. In that state, one does not feel like working esoterically, and there is no other way but to remember one’s own Being. If one "remembers his Being," the depression immediately passes...

Seeing Oneself in Others

You know... don't forget, brothers and sisters, the mirror of alchemy. This work is a mirror: one has to learn how to look at oneself in others.

That is very important: seeing yourself in others. If we see a drunk on the street, "well, here I go, that's how I am when I'm drunk." If we see a "marijuana addict," "well, I'm walking there, that's how I am." If we see an angry person, “thundering” and “lightning" and what a face he makes: that's how I am. But behold how funny, how blasphemous I am, how I gesture, how I shout, how I kick; that is how I am." Thus, seeing oneself there, seeing oneself in others (that is something very important).

Do we want, for example, to stop arguing with someone, or to stop objecting? Let's change for that person who wants to scold us; through meditation, let us change our personality to that of the person who is against us; let us feel ourselves to be that person and look at ourselves, at our own, as if we were someone else's; let us feel that we are the one with whom we fight, the one that is the cause of our problems; let us imitate it in all its modalities, gestures and words, forms and ways of being; let us feel, then, in meditation, identified with that person.

If we succeed, the desire to quarrel will actually disappear. In fact, we will then see our person as something strange and we will understand the other person, because we have identified ourselves with the other person, and by understanding them, well, everything will have passed; the desire to be objecting or arguing is over.

Let's trace daily, for example, the desire to not raise objections, even if it's an hour a day. It's not a lot of work, right? To be able to stay an hour a day without objecting to anything or anyone, even if they are insulting us, even if they are making fun of us, even if they are bothering us. Later we can increase the time to two or three hours, and in the end we will never object to anything again; we will learn to live in peace.

Change is Painful

This is very important, brothers and sisters; it's about change. Is it painful? Yes! It is not possible to get a change without pain. That is clear: any intimate change, indeed, has to take place based on pain. Without pain, changes are not possible. How is that? When it is said (in Freemasonry, for example) that "the crude stone must be worked until it becomes the perfect cubic stone," it means that the Philosopher's Stone must be elaborated, and in Freemasonry that is simply confused with morals. And, really, it is about eliminating the inhuman elements, right? On the one hand it is, and on the other it is about transmuting, and thus the elaboration of the great stone is finally achieved. That is what many brothers and sisters have not understood...

Many things are longed for: for example, the transfer of consciousness. That's very nice, very nice, right? To be able to transfer consciousness to any corner of the universe...

We know very well that through the serpentine fire, it is possible to make consciousness come out, for example, by the brahmaranda (this part located here, where the frontal fontanelle of newborns is, let us say), and project the consciousness, to transfer it to another person, and then we are living together, we could say, identified with another person, or to any other remote place in the universe to see, hear and experience the wonders of the world, etc., etc., etc.

But, how could we transfer the consciousness, make the transfer of the consciousness, if we have not yet eliminated the undesirable elements that we carry inside, the Dry Mercury, as they say in alchemy?

We can reach true enlightenment, but first we have to die in order to be; "Only with death comes the new"...

Thus, cognizant effort is needed at the work, perseverance, until success. But as I say, brothers and sisters, it is not enough that you receive the information. This information, this knowledge, must bind you to the Being and can only bind you to the Being through longing. Thus, from the union of knowledge and the Being, comes understanding. When one has achieved understanding, one consciously works on himself.

Questions and Answers

Well, now let's go to the questions; let's see brothers and sisters ...

Student: Look master, of course from the transcendental point of view, it's wonderful, but in practical life when it comes to totally administrative matters, as is in my case, of course, one also has to live with one's feet on the ground. So then, in a deliberative form or debating table, one has to expose the points of view with which one does not agree with any of the exponents. Even, many times, it is necessary not only to expose a single time. For the sake of a great cause (always for the sake of a great cause) that has to be exposed to clarify an idea, often times, a concept. I say in those cases, I imagine that it is not the ego, precisely, when it comes to clarifying a general idea, which is even submitted to the consideration of a debating table...

Samael Aun Weor: Well, in any case I am going to tell you: I have seen deliberators, of a certain kind, that have left me thinking. For example, I have seen a group of the seven powers (that we invoke, then, for different esoteric and magical works), deliberated on certain strange forms, images, symbols, perceived by all. One said, "Well, such a symbol presents such and such characteristics, and therefore, my concept is that it means such a thing"...

Another brother took the floor and after reflecting, he said, “I have also seen that same symbol from this other angle and I consider that, for this reason, it also has this other characteristic, period”... The other arrived and saw another characteristic of the same symbol, and each one was exposing their concepts. When all the concepts were exposed, through reflection they understood in such an evident way that there was no discussion; they understood, and they reached an agreement, without discussion.

I have also seen the masters, for example, in the temple of the white lodge, arguing (or not arguing because it is absurd to argue), but, let's say, talking, or studying all the mysteries of the great work. Each one gives his reflective concept; there is no concept without having reflected, but there is no discussion.

Now, I consider that at a table, well, of debate, as they say, that each one gave his concept... ...finally they finish and after each one gave their concept, they already gave it. How then is it to come out of the solution? There, yes, by majority vote. The vote would be made; the concept that had the highest number of votes would be the winner, without discussion...

But indeed, when giving a concept, we have to know if we do it by simple reaction; and then the concept no longer works; it is the product of a reaction.

When we, at a debate table, are going to give a concept, we should not do it by reaction, but by intimate self-reflection. Once the concept is given, silence...

And if each brother and sister, at a debate table... ...limited himself to that, once each one gave his concept, then the vote decides: the highest number of votes, then, is the definitive one (always the concept that has had the highest number of votes); so there is no discussion... Let's see...

Student: In the event that a concept arose at that time, it would be a reaction or it would be one... ...because I know... ...one that is not resolved by a majority of votes, because it is the case in majorities of votes that form groups. The other system is unanimous agreement through problem solving, elimination. And it is evident that when one... Of course the example that you have given, master, is between seven powers, between masters, and not... ...then there is the possibility that one of the conceptualizers is... ...is wrong. So, I think it is appropriate to clarify... because oneself can be the wrong one and then someone else will be the one to clarify the concept...

Samael Aun Weor: Well, in any case, I limit myself to telling you nothing more than the concepts emitted must be the spontaneous product, let's say, of our own self-reflection; because when we emit a concept and it is produced by the ego, such a concept is already conditioned, it does not carry the spontaneity of free life in its movement.

So, if we limit ourselves, of course with self-reflection, our concepts come from the depths of our very own Being and...

Unfortunately, if a brother or sister proceeds like this, that is not how all the others proceed and they know... ...well, I only limit myself to telling you what you should do, in accordance with the teaching left by our Lord...

Students: About the contact…..

Samael Aun Weor: Well, I mean, the contact established between perfect beings, but who still had some inhuman elements left, with the sacred Sun, is called "Geneotriamatzikamnian contact"...