Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of ThoughtRedgrove, H. Stanley (Herbert Stanley)
Philosophy
Bygone Beliefs: Being a Series of Excursions in the Byways of Thought
Redgrove, H. Stanley (Herbert Stanley)
Alchemy; Magic; Superstition
The use of the mystical symbols of death (putrefaction) and resurrection
or rebirth to represent the consummation of the alchemical work, and
that of the phallic symbols of the conjunction of the sexes and the
development of the foetus, both of which we have found in the _Turba_,
are current throughout the course of Latin alchemy. In _The Chymical
Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz_, that extraordinary document of what
is called "Rosicrucianism"--a symbolic romance of considerable ability,
whoever its author was,(1)--an attempt is made to weld the two sets of
symbols--the one of marriage, the other of death and resurrection unto
glory--into one allegorical narrative; and it is to this fusion of
seemingly disparate concepts that much of its fantasticality is due. Yet
the concepts are not really disparate; for not only is the second
birth like unto the first, and not only is the resurrection unto glory
described as the Bridal Feast of the Lamb, but marriage is, in a manner,
a form of death and rebirth. To justify this in a crude sense, I might
say that, from the male standpoint at least, it is a giving of the
life-substance to the beloved that life may be born anew and increase.
But in a deeper sense it is, or rather should be, as an ideal, a mutual
sacrifice of self for each other's good--a death of the self that it may
arise with an enriched personality.
(1) See Mr WAITE'S _The Real History of the Rosicrucians_ (1887) for
translation and discussion as to origin and significance. The work was
first published (in German) at Strassburg in 1616.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account