The Subtlety of the Exact Proportions between Sky and Earth

True. The proportions to be respected are those of Sky in relation to Earth, and vice versa.

We’re not strictly talking about the weight of the lifting material and the weight of the material being lifted—those would be chemical proportions that can be achieved with a little practice—but rather, we’re talking about something that has always been shrouded in mystery: that is, what alchemists call connections between macrocosm and microcosm.

The exact “lifting” proportions are so difficult to calculate that, if a neophyte is successful, they are called random (but, in this case, some would call them “natural school”.

If they were chemical, they would have been discovered. They are physical proportions, which must trigger physical reactions. Messages that travel in the world of physics.

When we talk about geometric forces, we moderns mean scalar forces, that is, physical quantities without a directional component. One wonders if the ancients were so pedantic. In ancient times they expressed mathematics in geometric figures, in that sense “our” exact proportions have to do with geometry.

For the ancients, integers were the sum of each other, they were placed in a row, in succession, in matrices and in series, according to various laws. For the Pythagoreans the “points having position” had to be appropriately spaced, and each had to have its own “field” or “space” of relevance. The overall space occupied by the points was the number, and a precise geometric figure had to correspond to it. The numbers arranged in this way also formed progressions.

For the ancients, integers were the sum of each other, they were placed in a row, in succession, in matrices and in series, according to various laws. For the Pythagoreans the “points having position” had to be appropriately spaced, and each had to have its own “field” or “space” of relevance. The overall space occupied by the points was the number, and a precise geometric figure had to correspond to it. The numbers arranged in this way also formed progressions.

We have already seen how, for the ancients, there was no void between one object and another but only a continuum. In fact, we are talking about the philosophical sea that exists between one object and another. See also Flow and Reflux.

It’s not a given that the sky should be larger in proportion, not by much, but it should be able to “envelop” the earth. Of course, we shouldn’t imagine the sky as a shopping bag in which we carry home the watermelon-like earth.

Alchemists solve this mind-boggling riddle by simply admitting the existence of a terrestrial sky and a celestial earth.

We have already read about Plotinus’ phrase “It is not the soul that is in the body, but the body that is in the soul”. This concept takes us back again to the world of “fields”.

Up to a certain point, because the concept of “magnet” must imply the concept of “induction of motion”. This terrestrial magnet receives and gives motion to things.

Neither of the two, by earth we mean an “informed and therefore formed form”.

It seems like a very philosophical definition… try replacing the word “entity” with “thing”.

In a way, yes: if we consider that the symbol of the Sun can represent the “spark” and the symbol of the Moon “that which makes the spark manifest”.

Of course, if we apply the scientific imagination of the Baroque age according to which the “spark”. of the flint lit the “candle of the revelation of light”…

No, because the Earth itself can, through information, form something that is nearby.

In fact, the presence of a third party connection is required.

It’s not a matter of incompatibility between heaven and earth, but simply that these two are also “wrapped” by a third connection. Obviously, these connections will be more or less ethereal.

Unfortunately, we can only speak of musical proportions when certain proportions that we would call “physical” have been reached.

True. For alchemists, the moon is the sky closest to the earth. See also Lunar Alchemy.

We can think so, but we must not only reason based on the size of celestial bodies or their distance. We must also consider their “invisible” emissions. In fact, as we have seen above, there is a visible sky and an invisible one.

The ancients were not joking when they destroyed all our modern certainties: visible and invisible skies and earths, bodies in the soul and not vice versa and the soul scattered everywhere. How can one orient oneself in such a precarious and uncertain world, if not with certain and codified rules? And what rules can be in force in such a diverse world? So much so that various worlds can be imagined. It may not be very comforting, but analogies can help.

Synchrony – and even a starling dancing in a flock while focusing on proximity, knows it – is the awareness of belonging to the One/Whole.

Sure. The earth is the other parameter of proportion. Bearing in mind the same “mathematical” conditions of visible earth and “invisible” earth.

From a wisdom point of view, the ancients represented the symbol of the dodecahedron not as hollow inside, but half filled with water. Although they could have taken any real image as an example, they chose an abstract figure. Partly because it suggested the idea of ​​calculation, partly because the abstract is a scant and essential summary of rules.

We are not talking about ordinary water but about what symbolizes the element of water: as we have already seen, water, for an alchemist, is everything that flows. See also Water Alchemy.

The exact proportions/analogies/synchronicities between sky and earth are the “private channel”.

The haruspices do not have the power to intervene in a particular section of the earth, but indicate the order that human life must assume around the rhythms of nature. Thus, the earth becomes a reflection of the complex universal organism – noting that “universal” already means “union of sky and earth”.

Judging by the security measures that the “sky” has always adopted, one could say that human “interference” would be extremely possible.

At a certain point in the history of knowledge, Plato and his account of anamnesis were recognized as an echo of fifth-century Pythagoreanism. Somewhat too conveniently, modern researchers have tried to demonstrate how Plato drew inspiration from the legendary prophet of numbers as his spiritual and intellectual ancestor. The result was a very promising ball of yarn, but difficult to unravel.

From my point of view, the theorem of the proportions between heaven and earth was so alchemically “practical” that it could greatly shorten the work.

Alchemists believe that “nature” always possesses the perfect proportions. And not even so unconsciously.

I would use the verb to emit, rather than to possess. However, surprisingly, the verb to contain is recognized as appropriate, in fact, we almost always read of “contained proportions” – as if “sky” and “earth” were truly two real and separate objects. While this may be superficially accepted for Romance languages, it is not so for a more analytic language, such as English, where to contain is divided into to hold and to carry – at the very least, the “two objects” may appear to be moving and functional.

We should “calculate”, that is, add and subtract.

Apparently, yes. See Third Work and Alchemy Resounds.

Yes. For example, the position of the Sun among the planets is an example of alchemical Logos. In this case, Logos has a mathematical-geometric sense. We have already seen how the Philosophers’ Stone is also called the Stone of comparisons, the touchstone. See What is the Philosophers Stone?

I am not a scholar of psychology or physiology, so as an alchemist I already have difficulty distinguishing between psyche and consciousness. But, if it is true that these proportions between sky and earth constitute the “private channel”, then they can influence everything.

A modern physicist would answer with another question: what if consciousness were not produced by matter, but matter and consciousness both emerged from something more fundamental?

As for the alchemists, they are forced to express themselves symbolically: mind that here we do not mean intelligence, as one might commonly think, but “intellect” as a parameter between sky and earth, or a medium of union or communication between souls and bodies. See Alchemy & Light, Introduction.

More than miniatures, the ancients suggested grotesque caricatures.

In fact, according to the ancients, derived things increase, decrease, and change when indivisible bodies are reunited and separated. And so do all those who explain generation and corruption through condensation and rarefaction: for they effect this ordering through reunion and separation.