”There is more time in a liquid than a solid, and more time in gasses than a liquid”. This quote from P. D. Ouspensky’s “A New Model of the Universe” 1934 has been brought to fame by Merèlle.
Once extracted and framed in her Alkymiens Mysterier 1990, she makes this sentence holding enigmatic value on Solve et Coagula processes. Merèlle: “They ( Alchemists) realized that “time” was of decisive importance. Also, processes of heat and cold follow each other, not to forget the light that comes from the moon, stars, and sun…
The laws of Nature slightly resemble those of chemistry, but chemistry lacks something, especially the time dimension. This was a conclusion that I arrived at after countless failed experiments, where I thought I could imitate conventional chemistry’s linear methods. But it didn’t work; something was lacking. Among other things, it just went too fast. The separate links in the chain lacked “time”, that is, their own built-in time.”
Here are three brief excerpts taken from A New Model of the Universe. In the first, Ouspensky suggests molecular motion as the foundation for his postulate about time.
Ouspensky: “One of the clearest and most comprehensible forms of motion in the fourth dimension in this sense is growth, the principle of which lies in expansion. Every motion within the limits of three-dimensional space is simultaneously a motion in time. Molecules or points of an expanding cube do not return to their former place on contraction. They trace a certain curve, returning not to the point at which they started but to another. And if we suppose that they do not return generally, the distance between them and the original point of time will continually increase… Such an internal body motion would be its growth, at least a geometrical growth scheme.”
Now the body of his “Space and Time” postulate.
Ouspensky:”… At the same time, it must be recognized that even these three states of matter known to us are distinguished by us clearly and indisputably only in their most ” classical ” forms, like a piece of iron, the water in a river, the air which we breathe. But the transitional forms overlap and are not clear. Therefore, we often do not know precisely when one state passes into the other, cannot draw a definite line of demarcation between the states of matter, and cannot say when a solid has been transformed into a liquid and when a liquid has been transformed into gas. We presume that different states of matter depend on a different cohesion of molecules, on the speed and properties of molecular motion. Still, we distinguish these states only by their external traits, which are very inconstant and often become intermixed… It can be said definitely that the finer the state of matter, the more energetic it is considered to be, that is to say, containing, as it were, less substance and more motion. If the matter is opposed to time, it will be possible to say that each finer state contains more time and less matter than a coarser state. There is more” time ” in a liquid than in a solid; there is more ” time ” in a gas than in a liquid. If we accept the possibility of the existence of still finer states of matter, they should be more energetic than those recognized by physics; they should contain, according to the above, more time and less space, still more motion and still less substance”.
In the end, Ouspensky gives an unexpected and knowledgeable opinion about the hindrance for the astral body concept to be considered as it commonly is in most literature.
Ouspensky: “Saint-Martin and, later, Eliphas Levi still understood the ” astral light ” as a principle, as conditions of existence other than our physical conditions. But in the case of modern spiritualists and theosophists ” astral light ” has been transformed into ” astral matter “, which can be seen and even photographed. The theory of ” astral matter” is based on the hypothesis of ” fine states of matter ” … Both the spiritualistic and the theosophical theories suffer from one common defect which explains why ” astral” hypotheses always remain the same and receive no proofs.
” Space ” and ” time ” are taken in spiritualistic and theosophical astral theories in exactly the same way as in the old physics, that is, separately from one another. ” Disincarnated spirits ” or ” astral beings ” or thought forms are taken spatially as bodies of the fourth dimension but in time as physical bodies. In other words, they remain in the same time conditions as physical bodies. And it is precisely this that is impossible. If ” fine states of matter ” produce bodies of different spatial existence, these bodies must have a different time existence. But this idea does not enter into theosophical or spiritualistic thought”.
For us is difficult to conceive a time without space. Wordings such as Space-time and mass-energy are all nineteenth-century features. They are offspring of the major scientific theories peculiar to an age. The concept of time at large was unknown in ancient times, and personal life was preferred. Back in Homer’s time, the concepts of lifetime and soul (1) were all in one. As well as being common, space and time were two separate and opposite entities. Just think of how different time conditions we live in during our dreaming. Ouspensky is, from an alchemical point of view, absolutely right.
Nevertheless, he seems to lack any further hermetic concept of Secret Fire. As already presented in “Albert Poisson, Matter units without Materia Prima” post, we continue to hear of misconceiving ” fine states of matter ” in the place of alchemical Materia Prima. Here I do not mean to retake the concept. Still, I will go further, quoting Paracelsus in his Arkidoxia: “First, one has to extract Quintessence from a body, then Arcane, that’s to say Magisterium Corpi or magisterium of bodies.” The final goal of the whole Alchemy: the quintessence embodiment of a previous body in another prepared body.
According to Michael Maier, Philosophers Stone is the stone that Cybele makes Saturn-Chronos swallow to get her son Jupiter out of his father’s voracity ( Chronos used to feast on his children); in this way, Jupiter was able to break free from time and became king of Olympos. A new king is an allegory for the pure Sulphur obtained in the last cooking. So a pure soul joined to a pure Spirit/Mercurius. Or a Spirit/Mercurius turning into Soul/Sulphur and becoming Salt. Indeed is only a question of extractions and metamorphosis. In Alchemy, we believe that a soul is a spirit of life more coagulated. Saturn-Chronos, according to Pernety, is the metamorphosis during the putrefaction, the blackness, the chaos. To which alchemists gave strange and opposite names. Among them, Chaos is the most suitable definition, in my opinion. Furtherly, there is no substantial difference between Satur, Jupiter, and Cybele. They are three in one.
In 1977 physicist Robert Shaw kept an eye on some puzzling differential equations. He programmed these equations in an old analogic computer. He proved the biggest shock in his life: having programmed the computer to do iterations or repeating continuously the same equations, he felt in the world of the mirror, in which order failed to resist chaos. The results were strange attractors, even if Shaw did not know yet. Labors of Hercules, at a specific phase, are illogically continuous repetitions of the same operations. Repetita Iuvant, repetitions are good.
The quote from Merèlle, “There is more “time” in a liquid than a solid, and more “time” in gasses than a liquid,” could not be without design ( and consequences). As I said, this sentence holds enigmatic value on Solve et Coagula processes. Over and over the same operations, from a solid to a gas, you will fall into the world of the mirror. Perhaps you might also reach Mercurius. The Mirror out of Chaos.
Metals killed in a certain way can germinate again as their forms endure over time in the materials that made their graves.
You may also be interested in Pherekydes of Syros and the Fountain of Time.
See also Pompeii Mysteries Villa: a Gentle Flowing with Mystica Vannus, Louis de Broglie and the Memory of an Immortal Particle ;