Neither to be taken literally nor to be rejected as gruesome and foolish; these parts are to be thoroughly studied in the quest of the Nosce Te Ipsum concept in Alchemy.
The integral translation of all Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis last chapters. From the ninth to the thirteenth chapter. All the processes so far described in the previous chapters are now expected to give some hints on the real secret magic or the union of Lapis Microcosmi and Macrocosmi. The Magysterium Magnum.
My translation from Archarion’s La Via della Vera Alchimia, ed. Mediterranee 1994, appendix Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis from Cod SN 2897 in the Vienna Nationalbibliothek, with the Ms full title Testamentum Der Fraternitet Rosæ et Auræ Crucis, als gewisse Extases oder geheime Operationes, wodurch das Mysterium eröffnet an unsere Kinder der Weisheit göttlicher Magie und englischer Cabbalae. I.W.R. Anno 580.
You can find the previous chapter at Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis. Part 5.
As I said in the introductory article, I decided to publish the entire document without censuring or omitting anything. Even the controversial chapters on Homunculus and a Master’s rejuvenation have been fully translated. I have just shortened the last part of the eighth chapter in my previous article because I judged those paragraphs as an “intransigent” religious sermon in which the risk of falling into fundamentalist behaviors became very high, especially given the total irrelevance of creation, which was there attributed to the Creator. I think we have had enough of fundamentalist violence.
If there is no doubt the Testamentum Fraternitatis writer has been meticulous in taking all the precautions to be considered a good Christian; nevertheless, maybe for the first time, some operations on humans are here clearly finalized to human opera, and the Alchemy’s ultimate purpose is overtly admitted. Not all the interpretations of Christian scriptures of the time dared to affirm that man could be not so different from God and operate (or create) alongside Him.
When saying that man is an image of God, the Testamentum Fraternitatis author does mean there is something inside man of divine nature. This is the subject of our Art, concerning the human stone. The motto “know yourself” points at that: to extract what is inside man and make it a subject to work on—body, mind, spirit, and soul. The Magysterium Magnum cannot be performed without the chemical ( alchemical) substances obtained during the operative Great Work, the real tangible Philosophers Stone, or Lapis Universalis (1).
Nevertheless is not correct to merely state the human “subjectus” can be either chemical or spiritual since this division is arbitrary and typical of the dominant culture of the last two millennia. We need both. Or better, both operas need each other. As we have seen in the previous chapters, the work on humans, or eternity, as presented in the document we are examining, seems to employ our body, mind, spirit, and soul. As well as preparing the Mysterium Magnum. And when saying “body”, we cannot help to use chemical parts of ourselves, perhaps not so glamorous, but easy to be extracted. Pay close attention in the tenth chapter to the mixture of Lapis Microcosmi and Lapis Macrocosmi. Once again, the Testamentun Fraternitatis author presents this combination. We could take the Microcosmi as the part extracted from us, that’s to say, urine and blood, for instance ( the sentence “know thyself/nosce te ipsum”), and Macrocosmi as the part extracted from a more general process. In fact, in the eleventh chapter, in the end, the mystery is unveiled: “….take a lapis medicinali prepared out of your blood, and 1/2 dram of a lapis medicinalis prepared to start from earth or rainwater, mix them…”. Archarion, whose Von Wahrer Alchemie has extracted the document we are examining, in the tenth chapter compares this method to Paracelsus homunculus proceeding, prepared from human sperm and fed with arcanum sanguinis humani, that’s to say, the lapis medicinalis produced starting with the human blood, the method taken from De Generatione Rerum Naturalium, first book. Of course, the actual secret operation cannot be so simple.
I think the reader can infer it from reading the following Testamentum Fraternitatis’ last chapters.
In the first chapters, the author hints at a state after death without explicitly mentioning the term: “… some brothers, past the human life, enter the eternity”… The indispensable substance is Love. In fact, “love” is not the canonical sentimental and psychological deep affection or adoration we are used to hearing in the 21st century. This is an alchemical operative love, so strong to… dissolve instead. Or better, as Testamentum Fraternitatis says: “Oh inscrutable love that penetrates to the marrow of bones!… You fill them with the fire of your love, which is penetrating and is powerful and stronger than death”. But as we go with the reading, we will see how the author will purposely develop the concept with the descriptions of practices bordering on necromancy, if not for the lack of spells and invocations.
In this regard, we must make a due warning to readers. Due because of operations on blood other than artists. This prospect implies and involves huge and behind close walls knowledge and is not at all to the operator’s advantage but to help the person or animal from whose the operator extracts the blood. Whether these works are involved in the “eternity” of the blood owner, I can honestly only suspect.
Another warning I would make to readers is not to take all they will cast an eye over in the following chapters ( especially the tenth chapter). In my opinion, perhaps only some reminiscences of the real secret practices are described here. Or perhaps it just hinted at. The real philosophical and supernatural practice of Alchemy should here be read between the lines. Very probably in these pages, too much shoddy back magic still veils the vertigo heights and abyssal depths of what used to be the real alchemical ” work on humans”, surely operative but concealed behind an illogical mask.
Now lets the word to Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis without commenting. The so-called operative parts start from the tenth chapter, the nine being once again a warning to the reader by the ancient author.
Ninth Chapter
On the Secret Kabbalah.
As I have already said, nobody, o better no natural man, can access the magic unless the Great Spirit has not sanctified and made capable of accessing it. As you have already heard – he who is within the magic of the Spirit lies in the signature of all things, as he who has learned the magic already knows what kabbalah is since one comes from the other; in short, if you are joined to God and be at one with His Spirit, all must be at your service, even the angels who – as you are going to read in our other secret writings – enjoy being close to you. Nevertheless, to not move the center too much and so that the Great Spirit Jehovah doesn’t enter you excessively and doesn’t make you vanish like Elias and Enoch, you should practice the magic with great caution. As you can see in Moses – directly seeing God’s face in all his power is impossible. Moses wanted to see his magnificence, but the almightiness of God protected him. Otherwise, the Great Spirit would completely enter and disintegrate him. In fact, according to the flesh and soul, that’s impossible.
Nevertheless, from behind, glancing, Moses could see the Lord, and His Spirit penetrated and transfigured him. For this reason, flesh men could not see his face. Thus content yourself to be embraced by God’s power and mind and not to keep away from the Lord, neither at right or left hand.
When you are at one with the Great Spirit, be happy: you can read in the heart of nature, get to the center of things, talk to all creatures, and have all to your service. If the children of this world, shaking hell and getting spoiled by its spirit, manage to do wonders on their own if they can even shake the elements, do harm to all creatures, and go through closed doors and the air, both either the body or without ( with their astral body), and thanks to the power of hell, even to generate young devils and perform horrible things, why on earth a man who serves the Highest with all his strengths should not do wonders? It is impossible he cannot do that. The whole of nature must be of service to such a man, and it is ready to do that. Even – as we have pointed out in our writings – all the angels and obliging spirits are ready to serve him, according to magic and kabbalah. Follow our teachings, do not talk, and keep silent for eternity. The world will rumor about your silence as they cannot understand it.
I want to show you what secret and important opera you can perform as a magician; thanks to your psychic and spiritual power, you can redeem a soul, so to make it to retake a body to reach blessedness and serve the man.