In Lucarelli’s “Origins of Alchemy”, I came up with an unidentified king Sargon tablet on the favorable conditions in which a virgin priestess can give birth to a little sun, a Regulus:
“The mighty Sargon, king of Akkad, I am. My mother was a virgin priestess, my father unknown. My father’s brother lived in the mountains. My mother, the Vestal, brought me to the city of Azupirani on the banks of the Euphrates. She secretly bore me. She put me in a container, closed it with bitumen, and left me to the river.
Streams pulled me away and brought me to Akki, the water carrier. Akki, the water carrier, made me a gardener. My work as a gardener pleased Ishtar, and I became king and reigned for forty years. “
Lucarelli: “ This tale is, and sounds, ancient and presents variants over time. So the unknown father is sometimes a god of winds, storms, and war. Or quite the same Divine Spirit. The virgin mother is a princess, or priestess, or now and then a “wolf”, in memory of the many that had not been involved in sexual intercourse.
Through the plot, we can trace the final steps of the Work and see the small hermetic sun being born, “the Regulus,” from the ever-virgin Mercurius and secret Sulphur that is never manifested before the eyes of the operator excepting in its results.”
An Alchemy excerpt, a piece of mythology, or a political declaration by King Sargon pretending to be a beloved son of Gods? It is pretty impossible to answer that question, for we should have known if Alchemy was, back at that time, an established science-religion set apart for the exclusive use of royal and priest classes or, better, in my opinion, a weird discipline already shrouded in mystery as Alchemy is today. This option should not sound like an amazing one, since still nowadays, Alchemy is regarded as either a relic or an entertainment toy. We are still encompassed by outlandish symbolism in established political or religious environments. Our politicians and religious persons ignored the hermetic source of this symbolism and its hidden meaning. Perhaps this might be the case with King Sargon.
This myth, for it deserves this category, is about the Sargon/Regulus birth or the birth of a new sun on the earth. Indeed Regulus means little king (in Alchemy, it means Stone). Sun here is not an allegory; it is to be taken literally as a little star. Or a matter like a star. That is just what Alchemy is about. This story fits our last cooking (for an Opus Magnum Scheme). Here Sargon/Regulus was talking about the favorable conditions in which a virgin priestess or a princess can give birth to a little sun. It has always been very difficult to understand what’s behind mothers’ and fathers’ allegories. Of course, they are not a woman and a man. As well as not being two different chemical substances. They are alchemical substances, so they are not substances at all. If they are not substances, what are they?
Let’s go deeper into it. Sargon/Regulus’ mother was a princess or a priestess, a royal hermetic family woman, hence of the same stellar substance as Sargon/Regulus. And the father? Might the father not belong to a similar class or matter? A princess was not allowed to have a child with an ordinary man, but a king or a prince of Alchemy. So if the mother is not a substance, the father is not. They are two principles. Inside a molecular substance? Principles are too much inconsistent wording in Alchemy and do not mean anything. No, inside a molecular substance, we have two opposite and visually detected movements. Stay put: these movements are not produced by chemical processes. So nothing electronic. We are beyond chemistry.
The princess was, first of all, a virgin. Looking up in Dom Pernety “Dictionaire Mytho-Hermetique” 1754, we can find: “Quand elle a eu acquis une couleur blanche, ils lui ont donné le nom de Lait virginal , et ceux de toute autre chose blanche que se puisse être.” “When she has acquired a white color, she is called virginal milk, together with all the white things which might be”. So the princess/priestess is white. Not only is she the whiteness.
The father is unknown. For the rule of three, there may be at least three meanings: Lucarelli said that sulfur work is not so apparent. In addition, in Alchemy, a mother can become a father. In the very sense that she’s potentially a hermaphrodite person. She is a man and a woman. Lucarelli remarks that the woman had not been involved in sexual intercourse. Hermetic symbolism is taken from very ancient chemistry jargon. Solve et Coagula is always involved when we speak about sexes. Imagine all the actors in the scene as a metamorphosis.
Lucarelli called the princess Mercurius and the father Sulfur. Yes, I know that’s more than confusing. This seems to be the reason the symbolism is for: to confuse. Let’s go back to alchemical father and uncle. Daddy is a god of winds, storms/tempests, or war/fight, not a stay-put person. Uncle is from the mountains. A place close to the sky, where thunders and flashes of lightning are frequent, and plenty everywhere of minerals caves. So if Sargon/Regulus’ father is a mobile person, his uncle or replacement father or additional father is a rough steady person from a mountain. Indeed very different brothers, though from the same hermetic family. And don’t think of the craftsman as being foreign to the issue. Indeed he cannot be considered a passerby.
Note that these are the father and mother of a stone, regulus, not a child. but let’s reread Pernety about Regulus’ father or the father of our Stone:
“L’Argent-vif est appelé le Père dans la génération des métaux, la véritable vigne, Plomb, Phénix, Pélican, Tantale, Dédale, Serpent, Fontaine, Puits, Porte, Argent-vif des philosophes, Présure, Lait, Ferment, Serf fugitif et de beaucoup d’autres noms. Pendant que l’œuvre est encore cru, notre argent-vif s’appelle Eau permanente, Plomb, Crachat de la Lune, Etain . Lorsqu’il est cuit il se nomme Argent, Magnésie, Soufre blanc . Quand il a pris la couleur rouge, on lui donne les noms d’Orpiment, de Corail, d’Or, de Ferment, de Pierre, d’Eau lucid.“ The Father is called Quicksilver during generation of metals, Real Vineyard, Lead, Phoenix, Pelican, Tantalus, Dedalus, Serpent, Fountain, Well, Door, Quicksilver of Wises, Milk, Ferment, Fugitive Servant, and other names. During the period the work is still raw our Quicksilver is called Permanent Water, Lead, Moon Spit, Tin. During the cooking Quicksilver names are: Silver, Magnesia, White Sulphur.
When it has taken a red color, it is called Orpiment, Coral, Gold, Ferment, Stone, or Bright Water. As you can see, many of these names are known as feminine. A Father? Why that sex uncertainty? We will go more thoroughly into this excerpt in a post on Pernety.
Sargon/Regulus is generated in dark conditions. Mind, it is not an allegory. Every natural generation occurs in a dark environment, not only Alchemy. A condition with poor or no solar light. Maybe some stellar light will be allowed.
Lucarelli: “ The craftsman is a carpenter or a blacksmith. The container could turn into a grotto or a cave. The garden or a “fulfillment”, can become a cross or a sacrifice. The matter does not change.
The sun mother carries him till the waters of the sea of Wises, generating him in the darkest darkness. Here he arises enclosed in a wrapping that is nothing but the condensation of upper waters, that’s to say of those ‘dry waters defined as the artisan work, the ideal servant. Being extracted from ‘the waters, by the artisan of waters, the sun first gets dressed in all colors until the final bloom in the hermetic garden of the lily and the rose, the two beautiful flowers anointing, with the benevolence of nature, the supreme royalty with a crown of the adept.
There is no allegory in this plot except for those who reject real magic. Over the centuries, the millennia, during long sleepless nights, patient and lucky artists have seen the miracle, which has been faithfully transcribed, announcing that on Earth during favorable times, every year, the great epiphany for “men of goodwill”.
No further documents attesting to the real identity of this king, Sargon, were found. Was Sargon the first or the second, or a preceding one? The meaning of Sargon’s name is “ the real legitimate king”. In Alchemy, the Philosophers Gold is known as “ the real legitimate Gold,” whose symbol was a king. Was the Sargon in the myth a real King or an alchemical allegory for Golden Regulus? Indeed the achievement of Regulus is the final goal of an average alchemist.
Finally, we arrived at the last cooking. Mother/Mercurius has called light from the Sea of Wises for her embryo to be taken to life. Here the idea of a Magnet is involved. Light can be caused to come both from stars in the sky or alchemically produced light, Green Lion. I said out of the dark, not out of molecular mass). Pay attention: we are before an appealing process here. The last dark has arrived. Then mother loses some water. She becomes more earthly or solid, freeing herself from useless waters and turning into a grotto or cave. Then mother calls a servant carpenter to help her seal into like a chrysalis, or she becomes the servant too. In the tablet, a bitumen is mentioned, suggesting a sealing operation. Here we can have clear hints for V.I.T.R.I.O.L/Vase proceeding.
Then Lucarelli says that V.I.T.R.I.O.L shows up a beautiful colors procession or peacock tail or rainbow, and then when it is timing, a white lily and a red rose will arise. So the Regulus/little king will arise like the sun rising every morning at dawn. Then Sargon/Regulus will help himself with lifting ( sublimating) his no more existent body. In the allegory of the cross or sacrifice.
Epiphany: the embodiment day ( the greek word is Theophania Θεοφάνια). The day of God’s manifestation. Is it a particular day concerning the sun’s path? or moon path? or stars’ path? Or is a particular day just like every birthday? Timing plays an important part in the interdicted Alchemy level.
Nature put its crown on the alchemist’s head. A strange allegory with nothing to do with a king’s celebration. The Crown is commonly made of gold. Nevertheless, Alchemical gold is no more metal but an ineffable item, perhaps resembling something already surviving inside our heads. Indeed a light crown is for an Adept.
Sargon/Regulus becomes the gardener of Ishtar/Venus. The Akkadian Goddess of Love “ Amor”. In hermetic symbolism, Love is not an intense feeling of deep affection or degenerating into sex. But the power to bring generation, as a privilege of Spirit, so a virgin prerogative, or a prerogative of a woman turning into a man. Indeed Sargon/Regulus becomes Ishtar’s gardener. That’s to say, a person who works in a green environment. The fundamental primary color of Spirit/Secret Fire is green. Or, better, as Fulcanelli says in The Mysteries of Cathedrales, 1926: ” It has not yet acquired the characteristics which distinguish mineral chemically adult status by the nascent state. It is still a green and unripe fruit.