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 on the mountains. In the city of Azupirani, on the banks of the Euphrates my mother, the vestal , brought me. She secretly bore me. She put me in a container, which closed 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 to Ishtar, and I became king and reigned for forty years. “
Lucarelli: “ This tale is, and sounds, very old and presents variants over the time. So the unknown father is sometimes a god of winds, storms, war. Or quite the same Divine Spirit. The virgin mother is 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 being manifested before the eyes of the operator excepting in its results.”
An Alchemy excerpt, a piece of mythology or a political declaration by a King Sargon pretending to be a beloved son of Gods? It is quite impossible giving an answer to that question, for we should have known if Alchemy was, back at that time, an established science-religion set apart for 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 as an amazing one, since still nowadays, that Alchemy is regarded as either a relic or an entertainment toy, we are still encompassed by an outlandish symbolism in established political or religious environments. Our politician and religious persons ignored not only the hermetic source of this symbolism but also its hidden meaning. Perhaps this might be the case with King Sargon.
This myth, for apparently it deserves this category, is about the Sargon/Regulus birth or the birth of a new sun in 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. What Alchemy is about. Anyway this story wonderfully 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 chemistry 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, therefore a royal hermetic family woman, hence of the same stellar substance of 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 a common man, but a king or a prince of Alchemy. So if the mother is not a substance the father is not too. They are two principles? Inside a molecular substance? Principles are a too much inconsistent wording in Alchemy and indeed it does 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 then called virginal milk, together with all the white things which might be” . So princess/priestess is white, not only, she is whiteness.
The father is unknown. For the rule of three there may be at least three meanings: Lucarelli said that sulphur work is not so apparent. In addition, in Alchemy, a mother can become a father. In the very sense that she’ s potentially an hermaphrodite person. She is man and 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 Sulphur. Yes, I know that’s more than confusing, this is just what l symbolism are for: to confuse. Let’s back to alchemyical father and uncle. Daddy is a god of winds, storms/tempest or war/fight definitely not a stay put person, uncle is from the mountains. A place close to the sky, where thunders and lightnings 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 passer by.
Note that these ones are father and mother of a stone, regulus, not a child. but let’s read Pernety again 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, Bright Water. As you can see many of these names are definitely known as feminine. A Father? Why that sex uncertainty? We will go more thoroughly into this excerpt in a coming post on Pernety.
Sargon/Regulus is generated in darkness condition. Mind, it is not an allegory. Every natural generation occur in a dark environment, not only Alchemy. A condition with poor or no solar light. May be 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 ‘waters, by the artisan of waters, the sun first gets dressed in all colors, until the final bloom in 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 to those who reject the real magic. Over the centuries, the millennia, during long sleepless nights, patient and lucky artists have seen the miracle, which have been faithfully transcribed, announcing that on Earth during favorable time, every year, takes place the great epiphany, for “men of goodwill”.
No further documents attesting the real identity of this king Sargon were found. Was Sargon the first or the second, or a foregoing one? The meaning of Sargon 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 average alchemist.
Finally we have 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 and/or from alchemically produced light, Green Lion. I said out of 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 now useless waters, in so doing turning into a grotto or cave. Then mother calls a servant carpenter to help her sealing into like a chrysalis or better she is becoming the servant to. 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 goes on saying that V.I.T.R.I.O.L shows up a wonderful 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 cross or sacrifice.
Epiphany: the embodiment day ( the greek word is Theophania Θεοφάνια) . The day of Gods manifestation. Is it a particular day concerning the sun path? or moon path? or stars path? Or is a particular day just like every birth day? Timing takes an important part in the interdicted Alchemy level.
Nature put its crown on alchemist head. A strange allegory, nothing to do with a king celebration. Crown is commonly made of gold. Nevertheless Alchemical gold is no more a metal, but an ineffable item, perhaps resembling to something already surviving inside our head. Indeed a light crown is for an Adept.
Sargon/Regulus become gardener of Ishtar/Venus. The akkadian Goddess of Love “ Amor”. In hermetic symbolism Love is not an intense feeling of deep affection or its degenerating into sex. But the power to bring generation, as privilege of Spirit, so a virgin prerogative, or a prerogative of a woman turning into a man. Indeed Sargon/Regulus becomes Ishtar gardener. That’s to say a person who work in a green environment. The real basic 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.