A mix of minerals

Photo: Rose Creek Treasure.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-Hygeia, is from Mohyiddīn Ibn Arabi’s Chapter 167 of the ‘Mekkan Illuminations’(Al Futuhat al Makkiyya), under the tittle: ‘Upon the knowledge of the Alchemy of Happiness and of its secret truths’ (Kimiya-e Sa’adat). Berg International, 1981, here in its 1997 second edition.  Excerpts are from chapter 1, from page 33 to 37, paragraphs 5 to 9; the same chapter from which we have excerpted earlier paragraphs 1 & 4. Our Via-HYGEIA English translation derives from professor Stéphane Ruspoli’s French translation and notes.

Ibn Arabi shows in this first chapter his deep understanding of the hermetic maxim, ‘as above, so below‘ and illustrate it with an in-depth survey of the building-blocks of creation, matter, minerals, metals, etc…and their mirroring aspects-below-of the worlds of light and beauty-above. Professor Stéphane Ruspoli puts it into a greater context:

‘At the source of this doctrine, there is the certitude for Ibn Arabi that Alchemy is of a divine essence, and proceed from the knowledge of the prophets that hold the keys of it and communique them to their adepts, the seekers of the ‘Elixir of the Gnostics’.

How does this Alchemy at the scale operated by the Prophets work? The biblical and Qur’anic hermeneutic that Ibn Arabi unveils throughout the whole treatise shows us They are Jesus’ miracles, like the shaping of ‘the clay bird’ into which He insufflates life, or the healing of the bling and the leper, resurrecting the dead-with ‘God’s blessings‘. It is ‘Moses’ staff‘ changed into a snake and that divine magic changes back into its original state. It is the ‘meekness speech‘ given to Pharaoh by Moses and that will end up by making a change of heart at the threshold of death, when he was swallowed up by the Red Sea. It is the mystery of the insufflation of the Divine Spirit into Adam’s body. The projection of the Elixir upon the metallic forms is one of the representations at the ‘mineral’ stage of the Opus.

It is also the intuitive revelation of the Four Major Arcane of the Alchemical Work that emanate from the Throne of Mercy. These few examples, hastily enumerated, must make us being attentive to the prophetic status of Alchemy, as it is understood in the great hermetic tradition within Islam. We shall here recall the famous hadith said by Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who when asked by his disciples about the nature of Alchemy, he answered: ‘It is the Sister of Prophecy’.’ (from the introduction).

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Ibn Arabi’s Chapter 167 of the ‘Mekkan Illuminations’

(Al Futuhat al Makkiyya),

under the tittle:

‘Upon the knowledge of the Alchemy of Happiness and of its secret truths‘

(Kimiya-e Sa’adat)

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§ 5. The unique Archetype of minerals

and the trials of its formation

You should also learn that all minerals go back to an Archetypal unit (Asl wahid) (1); this Archetypal unit demands due to its essence to be bound to the Realm of Perfection, which is the ‘aureity‘ (dhahabiya), the principle of the purest gold. But, because it is a natural object originating from the influx of some divine Names, whose impact is manifold, this archetypal unit is affected, in the course of its progression, by ailments and diseases caused by the opposition of periods and elemental natures (2) intrinsic to the places it goes through-like the hot nature of summer, the cold nature of winter, the dryness of autumn and the humidity of spring-and also caused by the mine itself, its warmth and coldness.

§ 5 notes:

1.The different metals are but accidental forms more or less altered of this Archetype that designate the mineral substance at the purest state, or also the ‘mineral God’. The following description translates the mode of formation, the ‘genesis’  (takwin) of this Archetypal mineral in terms of hermetic embryology.

2. Al-taba’i’: Hot, Cold, Dry and Humid.

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§ 6. The alchemical conjunction of Sulfur and Mercury

& The conception of minerals

To sum up, many are the ailments that affect the mineral archetypal unit. When one of those aliments are predominant and overwhelm it during certain periods, it spreads and journeys itself from phase to phase, making the mineral archetypal unit emerge from its condition of one cycle to introduce it into another cycle. This powerful factor establishes itself in the mineral archetypal unit, in which it produces a form destined to carry its substance (1) until a complete formation. This generative form, it is called sulfur (kibrit), or also mercury (zibaq). Following they conjunction and their union, and following some ailments that occurred to the child that they have conceived, Sulfur & Mercury are the generic parents of what appears, properly speaking, as minerals & metals (ma’adin) (2). Sulfur and Mercury unite and mate, so to produce a noble substance with a perfect constitution that we call Gold (3).

§ 6 notes:

1. The substance of the Archetype. The text suggests that ailments or causes (‘ilal) intrinsic to the process of generation have as effect to transfer the mineral Archetype in the order of concrete manifestation where it will finally wear this or that metallic form.

2. See paragraph 8.

3. here we have the ‘native‘ gold which is the material gold, as it appears in nature. Not to be confused with the ‘mineral gold‘ which is its archetype, and also not with the ‘Great Work’s gold‘, the final fruit of the Opus, the alchemical labor.

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§ 7. About the Noble Gold 

Due to this Gold, the parents are ennobled, because such is the rank of Perfection to which they both aspired- ‘as for their substance’-however, at the exception that an Archetype is a ‘pneuma‘ in the realm of the divine things and a ‘vapor‘ (bukhar) in Nature, and excepted also that the parents (or the progenitors) are a concrete object and a natural reality. This is why we precise here that this fruit to which both aspired was-‘as for their substance’-and not as for their specific forms. Because the proper condition of the material substance is related to forms. Therefore, when the ailment that had hit the Archetype in the heart of the mine went away and that it had transformed into Sulfur and Mercury, we know that both had the power to act (1), being inseminated, therefore able to conceive the substance. If the parents did not suffer any damage prompting them to deviate from the principle of the ‘balance of the natures‘ (2), and make the Archetype stray from its normal path, then, the ‘child’ they are engendering constitutes the fruit in which their respective essences will then be transmuted. Their conjunction will be achieved at the Rank of Perfection, which is, the Gold they both coveted from the beginning.

§ 7 Notes: 

1. Being fertile, therefore able to engender the substance.

2. I’tidal al-taba’i.

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§ 8.The Genesis of  Minerals

and its Analogy with the Human Being

When the progenitors have been conjoined and have mated at the heart of the mine, according to the intrinsic nature of this particular mineral, and at the condition it is deemed proper to receive the natural influx of appropriate time, at the time of conception, the mineral now is engaged into a ‘straight path‘, truly similar to the ‘primordial nature God constituted the human beings‘ (1); because later, it is the child’s parent who (making him deviate from his primordial nature) will make him become a Jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian (2).

Likewise, for the minerals, if it is the component of the father alone (sulfur) that has been accumulated in the child through mineral causes due to an accident in time, in this case one of the predominant elementary properties will prevail upon the others. It will grow and develop at the expense of the other elementary properties and they will go on weakened by the impact of the hegemonic elementary property that will seat itself in all its exclusivity at the heart of the substance. And this is because of what the essence of this property brings in, making an obstacle to the path of perfect balance, this pilgrimage road leading towards the ‘marvelous City’ (al-Madinat al-fadila)(3) made of gold and perfect. The person who has reached it, in truth, will never again be at the mercy of transitory mutations into deficient modes of being. Therefore, when this elementary property excels over the others at the heart of the substance, its mining source gets corrupted, and then the form of iron appears, or of lead, copper, tin and silver, due to the predominating element. By this, you are able to understand God’s Word, saying: ‘Harmoniously formed and un-formed.’ (Qu’ran, 22-5). Which means: If it is of perfect constitution, it can only be Gold; and the imperfect ones, are all the other metals.

§ 8 Notes:

1. The ‘fitrat‘ (ref. Qur’an, 30-30), designate the original adamic perfection of Man, as he was created ‘according to the Divine Form‘. This central notion presents itself in may ways. It is the absolute spiritual norm (here the ‘straight path’, the ‘balance of natures’, any idea of harmony and stability) that typifies the ‘Perfect Man’, the Insan al-Kamil, in mystical anthropology, Abraham in prophetology, the ‘drinkable gold’, in Alchemy.

2. In other terms, they take away the new born baby from its ‘fitrat‘ by having him wear the cloth of a determined confessional religion. It is to this condition of primordial innocence that Abraham’s faith symbolizes, because he was neither a Jew, nor a Christian, but a ‘hanif‘, a pure believer.

3. Also called ‘Dwelling of Bliss’, which is nothing else but the ‘Celestial Jerusalem’, with its Temple being located in the seventh heaven.

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§ 9. Upon its Outing from the Mine,

a Metals is taken over by the Astral Angel of the Planet it depends on

At this very precise moment (where the metallic form appears)(1), it is ‘taken over’ by one of the seven mobile planets ‘spiritual entity’-which is an Angel from the heavens- picked or attracted by the birth(2). This angel moving in alignment with the planet it is subject to the same circumvolution, because it is God that directs it towards an aim assigned by its Creator. And this aim is to preserve the mining source of this metallic substance (3). In this way, the form of iron is taken in charge by this astral angel who rides this auspicious steed (jawad) which the planet is, making its revolution in the Seventh Heaven above our Earth (4). Also, the form of tin, alike all the other metals, is taken over an angel riding as a steed its planet (in correspondence to the metal), revolving in its own heaven, and which particular orbit (5) is directed by God.

§ 9 notes:

1. This moment corresponds to the ‘birth’ of the mineral Archetype appearing ‘in concreto‘ to the terrestrial world under the form of such or such particular metal.

2. Here it is about the heaven of Saturn (seventh heaven), as it is told further on.

3. Likewise the progenitors of the mineral (Sulfur and Mercury) aimed to engender the perfect substance which id gold, and not its transitory and accidental form of any other metals, likewise each planetary entity (angel here) watches over the harmonious growth of the mineral substance hidden in the metallic form worn at its birth.

4. Normally, Saturn’s tutelar angel (Seventh heaven) governs the state of lead of the substance, Jupiter’s tutelar angel (Sixth Heaven) governs tin, Mars’ tutelar angel (Fifth Heaven) governs iron-the planets being considered ‘metals’ at the celestial level. Maybe it was a lapsus, though, iron is often considered the initial state of the substance before the start of the Opus, alike lead.

5. ‘falak‘ (orbit) (Ms. and B) and not ‘malak‘ (angel) (C).

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