Alchemy deals, in part, with the Elixir of Life, i.e., use of things & ways to achieve rejuvenation. Chinese works give recipes, mostly, for aphrodisiacs. Sir Richard F. Burton speaks of the Ha-fraka; Papus tells how Eliphiaz Levi knew the secret of physical regeneration of Cagliostro; in lectures, not published in English, Dr. Rudolph Steiner affirms that life can be prolonged over 5000 years; formulas are found in O T O books also familiar to RS through Theodore Reuss; explanations teem in the Zohar, Bahir, Sefer Yetzirah & other Qabalistic texts, also the Gnostic, & the Tarot; HPB (p 582-3, Vol II of S-D) mentions a Mss by St. Germain kept in the Vatican -to say that the truth can be revealed only to the well-prepared is simply to state that vegetables don't have ears. A tree falling in the wilderness makes no sound whatever unless there are animals present; air waves from its impact with the ground are not sensations. St. Francis preached to birds & beasts, not to the flora. However, note that intermediates such as poisonous plants do exist, which is why the lodge used to be tyled. However, the aim here is to reach clarity sufficient to convince an eight-year old, despite the dopplegangers in time, space & other categories & the fate of Thomas More & the vanity of his Utopia, or others, e.g., the Christianopolis of Valentin Andrae; viz, to write in plain English, no jargon or code like the Monas Hieroglyphica of John Dee -rather as his Mathematical Preface to Euclid's Elements, which, by the way were translated into Arabic by that wise counsellor of Caliph Harun ar Rashid (786-809), YAHYA bar KHALID bar BARMAK. There is nothing wrong with Mathematics! The evil dwells in the tendency to hand over the power entirely to machines; John Napier (1550-1617) put 100 arith means between 1 & 2 to compare with 100 geometrical means, inventing what developed into logarithms -calculating machines which used to occupy a city-block can now be held in one hand. This is all good for you -BUT! Knowledge is Power & starts with Sensation. John Locke said there is nothing in the mind that is not first in the senses -there are twelve and more, not just five! As we descend through three forms of ZERO, then Unity (the All) we reach DAATH only when we can distinguish separate things, identify as such individuals. NUMBER is that Category of a group independent of any modification; destroying the distinction. In fact all cats are mutually independent, e.g., space, time, relationship, etc. If two sets have the same number they can be matched in 1-1 correspondence, this is the basis of EQUALITY; if different numerically INEQUALITY results, viz, greater than > & less than < . In logic a thing is or is not, there are only these two alternatives; in MATH there are still only to be or not to be, but the affirmative is divided into > & < . The origin of A PRIORI is always A FORTIORI (see my BARBARA CUBED). Thus Proof establishes the validity of a statement which agrees with Reality, but all arguments are Iffy; the classic syllogism is truly a Petitio Principii, The Conclusion merely focuses on the humanity of Caius which was given (a Datum) in the premises. During the ages many sages have tried to reach to Reality by reasoning, which manipulates, combines, etc., Names or symbols, e.g., Raymond Lull, George Boole. Many of them fell into the pit of Because, confusing the Name & its Thing! When Julius Caesar wrote "GALLIA EST OMNIS DISISA IN PARTES TRES", he understood that the mental operation of division leaves the Whole unaffected. "Whole" & "Integer" are synonyms; if the for of a number contains the concept of division it is not equal to an integer but a "fraction", proper = vulgar or improper.
Introduction