the great internal hermetic work

By Rubaphilos Salfluĕre
(Produced for the Alchemy Journal Oct 2008)

Surely, for those of us who are involved in the esoteric side of Western alchemical tradition, one of the most frustrating aspects of that journey has got to be the search for a viable inner work.

Any student of Hermetic chemistry quickly realises that the bulk of the alchemical tradition is preserved in its literature. Because of this many students of alchemy find themselves maintaining a small library of the best works, spending long hours contemplating the enigmatic passages and engravings in the works of the old adepts. In doing so it soon becomes obvious that within the canon of alchemical literature there exist two facets of the work that have existed side-by-side since the earliest surviving examples of written record of the tradition. Today these two facets of alchemical practice are often commonly called the outer work or manual labour (in reference to the laboratory tradition), and the inner or spiritual work of the initiatory process (specifically, those practices, such as meditation or ritual (for example), as well as reading, that are designed to effect the alchemists spiritual emancipation. Processes, it should be noted, that actually have an initiatory effect of the classic and legendary kind, as opposed to those that are believed to, or claimed to, but in fact do not).

The nature of the laboratory tradition is today relatively well known, thanks to pioneering individuals such as Frater Albertus and Jean Dubuis, as well as being described in great detail in literature of the genre. But detailed description of the inner work is conspicuous by its almost complete absence.

If we look at the broad spectrum of individuals in the alchemical community who have an attitude about the inner work, I believe we might sort them in to three definite groups. There are those who do not believe in the internal aspect of the work and concern themselves with the laboratory  process only. Then there are those who, for lack of any other option, bring to their alchemical study esoteric practices from other (non-alchemical) Hermetic or Eastern systems. Lastly, there are a small group of individuals who have access to strictly alchemical based practices virtually unknown in the mainstream.

The first group I am not interested in here, obviously. In the second group we find by far the greatest number of students who feel a need to balance their laboratory work with a spiritual practice. Leaving Eastern practices aside in order to consider the Western Tradition, it is probably safe to say the bulk of the second group find themselves involved in every kind of practice from simply meditating on alchemical engravings, through the practice of mysticism, to the study and practice of the more hardcore Western systems such as those provided by BOTA or the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. But could we really call any of these systems alchemical in even the most general way? Even where such systems teach basic knowledge of alchemy, they rarely, if ever, show signs of having integrated alchemical technology in to their initiatory systems.

Since the earliest times, the point has been made by respected adepts of the alchemical tradition, that the laws of alchemy, being universal in nature, govern not only the laboratory practice but also the inner work. But if we look at the situation in the mainstream of Western alchemical study ... where can we find a system of inner work that meets such an important condition? If we are honest with ourselves the reality is that at the popular level of alchemical study there does not exist any system of inner work that is obviously and undeniably the laboratory tradition turned inward.

If we study and consider this situation carefully, the conclusion we are compelled to reach is that if a strictly alchemical inner work ever did exist in the Western Hermetic Tradition, it has long since been lost, or withdrawn back to the underground stream. In its absence students of alchemy have turned their attention to ancillary systems to replace that loss. In saying this I am quite sure that a good number of students of the arte, who have involved themselves in spiritual practices for many years, will insist that this is not the case. That there are a number of different esoteric disciplines that have been used by alchemists down through the centuries as a spiritual companion to their laboratory practice. Systems such as devotional and mystical Christianity, Qabala and High Magic being the most common. While these various practices are 'traditional', in the sense that they have been used by alchemists for a very long time, and that they can be effective, I would argue that they are not, strictly speaking, alchemical systems. They have existed outside of alchemical practice as separate disciplines in their own right, before alchemists adopted them.

There are two areas of interest, though, amongst the spiritually focused practices of alchemists, which come as close as can be to forming a strictly alchemical inner work. The first is the most important in my estimation. That is, the concept that ingestion of advanced alchemical (pharmacological) preparations trigger internal conditions that can easily be considered extreme and initiatory in effect. Nevertheless, by its very nature, experience in this area is difficult to come by, and most students of alchemy never attain the skill required to confect such preparations. Then, where experience does exist, we know that simply ingesting these preparations is not enough. Once the changes brought about by these preparations are apparent in the aspirant, we quickly come to realise that in order to gain the desired benefit from them, and to maintain mental stability, an education in esoteric psychology is required in order to ensure the efficacy of the process.

The second area of (pseudo) alchemical work is somewhat compelling, but is also a focus of much contentious argument by students of the inner work; that is, the field of Jungian psychology. It is widely accepted (by those who are in a position to accurately compare), that Jung only scraped the surface and as such was missing (or misinterpreted), a number of key concepts in his system. Nevertheless, one of the most interesting things about the Jungian question, in my humble opinion, is that within the culture of alchemical study it is generally accepted that Jung was on the right track, even though he lacked the benefit of an initiated understanding.

The view of the subject I have provided above, is I believe descriptive (generally) of the situation concerning the bulk of attitudes and approaches to the internal alchemical process. But there is another level of understanding, the third group I mentioned earlier. Aside from those who don't get involved in the inner work (the first group), and those who import non-alchemical systems in to their study (the second group), the third classification of students have access to an authentically alchemical approach to spiritual emancipation, either via an initiated teacher, or through inspiration that stems from the share depth of their grasp of the Hermetic paradigm. A system that is (again), the laboratory model turned inwards.

So what would such a system look like? What exactly are we talking about here? The best answer, I believe, is to provide an example of a system where pieces of an authentically alchemical inner work can be recognised to already exist. A source that is largely overlooked because of the format it is presented in, and the way in which system is traditionally viewed and used. Such an example I feel is best given in Qabala. Partly because of all esoteric subjects that are not overtly alchemical, probably the one most commonly studied by all spiritually motivated alchemists, in all ages, is the Judaeo-Christian (Western Tradition) Qabala. It is a curious thing that while orthodox Qabala contains a number of overtly alchemical references and concepts, few students of both alchemy and Qabala, down the ages, have been successful in discovering and presenting these concepts in an well integrated, detailed and convincing manner.

If we start by considering for a moment that two of the most potent concepts in alchemical teaching are those of the Binary (often represented as a King and Queen in alchemical iconography), and the Three Principals ( Mercury, Sulphur and Salt).

In Qabala the mechanism of the process of that which Magicians commonly refer to as initiation, and spiritual alchemists call the inner work, is described in a number of stories that have been collected together in a work called The Sepher Ha Zohar (The Book of Splendor). These stories are described allegorically as being a kind of mystical history of the Israelites. The dramas of these histories most often describe relationships that exist between the Israelites collectively, or certain key individuals, and celestial intelligences. Now there are two keys to deciphering the alchemical nature of these Qabalistic dramas. First, that it is recognised and accepted by many Western Qabalists that the idea 'Israelite', in these stories, can be translated to mean 'initiate'. In other words, these stories are descriptions of initiatory mechanisms. In fact this idea is one of the foundation concepts of the Western Qabala, formulated since the dawn of the Christian era.

Secondly, it is understood today (by learned occultists and psychologists alike), that the entities that I have called celestial intelligences represent (Jungian) archetypes of the collective (and personal) unconscious. This is a key concept that is greatly misunderstood, and often unrecognised, in the broader esoteric community. That the Gods, Archangels, Angels and Demons of the old pantheons are what we today know as key psychological forces or entities. (It should be noted that some people who are familiar with this concept reject it simply upon the basis that they are uncomfortable with the idea that the 'psyche' could be the 'spiritual realm' of the old mysteries. Often arguing likewise that these spiritual entities can manifest in the physical, whereas psychological ones cannot, which any experienced psychologist knows to be entirely untrue).

Once these simple ideas are grasped, if we then reconsider our alchemical concepts, the Three Principals and the Binary, which are conditions and forces often personified in traditional alchemical literature as animals and people, and we turn to Qabala looking for examples these same intelligences, we don't have to look far. The primary intelligences of the collective consciousness are called Partzufim (archetypes) in Qabalistic teaching. Amongst the most important Partzufim (of which there are six primarily), there are three that are considered the main players in the human initiatory drama. Their common titles are Neschamah, Ruach and Nephesch. A closer look at the Qabalistic attributes of these archetypes and we find out that Ruach means Spirit ... possessing same title and attributes as our alchemical Mercury. The Neschamah is a more complex entity, but we find that She is attributed to the Element of Fire (as an Atziluthic entity), and this equates Her with the alchemical Sulphur. The Nephesch, likewise, is said to represent both the subjective realm and the physical world (Malkuth), aligning her with the alchemic Salt.

There are a number of discussions of the important interrelations between these three archetypes in classic Qabala, as well as in alchemy, which leave us in no doubt that they are inwardly and outwardly key players in the initiatory Great Work. This dynamic comes in to even sharper focus when we get to the point of understanding that in alchemy the two are often called King and Queen, just as they are in Qabala (Melek and Kalah). The same archetypal story is being explained in both traditions, leading us to conclude that there is one essential formula and mechanism that lies behind both the Outer and the Inner Great Works.

In other words, alchemical practice is Qabalistic, and the essential Qabala is a philosophic and theoretical description of key alchemical processes, as found in the natural machinery of initiation.

Any student of alchemy who has reached a sufficient familiarity with the basic formula of the laboratory process, and turns his attention towards a contemplation of the deeper mysteries of Qabala is in a position to recognise (on an intellectual level), the signposts of the spagyric work in both disciplines. With the additional benefit of specialised tuition that allows the student to access and interact with the Partzufim in his own spiritual sphere, theoretical Qabala becomes the living Qabala (as opposed to a simple intellectualism), through which proof of the universal nature of alchemical lore is obtained first hand, from those intelligences who administer the process of personal evolution in the soul of the initiated alchemist.

Reference works:
Invisible Partners – J.Sanford
The Zohar (Soncino Press Edition)
A Garden of Pomegranates – I.Regardie
The Philosopher's Stone – I.Regardie
Turba Philosophorum – A.E.Waite edition
The Holy Kabbalah – A.E.Waite