And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually. And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim [אורים] and the Thummim [תמים]; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.
– Exodus 28:29-30
This is a quote from the book of Exodus, in the Torah. It describes the Urim and the Thummim, or written together, Urim V’Thummim [אורים ותמים], in Hebrew. And many people have postulated about what these Urim and Thummim actually are. It is believed by many scholars that these were two stones that were embedded in the breastplate of Aaron along with the other twelve gems described in the Torah, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
But if you actually look elsewhere in the Bible, this predominant interpretation of the Urim and Thummim being two stones, does not really jive with the few other places that they are mentioned. They are mentioned in very, very few places in the Bible at all.
These stones were said to give one the ability to commune with God. Even though they are mentioned very rarely, there are a lot of attention placed upon these Urim and Thummim, whatever they are. If we look elsewhere in the Bible, we find them mentioned, this is one of the few other places where they are discussed. In the book of Ezra, where it says:
These [the children of the priests] sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood. And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim.
– Ezra 2:62-63
So this is many, many generations after the Exodus and Urim and Thummim are supposedly missing. They postulate from this verse that someone could potentially come around with the Urim and Thummim. If these were stones that got lost somewhere, then essentially what this verse is saying is that maybe they were in a trash heap somewhere and some priest comes along and says – oh look Urim and Thummim, someone had thrown them in the trash.
But it is unlikely that if we had the Urim and Thummim, and these gave man the ability to talk to God, that someone would just discard these things. So, this passage, which is one of the only other places in the Bible where the Urim and Thummim are mentioned, supports the notion that these are not physical objects.
What we are going to do in this lecture, is we are going to examine an essay written by the alchemist Paracelsus in the early 1500’s, where he describes the Urim and Thummim. He wrote this essay called “Urim and Thummim shewed to be made by Art, and are the same with the Universal Spirit, corporate and fixed.” And so Paracelsus wrote this very brief essay about Urim and Thummim.
Paracelsus was a medieval alchemist. There were many people studying alchemy at that time, trying to find the Philosopher’s Stone. And Paracelsus was one of the few alchemists who was actually believed to have really discovered and created the Philosopher’s Stone; one of the few actually successful Alchemists.
He is also cited by some as being the founder of modern medicine. He was a physician as well as an alchemist, and a student of Biblical Hermeneutics. His real name was Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim. If you have ever wondered what being hated by your parents sounds like, that is it.
In his occult works, when he was writing essays on alchemy or occultism, he used the name Paracelsus, which means Greater than Celsus, a reference to the Greek philosopher. We are going to study what Paracelsus, this very famous alchemist and physician, had to say about Urim and Thummim. Part of the reason why we ware doing this is I thought it would be helpful to see how Paracelsus reads the Bible. I was talking to someone last weekend. He was talking about the various scriptures, he read a number of scriptures. He was saying that you can potentially read anything into the scriptures. The only legitimate way to read the scriptures, in his opinion, is read them literally, exactly as they are.
When you read the scriptures literally, what you tend to find out is, they are wrong. The scriptures say things, if you take them literally, that are just nonsensical and impossible. It even contradicts itself. Many people use this argument as a reason for saying that the scriptures are wrong, or bogus, maybe the person who wrote them was on drugs, but at any rate we should ignore them.
Now that is one view that you can take. That is the view that says, “I am right and the scriptures are wrong.” But the other potential view is to say, “Okay, when I read the scriptures with this very literal interpretation, they cannot possibly be right.” So, we could say, “Oh yes, I am God and I know exactly how exactly the scriptures should be read.” Or we could say, “The scriptures are probably right, so the way that I am reading those scriptures is wrong.” Now the question that follows from that is, how should the scriptures be read?
So, in this tradition, we take the second approach. We say, “Okay, the scriptures were written by very illuminated people, like Moses, Jesus, Padmasambhava, Tsongkhapa, very elevated masters. So, these people probably knew a little bit more than me or you. They were probably operating at a much higher level than we, just using our intellect, would be able to operate.” Therefore, we take the view that the scriptures are probably right, but our way of reading them is wrong.
Therefore, we are going to look at Paracelsus who was also a great illuminated master, and see how he read the scriptures, and see if we can learn a little bit from him. We will start with the very beginning of his essay. If you are following along with the text, Paracelsus was not a bad writer, but the convention we have of standardized punctuation and standardized spelling is a very modern convention. Remember this was written in the early 1500’s so the language is a little different from what you may be used to reading. But we will see if we can make it a little more comprehensible for you. So Paracelsus starts:
The Truth seems buried, because it brings forth little Fruit; but it is great, and prevaileth, to make all things manifest so far as is possible for men; for in common sense and reason, all agree in mysteries never: so that we may not speak of Science without Knowledge, which breaks the Gates of Brass, and cuts asunder the Bars of Iron, before the eyes of Understanding, that the treasures of darkness may be opened, and the bright and fiery Sword discovered, which turns every way to keep Transgressors out of Paradise.
For if we consider wherein the Celestial and Terrestrial Bodies agree, we shall finde something objective in the inferiour Bodies, whereby they communicate their Celestial Vertue and Influence; which prefident Art doth imitate, to produce a glorious substance of connexed Forms, and of Cleerness, Vertue, and Beauty beyond expression.
Prefident means “trusting beforehand.” What he is saying that the artist, the alchemist, can use his art to imitate what is in the celestial bodies, what is in the superior worlds. If you are familiar with the principle that we often talk about in Gnosis, “As above so below,” that is what Paracelsus is talking about in the second paragraph. He is talking about this principle that this world that we live in is just a mirror image, a reflection of the interior worlds, of the superior worlds. Our forms are not these empty forms and they did not just emerge spontaneously in this way. But the things of the physical world start originally in the superior world, in the celestial spheres, then are reproduced here as the influences move down from the interior worlds to the exterior worlds. Another way of putting this is that the exterior is the reflection of the interior. He is talking about this principle here as a preface for what he is about to say about Urim and Thummim. And he says:
That Urim and Thummim, which were given in the Mount, cannot be proved that they are the potential from the Creation, may appear; for they were substances, whole Name and Essences did predicate each other, being convertible terms, the Name and Essence one.
And so in this first part of the passage, he is getting at the question of whether Urim and Thummim emerged out of creation, the natural world. He says, “That cannot be proved that they are the potential from the Creation, may appear.” In other words, it may seem like we cannot prove that Urim and Thummim actually emerged out of creation, because it may seem like they were just handed by God to Aaron. People sometimes believe this about Urim and Thummim, but what he is going to argue here is that they are the potential from creation, in other words Urim and Thummim can be created, and can be created by us, and he is going to talk about how to do that. He continues:
The words [Urim and Thummim] signify Light and Perfection, Knowledge and Holiness, also Manifestation and Truth, even as Science and Essence make one Perfection. It is likely they were before the Law given; for the Almighty God commanded Noah to make a cleer Light [which is the Hebrew word, tzohar] in the Ark, which some take for a Window; others, for the arching and bowing of the upper Deck, a Cubit: but sith the Text saith, Day and night shall no more cease; It seems, it did then cease: and whether this were one or more Windows, is uncertain: but when the Windows of Heaven were opened, and the Air darkned by pouring out Rain, the Sun not giving his Light, but prohibited the generative Spirit of the Creatures in the Ark, what exterior cleerness could be expected?
You read paragraphs like this and you wonder to yourself, “Why did I choose to give a lecture about this essay?” This quote he is reading here, “Day and night shall no more cease,” comes from Genesis chapter 8, which is where God is receiving Noah’s offering after the flood.
After the flood, God is saying, “Day and night shall no more cease.” Because God is saying this after the flood, what Paracelsus is arguing here is that if God is saying this after the flood, that implies that day and night did cease during the flood. It means that while the flood was going on, the sky must have been dark. If the sky was dark, then adding a window into the ark would not have created any light. It says make a light in the ark, but if you read the Bible, this word tzohar [צהר] is translated as “window.” The Bible says, “make a window in the ark.” But the word actually means “light.” Or if you see other places in the Bible the word is tzoharayim [צהרים], which means noon, so this word Tzohar means “light,” but is translated as window. Paracelsus is saying that it cannot be window because day and night ceased, and the sky is dark. He is arguing that this Urim, which means “lights” (AUR-IM; the IM makes the word plural), might actually have been given before Aaron, and existed in the time of Noah. And he is arguing that this light is that. Here is the quote from Genesis where it describes this light in the Ark:
A window [“tzohar”, עהר, “light”] shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
– Genesis 6:16
So Paracelsus continues:
Therefore some of the Rabbins say, The Hebrew word Zohar [it is spelled with a “Z” in this translation of Paracelsus’s essay, but technically it is “tzohar,” because it starts with a tzadi], which the Chaldee translate Neher, is not found in the Scripture, but in this place:
In other words, it is only found in this place.
So that like the word, it seemed to be a rare Light, and that which is generally doubted to be, the Creator commanded Noah to make by Art. Other Hebrew Doctors say, It was a precious Stone hanged in the Ark, which gave light to all living Creatures therein. This the greatest Carbuncle could not do, nor any precious Stone that is only natural.
As I mentioned earlier, this word tzohar only appears in this place in this scripture. It is the only place that this word is used in the singular form. The word is used in the plural form many of the places in the scriptures as tzoharayim and translated as noon or midday. This is the only place that tzohar is mentioned. And so Paracelsus is saying, like the word this light that Noah is commanded to make in the ark, seems to be pretty rare because it is not mentioned elsewhere in scripture. He has also pointed out that, as in the quote I just read, God did not give Noah the light. He commanded Noah to make the light in the ark. So this is something that God commanded Noah to make by art, by skill, by his own volition and skill, through his own work. There is something about this light that Noah was able to create as commanded by God. And Paracelsus also says: it cannot be a window or a shining stone because there is nothing that exists that makes that kind of light. But he says that there is something that can do that:
But the Universal Spirit, fixed in a transparent Body, shines like the Sun in glory, and gives sufficient Light to all the Room to read by: therefore it is most probable, this was the Light that God commanded to make, to give Light to all living Creatures: for it is of perpetual durance.
So he is saying this cannot be a physical stone, and cannot be a window, but the spirit in a transparent body could give this kind of light. It is a spiritual light. It is not a physical thing. He continues:
And whereas Tubal-Cain is said to be a perfect Master of every Artificer in Brass and Iron, which some hold, doth contain the whole and perfect decoction of the Metallick Vertue, wherein the Central Vertue is most abundant, and makes the happy more admired, who walk in the midst of the Stones of Fire; For where there are two things of one Nature, the chief is to be understood: Therefore in the mention of Fires, pure Fire is preferred.
So he just made this argument about how this light must be a spiritual light. It cannot be a physical thing. This also implies that many other aspects of the story of Noah and the ark are not talking about a physical ark. If you want to learn more about that, we have a lecture on our website talking about Noah and the ark, but we are going to glide by it here. He gives another example here of that spiritual symbolism here, where he is talking about the stones of fire. What he is referring to here is a quote from Ezekiel, chapter 28, where it said:
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
– Ezekiel 28:16
This verse from Ezekiel is an admonition against the King of Tyre (Sur), which is a place in modern day Lebanon, who used to be a holy man, blessed by God, and was allowed to walk on the mountain in the midst of the stones of fire. Then he sinned and God cast him down.
Think about this for a moment. If the reward that God gives you for being perfect and wise and not sinning, is that you get to spend your time on a literal mountain surrounded by literal flaming stones, then perhaps it is time for you to think about finding a different religion. Who knows, maybe it was a literal story and that is why the King of Tyre (Sur) sinned; he was looking around; he was on the mountain, surrounded by burning coals, and thought, “Huh, this is pretty terrible. Maybe I should find a different God to worship.” And that is why God cast him out. But if we do believe that God is not going to reward us by giving us flaming stones of fire, then maybe we should read this as something other than literal stones.
Therefore, we know that the literal interpretation of that story is nonsense. There was not a literal mountain, and there were not literal burning stones, which is exactly what Paracelsus was pointing out. We were talking earlier how that correct the way of reading the Bible is we should not take it completely literally. We should try to understand the true meaning of what it is.
So when he is describing the stones of fire, he is not referring to actual, physical fire. But he is referring to pure fire, archetypical fire, symbolic fire. He is saying it is the same as the symbol with respect to Tubal Cain.
Tubal Cain was the teacher of every crafter that used brass and iron. He is not referring to literal metalworking, but Paracelsus is saying that Tubal Cain, who worked in brass and iron, refers to symbolic metalworking, or in other words, alchemy. Thus, to illustrate his point, he is giving these other examples from the Bible in which the meaning of the text, when you read it in context, cannot possibly mean what it says literally, so it has to mean something else.
So when we look at the text and we try to understand the meaning, we should look at it in a symbolic way, and look at what archetypes, what spiritual principles are being represented by these words, as opposed to just saying that God is going to reward you by putting you on the mountain surrounded by burning coals. That is not the reward that God gives you. Paracelsus continues:
The Scarlet Veil in the Temple seemed ever moving, and signified pure Fire, generative and fixed in cleer Bodies, as Urim and Thummim: Although Essences are not without great difficulty made manifest in themselves, yet the cleer Vision [clairvoyance] thereof, makes the possibility unquestionable; as at Elisha’s Prayer, his Servant saw the Chariot, and Horses of fire, about his Master, which before he saw not; so are they apparent when the invisible is made visible.
Paracelsus is saying that there are things in this world that are invisible to our physical eyes but nevertheless are really there. So, he gives an example of this story from the Book of Kings, which I am going to recount here. You all know the prophet Elijah, who was very famous. Well, this is a story about Elisha, Elijah’s servant. In this story, Elisha is with his own servant, living in a city. The King of Syria is kind of annoyed by him because the King of Syria has all these plans to attack Israel, but Elisha, because he is a prophet, knows all the King’s plans, and he warns the Israelites ahead of time about the King’s attacks. So the Israelites can anticipate and they always beat the King of Syria. And the king is annoyed by this and that is where the story starts:
Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.
So the King of Israel was always defeating the King of Syria because the man of God, Elisha, always tells the King of Israel what is going to happen. The story continues:
Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?
So he thought there was a spy in his own camp that was leaking all his plans to Israel.
And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early [in other words, Elisha’s servant], and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
And he [Elisha] answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
In other words, Elisha is saying, “Our side outnumbers theirs.” But it is just Elisha and his servant. Where are the rest?
And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
– 2 Kings 6:8-18
What this story illustrates is that there are aspects of reality that are there, but are hidden from view. But can be seen with the clear vision, or clairvoyance, that Paracelsus was talking about earlier. He is saying that the same thing is happening with Urim and Thummim, that these are something that are there, but cannot be seen with the physical eyes. He continues:
Some think, that Urim and Thummim were not Artificial
When he uses this word, “artificial,” you have to understand that this is not the modern meaning of the word artificial. When we think of the modern meaning of artificial, we think fake. But artificial back in the 1500’s means to be made by art, made by skill or by work. So he is saying that some think that Urim and Thummim were not made by art, were not artificial.
because they are said in the Text to be put in the brestplate, but not to be made: but this point may be cleared by observing the several kinds of making, as betwixt those things made with hands, and those things that are only made visible by effect: for where natural and habitual Vertue do meet together, the perfection is more absolute by a kinde of new Generation, as the pure Sulphur of Metal, by an inward power doth purge it self by ebulition [the act of bubbling]; not by the first and remote causes, but by the second and neerer, whereof the Philosophers say, The secret of all secrets is of such a disposition, which cannot be perfected with hands; for it is a transmutation of natural things, from one thing to another. Also, it is said, The Artist takes impure Spirits, and by Sublimation, Nature and Art, cleanseth them into bodies pure and fixed: so that the bodily Nature doth eternally predominate: and being more then perfection to other things.
Paracelsus is saying that the Bible does not explicitly say that Urim and Thummim were made. It only says that they were put into the breastplate. So, people might think that maybe there were not actually made.
In the story of Noah that we were talking about earlier, it was very explicit that God commanded Noah to make the light. But with Urim and Thummim, it is not as explicit. Paracelsus is clarifying this: there are two kinds of making. There are the physical things that you make with your hands, but there are also invisible things, not made by hands but exist nonetheless. We know that these things exist by their effects.
We can understand this principle with respect to very simple mundane things. For example, consider a magnetic field. We cannot see a magnetic field, but we can see its effects. You can also think of a gravitational field. You can see the effects of a gravitational field, even if you cannot see gravity itself. This also applies to spiritual things. We may not be able to see the spiritual things, but we can observe their effects. There are ways to make these spiritual things. They cannot be seen or made with hands, but we know they exist because we can observe what they do in the world. He continues:
Now that these perfections have their beginnings from two Lights, both the Text and the ancient Philosophers make plain; but ignorance and the matter of the Elements are the Iron Gates, which must be cut in pieces, before the invisible be made visible.
The two lights he is talking about here are the sun and the moon. When he says, “the Text,” he is referring to the Bible. The “ancient philosophers,” encompasses many people, but one ancient philosopher who discussed this was Hermes Trismegistus. We will talk about the Text first. It says in the Text, which is the Bible:
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. – Genesis 1:16
These are the two lights that are mentioned in the text—the sun and the moon. Hermes Trismegistus in his Emerald Tablet, says:
The father of that one only thing is the sun, its mother is the moon, the wind carries it in its belly; but its nurse is a spirituous earth. – The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus is also talking about these two great lights, the sun and the moon, which are needed to create that “one, only thing,” the philosopher’s stone. The Emerald Tablet is the set of instructions on how to create that.
We know from our other lectures that the sun and the moon are the male and female forces of the Father (the sun) and the Mother (the moon). The “wind” is the seminal stream. The “spirituous earth” is the philosophical earth, or in other words, the human body, the physical body.
Returning to our earlier quote from Paracelsus, he says our “ignorance and the matter of the Elements are the Iron Gates,” which prevent us from seeing the meaning of these symbols. Because we do not understand these things, because we do not know, our ignorance prevents us from seeing and utilizing the teaching. This is the “iron gate” that blocks our progress in the work.
We need to cut through this gate to break through our ignorance. As we will see later, this ignorance we need to break is not just ignorance of the teachings, but also ignorance of our own selves. We need to shatter this ignorance in order to properly utilize this teaching and create the Urim and Thummim. He goes on:
For the natural Urim and Thummim, the Philosophers affirm, what they have seen and done: and that they did nothing save that they did before, and knew: so that a perfect knowledge is especially requisite to make a perfect Art: therefore we are to consider the means to attain this end.
He is looking back at the ancient philosophers, like Hermes Trismegistus and others, who talked about the means to create this light. He says that they did nothing save what they did before. So, in another words, they are not teaching anything new. The philosophers are not teaching something that they invented, but rather they are teaching only what has been passed down through the centuries and ages from the beginning of mankind.
Jesus also said something like this to Nicodemus. Recall the story in the Book of John, chapter 3, where Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the middle of the night. Nicodemus says, “I know you are a man of God because of the works that you perform.” He asks Jesus to give him teachings. Jesus gives him the teaching about how to be born in the spirit. Many people who read this think that being born in the spirit is professing faith in Jesus, and believing in Jesus. But if you read that chapter where Jesus is giving the teaching to Nicodemus, Jesus asks Nicodemus, “How can you be a Master of Israel not know these things?”
Nicodemus has all these questions, like, “Can a man enter back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” But Jesus says to Nicodemus, “How can you be a Master of Israel, a rabbi, a teacher of Israel, and not know already what I am teaching to you?” What this implies is that Jesus, when he is talking about being born in the spirit, is teaching something to Nicodemus that Nicodemus, as a rabbi, as a Jew, should have already known. Jesus is asserting that the process of being born in the spirit, which Jesus is teaching to Nicodemus, is something that already existed in the Jewish tradition and was in the Jewish scriptures, and that Nicodemus, as a rabbi, should have known this, but he did not, because Israel had fallen very far from the Lord at that time.
This assertion that Jesus makes to Nicodemus completely contradicts what many people think being born in the spirit is, which is just believing in Jesus. If being born in the spirit was believing in Jesus, how can it possibly be that it was written about in the Torah? Jesus didn’t arrive until thousands of years after Moses wrote the Torah. So the true meaning must be something else, something other than what so many modern people believe it to be.
This story from the Gospel of John illustrates the same principle that Paracelsus is talking about here. This knowledge is very, very ancient. This goes back to Bereshith [בראשית], the beginning. And actually, if you read some of the other lectures on our website, you’ll see that teaching is embedded in the word Bereshith, the very first word of the Bible. The word Bereshith shows that when the fire [esh, אש], is placed within the covenant [brit, ברית], that is what initiates the whole of creation. And as we know, “As above, so below.” So the process in the Book of Genesis by which the Light is created above, is the same process by which the Light is created in us below. So this teaching really does go back to “the beginning.” Paracelsus is saying that this something very ancient. He continues:
The Lord gave Bezaliel Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge: these are the means: for Gold is dissolved by Wisdom, in Contrition, Assation [the act of baking or roasting], and Fire. The end is directed to invent works in Gold, Silver and Brass; which is not to be understood according to the sound of words, but according to the intent of all Distillation, to extract the inward part, and manifest the central vertue: for where the perfection of the matter is glorious, the perfection of the form is more glorious.
What Paracelsus is referring to here, is a quote from the book of Exodus talking about Bezaleel. It says in Exodus:
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
– Exodus 31:1-5
Bezaleel, who is the one that God gave all this understanding and wisdom to work, is the one who made the ark of the covenant, in Exodus chapter 37. Paracelsus is saying that God gave Bezaleel wisdom, understanding, and knowledge to work with gold, silver, and brass. When Bezaleel is working with gold, silver, and brass, Paracelsus says it “is not to be understood according to the sound of the words.” The “sound of the words” is gold, silver, and brass. In other words, he is saying even though it says “gold, silver, and brass,” don’t understand “gold, silver, and brass” the way you usually understand those words, but rather, understand them in an archetypical sense, in a symbolic sense.
Also understand what the archetype of distillation is. Returning to our earlier quote from Paracelsus, he says they are “dissolved by Wisdom, in Contrition, Assation, and Fire.” Contrition is remorse for our sins, repentance, like the Act of Contrition, or penance. He then explains that “the intent of all distillation is to extract the inward part and manifest the central virtue.” Thus, he is pointing out that the act of distillation is symbolic. When we examine these teachings, we do not just see objects as symbolic, but we also see actions as symbolic.
When we think of distillation, we should not be viewing that as literally, physically distilling gold, but rather we should consider what distilling means in a broader, symbolic sense, which is to extract the central virtue of a thing from the coarse and rough aspect of it.
I haven’t actually told you, specifically, what Urim and Thummim are yet, but skipping ahead a little bit, they are the solar astral and solar mental bodies. Samael Aun Weor talks about the formation of solar bodies in his book Igneous Rose. He describes the formation of the solar bodies as an act of distillation. This specific quote that I’m about to read you is actually about the formation of the body of liberation, which is a little different, but the principle is the same. He says:
7. A new ultra-sensible physical body, filled with millenarian perfection, has been formed from the finest atoms of the physical body. It has the majestic appearance of the cosmic Christ and is eternal and incorruptible.
8. This vehicle, that replaces the physical body of clay, has been formed in the vital depth of our clay body in the same manner that a chick is formed within the egg.
– Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose
Samael Aun Weor is describing the process of distillation for the creation of other bodies. In this case he was describing the creation of the body of liberation from the physical body. But there are other bodies, like the Urim and Thummim, which we are talking about here, and Paracelsus is talking about. This is an example of the type of distillation that Paracelsus is referring to. It is distilling the atoms from the body itself to extract the central core virtue.
Paracelsus continues:
The Artist was commanded to devise work in Gold: that is, from the object [the gold] to the possibility [the thing you make with the gold]: for if the matter be glorious, the form must be more glorious: and though the spiritual Nature be more operative, yet the bodily Nature must predominate eternally: so that to make the corporal spiritual, and the spiritual corporal, is the whole scope of the intention; yet the spiritual is not first, but the natural: for corruption must put on incorruption, and mortality immortality: for that which is of great durance, and most abundant in vertue doth most excel in Glory and Beauty, and so fittest to make Urim and Thummim: for power and honour are in his Sanctuary.
He is quoting here 1 Corinthians 15:53, where Paul says: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Paracelsus cites Paul as an authority to argue that “the spiritual is not first, but the natural.”
What he is saying is the creation of the spiritual reality that we are talking about must have its roots in physical nature. The physical has to come first. The corruptible must put on the incorruption, not the other way around. The goal is to merge the spiritual and physical so that the physical becomes spiritual, and the spiritual becomes physical.
Many people have a problem with this principle because they think that religion is merely something you have in your imagination. It is just something you believe. For these people, changing their religion is as simple as changing their beliefs. I know many people who have read the bible and say, “This God in the Bible seems like a mean person. He does some things that disagree with my moral code, so I am going to get a different religion, and it does not matter if it’s true or not, because I can believe whatever I want and can change my mind any time.”
We were talking about earlier this idea that we can believe in something, or someone, and be saved. People have this idea that what you have in your mind, in your imagination, is somehow what makes religion. They think imagination on its own can some somehow create a spiritual reality. Imagination and the contents of our mind are important, and we will cover the role they play a little later. But the important point to understand here is that the spiritual reality we are trying to create in the development of Urim and Thummim cannot emerge purely from the use of imagination. Rather, it has to be founded in a physical nature, in the natural world. So this creation of the spiritual reality, the Urim and Thummim, must have its basis in the physical, in the natural world. We start with the physical and then the spiritual emerges from that. And he cites Paul to establish this principle. Paul says the same thing. He says the “corruptible must put on incorruption.” This is how Urim and Thummim are created.
Paracelsus continues:
For the perfection of every Art, (properly so called) requires a new birth, as that which is sowed is not quickned except it die: but here death is taken for mutation, and not for rotting under the clods.
He is starting to get towards how this spiritual creation actually takes place. He talks about birth, and birth requires death. All birth requires death. In the Bible, it says that unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single grain, but if it dies it becomes a whole stalk, and can feed many (John 12:24). There is also the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32). You take the mustard seed, put it in the ground, it becomes a mustard tree, and all the birds can flock to it. The thing they do not mention about the mustard seed is that when the mustard seed becomes the mustard tree, the seed is gone; it becomes something else. The mustard seed died. Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like this. It is like the mustard seed they put into the ground. Paracelsus says he is not talking about a physical death, but rather, a mutation. The mustard seed is gone, but it did not simply vanish. It changed into something else. That is the type of death we are talking about. This is the type death that Paracelsus said is needed to perfect this art.
He continues:
The Philosophers advise to take the like matter above Earth, that Nature hath made under the Earth: Others, to search the most precious treasure from a vile thing: all which is easily agreed, if rightly understood.
[…]
Others affirm Azoch and Ignis to be sufficient for this high perfection: the which Azoch among the Germans is Silver; with the Macedonians, Iron; with the Greeks, Mercury; with the Hebrews, Tin; with the Tartars, Brass; with the Arabians, Saturn; and with the Indians, Gold. All which being diverse in Nature, are potential in one composition: and by the duel of Spiritus, the Celestial Gold obtaineith victory over all the rest, and is made (though not with hands) a body shining like the Sun in glory, which is called, Ens omnis privationis expers, or Thummim.
[…]
But if any shall understand either common or Chymical Gold to be the substance of this sacred body, he is much mistaken; for a glorious Spirit will not appear, save in a body of his own kinde.
Here, he gives us another way of referring to Thummim. He says, “Ens omnis privationis expers.” Privationis means “deprivation,” like the state of deprivation; expers means “devoid of”; omnis means “everything.” So roughly translated, this phrase means, “free from all deprivation or a loss,” or Thummim.
Part of the reason I included this excerpt in the lecture is it shows that different traditions use different symbols. Many people often have difficulty when they see a meaning of a symbol in one tradition, and they go to a different scripture or religion, and they see the same symbols they recognize from other traditions, but those symbols do not mean the same thing. There is a diversity amongst the scriptures. You can understand the meaning of the scriptures by looking at the archetypes represented by the symbols, but you cannot take the symbols of one scripture and directly transpose them into another scripture.
There is another important point he is making in this passage. There are all these legends about the Philosopher’s Stone, and how it can turn lead into gold, and many people search for the Philosopher’s Stone hoping to become wealthy in the physical world. They want to create physical gold out of lead. But here, in describing the process of creating Urim and Thummim, he is saying that the gold we are creating is not going to be physical gold, because the spirit is not going to appear in physical gold. It will only appear in a body of its own kind, in a spiritual gold.
Continuing with our explanation, he says that some other philosophers have described the principle of creating it as searching “the most precious treasure from a vile thing.” And Paracelsus says he agrees with that characterization if it is properly understood. This is part of this process of distillation: taking our “vile thing,” which is our physical body and our corrupted psychology, and extracting from them a spiritual gold. If you look at the physical body, it is a bag of bones, blood, and excrement. That is really what this vehicle is; it is a vile thing. But we can search the most precious treasure from it.
He also says, “take the like matter above Earth, that Nature hath made under the Earth.” As we mentioned earlier, the earth is the philosophical earth, the physical body. So he is describing the principle of extracting the beauty from this vile thing, this physical body.
There is a psychological component, too. Looking at the mind, if we are honest with ourselves, it is pretty vile. Our mind has all sorts of nonsense and horrible things, churning in a sea of chaos, confusion, and contradictions. Extracting the essence from that is also part of this process, which we are going to talk about in a little bit.
Samael Aun Weor also talks a little about gold. We talked about how this body, that they are making here, is not natural or chemical gold, but is something else. Samael talks about this symbol as well, in Treatise of Sexual Alchemy. He says:
1. Dead gold is useless. It is necessary to give life to it.
2. Just as the Sun gives light to the planets, gold can transmute all of our imperfect metals.
3. However, dead gold is useless. Thus, it is necessary to give life to it and to reduce it to its female state—that is to say, to reduce it to its crude matter. It is also necessary for it to be reborn through the path of regeneration by retrogradation.
4. Spiritual gold is the sacred fire, the ineffable pleroma of the Spirit.
5. Instead of ejaculating the spiritual gold [through the orgasm], it is necessary to make it rise through the two ganglionic cords, in order to achieve the regeneration of the Being.
6. This is how we give life to the dead gold by reducing it to its crude matter, in order to convert it into volatile and spiritual gold.
7. Volatile gold is the perfect medicine.
8. Volatile gold is the fire of Kundalini.
– Samael Aun Weor, Treatise of Sexual Alchemy, “Gold and Mercury”
He is describing the symbol of gold. What is this gold? He says there are different types of gold. There is the sexual energy itself, but it has to be refined through transmutation in order to give rise to this other type of spiritual gold, which Paracelsus was talking about here as well.
Getting back to Paracelsus:
The Regeneration of Man, and the Purification of Metals, have like degrees of Preparation and Operation, to their highest Perfection. The first beginnings of Transmutation or Naturation, is the smallest measure of pure Sulphur, with both Riches and Honor in the left-Hand, and length in the right. In natural Generations the form prepares the matter, yet there are precedent Preparations. The beginnings of Transmutation must be distinguished: some are begun of Preparation, and some are begun of Composition. Beginnings of Preparation, in the well of Tears, doth qualifie the coldness and dullness of the crude disposition, and tame and subdue the fearful quality of swift flying, and changeth the colour of this eternal Liquour, turning the inside outward, and adding heat by the internal Sulphur of the Homogeneal Body, which is by means of changed Water, because Water by Water, can onely be extracted; yet it is excluded in the conclusion: for, though it be a necessary preparation to the alteration following, yet is but the servile and passive, which hath the first operation, being preserved unhurt in weight and purity.
This is another one of those paragraphs that you wonder what the heck I was thinking when I chose to do a lecture on this essay.
Anyway, in this paragraph, Paracelsus is getting at what Samael was talking about in our earlier quote from Treatise of Sexual Alchemy, where he described a “path of regeneration by retrogradation.” We have degenerated ourselves through many lifetimes, by our abuse of our physical body, mind, and heart. We are very much degenerated from what we once were. We no longer see the gods. We no longer perceive the internal worlds. We do not have the intelligence we once had. There are many people that think that today, people are very smart. We say we are much smarter than the people who lived many thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. Yet for almost 2000 years, our very smart scientists could not figure out how they made the cement for Roman Colosseum, which has lasted thousands of years. We put cement out and it is corroded within a week, yet the Colosseum has cement that is thousands of years old. We still do not know how they built the pyramids.
There are so many things from the ancient world that are mysteries to us, including their religions. We look at their religions and we see them like cartoon characters. The deep and symbolic meaning of any of these religions is completely lost upon us. So, we need to regenerate ourselves, to return to the intelligence and understanding we once had. Paracelsus says that this is analogous to the way we purify metals.
We start off with preparation. Paracelsus gives us a big hint about what the preparation is for this work. He says that the “Beginnings of Preparation,” happen “in the well of Tears.” This is something that is painful and brings about a lot of sorrow, because he is talking about the death of the ego. It happens in the well of tears, which is suffering, because when we have to look into our minds and see ourselves for how we really are, and see the hurt that we have caused to other people and the damage we have done to ourselves. It is painful when we have to come face to face with our own errors and attachments and own up to it. This happens in the well of tears.
He says we must “tame and subdue the fearful quality of swift flying.” What is “swift flying”? It is the mind with all its diverse desires and scattered attention. That is what our mind does. Now we are over here, next we are over there, now we are looking at this other thing. We see people today; they are constantly checking their smart phone or computer. The attention is scattered everywhere. That is the state of the mind today; it is always flying about. We have to tame and subdue this in order to prepare the metals for the composition. This is part of the preparation, the preliminary foundation of psychological stability and equilibrium we have to establish, before we can compose the bodies.
He goes on to say, “it is excluded in the conclusion: for, though it be a necessary preparation to the alteration following, yet is but the servile and passive.” He is saying that the energy involved in the composition of the body is different than the energy you use in the preparation. It is something else. For instance, if you have done pranayama, you will understand that the energy you harness through this practice can be used to assist your meditation and transmutation, both of which are important for the development of psychological equilibrium and the elimination of the ego. This is part of the preparation. But this energy you harness through pranayama is not the same energy that goes into the actual composition of the solar body. There is a different energy needed for that.
Samael Aun Weor talks about this process of preparing the mercury as well, in The Revolution of the Dialectic. He says the same thing Paracelsus does:
Whosoever possesses the Mercury of the wise will attain Final Liberation. To attain the Philosophical Stone would be impossible if one does not first of all get to know oneself.
The preparation of the Mercury is usually difficult. The Mercury results from the transformation of the Exohehari or Brute Azoth.
The Brute Azoth represents the sacred sperm. Many are the minerals which are transformed into Mercury. However, not all minerals can be transformed into Mercury.
The preparation of the Mercury is similar to the assimilation of food.
The Dry Mercury, the counter-transference, the ego, must be eliminated if indeed what we want is a clean and pure Mercury for the Great Work.
– Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic, “The Mercury”
Samael Aun Weor is telling us that in order to get the energy for the building of the bodies, we first need prepare the mercury by eliminating the ego, which is polluting it. As we teach in the Gnostic tradition, there are three prongs to this path, three steps: birth, creation of something new; death, which we explain is psychological death, or death of the ego; and sacrifice, working to help humanity, to help alleviate the suffering of other people. There are many who think this aspect of death can be excluded. There are many people who ignore the preparation of the mercury. But both Paracelsus and Samael Aun Weor are saying that we cannot ignore this. We really do need to deal with this problem of the ego in order for the mercury, or energy, to be prepared and usable for the next stage, which is composition.
Paracelsus says:
Beginnings of Composition are those inward Operations and Changes, that follow after that scalding deluge, which by mixing with fixed Sulphur doth dissolve the stubbornness of this Urne; and by help of the external heat, the internal Sulphur is excited by Operation, and purifieth the substance but onely to a pale whiteness, more hurtful then profitable to the Body of Man: what these are, shall afterwards appear.
Here he is describing the “beginnings of Composition.” Composition is the actual forming of the thing that we are trying to make. It is composing it. He says, beginnings of composition “follow after that scalding deluge,” which is the pain of the death of the ego.
He goes on to talk about the “internal Sulphur,” which is the fire. The internal sulphur is the sexual fire within our bodies. He says, “the internal Sulphur is excited by Operation,” or in other words, by using it. He is talking about sexual alchemy. That is the operation. Sexual alchemy is putting into operation the internal sulphur, just like Samael described in our earlier quote, from Treatise of Sexual Alchemy. The operation of the internal Sulphur is the sexual connection without the orgasm. Paracelsus explains this further in his next quote:
Again, Sulphur must be distinguished: white Sulphur, and living or reviving Sulphur: white Sulphur is of like Operation, and is perfected by restraining, and healeth almost all diseases, and tingeth to white ad infinitum.
By knowledge hereof, even meer natural men have believed the Resurrection, become sober, temperate and patient; not doubting: within the centre of compleat white, rests the red Stone of most delight.
He is talking about sexual transmutation. He says the sulphur, which is the sexual fire, is perfected by restraining. That means not allowing the sexual energy to escape the body through orgasm or through other ways we can lose the sexual energy. So he is talking about sexual transmutation. The “reviving Sulphur” he mentions is the Kundalini.
To understand what is going on with the white and the red, I think Samael Aun Weor does a good job in his lecture, “The Archeus.” This is a long quote, so bear with me. He describes the red and the white that appear in various alchemical texts, like the one we are currently reading from Paracelsus. In the lecture, someone from the audience asked him a question:
Question: What are the white and red colors that often appear in the texts of Alchemy?
Answer: These are the colors which the Mercury displays when one is purifying the bodies in the crucible. What crucible are we referring to? The sexual crucible, of course.
In the beginning, this crucible emits a black color, then later, a white color. Subsequently, a yellow color is emitted, until finally reaching a red color.
This is the symbolism of the three Wise Kings: One white, one black, and the other yellow. However, the red is missing. The red is missing because the Kings can only elevate themselves through the red color.
The star that guides them is precisely Stella Maris. She guides them in the work. She is the one who performs the whole work.
Obviously, if someone wishes to convert the Astral body into a vehicle of pure Gold, he must then dedicate himself to eliminating the Dry Mercury.
It is clear that all the pluralized “I” (egos), which are submerged within the Astral plane, emerge with a terrible, horrifying, and frightful force. They process themselves within their own corruption. Despite the fact that the demons attack violently, they must be disintegrated.
When this occurs, it is said that one enters into the kingdom of Saturn and has begun to work with the dark fire, the black fire that corresponds to Saturn.
When all of these elements begin to be disintegrated and destroyed, then the Mercury of the Astral body begins to whiten. However, despite the fact that the majority of undesirable elements have been destroyed, the white color only covers the Astral body superficially.
Therefore, it is necessary to continue the work with the same Astral body, working with the Astral Mercury, eliminating the Dry Mercury [the ego]. This is how we achieve the possession of the yellow color. This is the yellow color of the Great Mysteries.
By continuing with this psychological work, the moment is reached in which one does not possess any undesirable elements in the Astral body. When the Astral body has been purified, and it finally shines, the Antimony settles the atoms of Gold in the Mercury and then the Astral body remains of pure Gold.
When it is of pure Gold, the Divine Mother Kundalini swallows it and then the purple, the tunic of purple, the purple of the Kings is received.
Let us then see the colors: Black, white, yellow, and then purple, which is equivalent to the red.
The same process takes place in the Mental body and the Causal body.
The Resurrection of Christ within the heart of the human being cannot be verified until these bodies are converted into vehicles of pure Gold that penetrate and co-penetrate without confusion. This forms the famous To Soma Heliakon, the body of Gold of the Solar Man.
To Soma Heliakon serves as a covering for the Lord, for the Interior Christ who rises from His crystal sepulcher and returns here to manifest.
He covers himself with the body of Gold and He expresses himself in the physical world as a Mahatma.
Why does the Lord come to this world? He does so in order to work for humanity, which is His goal.
– Samael Aun Weor, “The Archeus”
This is Samael describing the process Paracelsus was talking about earlier. Samael’s explanation is a little longer, but they are talking about the same thing. Paracelsus says, “Within the centre of compleat white, rests the red Stone of most delight.” As we learned from Samael, this is related to the process of purifying the solar bodies after they have been formed. In Christ’s Will, Samael describes what each of these bodies are:
Each one of our bodies of sin must be replaced by a body of beauty.
By means of the fiery snake of the physical body, we build the body of liberation, made of the purest musk.
By means of the fiery snake of the ethereal body, we build the Soma Psuchikon or body of gold.
By means of the fiery snake of the Astral body, we form the Self-Christ.
By means of the fiery snake of the Mental body, we form the Mind-Christ.
Therefore, the body of liberation, the Soma Psuchikon, the Self-Christ, and the Mind-Christ replace the physical, vital, astral, and mental bodies.
Therefore, the fire renews all things [INRI – Ignis Natura Renovatur Integra], and the Heavenly Man replaces the Earthly Man.
The seven fiery serpents are lifted and set upon a pole when the spouses—priest and priestess—are practicing Sexual Magic.
There must be sexual connection, yet without even one single drop of semen spilling out.
Refrained desire will make our seminal liquid to rise upwardly, towards the head. Thus, this is how our Beings are transformed into omnipotent gods of the universe.
Thus, this is how we lift our seven fiery serpents and set them upon a pole, as Moses did in the wilderness.
– Samael Aun Weor, Christ’s Will
He is describing the same process that Paracelsus was talking about here. Samael, thankfully, elaborates a little more because he was permitted to do that. Paracelsus was unfortunately not able to explain this process as explicitly as Samael did, because as he describes in this next quote it was inappropriate for him to do that. Instead, he conceals the true meaning within symbolism, which you can understand if you know these teachings. You can see how Paracelsus is describing in this book from the 1500’s exactly the same principle that Samael is describing in all of his many books. Paracelsus says here:
Reviving Sulphur [the Kundalini] is the secret of secrets, and the glory of the whole world, and onely proper to such whom the Creator hath apted by way of natural disposition; for they do not onely mortifie, but purifie a pure body, quickning it with the same essential form; and are said to make a spiritual Body [the same spiritual bodies Samael was talking about], because there is no corruption to resist the Spirit; but the bodily Nature, being wholly subject, is, with the Spirit, eternally fixed in a transparent Body shining as the Sun. Therefore the conclusion must be understood of the second, and not of the first: for though a man have never so much white Sulphur, if he have not of this reviving Sulphur, he is as far from the precious Spirit, which hath power over all inferior bodies, as any other: for onely that which is of the Nature of the Sun, shall shine like the Sun in glory.
Do you have any questions?
Question: Could you elaborate more specifically to the two stones, what those light emitting objects are?
Answer: I am glad that you brought that up because I went through this whole essay, and I forgot to talk about it. Samael tells us that Urim and Thummim correspond to Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars of the temple. Urim and Thummim themselves are the solar astral and solar mental body, which we talked about in the quote preceding this one. It is not said which one is which, as far as I know. It might, but I do not off the top of my head. But Urim and Thummim are the solar astral and solar mental body. That is what this is talking about.
Q: When we look at the Hebrew letters of these words, we see Urim (lights) ends in Iod and Mem [ים, “yam,” a sea or other large body of water]. So the waters have to be worked, two waters. Thummim also ends in Mayim [מים, water]. And AUM begins with Aleph. And Thummim begins with Tav [ת, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet]. So that is the beginning and the ending. Can you describe about that?
A: That is a good observation. As we know from the previous lectures the letter Aleph [א], relates to the head; and the letter Mem [מ] relates to water. And so Urim, which has the Aleph and the Mem, relates to water in the head, or the cerebral spinal fluid. The word Urim itself contains the word Aur [אור], which is light, and Yam [ים] which means the sea, or body of water. So Urim corresponds to the light in the cerebral spinal fluid, which helps us to understand the meaning of what Samael said in Kundalini Yoga, that “The water is the habitat of fire,” or the light. The Tav [ת] in Thummim is the cross. As we know the ancient way to write the letter Tav is as an X or as a cross. So it makes sense that Thummim has two mems in it because this word is pointing out the crossing of two Mems, or two waters, which are the sexual waters, the male and female. There are two types of water: the cerebral spinal fluid, related to the Urim; and the sexual water, related to the Thummim. So this is what Paracelsus was talking about in our earlier quote, when he talked about how everything is done with the water. Because remember “Water by Water, can only be extracted.” You need the crossing of the two sexual waters. Therefore, the structure and spelling of these words, Urim and Thummim, are pointing out that in order to create the light in the cerebral spinal fluid, or the Urim, you need the crossing of the two waters in sexual alchemy, or the Thummim. Makes sense?
Q: I consider time very precious. So, we are at a time where, I guess, we have to do both. Because I feel like if I just focus on purifying or eliminating the ego and not working with alchemy, like how they used many years back, I feel like I am not going to accomplish… can you elaborate on the importance of doing it now in this period of time, and working with both?
A: Part of the reason why these teachings are being disclosed publicly now, is that we are running out of time in our current cosmic scenario. If we look at the state of the world, we are not becoming holier over time. We are not evolving up to a state of spiritual enlightenment. We are degrading. And the rate at which we are degrading appears to be accelerating. This is pretty bad. So many people think, oh I will get to this in my next life, or the life after that. But when we look at, even the state the world is in now, this is pretty dire. If you want to pursue any spiritual thing, it is very difficult now given the state of our own minds, how much they have crystalized and calcified, and the state of the world, in which spiritual things are denigrated, mocked, and believed to be bogus. Society does not respect them anymore, and it is only getting worse. So the ability to practice these teachings, the door is starting to close on that. Whether the door closes because we get blown up as a planet, and we literally die, or whether the door closes because the psychological weight of the planet becomes so intense that we can no longer access spiritual things, the door is closing and that is self-evident. No one can argue with that.
Back when Paracelsus was writing, he said, “Reviving Sulphur is the secret of secrets, and the glory of the whole world, and onely proper to such whom the Creator hath apted by way of natural disposition.” So these teachings were kept secret, and were only deemed proper for those who had a natural disposition for it. But because of the spiritual difficulty afflicting humanity, and the lack of time, it has been deemed appropriate that teachings, be spoken of publicly. Now we say, okay, we will open this to everyone. Anyone who wants these teachings can have them for free.
And it is really a sad reflection of the state of society, that here we are giving away the “secret of secrets and the glory of the whole world,” that was pursued by so many people for centuries, and was hidden from them, and now we give it away for free and no one even wants it. But that is the state of our world now.
But because of the lack of time, they said we are going to give this away now. And whoever can make use of it, do it. We teach all of these things, sexual transmutation as well as the death of the ego. You need all three. You cannot ignore one otherwise you become like the hasnamussen.
Q: That is what I am trying to get it. How do you work in equilibrium without falling? That’s the hard work for me, is working on the whole thing. The last lecture was speaking about bodhichitta, and how it does not matter if you have the have solar bodies if do not have the bodhichitta. What is the point?
A: Work hard to destroy the ego. Your ego is your sense of self, it is not just pride or anger, lust or envy. It is any. The word translated means, “I.” It is your sense of self, what you perceive to be you. You will find it is not you at all.
Q: I guess that by adding that plate, the twelve stones upon your heart which is Tipereth, the twelve archetypes In the beginning is Aurim, to put the twelve stones, the twelve archetypes, to develop them and that would be a nice way to start, the twelve virtues, or twelve tribes, related with Tiphereth.
A: Yes, I agree.
