Field Notes on the Formula of the Rosy Cross
And the Three Alchemical Principles
Including the formulas of L.V.X., I.A.O. and N.O.X.
And the Analysis of I.N.R.I.

by

Frater Zephyros

The symbolism of the Rose Cross worn upon the breast of the Zelator's robe is as follows:

The 4-armed, equilateral, golden Cross represents the central L.V.X. that extends in four directions.  This signifies a mastery of the four Elemental Weapons that is a part of our Order's grade system from Neophyte through Philosophus.  Meditation on Liber Librae is recommended to further the Disciple's understanding of this all too important foundation for the Great Work. 

The 5-petaled, red, Rose represents the five senses as follows:    

Touch	Texture of the Elixir
Smell	Of the Curcurbit
Taste	Of the Elixir
Sight	Visualization of the Serpent
Sound	Vibrational frequencies of the Secretion

The perfection of the five senses and the four elements prepares the Aspirant physically, mentally and emotionally for the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.  While the correspondences of the five senses given above, demonstrates more their involvement in the Great Work, the strong implication overall, is that Enlightenment involves the body, mind and heart of the Aspirant.  Only then can the Spirit of Adonai indwell. 

Together, the number of arms and senses is '9'.  And the Zelator resides in Yesod; working the applicable Minor Paths associated with this Grade.  By multiplying 4 and 5, we get 20; the number of the Tattvic sub-elements.  This also has strong inferences along the lines of what Thelema draws from Hindu Science.  And so we can create the following set of correspondences for the petals of the Rose:

The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali are also applicable for the Disciple to further study this great Alchemy.  This is the core Science of the Western Mystery Tradition and the Great White Brotherhood.  The College of the Temple of the Holy Ghost extends itself through the Order of Thelema; by preparing the Temple of the newly initiated Disciple. 

The Three Principles of Alchemy
Or Hermes Thrice Greatest

Mercury		Symbol of Spirit (Luna) - Purification by Water - The White Eagle
Sulphur		Symbol of Will (Sol) - Purification by Fire - The Red Phoenix
Salt		The Hermes Field:  A junction of the Above & Below - Sol & Luna
Antimony		Agent or substance that combines the two Alchemical Principles.  This could possibly be the by-product obtained from the Operation after the two Alchemical Principles have been
		separated.  Also may be equivalent to at a certain stage in the operation.  In this way the three Alchemical Principles are understood as a trinity.
Gold Sublimation		The Pure Spirit shining through the Philosopher's Stone.

The Seven Stages of the Alchemical Operation

and the Outer Grades of Our Order  

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem

Visit the innermost parts of the earth; 

by setting things right ('rectifying'), you will find the hidden Stone.

1.  Calcination

        Probationer Grade

                The burning away of pre-existing structures in an intiatory and open fire.  The Study of Liber LXV inaugurates this

                 process.

2.  Dissolution

        Neophyte Grade

                The egocentric nervous energy is brought out from the subconscious through the medium of astral visions and

                 psychic impressions.

3.  Separation

        Zelator Grade

                The various components of the personality are identified and re-enforced.  Those elements which don't serve the

                Aspiration are eliminated.

4.  Conjunction

        Practicus Grade

                Essential elements of the personality are recombined in a passionate act of inner love.  The intuitive and intellectual

                faculties are merged along with the other personal paradoxes.

5.  Fermentation

        Philosophus Grade

                A two-stage process of 'Putrefaction' and 'Spiritization'.  Putrefaction is the 'Dark Night of the Soul' as the Aspirant

                realizes the futility and illusion of life.  Spiritization then follows as the lower ego acquiesces to the 'Secret Fire' that

                begins to rise from deep within the Aspirant.

6.  Distillation

        Dominus Liminis

                Purity is obtained by perfect concentration on the 'Secret Fire' until absolute 'Clarity' arises in the Aspirant.

7.  Coagulation

        Adeptus Minor

                Without

                    The Aspirant elicits a truly unexpected presence within an incorruptible state of consciousness.

                Within

                    The genetic code of the Aspirant is activated; crating an hormonal elixir that ultimately incarnates with the body

                    being made spiritual and the spirit being made corporeal.

 

There are three Kingdoms that each have their own .  These are: 1. Vegetable 2. Animal 3. Mineral In Laboratory Alchemy, is usually found in an oily form that is separated from the by means  of Distillation.  It is a Yellow substance known as the King or the Red Lion.  And is known  as the Queen or White Eagle.  These two Principles are joined to   in order to produce the  Elixir.  The is prepared separately by a process called Calcination, by reducing a substance  to a Black Ash. One who understands thoroughly, the Principles f the four Alchemical Elements ( ) can bring forth from them, the three Alchemical Principles ().  Possibly  from these elements do we derive the Universal Menstruum that may be notated as . The four Alchemical Elements may directly correspond to the Signs of N.O.X.; that Chaos from which all life takes form by the introduction of the L.V.X.  The letters of N.O.X. being three in number, then may directly represent the three Alchemical Principles.

 The Formulas of L.V.X. and I.A.O.

I	N	R	I
Yod	Nun	Resh	Yod
Virgo	Scorpio	Sol	(An intimation
Isis;	Apophis;	Osiris;	of R.O.T.A.;
Mighty Mother	Destroyer	Slain & Risen	The Wheel)
L	V	X
I	A	O
(cf.  Formula of the Hexagram)
Father	Spirit	Word
Dual natured;	M[em]Sh	Sol; (Athanor/semen)
Hermaphrodtic	Hebrew letters	is Word thrust into
God.  IAO	for Water;	N.O.X.; (Curcurbit/mother),
Expresses	(vaginal	awakening Eld of King;
This in	secretion) &	father.
Triune form.	Spirit;
	(blood or semen)

358=MshICh; Messiah
Mem is Water (Mother-Universal Will-Nuit)
Sh is Blood/Semen (Father-Bud Will-Hadit)
I is Athanor (Son-Personal Will-Therion)
Ch is Curcurbit (Daughter-Nature Will-Babalon)

The Daughter must be united to the Son, which makes raises humanity from a purely animal nature by manifesting the power of Choice.  This Dhyana enables the Disciple to transcend the limitations of the Lower Nature by comprehending the Higher Nature of the Holy Guardian Angel or Bud Will.  And thus can the Disciple recognize the Nature of Self in its wider aspect; the Universal Will.

The Little Self sees Nature as extremely complex; there are so many things to know  that the task seems endless and impossible.  The Qabalah teaches us to group all ideas according to their fundamental nature and correspondences.  Thus, as we proceed, we are able to know a greater and greater number of things in the light of a smaller and smaller number of ultimate ideas.  By this process does the Daughter marry the Son.  

The Egyptian Passion-Play

Osiris (Asar Un Nefer) birthed by aid of Hermes and heralded as the Lord of Creation.

Set and 72 comrades (Shemhamaforesch?) trick Osiris into lying down in a chest that is then closed upon him and locked.  The casket is then thrown into the Nile where it ultimately lands amongst the branches of a Hamarish Tree in the Swamp of Byblos of Phoenicia.  The branches subsequently grow to a magnificent size as the chest becomes enclosed in the trunk of the tree.  

Isis cuts a lock of her hair in grief and sets out to find him.  

The King of Byblos admired the Hamarish Tree and cut it down to make a pillar for the roof of his house (tet--mistaken as Phoenician).  

A tet is four4 branches of a tree aligned on the roof of a house; pointing to the 4 Cardinal Points.  

Isis in disguise, becomes a nurse-maid in the Phoenician King's house.  For one of his sons, she gave the child her finger to suck.  And each night, she put him into the fire to consume his mortal parts, child changing herself into a swallow to bemoan her fate.  

One night, the Queen of Phoenicia saw her son in the flames and cried out; depriving him or Immortality.  Isis told the Queen her story and begged for the pillar that supported the roof.  

She cut this open and took out the chest; returning to Egypt.  She hid the chest and searched for her son Horus to avenge this lamentable act.  

Typhon, out hunting by the Night Moon, chances upon the chest and tears the body into 16 pieces that he then scatters throughout the land.

Isis makes a boat of Papyrus (Abhored by Crocodiles) and gathers the fragments of Osiris body; burying them where she finds them.  Osiris thereby obtains a new life in the next world, where he reigns as God and King.  This is done by way of Isis, who uses Magick Words that she obtains form Thoth to reconstitute and revivify him.

The 16 pieces of the body are:

1.  Head
2.  Soles of Feet
3.  Bones
4.  Arms
5.  Heart
6.  Interior
7.  Tongue
8.  Eyes
9.  Fist
10. Fingers
11. Back
12. Ears
13. Loins
14. Torso
15. Head/Face
16. Hair

Osiris is identified with creative and generative powers of Nature.  He is the  symbol of rejuvenations and resurrection and life which has the power of renewal.  He taught that living a Pure Life on earth leads to Immortality.  Anubis is the Jackal-headed god or Ape of Thoth who examines the Scale upon which the Heart is weighed in balance with the feather of Maat (Truth).  

Of a final note:

It is said that not only did Horus avenge Osiris, but even later slayed Isis; goddess of Initiation.  Thus the child is the product of Osiris and Isis.  The two preceding Aeons to that of Horus.  We live in an integral age...male and female conjoined...heaven and earth conjoined...body and spirit conjoined.

And if we consider Isis as our Spirit and Osiris as our body then we note that Isis is both our Mother in the capacity of our Iniation, our Sister in the capacity of being the other half or hidden half of our consciousness, and ourself in that from this hidden consciousness do we create ourselves.

I am the Heart; and the Snake is entwined About the invisible core of the mind. Rise, O my snake! It is now is the hour Of the hooded and holy ineffable flower. Rise, O my snake, into brilliance of bloom On the corpse of Osiris afloat in the tomb! O heart of my mother, my sister, mine own, Thou art given to Nile, to the terror Typhon! Ah me! but the glory of ravening storm Enswathes thee and wraps thee in frenzy of form. Be still, O my soul! that the spell may dissolve As the wands are upraised, and the fons revolve. Behold! in my beauty how joyous Thou art, O Snake that caresses the crown of mine heart! Behold! we are one, and the tempest of years Goes down to the dusk, and the Beetle appears. O Beetle! the drone of Thy dolorous note Be ever the trance of this tremulous throat! I await the awaking! The summons on high From the Lord Adonai, from the Lord Adonai!  LXV I.1

Links

Order of Thelema
Contact
Holy Books

Commented Texts

Translated Texts

Transcribed Texts

Equinox

Home