Witches, mystics, magicians and other occultists are always using the term, alchemical, or saying that what we practice is alchemy. We speak of the alchemy of our magic, and we even speak of the Alchemical Wedding. Serious students of the Craft are quick to state that what we do is part of the Western Occult Tradition, and the world Alchemy always figures into it. If we are practicing Wiccan rituals, Garnerian or Alexandrian, then the position of salt is alchemical, and the phrase in the circle blessing, "Blessed art thou salt, without which we would not be," is alchemical.
This is personal to me because I was having, as a Masonic initiate, a bit of a crisis, namely that I fundamentally was coming to disagree with Freemasonry in all of its forms, but that I had been attracted to it for its underlying deep teachings, its teachings which were, yes, alchemical.The tightness I was feeling, the not alrightness in calling myself a Mason and my studies Masonic was relieved when it was revealed to me in the silence before the altar, that what I was doing and pursuing was Alchemy, not Masonry, and that the native soil of my search was not a Masonic hall in England or America, but much further back in the fertile land of Egypt or, as the Arabs called it, Al Chem, the translation of what the Egyptians actually called Egypt, Kem, the Black Land.
That land is black for several reasons, the most obvious first, that Egypt, one of the most ancient and long lasting cohesive societies gained its life from the River Nile constantly keeping its canyon banks black with fertile soil. The outer land which eventually was part of Egypt was the Red Land, but the Black Land was Egypt's heart. But Egyptians, like all ancient people, thought on multiple levels, and the fertile black farming land was the base of all things, needing always to be kept fertile and powerful by Khnum, the ram headed shaper of men and giver of creativity. The knowledge and power, the spiritual practice of Egypt, what we call magic, was taken all over the surrounding word, first by trade, probably with the Minoans and Mycenaeans, later by the classical Greeks and still later by the Arabs and Persians. It would have gone south long before that into Nubia and Ethiopia, but when it traveled into Europe is was called Alchemy, the Art of the Black Land or, quite simply, The Black Art.
I returned to the beach, but it wasn't quite right. The trip went smoothly, but missed something. I was disappointed to see, as I was planning to leave, that the great red image of Khnum which overlooked these waters, had been removed. Litter was on the beach and it was becoming too crowded to quickly. By the end of the week, the mayor of Michigan City closed the beach park down. The removal of the horned lord of creation, the source who brings constant fertility to the Black Land, could be clearly felt.
This Sunday, and this week, and really, all times afterward, it is time to remember the Black Land. And when I say this I mean it is time to return to our own foundation, not be afraid to go to the bedrock of our knowledge systems and of our hearts. We all have a black land, a baseland, that is ancient and true, that is kept fertile by the God of Creation, and that must be fostered and tendered at all times.
No comments:
Post a Comment