Angela's Secret History Chapter 23 - Great Job

The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth

Chapter 23 the Occult Roots of Science (pgs. 442-464)

1. Modern science based on the wisdom of ancient Egyptians. 
1. Isaac Newton (pgs. 442-444)

• Born in Woolthorpe, Lincolnshire.
• Influenced in schooldays by an apothecary roommate who was highly skilled in alchemy.
• 1670s Isaac Newton devised a theory that combined all the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler to describe the mechanics of the universe in three formulas. 
• 1543 Nicholas Copernicus published a thesis the Earth revolves around the Sun.

• 1590 Galileo Galilei performed experiments that showed the speed objects fall depends on their density not their weight.

• 1609 Johannes Kepler devised the three laws of the motions of planets using the star maps of Tycho Brahe.
• Newton’s beliefs:
• Secrets of life are encoded in the ancient's books and buildings such as the Great Pyramid and the Temple of Solomon. 
• Every part of the universe is intelligent. This includes plants, minerals and animals, and all these are interconnected and not in separate categories.
• Ptolemy’s map of the spheres is an accurate map of the spiritual dimensions of the cosmos that is presented as coming before the ideas of Copernicus, Galileo, etc. 

Ptolemy’s map of spheres

1. Isaac Luria, a sixteenth century Cabalist, described the interconnectedness of plants, minerals and animals as, “There is nothing in the world, not even among the silent things such as dust and stones that does not possess a certain life, spiritual nature, a particular planet and its perfect form in the heavens.” (pgs. 444-445)

• For example, a seed contains the intelligent information to grow, but the seed needs to interact with the intelligent intention of the sun’s light to grow (the sun’s intention activates the seed’s information allowing for growth). However, the growth of the seed also depends on the intelligence of greater cosmos surrounding it (minerals, etc.). 

1. The interface between the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral. (pgs. 445-446)

• The vegetable is the intermediary between thought and matter known as “the gateway between the worlds”.
• Following the “mind before matter” form of creation, immaterial forms the material. 
• Immaterial forming the material explained by ancient cultures as the ethereal radiation of the mind that forms matter. Therefore, the ethereal dimension is between the mind (animal) and matter (animal -> vegetable -> mineral), which means the mind cannot directly create matter.
• Newton’s name for this medium is the “sal nitrum”, and he performed experiments to observe how the “sal nitrum” can be used to make metals come alive. 
• He described the metal compounds coming to life in a nitrate solution and growing like plants, the “vegetation of metals”. 
• He used the notion of “sal nitrum” to help explain the effects of gravity. 

1. The “heroes of science” that made progressive leaps in technology while being involved in esoteric thought, especially alchemy. (pgs. 446-450)

• Paracelsus introduced the experimental method that revolutionized medicine as well as the first to isolate and name zinc.
• Giordano Bruno insisted the solar system was heliocentric which resulted in his death by burning at the stake in 1600.
• Robert Fludd was an occult author and defender of Rosicrucian's who invented the barometer.
• John Baptista van Helmont was a Flemish alchemist that reintroduced Western esotericism ideas of reincarnation to the secret societies. He coined the word “gas” and separated gases in alchemy experiments.
• Gottfried Willhelm Leibniz was a German mathematician that has provided us with the most detailed and credible account of the alchemical transformation of base metals into gold. 
• Athanasius Kircher was an alchemical student of the vegetable dimension that in 1687 resurrected a rose from its ashes in front of the Queen of Sweden.
• Sir Robert Moray published the world’s first scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions, and was a researcher of Rosicrucian teaching.
• Robert Boyle (his law of thermodynamics led to the creation of internal combustion engine), Robert Hooke (invented microscope) and William Harvey (discovered circulation of blood) were all practicing alchemists. 
• Descartes rediscovered ancient, esoteric idea of the pineal gland as the gateway to consciousness, the inner eye.
• His most famous dictum may be seen as the recasting of the Rosicrucian teaching: “I must think in order to be.”
• In Gulliver’s Travels in 1726, Jonathan Swift predicted the existence and orbital periods of the two moons of Mars, which was not discovered until 1877 by astronomers that realized Swift’s accuracy and named the moons Phobos and Deimos (fear and terror.)
• Emmanuel Swedenborg was an eighteenth-century Swedish visionary who was the first to discover the cerebral cortex and the ductless glands, engineers the largest dry dock in the world, and wrote about his journeys into the spirit world.
• Charles Darwin is known to have attended seances.
• Nicholas Tesla patented several hundreds of inventions including fluorescent lights and the Tesla coil which generates alternating current which stemmed from his belief in an etheric dimension between mental and physical planes. 
• The Royal Society was an “intellectual engine of modern science and technological invention.”
• John Evelyn designed Frontispiece to the official history of the Royal Society, published in 1667. It has Francis Bacon depicted as the founding father.

Frontispiece by John Evelyn

1. The Secret Mission of Freemasonry

1. Late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries leading scientists thought it was important to take a scientific approach to occult phenomena. (pgs. 450-452)

• Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell believed psychic phenomena was a respectable area of scientific research
• Edison, the “godfather of all recorded sound” invented the phonograph and tried to create a radio that could tune into the spiritual realm. 
• Bell invented the telephone.
• Francis Bacon
• His discovery was that if you view objects of sense experience as objectively, removing the preconceptions of all it was “meant to be”, then new patterns emerge that can be used to predict and manipulate events. (Historians of the philosophy of science viewed this as the “great beginning” because it was the introduction of inductive reasoning).
• He believed in “astrologica sana”, which is receiving magical celestial influences into the spirit.
• He believed in the same ethereal intermediary between matter and spirit as Newton. He believed this intermediary existed in humans who are “inclosed in a thicker body as Ayrein Snow or Froath”, what he called the “Aetheric body”. 
• He believed a child-like state of mind must be reached before being able to access higher knowledge. 
• The idea that higher knowledge comes from altered states of consciousness. 
• The key to scientific discovery somehow lies within.

1. Freemasonic lore’s society roots can be traced back to the building of Solomon’s Temple, suppression of the Knights Templar, and to the secretive guilds of craftsman such as the Compagons Du Devoir, the Children of the Father Soubise and the Children of Father Jacques. (pgs. 452-457)

• Rosslyn Chapel
• Near Edinburgh, built in the fifteenth century by William Sinclair, incorporated replicas of the twin pillars of Solomon’s Temple, Jakim and Boaz. 

Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh

• Co-fraternities had an influence on the formations of secret societies, especially the Freemasonry.
• Originally brotherhoods associated with monasteries, which the brothers pursued spiritual life while working in the community. At first, the secrecy was to keep the charity works anonymous, but it gave rise to rumors of secret rituals which resulted in it being driven underground. 
• Modern Freemasonry dated by historians to the seventeenth century.
• Elias Ashmole
• He was the founder member of the Royal Society and the first recorded initiation into the Freemasonry in 1646.
• He was a collector that influenced the creation of the first public museum in Oxford called the Ashmolean Museum, built around his collection. 

An anthology collected
 by Elias Ashmole
 

• He was influenced by William Backhouse, owner of a manor house called Swallowfield, which had a collection of inventions and Rarities’ including rare alchemical manuscripts. 
• Backhouse and Ashmole developed a close relationship in which Backhouse intended to make Ashmole his successor and heir. This included Ashmole continuing the secret tradition, including the information on the ultimate secret of alchemy known as the Philosopher’s Stone, given to him by Backhouse before his death.
• Other evidence of celestial influence:
• Michel de Nostradamus was a French prophet and astrologer who predicted the 1649 execution of English king, Charles I. He made this prediction in 1555.

                     Nostradamus                                       Charles I

    

• Milton, the writer of Paradise Lost, wrote about his muse dictating poetry to him and how disembodied beings influenced his writings.

Illustration to Milton’s Paradise Lost

1. What is alchemy?

1. Alchemy in History (pg. 457)

• Ancient Egyptian texts document the techniques of alchemy including distillation and metallurgy.
• Greek myths such as the quest for the Golden Fleece can be seen has having an alchemical layer of meaning. 

1. Variations of Alchemy through Geography and Time (pgs 458-459)

• If there is one “Work”, it has a variety of symbols and codes.
• Some involve Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, and others involve roses, stars, the philosopher’s stone, salamanders, toads, crows, nets, the marriage bed and astrological symbols such as the fish and the lion. 
• Chinese alchemy is less a quest for gold and more a quest for the elixir of life, for longevity and immortality. 
• In the third century an alchemist named Zozimos wrote, “the symbol of the chymic art – gold – comes forth from creation for those who rescue and purify the divine soul chained in the element.”
• Early Arab texts document the “Work” using the same four elements, but in European alchemy in the seventeenth century a fifth element, Quintessence, was added.
• There are unifying principles including the length of time or numbers of repetitions in the operations such as distilling, and the meditative practices used.
• Meditative practices may be subjective states of consciousness.
• These operations, seen in repeated suggestions, are often intended to have an effect during sleep and on the border of sleep and wakefulness. 
• A school of thought interprets alchemical texts as manuals that contain the techniques to make the kundalini serpent rise from the base of the spine through the chakras to light up the Third Eye. 
• Another school, inspired by Jung who was the writer of a study of the alchemist named Gerard Dorn, believes alchemy as a precursor of psychology. 

1. Alchemical Symbols (pgs 460-461)

• Sulphur represents the animal dimension; Mercury represents the vegetable dimension and Salt represents the material body. 
• Dimensions are centered into body parts; the animal located down in the sex organs, the vegetable located in the solar plexus and the salt in the head. 
• The Sulphur part is will and sexuality, Mercury is the realm of feeling and Salt is the precipitate of thinking.
• Mercury is the mediator between Sulphur and Salt.
• Alchemists of the golden age were fascinated by love and believed the heart is the organ of perception. 

1. Christian alchemy of Ramon Lull and St Martin (pgs 461-462)

• St Martin urges our power of perception will improve, if we work on our own alchemical spiritual exercises and purify the material barrier between ourselves.
• First the spirit world will come through our dreams, then the spirits will prompt us in the form of intuition or hunches, and finally they will enter our waking lives.
• In Christian alchemy, the Sun-spirit transforms the human body into a body of light which is identified with the historical personage of Jesus Christ. 
• This phenomenon is found in different cultures as well and shows the alchemical process of the Third Eye beginning to open. 

1. Alchemical Texts, Contributions of Alchemists, and Science (pgs 462-464)

• Alchemical texts suggest visiting the interior of earth, which is referring to the process of sinking down into one’s own body. 
• Alchemy concerns occult physiology, meaning that by gaining an understanding of one’s own body physiology, then the alchemist can gain some control over it.
• Alchemists have made contributions to the growth of modern medicine.
• In altered states of consciousness, going inside themselves, men like Paracelsus and van Helmont solved medical problems beyond the understanding of medical professionals today.
• Francis Crick was a Cambridge biologist who cracked the code of DNA by discovering that DNA has a double helix structure.
• Crick was not a part of the secret societies, but his discovery was achieved through inspiration brought on by an altered state of consciousness caused by taking LSD.
• Crick published a book called Life Itself: It’s Origin and Nature in which he argued that the complexity of DNA could not have come into existence by chance. 
• Hallucinogens have been used as a technique in achieving higher states of consciousness.
• History shows that people who have worked on the boundaries of human intelligence have done so in altered states.