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waxing of the Moon - the reverse half of the Solvé et Coagula formula, the reconstruction, the
coagulation of the volatile.
8. Argent-vive is Mercury which, naturally, is within man himself, in the innermost chamber of
his being. It is the world of the psyche itself. Another definition is given by Hermes. He calls it the
residual Earth; that is Holy Earth. Here we have a reference on the Tree to the sphere of the operation
of the four elements. Another name for it is the unredeemed Virgin, the animal Soul in its natural state.
Yesod the upper half of the seventh sphere on the diagram represents the state of the first purification, of
which the term Quintessence can be used. If you have found this argent vive, which is the residuum of
the philosophic earth after the purification, keep it safely, for it is worthy. Also note the
encouragement that Vaughn gives, for he says: If thou dost know the First Matter, know also for
certain that thou hast discovered the Sanctuary of Nature. There is nothing between thee and her
treasures but the door. That indeed must be opened.
10. On the Tree of Life there are several other Sephiros of which but little mention has heretofore
been made. It will now be found useful to consult the chart. The uppermost three spheres called the
Supernals are often classed together as a unit. As such, this triad is then governed by the attributions of
the third Supernal Binah, which synthetically represents the Supernals. Binah means Understanding,
and as a glyph of the Triad conceals Wisdom and the essence of the divine Light. Thus the Supernals
are Spirit, the so-called Light itself, the concealed and unknown higher Self in man.
One of the astrological attributions to Binah is Saturn, among whose correspondences are such
ideas as stability, peace, blackness, death, time, etc. Notoriously the Vulture is a bird of prey, living on
corpses and refuse. Hence, it is a particular idea or a symbol that can be included within the larger
abstract generalisation of Saturn. The versicle we are dealing with reads. A Vulture stands upon the
mountain. Constantly recurring in all mystical literature is this theme of a mountain. The Psalmist
lifted up his eyes to the hills, Moses obtained the books of the law on Horeb. Jesus ascended the
mountain to deliver his sermon. It refers evidently to an illumined or heightened state of consciousness,
to spiritual heights of exaltation. It is that inward divine peak when, turned inwards in meditation and
prayer, the soul withdraws to its own root and source of perfection.
In addition to being that bird which preys upon deceased and putrefying things - represented in
Alchemy by the corroded First Matter - the Vulture is also a maternal symbol. Binah has another
correspondence or association, the Great Mother. She it is who gives birth to the divine newly formed
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Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone
Stone, after her surrogate symbol, the Vulture, that is illumination and the lapse of time, has devoured
(changed) the substance of which it is formed. The Vulture in its travels flies extremely high, and is
capable of wheeling about slowly, seeming often to remain poised and stationary in mid-air. It is also
credited with extremely clear and penetrating vision, sensing its prey from a distance of many miles. For
our purposes then it represents extraordinarily clear and penetrating insight, intuitive understanding and
the immovable illuminating Spirit within.
As the Supernals are conceived of as the Light, white in colour, the vulture s speech becomes
moderately clear. Malkus, the secondary meaning of the seventh sphere, is the residual earth and is
black, whilst the Supernals, which are the highest extreme of the Tree, represent the same residual earth
brought to transcendental perfection - to whiteness. Red of the white would convey a further ripening
of that process, of bringing it ineluctabley to maturity and ripeness. The citrine is the colour of gold, the
perfect metal, Tipharas, the sphere of harmony and balance. It is neither transcendental nor terrestrial
but he reconciliation of both, the child of the extremes, the integrated consciousness between, the
Middle Way. The Supernals are divine wisdom and understanding, the Truth itself.
11. The Crow is the so-called bird of Hermes - the volatile astro-mental body, capable of
sustained and prolonged flights of ideation and fantasy. It requires no wings; it is Air itself.
The throat is the seat of the voice, the instrument of the expression of the mind. Speech is the logos
of thought, giving evidence of thought. The tincture is clearly a mercurial extract, a thought-extract - it
is therefore that intellectual ferment which eventually transforms consciousness. Moreover, the throat is
the seat of Daas, the unnumbered centre on the Tree which is made manifest in man as evolution
proceeds, as self-consciousness and perfection are developed. Because of its colour, the bird refers
more particularly to that aspect of the psyche which is the unredeemed animal soul Malkus. It is evident
that Red represents Sulphur, intensity of feeling and emotion and it cometh from him as we ascend
the Tree. And from his back is taken a pure Water - that is Yesod again, the Quintessence, the water
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