Alchemy in the Explanation of the Altar by Master Heinrich Khunrath

 (The Way of Toabey)

Alchemy in the alchemical-spiritual explanation of the Altar by Master Heinrich Khunrath.

(Leipzig 1560-1601) = (Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae (1595)

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes.

The Altar of Master Heinrich Khunrath—published in Hanover in 1609—represents the mystical and sober profound and inner experience of the Great Work.

The pious alchemist praying on his knees in his Laboratory in the midst of a sacred operation of spiritual surrender in his Alchemical Oratory. Labora and Ora=Laboratory.

For the adeptus, the neatness of his oratory is a fundamental part and complement of his laboratory.

The Master of the Flower, Dr. Heinrich Khunrath, demonstrates spiritual surrender in secrecy and anonymity in the personal operational process of the Arcanum and Opus Magnum.

Its enormous value lies in being able to distinguish the traditional work of the laboratory with intimate and personal alchemy in the search for enlightenment and purity of being.

Therefore, through the operational work of Opus Magnum, internalization is reformulated via the reintegration of the Whole.

"In the alchemical tradition the expressions philosophia, sapientia, and scientia are essentially identical",

(Carl G. Jung)

It is the spiritual vision of Art as a gift of God, towards correspondences and analogies of the macrocosm, pursued with great care and total patience by the adept and initiate.

An adept who, as a ''filius macrocosmi'', is a collector of the May Dew.

Hermes is the Flowery Guide and Master as the Triune Mercury = tria prima paracelsica of the 'arbor sapientiae'. Heinrich Khunrath said that Mercury was Triune and Ternary.

(Heinrich Khunrath, Von hylealischen. Das ist Pri- Materialischen Catholischen, oder algemeinen Naturlichen Chaos-Magdeburg, 1597 p. 203)

A physician graduated from Basel in 1588, Hermetic Philosopher, Kabbalist, alchemist of the Confraternity of the Rose and the Cross with a profound mastery of the Ancient Tradition of -''Astrum in corpore''=Man as microcosm-, as a faithful depository of it.

'Rosicrucian' alchemy, musical, mathematical, alchemical, and deeply religious-with a Hebraic and Cabalistic type of piety-is presented visually in that engraving in Khunrath's Amphitheatrum of the devout alchemist in pro deep prayer to Jehovah...'

(Frances A. Yates: The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, London, 1972, pp.261)

It is important to point out Master Khunrath's relationship with the wise Master Dr. John Dee. Dr. Khunrath travels on June 27, 1589 from Hamburg to Bremen to meet Dr. John Dee.

Dee's influence on the Rose and its initiates is through the assimilation of the philosophical context of the "Monas hieroglyphica" and its fusion between the messages in the Manifestos Fama and Confessio.

There is a subterranean flow and golden cord of spirituality between the Hermeticists of the Middle Ages and the appearance of Rosicrucians.

Elias Ashmole saw a clear direct influence on Dr. Dee's German Rosicrucian thought.

''The Rosicrucian writings come out of a Lutheran mileu influenced by the Hermetic physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) and by alchemy''.

The Masters of the Rose were not originally part of the so-called Confraternity of the Rose + Cross of Treaties and Manifestos like the Fame of the early seventeenth century (17).

Its fundamental and organic postulates rest on the Prisca Theology and Unique primordial Tradition that comes from the Hermetic-Kabbalist Master Builders of the Renaissance.

In 1590-95 he produced a series of books and emblems of historical and documentary value = ( Confessio de chao physico-chemicorum catholico..).

It is necessary to recognize in the engraving of 1609 by the Brother de La Rosa and connoisseur of Art Hans Vredeman De Vries= (H. F. Vriese signs the drawing), -published by the brilliant publisher Pieter Coecke van Aelst, in the work Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae- and his extensive knowledge of alchemy and artistic perspective.

The Court of Prague was important in all the relationships between the Masters of La Rosa, Rudolph II and the Master Florid Michael Maier.

Let us remember that in 1617 the Florid Master Michael Maier already had an entire Treatise dedicated to the Rose Cross (Tractatus Theologo-Philosophicus).

In the play Amphitheatre of The Ageless Wisdom, the Master appears kneeling before the Altar.

Master Khunrath was one of the pillars of foundation and godfather of the famous work; The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencrutz.

He was an alchemist-magician-theurgist who in his study and laboratory had the essential motto of Labora and Ora in the search for the Eternal Sapientia.

He practiced medicine in Dresden, Hamburg, Magdeburg and at the Imperial Court in Prague.

We see how in his laboratory music, science and the arts come together in an alchemical-mathematical environment; between the components of the Great Work and the master's laboratory.

The true agent of transformation of the Philosopher's Stone and the Grace of God: Gold-und-Rosen-Kreutz and the divine signatures received from the cosmos.

In the alchemical laboratory, a sacred space is always consecrated for prayer, and it is a norm in uses and customs to have a clean and aromatic altar.

It is an Oratory. Labora=Obra y Oratorio= Orar= Laboratory.

The Master indicates what to do: "Proceed in the laboratory also alone/ without collaborators or anyone to work with you/ with your eyes fixed on the help of the diligent god/ who will not give the Art/ to those who are not able to draw it from himself".

(Heinrich Khunrath, I.c., p. 410)

All true work of alchemy contains; The Seal of Hermes or the "Hermetic Lock".

Spiritual alchemy is an essential form of enlightenment and experiential transformation of the various levels of alchemical and personal reality.

Khunrath's experience leads us to the search for that ontological and non-vulgar Gold of Being.

But an approach to his Altar is valid.

Let's see: The essence of the process is prayer with a pure heart, full of faith, silent and in constant prayer. Kneeling in humility.

Words written on the Altar of Khunrath = HRey esoc hoc agentibus nobis aderit ipse Deus = When we attend strictly to our work, God Himself helps us.

Laboratory apparatus reads": Festina Lente = move slow or speed up slow is the Fire of Friendship. It indicates care for the stone by wrapping it in alchemical heat in the athanor.

Nec Temere- nec Shy = Fearless - Not Shy.

The alchemical operation involves the "coniunctio or chemical wedding" in a process of Ascendant maturation of Opus Alchymicum and theurgical-ritual action.

Look at the bottles on the right side: Hyle = Raw Material. Ros Coeli = Dew of Heaven.

Potable Alchemical Gold = Potable Gold. ''Aurum Nostrum non est Aurum Vulgi''= Our Gold is not the vulgar Gold. Azoth = Mercury Sophico.

Azoth is a word formed by the first letter of all alphabets with A, and the last letter of the Latin, Greek and Hebrew alphabets and the Arabic = az-zauq alphabet. It is attributed to Master Paracelsus.

At the base of the Portico it says: Ratio=Reason and Experimentia=Experiment.

Sapienter retentatum, succedet aliquando = That which is wisely tested, happens again one day. DORMIENS VIGILA = When you fall asleep you watch or watch while you sleep.

There is a close alchemical correspondence and astrological-musical analogy between the cosmos and man.

"The Course of Heaven indicates to us the course and regime of Fire in the Athanor."

(Paracelsus)

They: The Masters of the Golden Stone.

Let us remember: On the edge of the tablecloth there is an inscription in Latin that reads: "Sacred Music drives away melancholy and evil spirits".

Alchemy is a musical and harmonic art.

The instruments scattered in the laboratory indicate the close relationship between music and the alchemist. "The gold that I seek is Truth: my silver is Wisdom, and my philosopher's stone is the knowledge of my NANITY, and of the Omnipotence of God."

(Karl von Eckhartshaussen)

Alchemy in the Explanation of the Altar by Master Heinrich Khunrath

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes