I meant 'passive' more in the sense of one being receptive to the message and ready to receive perhaps variant ideas and meanings of what the symbols might mean ... as opposed to 'active' in declaration of what one thinks the meaning might be (like having a full cup, one cant receive or be passive) , like declaring that lines in Ch. 3 mean I have to hate people and I am so sure I know what it means I am not receptive or ‘passive’ enough to learn otherwise.
I like to relate these lines to the Atu Art; “At the bottom of this card, for example, are seen Fire and Water harmoniously mingled. But this is only a crude symbol of the spiritual idea, which is the satisfaction of the desire of the incomplete element of one kind to satisfy its formula by assimilation of its equal and opposite. “
“This state of the great Work therefore consisted in the mingling of the contradictory elements in a cauldron. This is here represented as golden or solar, because the Sun is the Father of all Life, and (in particular) presides over distillation. The fertility of the Earth is maintained by rain and sun; the rain is formed by a slow and gentle process, and is rendered effective by the co-operation of air, which is itself alchemically the result of the Marriage of Fire and Water. So also the formula of continued life is death, or putrefaction. Here it is symbolized by the caput mortuum on the cauldron, a raven perched upon a skull. In agricultural terms, this is the fallow earth. “
Being fallow is ‘empty’ and ready for seeding.
“Rising from the cauldron, as the result of the operation per- formed ~ is a stream of light”
Perhaps a further stage along than the ‘sparks’?
“is a stream of light which becomes two rainbows; they form the cape of the androgyne figure. In the centre, an arrow shoots upwards. This is connected with the general symbolism previously explained, the spiritualization of the result of the Great Work. “
“The rainbow is moreover symbolical of another stage in the alchemical process. At a certain period, as a result of putrefaction, there is observed a phenomenon of many-coloured lights” –see post below.
“This “hidden stone” is also called the Universal Medicine. It is sometimes described as a stone, sometimes as a powder, sometimes as a tincture. It divides again into two forms, the gold and the silver.”
“Dissolve the Pearl in the Wine-cup; drink, and make manifest the Virtue of that Pearl.”
