from The symbolism in Representation and Exercise

by Libero Samale

[…] The Genesis of the world, and especially of Man, is described in the Representation. The word, naturally, occupies first place; because the Word is the symbol par excellence of all that exists that is rational, intuitive, magic and creative in Man. The Berescit, that is the Beginning of all things, opens the Old Testament just as the Word opens the most spiritual of all the Gospels: that of John. But the most meaningful symbol of Creation is the polarization of the opposites, that is the Platonic myth of primordial Androgynous, which divinity splits in two: male and female, Yin and Yang, positron and electron, and so on…But man, once he finds himself in the reality of the physical world, cannot fail to feel that he is an exile, suffer nostalgia for the Lost Eden and try by every means to return there. Thus from the beginnings of Mankind, the concept of the sacred appears in contraposition to the profane, which is to say the usual, ferial, the everyday. The result is the symbolic edification of the temple, the only Temple dedicated to the One, that is to say to the Root of everything. An interior temple, this; a temple that raises its columns within the spirit of Man, who often unfortunately is simply the caricature of the Primitive Adam, or Adam Kadmon of the Qabbalah; a symbol that synthesizes all ten emanations or attributes of God. Man therefore becomes his own priest, the officiating Pontiff in the temple that he constructed himself. In Jewish testamentary liturgy, the symbol of "anointing" does exist as the liturgical-symbolical action which designates those who are destined for the throne or the priesthood. It is well known that even Saul was anointed by Samuel; thus anointing is also the essential prerogative of the Messiah, a Jewish word that in fact means "the Anointed one". Similarly, in Greek Christ means Anointed, that is to say Consecrated. For this reason, Guaccero prefers the word "Anointed" which has a more symbolic, that is universal, characterization, to the word "Christ" – which can refer to well defined religious coordinates. Therefore the Anointed One is the Messiah, he who is born and suffers for the expiation of Mankind. In this way man returns "symbolically" to being the High priest of his interior Edenic Temple, because the Sacrifice of the Anointed One has "expiated" him. The Anointed One is therefore the Divine lamb without whose blood it is not possible to make the Physical World return to life: the Physical World which has by now become like an immense corpse or at least like a fragile body that is subject to the constrictions of sickness, corruption and death. The blood of the Sacred Victim is the only lavacre capable of purifying and spiritualizing the Universe. But who caused the scourges that struck suffering Mankind? And here is another symbol: Satan, the ancient Lucifer, the "bearer of Light" who rebelled through pride and who thus upset the polarity of his essence, so becoming the "bearer of Darkness". He is represented on earth by Power, in all its forms, even those that are mildest and apparently acceptable; because – the Anointed One says – one cannot serve both Caesar and God, money and the spirit. This is why the three powers sing with female voices; power is always passionate and passive; and not only this, but it is also rich in flattery and charm. Priestly power, symbolized by Caiphas, political power, represented by King Herod and legal power, represented by Pilate (that is Religion, Nationalism and the Law) are united in the name of violence, abuse: the Lamb is sacrificed. Jews, Greeks and Romans are 2united2 in sacrificing the Anointed One, whose blood, after-wards, will be the source of new myths and new symbols, among which that of the Holy grail. The burial of the Anointed one represents the descent into Hell, the journey towards the "centre of the earth" which has always exerted and continues to exert so much fascination on all those who try to approach the kingdom of the Spirit. Meditation on the Light leads us towards that mysterious gestation, through which the Soul-Nature is reborn. And here is another symbol: the Rebirth, that is to say the Initiation rite, the magical-ritualistic operation which transforms the profane man and confers on him a new dignity, that of the Risen One or the Newly-born. The descent into Hell, which is often symbolized by the bowels of a fish as in the story of Jonah, or by the metaphysical Hellas in Dante, finds its most precise representation in the acrostic study so dear to the Alchemists, that is the famous VITRIOL, namely: "Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem". It is the Philosopher’s Stone, or the Holy Grail, the sacred Body which bestows on initiated the eternity of spirit, that is the philosopher’s god, and with it eternal and uncreated Light. We are in the alchemist phase of the Solve which is followed by that of the Coaugula, that is of the realization in the strict sense of the word. In other words, we are at the Exercise. The symbol is no longer an object for contemplation, but it is a working instrument. Through the Work in white, the initiated person more or less ascends the stairs of Jacob, he follows the road that will lead him to Eden, the narrow, dangerous and set road of the knights without stain and without fear, the protagonists on the medieval stories; Percival, Galahad, Siegfried and many others had all to face the dragons of passion, the gnomes of greed, the ferocious beasts of violence and desire. The goal is always the Resurrection, that is the integration of Man, his reestablishment in the place that is due him. The lost Eden is in this way found again. But what does the edenic state really mean? It is the overcoming of the duality and therefore of every plurality; of the return to One. The Man-Temple can thus rejoin the other men of the Universe, in a fraternity that is identification, in an estatic state, what the Hindus call Samadhi, which makes them transcend the slavery of the material and the selfishness of individuality.

By its very nature of expressiveness connected with the laws of numbers, music is for man one of the most powerful instruments of transcendency from his fragmentary, solitary existence that is affected by the chronic evils of life so well defined by Buddha: pain, illness, poverty and death; and furthermore by being far from what one loves and near to what one hates. When used well, a symbol can produce a miracle: shatter human solitude, enkindle love for all creatures, finally give peace to men of good will.


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