We have a story that is guiding our lives. It is a blueprint composed before recorded time. It is a story that is ubiquitous. The blueprint is so foundational we are often quite unaware of its presence much less its influence. But it is there nevertheless, shaping our environment, directing our actions, even orchestrating our thoughts.
That a story should wield such influence in our lives rubs against our sense of individual will. It is as bad as believing we are completely controlled by our astrological sign. We often hate to be told such stuff, believing we have free choice and nothing, much less our birth-date or a storyline, can take control of our lives without our permission. We feel that should we learn of all the details of this controlling story, we would study it carefully and if some of it is not to our liking, we would simply change it.
However, the blueprint, or archetypal story, has remained basically unchanged for millenia. Across many cultures, adapting to new languages and mores, the story reaches through the centuries. It has been handed down through esoteric as well as orthodox means. It is the story of human conscious evolution. It is our story.
In many orthodox teachings, especially in the West, the entire story of our evolution has not been revealed to us overtly. However, the religions of India, the most influential being Hinduism and Buddhism, openly reveal the stages of understanding and experience. However the liberating religions of the West revealing many of these same stages have often been persecuted by controlling institutions. And so much of this knowledge, revealing the ways and means for the individual to 'know thyself', has been forced underground for centuries.
And yet even in the West, this philosophy, this love of an innate wisdom developed and nurtured through the ages, remains alive. Aldous Huxley termed this liberating knowledge perennial philosophy. In his research Huxley found strong links between esoteric and persecuted Western sects, such as Gnostics, and similar teachings found in the ancient texts, such as the Vedas of India. Yet nearly all the major teachings of the Gnostics had been lost to the general public for centuries. Even if an individual knew of the lost teachings, it was not until this past century that their curiosity could find avenues for further investigation. And yet, as Huxley noted, the perennial philosophy would re-emerge under the guise of one religious sect or another 'heretical' teaching throughout the centuries. How did such teachings remain alive much less survive unadulterated through centuries of persecution?
Scholars have posited that these foundational teachings traveled from the East to Europe. Even during Western Europe’s darkest period, however, trickles of information could still be found despite the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet before the rise of that same empire, teachings from India would pass freely, following trade routes. This ancient knowledge settled in regions bordering the Mediterranean, such as in the Nile’s delta in Egypt and later in Greece.
But even in these lands and during the Golden Age of Greek philosophy, persecution would haunt teachers who dared reveal too much of this liberating thought to others i.e. Socrates. The same held true during the final century of Roman rule. During the final period of emperor’s rule Christianity was made the official religion and the great influence of the mystery rites of Isis went by the wayside. But at this time there were more than 200 sects of various Christian teachings. In an effort to find order in the new religion of the empire, such sects as Gnostics and Coptics were labeled heretical and often outlawed.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, it would again be influence from the East to bring forth a small taste of liberation. Centuries after the fall of Rome, Persian wisdom, working from ancient Greek teachings, was allowed to influence orthodox teachings of the controlling Church. The knowledge of Greece's Aristotle and of the neo-platonic teachings of the Roman Empire went on to influence not only Europe's Middle Ages but its Renaissance as well.
Still it has been argued that despite near-total annihilation of these teachings during the earlier 'backward' centuries of Europe, a progress in human consciousness took place, albeit at a hardly discernible rate. What embers continued to burn in our conscious evolution? What kept them smoldering when trade routes were cut, when lines of philosophy were relentlessly persecuted and when all semblance of curiosity seemed destroyed?
What indeed. The saving of this precious knowledge demanded thinking beyond the official tenets of orthodox rule. Clearly persecution would not go away. Persecution was a primary means of retaining control. A similar situation is found in today's totalitarian regimes that round up and kill the intellectuals of the country they wish to control. Those who wanted to gain control or to keep control throughout the ages would be certain to kill those who they suspected of great knowledge. So in the repressive atmosphere of the West - and not only the Dark Ages of Europe - alternatives to direct and overt teaching of such knowledge had to be sought.
According to Huxley, one of the avenues of the great wisdom of perennial philosophy was the occult art of alchemy. Hidden beneath layers of gibberish formulas, behind multiple depictions of fanciful creatures and beyond writings found only in Latin- the language of the elite- alchemy kept this precious knowledge hidden. Only those who met the stringent demands made on adepts and other like-minded seekers were given its secrets.
But in the mid-16th century alchemy came out from centuries of secrecy and allowed some of its most precious secrets to be revealed. One of the most influential alchemical writings of that Renaissance period was The Rosarium Philosophorum, or Rosary of the Philosophers. The anonymously-written text was written in Latin. But the text also contained 21 woodcuts, sporting captions in the vernacular German and French. The woodcuts did not focus on depicting strange animals but instead held a series of human figures. In addition, there were innocuous receptacles and a fountain and creatures that could be found in orthodox symbology.
The texts and individual woodcuts were distributed in the large cities of Germany and France during the relatively-free period of post-Lutheran thought. Those city-dwellers curious enough to inquire as to the purpose of these woodcuts would have been told that they were to meditate on the images. The Church had earlier encouraged its followers to do similar meditations while praying the rosary. Yet meditations of the Rosarium woodcuts could provide keys to secret passageways holding alchemical secrets as well as other esoteric teachings.
The influence of the Rosarium's woodcuts waned in the centuries that followed Europe’s Renaissance as alchemy was discredited by the empiricism of the next four hundred years. No thinking man, it was posited, could take alchemy’s confusing passages and obtuse imagery as offering anything of value during Europe's Age of Reason. But four centuries after the Rosarium's images graced the doors and posts of European cities, a leader in science's newest discipline, psychology, found a place for the alchemical teachings.
Carl G. Jung had spent decades of his eminent career dedicated to the teachings of perennial philosophy. His interest was so great he would eventually write psychological commentary for the re-issuing of Evans-Wentz 1927 translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. In following his interest in the avenues of what was later–coined perennial philosophy, Jung 'discovered' European alchemy early after his separation from Freud.
But Jung would wait until his later years to present his theories. The great psychologist believed in the integration of the psyche as the foundation to a fulfilled life. He used imagery and writings from both European and Asian alchemy to provide historical credibility for his theory.
In 1942, just shy of 400 years after its introduction, the Rosarium woodcuts were used as a centerpoint for Jung's theory. In Psychology of the Transference, Jung used the 1550 Rosarium woodcuts to posit that the feminine and masculine aspects of our psyches could and must be integrated for full mental health.
A possible strong reason for choosing the Rosarium's woodcuts becomes evident when the series of woodcuts is seen in its entirety. By viewing all 20 images found within the pages of the Rosarium text, as well as the woodcut of the title page, a repetitive pattern emerges.
The 1550 Rosarium text is sprinkled with warnings that its secrets should not fall into the hands of those not of pure heart. The small Latin text was laden with a goodly amount of gibberish so even those learned in the refined language might still be confused. Only those initiated in alchemy's methods could make sense of the odd notations.
Yet in one of the clearer passages found in Rosarium's text, alchemy reveals one of the precious methods used in conveying its’ secrets. Reiterating the need for supreme secrecy in guarding its’ valuable wisdom, the authors of the Rosarium note that ‘fables and parables' allow the secret wisdom to pass undetected. Was this true? Could the innocent settings and simple characters found in fantasy tales act as secret agents? Could homespun stories truly carry wisdom far beyond obvious moral platitudes?
With the possibility of liberating secrets hiding within simple stories springs a curiosity to delve deeper into those stories. We live in a wondrous time – a time filled with great potential. Perhaps delving into our favorite childhood stories will bring us great rewards, including a wondrous future.
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