Past life as an alchemist?

[bishopk]

I'm posting the following for humor value mainly, but you never know where the truth really lies....

I attended one of those Mind, Body and Spirit Expo events in my area a couple of weeks ago. Saw a woman who was giving Akashic Records readings (or however it's spelled) and decided to give it a whirl - more in the spirit of fun, since who knows how readers really get their information?

Told her I wanted to know about PL info she could get about my husband and myself. She came up with a PL with him as a alchemy teacher - not a very good one, she added - and I was a student of his. I was supposed to learn from him, but ended up helping him more than he helped me. However, he was the cause of some demise to me - the reader claimed I might have even
committed suicide over it, but she wasn't sure, just that there was some bad blood between us.

Well, this sounds creepy, I thought to myself. Why would I have married some man who had caused me problems before? If that's what really happened. In her defense, she mentioned some shoulder injury that she claimed was PL-related (from a fall), and the present-day aspects of it - the location of the injury and a weird symptom of it - she was dead-on. And this info wouldn't have been apparent from meeting me.

The reader asked what my husband now does for a living. When I replied that he was a Chemical Engineering professor and a very good one at that, she burst out laughing. I asked her what was so funny, and she replied that the alchemists were the professors of their day. Clearly she thought his current profession was ironic, given the PL alchemy teacher issue.

Now, another humor part: less than a week after the reading, my husband got a newsletter in the mail from the honorary chemistry fraternity he joined where he used to teach. It's the 1st one I remember seeing in our mail. I saw what looked to be a photocopy of some very old text in part of the newsletter, but couldn't figure out why it was there, so I asked him. He hemmed and hawed, saying that he couldn't talk about it because it pertained to the initiation rites and he's sworn to secrecy.

My brother-in-law, who was visiting, glanced at it. He's studied medieval history so he recognized what the text represented. "It has something to do with alchemy," he explained. My husband then admitted that he had to study some sort of alchemy text as part of a test he had to take for his initiation.

Amusing and ironic, I thought. Well, who knows if there's any truth to what the reader said? I do know that in the present time, it does feel to me that my husband and I are repeating old patterns, and negative ones at that. After meeting him, I had the sense that he was somebody I'd already known for a long time. I guess we met to work through some old issues, though I'm getting mighty tired of working through them!

Anyone else out there with info about alchemy, whether it be PL or current-day knowledge?

 

[deborah]

Al-Kemi

HI Bishopk,

Interesting -*S*S - Well my understanding of Al-Kemi -is that the word actually means Pharaonic Egypt. It was the understanding that there could be no attempt at objectivity, because the subject does not stand aside from, but rather penetrates the object. Think of our discussions regarding the hologram. If reality exists, it certainly does so in a present moment.

The question naturally arises: what is that knowledge which can thus be perceived?

Schwaller de Lubicz did extensive research in this area, he was deeply engrossed with the function of number to inscribe itself and symbolic language. The Pythagorean's also understood that much goes unseen by a secular mentality, because it goes unquestioned. We see enormous distance into the past, but the moment is a closed book. We do not reach it, we cannot know it. Meditation alone opens the sesame of intuition. But Schwaller de Lubicz meditation was not one of stillness, his meditation was gesture -------- for him the result was art.

I liked Andre VandenBroeck's quote -

For the philosopher-scientist-artist, the object of pursuit is a cosmic knowledge, a knowledge of the world as a whole, and of the detail of it's becoming. Its subject, however, remains the self.

So what do you think? Any of this ring a bell for you? Am I way off?

 

[bishopk]

Thanks for the reply! No, you're not way off; but as usual, you're way ahead of me.

I did enjoy your reflections; the one about much going unseen because it's unquestioned really rang a bell with me. I've always questioned, always wanted to know why things happen, why people do the things they do. Ironically, earlier this morning I recalled my childhood self, looking at my family around the dinner table and wondering, how did I get here? How did I end up in this particular family? I was maybe all of 7-8 years old at the time.

I also enjoyed the VandenBroeck quote you shared; very insightful and true! Where the heck do you come up with this stuff? You're amazing!

I wondered if you had any thoughts on the synchronicity of the alchemy PL and then my husband's newsletter coming in the mail 5 days later. Perhaps just a coincidence, but still ironic. I like to look at the humor and irony of possible PL connections coming out in present-day life. I feel like sometimes the Universe is playing a joke on me! Maybe it's a sign to not take myself and life so seriously?

Better that than the sinister aspects the reader alluded to, anyway.

 

[deborah]

*S*S*S

Hi Bishopk,

I just have a lot of reference books and have been reading for almost 20 years on the various paranormal subjects! - Not amazing - just is!

I find it hilarious that your husband has a secret -and cannot talk about it -considering he is so scientific...with everything else in life. Do you know what the old text might be related too?
I'm dying to know. LOLOLOL

 

[bishopk]

Hi Deborah. As far as keeping secrets, well, I guess that's what the initiates were told to do, so by golly, my husband will play by the rules. He tends to be rather rigid in his thinking. He took the initiation process very seriously!

As far as what the text showed, it seems to show the alchemists' thinking of various elements being related to the planets ie Saturne (as it's spelled) has Lead listed under it, Mars is paired with Iron, etc. To the right of these listings is a corresponding column of various symbols - don't know what these represent. My brother-in-law said it was astrology-based.

Below these 2 columns there's other words listed - maybe more elements and symbols, but I didn't recognize the words - appears to be old Latin text of some sort.

Ironically, a couple of days after my previous post here, I came across the booklets and study sheets my husband had to memorize; there were some tests he had to pass as part of the initiation rite. Yep, the history and practice of alchemy was covered in these booklets.

 

[SavingSocrates]

Hello bishopk, (I hope I spelled that right.)


Being someone who feels a very strong tie to alchemy myself, I can fairly say I know a bit about the subject. Typically, most alchemical texts of the more archaic type were based around a tie between astrology and alchemy--hence the relationships between planets--or gods', if that is how you wish to view it--and their companion metals. Some alchemists--and present day scholars--even believe that some ancient myths, such as Mars coming home to find his wife in bed with Mercury (If I remember correctly) were allegories that were suggestive of physical recipes.


But, I digress.


At this point, giving you a list of documents that match the description you gave would be fruitless--many Alchemists created such tables of elements and symbols. I would be glad to give you what documents I do have, if it would help, but, it would be more productive if you learned just a bit more details about the document in question.


I apologize--but, I do have to ask: On this document you saw, were there any specific colors, either mentioned or displayed?