"Now, whosoever desires to become a Disciple of Antimony, he must, after Prayer, and an earnest Invocation of God, betake himself to the School of Vulcan, for he is the Master and Revealer of All Secrets.
This Master is condemned by the Wise Men of the World, set very little by and derided; because they, by reason of their own Negligence and Malignity, have learned nothing of him; and all Revelation, through their own Sloath, is impeded: for no Medicine was ever prepared without Vulcan, whatsoever those senseless madmen shall babble and affirm to the Contrary."

'The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony'
Basil Valentine


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In regard of it's application to the experiment the master alchemist would understand this Trump to represent Vulcan, metalurgist to the Gods, whom taught humanity the craft of that Art. Vulcan was married to the adulterous Venus; known to be carrying on an illicit affair with her lover Mars. After a time Vulcan devised an invisible snare and caught the two lovers during their sexual union. The alchemist finds a great Truth to his Art through this myth, one of it's foundation principles.

Let us turn now to Azazel, a fallen angel. In the Hebraic tradition Azazel, like Vulcan, is also credited with having taught humanity the Art of metalurgy. According to scripture he was greatly abhored and condemned by God for his having revealed that Art. Humanity applied the Knowledge given them by Azazel towards their own vanity. They adorned themselves with rare metals, and applied forged weapons to serve their lusts.
Another parallel is to be found in the scriptures of the Yazidi of Iraq; the Angelic metalurgist Malak Ta'us. The Yazidi revere Malak Ta'us. He is considered by them to be a high Archangel, not a fallen one. To the Yazadi it is not the Knowledge of metalurgy that is evil, nor is Malak Ta'us for having taught the secrets of it. The evil that may come from that Art is within the minds and hearts of humankind, not from the Knowledge of the Art itself.
Nevertheless, it is for the reason of their reverence of Malak Ta'us that the Yazidi people have to be rather secretive over their religious practice. They are widely suspected of being Satan worshipers by the Islamic and Christian peoples, and not only for the cause of the parallel of Azazel with Malak Ta'us but, that he also refused to bow to Adam, as did Lucifer.

I once heard Joseph Campbell relay a romanticized legend among the world's Judaic traditions that concerns Lucifer's fall. The story unfolds that when God ordered Lucifer to bow to Adam, Lucifer replied that he could not, for he could only look upon God, and could not turn his head away from that splendor.
At that exact moment Lucifer fell, for even though he would have wished to only bow to God that desire was contrary to God's will. This act of personal volition, of own will, is a testimony of ego, and how by removing one's 'self' from the stream of the source it plummets that 'self' into darkness, and turns it from the light.

In these parallels there is an underlying theme of application to the Art, it's use, and it's misuse, all hinging upon the ego as opposed to the 'I'. We may also find in the capital letter 'I' a useful symbol that may help us to further illuminate the proper application of the Art.
The letter 'I' stands as a vertical column between two horizontal planes, connecting them; the upper with the lower, the lower with the upper. This symbol may be seen as the initiate whom has become a conduit through which the two spheres of Being are respirated, just as the pentagram respirates through it's continual regeneration yet finds balance at it's center. That center may be seen as a fixed point on the column of the 'I', and there that 'I' becomes 'One', joining the upper and lower planes. That 'One' is added to the pentagram, and thereby a hexagram is formed.
By that 'Love' alone the initiate stands at the center of the Otz Chim, the qabalistic tree of life, in the Holy sphere of Tipereth. That can only be achieved when the ego no longer strays on it's own but, is convinced that it serves itself by serving the Divine will, and no longer seeks it's own ends. Then the vision of the world to the initiate will be in the light of that 'One', and thereby the initiate may proclaim as did Miester Eckhart:

"The eye with which I see God is the same eye with
which God sees me; my eye and God's eye, that is
one eye and one seeing and one recognizing and
one loving"

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* The key to the Art is in this 'One'.*

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In closing I would like to add one more parallel just for the sake of my own amusement. I put this forth to the reader to make of it on their own what they will.
It is widely understood that the name Lucifer translates as 'Light Bearer' but, it is also translated as 'Morning Star'. Of course, the 'Morning Star' is widely known to be 'Venus', the wandering bride of Vulcan.

And now, by rather lengthy means and extrapolations, we have come to the near completion of a circle. Make of this as your heart sees fit, and you may bring that circle to it's perfection.