The Illuminated Ones

or How to Get Light inside your Head to come on

In these days where information can freely flow from one mind to another, unhindered by concerns for how true or otherwise it might be, there can be few people who have not heard the word, Illuminati – supposed beings with superhuman powers, invariably with malign intent for humanity. We’ve heard about the so-called Bavarian Illuminati. Perhaps we’ve read David Icke or Alex Jones, even if we don’t like to admit it to others.

But, actually, the term illuminati simply means illuminated ones and I’m going to propose that what it actually refers to is a specific and highly secret aspect of the medieval art of alchemy. So secret, I believe, that no one else has put it so openly in print before.

Illumination is a word sometimes associated with notions of spiritual enlightenment – the attainment of some rarified state of consciousness through personal endeavour or divine grace. But, more simply than this, it also refers to someone who actually is illuminated, as in being lit up from the inside. This notion of a hidden or secret source of light is referred to in many occult writings, especially those of the mysterious group known as The Rosicrucians. Indeed, the original Rosicrucian document, or manifesto, published in 1610 – the Fama Fraternitatis – makes what I’d consider a fairly obvious reference to it towards the end of this passage:

In this table stuck a great nail somewhat strong, so that when it was with force drawn out it took with it an indifferent big stone out of the thin wall or plastering of the hidden door, and so, unlooked for, uncovered the door, whereat we did with joy and longing throw down the rest of the wall and cleared the door, upon
which was written in great letters
Post CXX Annos Patebo
with the year of the Lord under it. Therefore we gave God thanks, and let it rest that same night, because first we would overlook our Rota – but we refer ourselves again to the Confession, for what we here publish is done for the help of those that are worthy, but to the unworthy, God willing, it will be small profit. For like as our door was after so many years wonderfully discovered, also there shall be opened a door to Europe (when the wall is removed), which doth already begin to appear, and with great desire is expected of many.
In the morning following we opened the door, and there appeared to our sight a vault of seven sides and seven corners, every side five foot broad and the height of eight feet. Although the sun never shined in this vault, nevertheless it was enlightened with another sun, which had learned this from the sun, and was situated in the upper part in the center of the ceiling.

In the quote above, which is a standard translation of the original German text, I’ve included the preceding paragraphs to give some context to the appearance of this other sun. The tale in the Fama, which is most assuredly a spiritual metaphor, relates how the brethren are undertaking some renovation work on their house [the body], when they discover a memorial table [tablet of instruction] which, on closer inspection has a large nail driven through it [nail = Hebrew letter vav, or a connection to a guiding entity]. When the nail was pulled out, it revealed a hidden door on which was written in Latin – After 120 years I open.

The period of 120 years is a metaphor for spiritual attainment. It is the three score years and ten of normal life plus the borrowed strength of the eagle, a metaphor for kundalini, associated numerically with the Hebrew letter nun and the number 50.

The next day, the brethren opened the previously hidden door and discovered within a vault of specific dimensions which was illuminated – with another sun, which had learned this from the sun, and was situated in the upper part in the center of the ceiling.

This hidden vault, found within the house of the brethren, is a metaphor for an inner chamber that Rosicrucian spiritual work, in its fulfilment, can create. It refers to access to an “inner body” from where the physical body may be dropped and another taken on.

In my opinion, the best commentary on the Fama is to be found in the book The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order (1927) by Dr Paul Foster Case. If we turn to page 120 (yes, that number), we find the following paragraph of interpretation…

The Fama goes on to tell us that although the sun never shone in this vault, it was enlightened with another sun, which had “learned this from the sun.” The reference is, of course, to the microcosm-man. The Internal sun located in the ceiling (that is, in the upper part, or the head) does truly learn how to shine from the external sun. For our inner enlightenment is the conversion of energy drawn directly from the actual day star that is the physical center of our solar system. Illumination is not purely a spiritual or a mental process, if by spiritual or mental one means something nonphysical. The enlightenment is a physiological process.
Something happens in the blood. Something goes on in the brain. Something alters cell function and cell structure, and the “something” that does all this is light, radiant energy sent to this planet from the actual physical sun in the sky.

So here we have Dr Case’s assertion that the source of the light in the vault comes from an inner illumination taking place in the interior of the head. So, not only is he infering that the vault is actually inside the head of body of the initiate, as opposed to being out in the world, he’s also saying that its mysterious illumination is also internal. And that this has come about through a physical process that has taken place within the body.

So the next question is… what process in the body? And how does it happen? How could we possibly get light to enter our body and travel into our head?

The answer to that seems rather simple. For we are actually consuming light on a daily basis. It is found in the food we eat, different amounts of it in different foods. There is typically more in foods that grow above the ground, such as fruits and many vegetables. However, no matter which food, the light within it usually passes straight out of body via the stomach, intestines and bowels.

So it seems that the Rosicrucians, and the medieval alchemists who were their forebears, found a way to get this light to stay in the body and to travel up to the head. But how might such a thing be possible?

To answer this question, I’m going to quote and comment upon a few passages utilised by Dr Case in his 52 week course, The Great Work (1938). The course is private to his organisation, Builders of the Adytum (BOTA). Having been a member some decades ago, I’m not going to quote from it directly, which would no doubt break some kind of oath I took upon joining. Instead, I’ll quote some passages from the old alchemical texts that Dr Case himself quotes. All the following are from German mystic, Jacob Boehme:

The dew of heaven and the oiliness of the earth is our subject of art, or Matter. It is also neither rnineral nor metal; the Pythagorean Y shows us that there are two mercurial substances in one root, Fire and Water, Ischschamaim, namely, Sulphur and Mercury extracted from the substance in which he all metals and minerals. It is a salt dew of heaven, but a mineral and metallic dew of heaven, in which are contained all the colors of the world. This dew may be coagulated by Art into a sweet salt called Manna, by means of Arsenic. Sol is its father, Luna its mother, from these two it receives its light, life and brightness; from the Sun its fiery, and from the Moon its watery, radiance.

We find it both coagulated and dissolved. This dew falls from above into the depths of the earth, and the subtlest portion of the earth is its body. From above come its soul and spirit, fire and light, and enter into a body of Salt. Thus it receives the strength, or substantial virtue, of both the superior and the inferior things.

l know not where the world may secure it; yet it is present, with all its powers, in all things. But the world treats it with contempt, and casts it away. lt divides itself into two branches, white and red, from the single root, Y; and as it grows, it rises from that one root like a white and red rose of Jericho, and blooms like a lily standing in the Valley of Joshaphat.

What is Boehme talking about here? What are the “dew of Heaven” and the “oiliness of the Earth”, which are the “subject of our work?” The dew is light from the sun. The oiliness of the Earth are the various fats in the body – chyle and chyme – which can transport light from food into the bloodstream via the lacteals. If you read through the rest of the quotes, you will see these notions subtly reinforced. These obscure-looking passages begin to reveal the actual physical process at work.

Let’s now consider Genesis 27:28:

Therefore God gave thee the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.

Earlier on in the chapter, Isaac, who is old and now blind, has sent his son, Esau, out to hunt for meat for him to eat. His wife, Rebekah, tells Esau’s twin, Jacob, to take meat to him in his place, disguising him with skins to make him appear to be Esau. The old man is fooled and blesses him with the words above. It appears to be saying that the son who appears correctly will be given that which is necessary to achieve illumination.

These references to “dew” thus seem to be talking about light from the sun falling upon the earth. There may also some notion of light reflected by the moon doing the same. References to “oil” or sometimes “fat” are about body substances that may transport light to the head via the bloodstream.

A question remains. By what process do we get the light in the food we eat to enter the chyle and chyme? Let me try to answer that.

As anyone who has been involved with esoteric work knows, a big chunk of it is committing various symbol sets – Hebrew letters, Tarot keys, astrological and planetary signs – to memory and learning to see the world through the lens thus created. By becoming deeply involved in this work, we slowly begin to experience the world around us as being actually comprised of symbolic interactions. We are slowly inscribing these symbol sets onto our subconscious mind.

My contention is that they actually operate like a program on a phone or laptop. Once the symbol sets have been “downloaded” onto the unconscious mind, through looking at them and working with them repeatedly over a period of years, the program can run and cause subtle inner changes to how our gut functions, allowing certain bodily oils and fats to begin to transport light.

Consider, in this context, the story of the Christian nativity. Jesus is born to a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. Beth-lehem is simple Hebrew for “house of bread” – or the stomach. The astrological sign Virgo rules the stomach and intestines. Thus the process of illumination, complete in the adult Christ, begins in the stomach and intestines.

Check now the Liber AL, or Book of the Law, channelled by Aleister Crowley some 120 years ago. Chapter 1 or the first book contains the verses:

55. The child of thy bowels, he shall behold them.

56. Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for from no expected house cometh that child.

The text is referring to the “child of the New Aeon,” which may be understood as either a Messianic figure arriving to herald in a new era for mankind, or a regenerated inner consciousness within the individual. Note that it will be a “child of thy bowels” and will come from “no expected house.” Indeed, one would not expect a child to come from the astrological house associated with virginity!

I’m sure that digging into the work of other esoteric types of the period would reveal more references to these solar processes. For example, John Dee’s text on the Monas Hieroglyphica has some, such as the following:

Argent vive, which must be developed by the magistery of the Elements, possesses the power of the solar force through the unification of its two semicircles combined by a secret art.

The circle, of which we have spoken and which we designate in the figure by the letter E, is thus accomplished and formed. You will recollect, we have said that the solar degree is not delivered to us ready to our hand by Nature, but that it is artificial and not produced by Nature, it being available to us in its first aspect in accordance with its proper nature (as in B) in two parts separated and dissolved, and not solidly united in the solar body.

I believe that we are now entering a time when the physical process of illumination, kept secret for aeons, is ready to be understood by another layer of those humans who, as the saying goes, have eyes to see and ears to hear. The stone the builder rejected is getting ready to become the coping stone.