..
Master R in London – JA 08
This is Master R, as he might have appeared to me, in London’s Temple district in the 1750s, on a damp night.
The altar – bird – torch emblem which is worked into this portrait, meant a great deal to me. It is in his Trinosofia – a journey of transformation.
“Altar, bird and torch are the symbol of all things. Nothing can be done without them … You could have seized instantly – you would have become altar, bird and torch at one and the same time. Now, in order to arrive at the most secret place of the Palace of sublime sciences, it will be necessary for you to pass through all by-ways. Come … I must first present you to my brothers.”
..
trinosofia altar bird torch, 2
trinosofia altar bird torch 1
“His companion wore no garment, but a sun radiated from her breast. Her right hand held three globes; a coronet of red flowers confined her beautiful hair. She sprang into the air, and seemed to lift with her the warrior who accompanied her.” – Trinosofia of Saint-Germain, section 12
..
When I think of the “The Most Holy Trinosofia of the Comte de St-Germain”, I have a composite image of an underground volcanic cavern with a Cross of colours in it, a deep sea breaking on a sandy beach, a screen of symbols which melts into initiation, an ascent, a many-pillared round temple where are found the Companions of the Light, a long desert trek, a cornucopia of alchemical beauty and strange tongues.
..
The work is illustrated with copies of the Master’s own paintings, in black and white facsimile, leaving the life to my imagination. I would like to re-draw them, in colour …
The bird is the Ibis, the altar is the Cube of space, and the torch, the Caduceus.
Altar, bird, torch – detail
The bird – with green branch – is called “to be given the Life.” The altar is coded “The Crown, Kether, when shall be the gate of entrance: Immortality shall be conferred at the gate of the House of Wisdom.” The name of the torch is Light, and reads: “The dernier shall be hidden away and forgotten”. The dernier was a coin, as in the Tarot suit of Pentacles. The statement as a whole suggests “The body of the wise man shall be concealed.”
Master R’s physical remains are concealed: his paintings – whose colours had a peculiar lustre, he is said to have ground pearl into his pigments – all disappeared. The music he wrote is stored in the British Library. I have xerox copies of it. He played the violin in London, with elegance, verve and grace.
Violin Sonata 2 – keyboard continuo part: the violin is the top line.
..
In about 1918, Paul Foster Case received a phone call in New York: “Meet me for coffee at —–Hotel.” The voice sounded familiar. It had spoken in his inner ear, ever since he was a small child. At the rendez-vous, he met an elegant stranger who proceeded during the next fortnight, to lay before him the entire esoteric curriculum for – what was to become a School of the Soul – the Builders of the Adytum.
This was his Hierophant and lineage, Master R – also known as Comte de Saint Germain. The writings on alchemy, number and the Hebrew hieroglyphic language are of superhuman intellect, beauty and dexterity, particularly in some unpublished texts. It seems that whenever Paul Foster Case sat down to write, something in his mind-body opened to admit the Cosmic body. He was a musician, a skilled organist. He reached every Key, each pipe and every string. The body of this Great Work had an immense urgency, to leaven the escalating crisis in humanity during the 1930s and 40s. The Master drily remarked to him, “We come not to the charm of your personality, but to the focus of your mind.”
..
..
He also said …
Transcript: The Harp of Ten Thousand Strings
“In Kether is the One, the Indivisible, but in Malkuth that same One appears as Four, and comes into manifestation as the Ten which return into the One. But mark this: the Four are truly but Two, even as in the body the two genders are always conjoined. Even when the whole body has almost no trace of its complementary gender, yet is there in its composition always some trace of both. So it is with the four elements also. Truly there are but two, Fire and Water. For Air is the mixture of Fire and Water with Fire predominant, and Earth is a like mixture with Water the stronger.
“Thus to enter the Kingdom there must always be “two”, for the Wheel turns not, but by the alternation of opposite forces. Yet the Kingdom of Adonai is not the kingdom of this world’s illusion, and the bodies of the servants of Adonai must be freed from the illusion, before they may serve as transparent channels for the Light which descends from Above.
“The Law of Adonai is other than the laws of men, for into the laws of men has entered confusion. This must needs be, since mankind remains a work unfinished. Yet be on guard, if you seek to be numbered among the sons and daughters of the true Israel, lest you mistake the half formed concepts of an earlier stage of growth, for final truths.
“The Great Work directs itself always toward the building of the Temple of Adonai, and at its early stages there are needs which do not continue throughout the building process. Yet men mistake the scaffolding for the building itself! and thus pay idolatrous reverence to old rules which have no longer any useful purpose. Watch therefore, if you would “rule the world” lest you usurp the rights of Adonai !
Lower face of Tree, Tifareth/Beauty, Netzach/Victory, Hod/Splendour, Yesod/Foundation, Malkuth/Kingdom, showing Tarot Keys on their paths, and the four elements in Malkuth the Kingdom.
Upper face of Tree, Kether/Crown, Hokhmah/Wisdom, Binah/Understanding, Hesed/Mercy, Gevurah/Severity, Tifareth/Beauty, showing Tarot Keys on their paths between the Sefiroth
Note: The World, Key 21 on the centre root path, Malkuth Yesod (Kingdom and Foundation) in the left-hand picture. This is the “GVPh” or word of embodiment (see paragraph on GVPh further down). The whole Tree is the Temple. To view as gallery with notes, click on image. For further notes on the Tree and Kabbalah, search Tree of Life in my primary blog, http://janeadamsart.wordpress.com
..
Transcript continues:
“His and His alone is the Temple (of the living body) … Not thine, but Mine is the work … for truly Kether (the Ineffable) is in Malkuth (the earth and physicality), and in Kether I dwell as One without a second … Mine is your body, you who seek to find me – mine alone. Mine is the power in all that comes into manifestation through the thought, the word or action of any of My instruments. Never shall they who remain deluded by the illusion of separateness, become clear channels for the irresistible out-pouring of My power, until all follies of ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ are cleared out …
“Do you comprehend? You aspire to the highest. Take heed lest you surrender to the world’s illusion through seeing the Light through the coloured lenses of your personal prejudices and personal emotional needs.
“Refusal to act is like keeping shut the gate which releases a stream of water into a pipe leading to a turbine. To be sure, no water is wasted so long as the gate stays shut, but neither is power generated. Of what use are fine ideals about serving mankind, if one refuses to become a channel for broadcasting the power?
“The whole world suffers in inexpressible agony, yet some who might do much to heal these festering wounds, remain aloof, wrapped in the garments of their own self righteousness. Yet but for One whom all the world condemned, you would not be sitting here. “Except your righteousness be greater than the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees,” said the Master, “you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom.” Think well on these things.
..
Speaking of the letters G,V,Ph (a Hebrew word for ‘the body’ – read the letters from right to left) … “What is this GVPh which has its seat in Malkuth? Consider its three tokens (letters). First comes letter Gimel which links Kether to Tifareth. This is the sign of the Uniting Intelligence; from this you learn that the body conjoins a man to the Highest.
“Second comes letter Vav. This is the token of the Eternal Intelligence uniting AB with BEN – the Father with the Son.”
Father, Son, Hermes – an illustration from the Book of Lambspring. “The Son ever remains in the Father and the Father in the Son. Thus in divers things they produce untold, precious fruit. They perish never more, and laugh at death … Upon one throne by the grace of God they sit, and the face of the Ancient Master is straightway seen between them. He wears a crimson robe.”
(By this, he refers to Vav – which joins together – as it is the sixth letter of alephbeis, and the first syllable of TVPhRTh/Tifareth.)
“From this token, know that your body is the link between the true Self in Tifareth, and the universal Life and Wisdom of Hokhmah. Now the third token – Ph -is the letter which signifies the mouth of man, and is also the Active Intelligence which unites Netzach with Hod.
Three Tarot Keys, signifying (from right to left, as with Hebrew script) , Reflectivity, Inner Hearing and Speech.
..
Transcript continues:
“So this, your body, is the instrument whereon may be played the Song of Life. Nay, it is more than this; for on this harp of ten thousand strings, the wind of the Spirit moves ever, and sounds night and day, the harmonies of that Eternal Song.
“Yet few there be, with ears to hear. For that hearing is too often dulled by the noisy clamour of the world’s illusion. Yet he who has eyes to see, and mind to remember, may see in the very word GVPh, that the heart of its meaning is to do with Hearing. (The Hebrew hieroglyph V is related to the sense of hearing.)
What else is the letter V but the heart of this word? … How few there are, who listen for the still, small music of the Eternal Song! … “
..
This transcript is from a direct communication to Paul and Harriet Foster Case and Anne Davies in 1947. It is summarised in the Meditation on Malkuth in The Book of Tokens, which you can buy in bookshops, or from the Builders of the Adytum (bota.org) A correspondence course of Lessons covering Kabbalah, Tarot, Alchemy, Colour & Sound, and every factor of this teaching, is available from the Builders of the Adytum.
..
The Master appears an individual, but he is an inner plane consciousness and has no separate sense of “me”. He is intimately transpersonal. He moves as easily through neighbouring densities of manifestation, as from field to field with the clouds, and back and forth through apparent death or disappearance. Wherever the third-eye focus is confected, here he stands. He – traditionally a Magyar aristocrat – was behind the veil of the “strong Child” in the American Declaration of Independence. He was a Freemason, a Rosicrucean and Alchemist; he led the secret Schools in France and Germany; he seemed to have unlimited wealth, and all the courts in 18th century Europe welcomed him. He attempted by diplomacy to “defuse” the coming French Revolution, but had to flee to London. He spoke of the real Revolution, which is evolutionary in the soul. Isabel Oakley’s carefully researched biography of him is called The Comte de Saint Germain – the Secret of Kings.
Franz Liszt, a few decades into the 19th century, wrote of Le Comte to the Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Eisenach:
“An extreme ease of manner with the most highly placed personages gained him the privilege of saying anything with impunity. Kings’ fools had this privilege in days of yore, and I take pleasure in thinking that it is not their fault if it didn’t make the kings wiser. While affecting a profound contempt for riches, Saint-Germain enjoyed displaying a prodigious quantity of precious stones and diamonds, and boasted that he had learnt the art of cutting diamonds well, on one of his first voyages to the Indies.
“… Apart from his chemical knowledge and alchemical illuminism, Saint-Germain played the violin admirably – so well, that people thought they could hear an entire orchestra under his bow – and possessed in addition the talent of writing equally well with right and left hand, which I envy him doubly, for my handwriting being horrible and almost illegible, it greatly displeases me.
“By means of his elixir of long life, he claimed he had already lived for 350 years. The same liquor also had the property of turning a woman of 70 into a perfect resemblance of a girl of 17 – and further, made anyone quite simply immortal. This idea was carried on moreover, without elixir, in Condorcet’s remarkable book ‘Des Progres de l’Esprit Humaine’.
“Frederick the Great asked M.de Voltaire for a few details about the Comte de Saint-Germain. “He is a man who doesn’t die, and knows everything,” replied Voltaire. He did die, however, in 1784 – or 1785 – as a close friend of the Prince of Hesse-Cassel. This intimacy would explain in rather a singular manner why the present Elector of Hesse governs in the manner of 350 years ago; a method which has succeeded extremely well for him thus far, as it has with others who haven’t even the merit of his obstinacy.
“But the pitcher goes so often to the well that in the end … it fills itself – says Figaro. Be so kind Monsignueur, to excuse my want of greater erudition …”
Your very grateful servant …
..
Le Comte Saint-Germain is synonymous with “Master Rakoczy” of Hungary. My pragmatic contact with Le Comte and his thought, is through studying Alchemy. That is what makes it real. In 2002, I was given a copy of some of the Master’s lessons on the Great Work of Alchemy, which illumined and earthed all that I had previously read. I worked through them for about a year. Some months into the journey, I consulted a psychic, who emailed to me: “Master ‘R’ just peeked in through the etheric Levels to say that he is the overviewing Presence in your Soul’s Life. Adieu.”
For verification, I asked Le Comte, could he please arrange to have himself mentioned in that day’s Kabbalah meeting. Half-way through the discussion – whose theme that day happened to be the inner-plane Maggidim or teachers – another student raised his hand and narrated – out of the blue – the story of Paul Foster Case’s encounter in New York with Master R.
In the Toledo Kabbalah-society tradition, Master R was lucky if he got a mention once in a year or two. Later on, I discussed this with Halevi, on the understanding that our guides and preceptors ring the changes, as life brings fresh challenges. Halevi said “he’ll be your Head of Department then. The general ‘staff’ assigned to individuals and situations, they come and go, under him.”
The question arose, because Master R is not a shepherd of individuals, but of civilization. Why would he connect to me? The answer is transpersonal – it is the level of love – the level of awareness on Jacobs’ Ladder. My concentration on alchemy and the transcripts, was a lens through which he looked and I could see. I learned an essential thing. Contact with a Master – a Maggid – is a two way process: the chosen dialogue, kept in focus, and always fresh.
He is not my “teacher” in the personal sense. But when I really put my mind to it, over a period of time, I can “tune up” to his wavelength, which covers many domains. My ear is to the ground in a special way. Language flows, and I learn about the way things work. He doesn’t “advise” me, and when he guides, it is in a minimal, unobtrusive way which rhymes unmistakably with my inner world, yet comes from beyond.
During that period, I learned through drawing their portraits, the nature of the inner plane Maggidim, and of transmission; I clarified for ever, a distinction between mediumship and mediating. The former is a monologue, the latter is a conversation.
..
One of my deep treasures received, is AKASHA TEJAS. The Akasha Tattva, linked to Saturn and the root chakra, is an indigo oval. The Tejas Tattva, linked to Mars and the navel chakra, is a scarlet triangle. Combined, they are an esoteric Key to the interior Gold – the heart centre chakra. Astrology aspects during the spring of 2003, illumined this combination, as a teaching.
Years later, this feature became embodied in, and sustains, my close friendship with an Aries – jewel of Saturn and Mars rulership: Capricorn with Aries. It all takes time.
..
In conventional astrology, Saturn and Mars are malefics – they resist each other. The Mars tempo is quick: Saturn moves in wider cycles. It is like trying to do a gear-change. But in Kabbalah, on the Tree, the struggle was co-operative. Saturn and Mars form the left-pillar Binah-Gevurah path of Influence, whose Tarot Key is 7, The Chariot. Scratch below the surface of any enduring pair of lovers or conscious siblings; there is probably a jewel of this kind.
The Akasha Tejas Tattva is a jewel the Master took out of his pocket and polished for me. In the abundance of life’s pearls, I mostly forget to visualise, or to polish this one so it shines. “Polish the mundane.”
This suggests: let it not be routine, but let it recreate the affection.
..
..
Here are a few teachings in my inner ear, as they came it seems, from the Master:
27 May 2003
“Do the rose cross or whatever else, when love comes. With love. That is the breakthrough from mercury into venus on the path of mars.
“Yes, very slowly and with love, hearing the music note deep within, and smelling the rose with the sea breathing. Simple, and one thing at a time. The meaning and flowering of the Rose Cross Ritual, and of all ritual gesture, is when ‘you’ are not doing it. Then as you find, that fascination or pondering, kindles the golden circles. Magic is made not with what is known, but with what you can’t quite grasp, and you wonder at. This draws your mercury up the rod into the place of meeting. So the Rose Cross SHIN and the golden encirclings have power, like a left-hand drawing. We said: no one is skilled, who begins magic.”
..
..
1 November 2003
Early this morning in bed, I asked “what is the Third Eye?” and this reply came:
“The third eye is the I of the Subtle body encircling Earth as it opens.”
A sort of violet blue clarity was in this picture as I wrote down the fading message. Where is my third eye? Answer as above. The subtle-body, like the etheric sheath, is a standwave, rather than a timespace process. It registers relative “eternals”. It is the blueprint to which all the variety bears passing form. Earth’s etheric field is the lunar orbit. This itself – moon’s silver circling around turquoise earthpupil – looks like a eye.
How do I find and use my third eye? Ah! it is in Perseus myths. The three grey sisters passed the one eye among them; and yet they could not see, because they argued. It is somehow clear that it exists, since Serapis kissed it there, in a way more reliable than before. Practise using it.
My crowded, operatic mind, fond of its noughts and crosses and sores, puts up a great resistance to “re-membering” and “practising”. But if I say “this third eye is Open” indeed it is; and if it encircles planet Earth, its capacity has the collective “I”.
Where to focus it? (Put your attention on the invisible, beloved!) inward, within the brow, where the Stone of gold-producing Light is confected, where the pineal pine cone, opens woody petals spiral wise. Only see these simple things, and my Third Eye is seeing.
You know you can’t see the eye, or I, you see through! The same it is with the Third. It is not a mark, or an organ. It is a Way. It encircles the earth transpersonally, like the bright veil she draws around her lands and seas. The arising of the Love current is Her opening, likewise. It flows up through the spine and opens the brow. I am a pyramid with the eye in its apex, the symbol of freemasonry. The pyramid is a little lens, gathering to it all the matter of earth, and shining back: Eye-dentity.
Your attention on the invisible is displaced from the visible obstruction or belief; from “my-story”. Your attention on the Great Mystery is not upon “my-story”.
That is what is meant by “the IN-visible”; and by silence.
..
..
27 June 2003
Oh yes: here’s yesterday’s Big Thought, which I jotted in my notebook: The violet mantled King in Basil Valentine’s story, meant:
“If I have ears to hear,
Hear Thee
like the Stars brought close to the eyes
oak Tree.”
In other words, the teachings of the Magid, although as far beyond the spacetime context of my person as the stars in the night sky, are brought inward as the stars to shine in my own eyes and being.
..
..
And here is Master R’s published sonnet:
Curieux scrutateur de la Nature entiere,
j’ai connu du grand tout le principe et la fin.
J’ai vu l’or en puissance au fond de sa riviere,
j’ai saisi sa matiere et surpris son levain.
J’expliquai par quelle art l’ame aux flancs d’une mere
fait sa maison, l’emporte, et comment un pepin
mis contre un grain de ble, sous l’humide poussiere;
l’un plante et l’autre cep, sont le pain et le vin.
Rien n’etait, Dieu voulant, rien devint quelque chose,
j’en doutais, je cherchai sur quoi l’Univers pose.
Rien gardait l’equilibre et servait de soutien.
Enfin avec le poids de l’eloge et du blame,
je pesai l’eternel; il appela mon ame:
je mourrai, j’adorai, je ne savais plus rien.
..
The jewel is here: the gold in the flowing river: the soul at the mother’s flank; the yeast, the grain and the grape; the bread and wine.
I would appreciate an English translation of this poem, from a French-speaking reader – any offers? Very broadly my understanding of it goes:
”Examining nature, I learned her fundamental principle. I saw in her river’s flowing depth the gold, and seized its potency. I understood how the soul in the mother’s womb rises like yeast, and carries the lodging onward (through the generations); and how a tiny grape seed and a grain of wheat when placed together in moist earth – the one a plant, the other a pip – ferment to bread and wine.
“Without God’s will and wisdom, nothing grows. I searched in vain: I found no ‘thing’ to equilibrate or uphold the Universe.
..
“Finally, in the balance of applause and censure, I weighed Eternity: it called my Spirit. I died to the world. I adore. I knew nothing more.”
..
..
With embryo in womb,
yeast and grain in the vine,
the Eternal alone calls the Soul;
the world knows nothing.
(The door is TAV, and in it flowers the Rose. Saturn is the root and door by which we give birth, parturition of the seed itself, all in one. As the Soul makes house “aux flancs d’une mere”, so in damp dark soil does pip to a grain grow bread in the vineyard. Saturn is the root, and Venus in the throat chakra is its calyx or flowering point.)
..
Oakley book cover image of le Comte – from a contemporary engraving
..
In the ten years or so since these writings, a lot of water flowed under the bridge ! I had so much to learn, to practice and to clarify in life. There were difficult tests yet to come, with deep issues to heal and let go. It took me far away from the initial contact with the Master.
Life is “initiation” – a curve of the years. The landscape was challenging, and I got distracted and made mistakes. It is all valuable. My objective in these two or three posts about Master R, is to take up some slack, and by doing so, re-invite his presence and teaching in my work: a discovery.
Master R/Saint-Germain means different things to different societies and souls, according to projection. In Part 2, I shall tell how my particular contact came about.
TO BE CONTINUED – IN PART 2
..
..
..
**
Aquariel – an angel of the waters and of the air through the woods of life.
COPYRIGHT – All art and creative writing in this blog is copyright © Janeadamsart 2012-2013. May not be used for commercial purposes. May be used and shared for non-commercial means with credit to Jane Adams and a link to the web address https://janeaquariel.wordpress.com/
Aquariel 