THE MOON, THE DEW & BEING UNCONSCIOUSLY GREEN: IN 2014-15, WE ARE SEEING THE GREAT RETURN: All the arcane images of the west front of Amiens are contained in quatrefoils. This in itself is a significant thing, for the quatrefoil is made up of four crescents – symbolic of the four phases of the Moon throughout the month. In the quatrefoil which contains the Niagara of water, the heavens open in the uppermost crescent, as if to indicate that this is a lunar Heaven (or sphere), and the magic water it dispenses is a lunar dew. In fact, it is the ‘philosophical dew’ of the alchemists – one of the great Mysteries of this mysterious art. It is not straining ancient mythology too far to see in this cascade the dual streams of the tears of the ‘weeping sisters’, the Egyptian goddesses, Isis and Nephthys, the combined influence of the light and dark Moons. In Latin, this dew is Ros. As we have seen, some hermetic experts argue that the three letters form the beginning of the word Rosicrucian, a word which pertains to the most important secret brotherhood in late mediaeval Europe. These initiates, who united the secret of the lunar dew with the cross (crucis, the genitive of the Latin crux), were practising Christians who sought to evolve spiritually by means of meditation through arcane alchemical processes. The meditative practices were, in a very real sense, inner disciplines. They were concerned with inducing picture-formation into the imaginative realm governed by the Moon. Thus, the structure of the cross (itself a symbol, on one level at least, of the intersection of matter and spirit) was laid upon the chaotic lunar influences of imagination through Spiritual disciplines. The aim of imposing such a structure was to turn these lunar forces into what was called, in the mediaeval world, fantasy. In this sense, fantasy could be squeezed from the dew of the Moon. The Ros dew was subjected to the directional organization of the cross (crucis). While it is quite clear that some alchemists did actually go out into the fields at certain times of the year, to collect the early dew on specially spread blankets (plate 35), the imagery of dew was really intended as a hermeneutic parable for early morning meditation, through which the lunar forces streaming into the microscosm (which is Man) were channelled into fantasy. In the alchemical tradition, one of the names for the lunar dew was nostoc. 5 As Fulcanelli reminds us, this word is from the Greek nox, which meant ‘night’ and, in some contexts, ‘darkness’. This nostoc was a heavenly power which came to Earth during the night, and remained on the Earth only for a short time before being dispelled by the rays of the Sun. Here we see an arcane parable, so beloved by the alchemists. The free-flowing and chaotic stream of imagination bestowed by the Moon on the Earth can be directed by mental activity and attention into fantasy. Imagination, like all thought-pictures, is visualized as coming from the dark skies, from the dark Moon, in the form of nostoc. The germination of the imaginative faculty, like the germination of plants, can take place only through the operations of lunar darkness. When the occultists say that darkness must mix with light to give form, we now begin to see what they mean, for without the human mind being continually fructified with the element of lunar fantasy, no creation can take place. The dark Moon militates against the light of the Sun. Fulcanelli points out that the healthy development of the chick in an egg depends upon darkness, as does the survival of the silver-based photographic image in the light-excluding camera. However, what Fulcanelli does not reveal is the secret in the word nostoc itself: it is evident that he knew what the word really meant, yet he elected not to reveal it in his published works. No doubt, he felt that the time was not yet right for him to reveal the secret of nostoc, save in a way protected by occult blinds which could be interpreted only by those familiar with the arcane langauge. In fact, the Greek word nostos means ‘return’, both in the sense of a journey and in financial terms – such as a return on an investment. The return homeward of the Greek heroes after the fall of Troy was called the Nostoi. How could this word possibly relate to the arcane term nostoc? To understand the connection, we must look at another level of Green Languge interpretation. In the arcane tongue, the word breaks down into nos stoch. The Greek stoch is a word with several meanings, including to ‘aim at’: in certain compounds, it is linked with the art of divination. The final Greek letter, chi, is conveniently preserved in the Latin form C, which is an image of the crescent Moon – a conversion which is often used in occult and Christian symbolism. It is the Moon of the Night (nox). We trust that it is not too fantastical to read this uncomplicated Green Language as implying that when we exercise our (Nos) imagination, and become fantastical, we are aiming at the Moon, and expecting a certain return, a payment back, or even the return of the thing aimed. Perhaps this concept explains the most curious graphic detail of the Tarot deck, which shows influence lines streaming like tears (or could those tears be dew?) towards the Moon, from the Earth. This upward, vertical stream of tears (or rain) may seem unnatural, as though the card depicted some unexplained phenomenon. However, in esoteric terms, it actually depicts the true influence of the Moon. -The Zelator, by David Ovason.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:13:24 +0000
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