As recalled by Evola in 'The Hermetic Tradition', alchemy, which was
originally a spiritual discipline aimed at inner transmutation by
means of techniques based on the knowledge of the analogy between the
microcosm and the macrocosm, degenerated into a practical physics and
chemistry aimed at turning lead into gold as a way of getting rich,
and whose representatives were despised by the adepts of the former
("False alchemists seek only to make gold ; true philosophers desire
only knowledge. The former produce mere tinctures, sophistries,
ineptitudes; the latter enquire after the principles of things,"
Becher, 'Subterranean Physics', 1669). In the same way, it appears
that the goal of more than one current of Taoism was and still is
longevity in the sense of - Marcel Granet, the best French expert in
Taoism, whose 'La pensée chinoise' (1934) was praised by Guénon (see
also 'Remarques sur le Taoïsme ancien' (1925)), is positive on that
point - 'long life'.
Gold and blood are closely linked in alchemy. Look at a drop of blood
under a microscope, its color is gold.
The way/road of Cinnabar : the way of self-deification : an
alchemical process, at any rate.
That's why the conclusion of this review of 'The Hermetic Tradition'
sounds peculiarly fanciful :
"As so often with Evola, one notes that his idea of initiatic
prescience turns out on examination to be a fantasticated version of
a familiar notion from modern philosophy. We are dealing here with
just another version of Hegel's solution to the problem of Freedom
and Necessity. Hegel says that these become one at the end of
history, when consciousness understands how the world works, and so
sees that all the free choices ever make were also necessary choices.
Nietzsche's proposal to embrace the Eternal Return, to will the wheel
of history, is very much along the same lines. Evola's sole novelty
is the projection of the principle into the future."
http://www.johnreilly.info/tehetr.htm
Out of the blue.
--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "vandermok" <vandermok@...>
wrote:
>
> "The field of cinnabar is the ocean of breath". It is not by chance
that Evola translated into Italian (from the German version of
R.Wilhelm) the treatise 'The Mystery of the Golden Flower'. Since the
sulphur was not used as symbol in China, what the Taoism tried to get
by the assumption of cinnabar was probably theYang in its pure state,
more than the longevity, but I have got a piece of cinnabar here and
it is interesting that the mercury inside comes to the surface over
and over in time, curious analogy.
> At profane level, cinnabar is also a symbol of the blood. According
to the Greek medicine Dioscorides, cinnabar was 'blood of dragon',
and in China there was also a 'cave of cinnabar' as the vagina, and
during the Han dynasty a spot of cinnabar on the forehead of a woman
of the imperial harem showed she was menstruated, so untouchable.
>