Gerhard Dorn, On the Spagyric Art
On the Propositions of Johannes Trithemius concerning the Spagyric Art
‘The unary is not itself a number, but it is from the unary that every number arises’- Johannes Trithemius.
Before the waters of the universal abyss described in the Book of Genesis were divided, they were one. It is only by a similar division that the unary can ever bring into existence the binary, which is the first of all the numbers.
This is not however accomplished in the essence of the unary {per substantiam}, but by a contingency {per accidens}. For as Trithemius says, ’[The One] is a number and it is counted, and yet it is not a number and it is not counted. It is not counted because it is simple by nature, and yet it is counted to the extent that it is composed of contingencies {accidentia}.
Until those contingencies become manifest however it cannot be counted, because before that point is reached it is not truly a number’.
By ‘unity’ {unitas} we should understand what Hermes Trismegistus explains in different words using an analogy from Genesis: ‘What is below is like that which is above, and vice versa, because all numbers consist only of unities, performing the miracles of the one thing’.
Here Hermes denotes the binary through the terms ‘above’ and ‘below’. As for Trithemius, he says that ‘the binary is rejected, and the ternary will be convertible to unity’. Hermes expresses this same idea in different words when he says that the purpose of unity is to ‘perform the miracles of the one thing’.
We should note that the concept of unity is here being interpreted in two different ways:
Hermes enumerates unity, as we have said, in terms of ‘above’ and ‘below’, while Trithemius sees unity in terms of its role in constituting the first number from the unary.
Each of them then uses very different lines of argument to measure unity: Hermes reduces that which is above and that which is below to a similitude posited within the framework of a miracle, while Trithemius argues that the binary is rejected and the ternary then converted back into the unary.
Despite their different approaches however, they both use admirable reasoning to reach the same conclusion: unity is natural and yet divisible, and contains the seeds of the binary, while the ternary is revertible into another unity (known as the ‘second unity’) beyond which one cannot go.
Every operation of the miracles of nature that is in some way subject to limits has therefore descended from unity, by way of the binary, to the ternary, but not before it has risen in simplicity from the quaternary through a series of steps. For if you want to count to 4 you do not know any other way of starting than with 1, but you then say ‘1, 2, 3, 4’, which when added together make 10.
This is the perfect consummation of every number, because then the numbering returns to one, since beyond the denary no single-digit {simplex} number is to be found.
Ignorant fellows marvel at the profundities of this Connection, the principles of which we use to perform miracles, because they mistakenly think that we must be assisted in our task either by demons or by some superstition that runs contrary to our Christian faith.
We ourselves are not at all surprised by the reaction of the people who make these judgements, as this is entirely due to their ignorance.
Since Holy Scripture attests that no one can acquire an internal awareness of God unless he specifically receives it, in the same way no one can either be given initial instruction in these matters or make any use of them unless he has received, by divine gift, that singular light of understanding that passes from nature into nature, and unless also that light within him is accompanied by fire, that fire by wind, that wind by power, and that power by the integrity of a mind healthy in its knowledge.
This therefore is the root of all profundities and the basis of all creatures. The first natural division produces the root of consummate knowledge, which is glossed as follows: ‘
Four are their mothers which are in the latest sequence, and four are their fathers which are in the beginning, and the nexus of all these things – both the connected first and the simple, pure, unique and solitary last – imbues everything.’
The simple and pure element earth, the first to proceed from the One, is not composite, is not changed, and does not suffer connection, but remains as it is because it is incorruptible, and because in the One there exists the One, and not the One, for it is not a number and yet it is a number, and though it is not counted yet it is counted, for between itself and the One no number is to be found.
In unity the One remains, and through inclusion it brings about the ternary, and by including the ternary eight times with its miraculous nature, it reduces everything to one.
None of the Masters can wholly explain its power. It is not the God that we worship; it is a creation of the mind of man, an image neither living nor dead, through which something marvellous is achieved in every branch of knowledge. And I say to you, my friend – and this is God’s supreme truth – that whoever has a mind that has been elevated through mere acquaintance with this pure simplicity will be consummate in every natural science, will perform miracles, and will achieve the most stupendous results, for it is a simple and unique good, and from it there flow not only many similar things but also many dissimilar things.
Composite earth is by nature a pure, simple and unique element, but because it is composite it necessarily becomes multiplex, varied and impure. It is however still reducible by fire to water, and from water to fire, and then from fire to the one simple thing.
It is a number and it is counted, and yet it is not a number and it is [not] counted. It is not counted because it is simple by nature and yet it is composite in its contingencies, and so it cannot be counted because it was not a number before those features became manifest.
The number One is counted from unity not as an absolute but as an inclusion. As they say, there is the One excluded, there is the One included, and there is the One through the One from the One, that is to say from the soul of the world. And in this way the ternary comes into existence.
By nature the ternary wants to be with the One, for the One per se is powerful, in One it is powerless, in another number also it is powerless, it always rotates in a sphere, and in any kind of fire it remains the One, but it is not imagined thus.
simplicity with a suitable washing then all the most profound mysteries of the science can be performed.
Earth extracted from a composite is an element, and yet it is not an element, but something through which the binary is reduced to the ternary, standing apart from the One by four degrees.
It contains remarkable things, and is varied, multiplex and corruptible, yet it does not stray beyond the circle of unity. It is of this, along with the passing of the ternary through the binary in the One, that the Magisterium of all secrets consists.
For any discoveries that might miraculously be made within the limitations of the human condition are all subject to its power, and thanks to that power they can be made with absolute perfection. It conforms to number, degree and sequence, in which the entire operation of the miracles of nature consists.
Wonderful to behold are the things that it is able to do, and indeed it is believed that it can do many more things that neither cause offence to God nor pollute the soul. ~ Gerhard Dorn, On the Spagyric Art, according to the opinion of Johannes Trithemius, Page 19-23
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
