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DESCENT - JOURNEYS DOWN

All the themes of ‘Descent’ to a cellar, basement, etc. Edgar Allan Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum, Harry Potter, Dracula, Signs, Shelob’s Lair in The Lord of the Rings, Psycho, Alfred Hitcock and so forth

One example of `The Journey' or `The Path' archetype, is when it is viewed in its `descending' mode, the stairs leading downward.

Genesis 2:10 Ethiopia (The Dark Underground region could be the NIGREDO, NEKYIA, PLUTO, UNDERWORLD etc.)

This preparation for the descent into the Underworld is also known by the acronymic constructed by Basilus Valentinus of V.I.T.R.I.O.L. which in full is; VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM - "Visit the Interior of the Earth and By Purification Thou Wilt Find the Secret Stone." The Interior of the Earth can be seen in various ways...

Descents into the Underworld are naturally the domain of the symbolic element Earth and all its associative imagery, while the plunge beneath the Waters of the unconsciousness is in the Element Water.

INRI brings the vast network of symbolic material on the Element FIRE into focus and the last Element AIR is connected to all codified references to flight.

That is to say, the Path leads downwards to the Plutonic/ and/or Typhonic strata of Being. The TARTAROS/ TARTARUGA/TURTLE Level - V.I.T.R.I.O.L. = Underground - this is merely a Way of saying that we are journeying to the LAPIS - the TAURUS/CENTAURUS/MINOTAURUS - innermost codification, the Storage Treasure itself - Black Coal and White Diamond - CARBON as the basic building block of Life. The Cave, from which we originate and to which we return.

The other Maps, such as visualizing the representational deities &c. are just interdimensional maps which facilitate the Journey to Retrieval.

The Anima is somehow the Key here - or Mercury as Psychopomp.

At this time - a dream in which I find a Cave, bricked up with ancient stones, and use the (my) psychic sense to discover a weakness in the wall to be able to penetrate inside. An awareness of the ancient air within. One would have to wait for the rotten air (lead, the dross and slag) to escape before entering. The smell of the chthonic atmosphere within. This linked to all alchemical Caves or subterranean vaults, (INFERIOR) and V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Saturn/Kronos/Typhon dissects the 'SUN of Wisdom' while Isis/Moon/Diana - "...joins them together." The secret lies in the SULPHUR, which produces Sulphur is:

"...lost";

"...spread over the waves";

"...missing."

The 'Sulphur' experiences of Dismemberment, Sacrifice and Transformation, are all highly volatile. This belongs to the Scorpionic Cluster, in that, the terminal, boundary, outer fringes, edges are ruled by Pluto - Pluto's Realm is the Underworld, Sottoterraneo - Pluto's Rain - (Piove di Plutone) is PLUTONIUM. Scorpio rules sexuality, the House of Death as suggested above.

The sperm-seed of the Golden Sun in the Black Earth or "Our Water" of the Mother Matrix. Themes that appear in 'The Secret of the Golden Flower.'

SOL NIGER, BLACK SUN, Jung, C.G. Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 95.

Synonymous with CAPUT CORVI.

SOL NIGER is also the Midnight Sun. This suggests a polarity with the Midday Sun e.g. 12 p.m. and 12 a.m. Again, we can rephrase this as the Zenith and the Nadir. Therefore, by analogy, the Nadir is the Black Crow's Head, the caput corvi. This thread leads us directly to the myth in which both solar symbolism and the crow, appear. It is subsumed under the Constellation CORVUS.

Apollo and the Crow: i.e:

Zenith Nadir

SUN PLUTO