Natura Naturens
Edward K. Kaplan:
“Images are born
directly from the murmured and insinuating voice. If one gives its true place
to the Word creator of poetry, if one realizes that poetry creates a psyche
which then creates images, the traditional diagram will be enlarged by two
terms: spoken nature awakens natura
naturans which produces natura
naturata - to which one listens in speaking nature. Yes, as so many poets
have said, nature speaks for those who listen to it. Everything speaks in the
universe, but it is man, the great speaker, who says the first words.”
Alan Watts:
“Inability to accept the mystic experience is
more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of
organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination. For in a
civilization equipped with immense technological power, the sense of alienation
between man and nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit—to
the “conquest” of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature.”
Pierre Hadot died on April 24, 2010. He is
important in the context of the Project many are involved in - the
Re-sacralization of Nature. As evidenced in AVATAR. Hadot presents a struggle
between the Promethean and the Orphic . . . which reflects the classical Apollo
[Rational] - Dionysian [Intuitive] polarity. Here we have the Promethean
operating, in the words of Pierre Hadot:
“If man feels nature to be an enemy, hostile and jealous, which resists him by
hiding its secrets, there will be opposition between nature and human art,
based on human reason and will. Man will seek, through technology, to affirm
his power, domination, and rights over nature.”
And here, the Orphic:
“If, on the
contrary, people consider themselves a part of nature because art is already
present in it, there will no longer be opposition between nature and art;
instead, human art, especially in its aesthetic aspect, will be in a sense the
prolongation of nature, and then there will no longer be any relation of
dominance between nature and mankind. That occultation of nature will be
perceived not as a resistance that must be conquered but as a mystery into
which human beings can be gradually initiated.”
Conceptual artists and others may take
note.
Pierre Hadot:
“ . . . the expression "hidden secrets of
nature" comes not from the Bible but from no other source than Greco-Latin
philosophy, in which formulas such as arcana naturae, secreta naturae, or
aporrheta tes phuseos are frequently used.”
"Praised
be you, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us,
and who produces varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs."
"What road," asks
Paracelsus, "should the philosophers follow? " and he answers: "
That exactly which was followed by the great Architect of the Universe in the
creation of the world."
The picture in question is Emblem 42 from
Michael Maier’s, Atalanta Fugiens, published in about 1618 in Germany.
Here is the text from this Emblem.
EMBLEM 42.
MAY NATURE, REASON, EXERCISE &
LITERATURE BE THE GUIDE, STAFF, SPECTACLES & LAMP FOR HIM WHO PARTICIPATES
IN CHEMISTRY.
"Nature
be your guide; follow her with your art willingly, closely,
You err, if she is not your companion on
the way
Reason
be your staff, Exercise may strengthen your sight,
On
account of which things that are far away can be discerned,
Literature
be your lamp, shining in the darkness,
In
order to guard against an accumulation of things & words."
We can be fairly certain, from other
evidence, that this figure represents Nature.
The same picture appears on the Title-page
of the 1625 edition of Musaeum Hermeticum. In this variation, a second
figure, also with staff, spectacles and lamp, is seen crossing the bridge in
the distance, and the figure of Nature carries a blazing Six Pointed Star, or
Pentagram, in her left hand.
The three figures of the Title-page of The
Hermetic Museum, suggest a process of continuity, a transmission of the
Light. Embedded within this Emblem, is the principle of the Transmission of
Wisdom, or Light, and this observation can be extensively expanded from the
visual references available to us us.
The Emblem would therefore, simply put,
indicate that ‘Wisdom Follows in the Footsteps of Nature.” And Wisdom, The
Hermit, ' The Sage' or Arcanum 9, illuminates Nature.
"For Nature applied to Nature transforms
Nature," as Zosimos the Alchemist puts in.
The same idea can be found in The
Hermetica:
“When they had thus spoken, God
smiled, and bade Nature be; and
there came forth from his voice a Being in woman’s form, right lovely, at the
sight of whom the gods were smitten with amazement; and God the Forefather
bestowed on her the name of Nature. And he conferred on Nature the government
of all things in the world below, and bade her be productive of all manner of
seeds. And Nature communed with herself, and saw that she must not disobey her
Father’s bidding; and . . . And God
filled his august hands with the abundance of seeds which Nature supplied, and
gripping the handfuls firmly, said . . . “
These few ideas, can be extensively
amplified in considering the symbolism of The Sage, Wise Man, Hermit.
The same picture appears on the Title-page
of the 1625 edition of Musaeum Hermeticum. In this variation, a second
figure, also with staff, spectacles and lamp, is seen crossing the bridge in
the distance, and the figure of Nature carries a blazing Six Pointed Star, or
Pentagram, in her left hand.
The three figures of the Title-page of The
Hermetic Museum, suggest a process of continuity, a transmission of the
Light. Embedded within this Emblem, is the principle of the Transmission of
Wisdom, or Light, and this observation will be extensively expanded from the
visual references before us.
See ' The Sage' Arcanum 9. "For Nature applied to Nature transforms
Nature." Zosimos.
"nature is not so simple," says Jung.
"The way things actually are defeats any conclusive attempt to catch
Nature in our boxes and categories."
[from Jung, Letters V2, 1975]
NATURE,
NURSE, NUTRIENT
Stephanos
of Alexandria:
"Put
away the material theory so that you may be deemed worthy to see with your
intellectual eyes the hidden mystery. For there is need of a single natural
thing and of one nature conquering the all. Of such a kind, now clearly to be
told you, that the nature rejoices in the nature and the nature masters the
nature and the nature conquers the nature."
Stephanus
of Alexandria in the seventh century A.D.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_of_Alexandria
nurture - verb - 1 - rear and encourage the
development of (a child).
2 cherish (a hope, belief, or
ambition). noun – 1 - the action or
process of nurturing.
2 upbringing, education, and
environment as an influence on or determinant of personality. Often contrasted
with nature.
DERIVATIVES:
nurturance noun - nurturant adjective - nurturer noun
ORIGIN: Middle
English: from Old French noureture
'nourishment', based on Latin nutrire 'feed,
cherish'.
nurse1
noun
1 a person trained to care for
the sick or infirm. - dated a person
employed or trained to take charge of young children.
2 Entomology
a worker bee or other social insect that cares for a young brood.
3 Forestry
a tree or crop planted as a shelter to others.
verb
1 give medical and other
attention to. - work as a nurse.
2 feed or be fed at the
breast.
3 treat or hold carefully or
protectively. - hold (a drink), sipping it occasionally.
4 harbour (a belief or
feeling) for a long time.
5 Billiards
& Snooker try to play strokes which keep
(the balls) close together.
DERIVATIVES: nursing noun
ORIGIN: Middle
English: contraction of earlier nourice,
from Old French, from late Latin nutricia,
feminine of Latin nutricius '(person) that
nourishes', from nutrix, nutric- 'nurse', from nutrire
'nourish'.
nutrient - noun a substance that provides nourishment
essential for the maintenance of life and for growth. ORIGIN: C17: from Latin nutrient-,
nutrire 'nourish'.
EMBLEM 2
HIS
NURSE IS THE EARTH
Romulus is said to have
been nursed at the course udders of a wolf,
But Jupiter to have been
nursed by a goat, & these facts are said to be believed:
Should we wonder then if
we assert
That the earth suckles
the tender Child of the Philosophers with its milk?
If an insignificant
animal nursed such great heroes,
Shall he not be great,
who has the Terrestial Globe as a nurse.
Discourse
2nd
It is determined by the
Peripatetic & other Philosophers of sound Judgment that the thing
nourishing must be converted into the substance of the nourished & made
like to it, not before but after it has received an alteration, & this is
admitted as an undoubted axiom. For how should the thing nourishing, supposing
it beforehand to be like to, or the same with the thing nourished, have need of
any change in its essence, which if it should happen would hinder it from
remaining the same or alike. For how should those things be received for
nourishment which cannot be converted into a like substance with the thing
nourished, as wood, stones, &c. As therefore the first is vain so the
second is contrary to Nature.
But for an infant newborn
to be nourished with the Milk of Animals is a thing not repugnant to Nature,
for milk will become of the like substance with it, but more easily if it be
sucked from the Mother than any other Creature. Wherefore Physicians conclude
that it conduces to the health & strength of an infant as likewise to the
conformity of temper & manners if it is always fed & nourished by the
milk of its own Mother, & that the contrary happens if it is done by that
of a Stranger. This is the Universal Harmony of Nature: That Like delights in
its Like & as far as it can possibly follows its footsteps in everything by
a certain tacit consent & agreement. The same thing happens of course in
the Natural work of the Philosophers, which is equally governed by Nature in
its Formation as an Infant in its Mother's womb. And although as Father, Mother
& even a Nurse be ascribed to it by way of similitude, Yet it is not more
Artificial than the generation of every Animal.
Two seeds are by a
pleasurable Artifice joined together by Animals & both the Human sexes
which being united by successive Alteration produce an Embryo which grows &
is increased, acquires life & motion, & then is nourished by Milk. But
it is necessary for a Woman in the time of Conception & impregnation to be
very temperate in heat, Food, drink, Motion, Rest & all things else; otherwise
Abortion will follow & destruction of the conceived Embryo, which
Observation in the six non-naturals because it is prescribed by the Physicians
according to their Art is also Artificial. After the same manner, if the seeds
be not joined together in the Philosophical Work, they ought to be joined, but
if they could anywhere be found joined together as the seed of a Cock & Hen
do subsist together & are contained in one Egg, then would the
Philosophers' work be more natural that the generation of Animals.
But let us grant (as the
Philosophers do assert) that one comes from the East & the other from the
West & are made one: what more is as ministered to 'em than mixture in
their own Vessel, Temperate Heat, and Nutriment. The Vessel is indeed
Artificial, but in this there is no more difference than if the nest were made
by the Hen herself or made for her by the Country Dame in some convenient place
as commonly it is. The Generation of Eggs & Hatching of Chickens from them
will be the same. Heat is a Natural thing, whether it proceed from the
Temperate Heat of furnaces, putrefaction of Dung, from the Sun & Air, from
the Bowels of the Mother, or otherwise. Thus the AEgyptian from his Furnaces
does by Art Administer a Natural Heat for the Hatching of Eggs. The seeds of
Silk worms & even Hens' Eggs are said to have been Hatched by the Warmth of
a Virgin's breasts. Art, therefore, & Nature, do mutually join hands &
officiate one for the other. Nevertheless, Nature is always the Mistress &
art the Handmaid.
But a doubt may [be]
raised how the Earth may be said to be the NURSE of the Philosophical Infant,
seeing it is the Element which is most dry & void of Juice, insomuch that
Dryness appertains to it as its proper quality. It may be answered that Earth
Elemented is to be understood, & not the Element of Earth, whose Nature we
have fully explained in the first day of our Philosophical Week. This Earth is
the Nurse of Caelum or Heaven, not by opening, washing, or moistening the
Infant, but by coagulating, fixing, coloring and converting it into more Juice
& Blood. For Nutrition implies an Augmentation in length, breadth &
Depth which extends itself through all the Dimensions of a Body, & seeing
this can be afforded & administered to the Philosophical Infant by Earth
only, it can in no wise be improper to call the Earth by the name of his NURSE.
But this admirable Juice of Earth has a quality different from other kinds of
Milk which are converted & do not convert for this by reason of its most
efficacious Virtue does mightily alter the Nature of the thing Nourished, as
the Milk of the Wolf is believed to have disposed the Body of Romulus to a
Nature that was Magnanimous & prepense to War.
Emblem 2d
Nutrix ejus terra est.
(The Earth is his Nurse)
A woman with the globe of
the Earth around her body, nourishes an infant
held in her left arm at
her breast. Withher right hand she gestures
to the ground below,
where a goat on the left suckles a child and a wolf
on the right suckles two
children.
Atalanta Fugiens 2 midi
Epigram 2d
Romulus hirt a lupae
pressisse, sed ubera caprae
Jupiter, & factis,
fartur adesse fides:
Quid mirum, tener"
SAPIENTIUM viscera PROLIS
Si ferimus TERRAM lacte
nutrise suo?
Parvula si tantas Heroas
bestia pavit,
QUANTUS, cui NUTRIX
TERREUS ORBIS, erit?
Discourse 2d
It is determined by the
Peripatetic & other Philosophers of sound Judgment
that the thing nourishing
must be converted into the substance of the
nourished & made like
to it, not before but after it has received an alteration,
& this is admitted as
an undoubted axiom. For how should the thing nourishing,
supposing it beforehand
to be like to, or the same with the thing nourished,
have need of any change
in its essence, which if it should happen would hinder
it from remaining the
same or alike. For how should those things be received
for nourishment which
cannot be converted into a like substance with the
thing nourished, as wood,
stones, &c. As therefore the first is vain so the second
is contrary to Nature.
But for an infant newborn
to be nourished with the Milk of Animals is a thing not
repugnant to Nature, for
milk will become of the like substance with it, but more
easily if it be sucked
from the Mother than any other Creature. Wherefore
Physicians conclude that
it conduces to the health & strength of an infant as
likewise to the
conformity of temper & manners if it is always fed & nourished
by the milk of its own
Mother, & that the contrary happens if it is done by that of
a Stranger. This is the
Universal Harmony of Nature: That Like delights in its
Like & as far as it
can possibly follows its footsteps in everything by a certain
tacit consent &
agreement. The same thing happens of course in the Natural
work of the Philosophers,
which is equally governed by Nature in its Formation
as an Infant in its
Mother's womb. And although as Father, Mother & even a Nurse
be ascribed to it by way
of similitude, Yet it is not more Artificial than the generation
of every Animal.
Two seeds are by a
pleasurable Artifice joined together by Animals & both
the Human sexes which
being united by successive Alteration produce an
Embryo which grows &
is increased, acquires life & motion, & then is
nourished by Milk. But it
is necessary for a Woman in the time of Conception
& impregnation to be
very temperate in heat, Food, drink, Motion, Rest & all
things else; otherwise
Abortion will follow & destruction of the conceived Embryo,
which Observation in the
six non-naturals because it is prescribed by the
Physicians according to their
Art is also Artificial. After the same manner,
if the seeds be not
joined together in the Philosophical Work, they ought to
be joined, but if they
could anywhere be found joined together as the seed
of a Cock & Hen do
subsist together & are contained in one Egg, then would the
Philosophers' work be
more natural that the generation of Animals.
But let us grant (as the
Philosophers do assert) that one comes from the
East & the other from
the West & are made one: what more is as ministered
to 'em than mixture in
their own Vessel, Temperate Heat, and Nutriment.
The Vessel is indeed
Artificial, but in this there is no more difference than if the nest were made
by the Hen herself or made for her by the Country Dame
in some convenient place
as commonly it is. The Generation of Eggs & Hatching
of Chickens from them
will be the same. Heat is a Natural thing, whether it
proceed from the
Temperate Heat of furnaces, putrefaction of Dung, from the
Sun & Air, from the
Bowels of the Mother, or otherwise. Thus the AEgyptian from
his Furnaces does by Art
Administer a Natural Heat for the Hatching of Eggs.
The seeds of Silk worms
& even Hens' Eggs are said to have been Hatched
by the Warmth of a
Virgin's breasts.
Art, therefore, &
Nature, do mutually join hands & officiate one for the other.
Nevertheless, Nature is
always the Mistress & art the Handmaid.
But a doubt may [be]
raised how the Earth may be said to be the NURSE of the Philosophical Infant,
seeing it is the Element which is most dry & void of Juice,
insomuch that Dryness
appertains to it as its proper quality. It may be answered that Earth Elemented
is to be understood, & not the Element of Earth, whose
Nature we have fully
explained in the first day of our Philosophical Week. This Earth is the Nurse
of Caelum or Heaven, not by opening, washing, or
moistening the Infant,
but by coagulating, fixing, coloring and converting it into more Juice &
Blood. For Nutrition implies an Augmentation in length, breadth & Depth
which extends itself through all the Dimensions of a Body, & seeing this
can be afforded & administered to the Philosophical Infant by Earth only, it
can in no wise be improper to call the Earth by the name of his NURSE.
But this admirable Juice
of Earth has a quality different from other kinds of Milk which are converted
& do not convert for this by reason of its most efficacious
Virtue does mightily
alter the Nature of the thing Nourished, as the Milk of the Wolf is believed to
have disposed the Body of Romulus to a Nature that was Magnanimous &
prepense to War.
L'Air et les Songes, Essai sur V'imagination
du mouvement (Corti, 1943, p. 116. In: Edward K. Kaplan, Gaston Bachelard's Philosophy of
Imagination: An Introduction, Philosophy
and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Sep., 1972), pp. 1-24.
Pierre
Hadot, The Veil of Isis. An essay on the
history of the idea of nature
From Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens.
Note 4 Nature’ means
the force which manifests itself in the production and growth of living things
on earth. That force is here personified. But in this passage, the only
function that ‘Nature’ is called on to discharge is that of producing plants.
Note 5: Perhaps, ‘and (so she brought into being the seeds of
all kinds of plants)’.
F. S.
Taylor. "The Alchemical Works of Stephanos of Alexandria." Ambix 1, 1937) 1 16- 39, 2, 1938, 38-49.
