The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

cauldron. . . . Ye have feared the sword, and I will bring a sword upon
you, saith the Lord God.”
Here, from the burning and justifiable wrath of the prophet we
learn that these twenty-five men, in order to avert the threatened attack by
the Babylonians, had recently had a great “Day of Blood,” no doubt like
that of Cybele in Rome, but with fatal results. We learn also that
Jaazaniah was one of the Princes of Israel, and have previously seen that
the old Syrian Kings considered that they were incarnations of the God
Tammuz. Thus there can, I fear, be little doubt as to whether it was a real
or simulated corpse which lay in the rock hewn tomb while the voice of
lamentation went up at the North gate.
The reference to the cauldron and the flesh must now be
considered. Jeremiah when the Lord asked him “What seest thou?”
answered, “And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is
towards the North.” It will be noticed that the face of the pot is towards
the place where stood the shrine of Astarte: the place of darkness and of
the Underworld, which is most significant. At first sight it might be
thought that this pot was merely a parable, but it appears that it was really
one of the chief causes of the wrath of Jehovah, since it stood for a Pagan
Rite which He abominated. There is a widespread magical process of
which we find many traces whereby if a man is slain, cut up and boiled in
a pot, he will be restored to youth and life. According to Greek legends
Medea took advantage of this superstition to encompass the death of her
father-in-law, and the ancient British God of the Sea had a magic
cauldron in which he placed the bodies of men who had been slain in
battle and brought them back to life again. 12
In the High History of the Holy Graal we have a very unpleasant
story concerning such a cauldron. The Son of a King who followed the
Old Law was slain by a Giant. 13 Sir Gawain killed the Giant and brought
back the boy’s corpse, whereupon to his amazement the father took the
corpse, cut it up, boiled it in a cauldron and then distributed the pieces
among his chief men. 14
12
Jeremiah 1. 13.
13
Mabinogion pp. 87, 44. Everyman ed
14
The High History of the Holy Graal. Trans. by Dr. S. Evans. Everyman
ed. p. 76
444