Coincidance - Principia Discordia

58 COINCIDANCE
The true furnace [where the "Matter" is "bathed"—R.A.W.] is a little
simple shell; thou mayest easily carry it in one of thy hands.... As for the
work itself, it is no way troublesome; a lady may... attend this philosophy
without disturbing her fancy. For my part, I think women are fitter for it
than men, for in such things they are more neat and patient, being used to
the small chemistry of sack-possets and other finical sugar-sops. . ..
But I had almost forgot to tell thee that which is all in all, and it is the
greatest difficulty in all the art—namely, the fire. ... The proportion and
regimen of it is very scrupulous, but the best rule to know it by is that of the
Synod: "Let not the bird fly before the fowler." Make it sit while you give fire, and
then you are sure of your prey. For a close I must tell thee that the
philosophers call this fire their bath, but it is a bath of Nature, not an
artificial one; for it is not of any kind of water.... In a word, without this
bath nothing in the world is generated... . Our Matter is a most delicate
substance and tender, like the animal sperm, for it is almost a living thing.
Nay, in very truth, it hath some small portion of life. . . .
"Let him who is not familiar with Proteus have recourse to Pan."*
This is intended to baffle the ordinary reader, and it certainly succeeds.
The "bird" is the sperm, which, when this method is successful, is deflected
into the bladder rather than ejaculated (although Vaughan, like Bruno and
the Oriental Tantrists, probably believed that it went up the spinal cord to
the brain). The "work" is copulation without motion, in the sitting position.
The confusing "fire" which is also a "bath" is the trance which results. The
"matter" is again the sperm—note how neatly Vaughan conceals and
reveals this. The reference to Proteus, god of transformations, and Pan, god
of sexuality, is another hint. If the reader has not identified the "true
furnace," let him consult Donne's hme's Alchemy, where he will find:
And as no chemic yet th' elixir got
But glorifies his pregnant pot.
With this much background, the reader should now be able to grasp that
the "extravagant metaphors" in love poets like Vidal, Sordello, Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Donne, etc., are often not a matter of flattering the lady but
serious statements of a philosophy which runs directly counter to the basic
assumptions of our anal-patriarchal culture. Specifically, the repeated,
perfectly clear identifications of the poet's mistress with a goddess are part
of the mental set, or ritual, connected with this cult. Tibetan teachers train
disciples of Tantra to think of the female partner as being literally, not
metaphorically, the goddess Shakti, divine partner of Shiva. The Sufis,
*A.E. Waite, ed., The Works of Thomas Vaughan, Mystic and Alchemist (New Hyde Park:
University Books, 1968)