Friday 27 March 2015

Succussion in Alchemy

Below an unpublished essay on an obscure topic:

SUCCUSSION IN ALCHEMY: 
DEMIURGIC POTENCY AND PLANETARY QUALITIES 



Succussion in Homoeopathy

In contemporary biotherapeutic practice, the alchemical technique known as succussion is primarily associated with the potentization of homoeopathic medicines where the remedy is developed from the mother tincture up one of various mathematical scales. The founder of modern homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, first attempted to treat his patients according to homoeopathic principles by raw tincture and then by simple dilution. At first, by his own account, he observed how quinine (as a tincture of cinchona bark) could both cause and cure the symptoms similar to malaria. Administering the pure tincture, however, would often cause adverse side effects in his patients, and so he began diluting the tincture by factors of one drop in ten (the X scale) or one drop in one hundred (the C scale) hoping for homoeopathic action (like curing like) without adverse reactions. Then, at some point in his early experiments – and probably drawing upon his extensive knowledge of ancient and medieval medical and alchemical techniques – he began succussing with each dilution. That is, taking one drop of tincture to ten or one hundred drops of a neutral medium, he would succuss the dilution by striking it forcibly and rhythmically against an elastic object such as a leather-bound book. This would constitute the first potency. Then he would take one drop of this, dilute it, and succuss, to make the second potency, and so forth. While simple dilution produced meager results and led to a diminishing of the homoeopathic effect until it ceased altogether, Hahnemann claimed that succussion preserved that effect and transmitted it through the chain of dilution. Succussion, he found, was crucial to the production of effective homoeopathic dilutions and provided the technique necessary to preserve the potency of the medicine while avoiding the side-effects of crude doses. When his critics jibed that homoeopathic dilution was like trying to cure the whole of Switzerland by adding a bucket of medicine to Lake Geneva, Hahnemann retorted that it might be so if only we could find some way to succuss Lake Geneva. Without succussion, the tincture is merely diluted. With succussion it is potentized and the homoeopathic action is preserved on the basis that the organism is super-sensitive to the similar remedy.

It hardly needs to be said that the physical basis of this defies conventional understandings of chemistry to this day, and thus is homoeopathy still subject to derision and claims that its medicines are merely placebos. Homoeopaths, moreover, have not been able to present any convincing account of what makes succussed homoeopathic dilutions effective. They must be content to say that it remains an empirical mystery, or they must hypothesize that, somehow, the medium used in dilution (water or alcohol) “remembers” information from one dilution to the next, that information being “imprinted” – somehow - by means of the succussion.

Of course, succussion is not limited to homoeopathy. It really just means striking a solution with force and this might be done in many pharmacological or alchemical operations, usually to loosen and dissolve active ingredients. Homoeopathy, though, has made special claims about the powers of succussion and its capacity to bring potency to dilutions. Hahnemann, we might say, discovered a more noble purpose for succussion than it just being a convenient mode of agitation. Outside of homeopathy, succussion is a method used in such operations as the production of tinctures, where, for example, the tincture will be succussed from time to time in order to assist the passage of active components from the plant matter to the menstruum. The tincture is thumped (succussed) to loosen active ingredients or, sometimes, to remove bubbles and air pockets. Homoeopathy elevates it to a loftier role beyond the merely mechanical and suggests that there is something more going on than just a loosening of physical parts. Homoeopathic practice suggests that succussion is not just a particular mode of agitation but has other, more significant, uses.

All the same, it should be noted that, strictly speaking, homoeopathy makes no claims about succussion in isolation; rather, in homoeopathy, succussion is always combined with dilution. Just as dilution alone does not work – as Hahnemann found – so too continuous succussion does not advance a homoeopathic preparation up the scale of potencies. There is no point in succussing a potency any more than necessary unless one also dilutes according to the scale being used. In homoeopathic pharmacy, that is, succussion and dilution go together and form a single process. The process is dilute/success/dilute/success, and so on. The succussion brings a kinetic element to the dilution without which the dilution would be merely a diminution of the medicine. Nevertheless, there seems to be some inherent vitality to succussion because, when a homoeopathic medicine has been sitting idle for a long while, homeopaths will often succuss it once more – without dilution – prior to its use. Succussion alone does not increase its potency in the formal sense, but the kinetic vitality imparted by succussion does seem essential to the life of homoeopathic medicines. They become flat – lose their “vibration” – without it. In alchemy succussion is not usually co-joined with dilution. It is just a method of agitating a preparation, and is used for much the same reasons as simple stirring.

Succussion Defined

To be clear, though, let us note here – following careful distinctions made by Hahnemann himself - that succussion is not the same as merely tapping, jiggling, stirring, knocking, shaking or other means of agitation. It is a very particular, exact technique. To succuss a preparation means to hit it with some force upon a surface. Whatever the intent, to shake or stir is not quite the same thing. For homoeopathic purposes, certainly, Hahnemann found that a pronounced striking (technically called “succussion”) was necessary. The vial containing the preparation needs to be thumped upon an appropriately pliant surface (pliant, so that the vial does not break), and this needs to be done not just once but for a period of time in a rhythmic fashion. There is no agreement on the number of succussions required for each dilution – some say sixty, some say a hundred, some more, some less – but in every case the preparation is struck upon a surface with some force – thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud – in order to impart a series of kinetic shocks to the liquid contents. The kinetic nature of the process is evidently crucial because, again, merely shaking does not have the required effect. It is the specific practice of succussion – a rhythmic striking – that Hahnemann found to be efficacious.

Succussion in Alchemy

The purpose of this short paper is to make some broader observations about succussion in the context of alchemy and to suggest a further use for succussion in contemporary alchemical practice. Prior to Hahnemann succussion was a humble process taken for granted and no one suspected that it had important applications or indeed any deep significance in a theoretical sense. Here we propose describing an important use for succussion and also making mention of its deeper meaning and background in alchemical symbolism. We are not concerned with the specific applications discovered by homoeopaths, because we are not concerned with the production of specifically homoeopathic pharmaceuticals. We have only discussed homeopathy because homoeopathy has made succussion its own. Here, instead, we are concerned with the spagyric arts more generally. In these arts succussion is a neglected technique. Taking a lead from homeopathy, our purpose is to realize its power as a method of “imprinting” qualities upon an alchemical preparation. In particular, this paper proposes a method whereby succussion is used to enhance the planetary or astrological qualities of alchemical preparations. Homoeopathy separates itself from alchemy in this regard, claims no astrological foundations, and insists that it is entirely empirical. It is a selective adaptation of alchemical methods to a particular, ancient theory of medicine. Alchemy always remains wedded to astrology; they are sister sciences that form a single Work. We want to suggest an important application of succussion in view of that, and then mention several theoretical and symbolic points that follow from it.

Planetary Qualities

Alchemy is concerned with extracting, capturing and concentrating the sub-lunary manifestations of planetary forces, whether these are to be found embryonically in metals or in plants. In spagyric alchemy, plants are deemed to contain the planetary essences and the alchemical process consists of isolating those essences. Thus, for instance, certain herbs are valued because they are manifestations of certain planetary archetypes. Fennel is mercurial. The bay laurel is solar. And so on. Typically, herbs are harvested and processed on appropriate days and at appropriate hours according to established planetary correspondences. Herbs of Venus are harvested on Friday, the day ruled by that planet. Herbs of Saturn are harvested on Saturday, herbs of Mars on Tuesday And so on. This is familiar practice in contemporary plant alchemy, especially of the Paracelsian school, and there is no need to detail it here. There is a correspondence between plant and planet and the alchemical processes make use of these correspondences. Spagyric medicines, tinctures, elixirs and magestries are prepared with these correspondences in view and it is a key objective of all such alchemical operations that the product of the operation is imbued with concentrations of planetary forces. This is an essential feature of the theory and practice of alchemy since alchemy is concerned with the terrestrial manifestations of the celestial order.

Succussion can assist in this. The manner in which succussion “imprints” qualities to a medium can be used to extract, capture and concentrate planetary forces. It is a simple matter. In its most obvious application, the planetary qualities of a preparation may be enhanced by bringing succussion to it on the appropriate planetary days and/or at the appropriate planetary hours. Thus a solar preparation can be succussed each Sunday and, more particularly, during the hours of the Sun on Sunday. Let us suppose we are preparing a tincture of the bay laurel and in this we are seeking to enhance its solar properties. For a start, the plant material will be collected at the appropriate time, but after that it helps to attend to the tincture at similarly appropriate times. Many alchemists work like this in any case. They will strain the tincture at a time determined by the astrological correspondences, and wait for astrologically propitious times to conduct other operations upon the preparation. Some might even shake or stir the tincture at the appropriate times. This is all in order, but the point being made here is that succussion is a method naturally adapted to such processes. We should take note of Hahnemann’s experiments. Succussion – deliberate, prolonged rhythmic, kinetic striking – imparts a potency not found in stirring or shaking.

Sensitive Chaos

There is not, as we have already said, any standing theory to satisfy conventional science of the action of succussion. Homoeopaths have turned to studies of sub-atomic molecular structures or to vibrational hypotheses to try to explain how succussion can “imprint” information onto a neutral medium. It is probably more useful to turn to studies such as Theodore Schwenk’s account of water systems in Sensitive Chaos for a meaningful theoretical framework. Schwenk’s model is based on a simple order/chaos dichotomy. Systems in chaos, he says, are sensitive to systems of order. Chaos is thus a window to creativity. Where there is chaos, a new order will impose itself. This might be what happens in succussion, either at sub-atomic or even more subtle levels. Each collision, each strike, shatters an existing order. A new order – a new code of information – then quickly gathers to fill that void. When the succussion is repeated over and over in rhythmic succession a particular order is “imprinted” upon the neutral medium.

Astrological Tides

In any case, by these criteria succussion deserves a more prominent place in the alchemist’s repertoire of techniques, and if certain processes are timed according to astrological tides, and are deemed sensitive to planetary qualities, succussion is very likely to be more effective than some other processes such as shaking or stirring. It is somewhat by the way, but Schwenk’s study, dealing as it does with sensitive chaos in large natural systems, should lead us to consider the use of actual planetary formations in alchemical work rather than the traditional (and rather mechanical) calendar of tides. The imprints of succussion might be better adapted to actual cosmological events. This would suggest a way in which very specific cosmological qualities might be extracted, captured and concentrated. For example, the qualities of a certain celestial configuration, such as a trine relationship between, say, the Sun, Moon and Saturn, might be harnessed through these means. Every time that this same configuration occurred the preparation (tincture etc.) in question would be succussed. It would be struck upon a pliant surface sixty or so times. If it was succussed at these specific astrological junctures and at no others then, perforce, and by virtue of the sensitivity of the succussed medium, the qualities of that configuration would be “imprinted”.

This is a rather more organic approach than following a set calendar of planetary days and hours. For Mercurial preparations, for example, the alchemist chooses a particular astrological configuration in which Mercury is prominent - a Mercury/Solar conjunction, perhaps - and then succusses the preparation every time that configuration recurs. In practical terms, in fact, solar and lunar conjunctions lend themselves to this sort of approach, but less common configurations might be targeted as well, depending upon what qualities the alchemist seeks to deploy. All things considered, this might be a better approach than that which prevails in most Paracelsean practice today, namely just shaking preparations on a given day of the week. As it is, some alchemists will construct a chart of the heavens (horoscope) for some major operations. It might be better if, in general, alchemists were more cognizant of astrological cycles, just as it would certainly enhance the practice of astrology in modern times if astrologers were more aware of the connections of their art to alchemy. The “imprinting” for which we are supposing succussion to be an agent supposes an entirely hermetic mode of sensitivity. Alchemical preparations are routinely conceived to be microcosmic – it is therefore the macrocosm to which they will be sensitive. The hermetic maxim prevails in all such cases. We therefore take the microcosmic solution and succuss it in the deliberate Hahnemanian manner (though without serial dilution, because we are not making homoeopathic remedies) at carefully selected times, nodes of selected astrological potency. It is important not to succuss at other times. At other times – just like good wines - such preparations should be kept in a very stable state. Succussion occurs only when certain climates in the heavens return, and over time, by repetition, a certain condition of the cosmos is “imprinted” upon the menstruum. Again: shaking or stirring is to little avail. As Hahnemann found, there is something unique about succussion.

In order to produce potency, though, succussion must accompany dilution, or its equivalent. This insight of Hahnemann’s has its application in planetary alchemy in repeated operations at a series of identical astrological events. There is no merit in succussing a preparation for an extra long time once. Instead, it needs to be succussed at intervals, over and over, the more often the better. Each time the astrological configuration reoccurs, that is, the preparation is succussed sixty or so times. This is like one homoeopathic potency, 1x or 1c. The next time the same astrological configuration occurs the preparation is succussed again. This is then 2x or 2c. And so on. Hahnemann used a scale of dilutions. In the production of planetary spagyrics it is not a matter of dilution, but duration. The alchemist waits for the same aspect of cosmic order to return. The more often this is done, the greater the potency, the deeper the imprint. The x scale corresponds to astrological events of common regularity, while the c scale corresponds to events that occur with less regularity. In general terms, the x scale, we might say, is lunar, while the c scale is solar, or the x scale corresponds to the inferior planets and the c scale to the superior planets.

This is all by way of suggestion and follows from reflecting upon the powers of succussion exposed by homoeopathic pharmacy. It is entirely in order for alchemists to learn from the experience of their homoeopathic cousins. But it also follows from deeper reflections upon the nature of succussion as an alchemical method. Even though homoeopaths have made succussion (with dilution) their own, it is, we must insist here, a laboratory technique of a fundamentally alchemical nature. Certainly, Hahnemann did not invent it. It was already part of alchemical practice, but its roots had been forgotten and its powers unsuspected. So let us add some notes to put this practice back into a proper – that is, properly alchemical - perspective.

The Blacksmith’s Hammer

We only come to realize its importance when we appreciate that, as a method of kinetic force, it is directly related to the arts of the primordial alchemist, the blacksmith. Too often do laboratory alchemists forget that the basis of their art is in metallurgy, that the laboratory is actually a glorified smithy and the alchemist is actually a glorified smith. Too readily do alchemists forget such roots, especially in these abstract times. But if a modern alchemist was to spend some time in a smithy beside the heat and sparks of a real forge, he would soon notice the importance of the blacksmith beating – in kinetic rhythm - his raw materials with his hammer, his most basic tool. There is a direct and very obvious connection between the blacksmith hammering at his anvil and the alchemist (or homoeopath) succussing his liquid preparations. Thud-thud-thud-thud.

If we were to explore this matter further we would add that the blacksmith, moreover, is, in this capacity (as in others), demiurgic, and alchemy is an essentially demiurgic art. Succussion then, is a demiurgic process and must therefore be related to earthquakes insofar as the blacksmith is the demiurgic Vulcan and practices, by mimesis, the volcanic formative arts. This is necessary background. To understand alchemy one should always remember that the retort of the laboratory is the crucible of the forge, and the crucible of the forge is the crater of the volcano. Such parallels are fundamental and ever-present. In alchemy, of course, processes of geological duration are compressed. Typically, the alchemist takes the embryonic metals from the womb of the earth, places them in his athanor, and brings them to quick maturity by imitating the processes that in nature will take aeons. The alchemist advances the demiurgic Work. That, finally, is what alchemy is all about. In this sense, succussion is like aeons of earthquakes compressed into a few minutes. In nature, each earthquake shatters the terrestrial order with terrible force but a new order, born of the heavens, asserts itself again. This, we should understand, is the large-scale, macrocosmic correlative to the laboratory process of succussion. This is the macrocosmic volcano-geological process that the alchemist is imitating.

Rumi and the Anvil

This demiurgic symbolism is given beautiful expression in the story of the Muslim sage Rumi who, we are told, was one day walking through the bazaar when he heard the blacksmith’s hammer ringing out as it struck the anvil in steady rhythm. This innocent event was the catalyst for Rumi’s spiritual transformation. Suddenly, we are told, Rumi began whirling on the spot in ecstasy, his arms extended, in what is now the familiar and famous dance of his followers, the so-called whirling dervishes. By any account, the dance of the dervishes is planetary. Each dervish is an orb and they whirl around their own axis and about a central axis, the head dervish, the Sheihk. It is forgotten that it was the beat of the blacksmith’s hammer – demiurgic succussion - that caused Rumi’s transformation (like the transformation of metals) and that brought this celestial dance to earth. In this story the connection between succussion and the cosmological cycles of the planets is quite explicit.

Unseen to the observer of the dervish dance, furthermore, there is an internal alchemy with direct correlatives to the laboratory process of succussion. This is the so-called dhikr, or ‘prayer of remembrance’, which is the fundamental technique of Sufi spiritual transformation, and which has exact parallels in many other traditions. In dhikr, the dervish develops the practice of reciting the Divine Name internally, over and over, in serial repetition. The simplest form of it consists of reciting the Name of the Essence, Allah-Allah-Allah-Allah unceasingly, inwardly in the hidden chamber of the heart. The followers of Rumi do this as they conduct their planetary dance. The dhikr is described as ‘polishing the mirror of the heart’ or as ‘polishing a stone’ but in Sufi lore its origins are in the beat of the blacksmith’s hammer. It is the succussion of spiritual alchemy. What hammering is to the blacksmith’s art, so is succusion to the arts of the laboratory alchemist, and so too, in turn, is dhikr to the alchemy of the dervish.

Conclusion

The alchemist would do well to reflect on this symbolism and therein know that there is much more to succussion than just a method of shaking a herbal preparation. Hahnemann, we realize, stumbled upon an alchemical secret. Succussion is a commonplace, basic method. Pounding a solution on a surface to “stir it up” - what could be more basic? Yet it is, as homoeopaths know, a key to great power. And when we consider it in a broader view of alchemy and the primitive roots of the Art and take into account the appropriate parallels we realize that its symbolic meaning takes us back to what is ultimately a demiurgic primordiality. The simple act of striking a vial on a leather-bound book has a cosmic meaning. In alchemy it is always true that there is deep significance to be found in even the simplest operations.



- R. Blackhirst











































Monday 23 March 2015

Nicholas Roerich

Speaking of Russian orientalists (see previous post about Vasily Vereshchagin) one cannot go past the great Nicholas Roerich. He is, by general agreement, the greatest of the Russian spiritual artists who turned his gaze and journeyed to the east. The present writer recalls his great enthusiasm when he first encountered Roerich's work. It was like finding a painter about whom he had dreamed; Roerich painted pictures that the author had sensed and imagined before he had seen them, works that he felt belonged in the world, works with an innate correctness. He remembers introducing these works to an acquaintance and she was merely ho-hum about them, underwhelmed. She was wrong and petty. What a lost opportunity! These are glowing works with an exceptional quality. They are works to which the present writer keeps returning again and again. Most recently, through a long chain of associations, he came back to Roerich's picture of Lord Krishna. It remains a favourite - archetypal Roerich:



Roerich occupies a special place in Russian cultural history - he was a passionate defender of Russian heritage. The October Revolution and the rise of Lenin and his philistines, however, saw him exiled to Finland, then London, then America before undertaking the so-called "Asian Expedition" in the years 1925 to 1929. Along with his wife Helena, Roerich toured through vast areas of Asia. The itinerary took them through (in Roerich's words)  "Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Orygot regions of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam and Tibet." The paintings from this expedition and later paintings inspired by this expedition are especially wonderful. Here are a few:






No one captures the spiritual power of the Himalayas and the Central Asian plateau like Nicholas Roerich. Painting in tempera, these are works of great spiritual depth. There is a superb collection of Roerich's mountain paintings in the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.










He was, all the same, a man of eccentric ideas. Quite apart from his artistic undertakings, his stated mission during the great Asian Expedition was to rouse the Boodhists of the region into creating a utopian society allied, oddly enough, to the Soviet Union. He seems to have been assisted in this by the Soviet Secret Service, a peculiar episode in the Great Game. He was not especially political in his motivations; rather he harboured mystical views about a new civilisation arising from Central Asia. It was not an uncommon view in his time, promoted by  Madame Blavatsky and other Russians of a mystical bent. The idea of Tibet and Central Asia as a great repository of the spiritual heritage of mankind was a persistent theme in European and Russian ideas throughout the 19th C. and in fact up until recent times. In part, it underpins the contemporary popularity of Tibetan Boodhism in the West.

Roerich and his wife borrowed ideas from Theosophy and crafted them into their own idiosyncratic philosophy. It still survives in the form of "Agni Yoga" the headquarters of which remains in New York city. See here: http://agniyoga.org/





Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

Tuesday 17 March 2015

The Life and Death of Chung Ling Soo

In these miserable days of post-colonial cringe when spoilt well-off self-hating middle class white elites scream "racism" at the slightest provocation, it would be impossible to enjoy a great culture-bending talent like the stage magician Chung Ling Soo. An American Scott, his real name was William Ellsworth Robinson and he performed under that name for many years, as well as "James Campbell" and "Professor Campbell". After a professional feud with his rival the Asian conjurer Ching Ling Foo, however, he adopted a Chinese persona and the name Chung Ling Soo and became famous in that identity. The public became engrossed in his rivalry with Ching Ling Foo, which was on-going and bitter, and the two men - one Chinese and one imitating a Chinaman - sparred in magic tricks, each denouncing the other as a fraud and an impostor. Each man studied the performances of the other and tried to duplicate each other's illusions much to the delight of theatre-goers everywhere. 

Robinson did not take to his Chinese persona by halves; he adopted the identity in every aspect. He was scrupulous in his adoption of Chinese manners. He shaved his head, grew a pony-tail or "Manchu queue", wore silk attire and coloured his skin. He never spoke English - other than a few broken phrases - on stage or in public and he adopted a raft of Chinese habits. His new persona came with an elaborate back story. He claimed to be the child of a Scottish father and a Cantonese woman and to have been orphaned at the age of eleven. He learnt magic, he said, in South America under the tutelage of an Asian mystic named Arr Hee. When Arr Hee died the young apprentice took to the road, touring the world with the secret and ancient arts of Chinese supernaturalism. (Like much else about Robinson the story of being taught by Arr Hee is spurious. In fact, Arr Hee had made a career as a stage magician and Robinson effectively pilfered his authority for his own purposes.) 

Here below is a picture of the said magus:

Chung Ling Soo.jpg

And here is a theatre poster promoting him as "The Marvellous Chinese Conjurer". He was born in 1861 and died - in a famous incident on stage - in 1918. At the height of his career he was world famous and the highest paid act on the vaudeville circuit.


And here is another poster from 1906:


During his stage act he was accompanied by his wife Olive Path who appeared, less convincingly, as the Chinese woman Suee Seen. She was the willing victim in his illusions: the lady in the glass case, sawing a woman in half, the woman in the boiling couldron etc. She features - as if the main attraction - in this theatre poster from the same era:



And here they are, along with a further stage assistant known as 'Bamboo Flower'.


This picture is found in the State Library of Victoria (Australia). Chung Ling Soo and his act, along with some seventy-five tons of luggage,  came to Australia in 1909, performing to sell-out crowds. It is related that he made over 400 pounds salary a week, a better wage than the Governor-General and Prime Minister combined. Not only did he perform on stage, he also walked the streets of the major cities performing illusions and tricks on the spot to delighted and astounded onlookers. He embodied the character of the "mystic East". Far from being just a "racist caricature" he softened and deepened the Australian reception of "orientals". He frequented Chinatown in Sydney and was beloved by the Chinese and Euro-Chinese communities. 

An innovative showman, he spent much of his time in Australia developing new illusions. When he arrived his show consisted of thirteen feats; by the time he left he had extended his show to two hours and over thirty feats. Some of his tricks were old standards, but his craft was superb and he presented them with new flare. Other tricks were ambitious and spectacular including amazing feats of fire-eating. One of his most famous tricks involved throwing animal skins into a cauldron of boiling water from which he would then pluck live animals, as if magically reborn. In another he would fire an arrow on a string through at his assistant. It would appear to go right through her body and strike a target behind her. 

In 1918, in London, one of his most famous stunts - the dreaded 'bullet catch' - went wrong. He had performed the trick many times without incident. An audience member would load a marked bullet in a pistol. It would then be fired directly at the magician who would catch the bullet in his teeth. On this occasion, the illusion (done with a trick gun and a blank) failed and the performer was struck in the chest by a live bullet. He fell to the ground and uttered his only English words on stage, "Oh my God! Close the curtains!" He died in hospital the following day. A police inquiry into the incident eventually made a ruling of 'Death by Misadventure'. 

Today's politically-correct sensitivities squirm at the very thought of an Anglosaxon making use of a Chinese persona as a stage act. If you search for accounts of the life and death of Chung Ling Soo online they are invariably prefaced with post-colonial twaddle as if we now need to make excuses for him.  See here for instance where it is claimed that "his humility ensured that xenophobic Australian audiences did not see him as a threat..." We stereotype the 'racism' of past generations and dress it up with our own moral vanity. The author claims that "Orientalism was used to enhance the myth of white supremacy..." It was rather more complicated than that. Cases like Chung Ling Soo - cheered and revered by audiences who earnestly believed him to be Chinese -  are not so easily explained. 


Yours,
Harper McAlpine Black

Monday 16 March 2015

Vasily Vereshchagin - A Russian Orientalist


The extraordinary painting above, entitled The Apotheosis of War, is by the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin. Although he was one of the first Russian painters to win notoriety outside his homeland, many of his works were too graphic and controversial to ever be displayed or exhibited. His subject matter was often war, and rather than indulge in patriot glorification he tended to depict it with horrific realism. This sometimes won him enemies in the Russian political and military establishment. He was regarded as a controversial figure; he showed warfare for what it was and his paintings were often banned. He dedicated Apotheosis of War "to all conquerors, past, present and to come."He is another instance of an artist who defies the modernist myth that the academic painters and orientalists of the 19th C. served but never challenged the status quo. Here, below, is another of his works on the theme of war, this one called After Battle


As a witness to Russian military adventures in Central Asia and the Far East he travelled widely and painted many orientalist themes. In 1874 he undertook an extensive tour of Tibet and India. He counts as a major Russian orientalist painter. He painted the usual sights, such as the Taj Mahal, below, an undistinguished rendering:


But also more lively, interesting and engaging architectural studies, such as this painting of a mosque:


Or this picture of Darjeeling:


Or this picture of a Shinto shrine:


The present author prefers some of his pictures of the various peoples and types he met on his travels. Consider, for instance, this picture of an Indian fakir, below:


His travels in Palestine moved him to paint scenes from the New Testament, but this brought him into further controversy. It was felt that his depictions of Jesus were too "semitic". 

Today he has the rare distinction of having a planetoid named after him, Vereshchagin, discovered by Russian astronomers in 1978. 

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black







Albert Eugene De Puyou - Eye of the Day


It is safe to say that few people in that benighted realm the Anglosphere have ever heard of Albert Eugene De Puyou, Count of Pouvourville. In the French speaking world there are perhaps a few more, yet today he is an obscure figure. Born in 1862 into a family with an illustrious military tradition, he joined the French foreign legion and journeyed to French Indo-China where he remained most of his life. He was, in his time, one of the great French orientalists - in the best sense of the word - and was instrumental in introducing oriental spiritual traditions and customs, especially Taoism, into Europe. His military career with distinguished, and after that he took numerous administrative positions. His real interests, however, were not in advancing French interests in Viet Nam or southern China, but in oriental esoterica. He lived for decades in Tonkin (northern Viet Nam), learnt Chinese and Vietnamese, and immersed himself in the traditions of those lands. When he returned to France he published numerous studies under the name Matgioi - "eye of the day". His most accomplished works concerned the metaphysics of Taoism with which he - in contrast to the academic orientalists of his time - had a deep and first hand acquaintance. He was an associate of the great French metaphysician Rene Guenon. 

His acquaintance with Taoism was, in fact, an initiated one. While serving in the First Regiment of the Foreign Legion where he attained the rank of lieutenant and was noted for several heroic deeds, he met a man named Tong Song Luat who initiated him into a semi-secret society and taught him the inner doctrines of Taoism. For a European of his time, and perhaps since, his knowledge of Taoism was unsurpassed. He wrote attacks upon academic and theosophical pretenders and spoke with authority upon the true teachings of the Tao and Taoist alchemy. His principle work was La Voie Métaphysique1905. He was a regular contributor to Guenon's journal Gnosis

Regrettably, little or nothing of the works of Matgioi are available in English. Here, though, is a link to a PDF of his main work in his native French, an important work on oriental metaphysics contrasted with those of the West. It includes a profound account of the I Ching and the symbolism of its hexagrams:


His other claim to fame was his lifelong addiction to opium. He would take to the opium pipe every day. Here is a poem he wrote on the subject, translated into English by R.E.André III.

Opium

Mild regret of the morning, sweet smile of the evening,
Indifferent to praise and scorner of blame,
Gilded opium, silent counselor, nurturer
Of all of the refined pleasures that we each loved,

Director of knowledge, power, will,
Creature of concepts, fire-starter,
Older brother of sleep, father of nonchalance,
Ruler of sense, poison of hearts, sustainer of souls,

Comfort of the dreamer, hope of the continent,
Luller of cares, golden mouth of legends,
Stimulator of the fingers, titillator of glands,
Invisible emperor of hallucinatory dream,

Wine of the contrite brain and bread of the starved soul,
Black companion, secret kiss, immanent master
Come, my friend, come, my mistress, come, smoke.

[Translation from French by R.E.André III]


L’Opium

Doux regret du matin, doux sourire du soir,
Indifférent du los et mépriseur des blâmes,
Opium doré, muet conseiller, amorçoir
De tous le raffinés plaisirs que nous aimâmes,

Directeur du savoir, du pouvoir, du vouloir,
Créature de concepts, générateur de flammes,
Frère ainé du sommeil, père du nonchaloir,
Règle des sens, poison des cœurs, soutien des âmes,

Réconfort du songeur, espoir du continent,
Endormeur des soucis, bouche d’or des légendes,
Excitateur des doigts, titillateur des glandes,
Invisible empereur du rêve hallucinant,

Vin du cerveau contrit, pain de l’âme affamée,
Noir compagnon, baiser secret, maître immanent,
Viens, mon ami ; viens, ma maîtresse ; viens, fumée.

MATGIOI (Albert de Pouvourville) 'Rimes Chinoises', 1904.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black


Saturday 14 March 2015

The Travels of Harper McAlpine Black


The above map - readers will excuse the indulgence of old cartography - gives a rough indication of the journeys of the current author over the last thirty or so years. Admittedly, not all of these journeys have been physical - some have been intellectual or even spiritual - but there have, nevertheless, been whole continents and worlds traversed. His travels have been, by and large, eastwards, beginning in the United Kingdom and Europe and ending, most recently, in Japan.

Some places, people and interests along the way, more or less in their chronological sequence, one thing leading on to another:

*Anglicanism and Celtic Christianity
*Stonehenge and Pre-Christian British Isles
*Isle of Mann - Anglo-Saxon Paganism
*Zurich - Jung
*W.B. Yeats - A Vision
*London - The Golden Dawn and ceremonial magic
*Paris - MacGregor Mathers
*Freemasonry
*Theosophy
*Dornach - Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
*Gnostic Christianity
*Jerusalem - Hebrew Kabbalah
*Athens - Plato
*Istanbul - Turkish Islaam
*Konya - Mevlevi Soofism
*Dawoodia Soofism
*Cairo - Rene Guenon and Perennialism
*Tehran - Corbin and the Mundus Imaginalis
*Lahore - Shia Islaam and Illuminationism
*Lucknow
*Delhi - Sankara and Advaita vedanta
*Hyderabad
*Mircea Eliade - Alchemy
*Singapore - Complete Reality Taoism
*Kyoto - Zen Buddhism

Many of these topics are covered or reflected in these pages. The above map provides at least some measure of coherence to an otherwise eclectic assortment of interests. 

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black

Chang the Chinese Giant

Below, some photographs from the author's collection of pictures of old China (or old pictures of China, if you prefer) - pictures of Chang the Chinese Giant, once a very famous name. 


Chang the Chinese Giant, 1870. 

His stage name was Chang Woo Gow. His real name was Zhan Shichai. Son of a Confucian scholar. He toured the world, including Australia, earned a good salary of over $500 US a month, received a good education and learnt ten languages. He married a woman named Catherine Santley whom he met in Sydney. When he died his coffin was 8 feet 6 inches long.


Here he is, quite young, with a stage midget named Chung Mow (less than 3 feet tall). The picture is from the Glasgow Herald, 1865, reprinted in a work entitled The Adventures of a Travelling Musician in Australia, China & Japan, by Marquis Chisholm. 

Finally, here is Chang in European clothes - this picture from the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. 



Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black