de alchemia cybernetica
conclusio
A self-organized system must be always alive and without finalizing, since conclusion is another name for death. — Stafford Beer
The distinction between cognition and autonomy is "made by the hand which draws this line" (Francisco Varela, Principles of Biological Autonomy).
All that has individuality is conscious, and all that is conscious is individual, though emanating from one source. This one source is the absolute cosmic consciousness, the only absolute reality, of which individual consciousness is a segment. This sole reality IS in itself. Because of it, the individual consciousness is prima intelligentia, and so it finds itself subject to a recurring law of cycles; this is not, however, the mere repetition of a common circle closing over itself again and again, but a progressive upward spiral of attainment that ultimately brings the individual into full cosmic consciousness. The step that follows is beyond our present comprehension, as the highest conceivable physical entity has not been reached as yet. When it is, another hypothetical line may be drawn, and a new set of theories formulated.
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Attaining the summit of alchemical knowledge, wherein cosmic consciousness is experienced as subject [cf. the One Mind of alchemy /jam] and the quintessentia as object [cf. the One Matter of alchemy /jam], has climaxed the noble quest of sages since time immemorial. It represents man's zenith, his mastership over matter and the eventual merging into one with the Absolute, the realization of cosmic consciousness. — Frater Albertus, The Alchemist's Handbook
See what power you have and what speed! […] If you do not make yourself equal to God you cannot understand Him. Like is understood by like. Grow to immeasurable size. Be free from every body, transcend all time. Become eternity and thus you will understand God. Suppose nothing to be impossible for yourself. Consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything: all arts, sciences, and the nature of every living creature. Become higher than all heights and lower than all depths. Sense as one within yourself the entire creation: fire, water, and the dry and the moist. Conceive yourself to be at all places at the same time: in earth, in the sea, in heaven; that you are not yet born, that you are in the womb, that you are young, old, dead; that you are beyond death. Conceive all things at once: times, places, actions, qualities and quantities; then you can understand God. — Corpus Hermeticum 11.20
Thus we are encouraged to experiment with the wonderful mobility of human beings who, thanks to their threefold essence — intelligible [Sulfur], animated [Mercury] and material [Salt] — are not confined to one part of the universe (e.g. like fishes in the sea or gods in heaven), but are 'at once in earth, in the sea, and in heaven'. Not only can humankind push away the barriers of space but they can also escape the bondage of time by picturing to themselves the dawn of existence in the womb, or even soul before entering the body and after leaving it. This kind of meditation is nothing like mere fancy. On the contrary, it is a way of seeing the invisible, of anticipating the Great Beyond, a real training for immortality.
Indeed becoming immortal is just a matter of will: 'You can even become a god if you want, for it is possible. Therefore want and understand and believe and love: then you have become it!' — Clement Salaman et al, "Introduction (to The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius)," The Way of Hermes
author: joshua madara