Quintessence and the attainment thereof

Beneath the world of appearances, by which I mean the physical world as we perceive it in all of its myriad diversity, lies one true substance. This is what the Alchemists were attempting to tap into when they aspired to finding the “Quintessence”, literally “fifth element”. They saw the physical world as comprised of four elements: fire, air, earth, and water. The fifth element was pure spirit, and as such was not subject to the entropic nature of the physical creation. It was believed that by accessing the quintessential level of an element, one could undo its tendencies towards chaos. In practical terms, this meant such possibilities as bringing about immortality or transmuting base metals into gold.

The story about reality that underlies this pursuit is that the Creator originally made the world perfect out of this one substance. The Alchemists saw God as the ultimate force of order and harmony. However, at some point, due to the events known as “the Fall”, which are described metaphorically in the book of Genesis (Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden), the whole material world got corrupted and divided into various elements which were pervaded by a tendency to break apart.

Now this story was an attempt to explain away the chaos inherent in nature while letting God off the hook. They saw God as infallible, and hence incapable of creating such a clearly flawed world. Personally, I do not subscribe to this idea, as I see creation more in a dualistic sense, which pits Chaos and Order in a delicate and beautiful dance whose movements are the world as we perceive it. But there is a great deal of depth to the Alchemists vision. It is clear that the tendency of the natural world is to break up into chaos. Newton couched this is physical terms through his second law of thermodynamics. But at the same time, there appears to be an equal force that is not entropic, but rather creative, active, organizing. Were this force not in place, the world as we perceive it would not exist.

The expression of this power into matter is perceived by physicists as the fundamental forces of Nature. The so-called “strong nuclear force”, for instance, is an attempt to explain why great numbers of positively-charged protons can co-exist in very tight quarters in the nucleus of an atom, despite the tendency of similarly charged objects to repel each other. This is a force of cohesion, which counteracts the entropy-driving natural premise that opposites attract. (there are also many esoteric references to the effect that in the spiritual worlds, like attracts like. Hence, when astral traveling, a person will tend to attract forces and beings that resonate with his or her own projections, intentions, and desires).

So what is the nature of this so-called “quintessence” or underlying spiritual substance that is the true source of all creation? In esoteric literature, numerous terms abound: light, sound, spirit, love, Cosmic Fire, word (logos). In all of my investigations into this question, utilizing the instruments of consciousness available to me, I have often seen this primal force as one or more of these concepts, however none is complete. To apply qualities based on the qualities of material (or even emotional) forces is to attempt to limit what is limitless. Be that as it may, we have to call it something for practicality sake, and while personally I’m drawn to the poetry of saying that all creation is made of Love, I will defer here to tradition, which has more tended to speak of the manifestations of the Absolute as Light.

So here is my supposition. All creation is the manifestation of one singular Light. This Light is homogonous in its nature, however, like white light passing through a prism and breaking up into the various colors of the spectrum, the divine Light, once passed through the filter of consciousness, refracts into various qualities. Because of the coarse and entropic nature of the physical world, the entrance of Light into this world is both very dim, and highly refracted and diffuse. Hence it is very difficult to perceive the true nature of this reality from here. Or at the very least, it requires a great deal of clarification of one’s consciousness through the various means of spiritual/yogic practices.

Now in other levels of reality, this is not the case. The angels and other inhabitants of the spiritual worlds are not so limited by the worlds they inhabit. Hence, they are able to receive and to emanate a much greater degree of this Light in a much purer form.
One version of the story of Lucifer is that his rebellion was inspired by a feeling of compassion for our plight. Here we were, self-aware beings who carried the Divine Light within us. However, we were trapped in these very limited physical vehicles that kept us from knowing our true nature. This is the tragedy that moved Lucifer to leave his place at the right hand of God and devote himself to awakening us through sometimes-drastic means. This is again the story of Prometheus, who brought the fire of the gods to mankind.

I believe it is our purpose in this life to awaken to our true nature and to open to ever-greater levels of Cosmic Light. What is interesting, though, is that to do so requires a delving into darkness as well. I believe that Light and Darkness are mirror images of each other, and without coming to know one, we cannot know the other. That’s why many of my most beautiful experiences of clarity and light have come after a long night of exploring the darkness inside my mind. Psychedelic trance music has often been a great facilitator for this process. After a night of moving through chaos, disintegrating my rational consciousness, and often exploring many darker emotions, I have often come out into the sunrise which a clarity and focus and a sense of peace that is greater than what I generally experience most other times. And darkness and chaos also do not have to mean negative (as in painful or unpleasant) experiences either. Usually after passing through a level of negative emotions, I descend into a more pure level of darkness and chaos. One that is very rich and beautiful and smells of serpents’ blood and sex. The wild, dark passion of allowing one’s reason to step aside so that the body can be swept up into the throes of ecstasy. This can also certainly happen through lovemaking as well, and the sensation afterwards of love and serenity is comparable.
I believe that if there really are angels and gods (and I think there are), they must have a clearer grasp of darkness, as well as of the light. They must know deeper levels of unconscious passion in order to also know higher levels of pure and absolute being. For me, it is the tastes of both that give me the desire to go on living.