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Alchemist Archetype
October 29, 2012
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fermentation at home
In my study of the archetypes I have procrastinated badly around the character of the alchemist. I have homework that involves writing to the archetypes and tracking them in my own life. When I arrived at the second house of my own chart and found this character I stalled. Maybe I stalled, or maybe I needed a few months to consider what the alchemist does. Doing the journal project I found a few people in my past who represent this aspect of life, some of whom had not come to mind for decades before I asked myself to find them. I readily accept that this is part of me, but the definition of what it is and how I use it became a blank and a mystery. This requires great discipline. I must handle it with great respect or drop the entire curriculum. The distillation of time and space is the realm of the alchemist. I have been involved in it all my life. I still have a big interest in all the mystery schools and twirling Sufis in all of history.
If we look at all the ways magic and nature have been combined the most common use is to cure. Medicine has included alchemy, which was derived from basic observation of nature. If you go into an 800 year old pharmacy in Europe you will see the astrological signs on the wall, and the snake delivering the water used to take your pills. The unbroken tradition of magic linked to medicine thrives in places where the folk medicine still uses native plants and elements to cure. Indigenous peoples around the world do this without referring to alchemy in the European sense.
Since I am also interested in the DNA, the contribution made by the ancestors to my composite, I notice the few doctors or pharmacists who appear in my tree. On my mother’s side before 1400 a couple of generations of nice Jewish doctors lived and worked in northern Spain during the time when Jews, Christians, and Arabs all thrived in a multi cultural party of intellectual delight. Joshua ben Ibn Vives al Lorca was my 15th great grandfather.
IBN VIVES AL-LORQUI (OF LORCA), JOSEPH BEN JOSHUA: By : Richard Gottheil Meyer Kayserling Spanish physician; died before 1372; father of Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives al-Lorqui. He revised Tibbon’s translation of Moses Maimonides’ “Millot Higgayon” and dedicated the revision to his pupil Ezra ben Solomon ibn Gatigno. He wrote also the “Sefer Yesodot.”G. M. K.
His son Joseph was also a famous physician in Spain. These ancestors qualify as alchemists for many reasons. They had the presence of mind to move to Sicily before the Spanish Inquisition. Due to their great talents as musical instrument makers and musicians, Henry the 8th imported Anthony (1511-1574) from Venice to England to play in the royal court. They used the wisdom they had to use time and space to their advantage. They turned danger into survival.
Joshua ben Joseph/Joseph ben Joshua ibn Vives Al Lorqui (1370 – 1408)
is your 15th great grandfather
Son of Joshua ben Joseph/Joseph ben Joshua
Son of Joshua ben ibn
Son of Julus
Son of Santo
Son of Maestro Jeronimo “DeDasi”
Daughter of Anthony
Son of Lucreece Lucretia
Son of John Thomas
Daughter of Sampson
Daughter of Elizabeth
Son of Martha
Daughter of David
Daughter of Minerva Truly
Daughter of Sarah E
Son of Lucinda Jane
Daughter of George Harvey
is the daughter of Ruby Lee
Royal Lovers
October 23, 2012
Katherine Swynford
I found one woman from Manhattan who was my ancestor twice. When her first husband died, she married and had another child. Both a daughter from her first and her second marriages became my ancestors. I have been thinking how odd it was that the step sister’s issue married 5 generations later. I decided 5 generations was enough genetic mixing, and since they were Knickerbocking there were few other fancy Dutch reformers to marry. This is not so odd. The truly striking coincidence in my tree is a royal Brit named John of Gaunt ( born in Ghent).
I have discovered that John of Gaunt is my ancestor three different ways, with three different wives, and of both of my parents. He was involved in a famous royal love affaire more bizarre than Charles and Camilla. He had a mistress, Katherine Swynford, who later married him. They had four children together, and as his last wife she acted as step mother to the children of his two previous marriages. Katherine and John had a daughter Philippa, who is 6th great-grandmother to Gov. Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay Colony, my 10th great-grandfather.
John Gaunt Lancaster PLANTAGENET (1340 – 1399)
is your 18th great grandfather
Daughter of John Gaunt Lancaster
Daughter of Philippa
Son of Beatrix
Son of John
Daughter of Richard
Daughter of Anne
Daughter of Mary
Son of Susanna
With his Spanish wife he had a son John who also became the 8th great grandfather of Gov Thomas Dudley, by way of Scotland
John Gaunt Plantagenet (1340 – 1399)
is your 19th great grandfather
Son of John Gaunt
Daughter of John Marquis Somerset
Daughter of Joan
Son of Joan
Son of John
Daughter of Robert Lord
Daughter of CATHERINE
Son of Lady Elizabeth
Son of Capt Roger
Daughter of Gov Thomas
Son of Anne
Daughter of John
Son of Mercy
Daughter of Caleb
Daughter of Mercy
Son of Martha
Son of Abner
Son of Daniel Rowland
Son of Jason A
Son of Ernest Abner
the daughter of Richard Arden
His first marriage was a happy one, that produced another ancestor, on my mother’s side. After 15 generations my parents met in Houston Texas and married. What are the chances of this happening?
John of Gaunt – Duke of Lancaster – Plantagenet (1340 – 1399)
is your 16th great grandfather
Daughter of John of Gaunt – Duke of
Daughter of Joan
Son of Duchess of York Lady Cecily
Son of Henry
Son of Henry
Son of John
Son of Francis Gabriell
Daughter of John
Son of Elizabeth
Son of Richard
Son of George
Son of George
Daughter of David
Daughter of Minerva Truly
Daughter of Sarah E
Son of Lucinda Jane
Daughter of George Harvey
the daughter of Ruby Lee
John of Gaunt is some kind of karmic common denominator of my genetic heritage. I think I need to study him and all of the grandmother wives. Maybe everyone has an ancestor like this, but I find it to be incredible. I have achieved the triple crown of ancestry…now what?
John Prince of England, King of Castile
Dance with the Dead
October 18, 2012
At the end of October the costumes come out of the closet. This is the big masquerade time in the US. Other cultures have dress up traditions for Carnival and other holidays. The political side of costuming has always been woven into the idea of playing the role of another. Well known faces or looks are popular. In Tucson the Day of the Dead is celebrated in a grand public procession. The costumes in this event are not intended to mimic the living, but rather to show the look of the dead. The visit of the departed souls to earth is celebrated by glowing in the dark, dancing as skeletons, and enjoying the earthly pleasures our dearly departed ones chose while they were alive. The happy honoring of the souls of the dead is a symbol of our connection to all the generations who lived before us.
Royal Coat of Arms
October 18, 2012
An armiger is a person who has the right to bear heraldry. In the United States there are no legal limits to bearing or designing your own coat of arms. In UK, Spain, Ireland, and Canada, places concerned with historical authenticity and royal ancestry, the use of the heraldry is regulated by law. I am not sure what would become of you if you went out with heraldry that was bogus to you, but it is against the law. The rest of us are free to create coats of arms for any occasion, on the fly.
When the Mayflower sailed to Plymouth the Pilgrims left the religious restrictions they had known in England. They took extreme risks to pursue religious freedom. They had their own costuming and strict code that bound them together in this adventure. They originated near Sherwood Forrest, fled for Amsterdam, then Leiden, arriving in 1609. The trip to America began there not only for the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, but for many branches of my family tree. It appears that almost all of my ancestors were anxious to high tail it out of Europe in the early 1600s. There is much research to be done, but it seems that they all took these risks sailing across the Atlantic because they had extreme convictions of various sorts. Some believed as traders and planters they would prosper and thrive. That seemed to be enough for the Dutch ones. The Brits and the French who sailed out of Leiden were all on big religious trips. As Thanksgiving approaches I am pretty obsessed with my Pilgrim ancestors and all their deets. I truly enjoy living vicariously through the discovery of the actual history of my ancestors.
After about three years of working on my family tree I have collected many coats of arms from my branches. The tree grows ever wider as it goes backwards in time. Some have heraldry. I was thinking about making a piece of art with some of them, and one that I make myself. The real ones have symbols that were meaningful to the family. Mine will have symbols that are enchanting for me. The Queen of your Own Life book includes guidelines for creating one’s own coat of arms, as well as a coronation ceremony to claim sovereignty over body, mind, and spirit. I adore the positive and contemporary way Queen Cindy and Queen Kathy present alchemy, ceremony, and magic. To eliminate the negative is to create space for the essence, the distilled spirit, the powerful talisman. I am pleased to live in a country where I can, as a queen wild and free, create and fly my own royal heraldry without fear of retribution by authorities. I plan to make use of this inalienable right. Have you thought about the symbols that you would use to express the essence of you?
Non Stop Bucks
October 10, 2012
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I am not the only one wishing the political campaign dollars had been spent on the real problems instead of talking about those problems while blaming others. If you have children who must compete for attention, dollars, education, etc, picture a nation of these children. The soon to be elected leaders are trying to become head of our national household. They are advertising, traveling, and spending money like crazy to convince voters that they are the best for the job. The race it self is boring, but the budgets to bore are outrageous. Vast sums that can be traced to donors, and even bigger super pacs whose donations remain anonymous run the heavily negative ads.
Imagine how your life would be if the members of your household voted on the leadership who control the money spent in the household. What kind of ads would be run to woo the members of your family? Politics always chooses winners and losers by crafting legislation. This never ending cycle of winning/loosing/changing the laws is paid for by the people subject to those laws. Parents and monarchs can dispense with being elected or making a promise to anyone. We know what to expect from their performance after we observe them in action. Some are wise, some silly, egomaniacal, or weak. The good ones seem to get better with time and experience. They do not need to constantly campaign to stay in the monarchy or parenthood, so they can develop wisdom with all that spare time.
The country that allows all this wasteful expenditure on political campaigning is not in a position to afford to blow so much money. Part of the big argument is about the nation’s debt. I do not see any future in keeping the system that proclaims that we are too big to stop borrowing and too cranky to agree on how to spend money. The Swiss are famously cranky about how to spend money, but have solved this problem within their political system. They keep the tax revenues in the canton, working for the people who paid the taxes, as they see fit. They have, but do not go overboard, with the idea of a federal government. There is a beautiful building in Bern to house the congress, which has two chambers, similar to our own. There are no lobbyists, no free parties for the federal employees who serve in the Bundeshaus. In fact, congress is in session in Bern for only 25% of the year. The rest of the time these civil servants go live at home and make a living like other citizens. The salary to serve is not high, so they must want to do it for the service aspect. I wish the US congress could be treated like that. If they did not have that full time free lunch waiting for them every day from lobbyists, they might be able to work effectively for the people who paid all those taxes. Throwing new groups of bums out every 4 years does not seem to be leading to enlightened governance. It makes sense to throw out the system that creates all these bums.
Mumming and Masquerade
October 8, 2012
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The traditions that exist around costumed rituals abound. Mumming may be from the Irish, may be from the Celtic, but now is interpreted by many modern Brits to honor an ancient tradition. The costumes are significant both in the way they change and in the similarities to ancient customs. Straw boys represent good luck, and are sent to visit newly married couples. There are specific plays and characters for Christmas and Halloween in modern mumming that are uninterrupted traditions from ancient history.
Today people have avatars, play games as super heroes, and give themselves any title they please in their on line lives. I think it is interesting that there are so many groups passionate to preserve the costuming and cultures from history, from Civil War reenactments to the merry mummers of the British Isles, to Helldorado Days in Tombstone, AZ. The tradition of mime is related to the mummers. The costume tells much of the story, just as it does in many Naive American dances. Will you dress up for the end of October? Will you do anything special to honor the dead? It is the perfect time.
Day of the Dead
October 5, 2012
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death photo
All Souls Day in the Catholic tradition is a time to honor and remember the dead. In native belief systems of the Americas death played a central part. Making fun of death, or mocking the fanciest parts of life have gone together forever, everywhere. In Basel Switzerland I saw a collection of art from the middle ages portraying the same dancing skeletons used in Mexico to show death as a fiesta. Being mindful of mortality is known as memento mori. Skulls and other reminders of the transience of life were used in churches and religious settings. Ancestors graves have been a place of reverence for almost all peoples. Art depicting death in a whimsical or dramatic way has been with us in many cultures around the world. To remember mortality is essential to living a full life.
If there are rituals in the entire culture that honor the souls of departed there is a continuity. Fear of of death is made comical when portrayed as the dance of death or the fancy dressed skeleton. The folly of amassing worldly goods seems obvious when the fiddler and the dancers have nothing but bones and clothing. In 1839 the possibility of capturing the image of a dead person became very popular. I have seen quite a few graves embellished with photos. Others use symbols. Have you ever given any thought to your own death, your own grave and epitaph?
Tucson celebrates All Souls Weekend in a mixed tech cultural expression of art and celebration. By building personal or community altars, by artful masquerade, and by watching or participating in the procession Tucsonans have the opportunity to bring mortality to life. Come on down to the Old Pueblo for an old time custom revived.
dance macabre
marigold offering
Bonfire of the 10th Great Grandfather
September 29, 2012
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Rowland Taylor, burning at stake
In England the official night for bonfires is Nov. 5. In Britain it is officially to recall a plot to blow up the king in 1605. Lewis, a town in East Sussex, England is a special center for this holiday. In Lewis the processions of very fancy dress include 17 burning crosses, symbolizing 17 Protestant martyrs killed by Mary Tudor between 1555 and 1557. One of these martyrs was Rowland Taylor, my 10th great grandfather.
Rowland Taylor (1510 – 1555)
is your 10th great grandfather
Son of Rowland
Son of Thomas
Son of Thomas
Son of James
Son of John
Son of John
Son of John
Son of John Nimrod
Son of John Samuel
Son of William Ellison
Daughter of George Harvey
William Ellison Taylor (1839-1918) was a preacher in the Church of Christ, a veteran of the Civil War, and a farmer. I never knew him, but have some of his written documents, including his war records and Confederate pension application. I am not sure what happened with religion between Rowland and William. There is something spooky and creepy about being the subject a bonfire that is burned to commemorate your own ancestor’s burning. It does not make me feel more religious, that is for sure.
Guilllaume Vigne, my 12 Great Grandfather
September 28, 2012
Manhattan in 1600s
My 12th great grandfather was in the first settlement of Dutch immigrants in Manhattan. Guillaume and his wife Adrienne were in New Amsterdam in 1613 as part of the crew of the trading ship Tiger. The ship burned in the harbor. After your ship burns you have fewer choices than before your ship burned. They persevered, as was their way. I am a result of their persistence.
Guillaume Vigne (1586 – 1632)
is my 12th great grandfather
Daughter of Guillaume
Daughter of Maria
Daughter of Abigail
Daughter of Aeltie
Son of Anneke Abramse
Daughter of Cornelius
Son of Annatje
Daughter of Johannis P
Son of Anna
Son of Swain
Daughter of Jerimiah
Son of Minnie M
Son of Ernest Abner
They came to New York after staying in Leiden, a very popular place for my entire family at that time. They offered religious tolerance at a time when Catholics were out for blood. People took big risks in those days to be part of a religious group. After arrival in Manhattan they had to survive by their wits and ability to trade and farm in the surroundings. Adrienne gave birth to the first Dutch male child born in the new world. Their daughter Maria continued to thrive and trade and live in Manhattan with her new fancy Dutch husband from Albany. They were very established by that time. After all, just 4 years after Henry discovered the Hudson the Vignes were there in the Tiger. You could say they were original New Yorkers. I can say no wonder I love lower Manahattan so much and feel at home there.
Vitriol
September 9, 2012
Vitriol
I am studying the alchemist archtype in my life. I have used the word vitriol, but have not associated it with alchemy until I found it in my reading yesterday. I purchased a beautiful book, Signs & Symbols by Beryl Dhanjal. In this excellent art and prose work I discovered that vitriol is an acronym, just like OMG. It stands for Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem,” “Visit the interior of the earth and rectifying (purifying) you will find the hidden stone.” The motto originated in L’Azoth des Philosophes by the 15th Century alchemist Basilius Valentinus. Both Alchemists and Freemasons use this motto.
In chemistry ancient science referred to sulfuric acid is vitriol. I have a strong memory of the alchemist in chief in my life, my father, teaching me to make hydrogen bombs. I was probably about 8. We dissolved magnesium metal bits in hydrochloric acid, but vinegar works, or any acid, I think. The combination makes hydrogen gas that when ignited, explodes. At school in the 1950s we had air raid drills about hydrogen bombs. At home I got to make them. Both my dad and I liked the little ones we made in test tubes, so we went big one day. He put the acid and the metal in a gallon jar, which was somehow closed and directed into a plastic tube about 30 ft. long. My dad had no experience in the hurt locker, just in fracking and blowing up oil reservoirs underground. My mother watched from the upstairs window horrified as my dad lit the end of the hose, which I think was supposed to blow a can in the air. The tube with the gas in it flamed across my dad’s beloved lawn and the glass bottle blew to smithereens. I was thrilled, but my father was significantly freaked out. I think we went on a hiatus from explosion chemistry for a while after that. I am pretty sure that is when I had to build the crystal radio. I remember not being nearly as pleased with that radio as I had been with our explosive past. It is good to have an alchemist for a father. They combine things that other fathers do not.
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