Apprentice Alchemist
A letter from Marie
Welcome to the Splendor Solis Academy where we take ‘the way of the imaginal’, travelling inside the images to learn from them directly on their own imaginal ground.
I hope to develop this page into a regular ‘blog’ and thence a forum, but the alchemists always recommend festina lente, ‘make haste slowly’, so first it’s helpful to make a space to say hallo and introduce some key ideas.
Here are five ideas to make a start: They all come from Miranda’s ‘Book for the Apprentice’ – which as you will have seen in the Tarot Book, records the beginning of her travels into the images and meetings with each in turn, becoming an initiation into the Elements of the work. It’s currently only in circulation amongst the research group who have been helping with the unfolding of the work all these years. Your interest and ideas will help bring it to a wider audience before too long!
IN THE ROUND
Placing the Artisans in a circle brings alive the understanding that the Splendor Solis is a true ‘en-cycle-pedia’ of esoteric wisdom. Each illumination is at once a dazzling image in its own right, and a gathering place for limitless connections and correspondences. So it doesn’t matter at all how much you know or don’t know at the start, because you can take each illumination in the way that best suits you, and it will always teach exactly what is needed and lead onward to the next…. ‘All the way round’, bringing a sense of completion - which of course will always lead you to begin a new cycle of exploration… a ‘virtuous circle’ which we align with the day and the year and the aeons.
REVERIES
The animate sun guides the Alchemical Apprentice, in a story-telling style, how to appreciate the first illumination as a secret map to the Chapel of the Heart, and to go there by traveling through the elements in turn.
If you pre-ordered one of the limited edition signed copies of the Splendor Solis Tarot, a voice file of this reverie as a full guided experience was included in your order. There is also a voice file of the follow-up reverie, extending your visit into the Court of the Philosophers, to meet and talk with the Awakeners, Ambassadors, and Artisans themselves.
But if you missed out on these, they are available on request for a small donation to the parent School (a not-for-profit Community Interest Company) which has inspired the whole Splendor Solis project, for just as the mystic speaks of a ‘mother sun behind the sun’, we speak of ‘the School behind the Academy’. See our ‘School of Memphis’ page, and Contact me for reverie details.
COURSES AND TUTORIALS:
Learning how to tell the story to your inner eye and senses, and make these inner journeys as a participant in the imaginal is a key to so much, so it is well worth spending time with it. Later we will be able to share experiences in a forum, because these reveries begin the forthcoming ‘Book for the Apprentice’, which goes on to develop them in far more detail, taking each Element in turn as a way into deeper understanding. In the meantime, if you have a question to ask about your practice, especially if it is one that you can see others might also be pondering, and it will help them to hear of it, then do please email me and I will do my best to advise. Your questions will help me choose what next to upload from the astonishing amount of materials, papers and booklists I have in my own archive!
MITHRAIC LIGHT PROJECT
Mithraic Light is the ‘many-splendored’ Light of ever-becoming truth that belongs to all spiritual seeking. Just one of the meanings of the word is the ‘beloved friend’ who is companion on the mystic Way. The ‘shining-through’ of this Light was known in Ancient Egypt, and this project traces its stories and symbols as they animate the Splendor Solis, bringing healing, initiatory ‘secrets of all alchemy.’
I’ve been delighted to hear from friends and colleagues of different religions, West and East, of the unifying practice of ‘Meeting In The Heart’s Radiant Awareness’. By avoiding going straight into personifications (Roman stereotypes sadly distort Mithraic history) we appreciate the Mithraic as a Place; the imaginal itself, heart of the matter, ever-renewing Light where Truths constantly unfold into finer Truths; a Centre where all of goodwill may gather. I’ve written and presented some talks on Mithraic Light and the long history of Mithraic Mysteries – and there are some beautiful practices we can share to develop ‘being with’ this centre.
BECOMING AN AFFILIATE OR MEMBER
Simply let me know your interest using my contact page
And I will add you to a mailing list to be first to hear of new developments!
