The Reign of Quantity and The Signs of the Times

22 The Significance of Metallurgy

We have seen that the arts or crafts that involve a direction of activity toward the mineral kingdom belong properly to the sedentary peoples, and that such activities were forbidden by the traditional laws of the nomadic peoples, of which the Hebrew law is the most generally known example; it is indeed evident that these arts tend toward ‘solidification’, and in the corporeal world as we know it ‘solidification’ in fact reaches its most pronounced form in minerals as such. Moreover, minerals, in their commonest form, that of stone, are principally used in the construction of stable buildings;[89] a town, considered as the collectivity of the buildings of which it is made up, appears in particular as something like an artificial agglomeration of minerals; and it must be reiterated that life in towns represents a more complete sedentarism than does agricultural life, just as the mineral is more fixed and more ‘solid’ than the vegetable. But there is something more: the arts applied to minerals include metallurgy in all its forms; now the evident fact that metal tends increasingly in these days to be substituted for stone in building, just as stone was formerly substituted for wood, leads to a supposition that this change must be a symptom of a more ‘advanced’ phase in the downward movement of the cycle; and this supposition is confirmed by the fact that in a general way metal plays an ever-growing part in the ‘industrialized’ and ‘mechanized’ civilization of today, and that from a destructive point of view, if it may be so expressed, no less than from a constructive point of view, for the consumption of metal brought about by modern wars is truly prodigious.

This observation moreover is in accord with a peculiarity met with in the Hebrew tradition: from the beginning of the time when the use of stone was allowed in special cases, such as in the building of an altar, it was nevertheless specified that these stones must be ‘whole’, for ‘you shall lift up no iron tool upon them’;[90] according to the precise terms of this passage, insistence is directed not so much to the stone being unworked as to no metal being used on it: the prohibition of the use of metal was thus more especially strict in the case of anything intended to be put to a specifically ritual use.[91] Traces of this prohibition still persisted even when Israel had ceased to be nomadic and had built, or caused to be built, stable edifices: when the Temple of Jerusalem was built the stone was ‘prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built.’[92] There is nothing at all exceptional in this, and a mass of concordant indications of the same kind could be found: for instance, in many countries a sort of partial exclusion from the community, or at least a ‘holding aloof’, was practiced and even still is practiced so far as metal-workers are concerned, and more particularly blacksmiths, whose craft is often associated with the practice of an inferior and dangerous kind of magic, which has eventually degenerated in most cases into mere sorcery. Nevertheless, on the other side, metallurgy has been specially revered in some traditional forms, and has even served as the basis of very important initiatic organizations; it must suffice to quote in this connection the instance of the Kabiric Mysteries, without dwelling longer at this point on a very complex subject that would lead much too far afield; all that need be said for the moment is that metallurgy has both a ‘sacred’ aspect and an ‘execrated’ aspect, and that in their origin these two aspects proceed from a twofold symbolism inherent in the metals themselves.

If this is to be understood, it must be remembered in the first place that the metals, by reason of their astral correspondences, are in a certain sense the ‘planets of the lower world’; naturally therefore they must have, like the planets themselves, of which they can be said to receive and to condense the influences in the terrestrial environment, a ‘benefic’ aspect and a ‘malefic’ aspect.[93] Furthermore, since an inferior reflection is in question, corresponding to the actual situation of the metallic mines in the interior of the earth, the ‘malefic’ aspect must readily become predominant; and it must not be forgotten that from the traditional point of view metals and metallurgy are in direct relation with the ‘subterranean fire’, the idea of which is associated in many respects with that of the ‘infernal regions’.[94] Nonetheless, if the metallic influences are taken in their ‘benefic’ aspect by making use of them in a manner truly ‘ritual’, in the most complete sense of the word, they are susceptible of ‘transmutation’ and ‘sublimation’, and are then all the more capable of becoming a spiritual ‘support’, since whatever is at the lowest level corresponds, by inverse analogy, to what is at the highest level; the whole mineral symbolism of alchemy is based on this very fact, and so is the symbolism of the ancient Kabiric initiations.[95] On the other hand, when nothing is in question but the profane utilization of metals, in view of the fact that the profane point of view as such necessarily brings with it the cutting off of all communication with superior principles, nothing is then left that is capable of effective action save the ‘malefic’ side of the metallic influences, and this will develop all the more strongly because it will inevitably be isolated from everything that could restrain it or counterbalance it; this particular instance of an exclusively profane utilization is clearly one that is realized in all its fullness in the modern world.[96]

The point of view adopted so far has been mainly concerned with the ‘solidification’ of the world, having as its end-point nothing other than the ‘reign of quantity’, of which the use of metals is only an aspect, this being the point of view that has actually been most obviously manifested in all fields up to the phase at which the world has arrived today. But things can go further yet, and the metals, by virtue of the subtle influences attached to them, can also play a part in a later phase leading more directly to the final dissolution. During the course of the period that may be called ‘materialistic’, these subtle influences have undoubtedly passed more or less into a latent state, like everything else that is outside the limits of the purely corporeal order; but this does not mean that they have ceased to exist, nor even that they have entirely ceased to act, though in a hidden manner, of which the ‘satanic’ side of ‘mechanistic’ theory and practice, especially (but not solely) in its destructive applications, is after all but a manifestation, though naturally the materialists can have no suspicion of the fact. These same influences then need only wait for a favorable opportunity to assert their activity more openly, of course always in the same ‘malefic’ direction, because so far as ‘benefic’ influences are concerned the world has so to speak been closed to them by the profane attitude of modernity: moreover their opportunity may no longer be very far distant, for the instability that nowadays continues to increase in every domain shows clearly that the point corresponding to the greatest effective predominance of ‘solidity’ and ‘materiality’ has already been passed.

It may facilitate the understanding of what has just been said if it is pointed out that, according to traditional symbolism, the metals are in relation not only with the ‘subterranean fire’ as already indicated, but also with the ‘hidden treasure’, all these matters being rather closely interwoven, for reasons that cannot possibly be developed here, but that can go some way toward explaining how it is that human interventions are capable of provoking, or more exactly of ‘releasing’, certain natural cataclysms. However that may be, all the ‘legends’ (using the language of today) about these ‘treasures’ show clearly that their ‘guardians’, who are none other than the subtle influences attached to them, are psychic ‘entities’ that it is extremely dangerous for anyone to approach who has not got the required ‘qualifications’ and does not take the necessary precautions; but what precautions could the moderns, completely ignorant of such matters, in fact be expected to take in this matter? They are all too obviously lacking in any ‘qualification’, as well as in any means of action in the domain in question, for it eludes them in consequence of the attitude they adopt toward anything and everything. True enough, they constantly boast about ‘conquering the forces of nature’, but they are certainly far from suspecting that behind these same forces, which they look upon as being exclusively corporeal, there is something of another order, of which the apparent forces are really but the vehicles and as it were the outward likenesses; it is this other thing that might well one day revolt and finally turn against those who have failed to recognize it.

It will be as well to add here incidentally a further note on something that may perhaps seem to be only a singularity or a curiosity, but will furnish the occasion for some further remarks later: the ‘guardians of the hidden treasure’, who are at the same time the smiths working in the ‘subterranean fire’, are represented in the different ‘legends’ sometimes as giants and sometimes as dwarfs. Something of the kind is also found in the case of the Kabires, and this shows that this category of symbolism is, like others, capable of being applied so as to relate it to a superior order; but owing to the conditions of our own period, it is necessary to adhere to a point of view from which only what may be called its ‘infernal’ aspect can be seen; in other words, the said conditions are no more than an expression of influences belonging to the inferior and ‘tenebrous’ side of what may be called the ‘cosmic psychism’; and, as will appear more clearly as this study proceeds, influences of this sort, in their multitudinous forms, are today actively threatening the ‘solidity’ of the world.

To complete this short summary, one more point related to the ‘malefic’ aspect of the influence of metals must be mentioned, and that is the frequent prohibition of the carrying of metallic objects while certain rites are being accomplished, both in the case of exoteric rites,[97] and in the case of initiatic rites properly so called.[98] The character of all rules of this kind is no doubt principally symbolical, and from that character they derive their profound significance; but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the truly traditional symbolism (which must on no account be confused with the false interpretations and counterfeits to which the moderns sometimes wrongly apply these words)[99] always has an effective meaning, and that its ritual applications in particular have perfectly real effects, although the narrowly limited faculties of modern man can rarely perceive them. This is not a question of vaguely ‘idealistic’ notions, but on the contrary concerns things of which the reality is sometimes manifested in a more or less ‘tangible’ way; if that were not the case, what would be the explanation of the fact that there are people who, when they are in a particular spiritual state, cannot endure the least contact, even indirect, with metals, and that this is so even if the contact has been brought about without their knowledge and in conditions such that it is impossible that they should be aware of it through their bodily senses, thereby necessarily excluding the psychological and over-simplified explanation of ‘auto-suggestion’?[100] It can further be stated that a contact of this kind can in comparable cases go so far as to produce outwardly the physiological effects of a real burn, and it must be admitted that such facts ought to provide material for reflection, if the moderns were still capable of anything of the kind; but the profane and materialistic attitude and the prejudices arising out of it have plunged them into an incurable blindness.