In the changing background of time opportunity presents itself. Relative to the extent of individual receptivity and initiative the perspective is expanded. There is in the process a movement forward and into the experience of coming to know and to test through application what is seen and understood to be essential.

Commonly, what is regarded as essential is prompted by wishful imagings defined through acquisition only to be released upon the thought holding and drawing to itself still more pictures of what could bring fulfilment. Such an essential as this is sought after, longed for, and is most often seen to glow and to fade, to beckon from afar.

Yet, what is essential is found in a threefold unity in everything nature produces arid becomes evident through investigation and testing. The essential is at hand, before us, is basic to each thing, each individual. Understanding of it gives the opportunity for experiences leading gradually to freedom and well being. All wishful images of the essential are fleeting while the essential itself endures.

A description of anything but alludes to what in reality it is. To experience the essential is to know it. To describe it simply with words of long acquaintance: it is body or salt; soul, consciousness, or oil; spirit, life, or vitality.

More often than not, the obvious, because of its familiarity is not considered carefully, nor is it really understood. Rather, there accumulates around it all matter of guise. It becomes clothed by social, environmental, and other surrounding influences. To investigate the obvious is to see it in a new perspective. In this new light it can be known and seen as it is. A unity of components comprising a purposeful wholeness becomes apparent.

The purpose of ESSENTIA is to draw attention to the obvious, to investigate it, to test it, to go beyond what is more commonly or readily accepted, to lay aside beliefs and even long standing terminology to which has become attached, in some instances, confining definition. In ESSENTIA the opportunity is en to see in a new light what is essential. An effort made to understand the why and the how of it and to apply this understanding in beneficial ways.

The direction of ESSENTIA is contrary to speculation: it is evolutionary thought in action, giving fredom of approach into the investigation of the purpose and meaning of the unity of body, soul, and spirit -- into the experience of the essential itself.
Mary Adams

Alexander von Bernus

One Hundreth Anniversary

Fifteen years ago, just a few days after his 85th birthday Baron von Bernus was laid to rest in a simple grave at Donauworth in Bavaria, Germany. A few miles from Donauworth, where Dr. Franz Hartmann was born, is Donaumunster, where at his castle Baron von Bernus lived and worked the latter part of his life.

The Baron was born February 6, 1880 in Lindau at Lake Constance in Germany. He was a distant relative of Goethe. During his first four years, he lived in land. then moved to Stift Neuburg, a former large Monastery close to Heidelberg, and became already in his younger years affiliated with an elite literary group.

From 1902 to 1903, the Baron was a co-publisher "Freistatt", a publication of excellence. His first volume of poetry was published in 1903 in his twenty third year. In 1907 he founded the "Schwabinger Schattenspiele," where all the acting takes place behind a large screen upon which only the shadows of the actors can be seen. Stift Neuburg was inherited by the Baron in 1908 and became his summer residence. His winters, until 1920, he spent in Munich.

After the death of his son in 1912, the Baron began his studies in occultism and alchemy. In 1921 he founded the Soluna Laboratories. When he sold Stift Neuburg, which again became a Monastery in 1927, Stuttgart became his residence and he moved the Soluna Laboratory to castle Donaumunster which he bought in 1924. It was in Donaumunster where he found his second premanent home. There he wrote and worked tirelessly in his laboratory and produced his spagyric medications. Many hours of deep conversations passed between the two of us in his castle in the presence of his and my wife. Even after his parting from this earth, we continued to be yearly guests at the castle where the Baroness still is consolidating what he has left for posterity.

For his efforts, the President of the German Republic Lubke gave him the order of the Cross of Merit on his 80th birthday, and the media broadcast in word and picture his life's work. On his deathbed, he made certain that a prearranged meeting between us, including a few selected individuals, would take place the following year at the castle Donaumunster under my direction, which did take place in 1966.

Through his writings, Alexander von Bernus did much to help place alchemy into its proper place in our times, though he kept himself aloof and withdrawn as far as his practical laboratory activity was concerned, having only as his confidant in the laboratory Frau llse Gaafke, who until his very end and thereafter saw to it that his work would continue.

Baron Alexander von Bernus added a lustre to the name and practice of alchemy that will not tarnish.

Dr. Albert Richard Riedel

Dr. Albert Richard Riedel

The biological basic treatment for re-establishing order of the electrolytic household of the body.

What disadvantages have been caused to mankind the so-called civilized achievements of the last 50 years can possibly only be determined in the next century. The pollution of the air has risen to an unexpected extent. Cancerigenous matter, like soot, sulfur dioxide. carbon monoxide, as well as burned hydrocarbons from motor vehicles, is summining up its noxious effects with those coming from detergents, polluted and chlorinated water food-stuffs which have been irradiated by radio-active rays and "enriched" by insecticides. All, without exception, damage the respiration and thus the cellular metabolism . Through the breathed air, stomach and intestinal canal or the skin. they reach via blood and lymph cells of the organs and connective-tissue.

Here now represents the Electrolytic-Water Therapy, a healing method which does not heal by administration of remedies but by changing the isoelectric potential, enabling the sick organism to again fulfill its physiological functions.

The isoelectric potential is measured by determining the concentration of the hydrogen ions. The measured value is indicated by the signs pH (p: potential. H= hydrogen). Thus, the pH value represents the measurable indication of the dissociation of acid, alkaline and salt molecules, triggered by the hydrogen ions set free by the dissociation and which becomes measurable in the form of isoelectrical tensions. The scale shows the values 0 (acid) to 14 (alkaline) In the middle there is the neutral point 7.0.

It is known that nearly all enzyme and ferment reactions can only take place within certain pH values. Hence the following deduction can be made: Every normal metabolism can only take place within limits of a physiological pH value, which is subjected to certain fluctuations and is influenced by this value direct or indirectly.

[Mr. Alfons Natterer, the originator of Nawa Water by simple osmosis and Dr. Albert. R. Riedel of the Paracelsus Laboratories. Inc. in U.S.A. in one of their many friendly discussions about the improved method of separation at Mr. Natterer's place in upper Bavaria. Germany.]

When the pH value moves extremely to the acid or alkaline side respectively, disturbances are noted which can become perilous.

With the electrolytic water has been developed a therapeutics to balance and regulate the electrolytic household of the human body. The electrolytic water is produced from a pure and excellent spring water and separated according to a patented method by electrolysis. This separation gives three classes of water with very different pH values.

Electrolytic-Water "S" pH 2.8 to 3.0
Electrolytic-Water "N" pH 6.8 to 7.2
Electrolytic-Water "A" pH 10.5 to 11.0

These waters are recognized as medical specialty by the German Board of Public Health and registered under number H 636, H 637, H 638.

What are the biological effects of this Electrolytic Water?

The quality of these waters lies in its electrophysical activity which can be measured as value of the pH. Thus, this ionized water can act through the skin as well as through the mucous membrane and take part in the metabolism of the most different tissues and organs. It can be assumed that an acid metabolism, a so-called overacidification, will be influenced by a neutral or even more by an alkaline Electrolytic-Water. An alkaline metabolism will be balanced by an acid Electrolytic-Water. Depending on the required treatment effect, the Electrolytic-Water is to be taken by drinking it, or also in form of a poultice or ointment respectively.

Treating so-called inner diseases is realized by drinking Electrolytic-Water, normally 3 times a day before meals, about 100 to 200 ccm. It is, however, possible to prescribe, if necessary, at the beginning of the treatment 500 ccm. and more because the Electrolytic-Water in its three forms is completely harmless.

External diseases can be treated with Electrolytic-Waters by means of poultices on the skin through which they penetrate and reach deeper tissues.

Electrolytic-Ointments have similar effects. The active substance, viz. Electrolytic-Water. is slowly released to the skin and penetrates in a more slow manner in deeper layers.

For what disorders can Electrolytic-Water be applied?

Basically, it can be used for treating any abnormal alteration of the metabolism. A regulating influence, however, can only be expected in those cases where the Electrolytic-Water is able to act directly. This can only be the case by means of the skin or mucous membrane and also through the stomach or the intestines which are transporting it by means of the blood. Up to now the proved healings for the external application through the skin and the mucous membrane (poultices and ointments) are mostly inflam matory processes which are often accompanied by inflammation, swelling, heat and pain.

That is:

1. All inflammations of cellular tissues, furuncles, stings of insects, suppurative injuries, scratches of the skin, etc. But also bloodshots coming from contusions, strains, sprains, inflammation of the sheath covering tendon and arthritis, even articular rheumatism as well as inflammations of the mucous membrane, arthrosis or phlebitis and thrombosis and overcharges varix.

2. Varicose vein ulcers, but also other ulcers, burns and inflammated injuries caused by corrosives have been healed.

3. Among positively influenced skin diseases can be mentioned fungus disease of feet or between the shanks and in the armpit. Psoriasis is treated depending on the state of the metabolism with acid or alkaline Electrolytic-Water.

4. Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the vagina or glans penis have been treated with good results with Electrolytic-Water "S" (acid) or the Electrolytic Ointment "S".

Inflammation causes in the befallen tissue a setting free of alkaline albuminous substance which is neutralized by the hydrogen ions and free electrons of the Electrolytic Water "S", making it inactive so that the inflammatory state is slowed down and healing can start. This explains why all local inflammatory processes mentioned under 1, 2, and 4 are treated with Electrolytic-Water "S" or Electrolytic-Ointrnent "S" respectively. For diseases mentioned under 3, fungus diseases, the Electrolytic-Water 'A' and the Electrolytic Ointment 'A' has given good results, because fungi are very sensible to an alkaline surrounding and easily decay and die under such conditions.

The treatment of the so-called inner diseases is based on the conception that the vegetative nervous system commands the phenomenon of life by means of his reins, i.e., the sympathetic nerves and parasympathicus. Effects of the sympathicus are the pouring of adrenalin by the adrenal ductless glands, the thyroxine of the thyroid gland, the conditions of rising fever the acidosis of the body. Parasympathetically influenced are the insulin of the pancreas, the luteum hormone of the ovaries, the conditions sinking fever and the alkalization of the body = alkalosis. From the overbalance of one part of the sympathetic nervous system over the other are resulting the different working conditions which can be denominated as sympatheticotonia or vagotonia (parasympathecotonia) respectively. These are always connected with very special and characteristic conditions of the metabolism. In the blood these differences are only insignificant because it always tries to maintain its best working condition, the isotonia, as far as possible. In the different tissues of the body, however, it is not the same. Here, acidosis and alkalosis can appear, which can be manifest or hidden (latent). The acid-bases mechanism of the body tends to a balance which is regulated by means of the vegetative nervous system. But how easily this balance can be disturbed by external influences on this nervous system or by internal disorders of the metabolism. Acids and bases are present in determined deposits in the body, e.g. in the colloidal connective tissue.

When a balance of acids and bases reigns, these cells are flushed several times a day by acid and basic material. In the urine there are then the corresponding acid and basic tides existent. When we have an acidosis of the colloidal connective tissue organ, the urine, too, turns unilaterally acid and there is no basic tide. A lot of status of disease are accompanied by disorders of the acid and bases mechanism of the body.

Being able to influence the acid-bases relations has been the aim of the therapy for a long time already, having in mind above all a purification of the blood. It is also spoken of a returning of the vegetative nervous system. Both mean the same thing. All forms of the therapy work by means of the sympathetic nervous system, be it a treatment at a watering-place, taking the waters at a health resort, sweating (vapor-baths) or a diet. The more the regulating conditions of this system can be influenced, the greater are the healing results. Because the ElectrolyticWater can influence the condition of the metabolism regulated by the vegetative nervous system as well as the deposits of dross in connective tissue, it is a healing factor, even more so because it works at the basis of the phenomenon of life. In this manner Electrolytic-Water could become a basic therapy for a lot of chronic diseases. As well, it can alleviate constitutional one-sideness of the sympathetic nervous system. This basic therapy has to be guided by the conditions of acids and bases in the body. In the case of metabolic disorders, as for instance gout, lymphalism, kidney or gall-stones, the rheumatic diathesis, the obesity, eczema or diabetes, the acid or alkaline condition of the metabolism has to be alleviated. An acidosis requires the taking of alkaline or neutral Electrolytic-Water; an alkalosis the treatment with Electrolytic-Water "S" or "N" respectively.

If the choice of the correct water is not to be made by the time consuming experiment, it can easily be determined by the Electrolytic-Water Test. The prescription for this test can be obtained from the medical practitioner.

Resume
Electrolytic-Water should not be compared with a medicine which is given for healing a specific disease, but it brings the body again to a normal reaction condition by balancing its electrolytic household. It recreates anew the elementary supposition of life where it has been lost. By means of this central regulatory action, there is prepared at the same time the ground for an eventually necessary supplementary therapy in a very positive manner. Professor Baur, Munich. said to this topic in his great lecture on occasion of the Medical Congress 1964 at Karlsruhe: "Even the best therapy cannot help when the water-electrolytic household of the sick is disturbed."

It has been recognized already for a long time that the balance of the electrolytic household is the main condition for the real success of the therapy and that many symptoms of a disease disappear when this balance is again established, eliminating, too, complications in a very short time.

Dosage: 3 times a day 100 to 200 ccm. (at room temperature) to drink before meals, if not otherwise prescribed by the doctor.
A whole cure comprises generally 24 bottles of 1 liter.

Vincent Di Stefano

PLANETARY METALS OF THE ANCIENTS IN THE LIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

"No-one can ascend into the Heaven which is thy ambition, unless he who descended from a Heaven which thou seekest not, shall first vouchsafe him light"
-Thomas Vaughan.

Amongst the earliest records of the Indus Valley civilization, we find evidence of the knowledge of extraction and purification of metals from mineral Within the giant sarcophagi which encased the remains of the ancient rulers of Egypt, we find evidence of the extraordinary skill developed by metal-workers in the extraction and purification of the inning elements. Without the working of metals, the imperialism of the Caesers would have remained a dormant frustration rather than emerging from the smelting furnace as the armaments of a military power of unprecedented strength. As Rome increased in wealth and power, those same metals were put to ornamenting and servicing her cities. Water was made available to the marketplace as well as to the households of wealthy patricians through an extensive network of leaden waterpipes. This lead which occurred in such abundance and melted with such facility was also cast into winejugs and drinking vessels. In time, an entire population succumbed as the once shiny metal slipped into water and wine accelerating the degeneration and death of a civilization. The Janus-faced nature of metals begins to emerge Well before the beginning of the Christian era, the Chinese were adept in the extraction and purification of various metals. Gold came into popular use, not as ornamentation or adornment but rather as the substance of cooking vessels. The eating of food prepared in such vessels was believed to help bring one to the state of fullness of life. This foreshadowed the efforts of European alchemists many centuries later to obtain elixirs of potable gold for the same purpose.

Indian yogins of the Tantric Period (700 - 1300 AD.) appear to have been among the first to attempt a systematic analysis of the effects of metals on the human constitution. In the search for the Amrta, or the elixir of immortality, different compounds were prepared from mercury, gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron, tin and other metals. The yogins observed the effects of these substances upon themselves. Some presumably suffered a premature demise. A few, however, were reported to have retreated into the solitudes and attained an ageless state of youthful vigor and energy. These formed the lineage of the Rasa Siddhas of whom Marco Polo wrote: "These people make use of a very strange beverage. for they make a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixed together, and this they drink twice every month. This. they say, gives them long life and it is a potion they are used to taking from their youth."

In 1732. Francois Bernier remarked:

"These are men who scoff at everything, who take no care for anything, men possessing secrets, and who, the people say, even know how to make gold and prepare mercury so admirably that one or two grains taken in the morning restore the body to perfect health."

Many of the metallic compounds derived by the Siddhas found their way into the Materia Medica of period. The method of preparation of these priceless medicaments is known to be in the possession of a handful of practitioners in Tamil India.

During the same period, physicians and alchemists of the Arab world were also investigating the virtues minerals and their compounds. The Arab adept Geber is known to have perfected operations on mercury, gold, silver, antimony, copper, iron, tin and lead the eighth and ninth centuries. Derivatives of metals made an early entry into the Unani system of medicine.

By comparison, European use of metals of that centered mainly on their application in weaponry and technology. Among the first European treatises to deal openly with the medicinal possibilities hidden within the mineral kingdom was the work of Benedictine monk, Basilius Valentinus, entitled The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony- circulated from the sixteenth century. Shortly later, Philipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, remembered as Paracelsus, stormed his way through ossified complacency which had fixed the medical confraternity of Europe, shattering treasured delusions and casting aside ineffectual traditions in a medical revolution the reverberations of which are echoing into the future.

Armed with metallic tinctures, the secrets of preparation of which he had obtained in his extensive travels, he cured institutions of derelicted patients, offending the exclusivenes of an established hierarchy. Within a. short time of his death, however, crude metals and their simple salts had become very fashionable among medical impresarios who poured huge amounts of such substances into their unsuspecting patients. As the science of toxology gradually assumed form, a more rational attitude tempered the excesses of over-zealous prescribers.

The influence of metals in biological systems represents one of the most important yet neglected areas of medical understanding in what may be termed this century of metallic dispersion.

Neither human life nor civilization as we know it be would be possible without the existence and utilization of metals. A glance at the periodic table of elements will reveal their ubiquitous nature. For our present purposes, the selection of metals to be discussed will be governed by a system of suggested correspondences between metals and planets. The term planet is here used in the sense derived from the Greek planetos, meaning "wanderer;" more specifically, those celestial bodies seen with unaided vision to move through the fixed constellations. According to the Ancients, each of these bodies has a correspondence with an earthly metal: the sun with gold, mercury with quicksilver, venus with copper, the moon with silver, mars with iron, jupiter with tin and saturn with lead. Knowledge of such systems of correspondences is a precondition to the decoding of ancient documents relating to such matters. This mode of restriction will enable us to consider a group of substances which have traditionally been the field of research of a number of Western investigators of Natural Science and Philosophy in the light of the twentieth century.

GOLD

This precious metal was considered by the Ancients to correspond with the sun, a correspondence suggested perhaps by its color and radiance. It was further said to form the medicine par excellence for disturbances of the heart and circulation, a notion upheld by Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, and more recently, Armand Barbault and Archibald Cockren. Current medicine has failed to establish a biological function for this metal, though it has been shown to be selectively accumulated by certain plants. (Mahdihassan, 1975).

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many physicians, rather than using the often violent and unpredictable mercury, successfully used preparations of gold in the treatment of syphilis. Its current use in orthodox medicine is restricted to the injection of gold salts in the treatment of severe cases of arthritis. Both gold and the salts of gold occupy significant positions in the homoeopathic Materia Medica finding use, most commonly, in disorders of the heart and circulation.

Because of its tendency to occur in the. metallic rather than ionic state, and for the human tendency to fix and stockpile the metal rather than to volatilize and disperse it, as is the case with lead, gold rarely enters into biological systems.

Its value has, however, been recognized in certain systems of medicine. Indian Ayurveda has produced a number of gold compounds rendered colloidal by repeated calcination and trituration with the ashes of certain plants. These Swarna Bhasma, as they are called, are prized by ageing maharajas and princes as the supreme medicament against the general debility of old age. The virtues of potable gold have been lauded by European alchemists for centuries. Unlike Indian systems, which use the method of repeated trituration to render the gold assimilable, European methods involve the preparation of a highly volatile mineral solvent, the alkahest, through the agency of which gold is rendered potable. The French adept, Armand Barbault, after fifteen years of work succeeded in preparing a form of potable gold. With his tincture he cured chronic cases of uremia, multiple and syphilis. He reports:

"There is a correspondence between the sun and gold. The sun governs life, radiating heat and energy. It acts directly on the brain, the heart. the quality of the blood and the cells in general. Tinctures of gold are beneficial to these organs. They can be extremely precious in combating old age, in revitalizing cells and and in maintaining equilibrium of the metabolism."

COPPER

The metal copper was said by the Ancients to correspond with the planet Venus. It was considered to be of value in conditions of the kidneys and of the nervous systerm.

Unlike gold and mercury, copper has been shown to play an essential role in the maintenance of life in a mammalian systems. The adult human body is said to contain 110-120 mg. of copper, while newborn children are found to have significantly higher levels of copper per unit body weight than adults. This is due to the presence in the newborn of mitochondrocuprein a protein compound very rich in copper content localized in the mitochondria and specific to the neonatal period. The role of copper in early human development has yet to be fully elucidated.

Of the 2 to 5 mg. of copper ingested daily, approximately one third is absorbed by the duodenal mucosa and transported to the liver loosely bound to serum albumen. On reaching the liver, it is either temporarily stored or used directly in the synthesis or ceruloplasmin and a number of copper-containing enzymes. A small fraction is shunted to the bone marrow for incorporation into the erythrocuprein of blood cells. Copper has an important catalytic function in the human body. Ascorbic acid oxidase, cytochrome oxidase, uricase and monoamine oxidase are all identified as copper-containing enzymes.

Decreased copper levels in the body have been associated with nephrosis and Wilson's disease, both of which are accompanied by increased urinary excretion of copper. Elevated copper levels have been found to occur in most acute and chronic infections in man, and in leukaemia, Hodgkin's disease, various anaemias, haemochromatosis and myocardial infarction.

Copper appears to have been little used in medicine, although in infants it has been shown to be a beneficial adjunct in the treatment of nutritional anaemias. It has been successfully used in colloidal form to expell tapeworms. It continues to occupy a respected position in the homoeopathic Materia Medica.

SILVER

The metal silver was said by the Ancients to correspond with the moon, a correspondence suggested perhaps by its color and lustre. Its essence was said to be of benefit in diseases of the brain.

Silver does not appear to participate in any essential or significant biological process. It has at different times enjoyed a certain vogue in Western medical circles. To the doctors of the sixteenth century, tinctura lunae was long a famous remedy for epilepsy, melancholia and mania. Paracelsus praised its efficacy in diseases of the cerebrum. Until the early ninteenth century, silver nitrate was employed as a purgative and as a specific in St. Vitus' dance. Its excessively caustic nature, however, eventually precluded its internal use. Its main application in recent times has been in the prevention of ophthamia neonatorum, or infantile gonorrhoeal conjunctivitis. This is achieved by a single prophylactic instillation of one drop of 2% solution of silver nitrate in each eye of the newlyborn infant. When first instituted in the late ninteenth century, the prevalence of the condition in nursing wards of public hospitals was abruptly reduced.

Both colloidal silver and the salts of silver hold well respected positions in the homoeopathic Materia Medica.

IRON

According to the Ancients, the metal iron corresponds with the planet mars. It was said to be of value in inflammatory conditions and in disturbances of the gall bladder.

Iron is an essential element without which mammalian life as we know it would be impossible. It is intimately involved in the oxidative mechanisms of all living cells. In its absence, the transport and utilization of oxygen in mammalian systems could not occur. Severe deficiency of this metal affects energy transformations in living cells at a most fundamental level.

The adult human body is said to contain from four or five grams weight of iron. It tends to occur in greatest concentrations in the liver and spleen, whilst relatively large quantities occur in the kidneys, heart, skeletal muscles, pancreas and brain. It occurs in the blood as haemoglobin in erythrocytes or as transferrin and siderophilin in the plasma. Transferrin functions as the blood transports molecule for iron in the same way that haemoglobin functions as the transport molecule for oxygen. The liver, spleen and ne marrow contain high concentrations of the reserve, or storage molecules, of iron, ferritin and haemosiderin.

The absorption of dietary iron varies markedly according to the needs of the body. Typically, only ten percent of ingested iron is absorbed, the remainder being excreted. Because of the rapid turnover of blood heamoglobin, which is completely replaced every 120 - 125 days, and the susceptibility of the body to blood loss through ulceration and haemorrhage, the maintenance of body level of iron is of vital importance. Underwood (1971) observed:

"Iron deficiency is the most frequently encountered, chemically manifest deficiency disease in man. In adult men and post-menopausal women. the principal cause is chronic blood loss due to chronic infections, bleeding, ulcers and hookworm infestation. Iron deficiency anaemia is much more common in women than in men because women of fertile age are subject to additonal iron losses in menstruation, pregnancy and lactation."

The value of iron supplementation in the treatment of "chlorosis" (anaemia) is a relatively recent discovery, having only beconie established in the eighteenth century. Dietary supplementation of iron, especially in pregnant and lactating women has in recent times become virtually a universal practice in the Western world.

TIN

The metal tin was considered by the Ancients to have a correspondence with the planet jupiter. It was said to act principally on the lungs.

Paracelsus appears to have been among the first to make use of this metal in Western medicine. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, bisulphide of tin was a popular and evidently successful vermifuge. This compound occurred in the form of minute, glistening scales and was popularly known as mosaic gold. Because of its spectacular appearance, it became very popular with mountebanks of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was often included as an ingredient in their patent medicines.

It was claimed to be an effective inducer of sweat and a purgative in fevers, hysterical complaints and venereal disorders. In time, its popularity declined and it fell into disuse.

Tin has until recently been considered to be a metal with little or no biological value. Recent investigations performed in ultra-clean environments would, however, suggest an essential role for minute amounts of tin in mammalian growth and nutrition. It appears to form an essential component of certain enzyme systems. Underwood (1971) reports progressive accumulation of tin in human lungs with advancing age, with little or no concommitant accumulation in kidney or liver tissue.

The only use it finds in contemporary medicine appears to be in homoeopathy, where minute doses are held to be of value in certain chronic bronchial and pulmonary conditions.

LEAD

This heavy and malleable metal was considered by the Ancients to correspond with the planet saturn. It was said to be of value in diseases of the spleen.

Our main concern with lead in this present century is as a cumulative poison which, in its tetraethyl form, is progressively choking Western urban atmospheres and slipping into the most obscure niches of countless ecosystems. The astronomical rise in atmospheric lead levels since the general introduction of lead additives to petrol is well documented. Underwood (1971), on the basis of geochemical data, quotes the figures of 2 mg. per 70 kg. body weight as being an accurate estimate of the "natural levels of lead in uncontaminated man The average city dweller of today carries around 120 mg. of lead, of which 90% occurs in the skeleton." Tucker (1972) gives an account of the results obtained in a study of old elm trees grown in American cities. Between 1900 and 1910, the age rings were found to contain 0.12 ppm(parts per million) of lead; between 1940 and 1947, they were found to contain 0.33 ppm of lead; between 1956 and 1959, the age rings contained 0.74 ppm of lead.

Political debating over the wisdom or otherwise of pumping over one million tons of lead in the form of finely divided tetraethyl aerosols into the atmosphere yearly continues to delay implementation of effective measures to limit the influences of this toxic contaminant which is imperceptibly deadening the mental faculties of increasing numbers of urban children and shortening longevities of city dwellers generally.

Acute lead toxicity in humans is manifested by colic, anaemia and neuropathy or encephalopathy. Chronic lead poisoning has been observed to cause irreversible brain damage, and anaemia through the the inhibition of an enzyme system involved in haemoglobin synthesis. Regarding the essentiality of lead in biological systems, Underwood (1971) has observed:

"The possibility that lead in low concentrations performs some essential biochemical functions in living organisms cannot be excluded. although no such function have yet been demonstrated in plants, animals or microorganisms."

The notion of the use of lead as a medicine in this lead soaked century would appear to many as a manifest absurdity. Nonetheless, minute doses of lead in colloidal form continue to be successfully employed in certain cases of progressive muscular atrophy by homoeopathic profession.

In the foregoing discussion, we have considered mainly the effects of the body of metals on the physiology of man. A closer look at the history of their use among Natural Philosophers will reveal that this by no means exhausts their sphere of action. Amongst the Aphorisms of Patanjali is the indication that perfection or siddhi may be attained through the use of powerful medicaments. The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung that the use of potable gold or "nine crucibles cinnabar" will bestow the state of genie-hood upon the successful operator. The writings of the English alchemist Thomas Vaughan allude to the existence of a world of light and energy unveiled successful operations upon the mineral kingdom.

The errors of the past are remembered sorely but, with present mindfulness, can be transmuted into the perfections of the future.

SOURCES:

BARBAULT, A. (1975): 'Gold of a Thousand Mornings' Neville Spearman, London.
BOERICKE, W. (1972): 'Pocket Manual of Homoeopathic Materia Medica', Philadelphia Edition.
COCKREN, A. (1963): 'Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored'. Health Research, California.
GOVINDA, Lama Anagarika (1960): "Foundations of Mysticism". Rider and Co. London.
JAGGI O.P. (1973): "Yogic and Tantric Medicine", Atma Ram and sons, Dehli.
MAHDIHASSAN, S. (1975): "Collodial Gold as an Alchemical Preparation", Parachemy 3, 3, 234.
MARKS, G. and BEATTY, W.K. (1975): 'The Precious Metals of Medicine', Scribners, N.Y.
TUCKER, A. (1972): "Trace Substances and Health: A Handbook", Marcel Decker Inc. N.Y.
UNDERWOOD, F J. (1971): "Trace Elements in Human and Animal Nutrition", Academic, N.Y.
A.E. Waite (Ed) (1894): "The Hermetic and Alcheimical Writings of Paracelsus, Vols. I and II". Shambhala, Berkeley, (Reprint).
WARE. J.R. (Trans) (1966): "The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung : Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320", M.I.T.Press, Massachusetts.
WOODS, J. Haughton (Trans.) (1914): "The Yoga of Patanjali, or the Ancient Hindu Doctrine of Concentration of Mind", Motilal Banarsidass, Dehli, (Reprint)
ZVELEBIL. K.V. (1973): 'The Poets of the Powers', Rider and Co., London.

Linda Case

Music among the Ancients was seen as the foundaion of the world or the world-soul itself. As G. Nestler expressed in Die form in der Musik (Freiburg. 1954), . this music was inaudible; only its symbol was audible. This symbol comprised the notes or sounds that inan chose from the profusion that the cosmos placed at its disposal. Music arose from the polar tension between the audible and the inaudible. The cosmos could be either a myth or a likeness of the divine, spiritual order. It all depended on what man believed. Either he chose the myth and found a symbol for it, or he created that symbol out of the spirit of cosmic order. The unheard substance of the cosmos, the Essential, was in both cases sound and tone. These demanded expression and representation by means of notes and instruments."

Pythagorean Formulas for Musical Sound

As early as the ancient Greek era, the acoustical laws of Nature were discovered. In the fourth century B.C., Pythagoras developed the mathematical formulas for musical sound. These are known as the harmonic overtone series and the ratios represent a principle of Universal order. In order to illustrate these ratios, let us say that by vibrating the full length of a string 120 cm. long, the sounding note will be C. Above this fundamental sound are secondary tones produced by the upper parts of the string vibrating. The presence of these overtones created the varying tone colors of different instruments. If you divide this string in half by placing a bridge at the exact midpoint, the vibration of 1/2 the string will produce C', eight notes above the fundamental C. Thus, the ratio of 1:2 (60:60 cm.) produces the interval of an octave. When the bridge is moved to the 80 cm. point, forming a 2:3, the sounding pitch will be G' producing the interval of a Perfect 5th. With the bridge at 90 cm., 3:4, the sounding pitch will be C'producing the interval of a Perfect 4th. Continuing the same process; 4:5 produces the Major 3rd: 5:6 produces the minor 3rd; 6:7 produces the flattened third which is heard in eastern music; and 7:8 produces the Major 2nd. Continuing these ratios, the intervals become smaller and smaller until finally an infinite number of pitches can be produced within the space of a single note (Microtones).

We must understand that these pitches cannot be related to a piano because even a newly-tuned piano is not perfectly in tune but even-tempered. On the piano, pitches are divided into twelve equal semitones. On stringed instruments, pitches can be divided into an infinite number of tones with a small movement of a finger. A phenomena of the human car automatically adjusts the pitch for us since our car is much more sensitive than any instrument.

To the Greeks, the number "10" was sacred and svmbolized the wholeness of all creation. The Pythagorean formula 1+2+3+4=10 was the symbol of perfection. In the harmonic overtone series, the first three intervals, the Perfect Octave, Perfect 5th and the Perfect 4th are produced as a result of this formula. Accordingly, the Byzantines called these intervals the "pneumata" or sacred sounds and all other intervals the "sonata" or bodily sounds. During the Middle Ages, only these three perfect intervals were allowed in Church music.

According to the Greeks, the interval divisions of sound formed a link between Nature and the soul with each ratio corresponding to certain feeling. The astrologer Kepler related these intervals to the spacings of the planets with the distance between the sun and the earth being 2:1 or the interval of an octave. The measurements of the human body also correspond to these ratios. More recently, Rudolf Steiner has maintained that the interval of an octave leads a person to discover his higher self. Steiner also felt that the Perfect 5th stimulates the imagination and the interval of a 3rd affects subjectivity and destiny.

The Three Essentials of Music

Everything in Nature contains the three Essentials. Music and sound affect the body, soul and spirit of every human being. Thus, the three Essentials of music being rhythm (salt), melody (sulphur), and tone color or harmony (mercury), are effective means for development of the human soul. Rhythm develops the will building concentration, attention and determination. Melody opens up the world of emotions. Since tone color and harmony are the vehicles of sound itself, our inner hearing is developed.

Development of Musical Scale Systems

It is very interesting to note that the peoples of different countries, such as the Chinese, Celts, Scots, African Negroes, North American Indians and Polynesians, produced their own music along similar lines even though they were completely separated from each other. These people were not exposed to outside music but created their own culture. The music of all these countries was based on the pentatonic scale.

The pentatonic scale consists of five tones to the octave, containing no semi-tones. All of the intervals of the overtone series are inherent in this scale with the exception of the two most dissonant intervals: the minor 2nd and the tri-tone (Augmented 4th or diminished 5th). The structure of the scale is that of our natural minor scale from which the 2nd and 6th degrees (ti and fa) are missing: La Do Re Mi So La. The scale, of course, is only a basis for melody and the possibilities are infinite. Many people think of the interval distances by relating the scale to the black keys of the piano.

The five tones of the pentatonic scale are powerful sources of spiritual enrichment and are thought to be inborn in every human soul. In order for these to be awakened, they must be vibrated in the human being. Babies and small children often hum to themselves with their speech actually being half-singing. Their first words---Ma-Na- or "Da-Da" are without fall spoken to the interval of a falling minor 3rd. When parents call their children the same minor 3rd appears. Playground songs always center around this interval which is the most characteristic interval of the pentatonic scale. Children and adults alike who haven't studied music will naturally improvise pentatonic melodies as can be seen in the folk culture of all peoples.

The five tones of the pentatonic scale can be related to the Five Elements, possibly being at the core of human life itself. Also the five vowels (AEIOU) and the Hebrew letters Yod He Shin Vau He correspond to these tones imprinted in our souls. The number "5" and the Pentagram have been symbols for man and the human body. Perhaps even the original planets of the Ancients with the Earth (Moon) as the center correspond to these five basic tones.

If we can return to Pythagorus for a moment, we see that by the fourth century B.C., the scientific basis of our present day scale system was formulated by the Greek thinkers. In the fourth century A.D., St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, took on the task of organizing the music of the Church. The Church Modes which dominated European music for 1100 years (400-1500 A.D.) were based on the scale of the Greek thinkers, as is evidenced by the use of the Greek names even in our present day.

Each of the eight Church Modes consists of seven different notes, differing from one another by the order of tones and semi-tones. These can be understood more easily by looking at the white keys of the piano with each mode starting on a different key (C-Ionian; D-Dorian; etc.) Here again, each mode was related to a different feeling or mood. The greatest body of pure melody known to man, Gregorian chant, was based on the Church Modes and the pentatonic scale. Perhaps in the harmonic development, the seven planets of the Ancients with the sun as the center relate to the seven tones of each mode.

With the further development of harmonic music, Church Modes were replaced by the Major and Minor scale system in the course of the 17th century. Major and minor tonality has dominated Western music since 1600 A.D., but now in the 20th century composers are using each of the twelve chromatic tones in an octave as equals. With electronic music and synthe sizers, micro-tonality and tone-color music are coining to the fore with composers returning to the elemental nature of sound. Many of these modern compositions sound strange to our car, but the coinposers are actually working with the basic laws of sound dating back to the creation of the Universe.

The Musical Education of all Human Beings

From this brief history, it is possible to see the fundamental principles of the Universe expressed in music. Since it is so obvious that powerful sources of spiritual enrichment spring from music, we must look to the musical education of all human beings.

In North America we can go to symphony concerts and almost always find empty seats. When the concerts are over, you find people rushing off to their cars instead of showing their appreciation by applauding. In Europe this is quite different with people being turned awav from concerts regularly because of full houses. How do you build musically literate audiences that have a thirst for finer music'?

The Hungarian composer and educator, Zoltan Kodaly, changed the course of music education in Hungary; and his method is now spilling over into other countries as well. Kodaly believed that the five, tones of the pentatonic scale are the essence of every being and that it is the duty of educational systems to bring these tones forth in every child. While most schools are worrying about sports and physical competitions, the child's soul can almost be forgotten. Kodaly maintained that the foundations of a musical culture are laid at school where all children can be given equal opportunity.

Most Hungarians were musically illiterate until the end of the 19th century. They had no knowledge of written notation since their musical life was basically an oral culture. Around 1900, a great worldwide interest in folk music and the folksong occurred and at this time Kodaly and another Hungarian composer, Bela Bartok, started the task of collecting the folksongs of Hungarian people and putting them into musical notation. The pentatonic scale was again seen as the basis for all of the folk literature. Bartok observed the peasants in Transylvania who had had no musical education improvising pentatonic melodies. Many "mourning songs" were collected from the old custom of widows improvising while sitting on the graves of their deceased husbands. The widows would sit for hours and even days improvising pentatonic melodies with their degree of mourning being judged by their improvising skill.

Kodaly maintained that the fold song is the child's musical mother-tongue and this language should be acquired at a very early age. Children can learn their own language much more easily by singing folk songs. Only the best music should be good enough for babies. After all, we choose a baby's nutritional diet much more carefully than an adult's so we should at least give the same care to a baby's spiritual diet.

The Kodaly Method

Since we are all born with an instrument in our throats and these five tones imprinted in our souls, why not start the education by opening up and using these musical treasures? Most people view instruments as the only course leading to musical education, but when you look at instruments, they are all desperately trying to imitate the human voice. Most families in Hungary, as well as in other countries, don't have extra money for instruments or music lessons so Kodaly developed a method of teaching music in the schools whereby all children could receive the blessings of music. The foundation is laid in the nursery schools and kindergartens with children learning a large number of Hungarian folk songs entirely by ear. Daily singing side by side with daily physical exercise equally develop a child's mind and body. Kodaly made sure that the system would work by having properly trained teachers at every level but especially the beginning levels. He often commented that a bad teacher can kill off the love for music from all of his pupils.

Since children learn by ear rather than by intellect at first, the Kodaly method uses the sol-fa syllables of the 11th century monk Guido of Arezzo and the hand signals developed by John Spencer Curwen (1816-1880) to avoid the stave system. After the children have learned to sing clearly and accurately with the movable do system, they are taught to read and write music. This begins in the first grade and every child in Hungary becomes a fluent reader in the first two years of school. The pentatonic scale serves as the foundation upon which the entire musical education is built. After these five tones are mastered, the children move into modes and major and minor tonality studying the music of all cultures.

The structure of music education is consistent from nursery school through college throughout Hungary. Children 6-14 years of age receive systematic music lessons in every school with daily singing classes in the first four years. For the 14-18 year olds, music classes branch out into music history, appreciation or theory as well as orchestras and choruses. Those children wishing to learn an instrument can attend specialized music schools which extend all over the country. One year of singing and rhythm training is required before you start an instrument.

Kodaly maintained that active participation in music not only contributes to the foundation of an artistic culture, but advantageously influences a child's physical and intellectual abilities. Thus, a child will lead a richer life, whatever his occupation, and will become a more useful member of society than those who remain musically ignorant. It is a blessing that the a that the people of a communist country can receive such spiritual blessings in the name of music education.

The Kodaly method is now being taught in North America, but the folk heritage of America and Canada has not been collected and made available to educators as it was in Hungary. It is imperative that children learn to sing before they learn an instrument. This, of course, can be done at home using folk songs and nursery rhymes. Without fail, children who hear their parents' singing will develop their own singing abilities automatically. The more exposure to fine music that parents can give their children, the more their cars will be developed.

Another educator who is changing the education of children is Shinichi Suzuki with the careful nurturing and exposure of small children to music. The Suzuki method is based on listening, with children learning to play musical instruments as they learned their own mother-tongue. There have been other educators, such as Rudolf Steiner, Emile Jacques Dalcroze, and Carl Orff, who have contributed to the musical education of children. Now it is our duty to use these ideas and instructions in order to continue the spiral of evolution by giving the blessings of music to all people.

INQUIRY welcomes your questions, particularly those pertaining to parachemical laboratory research, and will direct them to Dr. Albert Richard Riedel (Frater Albertus) for his comment on the subject that is of particular interest to you.

Q. The old alchemists had some of their products dissolved in a cellar. Why did they not simply dissolve them in water? Is there something taken out of the air that is not found in the water?

A. Yes. Water that has made contact with the earth and is then reused has given off some of its positive charge. When directly absorbed by the substance, the positive charge enchances it.

Q. What does Basilius mean when he speaks about the true and correct vinegar of the philosophers and its salts? How can they be prepared?

Pig's Lard

Pig's lard? Why write about such a subject when seemingly more meaningful topics could be chosen. Sometimes, the most simple things in life can be overlooked or put aside because of circumstantial evidence, as it is called, overriding previously established facts with presently available evidence. Not long ago I ran across a statement that had been formerly established as a fact, namely, that pig's lard was good as a base for salves and liniments, with excellent therapeutic results. It stated that this was totally erroneous and not based upon facts, as tests have established that this was not so. Whom shall we believe, the former or the latter, since both claim to have the facts? How could one basic fact change from yes to no when both claim to have the evidence? Let us look closer and see if it is not a fact that both are right.

We are not attempting here to begin a squabble about words, but would like to establish the validity of a fact. It is a fact that in man's way of thinking a thing is either right or wrong, because two wrongs don't make a right and neither do two rights make a wrong. But how about a right can be wrong and a wrong a right. Let us go back to pig's lard. The apparent reason why pig's lard was considered at one time of therapeutic help is found in the fact that pigs were allowed to run in the open. There they literally walloed in the mud, in fact enjoyed taking their mud baths as we. would say and perhaps do ourselves. But for what reasons?

Some of the best killers of bacteria are found in the earth. In this case we refer to the soil. We even speak of rare earth extracted from the soil. Pigs were raised for their meat and especially their fat. Fats are the storehouse for energy. It is well known that sugars produce fats in the body and sugar is a source of energy. Pigs got their antibiotics directly from the soil. On top of it the food they got had usually more nutrients in it than was known, as the leftovers and the ground up grains gave a pig more food value than the farmer did eat himself. The antibiotics were stored in the fat that, when rendered, yielded an excellent base for salves and ointments because of its enriched natural sources to energize what had become weakened. Thus muscular overexertion, one of the common ailments due to overstrain of the phy sique, was very common.

Now let us look at how pigs are raised today. Most of these animals hardly see the outdoors. In dark barns, in cramped quarters, hardly any movements are possible and for no other reason than to have them gain more weight. Their food has been specifically prepared to either produce pigs with more meat and less fat, or both. In fact, for those pigs so raised, precautionary measures have to be taken that they will not become sick or diseased as they can easily develop bacteria detrimental to their health, such as trichines and its likes. The result is that the veterinarian will have to inject antibotics to combat disease that could develop. It is very unlikely that any of the natural soil components that fortified the pig with its preventatives can be found in pigs as they are now raised.

The fact therefore remains that pig's lard formerly did contain natural antibiotics that were found to be of therapeutic value. Likewise does the fact remain that due to the manner of raising pigs now that are not allowed the free run formerly possible and to come in contact with the soil and mud contributing to their health, pigs cannot store the natural antibiotics. because they are deprived of them. This, likewise is a fact.

It has been established that both are facts and both have a right to be heard. This does not exclude the fact. however, that facts are subject to change according to man's way of thinking. Looking upon all this from the view of a Parachemist, it will pose no problem to establish the rationale of all things according to the facts prevailing at a given time.

At one time pig's lard was found in almost any apothecary, because it was used as a base for ointments and salves; and it helped the patient for whom it was prescribed. The name given was most likely not pig's lard but the word unguentum when a few drops of an aromatic oil was added with it. The fragrance changed according to the prevailing ailment.

In like manner were other medications used for more than one purpose. Antimony was such and so was gold. Tinctures derived from such mineral substances had more than one use, especially when other ingredients were added. Thus the tincture derived from antimony could be fixed or unfixed, and it was considered a fact that it was a most excellent blood purifying agent. At the same time when a medicine was added that had a specific function to perform, its value was enhanced. For example, in case of nephritis, a substance working on the kidneys was added from either the plant or mineral world to the tincture of antimony. The latter would help in the purification of the blood by removing impurities from it while the other ingredient would affect the kidney as an organ that may have malfunctioned. Such facts, and there are many of them relating to one particular case, deserve the most careful attention.

This analogy is also applicable to other instances where established facts are available and contradict former factual statements or outrule them. The oriental saying that one has to know the old to understand the new deserves closer observation. Man is not sufficiently prepared to pass judgment when considering prevailing circumstances only and too often is not taking into consideration what occurred before them. Previous knowledge is not always available and this should be a warning not to pass judgment in haste. What is known to be factual now may well have been formerly contradictory.

Dr Albert Richard Riedel