Adam McLean (1) (1948–)

THE SILENT LANGUAGE: SYMBOLS OF HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY

Panta rei' All life is movement and the symbol is her witness
The exhibition "The silent language. The symbols of Hermetic Philosophy', which has been
put together from the rich sources of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, is, as far as I
know, the first exhibition which demonstrates an integral relationship in the language of
symbols used in hermetic philosophy, in mysticism, in alchemy and in the Rosicrucian move
ment.

These four main areas into which hermetic-Christian philosophy has been gathered within
the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica have, each in their separate way, produced a Silent
Language, a Lingua Muta, which, in the form of the symbol, the hieroglyph, or other
character, reflects a universal world of concepts, alive and directly accessible to all mankind
and as ancient as the road of humanity itself.

In his incomparable study Rivers of life, J.G.R. Forlong uncovers the history of the growth
of the great spiritual movements of mankind, which go back over 10,000 years before our
Christian era. The primal aspects of the major spiritual movements are represented by him in
five symbols.

First of all there is the symbol of the sun as the wheel of life, explaining the sun mysteries
of Mithra. Secondly, there is the symbol of fire, the so-called Aesch Majim, the fire-water
principle in which the primal wisdom, as it is also visible in the Jewish Kabbala, finds its origin
Thirdly, there is the symbol of the tree, also called the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, in which both the life-creating principle, as well.as the polarity of
life manifesting itself within it, are brought to life, an image which in many successive spiritual
movements has been each time explained anew. Fourthly, there is the symbol of the phallus, as
the bearer of the life-giving principle itself, the seminal principle, which lies at the basis of the
procreation, continuation, multiplication and fertility of life, and expresses itself in the human,
animal, vegetable and mineral world. Finally, the symbol of the snake appears, a reference on
the one hand to the paradisical myth, the Fall of Man, but in its most sublimated form the
symbol of wisdom, the fullness of the pleroma, the reality of the gnosis, the knowledge of
God, which has come about through Him, in Him and by Him, the All-One.

The force of the symbol lies in her practical allusion to the ancient principle panta rei'
all life is movement. As the bird is an emblem of the sky, the fish an emblem of the water and
the four-footed animal an emblem of earth, the living nature, so man has been placed by his
creator, the cosmo-creator, as a microcosm in the centre of His creation, this being the symbol
of an originally conceived place for the micro-creator - the little creator - to live and to exist in
the world of the perennial continuation of life...… (altro)

THE HERMETIC JOURNAL :1979
1979 Issues 3/4/5/6
Back to Hermetic Journal page

-The Feminine Partner in the Alchemical Dance - Magenta Wise
-Paganism and the Hermetic Occult Tradition : Part Two - M. A. Howard
-The Spiritual Implications of Nuclear Power - Adam McLean
-Hermetic Meditation No 3
-Dr John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad - Gareth Knight
-The First Matter - Kenneth Clark
-Alchemical Mandala No 3
-The Four Fire Festivals : Part Two : Brigantia - Colin Murray
-The Zodiac and the Flashing Colours - Ithell Colquhoun
-Colour and the Two Sigils- Ithell Colquhoun
-A Rosicrucian Alchemical Mystery Centre in Scotland - Adam McLean
-Hermetic Meditation No 4
-Number and Space - Patricia Villiers-Stuart
-Alchemical Mandala No 4
-The Golden Chain of Homer : Part Four
-The Fountain Allegory of Bernard of Treviso
-Fulcanelli - Kenneth Rayner Johnson
-The Rosicrucian Canons of Benedict Hilarion
-The Four Fire Festivals : Part Three : Beltane
-A Rosicrucian Manuscript of Michael Maier - Adam McLean
-Hermetic Meditation No 5
-The Uroboros - Kenneth Clark
-The Birds in Alchemy - Adam McLean
-Gargoyle Evokation - Jon Symon
-Alchemical Mandala No 5
-Some Light on Kundalini - Nancy Ogle
-A Foundation - Richard Gardner
-The Four Fire Festivals : Part Four : Lugnassad - Colin Murray
-A Possible Origin for the Enochian Calls - Geoffrey James
-Hermetic Meditation No 6
-Memoir of E.J.L. Garstin - Ithell Colquhoun
-Notes on the Colouring of the Homer's Golden Chain Diagram - Ithell Colquhoun
-The Forty Worlds of the Holy Lamb - Michael Becket
-Bacstrom's Rosicrucian Society - Adam McLean
-Alchemical Mandala No 6
-Robert Fludd's Spiritual Task - Adam McLean… (altro)

THE HERMETIC JOURNAL : WINTER 1986 : ISSUE NUMBRER 34

Editorial

3 News and Information

4 A Comparison of the Prayer of the
Apostle Paul With the Hymnsof
Corpus Hermeticum and some
Greek Magical Papyri
David R. Fideler

18 Two Prayers for Alchemists
Karl von Eckarthausen

19 A Threefold Alchemical Journey
Through the Book of Lambspring
Adam McLean

25 A Note on the Paintings
of N.K. Roerich
Elemire Zolla o

27 A Kabbalistic Interpretation of
Hebrew Memorial Inscription
G.S. Bennett o

32 Alchemical Mandala No. 31
Regular Feature

36 The Equinoxes and Solstices
An Interpretation
Part 3 : The Winter Solstice
Graham Knight

39 Reviews

EDITORIAL

From the 1st of October the work of
the Hermetic Journal and the related
publishing activities became
restructured as an educational
Charitable Trust. This will not alter
the spiritual impulse that drives the
work but has given this a secure base
upon which it can develop further. In
the longer term there will be exciting
new developments in the work once
the Trust is relocated in London,
however, a number of important
projects are being initiated over the
next few months.

Although Tysoe lies in the heart of
England, it is rather remote from a
major city, so I never expected there
would be any possibility of finding
anyone locally able to help with the
day to day work of printing and
binding books. However, I have beern
extremely lucky in finding someone
willing to work a few days a week on
these tasks...… (altro)