The Seed in Winter

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The Seed in Winter by Steve Kalec

The Heart Unafraid (Oil painting by Leopold de Postels)

In the Hermetic Philosophy, the alchemical process of the regeneration of the energies of our souls and consciousness are said to unfold through cyclic events very much as do the passing of the yearly seasons of nature as the black winter, followed by the white blossoming spring, the red hot summer, and the golden autumn when our fruit is ready for the harvest.

As we are preparing to enter into the winter months, it is a befitting time to dwell upon the allegorical symbolism of the blackening of winter. In this time, as our days are shortened and our nights are lengthened, a sombering and darkening condition is felt in an all-embracing sense. Nature enters into a state of sleep, which very much alludes to a sort of death as the external activities of nature slow down. Consciousness itself collectively seems to be reduced as creatures of many kinds hide for the hibernation season. The plants, flowers, trees, and all kinds of vegetation become dormant and lifeless as they loose their vivid colors and give way to the blackening and darkness of winter. It seems a very sorry state, melancholic and very depressing. Yet if we look a little deeper into the esoteric principles that are transpiring, we will see that this blackness is really a blessed darkness as is seen by mystics and philosophers. A cold stillness of death and darkness may have overshadowed the world, yet a regeneration and a new life is warming and brooding within her very bosom, within the very seeds of life itself. It is in the late fall prior to the beginning of winter that the farmers and agriculturists plant their seeds into the earth. Thus it is ensured that the seed can have the time to undergo the alchemical process of the dissolution of the dark night of winter. In order for the seed to bear fruit, it must die, break, putrefy, be opened and be readied for just the right time to germinate and come to life when the etheric energies of life pour out their greatest influence on it in the Spring.

A seed holds within itself its potentiality of being. Within a tiny seed, there lies the potentiality of a giant tree. One should really meditate on this mystery, for this very seed also contains within itself its entire species. One tiny seed contains within itself an entire forest. If we succeed in our meditation, we will come to understand that this tiny seed also contains within itself all the trees of its species that have ever germinated into life, for it came from the first tree. In a deeper esoteric understanding, it is in itself, the first tree and the last tree. The All is in all. This also holds to be very true for the seed of consciousness. When the seed of our soul, (as the potential inner gold of the alchemists ), is placed in the black earth as the womb and the raw richness of the darkness of our unconscious, the tomb of Osiris ( or the sepulcher of Christ). After putrefying, it is reborn and blooms to full flower and grows into the full expression of the potentiality it held. It is in the cycle of the philosophical winter of our consciousness, that as a seed, we are placed into the earth or our tomb, to be broken, opened, to putrify, and mortify , where we come face to face with the depth of our inner darkness. Oh what a sorry state, what an agonizing situation ! How can this be the blessed darkness of the alchemists ? Julius Evola in the hermetic Tradition says, The seed is, first of all, vulgar Gold, which separated from the Mine (Universal Life) is as dead; but when thrust into the earth, or the field, and after putrefying, it is reborn and brings to full flower the principle whose potentiality it held. We as mystics and students of the esoteric philosophies know that this principle must be understood within ourselves. This sowing of the seed is the sowing of our consciousness, and it is the interior way. Consciousness must be turned inwards through a backward flowing way into the very depths of our being, there to find the Gold within. This is what we do when we meditate and practice spiritual techniques such as our Overall Exercise. The slow fire of our putrefaction is really the regiment of the secret fire of the alchemists as our purified psychic energies , which allows for the blackest of our metal, the lead of the unconscious self, to be whitened through the action of this inner heat. Decay is a wonderful smith,� says the Golden Chain of Homer, meaning that it transforms one element to an other. Through this practice, the vigilant sower and connoisseur of the field will see at the coming spring the efflorescence and blooming of his Hermetic White Rose. This is the first order of our transmutation from the darkness of lead to the brightness and shimmering reflective nature of silver. Our silver will then proceed through her transmutation by the action of the solar heat of our philosophical summer and become our most noble, glittering and incorruptible metal of gold in the fall when our Great Work will be completed. To everything there is a season, and the dark night of our winter will give way to our glorious blossoming spring. Then we will understand the words of Corinthians 15,36-44, what was sown in the earth as a perishable thing is raised imperishable.

All Best Wishes to all during this Winter Solstice,

Steve Kalec