FOREWORD
I've studied now Philosophy
And Jurisprudence, Medicine,
And even, alas! Theology
All through and through with ardour keen!
Here now I stand, poor fool, and see
I'm just as wise as formerly.1
In Act I of Goethe's Faust, the melancholic hero broods alone in his chamber and reflects upon the vainness of earthly knowledge and education. He opens a book of magic and gazes in almost sensual wonder upon the lines and symbols on a diagram of the Macrocosm. Upon waves of ecstasy he gives voice to the passion that since the dawn of consciousness has consumed the student of the mysteries.
What rapture, ah! at once is flowing
Through all my senses at the sight of this!
I feel a youthful life, its holy bliss,
Through nerve and vein run on, new-glowing.
Was it a god who wrote these signs that still
My inner tumult and that fill
My wretched heart with ecstasy?
Unveiling with mysterious potency
The powers of Nature round about me here?
Am I a god? All grows so clear to me!
In these pure lineaments I see
Creative Nature's self before my soul appear.
Now first I understand what he, the sage, has said:
"The world of spirits is not shut away;
Thy sense is closed, thy heart is dead!
Up, Student! bathe without dismay
Thy earthly breast in morning-red!”2
The archetype for the book that fired Goethe's imagination, and in the play initiated Faust's memorable career as magus, was in all likelihood a real book—a book of forbidden knowledge that evoked every mystical cliché of the dramatic imagination; a massive and heavily illuminated work of alchemy, astrology, theology, magic, and cabbala which in 17193 dropped like a living culture into the fertile medium of western syncretic thought; a book that for the remainder of the 18th century would revolutionize the Rosicrucian, Masonic, and Hermetic movements throughout Europe; a book with which Goethe, and the brightest stars in the firmament of European esotericism were intimately familiar—Georg von Welling's4 Opus Mago-cabbalisticum et Theosophicum.
For the modern student of the western mystery traditions, especially those whose studies and practices spring from the teachings and ceremonies propagated by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of von Welling's work. It served as the primary instructional text of the Gold- und Rosenkreuzer (Golden Rosicrucians), a highly prestigious Hermetic order founded in 1777, whose forms, doctrines, and teachings would infect and energize the worlds of mystic Christianity and esoteric Freemasonry. Indeed, the first degree lecture of the Gold- und Rosenkreuzer was lifted almost word for word from the fourth section of Vol. I of von Welling's Opus.
A hundred years later the nine-degree initiatory structure of the Golden Rosicrucians would provide the founding fathers of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (Rosicrucian Society in England) the archetype for their organization. SRIA's offspring, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in turn, would give birth to the magical, hermetic, and new age movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.
In fact, it does not seem to me too far fetched to suggest that this German Golden Rosicrucian/British SRIA pollination may well have provided the historic basis for the fanciful (and likely unhistorical) legend which suggests the Golden Dawn's authority was derived from a certain German adept whose ‘colleagues’ after her death withdrew their direct support of the Order. But this is a matter best left to the historians of this colorful period.
It's fair for the readers of this new edition to ask, “If Opus Mago-cabalisticum et Theosophicum is such an important and historic document, why haven't I heard of it?” The answer is almost unbelievably simple. Significant as the work is, it has until now never been translated into English. For nearly three hundred years its mysteries and treasures have been reserved exclusively for those with an eloquent and profound mastery of the German language.
While there is a measure of truth to the statement that a translation of any piece of written material is inferior to the original, the gods have smiled with particular warmth upon this project by alchemically uniting (like Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury) the elements of vision and support, in the person of Patricia Baker; the brilliance of the translator, Joseph McVeigh, professor of German Studies at Smith College; and the polished astuteness of Weiser Books, arguably the most venerable English-language publisher of esoteric material in the world. The result is an historic and invaluable contribution to the universe of esoteric literature.
That being said, it will become almost immediately apparent to even the most knowledgeable and sophisticated reader that von Welling's work is not easy reading. Indeed, much of it, especially those sections concerning Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury, seem to consist primarily of lengthy and redundant ramblings filled with superstitious and comically inaccurate observations of nature and the most unscientific of scientific conclusions. I confess, before I finished reading the first chapters of Volume One I was having serious doubts as to the relevance of this book, and stopped to ask myself how much more I wanted to learn about salt!
Eventually, as I wearily neared the beginning of Chapter IV of Volume One, I found myself slowing down and synchronizing more comfortably with the unhurried, almost hypnotic pace of von Welling's writing. His avuncular wit began to peek though as I paused to savor how he was saying things. As my blood pressure lowered and my patience rose I found myself surrendering to the images and characters of an archaic and divinely naïve alternate universe—the irrational fairy-tale reality of the alchemist.
Then, and only then was I in the ‘space’ where von Welling himself could speak directly to my earlier frustrations:
However, we must ask for the reader's understanding, that we did not present this material prior to the previous three chapters, as might have been appropriate, for this was not possible according to the mago-cabbalistic approach to writing. The reader is certainly aware of the manner in which the Holy Spirit “writes,” and in which it guided Moses by its most holy power, as he was describing the beginning of creation (which reached its endpoint in the creation of man). However, there is also the mago-cabbalistic style which typically begins with the characteristics or designations of things. We could not proceed in any other manner, than we did, and thus had to follow this style, because the beings concentrated within man represent the characteristics of their own essences, just as the human creature represents the composite character of all of them together.5
I cannot, nor do I, expect anyone else to squeeze the comparable blood of illumination from the same turnip of text. What should be universally obvious, however, is the message von Welling seems to be sending to those who have ears to hear—the message that this book is written in a peculiar manner that only those who have already undergone a certain modification to their consciousness will be able to appreciate. Recall the words of Faust:
The world of spirits is not shut away;
Thy sense is closed, thy heart is dead!
By carefully crafting his introductory material von Welling administers an almost psychedelic dose of words and images that opens our senses and resurrects our hearts—readjusts and redefines our inner vocabulary so that we are all, as it were, on the same page as to the characteristics or designations if things he is discussing.
I wish I could say that this modification of consciousness is enough to immediately make the Opus easy to comprehend, but unfortunately I cannot. There is yet another layer of cerement that swaths the body of the text that must be unwrapped by the diligent student. It must be remembered that at the time the book was written and published its subject matter touched on themes and theories that if spoken about in plain language would most certainly attract the condemnation and persecution of the church and established academic institutions. The consequences of such negative attention, even in the first half of the eighteenth century, could be gruesomely unpleasant.
With so many taboos imposed upon published material and public discussion it is impossible to escape the obvious fact that von Welling employed the complex (and for most of the world, incomprehensible) language of alchemy, astrology, magic, and even Holy Scripture to simultaneously conceal his ideas from the profane, while revealing them to the initiated. These, in my opinion, include mystical secrets of the human body and (even more dangerous) the powers and potentialities of human sexuality. After all, what powers do humans possess that are more God-like than those surrounding the conception and birth of another human being—the creation of a perfect vessel for an incarnating soul? This is surely a subject any alchemist worth his salt would find eminently suitable for research and experimentation.
While I certainly do not question the sincerity of von Welling's devotion to the Christian faith, it appears in many instances he invokes Deity and quotes scripture not so much as a demonstration of piety but for the benefit of heretic hunters who most certainly would be scrutinizing his work. It is a venerable and effective technique of the cabbalist to camouflage esoteric discourses as scholarly elucidations upon Bible verses. As long as the “Holy Scriptures” were used as the springboard for discussion von Welling remained relatively free to soar to wondrous (perhaps even heretical) heights.
To navigate through this mago-cabbalistic approach to writing is a major challenge to the modern reader of ancient alchemical, magical, and cabbalistic texts. One is faced, page after page, with having to hear what is being said in what is not being said, and having to ignore what should be ignored in what is being said. Still, it is clear von Welling could be audaciously outspoken. In Chapter VIII of Volume Two he doesn't hesitate to rip into his contemporaries in the most uncamouflaged terms:
We can only wonder at how so many illustrious men could be so wrong in their interpretations of Revelation. On the other hand, their erroneous ways are not surprising when one considers their adamancy, prejudice and arrogance, which prevents them from considering the text correctly.6
He sounds like quite a character.
I confess that most of what I've learned about von Welling has been gleaned from the pages of Opus Mago-cabbalisticum et Theosophicum. He was born in 1655 in central Germany near the city of Kassel and, until two years before his death in 1727, earned a comfortable living as Director of Building and Mines for the state of Baden-Durlach in southwestern Germany. It is clear that he didn't consider this position just a job. He had a passion for mining and geology and his expertise in these fields is apparent (sometimes to an irritating degree) in his writing. He apparently made no secret of his interest in alchemy as well. Travel literature of the Baden area still proudly points tourists to buildings that once housed his alchemical laboratories.
Von Welling was not an academic snob. As Professor Me Veigh's translation artfully demonstrates, he was quite plainspoken, at times even bucolic. Nowhere is his irascible, Mark Twain-like candor more evident than at the beginning of Chapter Five of Volume Three: On Religion, According to the Clear and Precise Meaning if Sacred Scripture and the True Mago-Cabbala, Based on the Same. His words of condemnation aimed at all who would in the name of orthodoxy suppress freedom of thought and exploration ring true today as they did in 1719. I can think of no better way to close this Introduction.
In the name if God we now move to a topic, which will surely earn us the censure if orthodox scholars. Many if these gentlemen believe they alone have the right and ability to teach and write about theological matters, and that priests cannot err in matters if the Law. Thus, they will attack anyone who is not a member if their guild the moment he dares to speak on such topics. They will criticize, fault, judge and condemn in a most unpleasant manner anything he might say that doesn't conform with their ideas. And if they cannot find anything in his statement to criticize or condemn, they are mean enough to simply reject the author's work because he is not a member if their order and was not educated like them in their discipline at the best schools, which they feel gives them the privilege if speaking and writing about theology. However, neither Christ the Lord nor his disciples came from their order if priests and theologians, nor did Christ and His true teachers and disciples attend the top schools if theology. Rather, the disciples studied in the school if Christ and His Holy Spirit. Therefore, no upstanding and enlightened theologian would approve if the insane and downright idolatrous illusions if the orthodox heretic-makers. And so we will not expect a reasonable judgment from them, based on the rules if Christ. Their mocking and faulting will not affect us. And so, let us move on to our principle purpose here.7
Lon Milo DuQuette, February, 2006
1. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Faust. Translated by George Madison Priest. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941).
2. Ibid.
3. Von Welling penned the author's Foreword to a complete edition on January 4, 1721.
4. Von Welling also wrote under the pseudonym Gregorius Anglus Sallwigt.
5. Page 86
6. Page 266
7. Page 410