WEBVTT 00:46.260 --> 00:56.780 to do is to be part of a film making effort and I want to describe the project to you a little bit 00:56.780 --> 01:11.750 simply because it's what's on my mind naturally. It's not a film about rave culture, it's not a 01:11.750 --> 01:20.990 film about Albert Hoffman, it's not a film about body piercing or any of these things that great 01:20.990 --> 01:30.270 films need to be done about and have been done about. It's about one of your local heroes who is 01:30.270 --> 01:40.590 a great hero of mine and I'm talking about Frederick V, Elector Palatine, Prince of Heidelberg, 01:40.590 --> 01:49.110 King of Bohemia, who was not content to sit back and let things happen but was willing to launch 01:50.990 --> 02:15.360 a chemical dream of a reformation of human society. Okay this is a prophecy in the Hermetic 02:15.360 --> 02:24.490 literature. A day will come when men will no longer care for the earth and at that day the 02:24.490 --> 02:32.530 gods will depart and everything will be thrown into primal chaos. This prophecy was strongly 02:32.530 --> 02:37.830 in the minds of the strains of non-christian thought that evolved at the centuries of closure 02:37.830 --> 02:38.630 of the Roman Empire. 02:38.650 --> 02:48.270 A world whose psychology was very much like the psychology of our own time. A psychology of despair and 02:48.270 --> 03:02.120 exhaustion. LSD was not sufficient even coupled with rock and roll. It only brought oppression. It was 03:02.120 --> 03:11.580 like a failed alchemy. Instead of the dissolving and recrystallizing at a higher and more angelic 03:11.580 --> 03:12.060 level, 03:12.940 --> 03:19.940 thousands of prisons were built and the entire thing failed. But this spirit is the spirit. The spirit of life itself. The spirit of novelty itself. And it will not be suppressed for long in any time or place. So now again it comes. It's a spirit of dissent that will not be suppressed for long. 03:48.000 --> 03:51.020 It says we will not 03:51.020 --> 03:53.660 The values of materialism 03:53.660 --> 03:59.400 the values of the ito and the values 03:59.400 --> 04:02.180 Separate and break down the community 04:02.920 --> 04:25.920 in the two hundred and twenty years from fifteen hundred to beginning of the thirty years war 04:25.920 --> 04:33.400 Europe was caught in a number of conspiracies and political intrigues directed toward moving Europe 04:33.400 --> 04:34.400 toward a magical and Unvaccinated world 04:34.400 --> 04:35.080 The return of the interests caused by Ruble'satershil will continue to live in all kinds of countries for 1020 years before relnentance to money immediately and in all sorts of initials such as�데らo group guerrilla policies end which will ultimately be removed from te autres euros 04:35.240 --> 04:37.180 chemically-based society. 04:38.200 --> 04:41.400 The Protestant princes of the Northern League of Germany, 04:41.740 --> 04:44.200 especially Frederick the Elector Palatine, 04:44.380 --> 04:47.020 came to culminate this movement, 04:47.360 --> 04:53.480 but its roots lie further back in the 1580s of the 16th century. 04:53.480 --> 04:58.680 It was in this period that the English astrologer, astronomer, 04:59.040 --> 05:04.300 mathematician, navigator, and expert of espionage, John Dee, 05:04.300 --> 05:08.900 launched his famous and mysterious mission to Bohemia, 05:09.380 --> 05:12.320 a little-known incident in European history 05:12.320 --> 05:18.300 which holds clues to understanding the fate and evolution of modern science 05:18.300 --> 05:23.060 and the nature of a lost world of magical and alchemical thinking 05:23.060 --> 05:27.360 that once claimed the attention of the European imagination. 05:32.140 --> 05:36.700 John Dee, the greatest mind of the Elizabethan era, 05:37.060 --> 05:38.180 friend of Queen Elizabeth, 05:39.180 --> 05:42.200 colleague of Sir Philip Sidney, 05:43.860 --> 05:48.100 converser with angels, mathematician par excellence, 05:49.060 --> 05:53.640 determined, under the influence of the mysterious Edward Kelly, 05:53.640 --> 05:58.900 that he was to be the center of a now-chemical renaissance 05:58.900 --> 06:02.840 and a secret society that would lay the groundwork 06:02.840 --> 06:06.180 for the continuation of the dream of Astraea, 06:07.060 --> 06:07.640 the dream built... 06:08.180 --> 06:12.540 around the Elizabethan Queen Elizabeth I. 06:12.820 --> 06:26.240 He associated himself intensely with the Arthurian mythical and mystical side 06:26.240 --> 06:29.800 of the Elizabethan idea of British Empire. 06:34.160 --> 06:38.960 He was a welshman, like the Queen he was so intensely devoted to, 06:38.960 --> 06:44.440 and like her he shared the renaissance mood of Saturnian melancholy. 06:45.040 --> 06:48.760 A collector of books, a builder of scientific instruments, 06:48.760 --> 06:49.000 a collector of books, a builder of scientific instruments, 06:49.000 --> 06:49.240 a collector of books, a builder of scientific instruments, 06:49.240 --> 06:57.360 composer of codes and ciphers, fascinated with alchemy. Dee was both the figure of the 06:57.360 --> 07:08.290 introspective melancholic and the world-planning, empire-building political visionary. Dee was 07:08.290 --> 07:14.570 under the patronage of the Earl of Northumberland, and it was Northumberland who looted the Catholic 07:14.570 --> 07:22.610 monasteries at the time of Henry VIII. We have reason to believe that John Dee had 07:22.610 --> 07:34.190 a virtual carte blanche in selecting manuscripts from those libraries that interested him. 07:34.190 --> 07:41.950 Not only was Dee a scholar of the classics and the magical past, but he was an intimate 07:41.950 --> 07:49.430 friend with some of the great movers and shakers of his own time, particularly Sir Philip Sidney 07:49.430 --> 07:56.630 and the entire coterie of poets and artists who had gathered themselves around Elizabeth 07:56.630 --> 07:57.050 as strangers. 07:57.090 --> 08:22.310 It was essentially a poetic enterprise, as alchemy always is. Merlin, in the Arthurian 08:22.310 --> 08:26.630 legends, has come down to us basically disguised as a poet. 08:26.630 --> 08:35.230 The image we have of Merlin is a great historical figure, and Dee's image. So Dee possessed 08:35.230 --> 08:42.410 an enormous power over the imagination of his contemporaries. They were in awe of his 08:42.410 --> 08:42.990 learning. 08:42.990 --> 09:05.630 Or let my lamp at midnight hour be seen in some high lonely tower, where I may oft out-watch 09:05.630 --> 09:10.310 the bear with thrice great Hermes, or unsphere the spirit of the bear. 09:10.330 --> 09:38.580 of Plato to unfold what worlds or what vast regions hold. Perhaps we are the naive ones. 09:38.860 --> 09:45.260 Perhaps we too quickly assumed that we had understood all there was to know about matter. 09:45.820 --> 09:53.640 After all, even to this moment, we cannot locate the seat of the imagination in matter. 09:53.640 --> 09:59.600 We cannot trace the evolution of a human thought or hope in matter. 10:00.260 --> 10:15.820 It's almost as though the alchemists, through their humility, had a deeper insight into the workings of the world than we have achieved today. 10:16.360 --> 10:33.780 The transformation of matter into a universal panacea for the redemption of mankind. 10:34.580 --> 10:37.780 This was Dee's great... 10:38.420 --> 10:45.040 ...passion. This was the overarching theme of his life, a deep, deep... 10:45.800 --> 10:50.200 ...commitment to the reformation of society, and a deep, deep... 10:51.500 --> 10:58.840 ...exhaustion and rejection of the values of Christendom that he saw betrayed all about him. 10:58.840 --> 11:10.590 And then by distillation, and then by coagulation, and then by concentration through firing... 11:10.930 --> 11:12.310 ...the alchemical body... 11:12.310 --> 11:14.310 ...is brought to completion. 11:14.630 --> 11:22.350 These are processes that go on both within the chemical retort, the alembic, in the alchemist's laboratory... 11:22.350 --> 11:28.350 ...and they're processes which go on in the heart and mind of the alchemist. 11:30.530 --> 11:32.530 One process dissolves. 11:33.390 --> 11:39.990 Another process separates the dross, the gross matter, from the precious. 11:39.990 --> 11:43.330 Another concentrates the subtle essence. 11:43.910 --> 11:49.410 Another raises the subtle essence to another level of refinement. 11:49.410 --> 12:07.310 Over time, the great friend of the alchemist, this process of rarefaction and growth... 12:07.310 --> 12:21.570 ...both metallic and psychological, both internal and external, both personal and impersonal, proceeds and feeds upon itself... 12:21.570 --> 12:22.570 ...and eventually... 12:23.190 --> 12:28.190 ...not through any logic discernible to the scientific mind. 12:28.190 --> 12:32.190 There is a kind of miracle. 12:32.190 --> 12:37.190 The production of the stone, the union of spirit and matter... 12:37.190 --> 12:45.190 ...the fusion of these two contradictory aspects of the universe into a new and third thing... 12:45.190 --> 12:51.190 ...the quintessence, the rubedo, the lapis philosophorum, the aqua vitae... 12:51.190 --> 12:52.570 ...the nostre lapis... 12:52.570 --> 13:04.420 ...the lapis philosophorum de vici. 13:04.420 --> 13:08.420 I would place Dr. D at the center of this business. 13:08.420 --> 13:09.920 And then it's a dissolve. 13:09.920 --> 13:12.920 To Mortlake 1582. 13:12.920 --> 13:15.920 The angelic encounter. 13:15.920 --> 13:44.640 All you that feign philosophers would be... 13:44.640 --> 13:48.140 ...and night and day in Gelber's kitchen broil... 13:48.140 --> 13:51.140 ...wasting the chips of ancient Hermes' tree... 13:51.140 --> 13:54.140 ...leaning to turn them to a precious oil... 13:54.140 --> 13:57.640 ...the more you work, the more you lose and spoil... 13:57.640 --> 14:01.140 ...to you I say, how learned soe'er you be... 14:01.140 --> 14:05.140 ...go burn your books and come and learn of me. 14:08.740 --> 14:14.240 He was unusually susceptible to the claims of Edward Kelly... 14:14.240 --> 14:18.740 ...who came to D with two bona fides... 14:18.740 --> 14:22.740 ...a mysterious book written in hieroglyphics... 14:22.740 --> 14:24.740 ...and a red powder... 14:25.740 --> 14:27.740 ...which he claimed to be... 14:27.740 --> 14:32.740 ...a partially completed approach to the alchemical elixir. 14:32.740 --> 14:36.740 With these two bits of evidence in hand... 14:36.740 --> 14:42.740 ...D fell fully under the spell of Kelly and his scrying ability... 14:42.740 --> 14:52.000 ...communing with spirits and entities discerned within. 14:52.000 --> 14:57.000 He was at last obtaining entrance into the angelic realms... 14:57.000 --> 14:58.000 ...he had so long sought. 14:59.000 --> 15:24.600 The diaries of D show that over a period of years... 15:24.600 --> 15:26.600 ...and on a daily basis... 15:26.600 --> 15:29.600 ...he and Edward Kelly would regularly retire... 15:29.600 --> 15:32.600 ...to the inner chambers of D's house... 15:32.600 --> 15:34.600 ...first at Mortlake... 15:34.600 --> 15:37.600 ...and then in a series of courtly settings... 15:37.600 --> 15:39.600 ...as they moved about Europe. 15:39.600 --> 15:43.600 And in these seances, in these settings... 15:43.600 --> 15:49.600 ...a vast cast of angels and voices... 15:49.600 --> 15:51.600 ...passed in parade... 15:51.600 --> 15:54.600 ...always egging our protagonists... 15:54.600 --> 15:57.600 ...deeper into the Rosicrucian enlightenment... 15:57.600 --> 16:01.600 ...and the political dispensation that they sought. 16:01.600 --> 16:17.550 In 1583, they arrived at last in Prague. 16:17.550 --> 16:24.550 Prague at that time was ruled by Rudolf II... 16:24.550 --> 16:28.550 ...the occult emperor... 16:28.550 --> 16:31.550 ...collector of dwarves and giants... 16:31.550 --> 16:35.550 ...patron of alchemy and astrology... 16:35.550 --> 16:39.550 ...one of the most eccentric and extravagant rulers... 16:39.550 --> 16:42.550 ...in the entire panoply of European history. 16:42.550 --> 16:54.320 And it was to Rudolf... 16:54.320 --> 16:58.320 ...and it was to the people around Rudolf... 16:58.320 --> 17:01.320 ...and the emperor's private secretary... 17:01.320 --> 17:04.320 ...Count Palatine Michael Meyer... 17:04.320 --> 17:06.320 ...it was to these established... 17:06.320 --> 17:08.320 ...and renowned alchemists... 17:08.320 --> 17:10.320 ...that Dee brought his plan... 17:10.320 --> 17:12.320 ...and drew them forward... 17:12.320 --> 17:16.320 ...toward the idea of an alchemical reformation. 17:16.320 --> 17:31.510 He was able to lay the groundwork for events... 17:31.510 --> 17:33.510 ...which a generation later... 17:33.510 --> 17:38.510 ...would blossom into the Rosicrucian enlightenment. 17:38.510 --> 18:25.190 The whole of the cosmos is reflected... 18:25.190 --> 18:27.190 ...in the mystery of man and woman... 18:27.190 --> 18:31.190 ...the mystery of the human mind-body interface. 18:31.190 --> 18:42.310 It's important to see Dee... 18:42.310 --> 18:44.310 ...as a kind of culmination... 18:44.310 --> 18:47.310 ...of a tradition that had been at work... 18:47.310 --> 18:51.310 ...for over 150 years in Europe. 18:51.310 --> 18:55.310 The use of astrology... 18:55.310 --> 18:58.310 ...numerology... 18:58.310 --> 19:00.310 ...Hebrew Kabbalah... 19:00.310 --> 19:02.310 ...and the doctrine of signatures... 19:02.310 --> 19:05.310 ...to produce a magical theory of nature... 19:05.310 --> 19:07.310 ...and man's place in it... 19:07.310 --> 19:09.310 ...can be traced to... 19:09.310 --> 19:14.310 ...a generation before Dee. 19:14.310 --> 19:18.310 People like Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettlesheim... 19:18.310 --> 19:22.310 ...who became the prototype for Faust... 19:22.310 --> 19:25.310 ...the Bishop Trithemius... 19:25.310 --> 19:28.310 ...the great developer of codes and ciphers... 19:28.310 --> 19:31.310 ...one of Dee's great passions... 19:31.310 --> 19:35.310 ...the Florentine magician Marcello Ficino... 19:35.310 --> 19:38.310 ...who was the great rediscoverer... 19:38.310 --> 19:41.310 ...and promoter of the Hermetic knowledge... 19:41.310 --> 19:45.310 ...and upon which he drew very heavily. 19:45.310 --> 19:48.310 But he took their work... 19:48.310 --> 19:52.310 ...and added the dimension of the idea... 19:52.310 --> 19:56.310 ...of an angelic intercession into politics of the time... 19:56.310 --> 19:59.310 ...essentially in support of the values... 19:59.310 --> 20:02.310 ...of the young Queen Elizabeth... 20:02.310 --> 20:04.310 ...and her Astraea reign. 20:04.310 --> 20:15.080 Alchemy and the history of alchemy... 20:15.080 --> 20:19.080 ...is full of contradictions, inconsistencies... 20:19.080 --> 20:22.080 ...unions of opposite, if you will. 20:22.080 --> 20:26.080 The very year that the Rosicrucian manifestos... 20:26.080 --> 20:31.080 ...claimed the attention of the European public, 1608... 20:31.080 --> 20:34.080 ...Dee died in poverty and disappointment... 20:34.080 --> 20:38.080 ...in his now half-looted and abandoned home... 20:38.080 --> 20:40.080 ...at Mortlake. 20:40.080 --> 20:44.080 The alchemical dream that Dee had sought to live... 20:44.080 --> 20:47.080 ...was to be completed, if at all... 20:47.080 --> 20:50.080 ...by personalities other than himself. 20:50.080 --> 21:00.120 These are actors... 21:00.120 --> 21:21.070 ...in the baseless fabric of this vision. 21:21.070 --> 22:40.480 Frederick the Elector... 22:40.480 --> 22:43.480 ...the fifth Palatine Prince of Heidelberg... 22:43.480 --> 22:45.480 ...sixteen years old... 22:45.480 --> 22:48.480 ...was betrothed by an arranged marriage... 22:48.480 --> 22:51.480 ...to Elizabeth Stuart of England... 22:51.480 --> 22:53.480 ...the daughter of James I... 22:53.480 --> 22:56.480 ...the great-granddaughter of Henry VIII of England. 22:57.480 --> 23:00.480 She too was but sixteen years old... 23:00.480 --> 23:02.480 ...when they were married... 23:02.480 --> 23:04.480 ...in one of the most dramatic nuptials... 23:04.480 --> 23:07.480 ...that London had ever witnessed. 23:07.480 --> 23:23.080 Frederick had come to England... 23:23.080 --> 23:25.080 ...to claim his queen... 23:25.080 --> 23:27.080 ...accompanied by courtiers... 23:27.080 --> 23:29.080 ...alchemists... 23:29.080 --> 23:32.080 ...and his advisor Christian von Anhalt... 23:32.080 --> 23:34.080 ...an alchemical dreamer... 23:34.080 --> 23:37.080 ...who saw in the marriage of the young couple... 23:37.080 --> 23:40.080 ...the opportunity for the establishment... 23:40.080 --> 23:43.080 ...of a Protestant alchemical kingdom... 23:43.080 --> 23:49.520 ...in Central Europe. 23:49.520 --> 23:52.520 The young couple, lost in love... 23:52.520 --> 23:54.520 ...made their way back... 23:54.520 --> 23:56.520 ...to Frederick's beautiful Palatinate... 23:56.520 --> 23:58.520 ...in southern Germany... 23:58.520 --> 24:00.520 ...and there they intended to dwell... 24:00.520 --> 24:02.520 ...and found a dynasty. 24:02.520 --> 24:05.520 But such was not to be. 24:05.520 --> 24:16.140 And they were the center... 24:16.140 --> 24:18.140 ...of a movement... 24:18.140 --> 24:21.140 ...of alchemical reformation and revolution... 24:22.140 --> 24:25.140 ...of spiritual freedom... 24:25.140 --> 24:28.140 ...and to my mind... 24:28.140 --> 24:31.140 ...a very sort of psychedelic world. 24:31.140 --> 24:41.780 A rarefaction... 24:41.780 --> 24:43.780 ...a good alchemical word... 24:43.780 --> 24:45.780 ...a rarefaction... 24:45.780 --> 24:48.780 ...of the human... 24:48.780 --> 24:51.780 ...imprint on this planet. 24:51.780 --> 24:53.780 A spiritualization... 24:53.780 --> 24:55.780 ...of humanity... 24:55.780 --> 24:58.780 ...and a new order of mind... 24:58.780 --> 25:00.780 ...folded in... 25:00.780 --> 25:02.780 ...to this... 25:02.780 --> 25:09.800 ...pair of sixteen-year-olds. 25:09.800 --> 25:11.800 So, to take an incident... 25:11.800 --> 25:14.800 ...like the career of Frederick the Elector... 25:14.800 --> 25:16.800 ...Palatine of Heidelberg... 25:16.800 --> 25:18.800 ...and his bride... 25:18.800 --> 25:20.800 ...and make of it... 25:20.800 --> 25:22.800 ...a kind of exemplar... 25:22.800 --> 25:24.800 ...a parable, a myth... 25:24.800 --> 25:26.800 ...if you will... 25:26.800 --> 25:29.800 ...the myth of the alchemical marriage... 25:29.800 --> 25:31.800 ...a myth... 25:31.800 --> 25:33.800 ...that takes innocence... 25:33.800 --> 25:35.800 ...and naivete... 25:35.800 --> 25:37.800 ...and belief... 25:37.800 --> 25:39.800 ...in the power of ideas... 25:39.800 --> 26:07.700 ...to make a new world. 26:07.700 --> 26:09.700 In the decades immediately before... 26:09.700 --> 26:11.700 ...the birth of modern science... 26:11.700 --> 26:13.700 ...the exploration of the new world... 26:13.700 --> 26:16.700 ...and the flowering of the alchemical imagination... 26:16.700 --> 26:18.700 ...confronted European man... 26:18.700 --> 26:20.700 ...with a bewildering... 26:20.700 --> 26:22.700 ...complexification of nature. 26:22.700 --> 26:24.700 And the primary symbol... 26:24.700 --> 26:26.700 ...used to understand... 26:26.700 --> 26:28.700 ...this bewildering... 26:28.700 --> 26:30.700 ...variety of phenomena... 26:30.700 --> 26:32.700 ...was the labyrinth... 26:32.700 --> 26:34.700 ...the palace... 26:34.700 --> 26:36.700 ...the acropolis complex... 26:36.700 --> 26:38.700 ...stretched through time and space... 26:38.700 --> 26:40.700 ...architectonic... 26:40.700 --> 26:42.700 ...pregnant with mnemonic possibility... 26:42.700 --> 26:44.700 ...the palace, the court... 26:44.700 --> 26:46.700 ...became the symbol... 26:46.700 --> 26:48.700 ...at the center of the social mandala... 26:48.700 --> 26:50.700 ...of the European imagination. 26:50.700 --> 26:52.700 And never more so... 26:52.700 --> 26:54.700 ...than here at Heidelberg... 26:54.700 --> 26:56.700 ...where Frederick and Elizabeth... 26:56.700 --> 26:58.700 ...literalized the mnemonic... 26:58.700 --> 27:00.700 ...and alchemical intentions... 27:00.700 --> 27:02.700 ...of the age... 27:02.700 --> 27:04.700 ...in a vast sprawling complex... 27:04.700 --> 27:06.700 ...of red sandstone... 27:06.700 --> 27:08.700 ...cut with secret passageways... 27:08.700 --> 27:10.700 ...hidden doorways... 27:10.700 --> 27:12.700 ...and complexity... 27:12.700 --> 27:14.700 ...found ordinarily... 27:14.700 --> 27:16.700 ...only in the depths... 27:16.700 --> 27:18.700 ...of the human unconscious... 27:18.700 --> 27:20.700 ...and the alchemical imagination. 27:44.040 --> 28:39.040 It's ground zero... 28:39.040 --> 28:41.040 ...for the Rosicrucian... 28:41.040 --> 28:52.380 ...enlightenment. Standing... 28:52.380 --> 28:54.380 ...here in the alchemical... 28:54.380 --> 28:56.380 ...laboratory... 28:56.380 --> 28:58.380 ...of the palace in Heidelberg... 28:58.380 --> 29:00.380 ...we are essentially... 29:00.380 --> 29:02.380 ...at the center of the alchemical... 29:02.380 --> 29:04.380 ...hopes of the Rosicrucian... 29:04.380 --> 29:06.380 ...enlightenment. It was... 29:06.380 --> 29:08.380 ...here in the years before the adventure... 29:08.380 --> 29:10.380 ...in Bohemia... 29:10.380 --> 29:12.380 ...that Frederick's alchemists... 29:12.380 --> 29:14.380 ...astrologers... 29:14.380 --> 29:16.380 ...and soothsayers toiled... 29:16.380 --> 29:18.380 ...directly under the king's... 29:18.380 --> 29:20.380 ...observation and control... 29:20.380 --> 29:22.380 ...here came... 29:22.380 --> 29:24.380 ...Michael Meyer, Heinrich Kundrath... 29:24.380 --> 29:26.380 ...the great names... 29:26.380 --> 29:28.380 ...of alchemy. It's entirely... 29:28.380 --> 29:30.380 ...possible that John Dee... 29:30.380 --> 29:32.380 ...was in this room. 29:32.380 --> 29:34.380 It's entirely possible that Edward... 29:34.380 --> 29:36.380 ...Kelly stood where I am... 29:36.380 --> 29:38.380 ...standing now. 29:38.380 --> 29:40.380 It's almost impossible... 29:40.380 --> 29:42.380 ...to conceive of the hopes... 29:42.380 --> 29:44.380 ...and the fantasies... 29:44.380 --> 29:46.380 ...and the labors... 29:46.380 --> 29:48.380 ...and the dreams... 29:48.380 --> 29:50.380 ...that have been generated by... 29:50.380 --> 29:52.380 ...and are centered on... 29:52.380 --> 29:54.380 ...this room... 29:54.380 --> 29:56.380 ...and the objects in it. 29:56.380 --> 29:58.380 This is the last alchemical... 29:58.380 --> 30:00.380 ...laboratory in the world... 30:00.380 --> 30:02.380 ...to fully function... 30:02.380 --> 30:04.380 ...before... 30:04.380 --> 30:06.380 ...the rise of modern... 30:06.380 --> 30:11.900 ...science. And these tools... 30:11.900 --> 30:13.900 ...in many ways reflect... 30:13.900 --> 30:15.900 ...the internal cosmology... 30:15.900 --> 30:17.900 ...of the men and women who used them. 30:17.900 --> 30:19.900 This, for example... 30:19.900 --> 30:21.900 ...a typical alchemical... 30:21.900 --> 30:23.900 ...distillery is called... 30:23.900 --> 30:25.900 ...the Pelican. 30:25.900 --> 30:27.900 Another example of the colorful... 30:27.900 --> 30:29.900 ...nature of alchemical... 30:29.900 --> 30:31.900 ...vocabulary. It's called... 30:31.900 --> 30:33.900 ...the Pelican because it is... 30:33.900 --> 30:35.900 ...associated with the... 30:35.900 --> 30:37.900 ...myth of a bird which plucks... 30:37.900 --> 30:39.900 ...blood from its own breast. 30:39.900 --> 30:41.900 The primal materia... 30:41.900 --> 30:43.900 ...feces, black coal... 30:43.900 --> 30:45.900 ...charcoal, salt... 30:45.900 --> 30:47.900 ...niter, heated in here... 30:47.900 --> 30:49.900 ...brought to a... 30:49.900 --> 30:51.900 ...high temperature, a fevered... 30:51.900 --> 30:53.900 ...caloric state... 30:53.900 --> 30:55.900 ...rises into the higher... 30:55.900 --> 30:57.900 ...imperium of the vessel... 30:57.900 --> 30:59.900 ...and there, rarefied... 30:59.900 --> 31:01.900 ...it condenses... 31:01.900 --> 31:03.900 ...liquifies... 31:03.900 --> 31:05.900 ...and flows down... 31:05.900 --> 31:07.900 ...into the cooler domain... 31:07.900 --> 31:09.900 ...of the child of the Pelican. 31:09.900 --> 31:11.900 Here the essence... 31:11.900 --> 31:13.900 ...is collected, the quintessence... 31:13.900 --> 31:15.900 ...and always the hope... 31:15.900 --> 31:17.900 ...was that... 31:17.900 --> 31:19.900 ...the next experiment... 31:19.900 --> 31:21.900 ...the next combination of materials... 31:21.900 --> 31:23.900 ...would yield... 31:23.900 --> 31:25.900 ...excervitae, the lapis... 31:25.900 --> 31:27.900 ...philosophorum, the... 31:27.900 --> 31:29.900 ...completion that the alchemist... 31:29.900 --> 31:31.900 ...sought. 31:31.900 --> 31:33.900 And so all this fantastic... 31:33.900 --> 31:35.900 ...apparatus that we see... 31:35.900 --> 31:37.900 ...around us is really... 31:37.900 --> 31:39.900 ...not so much in the... 31:39.900 --> 31:41.900 ...service of channeling... 31:41.900 --> 31:43.900 ...liquids, gases... 31:43.900 --> 31:45.900 ...but in the service of... 31:45.900 --> 31:47.900 ...channeling spirit... 31:47.900 --> 31:49.900 ...out of matter and into the... 31:49.900 --> 31:51.900 ...higher realms where it then... 31:51.900 --> 31:53.900 ...can be refluxed... 31:53.900 --> 31:55.900 ...recondensed... 31:55.900 --> 31:57.900 ...and the lapis... 31:57.900 --> 31:59.900 ...philosophorum, the stone of the... 31:59.900 --> 32:01.900 ...philosophers, the central... 32:01.900 --> 32:03.900 ...mystery brought to completion. 32:03.900 --> 32:22.600 It's the self... 32:22.600 --> 32:24.600 ...that we are trying to... 32:24.600 --> 32:26.600 ...recover. This is lumina... 32:26.600 --> 32:28.600 ...dilumina, the light trapped... 32:28.600 --> 32:30.600 ...in matter, the lux natura. 32:30.600 --> 32:32.600 This is universal medicine... 32:32.600 --> 32:34.600 ...curing all ills. 32:34.600 --> 32:36.600 It is the answer. 32:36.600 --> 32:38.600 It is what everyone is... 32:38.600 --> 32:40.600 ...looking for and no one... 32:40.600 --> 32:48.360 ...can find. And so... 32:48.360 --> 32:50.360 ...the alchemists... 32:50.360 --> 32:52.360 ...toiled over the... 32:52.360 --> 32:54.360 ...centuries. The torment... 32:54.360 --> 32:56.360 ...of the sulfur. 32:56.360 --> 32:58.360 The torment of the... 32:58.360 --> 33:00.360 ...cinnabar. The search... 33:00.360 --> 33:02.360 ...for the triumphant chariot... 33:02.360 --> 33:04.360 ...of antinomy. The search... 33:04.360 --> 33:06.360 ...for the quintessential... 33:06.360 --> 33:08.360 ...essence... 33:08.360 --> 33:10.360 ...that represented the union... 33:10.360 --> 33:12.360 ...of all the world... 33:12.360 --> 33:14.360 ...that the alchemists saw... 33:14.360 --> 33:26.890 ...around them. We have... 33:26.890 --> 33:28.890 ...come to understand that the... 33:28.890 --> 33:30.890 ...work of alchemy was not... 33:30.890 --> 33:32.890 ...about the transmutation of... 33:32.890 --> 33:34.890 ...crude metals into gold... 33:34.890 --> 33:36.890 ...but was in fact a kind... 33:36.890 --> 33:38.890 ...of dance of the imagination... 33:38.890 --> 33:40.890 ...in which... 33:40.890 --> 33:42.890 ...the... 33:42.890 --> 33:44.890 ...psychological complexes within... 33:44.890 --> 33:46.890 ...the alchemist were mingled... 33:46.890 --> 33:48.890 ...in an amalgam with... 33:48.890 --> 33:50.890 ...chemical processes creating... 33:50.890 --> 33:52.890 ...a kind of mythology... 33:52.890 --> 33:54.890 ...of matter. A... 33:54.890 --> 33:56.890 ...landscape in which the green lion... 33:56.890 --> 33:58.890 ...the red dragon... 33:58.890 --> 34:00.890 ...the hermaphroditic queen... 34:00.890 --> 34:02.890 ...the four-headed dog... 34:02.890 --> 34:04.890 ...were figures moving to and fro... 34:04.890 --> 34:06.890 ...in the fevered... 34:06.890 --> 34:08.890 ...speculations of the so-called... 34:08.890 --> 34:12.750 ...philosophers. 34:12.750 --> 34:14.750 And the belief was... 34:14.750 --> 34:16.750 ...that man could... 34:16.750 --> 34:18.750 ...work with nature... 34:18.750 --> 34:20.750 ...a full partner... 34:20.750 --> 34:22.750 ...with the divine process... 34:22.750 --> 34:24.750 ...and redeem... 34:24.750 --> 34:26.750 ...the light fallen... 34:26.750 --> 34:28.750 ...into matter, and in so doing... 34:28.750 --> 34:30.750 ...redeem himself. 34:30.750 --> 34:38.890 The alchemical... 34:38.890 --> 34:40.890 ...philosophers were living in a waking... 34:40.890 --> 34:42.890 ...dream, and many of their... 34:42.890 --> 34:44.890 ...recipes were designed to wipe out... 34:44.890 --> 34:46.890 ...the boundaries between waking... 34:46.890 --> 34:57.630 ...and sleeping. The stages... 34:57.630 --> 34:59.630 ...in the great work... 34:59.630 --> 35:01.630 ...beginning in the nigredo... 35:01.630 --> 35:03.630 ...the blackening, then... 35:03.630 --> 35:05.630 ...the rubedo, the reddening... 35:05.630 --> 35:07.630 ...the citrinitas, the yellowing... 35:07.630 --> 35:09.630 ...the veriditas... 35:09.630 --> 35:11.630 ...the greening... 35:11.630 --> 35:13.630 ...the albedo... 35:13.630 --> 35:15.630 ...the whitening, and finally... 35:15.630 --> 35:18.910 ...the purificatio. 35:18.910 --> 35:20.910 So at each stage there are... 35:20.910 --> 35:22.910 ...substages of dissolution... 35:22.910 --> 35:24.910 ...et coagulatio. 35:24.910 --> 35:26.910 It's a melting and a recasting... 35:26.910 --> 35:28.910 ...and a purifying... 35:28.910 --> 35:34.400 ...of psychic contents. 35:34.400 --> 35:36.400 Images are full of ravening... 35:36.400 --> 35:38.400 ...beasts, incestuous mother-son... 35:38.400 --> 35:40.400 ...pairs, brother-sister... 35:40.400 --> 35:42.400 ...pairs, hermaphrodites... 35:42.400 --> 35:44.400 ...all taboos are... 35:44.400 --> 35:46.400 ...broken. This stuff... 35:46.400 --> 35:48.400 ...just boils up from the unconscious... 35:48.400 --> 35:50.400 ...then is sublimed... 35:50.400 --> 35:52.400 ...through the stages... 35:52.400 --> 35:54.400 ...and is somehow fixed. 35:54.400 --> 35:56.400 And this fixing is the culmination... 35:56.400 --> 35:58.400 ...of alchemy. 35:58.400 --> 36:00.400 If you bring off this trick... 36:00.400 --> 36:02.400 ...then you possess our stone... 36:02.400 --> 36:04.400 ...the philosopher's stone... 36:04.400 --> 36:06.400 ...the lapis, the sophic hydrolith... 36:06.400 --> 36:19.630 ...of the wise. 36:19.630 --> 36:21.630 In the swirling of the alembic... 36:21.630 --> 36:23.630 ...in the chemical processes going on... 36:23.630 --> 36:25.630 ...in the retorts... 36:25.630 --> 36:27.630 ...you will be able to project... 36:27.630 --> 36:36.120 ...your unconscious material. 36:36.120 --> 36:38.120 We are never really able... 36:38.120 --> 36:40.120 ...except in the psychedelic state... 36:40.120 --> 36:42.120 ...to transcend the belief... 36:42.120 --> 36:44.120 ...in the inner world and the outer world... 36:44.120 --> 36:46.120 ...as being somehow separate. 36:46.120 --> 36:52.380 Within the context... 36:52.380 --> 36:54.380 ...of the alchemical... 36:54.380 --> 36:56.380 ...vocabulary... 36:56.380 --> 36:58.380 ...the psychedelic experience... 36:58.380 --> 37:00.380 ...as brought to us... 37:00.380 --> 37:02.380 ...through plants... 37:02.380 --> 37:04.380 ...long in the possession... 37:04.380 --> 37:06.380 ...of aboriginal plants... 37:06.380 --> 37:08.380 ...and people... 37:08.380 --> 37:10.380 ...appears to be the identical... 37:10.380 --> 37:22.880 ...phenomenon. 37:22.880 --> 37:24.880 And the plants... 37:24.880 --> 37:26.880 ...lift the... 37:26.880 --> 37:28.880 ...the imprisoning... 37:28.880 --> 37:30.880 ...structures of the ego... 37:30.880 --> 37:32.880 ...and the ego flows out... 37:32.880 --> 37:34.880 ...into the world. 37:34.880 --> 37:57.390 Shamanism... 37:57.390 --> 37:59.390 ...is essentially... 37:59.390 --> 38:01.390 ...a living tradition... 38:01.390 --> 38:03.390 ...of alchemy... 38:03.390 --> 38:05.390 ...that is not seeking... 38:05.390 --> 38:07.390 ...the stone... 38:07.390 --> 38:09.390 ...but has found... 38:09.390 --> 38:26.910 ...the stone. 38:26.910 --> 38:28.910 The shamans of the Amazon... 38:28.910 --> 38:30.910 ...have attained a sufficient... 38:30.910 --> 38:32.910 ...sophistication to... 38:32.910 --> 38:34.910 ...explicitly understand... 38:34.910 --> 38:36.910 ...that the vessel... 38:36.910 --> 38:38.910 ...of alchemical transformation... 38:38.910 --> 38:40.910 ...is the body... 38:40.910 --> 38:42.910 ...and the... 38:42.910 --> 38:44.910 ...head... 38:44.910 --> 38:46.910 ...of the experience. 38:55.840 --> 38:57.840 This is the alchemical... 38:57.840 --> 38:59.840 ...vessel. 38:59.840 --> 39:01.840 This is where you will encounter... 39:01.840 --> 39:03.840 ...the three-headed dog... 39:03.840 --> 39:05.840 ...and the queen dissolving in her... 39:05.840 --> 39:07.840 ...bath, and the incestuous... 39:07.840 --> 39:09.840 ...couple that combine... 39:09.840 --> 39:11.840 ...soul and luna to produce... 39:11.840 --> 39:13.840 ...the white essence of the... 39:13.840 --> 39:15.840 ...panacea of the universal... 39:15.840 --> 39:17.840 ...medicine. These are... 39:17.840 --> 39:19.840 ...psycho-mental... 39:19.840 --> 39:31.150 ...processes. 39:31.150 --> 39:33.150 Nature is... 39:33.150 --> 39:35.150 ...a... 39:35.150 --> 39:37.150 ...great distillery... 39:37.150 --> 39:39.150 ...of... 39:39.150 --> 39:41.150 ...complexity. 39:41.150 --> 39:43.150 Alchemical gold... 39:43.150 --> 39:45.150 ...novelty... 39:45.150 --> 39:54.000 ...connection. 39:54.000 --> 39:56.000 We have re-understood... 39:56.000 --> 39:58.000 ...what was forgotten... 39:58.000 --> 40:00.000 ...during the reductionist... 40:00.000 --> 40:02.000 ...centuries of modern science. 40:02.000 --> 40:04.000 We've re-understood... 40:04.000 --> 40:06.000 ...that the world... 40:06.000 --> 40:08.000 ...is one thing. 40:08.000 --> 40:10.000 And it's a living... 40:10.000 --> 40:12.000 ...thing. It's a... 40:12.000 --> 40:14.000 ...thing with an intent... 40:14.000 --> 40:16.000 ...and a... 40:16.000 --> 40:29.520 ...spirit. And rational... 40:29.520 --> 40:31.520 ...analysis tells us that... 40:31.520 --> 40:33.520 ...matter is simply... 40:33.520 --> 40:35.520 ...atoms flinging... 40:35.520 --> 40:37.520 ...themselves through space... 40:37.520 --> 40:39.520 ...obedient to certain mathematical... 40:39.520 --> 40:41.520 ...laws that are invariant. 40:41.520 --> 40:43.520 And all the... 40:43.520 --> 40:45.520 ...creativity, all... 40:45.520 --> 40:47.520 ...the sense of connectedness... 40:47.520 --> 40:49.520 ...that we... 40:49.520 --> 40:51.520 ...experience as... 40:51.520 --> 40:53.520 ...living beings, as members... 40:53.520 --> 40:55.520 ...of a society, as human... 40:55.520 --> 40:57.520 ...beings in contemplation of... 40:57.520 --> 40:59.520 ...nature, all of that was... 40:59.520 --> 41:07.280 ...denied. And it reaches... 41:07.280 --> 41:09.280 ...its ultimate culmination... 41:09.280 --> 41:11.280 ...in a statement... 41:11.280 --> 41:16.250 ...made by Jean-Paul Sartre... 41:16.250 --> 41:18.250 ...the French existentialist... 41:18.250 --> 41:20.250 ...who said, nature is... 41:20.250 --> 41:25.520 ...mute. You understand what I mean? 41:25.520 --> 41:27.520 Nature gives no clue... 41:27.520 --> 41:29.520 ...he tells you. 41:29.520 --> 41:31.520 Man is alone... 41:31.520 --> 41:33.520 ...in the cosmos with his... 41:33.520 --> 41:35.520 ...complexes and his obsessions... 41:35.520 --> 41:37.520 ...he confers... 41:37.520 --> 41:43.770 ...meaning. I... 41:43.770 --> 41:45.770 ...reject this. I think... 41:45.770 --> 41:47.770 ...the entire message of... 41:47.770 --> 41:49.770 ...the psychedelic experience... 41:49.770 --> 41:51.770 ...which is that nature seeks to... 41:51.770 --> 41:53.770 ...communicate. All... 41:53.770 --> 41:55.770 ...being... 41:55.770 --> 41:57.770 ...is pregnant with language. 41:57.770 --> 41:59.770 All reality... 41:59.770 --> 42:01.770 ...wants to include... 42:01.770 --> 42:03.770 ...the... 42:03.770 --> 42:05.770 ...human side of... 42:05.770 --> 42:07.770 ...nature in its... 42:07.770 --> 42:13.000 ...ongoing intent. 42:13.000 --> 42:15.000 One of the most famous... 42:15.000 --> 42:17.000 ...of all alchemical... 42:17.000 --> 42:19.000 ...axioms is... 42:19.000 --> 42:21.000 ...as above... 42:21.000 --> 42:23.000 ...so below. 42:23.000 --> 42:25.000 Meaning always that... 42:25.000 --> 42:27.000 ...in every small part of reality... 42:27.000 --> 42:29.000 ...there is a tiny... 42:29.000 --> 42:31.000 ...reflection... 42:31.000 --> 42:33.000 ...of the great... 42:33.000 --> 42:35.000 ...overstructure of reality. 42:35.000 --> 42:37.000 And in the largest... 42:37.000 --> 42:39.000 ...structures are hidden the secrets... 42:39.000 --> 42:41.000 ...of the smallest... 42:41.000 --> 42:49.280 ...and vice versa. 42:49.280 --> 42:51.280 We unconsciously imbibe the ontology... 42:51.280 --> 42:53.280 ...of science where we have mind... 42:53.280 --> 42:55.280 ...firmly separated out... 42:55.280 --> 42:57.280 ...from the world. 42:57.280 --> 42:59.280 But in an earlier age... 42:59.280 --> 43:01.280 ...mind and matter were seen to be... 43:01.280 --> 43:03.280 ...alloyed together throughout... 43:03.280 --> 43:11.290 ...nature. And... 43:11.290 --> 43:13.290 ...I think it's very interesting that at this... 43:13.290 --> 43:15.290 ...very high-tech moment... 43:15.290 --> 43:17.290 ...in our... 43:17.290 --> 43:19.290 ...adventure... 43:19.290 --> 43:21.290 ...the plants... 43:21.290 --> 43:23.290 ...return and almost... 43:23.290 --> 43:25.290 ...stand before us... 43:25.290 --> 43:27.290 ...as a beacon... 43:27.290 --> 43:29.290 ...and a promise. 43:29.290 --> 43:31.290 They stand for absolute... 43:31.290 --> 43:33.290 ...dao. 43:33.290 --> 43:35.290 They stand for the... 43:35.290 --> 43:37.290 ...correct way... 43:37.290 --> 43:39.290 ...for life to relate... 43:39.290 --> 43:41.290 ...to its... 43:41.290 --> 43:43.290 ...environment. 43:43.290 --> 43:45.290 If you look around you... 43:45.290 --> 43:47.290 ...the entire global... 43:47.290 --> 43:49.290 ...civilization... 43:49.290 --> 43:51.290 ...is undergoing... 43:51.290 --> 43:53.290 ...some kind of meltdown. 43:53.290 --> 43:55.290 The planet... 43:55.290 --> 43:57.290 ...itself... 43:57.290 --> 43:59.290 ...is now to be seen... 43:59.290 --> 44:01.290 ...as a kind of alchemical... 44:01.290 --> 44:03.290 ...retort. 44:03.290 --> 44:05.290 The prime of materia... 44:05.290 --> 44:07.290 ...to be transformed are... 44:07.290 --> 44:09.290 ...the nuclear stockpiles... 44:09.290 --> 44:11.290 ...the toxic waste dumps... 44:11.290 --> 44:13.290 ...the industrial... 44:13.290 --> 44:19.160 ...wastelands. 44:19.160 --> 44:21.160 The I Ching says never... 44:21.160 --> 44:23.160 ...confront evil directly... 44:23.160 --> 44:25.160 ...and never name it... 44:25.160 --> 44:27.160 ...directly because it finds... 44:27.160 --> 44:29.160 ...weapons to... 44:29.160 --> 44:31.160 ...defend itself. 44:31.160 --> 44:33.160 We are not an army. 44:33.160 --> 44:35.160 So our strategy must be... 44:35.160 --> 44:37.160 ...stealth. 44:37.160 --> 44:39.160 It's an alchemical strategy. 44:39.160 --> 44:41.160 And what do I mean by stealth? 44:41.160 --> 44:43.160 I mean... 44:43.160 --> 44:45.160 ...the house of... 44:45.160 --> 44:47.160 ...constipated reason... 44:47.160 --> 44:49.160 ...must be... 44:49.160 --> 44:51.160 ...infiltrated by art... 44:51.160 --> 44:53.160 ...by dreamers... 44:53.160 --> 44:55.160 ...by vision. 44:55.160 --> 45:03.600 Find the others. 45:03.600 --> 45:05.600 Find... 45:05.600 --> 45:07.600 ...the others... 45:07.600 --> 45:09.600 ...and then you will know what to do. 45:09.600 --> 45:16.200 All truth... 45:16.200 --> 45:18.200 ...which springs from the individual... 45:18.200 --> 45:20.200 ...is subversive. 45:20.200 --> 45:29.630 Find... 45:29.630 --> 45:31.630 ...the others and then... 45:31.630 --> 45:33.630 ...using this technology... 45:33.630 --> 45:35.630 ...which was designed... 45:35.630 --> 45:37.630 ...to keep track of us... 45:37.630 --> 45:39.630 ...to pick our pockets... 45:39.630 --> 45:41.630 ...and to sell us junk we don't want... 45:41.630 --> 45:43.630 ...use this technology... 45:43.630 --> 45:45.630 ...to produce art. 45:45.630 --> 45:47.630 Massive... 45:47.630 --> 45:49.630 ...amounts... 45:49.630 --> 45:53.420 ...of subversive art. 45:53.420 --> 45:55.420 All culture is... 45:55.420 --> 45:57.420 ...some kind of myth. 45:57.420 --> 45:59.420 All cultural... 45:59.420 --> 46:01.420 ...stories then... 46:01.420 --> 46:03.420 ...have a psychic dynamic... 46:03.420 --> 46:09.000 ...to them. 46:09.000 --> 46:11.000 We are not an army. 46:11.000 --> 46:13.000 This is what Frederick didn't understand. 46:13.000 --> 46:15.000 He was a king... 46:15.000 --> 46:17.000 ...but he was not an army. 46:17.000 --> 46:19.000 Frederick... 46:19.000 --> 46:21.000 ...the elector... 46:21.000 --> 46:23.000 ...was one of seven electors... 46:23.000 --> 46:25.000 ...seven German princes... 46:25.000 --> 46:27.000 ...whose combined vote... 46:27.000 --> 46:29.000 ...could choose a new emperor. 46:29.000 --> 46:31.000 The politics of the situation... 46:31.000 --> 46:33.000 ...were not lost on Christian von Anhalt... 46:33.000 --> 46:35.000 ...and other alchemical advisors... 46:35.000 --> 46:37.000 ...close to the young prince. 46:37.000 --> 46:43.710 Frederick began to plan... 46:43.710 --> 46:45.710 ...beyond the fairy tale world... 46:45.710 --> 46:47.710 ...of his Heidelberg Palatinate... 46:47.710 --> 46:49.710 ...and dream of himself... 46:49.710 --> 46:51.710 ...the alchemical emperor... 46:51.710 --> 46:53.710 ...returned... 46:53.710 --> 46:55.710 ...to the throne... 46:55.710 --> 46:57.710 ...of the kingdom of Bohemia. 46:57.710 --> 47:03.200 In Prague. 47:03.200 --> 47:05.200 And in the winter of 1618... 47:05.200 --> 47:07.200 ...I believe... 47:07.200 --> 47:09.200 ...moved with his bride and his court... 47:09.200 --> 47:11.200 ...all these alchemists... 47:11.200 --> 47:13.200 ...magicians... 47:13.200 --> 47:15.200 ...casters of horoscopes... 47:15.200 --> 47:17.200 ...herbalists... 47:17.200 --> 47:19.200 ...visionaries... 47:19.200 --> 47:21.200 ...moved the entire court from Heidelberg... 47:21.200 --> 47:23.200 ...to Prague... 47:23.200 --> 47:25.200 ...to create an alchemical reformation... 47:25.200 --> 47:27.200 ...that had been hatched in the mind... 47:27.200 --> 47:29.200 ...of the English alchemist... 47:29.200 --> 47:31.200 ...and mathematician... 47:31.200 --> 47:33.200 ...John Dee. 47:33.200 --> 47:48.000 Unfortunately... 47:48.000 --> 47:50.000 ...the alchemical dream was not to be. 47:50.000 --> 47:52.000 Frederick's advisors... 47:52.000 --> 47:54.000 ...had seriously misjudged... 47:54.000 --> 47:56.000 ...the situation. 47:56.000 --> 47:58.000 James was not... 47:58.000 --> 48:00.000 ...supporting an alchemical revolution. 48:00.000 --> 48:02.000 He was playing... 48:02.000 --> 48:04.000 ...one side against the other. 48:04.000 --> 48:06.000 And to the idealists in Prague... 48:06.000 --> 48:08.000 ...such cynicism... 48:08.000 --> 48:15.470 ...was unimaginable. 48:15.470 --> 48:17.470 The Habsburgs back in Madrid... 48:17.470 --> 48:19.470 ...quickly got wind of... 48:19.470 --> 48:21.470 ...what was going on... 48:21.470 --> 48:23.470 ...and laid siege to Prague. 48:25.470 --> 48:27.470 And the story of the alchemical kingdom... 48:27.470 --> 48:29.470 ...and the Rosicrucian enlightenment... 48:29.470 --> 48:31.470 ...for all purposes ended... 48:31.470 --> 48:33.470 ...in an incident called... 48:33.470 --> 48:42.510 ...the Battle of White Mountain. 48:42.510 --> 48:44.510 And Elizabeth fled... 48:44.510 --> 48:46.510 ...to the Netherlands with her children. 48:46.510 --> 48:48.510 Frederick... 48:48.510 --> 48:50.510 ...was defeated at the battle... 48:50.510 --> 48:58.300 ...of the White Mountain. 48:58.300 --> 49:00.300 And the alchemical dream died. 49:00.300 --> 49:08.760 And this... 49:08.760 --> 49:10.760 ...was really in some sense... 49:10.760 --> 49:12.760 ...the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. 49:12.760 --> 49:14.760 And as you know... 49:14.760 --> 49:16.760 ...going into the Thirty Years' War... 49:16.760 --> 49:18.760 ...Europe was... 49:18.760 --> 49:20.760 ...a place of popes and kings. 49:20.760 --> 49:22.760 At the end... 49:22.760 --> 49:24.760 ...of the Thirty Years' War... 49:24.760 --> 49:26.760 ...it was a place ruled by... 49:26.760 --> 49:28.760 ...parliaments and peoples. 49:28.760 --> 49:30.760 And the entire medieval world... 49:30.760 --> 49:39.360 ...was swept away. 49:39.360 --> 49:41.360 And these angel-dealing... 49:41.360 --> 49:43.360 ...horoscope-casting... 49:43.360 --> 49:45.360 ...alchemy-pursuing... 49:45.360 --> 49:47.360 ...visionaries... 49:47.360 --> 49:49.360 ...of this Rosicrucian renaissance... 49:49.360 --> 49:51.360 ...became simply objects... 49:51.360 --> 49:53.360 ...of historical curiosity. 49:53.360 --> 50:02.240 But there was... 50:02.240 --> 50:04.240 ...an unbroken thread... 50:04.240 --> 50:06.240 ...that however thinly drawn... 50:06.240 --> 50:08.240 ...persists right up to... 50:08.240 --> 50:16.890 ...the present moment. 50:16.890 --> 50:18.890 So the idea is to show the way back... 50:18.890 --> 50:20.890 ...to the high magic of the late... 50:20.890 --> 50:31.760 ...Paleolithic. 50:31.760 --> 50:33.760 I think that what we want to do... 50:33.760 --> 50:35.760 ...is the alchemical garden. 50:35.760 --> 50:37.760 That's where our roots are. 50:37.760 --> 50:41.320 That's where meaning is. 50:41.320 --> 50:43.320 Meaning lies in the confrontation... 50:43.320 --> 50:45.320 ...of contradiction. 50:45.320 --> 50:47.320 The coincidencia positorum. 50:47.320 --> 50:49.320 A rediscovery... 50:49.320 --> 50:51.320 ...of the real ambiguity... 50:51.320 --> 50:53.320 ...of being. 50:53.320 --> 50:55.320 A deeper possibility. 50:55.320 --> 50:57.320 A rebirth of the human spirit. 50:57.320 --> 51:06.750 In their way... 51:06.750 --> 51:08.750 ...Frederick and Elizabeth... 51:08.750 --> 51:10.750 ...were acting out the dream of Camelot. 51:10.750 --> 51:12.750 In their way... 51:12.750 --> 51:14.750 ...they were acting out the alchemical dream... 51:14.750 --> 51:16.750 ...of the rebirth of the king and queen. 51:16.750 --> 51:18.750 In their way... 51:18.750 --> 51:20.750 ...they were laying the groundwork... 51:20.750 --> 51:22.750 ...for a new... 51:22.750 --> 51:24.750 ...dispensation of human thought. 51:24.750 --> 51:26.750 Freed from the medieval... 51:26.750 --> 51:28.750 ...assumptions of guilt... 51:28.750 --> 51:30.750 ...and the need for redemption. 51:30.750 --> 51:32.750 A point of view that made... 51:32.750 --> 51:34.750 ...human beings co-creators... 51:34.750 --> 51:36.750 ...in a magical universe... 51:36.750 --> 51:38.750 ...with a loving deity. 51:38.750 --> 51:40.750 All that... 51:40.750 --> 51:42.750 ...passed away. 51:42.750 --> 51:44.750 With the fall... 51:44.750 --> 51:52.220 ...of the winter king and queen. 51:52.220 --> 51:54.220 Well, until recently... 51:54.220 --> 51:56.220 ...I thought that was the end of the story... 51:56.220 --> 51:58.220 ...but there is a coda... 51:58.220 --> 52:00.220 ...that is amusing... 52:00.220 --> 52:02.220 ...if nothing else. 52:02.220 --> 52:04.220 This Habsburgian army... 52:04.220 --> 52:06.220 ...having laid siege and destroyed... 52:06.220 --> 52:08.220 ...the alchemical kingdom... 52:08.220 --> 52:10.220 ...began to retreat... 52:10.220 --> 52:12.220 ...across Europe. 52:12.220 --> 52:14.220 In that Habsburgian army... 52:14.220 --> 52:16.220 ...there was a young... 52:16.220 --> 52:18.220 ...soldier of fortune... 52:18.220 --> 52:20.220 ...only 19 years old... 52:20.220 --> 52:22.220 ...still wet... 52:22.220 --> 52:24.220 ...behind the ears... 52:24.220 --> 52:26.220 ...happily soldiering and wenching... 52:26.220 --> 52:28.220 ...his way around Europe... 52:28.220 --> 52:30.220 ...and his name was... 52:30.220 --> 52:35.260 ...René Descartes. 52:35.260 --> 52:37.260 On the night of September 16... 52:37.260 --> 52:39.260 ...Descartes had a dream... 52:39.260 --> 52:41.260 ...and in this dream... 52:41.260 --> 52:43.260 ...an angel... 52:43.260 --> 52:45.260 ...appeared to him... 52:45.260 --> 52:47.260 ...and the angel... 52:47.260 --> 52:49.260 ...said to Descartes... 52:49.260 --> 52:51.260 ...the conquest... 52:51.260 --> 52:53.260 ...of nature... 52:53.260 --> 52:55.260 ...is to be achieved... 52:55.260 --> 52:57.260 ...through measure and number... 52:57.260 --> 52:59.260 ...and that... 52:59.260 --> 53:01.260 ...revelation... 53:01.260 --> 53:03.260 ...lay the basis... 53:03.260 --> 53:05.260 ...for modern science... 53:05.260 --> 53:07.260 ...it's the alchemical angel... 53:07.260 --> 53:09.260 ...which will not die... 53:09.260 --> 53:11.260 ...it returns... 53:11.260 --> 53:13.260 ...again and again... 53:13.260 --> 53:15.260 ...to guide the destinies... 53:15.260 --> 53:17.260 ...of nations and peoples... 53:17.260 --> 53:19.260 ...toward... 53:19.260 --> 53:21.260 ...an unimaginable conclusion.