Homer’s Golden Chain

From Anthroposophy

The concept of the Golden Chain is an important symbol in alchemy across the ages. The Golden Chain of being originates with the legendary ancient Greek poet Homer, the writer of the Iliad and Odyssey.

It symbolizes the path from (the greek term) 'chaos' to that which is called the universal quintessence, in ten steps of successive 'densification or coagulation'; so it represents a chain from the highest spiritual influences, in multiple steps, down to the substances and kingdoms we see on Earth.

Contemporary references often refer to the work 'Aurea Catena Homeri', published in 1723 by Anton Josef Kirchweger.

Aspects

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.002 shows symbolic imagery from Anton Josef Kirchweger's book 'Aurea Catena Homeri' (1723), with underneath the relevant quotes of the lecture 1909-03-11-GA057 called 'Goethe's secret revelation'.

FMC00.002.jpg

Lecture coverage and references

Homer - Iliad

In the Iliad (often dated around 8th centiury BC), Homer speaks about the chain that links earth and heaven, and by which humans may ascend to the realm of the gods. In this passage Zeus declares that all the gods and goddesses together could not, with a golden chain, drag him from on high, but that if he pulled, he would drag them, with earth and sea, would then bind the chain round the summit of Olympus, and all the rest would hang aloft. Quote from Iliad (Hom. Il. 8.18):

If I see anyone acting apart and helping either Trojans or Danaans, he shall be beaten beyond the limits of universal order [kosmos] ere he come back again to Olympus; or I will hurl him down into dark Tartaros far into the deepest pit under the earth, where the gates are iron and the floor bronze, as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the earth, that you may learn how much the mightiest I am among you. Try me and find out for yourselves.

Hang me a golden chain from heaven, and lay hold of it all of you, gods and goddesses together - tug as you will, you will not drag Zeus the supreme counselor from heaven to earth; but were I to pull at it myself I should draw you up with earth and sea into the bargain, then would I bind the chain about some pinnacle of Olympus and leave you all dangling in the mid firmament.

So far am I above all others either of gods or men.

1909-03-11-GA057

lecture called: 'Goethe's secret revelation'

two translations version 1 and version 2

quote from V1

Goethe then went to Frankfort and came into touch with thoughtful, sensible men who possessed above all things through their developed soul life, something of the flowing together of the human inner life with the spiritual weaving and living in the world; men who in the fullest meaning of the word, felt in themselves what Goethe expresses in the words: ‘The self in them expands to a spiritual universe.’ At that time at Frankfort he had the feeling, ‘Away from the mere striving after ideas! Away from the merely perceptive sense observation! There must be a path to the sources of existence!’ and he came into touch with what one can call alchemistic, mystical and theosophical literature. He himself attempted the practice of alchemy. He relates how he came to know of a work through which many sought for similar knowledge at that time, Welling's ‘Opus Mago-Cabalisticum et Theosophicum.’ This book was much thought of then as giving a knowledge of the sources of existence. Goethe studied by degrees Paracelsus, Valentinus and above all a work which from its whole method must have produced a deep impression on all those who strove after such knowledge, ‘Aurea Catena Homeri.’ This was a representation of nature the Mystics in the Middle Ages believed to see. The study of these mystical, alchemistic, theosophical books must have had a similar effect on Goethe to that which a man striving to-day after the same things would experience if he took up the books of Eliphas Levy or any other thinker on the same lines. Indeed at that time these things must have had an even more bewildering effect upon Goethe because these different writers no longer really understood the magic, theosophy, etc., of which they wrote. It was impossible to speak in direct way of the real grandeur and meaning of these things, proceeding from an ancient wisdom which had lived in human souls, for the meaning was hidden under an outer garb which included all kinds of physical and chemical forms. For those who merely saw what appeared outwardly in these books it was the greatest nonsense, and at that time it was most difficult to penetrate behind these secrets and arrive at the real meaning. But we must not forget that Goethe from his deep striving for knowledge had developed an intuitive mind.

He must have been greatly pleased when on opening the ‘Aurea Catena Homeri’ he saw on the first page a symbol which had a deep effect on his soul; two triangles interlaced; in the corners the signs of the planets, drawn in a wonderful way, a flying dragon wound round in a circle, beneath which another dragon had fixed stiffening itself, and when he read the words on the first page, saying that the flying dragon symbolizes the stream which sends those forces which stream down from out of the Cosmos to the stiffened dragon, showing how heaven and earth hang together, or as it is expressed there: ‘How the spiritual forces of heaven pour into the Earth's centre.’

These mysterious signs and words must have made a great impression upon Goethe. For instance, those which depict the whole growth of the earth: From chaos to that which is called the universal quintessence’ — a remarkable sentence, curiously mixed up with signs of a chaotic nature, still undifferentiated right through the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, right up to man and to that perspective to which man is developing in ever greater refinement.

But it was not easy to find a way of penetrating to the deeper meaning. So Goethe left Frankfort in a frame of mind which can be described in the following words: I have found nothing. These seekers into nature can only give me dry, empty ideas; anything that can be squeezed out of them is but life's water. I have busied myself with much that has come down to us from the past from those who declare that they saw into the secrets of life. But the way, the way drives one to despair!

quote from V2

Today, unfortunately, one considers such striving too cursorily. Today one sees people approaching swiftly, and then they are soon ready with it if they have a few concepts in the soul.

Someone only knows which riddles are there who can look back at the time twenty, thirty years ago when a fluid flowed into his soul. There many things have settled on it and many a thing approached him. Years and experiences have followed; and thirty years later is that which flowed into his soul mature to receive an answer to it if only roughly.

We cannot look deeply enough just from this point of view at Goethe's life, and we feel the mood Goethe himself could feel from the Aurea catena Homeri, the Golden Chain of Homer; we see it expressed if he erupts in the words of Faust: “How grand a show!” Indeed, it is a tremendous show, if the soul immerses in these pictures without having any notion of what they are. It is a show. However, does it keep to this notion?

...


He got to know alchemical, mystic and theosophical literature. He made practical alchemical experiments. He himself tells how he got to know a work in which some people searched similar ways at that time: Welling's (Georg von W., 1655–1727, German alchemist and theosophist) Opus mago-cabalisticum et theosophicum (1719), a work which was regarded at that time as a way to recognise the springs of existence. He gets to know Paracelsus, Basil Valentine (Basilius Valentinus, unidentified German alchemist), and above all a work which had to make a deep impression on all striving people, the Aurea catena Homeri (1723, published anonymously). This was a representation of nature as the medieval mystics believed to behold. The mystic, alchemical and theosophical works Goethe got to know made the impression on him that possibly today any similarly striving human being gets if he, for my sake, takes books by Éliphas Lévy (1810–1875, French occultist) or similarly minded spirits. Yes, at that time these things made a more confusing impression on Goethe because the representation of the different writings, which dealt with magic, theosophy and so on, was such that, indeed, behind the external symbols secrets were hidden which those who had written these books no longer understood.

Because one could not pronounce the real ancient wisdom in its immediate greatness and meaning, it is clothed in an external unsubstantial garment, clothed in all kinds of physical and chemical formulae. However, on someone who saw what he can read in the books externally it made the impression of absolute nonsense, and at that time there was no way to unravel the secrets and to penetrate into the sense. However, is not allowed to misjudge that Goethe was an apprehensive spirit because of the depth of his quest for knowledge. There it must appear odd to him opening the Aurea catena Homeri and looking at the symbol on the first page deeply touching his soul: two intertwined triangles, at the corners the planetary signs, around them two dragons, a flying one above, and one without wings below, forming a circle. When he read the words on this page that the volatile dragon symbolises the current that instils those powers to the dragon below which flow down from the universe, or how heaven and earth are connected, with other words, as one reads there: “How the heaven's spiritual powers pour forth in the centre of earth.”

Such signs and words must deeply work on Goethe. For example, those that showed the whole development of the world, as one said “from the chaos up to the universal quintessence.” It shows a strange transition in oddly intertwined signs from the chaotic matter, which is not yet differentiated through the mineral, plant, and animal realms up to the human being and to those perspectives, to which the human being advances, to continuous refinement.

Discussion

See also: poem by Robert Thibodeau: The Seven Planetary Conditions in the Waking Day, Homer's Golden Chain or Golden Thread Sutra


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