Nostradamus is there not far on the land of Saint Remy. Your late arrival, César Nostredame, my son, has made me spend much time in constant nightly reflection so that I could communicate with you by letter and leave you this reminder, after my death, for the benefit of all men, of which the divine spirit has vouchsafed me to know by means of astronomy. This is the translation of NOSTRA DAMUS, a nickname chosen by Michel de Nostredame, marking his quest for knowledge and his desire to benefit as many people as possible. This motto applies both to Man and to Saint-Remy-de-Provence, which cultivates the transmission of knowledge, generosity and a sense of hospitality.Born December 14, 1503 in Saint Rémy de Provence, he spent his childhood there with his parents, in an environment bathed in medicine, mathematics and astronomy.
He studied in Avignon and Montpellier then began a long series of trips that took him from the South West to the North East of France, to meet plants and diseases.
When he reached his forties, he returned to Provence to fight the Plague in Marseille and Aix. He is experimenting with new treatments and applying very modern and effective hygiene measures.
And since it was the Almighty's will that you were not born here in this region [Provence] and I do not want to talk of years to come but of the months during which you will struggle to grasp and understand the work I shall be compelled to leave you after my death: assuming that it will not be possible for me to leave you such [clearer] writing as may be destroyed through the injustice of the age [1555]. The key to the hidden prediction which you will inherit will be locked inside my heart.
Explore, carry yourself many times inside, in the depths of the earth, as in the depths of yourself. The journey is arduous, the many dangers lie in wait for the ill-educated or overconfident visitor, but by means of purification, of distillation, which separates the essential, dense, from what is only foam and dust. By this means you will approach, you will reach, you will re-invent, the hidden stone, the dense stone, the energetic core of spirit and matter. Because before science asserts it, some have suspected that matter is energy.predictions have been made through the inspiration of divine will alone and the spirit of prophecy in particular.
It is from this inner energy that we must draw to fuel the forces of the spirit. These forces that move us forward and free us from our shackles. These forces whose attachment we have to them is the glue that binds us together.
On the pediment of the temple of Apollo in Delphi was engraved the phrase “Know thyself and you will know the universe and the gods”.
So find the path that leads to your heart, to your essentials, and there you will find both who you are, and what they are, close and less close. So, you will rub shoulders with the weakest without despising him and the most powerful without fearing him.
A few days ago we celebrated the winter solstice or the winter St John where the light winning its perpetual fight against the darkness shone again on the earth. A few days ago we also celebrated Christmas, that is to say the birth of the Child Jesus the Word made Flesh sent by his Father to bring the world out of darkness. This succession of events reminds us that we are part of a traditional initiatory order and that they are of great symbolic significance to use.
Alchemy, since that is what it is, aims to train Initiates, that is, men in the highest acceptance of words. It strives to develop the individual, teaching him to conquer the noblest prerogatives of human nature. From an ignorant and rude being she makes him a thinker and a sage.
But such a transformation cannot happen once; it requires continuous work which is accomplished in several phases. The first step is to carry out a kind of intellectual and moral scrubbing aimed at ridding the mind of anything that prevents the light from reaching it. The means to achieve this are the purifications by the elements that must undergo the layman. The first of these purifications is the ordeal of the earth, the first symbolic element. This is the only event that takes place outside the Temple in the Reflection Room.
Thus the layman is led by the Brother Expert in a narrow cell whose walls painted in black bear symbolic drawings (a rooster, a scythe etc.) of the maxims (If you fear to be enlightened on your faults you will be badly among us . If curiosity has led you here, go away! If you are capable of concealment, tremble you will be unmasked. If you persevere, you will be purified by the elements, you will be freed from darkness, the Light will be yours. will illuminate.) and the word VITRIOL in a spelling such that the letters are always separated by a period to indicate that it is the abbreviation of a formula in which each word is represented by a letter.
At first glance the candidate for initiation may think of the generic name given in the past to sulphates or quite simply to sulfuric acid. But what would a chemical term do in this dark and windowless cubicle?
VITRIOL. These letters constitute the acronym which expresses the alchemical formula in Latin: "Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultam Lapidem" which means in French: "Visit the interior of the Earth, by rectifying you will discover the Hidden Stone. "
A ready-made translation therefore offered itself, already rich in meaning, but the task you entrusted to me prompted me to take up the phrase word for word to better understand its meaning.
The entity is built in three parts.
In the manner of “veni, vidi, vici”, we can retain in the formula Visita, rectifica, invenio.
These are the three words that support it.
First part, visit "to be in situation", second part, rectifica "to act", third part invenio "result of the action".
First part: Visita. It is indeed the imperative form in the second person of the verb visito, which means "to see often, to inspect, to experience ...".
The meaning behind Visita is closer to exploration, than to a visit, to a journey.
Second part: Rectificando. Ablative of rectificare, a word that no longer exists in "modern" Latin but does exist in medieval Latin.
Common sense would see in it at first glance the verb rectify, make right, or rectify, correct, make exact. But let's try to discover other subtleties.
No dictionary that offers an English translation of rectificare but in a Latin language such as Romanian, rectificare translates to “grind”.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L such is the title of the board that I have to present to you this evening despite my inadequacies and my imperfections but with the benefit of your indulgence.
My piece of architecture will revolve around two pillars:
The definition of the terms that make up the formula
The symbolism of the V.I.T.R.I.O.L formula
Definition of the terms V.I.T.R.I.O.L
The term VITRIOL is painted in white on the black walls of a narrow cell, the current form of the ancient initiatory hut that we call the cabinet of reflection.
I would like to dwell on this word reflection a bit by asking ourselves a few questions. Is it a thinking cabinet with S at the end of the reflection or a thinking cabinet without S? Do we lock up the candidate for initiation so that he can think about his life, what he is going to undertake? Or do we lock him there so that he is reflected in the objects, drawings and sentences he sees in this obscure little room?
I believe in my humble opinion that we are talking about a think tank without S, so the formula V.I.T.R.I.O.L makes perfect sense.
But what can V.I.T.R.I.O.L mean?
These letters constitute the acronym which expresses the alchemical formula in Latin: "Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultam Lapidem" which means in French: "Visit the interior of the Earth, by rectifying you will discover the Hidden Stone. According to most authors, this acronym was the motto of the ancient Rosicrucian. Its appearance in Masonic lodges finds its explanation in the work of Ambelain "Scala Philosophorum or the Symbolic of tools in the Royal Art" which says that the Roses Cross would have knowingly entered alchemists in the 17th and 18th centuries and would have there introduced hermeticism and alchemy.
VM and VV TT MM FF in your Ranks and Qualities, let us analyze every word of this alchemical formula "Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultam Lapidem" "Visit the interior of the Earth, by rectifying you will discover the Hidden Stone. "If we take the formula as a whole, it is like an injunction given to the person and if the latter obeys the order given to him by doing exactly what is prescribed he will discover at the end. of his sorrows the reward.
But what does each term in this formula mean? I will try to say it with the limits of my knowledge:
Visited. Visit: Imperative of the verb visit which means according to dictionary.
