The engraving is titled “The Philosophical Bird-Catcher” (also known as “The Alchemical Bird-Catcher”), an allegorical riddle from Gottlieb Märker’s 1792 work, Das Hermetische Triklinium oder drei Gespräche vom Stein der Weisen.
The “birds” in this riddle are not physical creatures but represent Volatile Spirits or the Anima Mundi (World Soul).
The Basin is the Trap of the Birds, but the Sieve of the Astral Mists. The basin is a “Magnet of the Light”. By reflecting the moon, it “traps” the celestial influence (the Bird/Spirit) into the water below. It is the method of sieving the astral numinous vapors into the dew waters, the fermenting liquors, the menstruums of the Art.
The moon represents the passive, feminine principle and the metal silver, the elixir of the Lunar Immortal. Its reflection in the water signifies the “Descent of Spirit into Matter,” a core process for creating the Philosopher’s Stone.
In historical practice, this image illustrates the Gathering of Astronomical Moonbeams. A “skillful master” would use such a basin to draw a “rarefied water” out of the rays of the Sun and Moon, creating a material that is considered an astral substance and a universal tincture.
The Method of the Hyperborean “Sunrise-Mirror” Divination (The Lecanomancy)
As sieved from Märker’s 1792 Archive, this is the “Bird-Catcher’s Trap”.
The Vessel: Use a wide-mouth earthen bowl, wood, or glass, such as a widemouth Demijohn, evaporation dish that is large filled with Eclipse-Dew or Aries water, but also to use as a method from rain or gathered waters from local water streams at pre-dawn.
The Placement: Position it on the Spyridon Stone at dawn, or for those regions where the sun will arise in the East and strike the basin when the Rites conclude. Catch solar rays of the Supreme Star. Do not look at the sun; look at the Chirps of Light reflected in the water. The Spyridon Stone is the Flint of the Philosophers, the spark of the Dragon’s Breath for the Potter and Alchemist. The Spyridon is the Monad. It is the “Point of the Arrow” that Pythagoras received from Abaris. Source from black or honey-colored Silex (Flint) nodule. It must be A-fossiliferous (featureless) to ensure a clean Conchoidal Fracture. When struck with the 26-Iron, it does not “crush”; it “Vitrifies”—releasing a white-blue spark and the scent of Burning Sulfur
Reading the Astral Sieve:
Still Water: The path is “Fixed”; no change is needed.
Rippling Light: The “Mercury” is active; you must be “Agile” to catch the opportunity.
Golden Flash: The Fiery Strike is imminent.
Let the Students of the Hyperborean Theurgy and Templo Mercurii embellish this base technique with the skillful methods of their Arts. The Crystal Obelisk can mark the horizon and focus the light, another can be placed with the basin to lock the essence. The truly purified alchemical mercury can be used to enhance the elixir and conduct the essence. The correspondences of the planetary days can also align with specific stones, minerals and gems to enhance specific actions.
Part II (forthcoming). Is to use this to read the Nitre in the Twilights to determine the timing to harvest celestial Mists, astral Dew and Solar, Lunar and Planetary Essences.
Siebmacher, Johann: Wasserstein der Weisen Oder Chymisches Tractätlein, c. 1804
“This light must be of such a nature that he who possesses it can see even in the midst of thickest darkness without any other light; whereas he who lacks it remains blind even at brightest noon. And although this fire is everywhere and near all things, yet it does not of itself allow its splendor to shine outwardly, since it seldom finds such a wonder who is capable and worthy of receiving and retaining its rays; for it is more often surrounded and corrupted by harmful moisture and earthly impurity, so that the sparks of fire do not adhere but immediately and unnoticed are extinguished again—like good seed scattered upon stony ground or fallen among thorns, which must perish without taking root.
But if it encounters suitable, inflammable matter which does not immediately let the once-kindled and seized spark go out again, but instead gives it nourishment and increase, then through constant fanning and blowing it gradually grows greater, until from the shining dark spark there arises a bright fiery radiance, by which one may kindle a light and set it upon a candlestick.
Whoever attains such a light is thereby enabled to know how all things reveal themselves from the ground; no less to see and understand the connection of all stars through the heavens into the heart of nature and of creatures, and down into the lowest depths; how the golden chain of Homer is joined together link by link and fitted one to another; how the lowest is united with the highest, the earthly with the heavenly, through the middle, reconciled and bound together; and also how the six-pointed sign-star joins and directs itself within itself.
And just as the hinted light shines through the whole of nature, so it grants complete knowledge of nature; and to one who possesses such radiance, none of nature’s works and operations remain hidden, but he knows and properly understands how nature works: how the invisible becomes visible, the spiritual corporeal, and again this becomes that; in what form it holds its measure, aim, and weight; how it is artificially divided into three kingdoms; what influence it brings forth above the earth in the vegetable and animal realms, and in the earth below in all metals; how these three further extend into many species and individuals, spread themselves and multiply; and how through their unceasing circular revolution one thing may be changed into another, and even into a third.
For where this light shines, there lies the upper and lower magnetic point of nature, and in it is the seed of nature through which all that has been said is wholly and entirely discovered. He knows the manner and way in which it casts the seed into the earth, and from it—through the mediation of the living spirits—produces all herbs, grasses, trees, and shrubs upon the circle of the earth; and how by this means, in the passages and veins of the earth, by virtue of its subtle hidden art of separation and composition, it perfects gold, silver, and all kinds of minerals and metals; from which two regions—vegetable and mineral—the animal, as the third, must receive its life and derive its dwelling.
Man may, by the light of this illumination, inwardly and outwardly behold and investigate himself—if he is worthy of his reason, dignity, and being—what hidden treasure he bears within himself, and how the gates of all high sciences and mysteries stand open to him.”
