Tuesday 19 May 2015

A Week with the Dragon Eaters – Seth Lindberg

Reblogged from Library of Erana
Day 3 of the Dragon Eaters Week brings us Seth Lindberg
*Who are you? Seth (S.E.) Lindberg. I live near Cincinnati, Ohio working as a microscopist, employing my skills as a scientist & artist to understand the manufacturing of products analogous to medieval paints. Two decades of practicing chemistry, combined with a passion for the Sword and Sorcery genre, spurred me to write graphic adventure fictionalizing the alchemical humors: Dyscrasia FictionI co-moderate a Goodreads- Sword & Sorcery Group and invite you to participate.
 *Tell us about dragons in your world; and please share some lore/myths from it. There is just one dragon in the Legacy of the Great Dragon.  Therein, the Father of Alchemy entombs his source of magic, the Great Dragon.  Many think of medieval chemists and occult witchcraft of the 1500’s as being the origin of alchemy.  Indeed there was a popularization ~1500 with the teachings of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.  Peeling back the onion of myths and history, we learn that alchemists professed knowledge having come through the Greek god Hermes; hence the lore of alchemy is often referred to the Hermetic Tradition.
One of the earliest known hermetic scripts is the Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus.  Within that, a tale is told of Hermes being confronted with a vision of the otherworldly entity called Pymander, who takes the shape of a “Great Dragon” to reveal divine secrets.  Digging into history more, one learns that Hermes is a reboot of the Egyptian deity Thoth (who was called by Greeks as Hermes Trismegistus).  According to Greek and Egyptian myth, Thoth was able to see into the world of the dead and pass his learnings to the living.  The other most known script of the Hermetic Tradition is the Emerald Tablet’s engravings; the original stone has long since been lost, but translations and recordings have persisted over centuries.  Even Sir Isaac Newton was fascinated with the Tablet and made his own translation readily available (presented below answers).
Legacy of the Great Dragon fictionalizes the Hermetic Tradition, presenting the “Divine Pymander–Great Dragon” as being the sun-eating Apep serpent of Egyptian antiquity (a dragon who ate the sun each day from under the horizon, in the underworld).
How do you define a hero?  Heroes take many forms; “good “ones seek to help humanity even at the expense of their own lives, property, or family.  If there is a hero in Legacy of the Great Dragon it is Thoth who strives to maintain learning while seeking the divine.  He is posited as a non-violent hero/protagonist.  His antagonists include Horus and Set who wish to use alchemy in war.
Tidbit:
Other Heroika authors will be sharing “Dragon-Eater recipes” in this post series. Keeping in mind that the Emerald Tablet is thought to be a recipe for transmuting the natural, to artificial, to the divine—we share it instead.  Below is Sir Isaac Newton’s translation; it is not a recipe for eating dragons—rather it is a recipe provided by a Great Dragon:
‘Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing
And as all things have been & arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse.
The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.
Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.
It ascends from the earth to the heaven & again it descends to the earth & receives the force of things superior & inferior.
By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world
And thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
Its force is above all force. For it vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing.
So was the world created
From this are & do come admirable adaptations whereof the means is here in this.
Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world
That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished & ended.
Links Galore:
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