The Trail by Olive C.B. Pixley

The Law of Transmutation (lecture delivered March 8, 1934)

This is yet another attempt to pass on to you the teachings I have received concerning transcendental conditions.

In four lectures given between 1930 and 1934 I have endeavoured to share with you different aspects of this teaching in Light.

The fist, on Conscious Mediumship, told you how it all started; how I, consciously, went through old Initiations-part of the Egyptian and part of the Hermetic-experiencing again the ancient knowledge of magical and spiritual forces. In using the word “magic”, I want you to eliminate from your minds, the adjective “black.”

We have, in these superficial days, a loose method of thinking, and a still more casual way of talking, and the word “magic” invariably conjures up in our minds evil practices and secret rites of a sinister nature. But in the days to which I am alluding, the men who learnt the laws of earth, or magical forces, were priests, and by the secret ritual of their inspiration they were able to fuse in harmony of operations the various rays of energy, impinging on, and emanating from the earth. They were the scientists of their civilisation. Electricity and wireless are the magic of the twentieth century; and the black side of modern magic is poison gas, torpedoes, and aerial bombs-forces of destruction, the strike fear into the hearts of men. There always has been knowledge of how to transmute substances for constructive or destructive ends. In this knowledge is contained the power to cure, the power to kill, the souls and bodies of the human race; ad whether it is called science or magic, the power is the same, though manifestation differs with each civilization.

The important point that emerged out of that experience of receiving direct into my conscious understanding, the knowledge of the old Initiations, was the certainty that no knowledge is lost; but, in the appointed time, it is superseded. We shall never progress by looking backwards. Excavations establish truth, and confirm theories but can never reveal future experiences.

In the next lecture, which is called “The Worship of the Light,” I recorded various experiences obtained through psychometrising old stones. On these ancient sites, the old ritual lived again and clarified my conviction that knowledge of the laws of light was, and is, and is to come.

The third lecture-“The Freedom of Two Worlds”- dealt with my dawning understanding of the past, the present, and the future condition of the soul; with the achievement of the Christ in fusing, in His human body, the laws of light and matter; and in demonstrating in His resurrection, the transcendental Law of Transmutation.

In my last lecture, entitled “Revelation,” I enlarged, as far as I could, on the fact that this teaching provides the way of experience; and that is only through the individual experience that Divine Revelation is apprehended.

And now, this fifth, and (I think) last lecture if the series, is an attempt to touch, as it were, the hem of His garment, and endeavour to bring within the scope of our comprehension the knowledge of the power of that this Law of Transmutation gives to man. For it is the Law of Manifestation.

In ancient days, alchemy was an established science. The formulae were generally the secret possession of the individual alchemists, and their researches provide the experience of a life time.

On one of my psychmetrising expeditions, I came, quite unexpectedly on an alchemist’s stone. On our way from Scotland, we stopped at an old Roman village (Uriconium, near Shrewsbury) which had been extensively excavated. As none of us had been there before, and as we were not pressed for time, we went to look at it, with no thought of psychometry in our minds. Like steel to a magnet I was drawn to a stone placed on a mound in one of the numerous small dug-outs which show the foundation walls of the various residences. It necessitated my clamboring down a wall, and climbing up the mound, on which there was barely room for me to crouch, and I did not know till I felt it in what lay its attraction for me.

There was silt on the top of the stone in which it was just possible for me to get the tips of my fingers. As I worked, pressing my hand down as far as I could, slowly the picture of an old man came, and I knew he was engaged in a trade that brought people into his place, and that he pursued quite openly his secret researches, and was never suspected of being an alchemist because of his trade. I got quite vividly this mixing of minute quantities of very precious substances, with the greatest care and accuracy, and I got very thrilled and wished I could have pressed my fingers farther down, as I knew there was something left there which I could not make contact with. And then I knew that the formula had gone for ever, that the cipher had been burnt.

It is not often that I get corroboration as promptly as I did that day. For, going round the place we talked to a man who had helped to excavate. On asking him if he knew what the place was where the stone stood, and if it had any connection with the spot where it was standing, he told us that it was thought to be a blacksmith’s forge. A large furnace had been unearthed, and the stone was near it; and in that furnace they had discovered many crucibles of various sizes. The point of extraordinary interest for me was the fact that they had found several minute crucibles, so tiny that they could not imagine for what purpose they had been used. He then took us round the small museum, and showed us the microscopic little containers, and I recognized at once that they, or similar to them, had held the precious fragments that my alchemist had worked on. I seemed to know that he was a metal worker, and not a black-smith.; and that, as an expert craftsman he was able to carry out his experiments quite unsuspected by his clients. We also learned that the town had been entirely destroyed by fire.

I had another interesting experience at this same place. We were walking around the grounds, and I suddenly stopped, arrested by the sound of women’s voices. They were chatting and laughing; and I, too, burst out laughing. It all seemed so gay, and though I couldn’t really understand the words, I somehow knew the meaning, and they were gossiping and joking and being most amusing.

Afterwards were learnt that I was standing at the entrance of what was called “the hall of conversation,” leading to the Roman ladies’ baths!

The intonation of those women’s voices is there now, as fresh and as strong as in the time when they all chattered and laughed together.

Two episodes-the first being the record in stone of the science of alchemy. That alchemist’s stone was the prelude to our modern factories, where synthetic gold can be produced, where milk may be transmuted into eronoid. Alchemy has developed into industry, and magic into science; but that aspect of the Law of Transmutation which changes the spirit and substance of man, has been demonstrated, but has never been technically developed; and it is that aspect of the Law that I desire to deal with now.

The secret researches of modern scientists are largely concerned with the elimination of the germs of disease in the blood. What are future generations going to say of the researches of man to-day? They will read the records of the sacrifice of monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats on the altar (or dissecting table) of the god of Health. Will they see a vast difference between the expression of science and the manifestation of magic? Or the sacrifice of bulls and heifers to Jehovah?

Down all the centuries comes this investigation into the power of the blood-this link between the expression of finite and infinite life. There are many rituals concerned with blood rites that are practiced in some races in different parts of the world, to-day; and there is a profound knowledge in the biological world of the functionary power of blood. The Key to understanding of this Law of Transmutation lies in the comprehension of the ingredients pf the blood. It rests with the biologists to supply, as it were, the keyhole, but it should be through the inspiration of the spiritual scientist to fit the key. If man were wholly human, science could evolve a completely healthy body, by eliminating the disease germs from the blood, and also supplying the blood with the ingredients it lacks, thus ensuring a healthy circulation. Man, however, being partly divine, has that Life Principle in his blood that no doctor can revitalize, once the heart ceases to beat. He must, therefore, look to the Divine Specialist to supply the missing link.

It was by the power in His blood, that Jesus, the Christ, based his claim to His divine attributes. There was that substance, He said, in His blood, which had power to save the whole world. A pretty big claim; and one, of course, repudiated by his ignorant enemies. The man who, through his research work, discovered the use of insulin, had power to save those suffering from diabetes from inevitable death, and results justified his claim. It can only be by results that claims are established.

(will add more later...more pages in this chapter)

1919