From the Publisher
With "The Threefold Pathway of Fire" Raphael offers an answer to the authentic sense of quest of many, he indicates a path that may lead to the unveiling of one’s own real and intrinsic nature, which is Completeness-Beatitude.
The book is divided into three sections corresponding to the three sadhanas (ways) of the Path of Fire: Alchemy, Love of Beauty, Traditional Metaphysics.
In the first part, Raphael treats the four means that are necessary to accomplish the Opus according to the alchemic symbolism.
Then, he penetrates the ascesis of the divine Eros as it is embodied in the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus.
Finally, he introduces the way of Traditional Metaphysics or "colorless Fire", that which Advaita Vedanta calls Asparsha (non-support), that which takes one to cross the abyss between the discursive mind and pure Intellect (Nous).
Raphael presents the three paths through a synthesis that radiates his consciential experience.
From the Author
The book unfolds in three realizative ways.
a) Realization according to Alchemy.
What do we mean by Alchemy? The transmutation of "lead" into shining radiant Gold, the transmutation of all our individualized psycho-physical powers into Universal Powers; this implies a profound rectification and distillation of our individualized earthly fire, so as to turn it into a Fire able to penetrate, illumine and resolve all things. When the individual, having isolated himself in the extreme periphery of the cosmos-life returns to the Polar Center, through an act of consciousness revolution, of conversion, of rectification, he ceases to be a mere individual-being at the mercy of karma's currents and resolves himself in the Universal Man (Adam Kadmon), settling within his own Heart and, thus, in the Heart of everything.
b) Realization according to Love of Beauty.
This chapter is dedicated to Realization by means of Love of Beauty. This way is for those who are sensitive towards "Transcendental Aesthetics" meant as Harmony-Accord with the intelligible world. According to Coomaraswami, Brahman or the Supreme Being may be conceived as Beauty, Truth, Perfection, depending on whether we see it from an aesthetic, epistemological or ethical point of view. Art is an expression of Beauty, science, in a broad sense, is an expression of truth, ethics of Perfection; while the Philosophia Perennis or traditional metaphysics embraces them all. This shows that the three expressions are a unit: Beauty contains Truth and Perfection, Truth contains Beauty and Perfection, while Perfection cannot but contain Beauty and Truth.
c) Realization according to Traditional Metaphysics.
The third chapter is dedicated to the "Metaphysical Pathway"; this is useful for those who, abandoning the limited, discursive mind, wish to enter the realm of pure Intellectuality (Nous). In this dimension the two previous pathways merge because in the One-without-a-second all quantities (number) and all qualities (tone) are resolved.
What may cause deviations from the first pathway is impurity of heart, that is, inadequate rectification of powers; what may cause deviations from the second pathway is a sense of appropriation directed towards the world of forms; what may cause deviations from the third pathway is a selective, analytical and projecting mind that blocks the way to pure Intellectuality which alone can offer "Knowledge of Identity" where the subject and the object of knowledge both disappear.
