As many have remarked, it seems odd that Salt is placed second in the Septenary System’s nine-fold sequence of initiation referred to by Anton Long as the “principle of metamorphosis”. After all, Salt is attributed to the unconscious, which many associate with the state prior to the first initiatory stage of awakening, so it would make sense for Mercury, a representation of the masculine and introverted to come second in the sequence, as that logically proceeds awakening.
However, confronting the unconscious is a core component of any magick system, which occurs around the midway point of initiation in most systems. In terms of alchemy, the second stage is the muliebral, regarded as the creative and expansive stage (Gettings, 1981).
As is the case with the Septenary System, the journey begins with the [masculine] Ego: introverted feeling, intuition and thinking. It then moves onto the second stage of the [muliebral] Unconscious: extroverted feeling, thinking and intuition. Finally, it arrives at a consonance of both masculine and muliebral in the third stage known as the Self: Master of Temple/Mistress of Earth, Grand Master/Grand Mistress and Immortal/Homo Galactica (Long, 1976).
Ad libitum: while the Ego could be considered to be extraverted in so far as its physical expression is commonly understood, it is actually introverted because it is only concerned with the microcosm of the causal, not the macrocosm of the acausal. The term ‘introverted’ therefore – contextually – means myopic and ‘extraverted’ means open-mindedness, as it relates to considerations of the acausal and the numinous.
The unification of the masculine and muliebral, or Sol and Luna, is the stage known in hermetic alchemy as the Double Pelican, which Carl Jung referred to as Enantiodromia, but the Sinister Tradition refers to as “Crossing the Abyss.”
The term itself perfectly encapsulates the alchemical process, for the abyss is a representation of the second stage — Unconscious, which is dark, unfamiliar and opposing; the polar opposite of the first stage — Ego, which is light, known and resonating.
The action of “crossing” is an allegory for how the initiate confronts the muliebral Unconscious, that which is hidden deep and repressed. The initiate walks the tightrope suspended above the unknown of their psyche in order to reach the other side, at which time they have made the unknown known made the unconscious conscious, and apprehend the whole of their being before it was — to quote David Myatt — “cleaved into parts”. This is likely what Anton Long refers to as being one’s opposite yet beyond both.
Hopefully, this has cleared up the previous misconception and explained why the alchemical symbol for Salt is placed second in the sequence of the principle of metamorphosis; and in addition, provided new insight into the alchemical process known as “crossing the abyss.”
References:
Gettings, Fred. Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils. 1981
Long, Anton. Emanations of Urania: Notes Toward a Heuristic Representation of Cliology. 1976.