Prolegomena to an Esoteric Alchemy: Part 2

 

Octave of Alchemical Transmutation

I. Nigredo: Black Phase

Initial dark, impure, alloyed condition; symbolized by the Raven. At the onset of operations, the Phial (Vial or personal Vessel) must be hermetically sealed against unwanted external influences so that the interior process may begin, analogously to the practitioner limiting external distractions and loss of personal energy.

1 Calcination (Incineration): Saturn, Aries, lead
2 Dissolution (Solution): Jupiter, Cancer, tin

II. Albedo: White Phase

Subsequent transformative phase; begins at darkest point of the black phase, at the most intense point of “conscious labor and intentional suffering” (in Fourth Way terminology); symbolized by the Swan.

3 Separation: Mars, Scorpio, iron
4 Conjunction (Congelation): Venus, Taurus, copper

III. Rubedo: Red Phase

Continuation of the purification process of White phase, resulting in progressively finer distillation of the contents of consciousness to progressively higher gradations. Symbolized by the Pelican; also represented by the Red King and White Queen.

5 Fermentation (Digestion): Mercury, Capricorn
6 Distillation (Sublimation): Moon, Virgo, silver
7 Coagulation (Recombination): Sun, Libra, gold

Effects of Each Stage

1 Contraction, discipline, potential
2 Expansion, initial development
3 Assertiveness, active force
4 Receptiveness, passive force
5 Transformation, light, mind, androgyny
6 Purification, subconscious, body-soul
7 End Result, higher consciousness

Further details of each stage of the Octave

1 Contraction is the initial operation of the entire process, implying a focus of attention and force to enable the potential for transmutation and transformation, and entailing a constraining discipline of study and practice before any further, more advanced work can be undertaken.

2 Expansion is the second, opposing phase, where established personal discipline awakens recognition of the freedom and capacity to continue.

3 Separation is the first operation of the White phase, involving isolation and removal of remnants of the Black phase from the impure (alloyed) environment or matrix.

4 Conjunction is the second operation of the White phase to recombine purified essences of the Black phase into a new compound and a higher manifestation.

5 Fermentation is the first operation of the Red phase to revive dead (static, fixed, unconscious) material remnants of putrefaction. At its completion occurs the phenomenon of the “Peacock's Tail” representing the threshold of transition from this stage.

6 Distillation or Sublimation is the second operation of the Red phase, which purifies and concentrates the essences of fermentation (the Eagle) into progressively higher gradations of consciousness and awareness.

7 Coagulation or Recombination is the final operation, which produces the Philosopher's Stone (Real I, Objective Consciousness); represented by the Phoenix, the bird which periodically immolates its old self (features of which have degenerated into fixed mechanicalness and automaticity) in a self-generated fire (inner heat) of transformation, to be reborn in progressively higher form (at a higher gradation of consciousness.)

Alternate Sequences

Throughout its history, Alchemy has ever been a complex and multifarious phenomenon practiced by diverse adepts in many different historical and cultural contexts, and thus there is no one single “orthodox” or universally accepted sequence of operations beyond the broadest outlines given herein.

In an alternate version of the alchemical tradition a fourth phase, Citrinitas (Yellow phase) occurs at the end of the White phase as that phase nears its culmination, manifesting a transitory phenomenon of light or “Golden Dawn” energy, a form of “influence from Above” (from one's own dormant Higher Centers), heralding the onset of the ultimate Red phase.

An expanded sequence of phases used by some alchemists expresses a quintuple division of major categories, adding a Green phase (Virido or Viriditas) to represent an early, still immature development in the transition between the White and the Red phases, and a final Gold phase (Aurumitas or Chrysos) which sets the final result (Philosopher's Stone) apart from the Red phase for special concentrated focus.

If the Citrinitas (Yellow) phase is added to augment this fivefold sequence of phases, it should be inserted after the Green phase, as it heralds the onset of the ripe Red phase.

Thus, the expanded sixfold sequence may be schematized as follows:

1 Nigredo (Decomposition of First Matter)
2 Albedo (Partially refined state of First Matter)
3 Virido (Early manifestations of development)
4 Citrinitas (Transitory light manifestation)
5 Rubedo (Maturity and ripeness of material)
6 Chrysos (Final result, Philosopher's Stone.)

In this expanded sixfold sequence, the phases divide symmetrically into two groups of three (1-2-3, 4-5-6), instantiating another representation of the Threefold Law interwoven with the Law of Opposition. The final three phases may be interpreted as a higher reflection of the first three phases, a second operation of the Law of Three.

Key Tools and Terms

All alchemical tools are employed on both a literal, mundane level as actual physical implements for purposes of mundane “chymistry” and also as analogues and symbols of the practitioner's internal transformation and esoteric working process. Although it is feasible for a purely Esoteric practitioner to work with these tools on an exclusively interior or symbolic level, more substantive results are to be expected when actual tools are used in tandem with correct processes. Such embodied use anchors the practitioner's interior Work to exterior realities and takes full advantage of the Hermetic axiom asserting the interdependence of interior and exterior phenomena.

Fuel. A key component of all Alchemical working, often wrongly overlooked; without access to and proper use of the right sort of fuel for a given process no results could be expected.

Esoterically, fuel for interior work relates to the three “foods” used by what has been called the practitioner's “three-story factory”: literal and correct foods for sustenance and energization of the physical body (Moving-Instinctive Center), correctly managed and oriented emotions for the Emotional Center, and sensory impressions (including sound such as mantras and invocations, and proper imagery such as symbols and glyphs) for the Intellectual Center.

Exoterically, on the mundane physical level, alchemists traditionally used wood or charcoal for their furnaces, though various types of flammable oils were also used, with varying symbolic associations depending on the ingredients involved (type of wood or oil.)

Athanor. A specially designed alchemical furnace designed to provide uniform heating within a hermetically sealed environment. Esoterically, the practitioner's holistically conceived body-mind apparatus or “common planetary presence” (in Esoteric terminology), within which the entire alchemical endeavor and ultimately the Magnum Opus are instantiated. Like the exoteric furnace itself, it requires both proper fuel (the “three foods” for body, emotions, and intellect) and application of inner heat (“conscious labor and voluntary suffering” in Gurdjieffian terminology.)

Brazier. Open-topped bowl or other container in which to burn a solid fuel (most commonly charcoal), generally made of metal. Unlike the Athanor it is not hermetically sealed and may play a subsidiary role in alchemical workings, often used for burning incense or in other applications where allowing smoke or heat to escape into the air is desired.

Crucible. Open container for melting materials at high temperatures, usually made of clay or other heat-resistant ceramics. Often used for melting of metals and separating ore from a matrix. Requires application of heat from another source beneath it. In the operation of “cementation,” a closed crucible is used to contain the escaping vapors so that they may react with the other material in the vessel.

Mortar and Pestle. Bowl and rod for grinding dry materials into powder form for further operations.
Alembic. Two-part distilling apparatus or beaker, with the heating vessel underneath the still.
Cucurbit. Heating vessel below the alembic.
Retort. Combined heating and condensation still.

Ergasterion. Literally “work place,” the practitioner's personal temple of operations. Can be used for non-alchemical (general Esoteric) work as well as alchemical operations.

Oratory. Literally “prayer space,” a dedicated space for Esoteric work, ritual, and contemplation.

Laboratory. Dedicated space for mundane, physico-chemical operations.

Alchemeion. Dedicated space for alchemical work which may include within it the Ergasterion, Oratory, and Laboratory. Usage varies among different authorities; sometimes the various terms are used interchangeably.

Israel Regardie on Alchemy

From Regardie's The Philosopher's Stone (Llewellyn 2013.) Parenthetical clarifications added.

The alchemist is a type of Esoteric Magician who acts as the subject of his own experiments, separating and analyzing various parts of the holistic self (Persona, Essence, Centers) in order to understand their nature and origin so that after lengthy and elaborate work they may be properly purified and recombined in renewed, higher form.

The basis is a process of solve et coagula, Separation and Reassembly, whereby the three alchemical Principles (Salt, Sulphur, Mercury) are separated from the First Matter, refined, and recombined in a more perfected state within the Alchemist. Through dissolution, crystallization of consciousness is broken into its component parts, and from this resultant its fundamental elements are reassembled on a new basis.

After separation, subjected to heat and light (inner friction and intentional directed suffering), the material is stimulated into further growth whereby it may exert its own essential nature and power by reformulating the vehicles through which it acts. The formulation of the Philosopher's Stone allegorically means consciously reorganizing the material of life in order to manifest Essence.

Alchemists assert that benefit may come to those who merely study their writings; by assimilating the word of their wisdom, one awakens a reflection of the Magnum Opus, the Great Work.

The process of psychic integration is continuous and recurring; the three stages of theurgic integration (purification, consecration, union) recur repeatedly on a variety of levels throughout one's lifetime.

Role of Heat and Fire

“In the sealed Alembic of your Heart, through the action of the firey Athanor of affliction, may you come to behold the Stone of the Wise.”

(from the Golden Dawn Adeptus Minor ceremony.)

The application of consistent, controlled, and directed heat by means of the action of fire is a fundamentally critical operation in Alchemy. The effect of heat generated within the alchemical Athanor (furnace) and applied to the Alembic (hermetically sealed vessel) is allegorized on the level of Esoteric psychology with the positive effects of physical and emotional “friction,” referring to conscious effort, arduous work, and intentional beneficial “suffering” as explicated in Fourth Way teachings (see chapter on Esoteric Magickal Work elsewhere in this book.)

This interior fire, once properly ignited and regularly stoked, is consciously applied to the practitioner's holistic self. This “self” is constituted of the various inner Centers (Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual Centers, along with minor subsidiary centers) and functions allegorically as the alchemical “hermetically sealed vessel” of the work in progress. At length, the key effect of this operation is to dissolve the mechanically accumulated crystallization of the False Persona of the practitioner, reducing its detritus to “black ash” in the phase of calcination or carbonization (symbolized by the glyph of Saturn) so that the further successive operations of purification and distillation may take place unimpeded. The success of each successive operation acts in the fashion of an application of a correctly applied Interval Shock or external influence upon the given material involved.

In the psychic realm, the interior heat and fire represents both the pure force expressed by the Emotional Center and the analytically reductive activity expressed by the Intellectual Center, both of which must operate in tandem, to different degrees in different contexts, for successful results in the transmutation of the First Matter into the Philosopher's Stone.

The heating effect of this conscious fire entails an intensifying of the alchemical practitioner's consciousness which serves to awaken and separate out higher, interior factors and qualities from an alloyed ore of mixed, chaotic, fragmentary and conflicting components. By this means, a higher being-body is constructed by the force of influences from the Higher Emotional and Higher Intellectual Centers, and is at length precipitated and condensed within the practitioner, and the Philosopher's Stone is gradually crystallized through repeated application of the operation.

The interior, esoteric Furnace (Athanor) is initially heated by the alchemist's repeated practice of withdrawing attention from exterior distractions and focusing attention inwardly. Here, the Fire itself represents the act of redirecting attention to interior phenomena and processes, upon the contents of the practitioner's consciousness and unconsciousness by rigorous, disciplined contemplation, meditation, and invocation of Magickal formulae. The psychic contents of consciousness serve as the fuel to be calcinated (carbonized) by the heat of the attention within the hermetically sealed Alembic vessel of the adept such that further progressive operations such as purification and distillation may properly take place.

Success in the Great Work entails true transmutation of the self and development of one's Essence toward higher gradations of Objective Consciousness, and requires both interior and exterior “heat” or friction to gradually transmute the practitioner. In terms of Esoteric Magickal Work,this external heat is analogous to what is known as the Interval Shock or Influence from Above, an unpredictable cosmic force that can catalyze further growth if it is recognized as such and if the practitioner possesses the knowledge, capacity, and will to properly make use of it. Practices such as Alchemy, as well as other forms of Esoteric Magickal Work, provide one with the necessary qualities to open oneself to Higher Influences and to make use of them when they appear.

Solve and Coagula Formula

The first half of this formula, represented in the Black phase (Nigredo) refers to an analytical process, a dissolution and decoction of the First Matter and a discharging of its impurities as the alchemist's mechanical crystallization is broken down and separated from the inner Essence. The elements in their naturally found state must be analyzed (divided) because they are chaotically alloyed with each other and adulterated; esoterically, this represents the practitioner's initial lack of true will or integrated Being. The dissolution can be experienced as a painful process, but it is a necessary prerequisite for further progress in the Great Work.

The second half of this formula, represented in later phases, is the reverse half of the first, and refers to the reconstruction, coagulation, and fixation of the volatile results of the first process. After successful completion of the dissolution process, the practitioner must reassemble the elements of his Being on a new, integrated pattern for further development.

The analytical method is employed to induce dissolution of crystallized conceptual automaticities in the practitioner's consciousness in the energy of that consciousness itself, by immersing such impure crystallizations in the energetic matrix from which they originally emerged. This extended process of dissolution decrystallizes mechanicalities and makes their useful, purified constituents available for further work. Freed and purified at length, the Essence gradually reforms itself by means of what modern scientists call (in a more mundane physical context) a process of complex adaptive autocatalysis, or what the ancient alchemists would have known as autopoesis (self-creation.)

This deliberate breaking-down of crystallized constituents of the personal sphere also has the property of spontaneously releasing the force entrapped latently in them, in a process akin to psychological sublimation: the transfer of force from a grosser, superficial, dysfunctional level to a more subtle, profound, and constructively creative interior level.

The Philosopher's Stone

In strictly alchemical terms, the Philosopher's Stone represents the union of Mercury (consciousness) and Sulphur (will and emotion) with Salt (the planetary or “earthy” physical form) as their basis or vessel-vehicle. In terms of Esoteric Magickal Work, the purified Stone represents several different concepts such as Objective Consciousness or “Real I,” and is produced after the successful accomplishment of the various alchemical operations as outlined above. Standing for “Real I,” the Stone is a core constituent of the Higher Emotional and Intellectual Centers, and already contains these three principles in latent but alloyed (impure) form.

Production of the Stone is a process analogous on the Microcosmic scale to the formation of the Cosmos out of an eternally preexistent chaos (prima materia, prote hyle) on the Macrocosmic scale, a process grounded in the Hermetic axiom of multidimensional fractality, by which the Macrocosmos is duplicated in the Microcosmos by the effective operations of the Alchemist or Magician; thus Alchemy recreates in the practitioner the phenomena of creation and evolution manifesting on the cosmic scale.

In additional to actual material operations, alchemical work also requires intensive regular study and contemplation of its Esoteric principles based on a rational framework. Alchemy, like other Esoteric Magickal Work, is distinguished from exoteric spiritual systems in that it necessitates a combination of systematic rational inquiry as well as nonrational methods of inquiry to develop the practitioner's harmonious knowledge and understanding of the teachings in a holistic manner.

END

Prolegomena to an Esoteric Alchemy: Part 1

Alchemy is form of practical, embodied self-transmutation that overlaps with other forms of Magick and Esoteric work, a particular expression of ideas analogous to esoteric psychological disciplines, but peculiarly noteworthy as being the most physically grounded type of esoterism. It is an ancient science, art, and methodology of purification and transmutation, traditionally called the Royal Art (Ars Rex) and the “sacred divine art” (hieratheiatekne), the apex of the Hermetic Tradition. It may also rightly be considered a type of theurgy (“divine working”), an active, ongoing Work of attainment by means of inner Essence-transmutation in which the practitioner functions in an interdependent partnership with “divine” (higher or inner) forces and influences in his quest.

Just as Esoteric Magickal Work is focused upon personal development and attainment, with concomitant expansion and addition to one's being, Esoteric Alchemy is focused on self-transmutation, with entailment of a metamorphosis of previously existing base material. Esoteric work itself is sometimes referred to as a type of “psycho-alchemy,” an Alchemy practiced purely within the interior of the practitioner's holistic self with the aim of transmuting the contents found therein with the aid of external physical materials and implements.

Alchemy is also a precise corpus of technical processes united by the common aim of extracting the embryonic primal material of Essence from the accidental accretions of the practitioner's Persona with which it has become alloyed, by the means of successive operations of progressively finer purifications. It is an art and science of regeneration and fermentation which attains its culmination only subsequent to the successful completion of these preliminary stages. This completion can be a lengthy and often arduous process, the success of which is by no means guaranteed.

Alchemy combines several other aspects of Esoteric Magickal Work which have been covered in other chapters of this book and are partially reiterated here: it incorporates analogues to the Law of Opposition (binary law), the Law of Three (positive, negative, reconciling forces), the Law of Seven (Law of Octaves), as well as some key insights of various topics of occult knowledge such as astrology, divination, invocation and evocation, which have been discussed elsewhere in this book in more detail.

Alchemy utilizes a specific magico-esoteric language framework describing the artnd science of transmutation of the personal Essence. All the alchemists' elaborate, complex external apparatuses and operations are intended to serve as structural supports, reminders, and pointers to the real transmutation that is to take place within the practitioner.

In Alchemy, the work of transmutation instantiates what is already implicit in the base substance of the practitioner. It takes spirit (Essence) itself as a substance, a material instantiation or hypostasis that subject to conscious manipulation and transformation in a quasi-material fashion with proper techniques to serve the alchemist's aims. Alchemy leads from the intentional conscious dissolution of impure psychic crystallizations by various processes to an ultimate recombination and resynthesis in the psyche (Essence) of the practitioner.

In addition, Alchemy involves a strongly cosmological framework that addresses the personal Essence as a subtle material substance that reflects in detail analogous characteristics of the Macrocosmos and Megalocosmos as a whole within itself. This Microcosmic Essence is axiomatically presupposed to be in need of undergoing various sequential operations in order to recover its hidden, higher cosmic nature through successive purifications and recrytallizations.

The effectiveness of Alchemy on the plane of Esoteric Magick work is the decisive concreteness of its symbols and methods which enforce a paradigm in which seemingly ordinary material objects and processes are interpreted and understood on an inward (Esoteric) and qualitative basis, while at the same time interior processes and concepts such as that of the alchemist's own Essence are interpreted and understood as models of external, quantitative things. The unique knowledge and understanding promulgated by Esoteric Alchemy is founded upon its method of understanding the alchemist's Essence dynamically, as an objective event-process-substance subject to conscious manipulation and transmutation before being reincorporated subjectively and interiorly.

Working with this aim in mind toward this end, it is important to utilize actual physical implements, as with other magickal tools in certain other types of Esoteric practice, to reinforce the embodied quality of the work. Mere study of the texts and teachings is only to be considered as a prerequisite to performance of the actual physical work, a necessary but insufficient preparation for practice.

Alchemical autocatalysis is the capacity of correctly combined elements under correctly and precisely organized methods to self-transform into higher substances and forces. In this sense, esoteric alchemical operations represent complex systems embodying a higher, supramundane consciousness of cosmic forces and truths. A factor of “chaotic dynamism” enters into the system analogously to the principle that obtains in homeopathy, in that a sequence of operations can catalyze a minuscule initial impetus and amount of material to produce powerful effects seemingly far beyond the original force applied.

Origins and History

Alchemy has a storied history and has evolved through various incarnations over the millennia, dating from ancient Eygpt, Greece, and India, through the European Medieval period, on through to the modern era, in each era absorbing into itself basic background assumptions and philosophical paradigms of its environment but always maintaining a core identity holding to a deep structure of esotericism. Like Esoteric Magick itself, it has always been an ideological paradigm capable of working within any framework of local consensus reality regardless of its ontological presuppositions.

The origins of Western Alchemy date to the Hellenistic period (c. 300 BC - 300 AD), and it was called the Hermetic Art after the legendary Hermes Trimegistos (Hermes the Thrice-Great Magister), patron of all Esoteric arts. After the 7th century AD, the Arabic world absorbed the knowledge of Alexandrian alchemists and preserved ancient Greek texts which were later brought brought back to Western Europe in the Middle Ages.

Ancient Greco-Roman alchemists held to the various pagan philosophies and rites of their time; later, European alchemists (like most magick practitioners) were at least nominally Christian, while alchemists and magickians of the Arabic realm evinced Islamic beliefs, generally of the mystical (Sufic) variety. No one specific worldview is essential to the practice of Alchemy, nor that of Esoteric Magick in general.

Many ancient alchemists lived in Roman-occupied Egypt, especially Alexandria along the Mediterranean coast, wrote their texts mostly in Greek, and operated in a context of gnostic Neo-Platonism, a late pagan religious philosophy emphasizing monism over polytheism. Gnosticism itself was less a structured system than a broad, loose collection of various eclectic beliefs and practices, including in itself elements of Platonic, Egyptian, and Hermetic beliefs, as well as ideas that would in later times be interpreted as quasi-Christian, though heterodox.

Some early alchemists defined “alkhemeia” as a study of the detailed composition and potential metamorphoses of various natural substances, essentially a study of what we today would call complex chaotic dynamic systems. Such systems are ubiquitous in nature, and consist of complex interactions of motions and processes in which higher order and structure (including, ultimately, higher consciousness) seems to emerge spontaneously, but in fact such emergence obeys precise inherent natural laws.

Our modern word for chemistry derives from “chemeia,” a Greek term for “blackening,” which refers to the initial process of calcination (carbonization) of the first matter by means of carefully applied heat. In a broader sense, the terms “chemeia,” “chymia,” and later the Arabic term “al-kymia” refer simply to the art and science of applying a type of heat which we may interpret esoterically as the “inner heat” or friction that the practitioner of Esoteric Work must generate in order to autocatalyze self-transformation.

The term “alchemeia” also became etymologically associated with ancient Egypt, known as Khem, the black land, after the dark fertile soil surrounding the Nile River. In Greek, Alchemy was alternately known as “chrysopoeia” or “gold making,” a term which can be interpreted both mundanely (in its literal sense) and metaphysically. Esoterically, the science was itself an example of “teleopoeia,” or “generation of the final goal,” a process with a specific end to be aimed at.

Early alchemists generally worked within an eclectic, syncretic paradigm, often writing of their art as a synergy melding the technical knowledge of the Egyptians and the theological wisdom of the Hebrews, and frequently saw their exoteric work (chemistry) as intertwined with their esoteric work (alchemy proper.) Like ancient religions and esoterism, Alchemy was always a holistic practice, not merely an intellectual philosophy, incorporating astrological and numerological considerations in its processes with the aim of establishing the most auspicious times for conducting various operations, as well as requiring personal discipline and ascetic rigor on the part of the alchemist.

Around the onset of the Christian era, monistic philosophical views had already been in circulation for centuries, and some alchemists bridged the gap between the pagan world and the new beliefs and practices of Christianity. For example, Christian alchemists sometimes interpreted the alchemical heating vessel (the Athanor), or else the alchemical distillation vessel (the Alembic) as a baptismal font, and the tincturing vapors produced as the purifying waters of baptism; they utilized the Hermetic iconography of the “krater” (wine mixing bowl) to symbolize the chalice used in Christian communion, and so on, though exact symbolic correlations were not always consistent. Esoteric baptism in the supramundane waters (esoterically, the purifying forces) of the transcendent Pleroma (the fullness or totality of forces of the Cosmos) was another concept some alchemists theorized about, and can be seen to reflect quasi-Gnostic concepts in the same regard.

The European Scientific Revolution of the 15th-17th centuries was a golden era for the alchemical arts, and there was as yet still no clear distinction between Alchemy and mundane chemistry proper. Esoteric practitioners made use of the then-novel methods of careful observation of the natural world combined with practical experimental work to verify and hone their work and results, both in the physical and the esoteric realms. A symbiosis between philosophical and esoteric theory with physical experiment was one of the central features of Alchemy in this period.

Over time, ever-greater separation developed between practical mundane experimentation and esoteric workings, and the analogical connection itself became a purely sacramental practice bereft of practical experimentation for many Alchemists. In Esoteric Magickal Work today, each practitioner must endeavor to discover an individualistic approach somewhere on the spectrum between purely practical and purely symbolical, but more transformational force and effectiveness is to be found with greater use of traditional physical accoutrements and methods.

Five of the most noteworthy European Christian alchemists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance include:

1 Albertus Magnus Teutonicus (c. 1200-1280), German Dominican philosopher, scientist, and bishop; in addition to his work on Alchemy, composed many volumes on philosophy, theology, and astrology; a key preserver of the works of Aristotle in the Middle Ages. His few works on Alchemy focused on explication of the work of Aristotle on minerals, representing important early ideas about the Philosopher's Stone.

2 Rogerus Baconus, Frater Mirabilis (c. 1220-1290), English Franciscan friar, philosopher and theologian; his Opus Majus (1267) discusses many subjects in addition to Alchemy and speculations about Hermetic esotericism.

3 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), German theologian and alchemist, most well known for his influential Three Books of Occult Philosophy; its first part on Elemental Magick partly treats of alchemical concepts such as the Four Elements and the idea of a spiritus mundi or omnipresent world-force capable of manipulation by a knowledgeable alchemist.

4 Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim) (1493-1541), Swiss theologican, physician, and alchemist.

5 Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) (1621-1666), Welsh minister, philosopher, and alchemist; member of the secretive Society of Unknown Philosophers; translator of the Rosicrucian tractate Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis and other occult and alchemical works.

Paracelsus is an especially noteworthy figure in the history of Alchemy in so far as he bridged the gap between ancient practices and the modern concept of chemistry. He saw “chymistry” as not merely a method for manufacturing medicinal substances but as a key to fuller understanding of the cosmos both within and without. Much as God or the Absolute was interpreted by the ancients as the “Great Geometer” of the Cosmos, it was interpreted by Renaissance Alchemists such as Paracelsus as the “Great Chymist” or “Great Alchemist.”

Chemistry itself was for centuries practiced outside accepted orthodox institutions such as universities, and did not become fully accepted in academia until the 18th century, at which time its corollary, Alchemy, had already acquired a dubious reputation among natural scientists eager to separate their field from what had come to be viewed as outmoded, superstitious practices. Yet the character of both Alchemy and chemistry was eminently practical, and involved laborious physical efforts and intricate methods that rendered both disciplines insufficiently intellectual and theoretical for scholarly academic institutions until well into the 19th century.

Principles

Of all practitioners in the various subdisciplines of Esoterism, alchemists were the most concerned with the properties of physical substances in the Cosmos, their qualities and interactions with each other, since alchemists' operations directly exploited such properties, and observable results were expected.

Alchemy posits an evolutionary-developmental paradigm of Nature and consciousness by which all of Nature, including within it the human realm, evinces the intrinsic property of automatically growing in self-consciousness and “perfection” from a base matter into more differentiated and complex forms, but only up to a certain limited point. Beyond this natural point, further personal development requires conscious effort and precise methods, in accordance with the alchemical aphorism “Art (conscious, intentional work) perfects that which nature begins.” Alchemists, like Esoteric practitioners in other fields, assist and foster the process through a precise sequence of experimental steps.

Alchemists traditionally modeled the Cosmos as a unified “plenum,” a fullness or continuum rather than a vacuum, filled with an invisible, occult substance that permitted the corollary effects of the doctrine of signatures and sympathy (interconnectedness and mutual interaction) essential to any kind of magickal endeavor. In earliest times this plenum was characterized simply as a vague idea of “spirit” (pneuma), but later alchemists found this concept too ambiguous and insufficiently substantial for their purposes. Modern esoteric practitioners have updated the idea further, correlating it with a model of a nanocosmic quantum field postulated to underly all macrocosmic phenomena and that makes magick and alchemical transformations possible.

The fundamental concepts of Alchemy are based on a metaphysical ontology which posits the transmutation of a base or primal matter (prima materia or protohyle), itself held to have a quality of arbitrarily vast malleability, able to be transformed into any phenomenal substance existing in nature, including consciousness. This substance is held to have been the original “chaos” out of which the Megalocosmos was formed, gradually metamorphing into the known elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) and with them the human-scaled Microcosmos. In this ancient, pre-Christian paradigm of Cosmic formation, Creation took place not exnihilo (out of “nothing”) but exmateria (out of a preexisting primal material.)

All other material and phenomena in the holarchical, fractally embedded Cosmoses including life can still be derived from this primal substance, given proper knowledge of processes and methods such as Alchemy purports to provide. In some respects the Philosopher's Stone, the culmination of the alchemical process, may be interpreted as a return to the Prima Material but on a higher octave in accordance with the evolutionary Law of Three (positive, negative, higher reconciling force.)

In the course of this long evolutionary process, alchemical theory holds that this primal matter also acquired impurities along the way, becoming an alloyed mixture of a primal Essence and various contingent components. Thus the Great Work (Magnum Opus) of Alchemy is concerned with purifying the alloyed, impure nature of the human Microcosmos, separating out impurities through a graduated process of purification and distillation which we here call the Octave of Alchemy (see below.) Such transmutation is a freeing or instantiating of what is already always implicit in the first substance in an impure (alloyed) form.

Through the Great Work, the alchemical practitioner imitates the processes of Nature while also assisting Nature in its own progressive evolution; at the same time Nature assists the practitioner's personal evolution and development, and these two interlocking reciprocal processes manifest a positive feedback loop as an integral part of the complex adaptive system that is the alchemical endeavor.

There had always been practical alchemists focused solely upon mundane but legitimate material results which were neither illusory, fraudulent, or esoteric, and who employed principles of physical chemistry and effectuated real transformations. Much of their work was artisanal in nature, involving a combination of widely known and accepted traditional methods along with idiosyncratic, novel recipes and processes that became closely-guarded trade secrets protected from competitors by the use of cryptographic writing and metaphorical symbolism. The most notable accomplishments of these alchemists involved the refinement of useful metals, manufacture of glass in rare colors, fabric dyes, and the distillation of effective chemicals including medicines. Much of this work was connected to the nascent jewelry industry, serving a middle class clientele with a high demand for inexpensive copies of real gems and metal that resembled gold. Alchemists' ability to create realistic gold-like alloys partially accounts for their legendary obsession with the physically impossible task of creating real gold from base metal; a realistic looking, gold-like alloy was a valuable commodity in itself for people in the market for inexpensible alternatives to rare metals. While some alchemists may have attempted to fraudulently pass off such alloys as real gold, many more likely worked in the legitimate costume jewelry marketplace.

Those mundane alchemists who also possessed an esoteric tendency or an modicum of interest in spirituality and higher consciousness could not help but ponder their methods and aims in psychological and magickal terms, and as they sought ways of expressing their ideas, would have found obvious metaphors and analogies in their actual physical equipment and paraphernalia, and went on to elaborate upon them allegorically to represent esoteric processes.

All such allegorical interpretation is well in accordance with the principle of likeness, the Hermetic axiom “as above, so below,” in which physical things serve as verific tokens and emblems of transcendental objects and concepts. Over time, with the advance of mundane physical science and chemistry, a gradual fragmentation of thought developed to the point that mundane chemists evolved into their own distinct discipline, while others became the purely esoteric alchemists of later eras. At the same time, alchemy acquired a negative reputation; its cryptic, obscure allegories encouraged misunderstanding and superstitious fear on the part of common folk, a misunderstanding encouraged by a deliberate intent on the part of mundane chemists to separate and distinguish themselves from the esoteric tradition.

Crowley on Alchemy

From Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice (Dover 1976) Ch. XX (pp 184-188)

Alchemical writers agree on the fundamental theory on which they base their practices, though they describe the First Matter of their Work (and every process and reagent) by a multiplicity of occult symbols and glyphs. The sanctity of their spiritual operations demanded this symbolic veil as a cryptographic use of laboratory language.

In Alchemy, the Stone or Elixir resulting from one's labors is the “Real I” or Individual Essence inherent in the substance. A key alchemical principle is “to make gold one must take gold,” to gestate the seed or potentia of the primal material and accelerate its development

Part of this process involves the withdrawal of the essence of the First Matter from within its initial homogeneity (the matrix or ore), just as Initiation consists of the annihilation of the individual in the impersonal infinity of existence to emerge as an Eidolon of the Truth itself, unalloyed by alien elements.

Alchemists begin with the First Matter, a substance existing everywhere, which they subject to a series of operations to obtain the final substance representing the perfection of that original First Matter, with new qualities pertaining to a living being rather than an inanimate mass. The Alchemist takes a dead, impure thing, and transforms it into a live, active, thaumaturgic entity.

Alchemy can be compared to the processes of Magick and Initiation: The process of Initiation consists in removing one's impurities and finding in one's True Self (Real “I”) an immortal intelligence to whom matter is merely a means of manifestation; the Magician takes an idea, purifies it, intensifies it. In Alchemy, the effective element of the final the Philosopher's Stone is the Essence of its own nature, and the Great Work consists in isolating it from its accretions. The alchemical First Matter calcinates (blackens) and putrefies as the Alchemist breaks up its impurities, just as the Neophyte on the threshold of Initiation is assailed by corrupting “complexes.”

Ouspensky on Alchemy

“Alchemy is an ancient allegorical description of the human three-story physical-emotional-mental factory and its ceaseless inner work of taking in and 'eating' base substances (through food, air, and impressions) and transforming into into finer, precious, conscious ones.”

(from Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous)

Key Principles

1 Hen to Pan, Pan to Hen; Unus est Omnia, Omnia est Unus. One is All, All is One. Represents the interdependent, reciprocal unity of the Macrocosm and Microcosm our of an origin of a monadic singularity.

2 The Hermetic Axiom.

As Above So Below
As Within So Without
As Before So Again

“The lesser Sanctuary below is constructed on the pattern of the greater Sanctuary above.” (Thomas Vaughan)

3 Solve et Coagula. Analyze and Sythesize the base matter as given; first separate the pure ore from the impure matrix in which it is embedded, then reconsolidate it after purification in a higher, subtle, conscious form.

“Following the adage 'solve et coagula,' the alchemist dissolves imperfect coagulations of the soul, reduces it to its materia, and crystallizes it anew in nobler form. This is accomplished in conjunction with Nature by means of natural vibrations of the soul, which awakens during the course of the Work and links the human and cosmic domains. Then Nature comes to the aid of Art, according to the alchemical adage: operis processio multum naturae placet.” (from Titus Burckhart Alchemy (1972.))

4 Coincidenta Oppositorum, Contraria sunt Complementa. The coincidence (interdependence) of opposites; opposites are complementary. Known more broadly in esoterism as The Law of Polarity, Duality, or Opposites. In Esoteric Psychology, one manifestation of this law is the separation of the personal from the impersonal, differentiation of ego from nonego, or of False Personality from Essence, as a prerequisite for further psychoalchemical operations. A corollary, the Binary Law, allows for the construction of complex, subtle substances from the mere interaction of countless nanocosmic interactions. In the process of the interaction of opposites, “fire,” i.e. useful inner heat or friction, is often generated.

5 Fix (stabilize) that which is volatile (in flux), and volatilize that which is fixed. A corollarly and further entailment of the law of opposites in alchemical operations.

In terms of Esoteric Psychology, this law is reflected in the work of integration of the practitioner's consciousness, beginning as it is found in a relatively fixed, imperfectly crystallized state which requires first a step of volatilization (decrystallization), followed by the addition of conscious recognition of its intrinsic dynamic opposites in the unconsciousness. This intentionally volatized conflict between internal pairs of opposites is intensified as alchemical work progresses, until deeper awareness of their nature allows them to become reconciled by a higher, third perspective, manifesting as an emergent property out of the complexity of interactions, in accordance with the Law of Three (below.)

6 Enantiodromia and Ekstophe. Reversal of a force or substance into its chiral reflection, allowing for subsequent reunion or resynthesis of conflicting oppositions. Ekstrophe literally means “out-turning,” turning outward what is found within, or making conscious what is normally unconscious in order to work upon it. Psychological analogues of the law of opposites.

7 Law of Three. Stipulates the existence of three primal forces, Active (Positive), Passive (Negative), Reconciling (Neutralizing), which are relevant and operative in many mundane and esoteric phenomena. Expressed more abstractly in the philosophical dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, and instantiated in the three Alchemical principles (see below) and in the elements of Fire, Earth, and Water. Also represented in the three evolutionary-developmental processes of Separation, Purification, and Recombination, representing a physical process in which constituents of the base material are analyzed, purified, and recombined into a purer substance which must then be assimilated into a new whole. Also represents the union of the individual practitioner with the Universal Force, a synthesis effectuated via the mediation of a third principle, a link between mind and matter, provided by Esoteric Magickal Work.

8 Three Alchemical Principles. Sulphur (principle of volatility, will, Emotional Center), Salt (principle of inertia, earthy vehicle-vessel containing the other two principles; Moving-Instinctive Center), and Mercury (Intellectual Center.) The quality of Mercury reconciles the opposites and serves as the mediator between the firey volatility of Sulphur and the earthy fixity of Salt, initiating the potential for further development.

9 Four Archetypal Substance-Energies. Components or phases of energy manifestation found in infinite various combinations in all material substances, represented symbolically as Earth (pure solidity), Water (pure liquidity), Air (pure vaporousness), Fire (pure volatility.) In Esoteric Psychology, these elements are symbols correlated with various strata of the practitioner's inner Centers: Earth with the Instinctive Center, Water with the Emotional Center, Air with the Intellectual Center, and Fire with the Moving Center. When the Instinctive-Moving Centers are considered as a single Center, Fire is correlated to the Will. Three of these factors (Fire, Air, and Water) also function as media conveying influence of the practitioner's Essence from Higher Centers to the interior depths of being (Earth.)

10 Quintessence. The Fifth Essence, occultly inherent in the four elements and prima materia but separable from them when properly purified. A constituent of the Philosopher's Stone, instantiating a verific unity synthesizing the Four Elements and the Three Principles.

11 Vitriol. Ancient alchemical formula, a Latin anagram for Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem: Visit the interior of the Earth, purify the Hidden Stone found therein. This formula is a crucial key to the Great Work of Esoteric Alchemy, encapsulating the basic structure of the Work: Learn how to contact one's Higher Centers and engage the precise, lengthy work of purifying them in order to discover the Real “I” therein.

12 Aurum habere ut aurum fiat. Literally, “one must have gold to make gold.” Implies that the alchemical practioner must first discover and consciously comprehend that interior seed, the quantum of initial primal substance inherent in one's own nature, in order to develop it to higher stages. A related alchemical aphorism states that “our gold is produced through our Art by eliminating superfluities and impurities.”

13 “IAO” (Ignis, Aurum, et Ora): Represents three fundamental psychological concepts required for active alchemical operations: Fire (inner friction, will, intellection), Gold (a modicum of pure personal essence) and Prayer (contemplation, meditation, invocation.)

TO BE CONTINUED

Sixth Edition of Basic Magick Due Later This Year

Petrosz Xristosz is currently in the final stages of preparation of the expanded and updated 6th edition of his bestselling tome, Basic Magick: The Esoteric Way to Self-Knowledge and Inner Force, due sometime in the Autumn.

(Cover design provisional)

Second Edition of All My Dharmas: The Sarvadhyanamokshajnanayanasutra Coming in 2026-2027

 

Second Edition of All My Dharmas: The Sarvadhyanamokshajnanayanasutra Coming in 2026-2027

Petrosz is preparing a second revised edition of All My Dharmas for release within the next year or two.

Further updates on print and eBook versions will be posted when more information becomes available

 All My Dharmas: The Sarvadhyanamokshajnanayanasutra

A compendium of diverse teachings of the Buddhadharma taken from various great adepts, sutras, tantras and commentaries throughout the history of Buddhism, rendered into vaguely stanzified arrangement for ease of reading and memorization of key teachings.

Edited by long-time spiritual teacher and student Petrosz Xristosz, editor/author of Basic Magick: The Path to True Self-Knowledge and Inner Power (4th edition, 2022) and Crazy Awakening: Hippies, Gurus and the Search for Enlightenment (Memoirs of Don James, 2022.)

All My Dharmas: The Sarvadhyanamokshajnanayanasutra Now Available

 All My Dharmas: The Sarvadhyanamokshajnanayanasutra

A compendium of diverse teachings of the Buddhadharma taken from various great adepts, sutras, tantras and commentaries throughout the history of Buddhism, rendered into vaguely stanzified arrangement for ease of reading and memorization of key teachings.

Edited by long-time spiritual teacher and student Petrosz Xristosz, editor/author of Basic Magick: The Path to True Self-Knowledge and Inner Power (4th edition, 2022) and Crazy Awakening: Hippies, Gurus and the Search for Enlightenment (Memoirs of Don James, 2022.)

eBook now available $3.50

paperback version $15.20 (490 pages)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW9KLV8N

Objective Prayer Absolute (2024)

Holy Affirming
Holy Denying
Holy Reconciling Force!

(make triangle)

*

Our Common Father Endlessness!
Actualizer of All & Everything Really Existing
in the Great Megalocosmos!

Remove from my common presence
the deleterious consequences
of the properties
of the most maleficient organ Kundabuffer
that I might see reality as it is!

Engender in my mentation & feelings
all the data necessary
for a knowledge & understanding
of the sense and aim
of my existence
and of the laws of world creation
and world maintenance

That there might crystallize
in my thinking, feeling & moving centers
those factors, substances, & qualities
absolutely necessary
for the formation, coating, & activation
of the higher being-bodies

That through my own conscious labors
and intentional suffering

With the help
of certain Very Saintly Individuals
incarnated from above

By the laws of
the Sacred Triakazmo

(make triangle)

and of the Holy Heptaparapashinok

(make heptagram)

By the struggle
between Yes and No

By the positive results
of my harmonious inner development
in the conscious struggle against sleep

That I may at length attain
to the highest gradation
of objective reason

And thus become
one without quotation marks

and acquire the right, capacity, & will to say

I am
I wish
I can do

Yeshyem
Yesh maghtum yem
Yesh karogh yem

(3x)

I wish to remember the totality of myself
YESHUZUMYEMHISHELINZ

And thus become free
of the tyrannical lower laws
of the Merciless Heropass
those laws of Fate, Karma, and Hazard
to ascend the Ray of Conscious Creation
and become subject to the higher laws
of Will, Being, and Real Conscience

And thus become able
to use the Human Biological Machine
as a Transformational Apparatus
to alleviate the suffering of the Absolute

by the agency
of the OMnipresent threefold
OMKIDANOKH

Labyrinth Voyaging 1 (E.J. Gold)

One cannot maintain constant being-attention because the emotions of the biological machine will pull one's being-attention into sleep; the trick is to arouse the emotions along with the being-attention.

Sometimes a feeling of danger succeeds where the best mental intention fails.

One could be projecting the scenario that one is not now in the between-lives state, but suddenly one may come to realize that it really is oneself who is in that state, in the labyrinth.

We are capable of creating for ourselves a protective mechanism, a semblance of ordinary reality, to disguise what's really happening. Now one has a good reason to read and study this Work with attention.

The sheer ordinariness of an unprepared experience of the macrodimensional domains of the labyrinth deceives us into complacent acceptance of events; the unsuspecting voyager is unaware of any transition.

-- from The American Book of the Dead (E.J. Gold)

Looking for nothing

"Seemingly trivial ideas are often hard to grasp. One assumes one is looking for something substantial, when in fact there is nothing there, and so one falsely believes that one has failed to see what one was looking for."

-- Sufi wisdom

Pace and Silent Time (Bukowski)

 

Krishnamurti: Structured Affirmation Pattern 1

Structured Affirmation Pattern taken from Krishnamurti teachings

Listen without effort
Look without motive

Observe without division
Observe without the observer

See thought without the movement of time
See thought without the thinker
See the truth of the mind

Know without expectation
Know without conditioning
Know without division

Function without conditions
Renew the mind free of time
Transform without thought