The Components of Alchemy
and the Philosopher’s Stone
by
Anthony Tyler
Today,
alchemy is an idea that has been pigeon-holed into either fantasy fiction or
mad scientist craze
(often both at the same time), and like any of the ancient sciences of the Mysteries, alchemy as an idea is shelved by
most people today before it is even considered. Also like the collection
of ancient sciences (astrology, numerology, Tarot,
and the Tree of Life, et cetera), most people are
confused by the exoteric definition of alchemy, often discarding the philosophy
without even regarding the possibility of the art’s allegorical components.
At
its most simplistic definition, alchemy is the concept of “transmuting” or
purifying base metals into refined metals—often characterized as mercury to
gold. The traditional principal chemicals used by the alchemist are sulfur,
salt, mercury, and the “secret ingredient” universal transmutation essence,
usually called “azoth,” which is considered essentially as the ultimate
universal solvent (azoth is also sometimes considered to simply be mercury).
The goal of this transmutation is to achieve ultimate purification, most
commonly known as the Philosopher’s Stone, and known as the Elixir of Life, and
true Enlightenment, which is represented as
“gold.”
The
literal transmutation of base metals to gold is something that has been
acclaimed by an astonishing number of sages and adepts throughout history, but
is obviously generally considered as completely impossible today. This article
will set aside the detailed arguments for and against this intensely detailed
and critical analysis of ancient and modern-day chemistry; and suffice it to
say that many of these parallels are yet to adequately surface between the two.
This does not make it especially plausible, but it certainly does not make it
implausible either. Specifically, this article will focus on the allegorical
tenants proposed by alchemy, which have primarily fruited in the philosophies
of Hermeticism, and the exponent societies of Hermeticism such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.
Hermes
Trismagistus, traditionally known as Thoth, is known as the original alchemist,
and his Emerald Tablet contained the secrets to the threefold manifestations of
alchemy: the physical (the Philosopher’s Stone of gold), the mental
(Enlightenment), and the spiritual (Elixir of Life). Perhaps the most
well-known embodiment of Thoth’s
teachings are survived in The Kybalion
, which
was a manuscript published in 1908 by an author(s) known as “the three
initiates.” Interestingly, Tarot practitioners consider the knowledge and
collection of ancient symbols from the Tarot
to have also stemmed ultimately from Thoth’s Emerald Tablet, and Tarot is
often coined “the Book of Thoth.”
, which
was a manuscript published in 1908 by an author(s) known as “the three
initiates.” Interestingly, Tarot practitioners consider the knowledge and
collection of ancient symbols from the Tarot
to have also stemmed ultimately from Thoth’s Emerald Tablet, and Tarot is
often coined “the Book of Thoth.”
Etymologically
speaking, alchemy is likely the origin of metaphysical philosophy and doctrine, and
it can certainly be said that astrology and alchemy are the first two of the
ancient sciences, both arising almost inseparably. In turn, numerology, Tarot,
the Tree of Life, the I-Ching, and essentially all forms of workable divination
can be considered an application of alchemy. Researcher Mark
Passio explained
this art of alchemy as, “the vehicle for the influence of the soul,” and
in this context, transmutation is the software engine with which
magickal/metaphysical practice is facilitated.
“Through
art [the true process of learning] the whole mass of base metals (the
mental body of ignorance) was transmuted into pure gold (wisdom), for it was tinctured
with understanding. … Through faith and proximity to God the consciousness of
man may be transmuted from base animal desires (represented by the masses of
the planetary metals) into a pure, golden, and godly consciousness, illumined
and redeemed, and the manifesting God within that one increased from a tiny
spark to a great and glorious Being… … Alchemy, therefore, should be regarded
as the art of increasing and bringing into perfect flower with the
greatest possible expedition.”
To
put a cap on this idea, Hall also supplied the old adage, “Within everything is
the seed of everything,” which could not explain the essence of
alchemy any better. It is within this framework that the application of the art really begins to blossom, and the
deeper meanings behind the allegories of the ancient chemistry are manifested.
Even the most hardcore alchemists, who were truly attempting to transmute base
metals to gold, upheld the idea that the physical could not be manifest until
the spiritual and mental were manifest simultaneously—and thus only the sages
and adepts were able to perform proper transmutation, and in a sense, the physical
transmutation was considered as the final level of manifestation.
In
more practical terms, alchemy can very literally be seen as gardening and
horticulture, psychotherapy, chemistry, or geology, politics, and any form of
art. More precisely, alchemy is the search for gnosis, discovery of gnosis, and
application of it—and ultimately how to reproduce this threefold practice in
any given aspect of a person’s life at any given time. Here, the Freemasonic
allegory of Solomon’s Temple can be found, as each man is the mason of his own
mental, physical, and spiritual body, coalescing to create the totality of his
existence, which is represented
as a Temple. The allegory of Freemasonry implies alchemy, with the idea
of the alchemist being a mason who is erecting his own sacred temple with which
he pays testament to God.
In
terms of the mechanisms of alchemy’s application, and the results of
transmutation (the idea of literal metals, again set aside for analytical
purposes) The
Last American Vagabond has already done a fair amount of elaboration {see below]. However, as
far as a look into the traditional methods of alchemical application, Samuel
Norton, an alchemist of the late 16th
century, supplied these fourteen components of alchemical process in his work, The Key of Alchemy:
1.
Solution – the
act of passing from a gaseous or solid condition, into one of liquidity.
2.
Filtration – the
mechanical separation of a liquid from the undissolved particles suspended in
it.
3.
Evaporation – the
changing or converting from a liquid or solid state into a vaporous state with
the aid of heat.
4.
Distillation – an
operation by which a volatile liquid may be separated from substances which it
holds in solution.
5.
Separation – the
operation of disuniting or decomposing substances.
6.
Rectification – the
process of refining or purifying any substance by repeated distillation.
7.
Calcination – the
conversion into a powder or calx by the action of heat; expulsion of the
volatile substance from a matter.
8. Commixtion – the blending of
different ingredients into new compounds or mass.
9.
Purification –
(through putrefaction), disintegration by spontaneous decomposition; decay by
artificial means.
10.
Inhibition – the
process of holding back or restraining.
11.
Fermentation – the
conversion of organic substances into new compounds in the presence of a
ferment.
12.
Fixation – the
act or process of ceasing to be a fluid and becoming firm; state of being
fixed.
13.
Multiplication – the
act or process of multiplying or increasing in number, the state of being
multiplied.
14.
Projection – the
process of turning the base Metals into gold.
Astonishingly,
whether someone is trying to make crack-cocaine, grow their own food, or evoke the
psychotherapeutic benefits of neuroplasticity, components of alchemy can
be found in all. In this light, the grand allegory of the golden Philosopher’s
Stone is less of the ability to ascertain a certain type of physical object—and
more so, it is the golden knowledge of alchemy itself and how to accurately
apply it to the threefold planes of existence at any given point in time.
Once
again, the ancient secrets that are boasted to be hidden by secret societies
for so long are found to be entirely known to the public, and are simply
obfuscated. After all, the definition of the term “occult” is simply “hidden” or
obfuscated—and once again, the answers are found not in a piece of information
previously unknown, but in the reformation of thought and the readjustment of
one’s frame of reference. And, indeed, isn’t this one of the fundamental
aspects of alchemy to begin with?
Alchemical Transmutation and
Owning Your Archetypes
The first three parts of this series have
discussed and laid the foundation for the concepts of Natural Law/Law of Karma, as
empirically demonstrated in the neuronal constructs of the brain (not the only
demonstration by any means, but perhaps the most poignant one); this series has
also discussed the synthesis of this Natural Law with the inner laws set in
place within the mind of man—this is considered the synthesis philosophy of the
Microcosm and the Macrocosm in metaphysics.
The
steps toward synthesis of these two projections of concept, is the archetypal
symbolism that represents the allegorical representation of the neuronal
“hard-wiring.” This is not exactly to say that there is literally symbolism
within the neurons themselves (just like there is not literal symbolism within
the stars themselves), but that the electrical clusters (CoEx Systems, as laid out in the previous
articles) can be represented by archetypal wavelength patterns of
consciousness, in the same way that sacred geometry is used by nature for plant
life, et cetera, to grow, and in the same mode that astro-theology and
astrology represent. The study of this vibratory nature into physical
manifestation in science is called, “cymatics,” which is described as “modal
vibrational phenomena.” Here is a video demonstrating the field of study.
In
this regard, it can be seen through the accumulated discussion in this series
thus far that the first step for every human towards their own inner
illumination (their initiation) is learning to own their archetypes—that is to say,
learning symbolic literacy.
In
a layman’s explanation, symbolic literacy can be considered as the key to
Solomon’s Temple in Freemasonic ritualism, Solomon’s Temple being the paragon
representation of enlightenment, each man’s own body and mind
(his accumulated existence) being his own temple. More to the point, however,
this process is considered in esoteric philosophy as alchemical transmutation.
This article will not dive deeply into the aspects of chemical alchemy through
herbalism and metallurgic reactions, (suffice it to say that these ideas have
their own deep and grounded history in reality after sifting through the
disinformation) but will instead focus on the ideas of spiritual alchemy, which
could be considered as the cornerstone of the Gnostic Mystery Initiations as they are
known today. The easiest explanation of this form of alchemy is the idea of
taking the baser (mercurial) elements of a person’s own existence, and to
transmute them into the higher (golden) elements of Divinity—thus, a synthesis
with the Micro and Macrocosms.
In
the vast array of brain sciences today, this idea of transmutation is called “neuroplasticity.” This idea of
transmutation is the original stirrings of the ancient shamanic culture that
still circulates today, which is the idea of an individual whose path in
life—their trade, like a carpenter, or chef, or scientist—is to be a gateway
for the esoteric, and the divine. The shaman is each person’s potential conduit
for a spark towards alchemical transmutation, and the ideas of the holy men,
like the priest, as an intermediary purge between God and man has stemmed from
these original concepts. The allure of “ayahuasca ceremonies in the jungle with a shaman”
as so many people are interested in today, is the deeper allure of personal
transmutation.
Ayahuasca
is the divine conduit to the symbolic gateway, and the shaman acts as the
channel and provides the symbolic literacy to the experiences. The shaman is
the training wheels here, but not in a negative way. This is their purpose—to
aid the sick. In this regard is why psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, salvinorin a (salvia), mescaline,
and even cannabinoids are considered tools for “waking up,” as many people like
to say. More accurately, these things can be a key to alchemical transmutation,
but the reality of this statement is that no one is going to be receiving any
degree of enlightenment unless their “trip” is pertaining directly to the
esoteric sciences—and this is hardly done adequately unless someone has a
trained shaman with them or a metaphysical mentor of somekind, or the
substance taker has been initiated already. Sadly, the lack of esoteric
guidance during a psychedelic trip is why the CIA and Military Intelligence has been so eager to splash things
like LSD onto the public, by way of Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey
and the list of other pop culture icons.
Another,
increasingly common route towards this process of transmutation today is
hypnotherapy—but again, this benefit really relies on the practitioner. While
clinical hypnotists are becoming more and more common, and the esoteric nature
of the unconscious is becoming more and more understood with the help of minds
like Carl Jung, the possibility of finding an esoteric-minded hypnotherapist is
not entirely outside the question, but probably not easy. Other lesser known
aspects of psychological medicine are “biofeedback,” which, similar to hypnosis,
is a science of using specified vibrational rates
to help a person literally tune their thoughts to different orientations with
demonstrated clinical benefit. Perhaps outstanding to some people, biofeedback
is a heavily documented medical treatment.
In
more occulted terms, the application of the Divination Arts is, overall, alchemy of
this nature. Since a person cannot read their own neural patterns, esoteric
symbolism is the physical projection/modal vibrational phenomena of the neural
patterns, or “CoEx Systems.” As music is the vibratory manifestation of numbers,
so is the human being the vibratory manifestation of their thoughts.
Numerology, as a whole, is not only the all-encompassing field of mathematics
today and traditional Pythagorean mathematics, but it is also the study of how
these numbers affect physical manifestations by transmitting vibrational
phenomena—this means, numerology is also the study of how numbers affect the
inner psychology of an individual, which is a much more vast and complex topic
than one may realize.
Astrology, is the study of the
earth’s relationship to the solar system,
and thus the earth’s relationship to man, and man’s relationship to the solar
system by proxy. The discussion does not even need the consideration of
“horoscopes”—all a person needs to do is look to the different climates on the
earth and weather patterns as an example of how the earth’s relationship with
the solar system subtly, electromagnetically creates impressions on the human
existence. Another common example is the Moon’s effect on a water’s tide.
On
a deeper level, astrology is the relationship between man and the stars as
mapped out through time—because man’s search to understand who he is and where
he is would’ve always been incomplete without time’s relationship to space
explained. Thus, the ancient traditional calendars of the Maya, as example, and
nearly any advanced ancient civilization. The Maya were not trying to map the
end of the world–they were studying the esoteric sciences of divination. Tarot cards, and the multiplicity of
different ways that they can be used, can be seen as a culmination and
practical application of numerology and these astro-theological/astrological
symbols. By way of modal vibratory manifestation of the neurons is how a Tarot
reading works, and in a reading, whether a person is doing their own or
is taking a reading from another person, the cards are always considered
the oracle. The sacred, divine aspect here is not a “fortune teller,” but the idea
that these cards provide of fundamental mode of manifestation for inner
thoughts of the unconsciousness.
Perhaps
the most versatile but also the most misunderstood and complex of the
Divination Arts is the diagram of the Tree of Life. This simple chart, taken
from Manly Palmer Hall’s The Secret Teachings
of All Ages is a connotative diagram of the ten points on
the Tree of Life, or the “sephiroth”, and their modes of symbolic expression
and interpretation.
No.
|
THE SEPHIROTH
|
THE UNIVERSE
|
ALTERNATIVE
|
1
|
Kether–the
Crown
|
Primum
Mobile
|
The
Fiery Heavens
|
2
|
Chochmah–Wisdom
|
The
Zodiac
|
The
First Motion
|
3
|
Binah–Understanding
|
Saturn
|
The
Zodiac
|
4
|
Chesed–Mercy
|
Jupiter
|
Saturn
|
5
|
Geburah–Severity
|
Mars
|
Jupiter
|
6
|
Tiphereth–Beauty
|
Sun
|
Mars
|
7
|
Netsah–Victory
|
Venus
|
Sun
|
8
|
Hod–Glory
|
Mercury
|
Venus
|
9
|
Jesod–the
Foundation
|
Moon
|
Mercury
|
10
|
Malchuth–the
Kingdom
|
Elements
|
Moon
|
Additional
explanation of the symbolism relating to the sephiroph include herbs, colors,
and other traditional ritual magickal outlets. Indeed, it has always
been considered in esoteric philosophy that certain herbs helped people
transmit certain things with their minds. The Native Americans thought that
tobacco helped them tune their mind to a better transmission with the heavens
(a sort of grandiose biofeedback), and cannabis held a strong traditional
shamanic use in the ancient orient, alongside opium. Other ancient herbs common
for their useful metaphysical properties are sage, lavender, mugwort (St.
John’s), valerian, and ancient herbalism holds connotation for virtually all
commonly known herbs.
If
the human experience is a computer, and the Divination Arts are the software
programs that help the computer run most optimally, then the Tree of Life would
be something like a GPU (graphics processing unit) or a motherboard chip—it is
the conduit, or codex, within which all other divination explanations reside.
Even more simplistic: the Tree of Life represents the ten fundamental conduits
of existence, and these ten fundamental conduits are the modes from which all
esoteric symbolism stems from. Manly Hall’s chapter on the subject can be read here.
The
deepest level of divination and transmutation is what people have popularized
as “synchronicity,” which deserves a much
deeper connotation than has been given to the phenomena. On a more basic, yet
nuanced level, what people think of as synchronicity is like “accidental ritual
magick,” per se. For those unfamiliar with the term, things like this are
considered a synchronized occurrence with the universe: When someone thinks
about another person randomly in passing, only to have them pop up in
their life at that moment circumstantially; when someone meets a stranger, and
an event happens afterward involving the help of the stranger that has
coincidentally made the person more fortunate than they would have been without
the stranger; when a person is in desperate need of a material gain but has no
avenues of getting it, and the material finds their way to the person through
seemingly random events; when a person has a thought, directly followed by the
person next to them verbalizing the thought without the other person’s
knowledge of the mimicry. These are but a few examples out of many, and to
the trained eye, “synchronicity” also becomes an easily explained form of
“accidental extra-sensory perception.”
With
this working definition of someone’s synchronicity being a form of “accidental
ESP/ritual magick,” it entails the concepts discussed throughout this
article—the ideas of using these esoteric symbols to inherently manifest “modal
vibrational phenomena” that is a reflection of inner neural sequencing, or
“CoEx Systems.” All that is required for the definition of a ritual, in this
case, is: a person considering a coherent, symbolically literate
evocation/invocation of thought, and projecting into their environment, and
their environment being adequately set up for the absorption/synthesis of this
electromagnetic transmission. On a conscious level, all that is required in the
circumstances of synchronicity is for a person to have an imaginative thought
that is empirically inspired by the moment they are in, and having the right
amount of wishful/willful attention/intention.
Bringing
this discussing back to cymatics and modal phenomena, the indicators of
metaphysics are ultimately pointing to the earth’s magnetic field. The ancient
metaphysicists considered this electromagnetic sea of radio transmissions as
the “ether.” It was considered that this
was the earthly antennae of divinity, and that all consciousness and magickal
phenomena were uses of etheric energy. Thoughts, and even souls were considered
etheric. While today, the idea of the “ether” has been “rationalized” out of
modern physics by conceptually incomplete Einsteinian theoretical computations, the
concepts of “spiritual energy” were always considered a valid pursuit by
ancient logicians and “scientists,” even more contemporary scientists of the
last three centuries took ether physics seriously.
As
a generalized explanation, the severance of physics from the idea of the ether
is what has created the separate fields of physics and esoteric metaphysics
today, because metaphysics could also (to a certain degree) just be coined “ether physics,” although researchers
today have specified the term a bit further than that. The vast majority of
Nikola Tesla’s career was dedicated to potential exploitations of the ether,
for ideas like free energy, weather augmentation, and weaponization.
Today, there are a great many number of scientists who have elaborated on
Tesla’s work, either directly or indirectly, such as: Dr. Michael
Persinger and Dr. Todd Murphy,
Eric Dollard, Peter Carroll and
Marco Rodin, just to give a brief list. As
a passerby mention, since thoughts and “brain power” have already been
identified as a Hertz radio wave within the electromagnetic spectrum, this idea
of the ether as the earth’s magnetic field is hardly a stretch, even without
looking into the data.
Ultimately,
by a statement made with empirical deduction, it appears that the end of this
Age of Pisces, into the Age of Aquarius, is ushering in an era of Self
Initiation. The internet has naturally started this process, but the data of
the internet largely remains misunderstood or yet to be accurately documented
and categorized. This has always been the way of the initiate—having to step
into the darkness of confusion, randomness, and chaos, so as to illuminate the
darkness with wisdom, poise, and order.
Esoteric
metaphysics has always taught initiation through the Self, inherently, but the
exoteric separation of man from the Divine with traditional religions and the
various priesthoods has turned the idea of the man as the shamanic “arrow
pointer,” into the man as the “worthy” in contrast to “unworthy.” As well, this
is the same nature that has been adopted, whether intentionally or not, in many
branches of Freemasonry and the traditional surviving
branches of the ancient Mystery Initiations that have been promulgated by
history’s elite. Instead of the separation being an individual priest, per se,
the separation has become of the ritualized esoteric embodiment of the ancient
knowledge by the brotherhood. The brotherhood has become the conduit, and those
separated from these rites of the brotherhood, whoever the brothers may be, are
largely separated from a possibility of authentic initiation.
This
article and this series are merely meant to be arrow pointers for the Oracle of
the Internet, as none of the keys can be handed from one person to another. It
is perhaps the most fundamental nature of consciousness that an individual
cannot be “woken up” to the nuanced nature of reality by someone else’s will—one
truly must always instigate this process on their own. With this mentioning of
self-initiation in mind, it is crucial to note that this is no condemnation of
the mentor-apprentice relationship, because this is usually a fundamental part
of the learning process. However, the idea of a decentralized, authentic
understanding of the esoteric principles might just be what the new era is
ordering. In any case, the present moment is always the perfect time for one to
stop letting their archetypes lead them around by the nose, and to start owning
their brain’s modal vibrational phenomena.
Part 2: Everything You Thought You Knew is Actually the Occult
Part 3: Your Archetypes Own You (Astrotheology)
Part 4: Alchemical Transmutation and Owning Your Archetypes
Part 5: Fortean Ontology: A Meta-Analysis of Esoteric Metaphysics, the Paranormal and Ufology
Part 6: A Look at Modern Secret Societies and Natural Law
Part 7: Real Magicians Don’t Read “New Age”
Sources
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZSRKNw-lTE, http://hermetic.com/texts/, http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/kyb/index.htm, http://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/your-esoteric-initiation/esoteric-initiation-part-4-alchemical-transmutation-owning-archetypes/, http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill.htm, http://www.williamjames.com/History/SHAMANS.htm, http://www.alchemylab.com/azoth.htm, http://www.alchemywebsite.com/norton_1.html
http://www.stanislavgrof.com/, http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/, http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/hamlets_mill/hamletmill.htm, http://www.williamjames.com/History/SHAMANS.htm, http://dlia.ir/Scientific/e_book/Medicine/Internal_Medicine/RC_346_429_Neurology_Diseases_of_the_Nervous_System_/017344.pdf, http://www.cymatics.org/, http://vortexmath.webs.com/, http://www.specularium.org/, http://www.crystalinks.com/numerologypyth.html, http://www.whatisneuroplasticity.com/, http://persingerpublications.com/, https://www.god-helmet.com/
For more information about alchemy see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/alchemy
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through ‘Older Posts’ at the end of each section
Videos
– https://youtu.be/GtiSCBXbHAg
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