Homunculus and other kind of living creation.

From a latin word : Homunculus, meaning "little man". It was a work done in the goal to create out one or several kind of matters a little living man, or woman, and sometime both, in a miniature world, or microcosm, alike a fish in an aquarium.

Here the Faust's Homunculus, engraving of the XIXth century.
Quite a caricatural and absolutely non accurate description of the process...

Some old methods give the entire process, saying that a couple, an Adam and a Eve, live in a vessel, where grow a tree in the center. Homunculi should grow, and be fed until they dies.They eat the manna that give the Alchemist (this manna comes from the process of their creation), when there is no manna at all to give, they eat the fruits of the central tree, and then, die, but they can live, 6 years ( !!).  The matters used are really important, if the matters are of bad things, bad persons, or bads quality, the Homunculus will be ugly and of bad nature, of course, if the matters are of good persons, the Homunculus is beautiful and good for the Alchemist. An Homunculus can provide a shel for an adombrement (incarnation of a spiritual soul) of high level. An Homunculus is a production by animal archemy. Of course, other kind of living creatures can born in the hands of the Alchemists, in the different kingdoms. In this case, High entities are linked to this production and have a support for manifesting and communicating with the Alchemist, if he can communicate with, he can learn a lot from. I think particularly of the growing metallic trees, provinding gold and silver apples, after having bloom... like a living plant. Of course, in order to create such a thing, you have to understand the process of creation and of life in these kingdoms, not only from a "biological side" but from an hermetical side of course.

G.Aurach : The Donum Dei.

Of course, we can consider that the Philosopher Stone is a kind of Homunculus, of a female nature, when in the White Stone, and male, in the Red. And the process of creation of the Homunculus is in fact the Great Work process, described in another way.

Note that the Homunculus is not a magical creature, no ritual or life insufflation by a theurgical or thaumaturgical way. It is different from a Golem. A Golem is a very high level of Theurgical Creation in the Kaballistic Tradition. The priest able to made it was most part of the time considered as a Holy man. The ritual can only be performed by a very advanced Magus, because of the complexity of the operation and also the forces involved.

Creation of the Golem.

The Golem is made out of wood, clay, etc, and act more on an astral manner like a spiritus familiaris, or an elemental. Note that the Yidam creation practice in Buddhist tradition is also very interesting.

These five kind of creatures made by an Hermetical Artist, are all different. Homunculus, Golem, Spiritus Familiaris, Yidam and Elemental have not the same purpose or function. Note that the last three can have a body, but it is optional. But they need a place to rest, the Yidam, a Deity, has its Yantra, a sand work, designed as a mandala, in order to give a palace for the Deity, in order for it to come into manifestation, in fact, this is nothing else than a kind of "triangle of evocation" like the one used in magik. The purpose of the Yidam is the Enlightement of the Monk, understanding that all the creation is purely a "mental" thing, imaginary creation. Nothing is real since the moment you can bring something into your world out of nowhere and nothing !

The Spiritus Familiaris and Elemental are made of different manner, ritualistic, non ritualistic, and energies (planetary, elemental, several elements, or all elements together etc), but the purpose is quite the same. They serve to different goals in order to make the Magus' life easier and to accomplish certain important tasks for him.