Grasp the essence of the Art before your bunsen beak.

As a beginner you'll rush on labware, on protocols and recipes, you are eager to create tinctures and different products and most importantly, to test them in order to have results.

You want to express your creativity and your inner genius in your practical work with what (the little) you know. But, you have no experience yet, you don't even know how these products will work, some keys are obviously missing. Of course they miss because they are not found in books, or you can have them by an initiator. (and I wonder why it's always a kind of "101"- a lot of stuff on this blog, very important 'details' and informations, coming out of my practical experience in the lab was exclusive and new, and I wonder why, if all the authors have been actually working in the lab, why then, they don't express all this knowledge in their books, rarely, very rarely old authors speak about the inner contact with the matter in the flask, the contacted "archetypes"/beasts, the feelings and experience you can have in such situation, as if, a whole side of Alchemy was hidden or only existing as symbols in engravings, but it is a far more vast Science).

It is important to grasp the essence of the Art before being a technician in Alchemy. You technique is just a mirror of what you have inside yourself. At the beginning you have nothing personal (as experience and philosophy) in you, what you have can come from others via books, teachers, conferences, blogs ... but all this must be checked in the reality, and must pass the test of truth : Matter Never Lies. This is why Alchemy is one of the most concrete and palpable spiritual path. If the Matter shows you the Truth, if you don't see it, it is because of your inner chaotic vision. You cannot grasp a message when you don't understand the language, and when you are not able to decipher it.

Here are the two main problems : How to make the matter speak, how to understand what it says. Both depends of what you understand of the Art. Both can be solved by the Hermetical Vision or the True Understanding of Nature.

All this takes time & work, also a lot of engagement, dedication and energy are needed by the neophyte in order to have some advancement in this Art.

In order for you make matter speak, you need to open it, to make it evolve, and for this you need to know the Fires. Once you master the different Fires, you can witness changes. And then you can try to understand what Nature is trying to tell you. We can really touch cosmical concepts with that.

Empty techniques will yield nothing philosophical. You need to act philosophically in the Lab, and to make a conjunction of Lab, and Oratory in order to really have a Laboratory work. Only one will give nothing, both complete each other and are the complete philosophy. Alone they give nothing striking, but together they will generate a deeper impact on your psyche. And this is important.

Not all that shines is Gold, not all that is red is the Stone. Fool’s Gold is not just a pyrite, but an important principle. Discrimination can only be done by the mind’s eye, and not by the physical eye. Only the essence of the Art will give you this understanding of the real level of a production you have. Alchemical Science encompass a lot of levels of powers, from the simple extraction to the multi cycle evolved Pure Spiritus Mundi upon itself, which is the highest level of Stone. Between them you have a variety of productions, more or less powerful. Only the knowledge of the levels can give you a reference point for what you get.

Being an Artist is being a philosophical technician, with this Wild, Wise and Wide Vision of Nature in yourself, in a communion with the process you launch. You are just an agent of Nature, an applier of the Fires.

Matter never lies because it is an impossibility. Matter is the engraving of signatures, cycles, energies, process, evolutions, forces... and will express it as they are, directly under a language of forms. This is how God.ess speaks down here. The imprint, or fingerprint of Life is directly stamped into shapes and events, qualities of the matter. You see it or not. Having the Hermetic Vision is having access to this level of language. At first you find the language, and then you can speak it. The matter is the body of God.ess, as such, it is a precise vehicle of principles, the tables of laws were engraved into the rock, the laws are engraved into matter, this is the same thing. You can see specific things in the lab, and you can, will and should, broaden your vision by encompassing everything that is. You can decipher the whole creation. You can clearly find the Ariane's string into the labyrinth. Explaining this Vision in the detail would take a whole book, and one should have a strong stomach to digest all the principles and complexities of such language...but to the brave heart, everything is possible !

Hermetischer Triumph-Bogen auf zweyen Wunder-Säulen der grossen und kleinen Welt bevestiget

Cette première page est d'une grande richesse. Nous pouvons considérer que ces gravures de l'époque sont comme des photographies de ce qui se déroulait dans les laboratoires. On y retrouve les "équations hermétiques" sortes de mathématiques d'énergies et de substances, dont les opérations ne comportent pas uniquement que la soustraction, la multiplication, la division, etc, mais aussi la coagulation, congélation (qui n'est pas congeler), la sublimation, la circulation, la cohobation, la putréfaction, la distillation, etc. Ces pratiques et procédues pouvaient s'écrire de manière linéaires (ce qu'il m'arrive de faire) à base uniquement de symboles et de produits/sommes.

Il me serait impossible de donner l'ensemble des opérations qui y sont décrites, tant par le sceau du secret que par leur abondance. Cependant de grands symboles s'y retrouvent.

Depuis le haut : à gauche nous avons, perché sur notre antimoine et un petit chapiteau, un corbeau, symbole du nigredo, premier régime au noir, de l'autre côté, dans une équivalente posture, un cygne, symbole de du troisième régime au blanc ou albedo. Entre les deux, un pont, dont la partie supérieure concerne les planètes, et le second, en dessous, leurs domiciles diurnes et nocturnes. On remarquera que Saturne est au centre, tout en haut, et ce n'est pas pour rien, les deux luminaires sont également répartis à ses côtés, en toute logique.

Le Paon et le Phoenix ne sont pas représentés, car qui sait faire le noir obtient le vert, et qui sait avoir le blanc, obtient le rouge. L'auteur prend donc un petit raccourci, probablement faute de place, et dans le souci de donner l'essentiel.

Dans la colonne de gauche on voit en haut : la fixation de l'esprit mercuriel et soufré. En dessous, la circulation de la matière, puis dans la troisième sa distillation, dans la quatrième, sa digestion, dans la dernière, la séparation des principes : un soufre et un mercure volatil, (probablement obtenus après les "aigles" = phase de distillation), et un sel précipité (remarquez le symbole inversé sous le signe du sel).

Il semble que le reste des opérations ne soient pas données car étant assez logiques pour celui qui connait sa table des lois ...

Dans la seconde colonne, nous voyons qu'il y a maintenant conjonction soli lunaire, ce n'est pas n'importe quelle conjonction. Procédé en humide peut être démontré ici, et qui se poursuit en sec en dessous, peut être pour toutes les opérations à bases métalliques et dérivées, encore qu'il puisse s'agir de la fabrication de la minière perpétuelle d'or ou d'argent, dont on n'en dira pas plus ici.

Divers pots semblant contenir des métaux ... en dessous (seconde étagère) du sel, de l'or précipité en chaux peut être (bien que son symbole soit différent ...) et du sel d'urine peut être ...

En dessous un four avec les ustensiles pour travailler en voie sèche, pinces, pelle, cône de coulée.

Dans la dernière fenêtre, le soleil, la lune ou or et argent (peut être philosophiques), le soufre et le mercure ensemble (rien à voir donc avec un ethiops minéral). Le même four de forge en dessous.

Au centre en haut, la couronne, symbole de l'achèvement du grand œuvre et d'encore bien d'autres choses dont nous ne soufflerons pas un mot ... Les armoiries portent deux côtés, un masculin à gauche, et un féminin à droite. On a la version commune soleil et lune, et en dessous, la version philosophique avec soufre et mercure, les deux séparés par l'élément dominant, que l'on peut lire plutôt comme grande polarité masculine et féminine.

Les chaines nous montrent que tout cela est relié et est un tout uni.

En dessous les deux principes alcali et acidus dans le centre de l'étoile de David, avec en bas le symbole du vitriol, celui du soleil et de la lune et du soufre et du mercure.

La sphère terrestre de droite porte les symboles de l'antimoine, du vitriol, de l'or, de la line du sel et du nitre, et de vénus. Ce ne sont pas ici des métaux ou des sels métalliques, mais des principes exprimés dans leur généralité, sous forme de "lois générales" ou mieux, de principes. Il s'agit, comme c'est dit : du microcosme.

De l'autre la sphère porte les mots de macrocosme, d'astral, de végétal, de minéral, d'animal, en bref, des différents règnes d'existence dont l'hermétisme traite.

Le pavage est noir et blanc, probablement d'inspiration maçonne ... mais aussi pour démontrer l'équilibre entre les polarités dans le macro et microcosme.

Une table de symboles permettant d'avoir d'un coup d'oeil une liste pour les signatures planétaires.

La cinquième colonne avec les symbole nous dit (de haut en bas) : antimoine, nitre, sel d'urine ou urine, soufre, vitriol, marcassite, cinabre, sel de mer, sel de tartre, sel ammoniac, magnétite et arsenic.

Sorry for english readers.

Ce fléau

Ce fléau dans l'Hermétisme sont ces gens qui n'ont pas d'Esprit Hermétique, ou de Vision par la Science Hermétique et qui pourtant se targent de savoir mieux que les autres, et pire, d'enseigner cette Science Sacrée sous ses multiples aspects - qui soit dit en passant, ne forme qu'un tout parfait, comme les différents membres d'un corps forment une harmonie vivante. Quoi de plus bancal et de plus dysfonctionnel que cela ? Quoi de mieux pour ridiculiser cette Science auprès du courrant de pensée ambiant ? Remarquez, au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois ! Science d'Hermès qui, à elle seule est tellement plus précise que toutes les sciences dures et science humaines actuelles réunies peuvent faire ! L'Hermétisme à lui seul peut tout expliquer, tout élever, tout anoblir, tout prévoir, encore mieux, encore plus précisément que les matérielles et matérialistes sciences de nos jours. Tout ceci est encore une autre histoire que je prendrais, si l'inspiration me prend, à 'expirer' sur ce blog :)

Et cela est engendré depuis le dernier cataclysme terrestre. Des bribes d'informations sur cette Science Sacrée se sont éparpillées et se sont perdues dans le monde après que la culture ancienne, - bien que dysfonctionnelle mais pourtant aboutie au niveau Hermétique,- se soit écroulée et ait explosée, on dit que l'Hermétisme avait alors prit un sentier de guerre et de désordre, d'où sa destruction, mais si on regarde bien, alors on se rend compte que seule cette Science a reussi à survivre après ce chaos. Chaos prévisible en tout point puisqu'il est part du cycle. On en a retrouvé des morceaux, ça et là, et des systèmes se sont construits autour de ces reliques incomplètes et mal comprises, donnant une science populaire Hermétique, batarde, malfichue, clopinante. Juste après ce déluge, des prêtres avaient encore les clefs, mais il semble que bien des courrants Hermétiques sont morts malgré tout. Heureusement, la Science Hermétique est une Science de la Nature, et c'est une Science Immortelle. Elle se retrouvera toujours dans la Nature, dans ce grand livre où tout est expliqué clairement, encore faut il savoir le lire et en parler le langage !

Il a fallu quasiment tout recommancer à zéro en ce qui concerne l'Alchimie, encore que des "trousseaux de clefs entiers" se soient perdus, pour l'Astrologie, il ne restait quasiement rien. Pour ce qui est de la Magie, les hommes on su renouer avec les lois mais il ne restait plus de Haute Magie, rituelle et structurelle, bien que dans cette dernière, les rites yogiques (surtout dans le Kriya Yoga, et dans certaines traditions Bouddhistes), on pu un peu perdurer grâce à de grandes Ames. La magie qui a subsistée a été une magie de destruction, et les pays qui l'ont appliquée se trouvent à l'heure actuelle frappés d'effrois, la planète sait se défaire de ce qui la dérange, nous ne sommes que locataires ici bas !

Ne croyez pas qu'à l'heure actuelle tout soit de nouveau retrouvé. Loin de là. Des erreurs grossières, voire "énormes" apparaissent encore dans les Sciences Alchimiques et Astrologique. En Alchimie on prend des vessies pour des lanternes, et la Science des Particuliers est à l'honneur depuis trois ou quatre siècles, prenant de plus en plus de place dans le vrai corpus Alchimique. Fort heureusement, certains - rares - hermétistes retrouvent les clefs perdues. Pour ce qui est de l'Astrologie, on voit le Ciel avec la tête dans les nuages, et les simples rectifications qui pourraient être apportées grâce à une connaissance précise des lois Hermétiques de l'Aimant Multipolaire ne sont pas apportées, car l'Esprit Hermétique, semble t'il, est trop volatil pour l'époque actuelle, ou encore bien trop fixé en terre. Attendons donc son printemps, mais cela risque de prendre encore un peu de temps ...

Sachez vous élever pour le capter, sachez creuser la terre pour l'y trouver, et sachez le fixer pour le mettre en application !

La Chimie actuelle est le niveau le plus bas qu'il soit au niveau de l'Hermétisme Alchimique. L'Alchimie ne crée jamais de pollution, ni de destruction contre nature, la chimie et la physique actuelle oui, pour un service rendu, dix plaies s'abattent sur notre santé et notre écosystème. Jusqu'où pourrons nous aller ? Nous rendons nous même compte du niveau d'obscurité dans lequel nous nous trouvons ? Certains professent la venue d'un âge d'or, que néni ! Notre civilisation courre à sa perte, à l'oeuvre au noir, au chaos, à tous les niveaux.
L'ensemble des informations et des communications se font grâce à du virtuel, du non palpable. Que resterait il des si fragiles serveurs informatiques, s'il arrivait quelque catastrophe d'ampleur ? Rien. Il ne resterait que des livres ... et encore, les livres de papier ne survivent pas à l'eau, au feu, à l'usure des vents, au rongeurs...
L'heure actuelle est frappée technologiquement et socialement par Uranus, qui pulse tous les dix ans environs depuis un siècle, et dont le poul va rapidement s'accélérer jusqu'à provoquer une crise cardiaque. Dernièrement Uranus a tout éthéré, toute notre civilisation se virtualise, devient aérienne, impalpable, tous les fils physiques se coupent, tout rapeutisse et se miniaturise. Remarquez ce paradoxe : il n'y a jamais eu autant de réseaux sociaux, et jamais eu autant de célibataires et de gens âgés seuls... Jusqu'où pensez vous que cela ira ? Pensez vous que la science matérielle va encore progresser pour le meilleur ?
 
Ce que nos science ne savent pas, c'est que tout ce qu'ils ont créé l'a déjà été par quelques génies Rose Croix ou d'autres traditions Spirituelles. Les Stances de Dzyan, commentés par Blavatsky sont un exemple de papier indestructible, par la science des particuliers alchimiques.
La conservation des corps, ou les lumières perpétuelles sans pollution ont été des étonnements lors de leur découvertes dans les scépultures antiques. Les communications à distances (image, son, transferts d'objets, etc) ont pu se faire grâce à des mirroirs et à des facultés spirituelles spéciales, ainsi que "l'internet" cosmique, ou proprement "Akashique" dirons nous, grâce aussi, à des outils proprement Alchimique et de facture spirituelle. Tout ce que nous avons à l'heure actuelle ne sont que des erzats, des petites, et pâles copies misérables. Seul le Spirituel est capable de faire des merveilles, le matériel quand à lui n'est là que pour les concrétiser dans leur perfection.
Toute technologie se retrouve dans les facultés de l'humain. L'être humain pleinement développé vivrait nu, sans abri, sans besoin de chasser, ou de se protéger, dans une harmonie sociale parfaite.
Pour l'instant c'est tout l'inverse...

Ignorance and greed

There is, of course, a lack of knowledge of Nature's Laws in the Art of Alchemy today (Science, the servant, like in Fairy tales, play now the role of false Princess, and stole the crown of Alchemy), that's not new, almost all the tradition were lost in two centuries, some peices being still under the eye of people, but not recognised, are waiting for an alchemized eye to contemplate their beauty and secrets.

A lot of people imagine that they will find in paper "lessons" what is needed to be learned, glad of their little experiments, with their brand new apparatus, they decide to open website and to sell products. They call that 'Alchemy', and it's just in fact, spagerics. But, "alchemy" is better for business since the word is used in Harry Potter Books... they all claim now to be big lab, making "Spagerics", or "Paracelsus' drugs" etc etc, and they never, never speak about the true goal of this art, and science. As lab they only understand technique, the science part "take that, grind it, extract it, filter it under vacuum, put the label and put online" (and no circulation of the tincture since electricity is not cheap)... that's so dead.

Dead products are also sold to people that understand nothing about all this stuff. Some "metallic elixirs" white and clear as pure water, containing nothing more than maybe alcohol or dew is sold. A tincture of silver, looking like a tincture of gold ? Both clear as water ... is that normal ? Of course, no. There is nothing in the flask. Metals dead for nothing. They are of course, de bona fide, because themselves never saw in their life the true colour of a metal, they imagine that they can have the soul of a metal without colouring the menstrum... magic trick. Not funny.

It would not be a problem if the tinctures they sell where not made after a "fermentation" of the product...inducing a process of putrefaction in a product will lead to a dead Sulphur, dead, I mean, "giver of death", Sulphur can only give what it has, of course, they don't know, do they have a brain, I wonder... the third problem is that they use improper products in order to make their tinctures. As they don't understand laws, they don't understand cycle and the effect of cycle upon matter and the composition of matter. Some guy selling "tinctures" were in fact caught selling coloured sugar water ... spagerics is not a placebo effect, it's not even a physical effect, it is, before everything, an energetic effect, a living effect. These productions must be alive.

For example, do you know you should not ingest obsidian tincture ? Do you know why ?

I let you find the answer.

Spiritual Initiation in Alchemy

We are talking here about True Alchemy, not particular Alchemy (and this is also different from Archemy or Science of Particulars).

Some of us have the goal, in Alchemy, to have Enlightenment, and for this we must have the Stone, which is only a way to produce this State. But we have to be aware that the Spiritual Initiation via Alchemical Path is very very uncommon and rare. It's far less uncommon in Zen, Advaita, Yoga, etc where far far more people reach these states of Being. This simply comes from the fact that Alchemy is an almost lost Science. We have only few rare initiates in this planet that knows the secrets of True Alchemy, and true disciples are rare.

Alchemy is one of the hardest ways to "get there". People imagine that since they have the technique of some process they will easily have the Stone, it is absolutely not the case at all, sometime they strive for nothing valuable, and they imagine that they finally have the Stone (because they have seen few colours, and it looks like a red stony matter), and are disappointed, most part of the time, the story end ... in a dead end, full of frustration and despair, and worse, in poisoning himself and others like in some "orders" where the 'Stone' is given by the guru to the disciples... True Alchemy is clearly revealed nowhere in texts. It's all hints, allegories and images, symbols, and it is needed to have a key to open the process and a real faculty to read between the lines and to decipher the symbolic code used centuries before.
If you want enlightenment via Alchemy, I invite you to revise your spiritual motivations profoundly concerning the possible fulfilling of this goal with this Art. One person upon a billion, even less, can reach enlightenment via Alchemy. It's far more direct by other paths, those who walk these paths of Material realization have a very special quality of soul, requiring a lot of Hermes in it. This is why oratory is required (which must be made of astrologia, theurgia, and study of symbols, texts, meditation (zen like) and also the different laws of Nature), and of course and practical side made with the laboratory, both are one and complete each other.
Most part of process revealed today are part of the said "particular Alchemy". Nothing Universal is involved, but these paths can lead to interesting medicines, transmutations, learning about the process, qualities of matter, laws of Nature, and mastery of inner archetypes, also balancing inner energies etc, and attaining minors states of initiation or purification. These paths are for example the Antimony path of Bacstrom, of "Flamel" as they call it in the PON, involving silver, gold, mercury and antimony (Flamel Path is not at all the path described here), or the Roger's Caro Cinnabar Path, all the different Alkhaests Paths also, the Golden Water Path or Via Antiqua, etc.

Alchemy has a lot of ramifications, like the roots of our old oak. And it is a complex subject.
I want to thanks all my friends in the Art for their support, help, contributions. Thank you my friends !!

Armand Barbault, Gold of Thousand Mornings

I propose you some photos, of unknown origin, maybe a french magazine, that shows Mr Armand Barbault, author of the "Gold of Thousand Mornings" in its laboratory.

"The importance of astrology. All delicate operation is leaded in accordance to astrology."

The gathering of plants, (previous page). Just before sunrise, like with dew, one take the chosen plants (the day before). Here Armand Barbault and his son, are examining a "Bouton blanc".

"Mixing of earth and plants, in the alambic full of earth to regenerate. It was devitalized before the previous coctions, they will add it plants that will bring vive forces. Adding of dew. Dew is filtered, and added to plants. This gives a kind of dense mixture that one will place in the alambic." (Here you can see Alex Barbault).

"The regenerated turb. After being heated, moistened during several month the matter introduced in the alambic, is removed a black matter which digested ... "

"... the plants, this is callen "regenerated turb". It will be blacken to the sun."

"Filtrering of the concoctions. The concoctions are filtered in order to gather the liquors and the earth liberated of its salts."

"At last the gold liquor. The liquor will be examined during a week in order to verify its purity."

Generation of Metals

De Some Alchemical images of old books

This image shows us something clear : You need a salt, a sulfur, and a mercury, plus, a fire (vulcan = common fire, represented by the old man) in order to grow from a common place or root (represented by the tree) all the existing metals.

The general idea is that there is only ONE matter (made of three principles) that once cooked, and made more or less perfect, is coagulated in the veins of the earth, and give birth to metals.

In order to make a metal perfect, you just have to put it back into it's mine.

Maybe a joge on the spade of the gardener (alchemist) "Elaboro"

"Elabor, in latin mean, escaping from a danger, or elapsing from a place, that no one knows what we became."

Elaboratus, mean "made by art, and properly, with care, elaborated."

This is possibly a reference to the "ora et labora".

The Concipio on the tree, mean "to take several things in the same time".

Vulcan pour the saturnian waters upon the roots of the tree in order to nurture it, see the dew also, coming from above.

In the philosophy of alchemy, all metals are made of the same substance, à different degres of maturity. When you cut the root of a plant, or you put the whole plant out of earth, then, it cannot grow anymore, this is the same thing with metals. If you put in the fire a plant, it is destructed, again this is the same thing with metals.

It is not because metals can melt, that they have to be melted !

Green Opus

Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis.

After the painful passage in the kingdom of darkness, here we are, back to the surface of the earth, with a new life beginning. Spring ! see that the word/verb spring means a season, a foutain, or a new birth, something coming out of.

A personnal Work. We can see a chlorophylian green, even if it is not at all a plan work.

Sap is runnning to the top instead of staying under earth, in the core of the roots or seed, stagnant. There is an Ex-pression, because of this new pressure, new sun, new dew.

Salomon Trismosin, Splendor Solis.

This stage is linked with the Cauda Pavonis, or Peacock Tail, because of sometime, a multitude of colours coming in the surface of the bath, and also the deep colour green that can be seen, sometime, but only with some matters, we can have a peacock throat, of a very nice blue, but it is more linked to Nigredo.

A personnal Work. We witness an evolution in the green, from the very dark to the lighter.

This Opus of green colour is callen Viridis, in latin, and is the sign of the renewal of life into the matrix of the matter. This is joy coming and expressing itself, energy coming out ! A new breath, new projects are coming into mind, we feel happy and ready for planning future, wanting to create things, and to learn, express new things. After the darkness of low moods, this is a big change, and you feel it clearly. I also see that I listen far more music.

The Sulphur is coming out of hell, darkness.

The subject of the Cauda Pavonis, if we dig, can be very interesting, and even complex, as we can see, there is not only one Cauda Pavonis, we have the Black Cauda, see the image below :

Personnal Work, you can see on the wine, a kind of peacock tail, of course, it is not alchemical, only spagyrical and not related to the 'new life', it is something else. Here, we coud call that, "rooster tail".

We have the Alchemical Cauda (more complex than it seems to be, but, it is "under the rose"), and also a Mercurial Cauda Pavonis. In the last case, a rainbow colour is often seen in the glassware during a distillation for example. Another kind of Cauda Pavonis is also seen in the Mercurial Water while it is in elevation in the vessel, and when we apply to it by the side, a little light.

Black Opus

The Black Opus ... Niger nigrius nigro : the black blacker than black is the so called "First Work" in the Alchemical process. This is the first necessary step or colour that should be provoqued by the action of the Secret Fire upon and in the matter enclosed in the vessel.

Here is an example of Black Opus in Dry Way.

We have a kind of deep Black Obsidian Glass.

This phase is symbolised by the Crow, it can also be seen as a Dragon or a Devilish Creature.

You can see that the fans of a crow have a kind of black petroleum peacock colour somewhere, like also the black tail of some kind of roosters. This is the last breath of the Sulphury part in the Matter before the total death.

The Coffin is the symbol used for the egg or vessel during this part of the work. Of course, it can be used both for  the Sage's vase (the glass vessel) or the Nature's Vase (the Matter itself).

Atalanta Fugiens, Michael Maïer. (I colored it).

The Death process is often shown as a dismemberment of the body. The breaking up of the unity lead to chaos and duality, darkness and night of the soul.

Atalanta Fugiens, Michael Maïer.

Splendos Solis, Salomon Trismosin.

Here the Sword is of course the Secret Fire. In the Shamanic tradition, a part of the initiation in the Nagual, is to be dismembered, or even, eaten to the bones. This is a kind of schyzophrenic experience. breaking up the limits of the body in a painful manner.

Catacombes under Paris.

Night of the Soul, beause the Sulphur is the Soul of the matter and the matter swallow it entirely, and then, the sun cannot shine any more.

Splendos Solis, Salomon Trismosin.

The Eclipse or the Black Sun is the astronomical way to explain this death passage.

Note that a Sun eclipse is the Moon passing in front of the Sun.

This is in link with the said "Caput and Cauda Draconis". The axis of Darkness.

Here is the Eclipse again, with the Crow (not far from Crown), the skeleton.

The putrefaction, death, rotting process, is the first secret, or Key of the Art to discover or uncover.

When something is rotten by the Art, Nature's Cycle begin. In a Great Sorrow is the seed of the Great Joy.

Saturn's sickle in the skeleton's hands in well known under this popular form :

Tarot of Marrseille's Arcana XIII is not the "Death", it is the Arcana with no name.

“The LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17, King James Version).

King James translation of Matthew 12:40. This verse says “He (Jesus Christ) will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, just as Jonah was “three days and three nights in the whale’s belly.” (Matthew 12:40.)

The myth is the same, because the Laws of Nature are the same. The seed, to be multiplied, need to die in earth during winter.

Jesus not yet Christ.

When you work in the lab, one of the aspect is the death of the matter, and the other is the link between the matter and you, your aura, your psyche. This is a very important law : the interdependence law. What you generate in other, you feel it too, in backward ! Not only in the lab, but also everywhere/time in your daily existence ! This is very important to understand that.

When you face the Dragon, someone I know say "making it going out of the woods", and you terrace it, (mean put it into terra, or earth = burrying it for putrefaction), you die with it. It is fully an energetical and psychological process that takes place in the Alchemist.

De Lapide Philosophorum, Lambsprinck. Secunda figura, "putrecaftion".

You face the Dragon and its deadly breath.

This process can be lived and experienced in several manners, by dreams for examples, or visions. But in everyday life it can be like a nervous breakdown, a melancholia in the clinic sens of the word.

This is really going deep in the "Tartar" or Hell (why do you think the tartar salt or wine salt, is called like that ? Something to dig here maybe, and the barrels' end are like the symbol of "salt" principle = all this surely because the secret fire is the generator of the process in the matter), encountering the lowest part of yourself, in the Kingdom of Hades and Hecate, your shadow, like Peter Pan, running after it and wanting to reintegrate it back to himself. Everything crush and you have no more energies to go on.

Some soap to fix it ? 

Like a fever outbreak, the inner Black Stage can go up and down, but it is still there, often during several years. Sometime, suicide is the end of this stage for some Alchemists. Most part of the time, we experience the zomby state, being a dead man, a dead soul in a "living" or almost, body. Almost because when you have an outbreak you cannot even walk, all your forces are elsewhere, you don't know where and you don't even care.

Some matters are harder to bear. They fit us too much. We are too much linked with them, they really, actually are our Dragon. What they feel, even a little, we feel it too...Very much. Be careful with Nigredo, do not lead to death any kind of matter just for fun, you'll have to bear that after. What you begin, you have to finish. Like if you take normal people and you crushed down all their life for fun, without resurrecting them to something higher. You manipulate lives, life, forms of life, and as a bringer of Secret Fire, you are responsible for your actions and its applications.

 If you kill it, you resurrect it.

Just do what the Secret Fire teaches you.

Finally, we understand that more the death is profound, more your resurection can be dramatic. That's just an equilibrium.

You not have to be dead physically in Achemy, but dead internally, until all your cultural aspect dies, and all your natural aspect live (you see, you read this page with symbols on it, theses symbols are culturaly generated, a pure invention, like your name. This is very important. Alchemy is too much often transmited under a deep blanket of culture, cultural aspect, historical things, myths, stories, weird names and symbols ... all this crush when you have enough of it. Why should you care about culture when you seek to understand nature ? Don't you have enough of the process evolving in the egg to show you everything you want to know ? The fantastic aspect, romantic, or "mysterius" atmosphere dissolve. No more name is applied to things, you don't even care about names, you just see the things.

This is a way of the integration of the Black Opus in your self, do not fear death and its profound signification and gifts. More you resist giving the putrefiable things, more you suffer. What you resist persist !

I've also though about the enjoyment of the Black Stage. It is a little crazy to think like that, but at a moment you do not really care about the Blackness. You already know pain, you already know what is suffering. You already know what is Black, and what it means. Also where it lead you to.

In Holotropic breathing, death is linked to the birth process. You were in heaven in the mother's womb, and you are expulsed, violently, and suddenly. Like Adam and Eve. And this passage is tremendously painful for the baby. And when you are out, it is the resurrection, but ... you are separated from the heavenly state of before (you didn't even know maybe that you were so well, but appears so by the contrast of the birth process). The child, will repress this traumatism and build himself around a wounded psychism, a post traumic desorder not healed. Black Opus is reliving this in a sens.

Animus, Spiritus et Corpus.

A crow on the navel/belly, the whole in a closed circle/womb/vessel/egg.

The planets are the different stages of the processus of evolution, and Saturn is shown Black.

In Kriya Yoga we are told about granthis, one of them is in the Sri Lahiri's system, the belly granthi located in the navel/ wound, directly linked with the trauma of birth. This is not only a trauma for the child, physical child, but also for the soul of the child, diving deep into darkness and density of the physical plan, under a vast pressure of matter. Do you know that human baby is the only animal that have a navel ? A wound, maybe physically healed, but not really psychically.

The Secret Fire's action in the Athanor, and the expulsion of all the insanity of man.

So, before birth, or springtime, you die. And when you are old, and you think your time is over, you non healed trauma of birth reactivate (like everytime you feel bad, or are afraid of something). And you are afraid of death, because you unconsciously "think" that it is the same painful process than the so called "birth" (of the baby) !

With this integration of the Black Stage, you begin to see the print of fear of death everywhere in your life, and in the world. In the slightest thing. Could you imagine a world where nobody would be afraid of death ?

The inner Nigredo can be triggered by some pathworkings. I will not give here a lot of details, I think that, when you are ready, you know where to go in order to find this place.

Meteorologia cosmica, Robert Fludd.

The Black Sun, Eclipse.

MEMENTO MORI.

Introducing another Friend & Brother of the Art.

I 'met' Petros after a research on the Rosarium Philosophorum, after seeing his alchemical photo album of great interest with nice photos about - of course - alchemical process, and also several faces in the rocks, rock art like this :

I invite you to take a look at it.

All photos are from Petros picasa album.

Thank you Petros for your nice work and your sharing !

Dangers of Alchemy, archemy &c

Dangers ... one of our brother and friend, lastly could be seriously and permanently injured by a very powerful explosion in it's lab. He is experimented, and know what he is doing, he's not a dabbler. 
No need to say that the apparatus is now into peices, ... in the walls and ceiling ! He was a meter in front of the explosion. He told me that a moment of inattention (he was on the phone), and BHAM ! The temperature was too much high for a second. Fortunately for him, no physiscal injuries, unscathed ! But the shock was very profound in it's mind.

I do understand that, because we act with confidence. But the day we are injured it is something else.
We can have a moment of doubt, and this warning is important. SECURITY FIRST !!

Lastly, 3 weeks ago, I was holding a vessel, with very reactive alcaline subtance in it (NaOH), like my friend, my attention were somewhere else for a second, and pfffffssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhhhhh the temp rised to I think more than 100 °C in the second, the cap, by the pressure raised in my hand, letting the burning vapours burning my flesh with the boiling alcaline water. It took 2 weeks to heal totally.

So yes, it happens, like a casting crucible not enough hot, where the fused metal just began to behave like a boiling oil, jumping on my feets and everywhere around.

How many times, cutting wood, my visor just saved my eyes from jumping peices of wood !

So, yes, you really have to be careful, to have a good material, well prepared, and physical protections, like gloves, eyeshades etc.

My friend send me some photos of the T shirt he was wearing during the lab big bang:
Here and here. Full of holes !