Does inner alchemy count?



The Qabalah has helped with some understanding of the stuff for me.
Here's a Paracelsus quote.

Quote:

before I come, then, to the process of the Tincture, it is needful that I open to you the subject thereof: for, up to the present time, this has always been kept in a specially occult way by the lovers of truth. So, then, the matter of the Tincture (when you understand me in a Spagyrical sense) is a certain thing which, by the art of Vulcan2, passes out of three essences into one essence, or it may remain. But, that I may give it its proper name, according to the use of the ancients, though it is called by many the Red Lion, still it is known by few. This, by the aid of Nature and the skill of the Artist himself, can be transmuted into a White Eagle, so that out of one two are produced; and beyond this the brightness of gold does not shine so much for the Spagyrist as do these two when kept in one.


Now, if you do not understand the use of the Cabalists and the old astronomers, you are not born by God for the Spagyric art, or chosen by Nature for the work of Vulcan, or created to open your mouth concerning Alchemical Arts.

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MarkostheGnostic said:

It now seems presumptuous to proclaim that, but I'll admit to playing alchemist, Spagyricist, Iatrochemist. I've used alchemy as a working metaphor for practicing psychotherapy (I have a lot of experience with Jungian Analytical Psychology). I have an updated license plate now, but this is an old one. I keep it along with my alchemical library. Periodically, I have done some experimenting.

   

But mostly, I like to play alchemist - internally - with the alembic of my psychic centers. The Curcurbit is my Navel Center, below that is the Athanor in my Root Center[s] which produces heat. The Aludel head is my Brain Center, and the Receiver which catches the Eagle Flying Over is my Heart Center. "Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." - Logion 22, The Gospel of Thomas

And of course, for me, psychedelics are a form of the Philosopher's Stone, so cultivation is related. I've thought about a fungal Vegetable Stone. There is a sapphiric scerotia from a rare Psilocybian, but the curator Stephen Peele (FMRC, Pensacola, FL) sent all of his samples out of the country.

     

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AlteredAgain said:

I myself am not familiar with the alchemy of herbs and medicines. I work in the realm of the creative arts, so paint, media, gesture, ideas, and emotions are my key ingredients I use to synthesize my visions.

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alteredagenda, ART IS ALCHEMY!!  However, many works are sadly non-philosophical due to the lack of depth within the creator of said works.  AA if you choose to understand the allegories within the way and make your works philosophical in nature, you could consider yourself an alchemist

Peyote Road said:

I have only just recently become interested in alchemy. Can you recommend any good book/websites I should check out?

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Eggtimer said:

Does inner alchemy count?


Now, if you do not understand the use of the Cabalists and the old astronomers, you are not born by God for the Spagyric art, or chosen by Nature for the work of Vulcan, or created to open your mouth concerning Alchemical Arts

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MarkostheGnostic said:

I found them to be so, thank you. Rare it is that I shelve a book without finishing it. Recently I purchased and affixed small brass plates onto the shelves into which labels were inserted. Perhaps I now have too much time to play, but God knows I'm grateful for it.

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Mark!  Thank you!  I'm finding the more I come to understand about alchemy the more I understand about the origins of things.  IT's really fantastic.  What is that separation in the photo in the wooden box marked alchemist??


i love this drawing:

MarkostheGnostic said:

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]." - Logion 22, The Gospel of Thomas

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MarkostheGnostic said:

Merry Christmas and congrats on post #1!

The gospels do not reference alchemy, alchemy in the Western tradition draws heavily on the gospels. Christ is "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner" - Psalm 118:22.  Western alchemy is its own set of myths, just as Christianity is. Few esoteric-minded people, especially esoteric Christians, pay very much heed to the literal, historical story-line of the gospels. There was no reporter from the 'Bethlehem Gazette' taking notes on an astronomical anomaly that shone rays of light on an incandescent baby in a manger. This is Jewish midrash, not history. The Christian mythos is a mythos like any of the other religious myths - Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Zoroastrian, etc., etc., etc.

That being said, only the most literal adherents of alchemy, the 'puffers' (named after the bellows that kept their furnaces hot, were intent on changing base metals to Gold and Silver. (1) In order to transmute matter, one had to be in a state of grace, which is to say, having "the mind of Christ" - 1 Corinthians 2:16. IF an alchemist whose name was popularized by J.K. Rowling (who is really into alchemy, magick not so much) - Nicholas Flamel DID prepare the 'powder of transformation,' he did so in a state of blessedness, and they apparently he used the Gold and Silver to establish a number of orphanages and hospitals, not to live as a 1%er. (2) For those in the Know, the Philosopher's Stone is "the mind of Christ," the reward is Eternal Life (not personal immortality, another promise of the Philosopher's Stone's powers in the east as well as the West. Chinese alchemy focuses on longevity, not Gold). Laboratory work, especially the Mineral Work, produces difficult transformations as an outer manifestation of inner transformation. Without that inner transformation, certain mineral glasses will not form. Alchemy becomes a combination of prayer and work. The saying is "Ora et Labora," and every true alchemist has an oratory (prayer shrine) near his/her laboratory.

Gold and Silver symbolize the Sun and Moon respectively. This is the language of Western mysticism, the Fire and Water, the Blood and Water issuing from Christ's wounded Sacred Heart reflects a mystical process that can be found in Hindu Yoga, Tibetan Buddhism, Kabbalistic Judaism, and alchemy. The Catholic iconography of the Lunar Halo around Christ's head with the Crown of Thorns, descends to the Solar Heart where the Crown now encircles the flaming Heart. A Conjunctio occurs, a Union of Opposites. Exoterically, Medieval artists depicted the crucifixion with a Sun and Moon, or a total solar eclipse. The crucified Christ is suspended between Heaven and Earth, between the 'good' thief and the 'evil' thief - in other words, the imagery is pregnant with mystical symbolism which did not go unappreciated in Western alchemy. The unenlightened multitudes just hears the story with great emotion and pathos. The Church used the imagery to elicit guilt to control the people, but esoteric Christians pierce the veil of the surface story for mystical moments.


       

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kaaos said:

well i hope you both do finish so we can read it, make sure you let shroomery know about it, my friend 
maybe you would be interested by the work of Atkinson, he was probably one of the authors of the Kybalion, a early 1900's western approach to the principles of the hermetica.

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