Alchemy

[Artimas]

Some people think it doesn’t exist, they view it as “magic” when in reality it is the practice of transmutation, be that the physical materials of this world/universe or the conscious/subconscious evolution through change/time. It does not have to do with “magic” or anything special, it is normal. It’s science and where chemistry got it’s basis from. Special is subjective so how can that have to do with the ‘definition’ of what alchemy is.

One evolves enormously from child to adult, this is the process of transmutation. Transmutation being the prime process and being of Alchemy.

One who cooks performs alchemy without their even noticing they are doing so, (The process of fermenting wine/cheeses), etc.

You turn water into ice, that’s transmutation of one substance into another form. Water can also be turned into gas, vaper, etc.

Cannabis is alchemy, the mind and in physical aspects of hash making. I have done the process of making hash out of Cannabis, it is very scientific and fun. In basic steps you use a solvent of your preference/choosing to rinse the psychoactive glands off of the herb, you give it a hot water bath and evaporate all of the solvent away, you then put your hash into a vacuum purger and let the atmospheric pressure chamber press the rest of the solvent out while releasing the top to let the gas escape (burping). After those steps are done you put your Pyrex dish into a dehydrator and let the dry heat do it’s work to turn it into a nice wax/shatter/agate look.

There are various things that are alchemy that people do not pay attention to. I just laugh and am dumbfounded when people say “Oh, alchemy isn’t real… that’s magic and turning lead into gold! you’re an idiot!” anyone who knows anything, know’s that alchemy is not some practice of magic. Oh, and it is possible to change lead into gold with vast amounts of energy, just an fyi.

Here is a video of Alchemy, and a guide explaining more on hash making, since I said I would make the thread on alchemy/cannabis later on. I had said when I first arrived at these forums that Cannabis is modern day alchemy and not even modern but very old as well. People doubted it and pretty much mocked/laughed at the idea of alchemy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGyYIJpMC-k[/youtube]

archive.org/details/CannabisAlchemy

Enjoy. I would also like to know anyone’s thoughts of alchemy. Reminder, it is not only a material practice, but the transmutation of the mind can definitely occur as well. It is what is called evolution/change in a sense.

[Erik1 (Erik_)]

I’ve been looking into Alchemy a lot recently - it’s very interesting. Newton, evidently, was an alchemist.

Let me know, if you manage to acquire the philosopher’s stone.

[Wandering_Lands]

Right on, brother!

[Artimas]

There was a recipe I read a year or two ago… I cannot find it anymore, but there are a lot of clues on how to make it in various peoples writings. Yes Newton was huge into Alchemy… he even sentenced others who did it to the rope and continued doing it himself in secrecy. This is what all these twit naysayers don’t understand.

[James_S_Saint]

You seriously need to learn a little actual philosophy before you can understand The Stone.

[Artimas]

Should read up on Newton, the emerald tablets/Hermes, perhaps Egyptians, perhaps Crowley as well.

[Artimas]

The Great Work (Latin: Magnum opus) is an alchemical term for the process of creating the philosopher’s stone. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual transmutation in the Hermetic tradition, attached to laboratory processes and chemical color changes, used as a model for the individuation process, and as a device in art and literature. The magnum opus has been carried forward in new age and neo-hermetic movements which sometimes attached new symbolism and significance to the processes. It originally had four stages:

nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
albedo, a whitening or leucosis
citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis
The origin of these four phases can be traced at least as far back as the first century. Zosimus of Panopolis wrote that it was known to Maria the Jewess. After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages. Other color stages are sometimes mentioned, most notably the cauda pavonis (peacock’s tail) in which an array of colors appear.

The magnum opus had a variety of alchemical symbols attached to it. Birds like the raven, swan, and phoenix could be used to represent the progression through the colors. Similar color changes could be seen in the laboratory, where for example, the blackness of rotting, burnt, or fermenting matter would be associated with nigredo.

Alchemical authors sometimes elaborated on the three or four color model by enumerating a variety of chemical steps to be performed. Though these were often arranged in groups of seven or twelve stages, there is little consistency in the names of these processes, their number, their order, or their description.

Various alchemical documents were directly or indirectly used to justify these stages. The Tabula Smaragdina is the oldest document said to provide a “recipe”. Others include the Mutus Liber, the twelve keys of Basil Valentine, the emblems of Steffan Michelspacher, and the twelve gates of George Ripley. Ripley’s steps are given as:

1. Calcination 7. Cibation

2. Solution (or Dissolution) 8. Sublimation

3. Separation 9. Fermentation

4. Conjunction 10. Exaltation

5. Putrefaction 11. Multiplication

6. Congelation 12. Projection
   In another example from the sixteenth century, Samuel Norton gives the following fourteen stages:

7. Purgation 8. Conjunction

8. Sublimation 9. Putrefaction in sulphur

9. Calcination 10. Solution of bodily sulphur

10. Exuberation 11. Solution of sulphur of white light

11. Fixation 12. Fermentation in elixir

12. Solution 13. Multiplication in virtue

13. Separation 14. Multiplication in quantity

Some alchemists also circulated steps for the creation of practical medicines and substances, that have little to do with the magnum opus. The cryptic and often symbolic language used to describe both adds to the confusion, but it’s clear that there is no single standard step-by-step recipe given for the creation of the philosopher’s stone.