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Alchemical Studies

I engaged in a study of alchemical literature beginning in 1974, continuing on up until about 1980. Alchemy can be a mighty deep pit, similar in some ways to a Black Hole – if you find yourself drawn in too closely, it can be difficult to pull yourself out again. Or, if you prefer a less politically correct metaphor, it can be a real Tar Baby…

Alchemy as a historically documented human discipline began a few centuries before the Christian Era. At its core was the belief that man could refine and perfect raw elements into a more sublime form. The process by which one did this involved a combination of both physical and psychical manipulations.

It’s quite clear in the early writings that "true" alchemy was never so much about turning lead into gold, or in creating an actual Philosopher’s Stone that could literally transmute base elements into a pure, all-healing substance. Rather, it was all about finding the hidden spiritual essence within the human operator. The Great Work (Magnus Opus) was intended to extract one’s better spirit from the baseness of the physical world, thereby facilitating a closer union with the Godhead – an apocatastasis. The physical manipulations that were involved merely represented a means of focusing the movement of the intellect toward this goal – an analogic, meditative aid. You’ll recognize at once the gnostic basis for early alchemy: through knowledge comes salvation.

My jumping off point was several works by Carl Jung, notably Mysterium Coniunctionis and Alchemical Studies (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.13). Working my way back to the source documents, I soon discovered that the overall subject of alchemy is way too complex and convoluted to absorb in any generalized way. But Jung was particularly struck by the existence of a specific, deep archetypal concept of a "quaternity" in the human mind. This was based on his own case studies in his private psychiatric practice. Now, to be a true archetype, it must be something that’s innate inside all humans and ancient at its root. Sure enough, this 4-fold notion was reflected in many of the original alchemical texts. The proper alchemical synthesis of "the 4" would result in a unique amalgam, a quintessence – 5th element – divine by its nature, a pure Ideal in the Platonic sense.

As an alchemical exercise simple enough for me to attempt, I worked to identify some of these 4-fold archetypal sets, and to arrange their members in the proper relationship to each other based on their individual characteristics. The original "starting material" (prima materia) for alchemists was construed to be some corrupted combination of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. These elemental constituents each may be proscribed with their own innate physical characteristics:

Characteristic

Earth

Water

Air

Fire

Weight

Heaviest

Heavy

Light

Lightest

Temperature

Cold

Cool

Warm

Hot

Speed

Slowest

Slow

Moderate

Fast

Moistness

Dry

Wet

Moist

Arid

Activity

Stable

Mutable

Permeating

Frenetic

Attitude

Practical

Emotional

Intellectual

Creative

Et cetera. Other quaternities can be arranged in their appropriate orders with respect to the above 4 base elements, by comparing their own described characteristics. So I got something like this:

Quaternity

Earth/Terra

Water/Aqua

Air/Aeris

Fire/Ignis

Progression

1

2

3

4

Baseball Hits

Single

Double

Triple

Home Run

Cardinal Points

North/Nether

East/Aurora

South/Sol

West/Hesperus

Color

Black

Blue

Yellow

Red

Tarot Suits

Pages/Pentacles

Queens/Cups

Knights/Swords

Kings/Wands

Modern Card Suits

Diamonds

Hearts

Spades

Clubs

Alchemical Creatures

Gnomes

Undines

Sylphs

Salamanders

Alchemical Stages

Nigredo/

Melanosis

Leucosis/

Dealbatio

Xanthosis/

Citrinitas

Iosis/

Rubefactio

Forms of Love

Sex

Eros

Philia

Agape

Winds

Septentrio

Oriens

Meridies

Occidens

Modern Elements

(Etymology)

Nitrogen

 (Saltmaker)

Hydrogen

(Waterborn)

Oxygen

(Acid Maker)

Carbon

(Live Coal)

Brain Waves

Delta

(0.5-3.5 Hz)

Alpha

(7-13 Hz)

Beta

(13-25 Hz)

Theta

(3.5-7 Hz)

DNA

Guanine/Guano

(C5H5N5O)

Adenine/Nephros

(C5H5N5)

Cytosine/Kytos

(C4H5N3O)

Thymine/Thymos

(C5H6N2O2)

Kabala 1

Power/

Gebhurah

Wisdom/

Chochma

Intelligence/

Binah

Greatness/

Gedulah

Kabala 2

Body

Understanding

Mind

Will

Mesopotamian Gods

Enlil

Boaz

Jakin

Ea

Archons

Sabaoth

Iao

Adonai

Ialdabaoth

Spirit

Faith/Pistis

Hope/Elpis

Love/Agape

Knowledge/Gnosis

Personality 1

Melancholic

Phlegmatic

Choleric

Sanguine

Personality 2

Driver

Amiable

Analytical

Expressive

Et cetera again. You can invoke other quaternities, and by the process of thinking carefully and clearly about what each unit’s characteristics are, place them in proper arrangement in the above table.

And what exactly was I doing when I did this? I was waking myself up to think about the meaning of things that otherwise just occupied dead space in my brain. How is each concept of a set linked to the rest? By what progressive path may each of the concepts be understood, overtaken and ultimately overcome? How do the features of each concept relate to the structure of my own beliefs and personality? What is the common thread that binds them together? How do I synthesize a quintessence from them – and, in so doing, achieve that sublime amalgam in myself? For that is the end product of alchemy.

Today, 25 years later, I don’t consciously think much anymore about alchemy. I consider myself lucky to have evaded its snare. But there is something left of our early courtship. For example, to this day, I tend to like pictures of dragons. And I find I can reduce the complexity of modern life into much simpler frames of reference. To me, that’s worth any amount of transmuted gold.

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