Hermetic Alchemy

[Practitioner]

Can anyone describe in detail the processes in Hermetic alchemy and how they would relate/correlate with Eastern forms of alchemy? If you don't have a clear understanding then, post at least of what you know if any.

 

also..

 

first thread and post in the new subforum!

*evil cackle*

[Wells]

[Birch]

Ingredients to create the philosopher's stone. Is it a 'stone' after all?

I'd say probably not. However substances were ingested (often resulting in death of the practitioner).

Starting with 'mercury'. Symbol for ?

[Aetherous]

.

Edited December 1, 2012 by turtle shell

[deci belle]

Hi Practitioner, there are no two minds~ all alchemy the world over must work with the same elements. I have been familiar with Hermetic and very similar (to me) to what I call the school of Horus. But my vocabulary is from the Complete Reality teachings.

 

Mercury is conscious knowledge, the human mentality; represented by the trigram fire. Lead is real knowledge, the mind of tao; represented by the water trigram.

 

Whether or not one is ready for the operations, wide-ranging and deep study of the world-honored authentic teachings for many years is very important. I never practiced formal meditation, whether quiet sitting nor the various induction (psycho-somatic energy work) disciplines. If one wants to fathom one's primal mind, one must observe its energy. Reality is neither mind nor energy, but rather lightness of being arriving at immediate acquiescence. The unborn has no such causation, following the way to learn the Virtue of the Receptive is how the way itself can enter the clarified awareness of enlightening beings.

 

Having studied for over three decades, only for the last fifteen years or so have I begun to be able to see what is happening.

 

In terms of water and fire, these are the two things, yin and yang. There must be thousands of ways to describe the joining of the two things to arrive at Complete Reality. In one such description, once one recognizes and grasps the true lead, one uses lead to stabilize mercury. To do this, one uses the Go-Between, earth; the center.

 

"The reality whereby origin and completion are effected is the true intent of the human body, which has no location. Because it contains the impulse of life within it, it is called the center."

 

True lead, the mind of tao, is true knowledge; this is objective awareness. When one truly recognizes the true lead, one uses conscious knowledge to keep it from sinking. True lead stabilizing mercury, conscious knowledge nurturing real knowledge, what was vague returns and what was flighty doesn't run off.

 

It is not a matter of understanding the terms and the operations. If one is working with the real, the evolutionary process is natural. One can never consider time an issue— and it's not what you think…

 

The tao is an extraordinary vessel, operating outside of time. This is what alchemists align themselves with in order to enter the inconceivable and enter the tao in reality.

[Gemstone]

http://www.rexresearch.com/caro/caro.htm

 

Photos of the process. Both the white and red Stone are obtained.

[Wells]

edit: also, Dorian...the Ninth Gate is a sweet movie! So that book is real and not just made up for the movie?

 

I think the guy who made this video used the movie "The Ninth Gate" in an ingenious way to explain quite clearly the true goal of internal alchemy!

[doc benway]

I never practiced formal meditation, whether quiet sitting nor the various induction (psycho-somatic energy work) disciplines. If one wants to fathom one's primal mind, one must observe its energy.

You may not have practiced "formal" meditation but you have practiced real meditation.

Nice to read your words as always.

[deci belle]

oh rainbows~ I did watch the breathing from time to time …but only on my back— heehee!!❤

 

Over and over the taoist classics and records of the buddhist patriarchs stress that setting to work with potential without first having a firm grasp of nonspychological awareness is a huge waste of time and effort. Ponder the words nonpsychological awareness. Without the real as the basis of alchemy; without potential as the basis of observing mind— without the real as the basis of transformation, there can be no elixir of immortality, no seed of buddhahood.

 

Real knowledge is originally one's own, but due to the effects of conditioning it goes to a neighbors house. To get it back, one uses conscious knowledge to call it back into one's own home. Real knowledge is other. It is impersonal firm awareness symbolized by the water trigram.

 

In everyday ordinary situations, you become the "guest" and consider other the "host". This means you respond, letting others take the initiative. After a long time, the real descends and you naturally ignite the alchemic fire of the elixir paring fire and water. In other words, when lead returns to conscious awareness, you invert fire and water so Fire is below and Water is above. Fire heats Water; Water steams and cools Fire. Watch over this attentively.

 

In simplest terms, alchemy is a matter of using the power of nonpsychological awareness to neutralize the power of conditioned psychological awareness; using lead to stabilize mercury. Or, using the quality of the absolute to eliminate the aberrations of delusion, once the process is complete and conscious awareness and real knowledge have been purified in the primordial mind, there is no further need of lead, so one gets rid of this as well.

 

The reason for this is that going along with creation is clinging to delusion. If you don't get rid of lead and cling to the absolute instead, this is the same as delusion. This is the meaning of the statements "the stupid cat trapped in the dark cave" and "The thief locked in the house".

 

After the elixir is ingested and one sees essence, there is a period of "incubation" in order to stabilize enlightenment.

 

This is a very shallow treatment of one description of alchemic process.

[deci belle]

Yes Steve, it seems that is true~ but I only mention it so others will seek the true in themselves without necessarily feeling the need to seek self-refinement through external systems of cultivation and concentration. Whether or not striving leading to nonstriving employs periods of formal practice from time to time is not to be discouraged. It is up to the individual, as always.

[Practitioner]

I've always loved the movie Ninth Gate and the "Luciferian" ideal that mankind can ascend towards the heavens and become something more that just human. I knew that its symbology had a more esoteric meaning but I had never bothered to look into it more deeply, I just knew in my mind that the "hidden path" that Johnny Depp was following in the movie was something that I would love to take, I just didn't know how to get there.

[doc benway]

Well said, deci belle.

I've struggled and puzzled with the role of formal practice in my life in this process.

But as Peter Fenner so eloquently and succinctly puts it:

"If we hadn't done what we didn't need to do, we wouldn't know that we didn't need to do it!"

The real battleground (opportunity) is our daily life and our relationships.

Edited November 25, 2012 by steve

[Practitioner]

http://www.rexresearch.com/caro/caro.htm Photos of the process. Both the white and red Stone are obtained.

Very interesting, is this all about the literal creation of what they call the "Philosopher's Stone"? and what are the white and red stones? Interesting thing about Hermeticism to my understanding is that they pursue both external and internal forms of alchemy.

 

oh rainbows~ I did watch the breathing from time to time …but only on my back— heehee!!❤ Over and over the taoist classics and records of the buddhist patriarchs stress that setting to work with potential without first having a firm grasp of nonspychological awareness is a huge waste of time and effort. Ponder the words nonpsychological awareness. Without the real as the basis of alchemy; without potential as the basis of observing mind— without the real as the basis of transformation, there can be no elixir of immortality, no seed of buddhahood. Real knowledge is originally one's own, but due to the effects of conditioning it goes to a neighbors house. To get it back, one uses conscious knowledge to call it back into one's own home. Real knowledge is other. It is impersonal firm awareness symbolized by the water trigram. In everyday ordinary situations, you become the "guest" and consider other the "host". This means you respond, letting others take the initiative. After a long time, the real descends and you naturally ignite the alchemic fire of the elixir paring fire and water. In other words, when lead returns to conscious awareness, you invert fire and water so Fire is below and Water is above. Fire heats Water; Water steams and cools Fire. Watch over this attentively. In simplest terms, alchemy is a matter of using the power of nonpsychological awareness to neutralize the power of conditioned psychological awareness; using lead to stabilize mercury. Or, using the quality of the absolute to eliminate the aberrations of delusion, once the process is complete and conscious awareness and real knowledge have been purified in the primordial mind, there is no further need of lead, so one gets rid of this as well. The reason for this is that going along with creation is clinging to delusion. If you don't get rid of lead and cling to the absolute instead, this is the same as delusion. This is the meaning of the statements "the stupid cat trapped in the dark cave" and "The thief locked in the house". After the elixir is ingested and one sees essence, there is a period of "incubation" in order to stabilize enlightenment. This is a very shallow treatment of one description of alchemic process.

 

I'm sorry, is there a much simpler way of explaining it? I'm a simple person easily confused by overly complicated explanations an I prefer to root myself in simplicity and practicality. What is someone supposed to do and what is the main practice?

Edited November 25, 2012 by Practitioner

[deci belle]

Sorry it seems complicated. Not only is what seems to be complicated actually a device of the ancient tradition, if it were easy to understand, why wouldn't it be easy? Is birth easy? Reversing the order of one's relationship with creation, transcending it to enter the tao ain't no walk in the park. Do you have the will to enlightenment? It is not a matter of understanding because ego itself is transcended. Intellect is the seat of ego identity. That's why I say don't try to understand it. Not only is alchemy a real process that works at counter-purpose to ego's tyrannical need to understand (claim as one's own), it is the means at arriving at the inconceivable, which is exclusive of ego-identity and being. Seeing essence is knowing unborn nonoriginated selfless nonbeing. If you have concrete concerns, you may PM me, otherwise…

 

In simplest terms, alchemy is a matter of using the power of nonpsychological awareness to neutralize the power of conditioned psychological awareness; using lead to stabilize mercury. Or, using the quality of the absolute to eliminate the aberrations of delusion, once the process is complete and conscious awareness and real knowledge have been purified in the primordial mind, there is no further need of lead, so one gets rid of this as well.

[deci belle]

Absolutely, Steve. Since everyone is already using enlightened mind (what other mind is there?) to follow illusion, seeing your original face is anti-climactic. But unless you know that fact yourself there is no power in understanding the concept intellectually. But there is more to it than just realizing you didn't need to experience enlightenment.

 

When one finds out for oneself that self, creation and death are nonexistent, the kinetic power of karmic evolution is literally vaporized, and the compulsion to act is destroyed forever …that is, if the impulse to follow one's life-long habits is left behind forever. That is why the period of maturation (referred to as incubation in taoist technical terminology) is always mentioned. One needs to follow up sudden realization with a period of solidification of the achievement (when lead is removed from the cauldron and furnace). Nothing is gained by enlightenment, yet in its wake, in light of the power of freed potential at enlightening beings' disposal to meet and match the power of creation's momentum— one is able to see the pivot of creation and function adaptively from this center.

 

Endless transformation is herein, whereby one's knowledge of the Changeless is used to adapt selflessly to ordinary situations unbeknownst to anyone, in order to transcend Change. In taoist terms this is called using the Virtue of Receptivity to take over creation and steal potential in order to operate freely in worldly situations without being subject to creative cycles of yin and yang, or, effecting enlightening activity without being subject to karmic evolution. Creation itself is none other than karmic evolution.

 

Karma, good or bad, isn't in the lexicon of enlightening being. Karma is the matrix of creative evolution which is precisely what alchemy is practiced and accomplished in order to transcend. The will to enlightenment is the will to freedom. Who knew that?

 

It's like forgetting not only yourself, but everything you ever desired to enjoy or avoid and enjoying that too. It is truly a matter of "Cool!! …whatever." This is why it is called Complete Reality. Reality, complete in and of itself; since one needs nothing to be complete, one is completely free wherever one finds oneself. The advantage to this is inconceivable energy is freed up and one's spiritual evolution is the natural storehouse of this freed potential.

 

Empty the mind and fill the belly isn't cheap talk. It is wizardry 101.

[Cheshire Cat]

What is the most ancient and accurate text on western alchemy?

[RiverSnake]

No matter what Tradition you follow....i imagine all the ingredients for both cocktails reside in the body. I find it doubtful that chewing on herbs or metals are going to make you more enlightened....though they may of-course assist in the process via supply more of what the body is already producing.

 

-My 2 cents, Peace

[rex]

Anyone got a spare $40/£25/€30, patience, a willingness to take a chance and of course an interest in alchemy? Then there's this:

Study Course on how to read Alchemical Texts

 

edit: duff link

Edited November 29, 2012 by rex

[deci belle]

+1 for Old Green.

 

I don't know of any alchemic texts as well preserved with concise commentary in English as the Complete Reality teachings translated by Thomas Cleary.

 

Anything from the west written recently (in the last millennia) would have been originally written in Latin …yuck!

 

All the ancient shamanic traditions traveling across the globe in the earliest and subsequent human migrations carrying this knowledge were unwritten, but this is our legacy. We haven't advanced in 10,000 years~ heehee!!

 

 

 

ed note: add comment for Old Green's post

Edited December 1, 2012 by deci belle

[theurgy]

As Above so Below and As Within so Without. I think you may be surprised at what various Plant Stones, Ensai and Tinctures are capable of. These powerful preparations work to clear the nadis of the body and to raise the vibration of one's spiritual bodies. This is of course not mentioning the metallic tinctures or stones. In my experience, the body absolutely does produce alchemical elixirs but that's not to say that Nature Herself doesn't provide the ingredients to make very potent preparations. This is not an either/or equation. One doesn't need to make a huge investment to get started either. Have a look here if interested in the path of alchemy from a hands-on laboratory perspective:

 

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by theurgy

[deci belle]

Why don't you pop a few and give us a review, mon theurgy… hahaha!!❤

[theurgy]

Hahaha! Well I have popped a few over the course of time and I will say that since making and taking these preparations I have noted:

 

1. More vivid dreams and many more lucid dreams and also what one might refer to as "initiatic" dreams.

2. Clearer and more disciplined mind

3. Deeper meditations

4. Drastic increase in loving-kindness and compassion

5. better ability to sense and manipulate vital energies

 

This is of course a brief snapshot of the benefits I have perceived.

 

Also, I should note that these are my results with PLANT preparations.

One would need several lifetimes to exhaust the path of plant alchemy--the amount of work one can do in this domain is seemingly endless.

 

This kind of Work I consider "cross-training" along with whatever other practices one does on one's spiritual path. It's also a lot of fun!

[theurgy]

...I forgot to put in a plug for my friend James who has created a wonderful alchemy website with detailed instructions on many processes:

 

http://alchymie.ca/

[idiot_stimpy]

 

Not sure of the Lucifer stuff, but very much enjoyed this.

[Apech]

What is the most ancient and accurate text on western alchemy?

 

The Emerald Tablet ... short and sweet.