Alchymic Journals

be entertained without unreason? Accordingly did he investigate himself as one among the order of beings—this reality attested by his reminiscence. Isolated by the unyielding strength of intellectual resolve from externals, gently subsiding toward the deeps of mortal rectitude, he enabled himself to apprehend a most commendable beauty and became certain that the matter of his life was excellent, more specific, more cognizant than that of trees and fishes. So to this without intermission he directed his thought.
I ASK MYSELF if there be unequivocal truths for humanity, just as with animals a single leader is selected to reign undisputed and as the kingly sun would repudiate a rival. I think it must be the provenance of intellect to decide by adjudication which verities to clasp, which to reject, among the plenitude of falsehoods. Is not mystery round and close? Are not men eversible, predestined to off-set obnubilities? Yet are they favored with holy bones?
I HAVE THOUGHT on how Man loiters outside wisdom’s vestibule when I behold him chart progressions from privacy to acclaim, out of mineral accomplishment to diurnal usage—as do Turks that aspire to Paradise fall tumbling in the muck with hogs. Praise be to God, we grasp the glittering sword of knowledge to split asunder our philosophic Egg and disclose the matrix where prominent metals achieve their maturities among rock. We watch cinnabar grow into lead, graduating next to silver and continuing upward to fulfillment. So do all in extremis disclose their ambition. All speak with a loud voice.
DOES THE MIND seize opportunities according to its purpose? Betimes have I met chymists ready to jest at transmutation, but they do not answer when asked to justify vitreous logs or petrified forests. Narrow clerics and such-like chymists I abhor, that nigrify a realm with prejudice. If the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ manifests itself out of substance like bread and wine, metallic reformation seems inevitable. If one element acquires new form, what prohibits the rest?
LOUTS AND FOOLS and rustics may jeer at the hierophantic language of metaphysicians or denounce occult pharmacies as some crippled science because, lacking true guidance, they think such learning inconceivable. So do they mock Lingua Adamica which is the language all servants of God understand, by which they are summoned. So does gnostic fortune ebb or flow. How could the wisest proceed upward if not through transcendental art?
WE HAVE BEEN taught that when a man travels with darkness he need not feel despair, no more than one bathed in light, because both shall advance according to their preference. And there is a wheel which God directs or keeps in motion by multifarious signs while comets upon intersecting courses conspire to notify men of the future, although their paths diverge. Te Deum laudamus.
NO DOUBT WE wander apart from inclinations, imagining our lives as furnaces of empyrean flame both incorruptible and inextinguishable whose virtuosity flows from the spirit, therefore what is annealed must be empty in the marketplace. Van Suchten reminds us of how novices that lust toward gold will pollute their senses by coveting what none can acquire, which means that our least hope of satisfaction is illusory.
I KNOW THAT the highest mountain will be that which rests upon the deepest fundament, thus each alchymic novitiate looks to exceeding subventions. And since he was awarded this middle position between earth and heaven, so must he secure the best ground of hope for humanity’s development from a limited estate to one more exalted. Now, it is clear that from an onion sprout we do not harvest an apricot nor a walnut nor a cabbage head, nor anything except an onion. Thus we look to uncoagulate gold—which we call the habitat of mercury. Ecce signum.
WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WE know what we seek. Allegories perfect in rectitude, Christian oracles, dew from the point of a leaf. Thus do we enter the Castle to advise pilgrims on their quest, denounce false prophecy, persevere at sublimation, encourage dead trees to flower—declaring our great search with parable or sign. So by this jointure would we reconstitute those seven immaculate circles of Paradise.
WE WOULD NOT adopt the Devil’s black-on-yellow livery nor commit evil on roof-tops. Threats, laments, cries of murder or abuse of any sort—this does but encourage our easement. Crippling punishment, censure—so much seems our messuage since what has been destined for superiority comes dressed in misreport. And all notice of accomplishment we withhold until a propitious instant, lest we dissipate our office with faint hope of restitution.
NOTHING DO WE covet save the ineffable distillate of radiance achieved through multiplication of the subtle from the gross. Yet we do not divulge our procedure, which would be illogical since hieratic knowledge acquired by the obtuse or insensate could not benefit our holding. This wealth that we accumulate was intended to remain perpetually indescribable and ethically incommunicable. Enlightenment should be kept from avaricious sellers or buyers, knavish mercenaries that hope to mortgage humanity’s consignment. Why? Because no dividend shall accrue by distributing hermetic valuables. Were such administration advised, all is lost. Instead, we provide mystic instruction ornamented by allusion and augury and metaphor. Why is this? Because of a world we find enwrapped with obscurity. Dominus illuminatio mea.
WE HAVE BEEN taught how endless rivers do not fill to the lip a bottomless bowl, nor should perishable teachers anticipate immortality. Hence, we disregard gasconades of expectation and wait on the presiding animus within, laboring to complete that craft which common chymists leave unfulfilled. The seed prefiguring regeneration would we withdraw out of base lead. Granted the beneplacit of our God, shall not morning be made but evening also?
SINCE MAN IS Executive, epitome of the universe, encompassing within his spirit every principality and kingdom, we consider all things feasible. So we look to man as the supreme retort, an alembic, a cucurbit within which fermentation will occur and thoughts be distilled. Accordingly we mean to crystallize, to dissolve and to ferment and convert, to