Imagining the keeping of the fire in Vesta’s temple as perennial is misleading: in reality it was extinguished and rekindled once a year in a secret ritual. This on/off operation, which had many analogies with an alchemical operation, ensured the continuity of the sacred fire—sacred because it guaranteed the perpetuity of the ancient ancestors. From Marco Baistrocchi, Arcana Urbis.
[Read more…] about Vestal Keepers of Ordinary and Alchemical Fire: the Rite of Fire and WaterAlchemy & Mythology
Labors of Hercules: Second, to Thin the Lernaean Hydra
According to the mythological Labors of Hercules, the second step of preliminary works is to thin, disperse, and volatilize the raw salts. Let Mercurius/Secret Fire out.
[Read more…] about Labors of Hercules: Second, to Thin the Lernaean HydraLabors of Hercules: First, to Open the Nemean Lion
The labors of Hercules are a metaphor for our Preliminary Works, those to achieve the Universal Dissolvent. First: break the fixed raw matter, the Nemean Lion.
[Read more…] about Labors of Hercules: First, to Open the Nemean LionDionysus, Universal Dissolvent and Kykeon
The presence of a mysterious drink, the kykeon, was enough to transform Dionysus into the uncontrollable God of Life, the unique one to give a new life-body to a Soul…
[Read more…] about Dionysus, Universal Dissolvent and KykeonBlack Haida Crow Destroying the Matter Shell
A Haida myth on a destructor creator crow perfectly fits our alchemical symbol of destruction and creation per antonomasia: the black crow.
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