Concordances and Differences between the Humid and Dry Path

A path in which we get alchemical powders without solving and raising liquids, only using crucibles or sublimation tools. Dry paths deal with crushed ores.

Roughly this path consists of separating the ore into its purest elements and reunifying them in the second phase, with the production of the little remora. And although the process may seem close to standard metallurgy, strange events occur.

A path in which we obtain alchemical powders using liquid solvents. Some of them can rise, and others are dissolving.

The humid path is the didactic method par excellence, and this is due to its relative ease (and the possibility of correcting errors), as well as the spectacle of its color changes (which newbies always like). The dry metallurgical path is the one described, for example, in Fulcanelli and Canseliet’s books (considering, however, that the dry and humid path often intersect).

As strange as it may seem, the two paths are not antithetical to each other: the antimony path, for example, begins in one way and ends in the other. To get an idea of the flexibility with which the ancients operated, an example is the processing of Prussian blue. For a summary description of the process, see Differences between Alchemy and Ancient Ordinary Chemistry.

This is especially evident from the dry metallurgical path, which might seem to a novice a path of refining the material, while in reality it is a succession of powerful and sudden changes in the state of the matter during repeated processes of fusion, liquefaction and solidification. We know that Mercurius is released from there. See First-Preparatory Works , Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles , and Alchemy and Electricity

The nature of the Mercurius can be misinterpreted only from the point of view of one of the two paths, either humid or dry. To the eye of a neophyte, they might seem to be opposites, but they are analogous since they point out the same process. After all, it is always a question of state changes which the ancients called the struggle of the elements. Changes in the state of metals can be almost instantaneous in metallurgy, and we can say that something has happened inside and near the matter. Practitioners know that compressions and decompressions take place in the matter during changes in its state, and these changes of state produce what our heart produces in our body and the universe. It can therefore be conjectured that Mercurius is not a state of matter but the set of effects from matter subjected to certain stressful conditions.

Not to mention the case where the dry metallurgical path then ends up into the humid path. On a theoretical level, only those who fully understand the reason for the repeated changes of state in the humid path, as well as the sharp and violent passage in the dry path, to which the raw material must be subjected for Mercury / Mercurius to come out, can guess the intimate nature of the Mercurius.

We have seen in Second-Main Work that there all the phases are a consequence of the transmutations of Mercurius. We must go deeper here by saying that in the humid path it is much simpler to follow those transformations through the rotation of the colors. In the metallurgical path everything is less simple and intuitive: there is a Mercurius, but we must know how to recognize it. Or at least we must have been instructed to.

The humid path is didactical for releasing shapes and colors, while the dry path leads to a more direct and safe final cooking.

On the humid path, the danger is desiccation; on the dry path, the flood.

The humid way is more flexible in errors and can be defined as more intuitive. The dry way requires the exact imitation of a master’s operations because the slightest mistake can ruin everything.

As far as danger is concerned, explosions are dangerous on the humid path – but it must be said that they are often sought as a shortcut to speed up the reduction of the raw material into infinitesimal parts through the quick passage from the solid to the gaseous state. And then, many play with acid for the same reason.

The metallurgical path develops in an environment that requires prudence and attention.

The alchemical anecdote is richer in alchemists injured or deceased while handling acids or gunpowder directly than inhaling metal fumes. Canseliet describes the excellent displays occurring after the so-called abortions of the philosophical egg, very likely caused by a disorder in the regular electromagnetic scale.

True. Anyway, metallurgy is already pure “magic”.

The magic factor of metallurgy is the “speed” with which the spirits that hover in the atmosphere decide to “be hosted” in the material being worked. This also happens in the humid path, but so slowly that the process can be identified with the rotation of the colors.

True. After all, much of the dry metallurgical path resembles a standard process for purifying metals. While in the humid/chemical process, if it is true that many procedures are in common with Renaissance and Baroque standards for producing “extremely volatile” medicines, it is also true that this unambitious goal marks only the beginning of Alchemy.

True. Although it is equally true that inexperienced alchemists often blame their mistakes on the materials.

True. It is for this reason that the metallurgical path requires visually following a master’s “footsteps”, while an expert in ancient chemistry can attempt the neophyte’s path. The basic reason is that the metallurgical path relies on small details in quick operations, while the humid/chemical path relies on a large number of procedures.

True. I myself have heard of it, even Canseliet mentions it. I cannot say more because the dry metallurgical path has always scared me so much that I avoided going too far into it.

True. The reason is simple: the raw materials must not be damaged by atmospheric factors, but rather freshly extracted from the dark depths of a mine (see Before Preparatory Work, Spiritus Mundi). It is believed that the Spiritus Sideribus, or stellar spirit, has already “fallen” into the depths of the earth.

We have already said why the raw materials used in the humid paths do not have to be chemically pure (see First-Preparatory Works and Differences between Alchemy and Ancient Ordinary Chemistry), but the dry paths are different. In these processes the raw materials are few, the processes involved are few and fast, the reasons are different: differently from the humid paths, in the dry paths it is instead a matter of “cleaning” the spurious material (generally sulfur compounds), but not to obtain metallurgically usable materials, but to “imprint or release” certain forces or spirits in the materials being worked. We have already said that it is complicated to explain the metallurgical process, and only a swordsmith can understand why.

True. As metallurgists know, the presence of non-metallic substances (such as traces of oxides) can cause flashes during refining processes.

When, in Differences between Alchemy and Ancient Ordinary Chemistry I cited the case of Japanese blacksmiths who were perfectly aware of working with souls, I did not say that the secret of sword-forging was continuous work with repeated immersions in water. The water vapor mixed with the infinitesimal amount of smoke from the sublimated metal molecules rising was insignificant in ordinary metallurgy, but had profound significance in alchemical works.

The metal assayer was an indispensable figure in ancient mines to understand whether it was worth proceeding with the extraction of the mineral. The process of assaying minerals was a melting to determine their composition. This process of “separating” the “noble” metal from the metal to be discarded was typical of the alchemical metallurgical path.

True, and we know that sulfur compounds were the most common in Alchemy.

True. Open-air roasting and the resulting dispersion of volatile substances makes these materials no longer alchemically valid, but available for ordinary metallurgy.

True. The testing of small quantities of minerals was done in a closed crucible with the addition of salt or saltpetre and crushed glass. The metal remained at the bottom.

True. Some metals are very fond of sulphur and tend to easily bond with it, leaving the desired metal pure from sulphur.

Alchemists considered melting metals to be “watery” and attributed to them many of the characteristics of alchemical waters: for example, the property of attracting spirits. See also Water Alchemy.

True. Alchemists, like the ancients, believed that mineral veins grew like trees and were attracted by the sun, just like a vegetable tree.

I’ll tell you right away that I’ve never seen the Remora, so I’ll just tell you what I know, and I hope I’m not talking nonsense, so take the news with a grain of salt: the remora is a small part that forms when the metal has reached the right “working”. A sharp blow of the hammer should detach it. That is recognized as the Mercurius of the metallurgical path and will be employed (I can’t tell you how) to be used in the Last Cooking.

The “spiritualized” materials in Alchemy takes on different appearances than the same one in an ordinary metallurgical process. Apparently, “Remora” only exists in Alchemy.

When color changes and fire regimes are found in the same chapter, then one is certain that in at least one phase the alchemist is describing a humid process. Philalete could describe the color changes inside the philosophical egg in the third work or Last Cooking.

The humid path takes you quite easily to Lapis Philosophorum Medicina Tertii Ordinis (Cabala Mineralis), Lapis Medicinalis Microcosmi and Macrocosmi (Testamentum Fratenitatis). Generally, alchemists of the humid path stop there.
Instead, it is an alchemical tradition to arrive at the Last Cooking having employed, at least in part of the work, the dry metallurgical method.

There is no single path of antimony, but the most used for simplicity is the same one that the iatrochemists of the Baroque age used for their antimony medicines: the mined antimony, naturally mixed with sulphur, was carefully crushed, and then calcined in a crucible at moderate heat. The sulphur was then eliminated by forcing it to stick to pure iron nails, the sufficiently pure antimony powder obtained was then worked with distilled vinegar, salts obtained from urine or sea salt, and composed spirit of wine. Mind, this is just the preliminary work.

Antimony glass is the result of working in a crucible with iron nails to separate the mineral sulfur from the antimony. Antimony that is pure and molten will, after cooling, appear as a glassy material. See Lancillotti: Glass and Oil according to Currus Thriumphalis. Part 1.

When one treats powdered antimony glass with distilled vinegar, salts from urine and sea salt, and wine compounds, what one gets is inevitably a reddish dye.

To tell the truth, they speak of “first Mercurius”, a term that I have instead simplified into the various functions of Mercurius, but the real question is about the nature of “the” metal. Since we are dealing with the metallurgical path here, I am absolutely aware that these traditions were above all about the right metal. It appears to be a particular sulphide extracted from mines in Central Europe. From what I’ve learned, since I don’t like the danger of mineral fumes very much, it could be a particular antimony/bismuth/zinc mineral.

An alchemical process begins long before the choice of metal, which, at that point, is mainly chosen for its “simplicity” in solving the  the third work issues. Anyway, Alchemy did not begin in the medieval mines of Central Europe. In fact, almost all so-called alchemical Traditions trace their origins back to the dynasties of ancient Egypt. Now, what did the ancient Egyptians have at their disposal to practice Alchemy? Perhaps they didn’t even use metals… except, perhaps, the very difficult gold. But we know that the difficulty with metallic gold always lies in managing the third work problems.  

The problems of the third work are essentially practical and relate to the construction of the philosophical egg: there must be waste material for its creation. In short, the egg must develop around something perhaps not very mercurial but rather made of so-called “lost” matter. See Third Work.

If the choice of the right metal in the metallurgical process should be uniquely due to the purity and strength of the Mercurius obtained, why go to all that trouble when the best metals for this purpose are already gold and silver?

The concept of choosing the right metal in the metallurgical path is very different from the choice in the humid path. Letting aside that the two paths often intersect, the situation remains that in the humid one the assumption is made that the properties of Mercurius can be “enhanced” by adding a metal to a non-metallic Mercurius. See Gold & Alchemy, or Adorn with a Star Ray.

A modern scientist might find concordances between the humid and dry paths in the Electronic configuration of raw matters, especially as regards the energy levels of the orbitals. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.