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LabyrinthDesigners & the Art of Fire

Alchemy works translations, commentaries, and presentations of hidden evidence in myths, art, nature, science history

  • Classical Alchemy
    • The State of the Art
    • Areas of Interest
    • Index of the Names
    • Articles
    • An Intriguing Case
    • Turba Philosophorum’s Ambition
    • Opus Magnum Scheme
    • Lexicon
  • Anatomy of an Alchemical Machine
  • The Sound Sacrifice
  • Introductory Notes to the Boards of Pure Force

Mercurius’ Waves of Light, better known as “Light that Comes out of the Darkness”.

Why is the spirit that emerges after the destruction of raw matter called “Light”? Is it perhaps a luminous phenomenon?

In many humid paths, the first appearance of Mercury emerging from the darkness of putrefaction is initially that of a snow-white dot which will then extend until it replaces all the black. In some of these paths there may even be a small, very bright white light appearing through the glass of the putrefaction flask. This phenomenon, in both cases, is known as “light coming out of the darkness”.

Then what happens?

Whiteness/brightness is bound to enter the color rotation anyway, as an orange/reddish will slowly take over the white. But then white will return again after black.

So the spirit-light appears, disappears and reappears…

No, once released, the spirit is “cooked”, that is, further processed. Indeed, it “cooks itself” with the rotation of the three colors white/red/black. But we’ll see that later.

I think I understand that the light/spirit cooks itself…

It’s more or less like this.

Is that more or less? Is there any certainty?

In Alchemy, there is no certainty. It is an art even less certain than the ordinary culinary art, with which it shares many points. In short, a dish can succeed or fail due to multiple factors. Not least of which is the opinion that Alchemy itself has of the alchemist. It would be as if the art of cooking considered the cook unworthy and decided to ruin all his/her soufflés. The comparison with French soufflé, traditionally one of the most uncertain dishes, I believe is appropriate when compared to alchemical cooking.

Are we talking about photonic light or allegories?

Heated matter does emit photons in profusion. Today we know that’s true, and that it’s pure physics. But Alchemy is physics. Or did you think it was self-sustaining magic come out of nowhere?

So can we say that alchemists witness the famous quantum “dance of photons”?

Alchemists are stuck in seventeenth-century physics. At most, they can speak of divine light.

More than divine light, it is correct to say that the concept of “light” is more intuitive when we are told that it is, after all, composed of “star
matter”?

Thatʼs the reason why the alchemists called it “light”: because they say it came from the stars.

In the sense that the stars have descended into Earth’s matter?

Now, it might not be the right time, but perhaps it’s best to anticipate that: for alchemists, stellar emissions are already deeply immersed in terrestrial matter. With the alchemical destruction of matter, they can simply emerge. This emanation is called Mercurius and is well known as a stellar “magnet.” That is, Mercurius, among other wonders, has the property of attracting the Spiritus, the spirit, of the stars. In short, this is Alchemy.

 To find out that, in the end, itʼs just air…

Not ordinary air, but alchemical air, that is, what fills the spaces that we call “empty”, but which in reality are a continuum.

Previous: Light and Shadow as Superior and Inferior

Next: Alchemical Light as a Space of Relevance, also called the Fish Bladder

  • Classical Alchemy
    • The State of the Art
    • Areas of Interest
    • Index of the Names
    • Articles
    • An Intriguing Case
    • Turba Philosophorum’s Ambition
    • Opus Magnum Scheme
    • Lexicon
  • Anatomy of an Alchemical Machine
  • The Sound Sacrifice
  • Introductory Notes to the Boards of Pure Force

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