Proclus, Three Ochêma and the Perennial Metamorphosis

No, it is not a hierarchical scale, but is imagined as a concatenation of infinite alchemical operations from the heavens, skies and earth, in which the excessively volatile eventually becomes the fixed, earthly. Alchemists conceive of their lives as a transmission chain, bringing the faint cosmic fire to earth. Their operations begin with the extraction of the solvent/magnet Mercurius, which in turn extracts the spark known as Sulfur/. Together, they solidify into the body-Salt. And so on, ad infinitum.

Even in alchemy, there is a scale of density from the heavens to the sky to the earth, which can be well represented by the image of a chain where the points of contact between one ring and another are where everything happens. More precisely, the rings should be rendered as “repeating mirrors” where the sequence of the Mercurius/Sulfur/Salt-Body triplet doubles infinitely from the most ineffable of the heavens, and skies, down to the earth, in an increase in density and consistency.

This cultural gap only leads us to conceive of a void between objects and beings that we cannot fill and, consequently, many processes seem disconnected. The very essence of Alchemy is a firm belief in the absence of these imaginary voids between beings and objects.

This cultural gap only leads us to conceive of a void between objects and beings that we cannot fill and, consequently, many processes seem disconnected. The very essence of Alchemy is a firm belief in the absence of these imaginary voids between beings and objects.

Is is said that alchemists are forbidden the immaterial and immutable, even hypercosmic, the first vehicle of souls, what Proclus calls augoeides ochêma. It is the third vehicle of the souls, the “kingdom” of the alchemists: Ostreoides ochêma, Proclus’s name, was the earthly body.  Between the forbidden world and the world of the alchemists was the pneumatic vehicle, pneumatikon ochêma. It comprises what the soul carries with it on its journey from the immaterial to the material. From the point of view of alchemists, pneuma is not only “spirit” but also air and what it captures. The primary purpose of alchemical works was to enter and exit the second world, that of air.

The soul of the deceased was represented by the ancients as traveling on a ray. Metempsychosis was said to occur through rays.

In the case of Metempsychosis the “spark” must be enlarged until it becomes a “ray”. Symbolically this phase is called “igneous vapour”. In short, the residual spark must be dispersed in the air to return to its nature as a full “ray”. This will strike another individual..

The journey of progressive density is represented by the symbol of a more or less thick tunic. The tunic starts out light and gradually thickens.

“Pneuma” already tied to the soul even before leaving. Then it seems to connect to our imagination. As we have already seen in Alchemy & Light, Known Authors, Olympiodorus of Thebes wrote a commentary on Plato’s Phaedo and said: “For the soul to descend, it must stabilize an image of itself in the body, and subsequently sympathize with its own image. And this can occur because of the similarity of form”.

As we will see in Fire Alchemy, igneous, from fire, means “bearing information”.