Short Art, Ars Brevis

According to many alchemists, there certainly is a third path, but only utilizing special tools, no pelicans, distillation apparatus, or crucibles. Probably the most ancient and secret among alchemical paths, the third one mainly involves fields of physical forces, which are unknown to the most orthodox methods. This way has much in common with the so-called Ars Brevis, or brief art, although it cannot be considered a synonym.

Not only to remove restrictions and obstacles of the classic and best-known wet and dry path – and therefore mitigate errors, confusion, and effort – but to get to the Alchemy core: a sacrifice or communion. And therefore, to understand that chemistry was only an extended empirical means to arrive at the core physical – and metaphysical – phenomenon.

The work of the Baroque alchemists consisted almost entirely of extracting Mercurius from solids and colloids. Alchemists of earlier times (when the name Alchemy had not yet been invented) may even have avoided chemical work by concentrating directly on the physical features of solids already existing in nature. In any case, the use of a material support was indispensable to obtain alchemical effects. On the other hand, the rituals of “god-making“ also employed material supports.

I strongly believe that all the classical Alchemy chemistry – humid and dry – has the purpose of obtaining the Philosophical Egg. But once the reason for being of the Philosophical Egg in the traditional paths is understood, one could guess how the Ars Brevis could arrive at such a physical – and metaphysical – core.

As for the Philosophers Stone, we have always been told that if someone hadn’t started calling it “stone”, no one would have called it stone (see What is the Philosophers Stone?).

Maybe having nature’s means replace the Last Cooking. Here we need to understand what the term “nature” means. As you can see on this site, many things are called nature, especially the Mercurius Sideribus or cosmic Mercurius. It is, therefore, important to understand the true essence of “cosmic“ and of “Mercurius“, because it could have little to do with astronomy and the substance that wetland chemists call Alkahest. So, the Cosmic could manifest itself in the depths of a cave, and the Universal Solvent could manifest itself physically.

It would be enough to analyze the history of chemistry and metallurgy to understand the technical difficulties that would have had to be faced using the modern alchemical means we are used to knowing.

Probably because advanced civilizations’ natural and moral conditions made the so-called short paths impossible.

Let us also not ignore the disappearance of underground water currents or the movement of rocks and the excessive exploitation of mines.

Indeed very little and kept wrapped up in the veils of the most profound mystery. 

Research can be pursued only by investigating the four alchemical elements’ real nature, mechanisms, and purposes. As well as deeply understanding the sound sacrifice theme through all mythologies. And last but not least, knowing the characteristics of the materials involved.

In any case, we need physics. Alchemy is physics. But surely the alchemist’s mind is involved in the process. All you need is a little experience and a history of the work to understand how external intervention always takes place. And that’s above and beyond our will.

By Solar Path, we don’t mean exposure to the sun, but, at the very least, what happens in the surroundings. In most cases, solar path was a symbolic way to indicate the initiatory path.

In this case, rather than the light and heat coming from the star of our galaxy, the ancients understood it as Apollo, that is, the orchestra director who united the notes of the distant sky and the near sky. See also Solar Alchemy.

In this case, rather than the light and heat coming from the star of our galaxy, the ancients understood it as Apollo, that is, the orchestra director who united the notes of the distant sky and the near sky. See also Gold & Alchemy, or Adorn with a Star Ray.

We must accept that “fire from the sky” is just an ancient metaphor to hide a triggering element; that’s to say, a fire – or remote order – belonging to an elusive sphere —sky for the ancients, which we today can rather define as heaven.

Regarding the purely astronomical aspect, it should be known that the ancients collected the sky at the bottom of the caves or around triggering events. Or materials.

Lighting and extinguishing fires were very often present in rituals that had much in common with Alchemy.

Let us remember that in mythology fire symbolically represented what was at the beginning of the movement of air or movement tout court.

There are several schools of thought on this matter: processing of sea water or with many salts present and consequent distillation or even evaporation (in fact it is also said that those who understand the mechanisms of extracting salt from sea water get the secret of Alchemy); rites of lighting and extinguishing fire with water; symbolic fire and water in the sense of input of movement and beginning of movement itself (according to Greek mythology the union of Zeus and Hera, i.e. of input and beginning of movement).

The idea that some salts naturally or artificially retain the beginning of movement and/or input is the basis of many rites of rebirth or spiritual transmission through conservation and transport in mediums suitable for preserving these “waves”.

It is much debated whether the ancients had an extremely fast gold processing system to scale the exhausting alchemical work of the Baroque age. The idea itself is not far-fetched, as metallic gold is an extremely effective basic material due to its very high percentage of “pure Mercurius” which is attributed to it (for modern chemists the fact of the external electron doublet being so mobile could be enough).

There was talk among the Baroque age alchemists of very fine grinding of gold until it was brought directly to the Nigredo (black); there was talk of gold melted in minute droplets precipitated from above until total dissolution (gold by falling); there was talk of gold in very thin calcined sheets inserted into special and rudimentary Leyden jars to be dissolved with a mild electric current; there was talk of gold in very thin calcined sheets inserted into containers with aromatic substances inside to accelerate its dissolution and left under the heat of the desert.

Obviously then, the main problem for an alchemist of the Baroque age was to arrive at the Mercurius Philosophorum and then proceed with the classical systems we know. But perhaps the ancients managed to avoid all these steps. See also Gold & Alchemy, or Adorn with a Star Ray.

Sure, but perhaps also with particles. Alchemists’ ignorance paradoxically keep many hypotheses open.

Some alchemists seem to suggest that the powders obtained in the air by lenses or burning mirrors – most likely nitrogen oxides – could represent a “Third Way” or “Short Art”, being obtained neither by the humid nor by the dry metallurgical process. See also First-Preparatory Works, Eagle Wings or Volatilization.

The alchemists’ magnet par excellence is their Mercurius, produced by at least seven volatilizations. But what could this secret magnet be inside the ampoule on which the solar rays of a concave mirror are focused? From the point of view of an alchemist, this magnet could only be a metallic salt, for example gold in sheets. Isn’t gold the natural material most charged with natural Mercurius? See Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles, Solar Alchemy and Gold & Alchemy, or Adorn with a Star Ray.

… And then to take the mirror away at night and expose it the next morning, collecting grams and grams of a white salt. I believe that no layperson will be surprised to hear that a dust settles under the rays of the sun on a mirror surface: It is what also happens on solar panels.

For further information see The Subtlety of the Exact Proportions.

This question opens a different topic that you will find in Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

A modern chemist might indeed want to investigate the energy levels of orbitals.

I’m not a scientist, but I believe that De Broglie’s mathematical demonstration of the fusion of particles to spin, and called “psi wave”, has enormous implications in the explanation of many alchemical phenomena. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

Oh, oh… who knows how to use the Books of the Dead in Alchemy can perhaps go beyond the fortuitous case of the ovens and the pelicans. Because maybe this alchemist uses physics directly.

You may have noticed how I love to quote this, in fact I have cited it on many pages on various subjects.I described how a cloud chamber works in Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles; I talked about its electric potential in Alchemy and Electricity; I have observed how it is part of the water cycle in Water Alchemy; And finally how it could be considered an extreme volatilization in First-Preparatory Works, Eagle Wings or Volatilization.

Now I wonder if it can be taken into consideration as an example of Ars Brevis Short Art… In any case, study it and answer it yourself.