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 WaterFire Myths & Legends
Raimondo di Sangro and the Philosophical Candle. Part 2
Raimondo di Sangro reveals the origin of the salts involved in the fiery substance: human skull bones. But not a traditional chemical processing, of course. [Read more…] about Raimondo di Sangro and the Philosophical Candle. Part 2
Raimondo di Sangro and the Philosophical Candle. Part 1
Seven letters by Raimondo di Sangro on the discovery of the Philosophical Candle. Maybe the greatest written contribution of Prince di San Severo to Alchemy.
[Read more…] about Raimondo di Sangro and the Philosophical Candle. Part 1Franz Kieser and the two Perceivable Lights
A strange concept to accept is that of the two alchemical lights. Not just one. In Concordantia Chymica Kieser presents those perceptible inside the vessel.
[Read more…] about Franz Kieser and the two Perceivable LightsAndrea da Murano: a Painter and the Art of Fire
A hand holding a burning fire and pointing at a wound in a thigh. This is not a chance occurrence if you see all that in a renaissance altarpiece triptych.
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