What is Alchemy?
Put simply; Alchemy is the understanding of the relationship between consciousness and matter. No other definition is shown to reveal the secrets of this art's nature in a more encompassing or exact manner. Through the works of alchemy, we can come to understand the validity of this definition and know its relevance to not only our own lives but to the nature of all that is – visible and invisible – concrete and abstract.
Many confuse alchemy as just being an internal practice, with its processes being metaphorical for the awakening of man. And in contrast, many also assume that alchemy is only a physical laboratory practice designed for confecting a famed material called the philosophers stone and using it to turn lead into gold.
If you take the time to explore this site, and the articles here in it, you may begin to notice that if you know alchemy for what it truly is, then it is without a doubt that alchemy encompasses both of these material and immaterial ideas, and much much more!
Seen from this overarching perspective, alchemy throughout its history and when explored with a scrutinizing eye always touches on both the material and immaterial realms - the physical and the spiritual. To know alchemy fully is to understand just how these two realms of consciousness and matter relate and co-create.
it is in answering the questions of "How?" that the practice of alchemy finds it's fuel.
Remember as you go on that Knowledge and Understanding are two very different things. Knowledge is had with the mind alone. Meaning, Knowledge is purely intellectual - in the Mind and of the Mind. Understanding, however, is purely experiential. This means that to understand something in its entirety, you must experience that thing as it is and not as you perceive it to be.
Alchemy is a study, way, practice, science, art, philosophy, etc. of gaining the experience of how one relates to and creates all.
Although, in the end, the truth is forever simple, it still seems able to fit itself into many words. We hope that you find in this site a "finger pointing to the moon" so that all that is can gently reveal its self unto you. It is hoped that in this way, the veils that once stood can seem, somehow, to have softly drifted away.
Once it is understood just what it is that alchemy is, it then becomes necessary to explore the varied theories that alchemy employs and teaches. With greater knowledge of these foundational philosophies, we can designate just how consciousness relates to matter. This is done easily through alchemical theory, which goes into detail about things such as the three principles and the four elements, taking into account that everything that is above and within is reflected out onto all that is perceived to be out here in the below we call Earth, reality, or the Universe.
To learn more about how it is that Alchemy came to be defined, then please click the link below.
Or continue on to get started...
Many confuse alchemy as just being an internal practice, with its processes being metaphorical for the awakening of man. And in contrast, many also assume that alchemy is only a physical laboratory practice designed for confecting a famed material called the philosophers stone and using it to turn lead into gold.
If you take the time to explore this site, and the articles here in it, you may begin to notice that if you know alchemy for what it truly is, then it is without a doubt that alchemy encompasses both of these material and immaterial ideas, and much much more!
Seen from this overarching perspective, alchemy throughout its history and when explored with a scrutinizing eye always touches on both the material and immaterial realms - the physical and the spiritual. To know alchemy fully is to understand just how these two realms of consciousness and matter relate and co-create.
it is in answering the questions of "How?" that the practice of alchemy finds it's fuel.
Remember as you go on that Knowledge and Understanding are two very different things. Knowledge is had with the mind alone. Meaning, Knowledge is purely intellectual - in the Mind and of the Mind. Understanding, however, is purely experiential. This means that to understand something in its entirety, you must experience that thing as it is and not as you perceive it to be.
Alchemy is a study, way, practice, science, art, philosophy, etc. of gaining the experience of how one relates to and creates all.
Although, in the end, the truth is forever simple, it still seems able to fit itself into many words. We hope that you find in this site a "finger pointing to the moon" so that all that is can gently reveal its self unto you. It is hoped that in this way, the veils that once stood can seem, somehow, to have softly drifted away.
Once it is understood just what it is that alchemy is, it then becomes necessary to explore the varied theories that alchemy employs and teaches. With greater knowledge of these foundational philosophies, we can designate just how consciousness relates to matter. This is done easily through alchemical theory, which goes into detail about things such as the three principles and the four elements, taking into account that everything that is above and within is reflected out onto all that is perceived to be out here in the below we call Earth, reality, or the Universe.
To learn more about how it is that Alchemy came to be defined, then please click the link below.
Or continue on to get started...
Still hungry? Watch this!
3 Principles
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The theory in itself is pretty simple. All forms of matter come from the one same source, and that one thing is perceived to express itself in 3 major ways. It is through the observation of those ways that alchemy has come to define and know these 3 principles.
If this theory were to be applied, it would then mean that all forms of matter -rocks, metals, trees, fungi, bugs, animals of any kind, stars, galaxies, literally everything!- all have a Soul, Spirit, and Body. When this alchemical philosophy is applied specifically to material forms to see if the theory holds up, we find that yes, even physical substances contain 3 essential parts. They can be taken into the lab and extracted of these 3 parts, in the end, have nothing left over, showing that truly material substance is of course comprised of these foundational truths, just as the philosophy describes. Here's an example.... |
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When applying alchemy's ancient yet still quite modern laboratory processes to the separation of a material subject, it is found that these principles express themselves in the same fashion every time, regardless of the material of their origin. If in our example, we look to extract the alchemical Sulfur, or Soul as we now know it, then it will be retrieved as an oil. In this case, what we would understand as an essential oil. It is common practice in alchemy to take a material and distill it down to gather from it an essence.
All essential oils constitute the Consciousness, Soul, and beingness of the form from which they were extracted. The very word 'essential' used to describe an essential oil comes from the root word Esse, which means 'to be.' To be is to be so, and remember that alchemy and its origins teache that really only one thing is so.
It seems then to be a pattern that most things remain hidden in plain sight under the guise of our language and perceptions. When we look more closely at matter, extracting of it its principles, we find that one of its principles -the Soul - an Essential oil, is really just Consciousness expressed in one of its infinite ways on a material plane. And it is through oils that we can heal the body and the mind so that we may attain a more secure anchor into life's source.
In the video above, we came to understand that the Soul is the actuating cause and source of all. Soul was defined to be synonymous with 'Consciousness,' and it is Consciousness that gives rise to the Mind, since the Mind is, after all, an inherent power of Consciousness.
That means that oils are kind of a big deal!
But, we can look at this more again later because we still have 2 more principles to cover.
All essential oils constitute the Consciousness, Soul, and beingness of the form from which they were extracted. The very word 'essential' used to describe an essential oil comes from the root word Esse, which means 'to be.' To be is to be so, and remember that alchemy and its origins teache that really only one thing is so.
It seems then to be a pattern that most things remain hidden in plain sight under the guise of our language and perceptions. When we look more closely at matter, extracting of it its principles, we find that one of its principles -the Soul - an Essential oil, is really just Consciousness expressed in one of its infinite ways on a material plane. And it is through oils that we can heal the body and the mind so that we may attain a more secure anchor into life's source.
In the video above, we came to understand that the Soul is the actuating cause and source of all. Soul was defined to be synonymous with 'Consciousness,' and it is Consciousness that gives rise to the Mind, since the Mind is, after all, an inherent power of Consciousness.
That means that oils are kind of a big deal!
But, we can look at this more again later because we still have 2 more principles to cover.
The Soul, Spirit, and Body of Gold.
Let's explore for now what the other principles appear to be when extracted. Presume we have already taken our material thing that we are choosing to extract and received from that extraction the first principle -Sulfur/Soul/Consciousness/Oil. The next principle in line -the Spirit- when extracted, always expresses itself as what alchemists would call a Liquor. Have you ever noticed that some alcohol retail stores advertise as "wine and spirit" shops? We call liquor spirits because of alcohol's very ancient origins within the alchemical practice and philosophy. It was, after all, alchemists who discovered and made an art of fermentation and distillation. So, Spirit, our second principle, is expressed as a liquor when extracted from a material subject and has very ancient alchemical origins.
Makes you think about that cocktail you often enjoy, doesn't it?
If we now have both an essential oil and a liquor from our original starting material, then what is left over is a big messy pile of dead and gross stuff. Its dead, because we have taken from it its source -its Soul- and its expression that rooted its being into a physical form - its Spirit. Now, all that is left over is to gather up our last principle - the Body.
When the leftover junk from our previous extraction is cast into the fire -because, not much else can come from it, let it burn!- we end up getting a fine ash. If these ashes are dissolved in water and that water is allowed to evaporate, small crystals will grow from that solution. These crystals constitute the purified Body of the form that we have been working to extract and use as evidence to traditional alchemical philosophy.
Nothing at all is left over from our original extraction material, except for the 3 principles -oil, liquor, and salt- which have been pulled from it.
These three things are foundational truths. This means that you cannot reason beyond their existence. They always exist! They comprise the whole of every experience you might ever dream to gather. As crucial aspects to the beingness of Consciousness, which is also at the same time your own source and origin, you, as a human being, rely upon these principles for your existence. You could not exist otherwise. You have to have a Soul, Spirit, and Body to have an experience at all. You have to be the Perceiver 'in there' that is aware of your mind -your perceptions- so that you can experience a perceived thing -your Body and its existence in a perceived universe.
Without one of these principles, the other two couldn't flourish, which means nothing would exist at all since we can't reason beyond principle truth. If one of them exists, it will automatically give rise to the other two. One principle always means all three. It has to be this way to give source, expression, and individuality to the experience you are calling Self.
I understand It can be kind of a mental and verbal tango to get these concepts down, but this is why those ancient and old philosophers of alchemy comprised methods by which we can come to an experience of the Truth, rather than chasing an intellectual or philosophical tale....
Makes you think about that cocktail you often enjoy, doesn't it?
If we now have both an essential oil and a liquor from our original starting material, then what is left over is a big messy pile of dead and gross stuff. Its dead, because we have taken from it its source -its Soul- and its expression that rooted its being into a physical form - its Spirit. Now, all that is left over is to gather up our last principle - the Body.
When the leftover junk from our previous extraction is cast into the fire -because, not much else can come from it, let it burn!- we end up getting a fine ash. If these ashes are dissolved in water and that water is allowed to evaporate, small crystals will grow from that solution. These crystals constitute the purified Body of the form that we have been working to extract and use as evidence to traditional alchemical philosophy.
Nothing at all is left over from our original extraction material, except for the 3 principles -oil, liquor, and salt- which have been pulled from it.
These three things are foundational truths. This means that you cannot reason beyond their existence. They always exist! They comprise the whole of every experience you might ever dream to gather. As crucial aspects to the beingness of Consciousness, which is also at the same time your own source and origin, you, as a human being, rely upon these principles for your existence. You could not exist otherwise. You have to have a Soul, Spirit, and Body to have an experience at all. You have to be the Perceiver 'in there' that is aware of your mind -your perceptions- so that you can experience a perceived thing -your Body and its existence in a perceived universe.
Without one of these principles, the other two couldn't flourish, which means nothing would exist at all since we can't reason beyond principle truth. If one of them exists, it will automatically give rise to the other two. One principle always means all three. It has to be this way to give source, expression, and individuality to the experience you are calling Self.
I understand It can be kind of a mental and verbal tango to get these concepts down, but this is why those ancient and old philosophers of alchemy comprised methods by which we can come to an experience of the Truth, rather than chasing an intellectual or philosophical tale....
