Gold by Alchemia Nova

## GOld by Alchemia Nova: (page created November 2007)

# Introduction to Laboratory Alchemy, Introduction to Laboratory Alchemy http://alchemianova.com/index.html

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After a long drive past the orchards of the Columbia Valley , I’m finally heading into the mountains, following the vague directions to the site of the gold mine. The sun is about to set on this evening in May 1997, as the little traveled road leads me around yet another formation of weathered rock. Then I see it on the hill to my right: mining equipment, sheds, heavy trucks, and a mobile home on the property. The gate is open, but the signs speak a clear language: “Private Property – No Trespassing” and “Beware of the Dog”. I take a deep breath and point the nose of my passenger car up the hill, letting the car manage the sunken road in slow motion. An angry dog greets the unannounced intruder. The door of the mobile home flies open, and a red-haired woman barks at me: “What do you want?” Clearly not a moment for an elaborate introduction; “is this the place of the man who could teach me how to make white gold?” I manage to ask. The woman pauses for a moment and then disappears in the trailer.

An hour later or so, a new chapter in my life has begun. I have been accepted as an apprentice of the precious metals assayer. The fact that I’m the son of two geologists and have grown up with being force-fed the basics of mining, ores, the related chemistry and the talk of the trade may have helped. But the real test that the assayer put me through was entirely unexpected: After he had questioned my motives why I would want to learn practical alchemy, he reminded me that this knowledge comes with taking on a great deal of responsibility. Was I sincere and did I really understand what I was asking for? Eventually, he pulled out a glass jar, filled with a suspension of white gold. This was not the mild precipitate made from seawater, of which I had taken a few drops several times before. This was the ‘hottest gold’ he had ever made, pure, and manufactured by converting metallic gold to the monoatomic state, he indicated. He handed me a spoonful to take. A spoonful! I had experienced the mind-altering properties of the few drops of the seawater product, and now I was about to take the ‘hottest gold’ by the spoonful? Oh man! Did I really know what I was asking for? I mustered up the presence of mind to take the spoon and say a dedication or prayer over it, something like: “May my taking of this white gold be for the best of myself and everyone else who comes in contact with me” and downed the unknown substance. The already familiar feeling of warmth started to permeate my being, but there was something else. This stuff was alive. For the first time, I could perceive the magic presence of the Magister who had leaned back and simply observed me. He was apparently pleased with what he saw: “come back in three days. I will teach you”, he said. I was part of the club! I drove all the way home and arrived at my house in Packwood near Mt. Rainier at around four in the morning, more alive and awake than ever. What a night!

It is not only my experience that once someone enters the field of alchemy, a sequence of unusual events starts to unfold, ranging from the bizarre to the humorous. Being a practical person, I’ve manufactured several dozens of kilograms of white gold since then, which were shipped to healers in Europe . The sale of the white gold has helped to finance my further research, the acquisition of literature, hundreds of experiments, and a steep learning curve. But the sale of white gold, and later my gem elixirs, has also brought about encounters that I would have liked to not have: I once received a visitor who was introduced as a fellow alchemist. I agreed to show him three processes, of which two did not work in his presence. Shortly after he had left, a friend of mine who makes her money as a mortgage broker and as a tarot reader called me, apparently highly concerned, and reported of a vision she had, seeing a man with a gun shooting me and blowing up my little lab. The description of the man was an exact match of the appearance of my visitor. I decided to hand the case to the Gods and let them take care of it. A few days later, one of my customers from Germany called in the middle of the night, greeting me with the words: “Thank God you’re still alive!” – it turned out that customers of mine had attended a weekend seminar by Drunvalo in Hamburg, and one of them took some of my white gold to him for his evaluation. He confirmed that this was indeed the authentic white gold, but also told them that the alchemist had been shot and the lab had been blown up. Upon being given my name, he confirmed that he was indeed talking about me. Now, how do you explain this?

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On a more humorous note are encounters with alchemy’s long standing best friend, the young and ambitious chemist that knows it all: One evening out with friends, my work became the topic of the conversation. A young chemist started to attack fiercely, declaring that alchemy was a total fraud and that I was deluding myself at best. A girl at the table came to my rescue and related that my gem elixir of Amethyst is the only product she knows of that clears her headache instantly after a night out with too much booze. It was fun to watch the 180 degree turn of the young man who did not want to contradict the cute girl: someone will surely reverse-engineer my products and then offer them for less, he countered.

Little does our young man seem to understand that it might just be the very mindset he exhibited that tends to prevent people from ever coming close to real alchemy, let alone to “reverse-engineer” it.

Practical laboratory alchemy is accessible today, as little or as much as it ever was. It encompasses much more than white gold, which is merely a starting point. What follows is my overview on what laboratory alchemy stands for, what its stages or levels are and why someone would want to get involved. But be forewarned. This path is not for everyone, and on a material level, basics in food preparation and herbalism are needed for working with plants. If you want to go beyond preparing herbal extracts, a working knowledge of minerals, ores, metallurgy, assaying, smelting and good laboratory practices is needed. Add the substantial costs of laboratory equipment, reagents, and the need to equip the lab to conform to environmental standards and it becomes apparent that practical alchemy is a gargantuan task. To make it even more challenging, there is no guarantee for success with the Great Work whatsoever. Sir Isaac Newton, who succeeded in distilling the so-called incalescent mercury, paid a high price: he apparently died of mercury poisoning.[i]

Having said that, let’s return to the practical side of alchemy. Where do we start? And why would we want to get started at all? Let’s first of all review the basic concepts of applied alchemy, to gain an understanding what alchemists have been seeking throughout the ages. In Western alchemy, humans are said to be a book with seven seals. These seven seals or energy centers are the same as the chakras of Indian literature. In Western alchemy, as well as in Ayurveda, the seven hermetic planets, or their archetypal God-forms or energies are considered to rule the seven seals, which in turn rule particular organs.

Here are the Western correspondences from the head to the bottom: the moon rules the brain and head, and is represented by the metal silver. Mercury rules the nerves and the lungs and is represented by quicksilver. Venus rules the veins and the kidneys and is represented by copper. The sun rules the heart as well as the arteries and is represented by gold. Mars rules the gall bladder and is represented by iron. Jupiter rules the liver and is represented by tin. Saturn rules the spleen and is represented by lead. In addition, Earth rules the medulla oblongata and is represented by antimony.[ii]

The influence of the moon upon the head is modulated by the two nodes of the moon: The lunar north node, called Dragon’s Head or Rahu in India , is represented by zirconium and has a secondary effect upon the synchronization of brain functions. The lunar south node, Dragon’s Tail or Ketu, is represented by beryllium and has a secondary effect upon eyesight and psychic abilities.

Furthermore, humans are said to carry within them the archetypal energies of the twelve signs of the zodiac, from Aries ruling the head all the way down to Pisces ruling the feet. Contemporary books on healing with gemstones list correspondences, some of them I could confirm but very many of the claimed correspondences simply do not agree with my own findings: The making and taking of alchemically manufactured gem elixirs allows a sensitive person to experience first-hand what zone or part of the energy body is affected by the single gem elixir.

I am aware that many Westerners will look at the above list of correspondences with skepticism and possibly with cynicism. And yet, based upon this system, alchemists of the Middle Ages have performed the miraculous,[iii] and Ayurvedic practitioners today carry the torch of incorporating alchemical substances along these lines, which more often than not make the decisive difference between success and failure of a natural healing regimen. This system of correspondences is expressed in the concept of the human being as a microcosm or miniature representation of the formative forces of the greater universe or macrocosm. It is this understanding that gives alchemy its raison d’être: Laboratory alchemy aims at producing pharmaceuticals on the basis of this concept, substances that address a specific zone or area of the human energy body and fortify the particular area, thus inducing a transformation of the human. Depending upon how skillful the preparations have been made, an immediate and strong effect or a vague and miniscule effect on the corresponding organ is noticeable. An instant change in brain wave patterns as recorded on an electroencephalograph gives eloquent testimonial of the efficacy of alchemical elixirs and their primary effect on the mind.

[i] Two books and numerous articles by the late Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs on the alchemical preoccupation of Sir Isaac Newton ushered in a completely new view of the man and his life. Reported symptoms of chronic mercury poisoning suggest that Sir Isaac is likely one of the many casualties of alchemical experimentation.
[ii] These correspondences are found in great many alchemical texts. As with everything else in alchemy, we ought not believe blindly in what the old masters write, but we are rather invited to investigate by experimentation if we can verify the claims. I have seen preparations of metals work over and over again according to these correspondences, so that I’m convinced through personal experience.
[iii] A collection of reports of miraculous healings through alchemical substances, witnessed and reported by independent third parties, can be found in: Sadoul, Jacques: Alchemists and Gold, New York 1972, publisher Putnam

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It should become clear from this discussion that laboratory alchemy attempts to bring forth the energetic aspect or spirit of a chosen substance and that the introduction of this lab-made carrier of a non-physical, archetypal energy into the human system is therefore an act of magic: In this context it is noteworthy that the ancient Greek name for the magician who is knowledgeable of drugs is pharmakis, from which such terms as pharmacist, pharmaceutical etc. are derived. No doubt, many allopathic pharmaceuticals with their mind-altering properties fall into the category of a magical substance, too. The path that allopathic pharmaceuticals represent, though, differs in some vital points from the traditional magical use of alchemically made substances. Alchemy does not deal with the camouflaging of symptoms, but rather attempts to induce such an amount of readily available surplus energy that a true remediation of ailments can occur. Beyond the healing properties, many alchemical preparations do have a cumulative effect, which can be utilized to eventually make mental contact with the formative force represented by the alchemical pharmaceutical. In medieval times, this formed part of the so-called High Magic, the attempt to communicate with the Gods, which was practiced in high places – often with remarkable results.

The ‘Gods’, however, did not favor everyone. Numerous accounts of disasters that struck the ill-fated ones are extant. Still interested?

Here are some typical alchemical processes that yield distinct classes of alchemical preparations, presented in ascending order in terms of difficulty in manufacturing and the resulting potency.

At the entry level, we find spagyric[i] plant preparations. There is a wide variation to the level of sophistication within this class of remedies. Tibetan Medicine suggests picking fresh plants at an astrologically auspicious moment[ii], usually when the ruling planet of the plant is visible in the sky, and the herbalist who gathers the plant is to say a prayer over the plant, locking in the spirit of the plant. This in itself is a magical operation and needs to be learned from someone who can transmit such knowledge. For those who do not find such an opportunity, purchasing a particular plant from an herb store instead will possibly be the only option. Next, the dried plant is either fermented in grape juice with the addition of winemakers’ yeast, or extracted in brandy for one month. After the maceration has taken place, the tincture is strained, kept in a bottle and the residue gets dried. Next follows the process of calcination or exaltation by fire: The dried residue is heated in an open cast iron pan with access to air – this needs to be done outdoors as smoke evolves. Once the residue has been converted to a pale ash, the ash is gathered and boiled in a heat resistant glass dish with distilled water. The alkaline water gets filtered, and evaporated to just dry, preferably in direct sunlight. On the bottom of the dish we find a few crystals, mainly potassium carbonate with some specific trace minerals of the herb. But depending upon which one of the seven hermetic planets is the ruler of the particular herb these crystals will solidify in the form of one of the seven platonic solids. The crystals are reintroduced into the tincture in which they readily dissolve. At this stage, we have produced a genuine spagyric tincture.[iii] Apparently, we have spent more time and effort than contemporary herbalists do, so the question needs to be asked: is it worth it, does our effort get rewarded? The answer is certainly yes, and we can verify this in two ways. First, and most importantly, we ourselves are the ultimate touchstone for all we do in the lab: Taking the finished product ourselves is the most important assay, the human being is the most sophisticated tool for an evaluation of the quality, refinement, potency, fragrance and overall score of the tincture produced. If we have worked well, one teaspoon of a spagyric tincture should roughly match the effect of one tablespoon of a commercial preparation. Second, there is a measurable difference between a regular herbal tincture and a spagyric one: The ORP or ‘oxidation reduction potential’ of a spagyric tincture matches that of the bodily fluids and the spagyric tincture can thus be taken up directly into the bloodstream through the mucous membranes in the mouth. Regular herbal preparations exhibit an ORP of normal food or tap water and need to go through the process of digestion in order to be taken up.[iv] In this process of digestion, they are largely broken down into simple molecules that do no longer act as carriers of the specific energies of the herb, no matter how standardized and guaranteed the label said the tincture was.

Working with herbs in the spagyric tradition is what everyone should be able to master relatively easily, this can be fun and the reward are preparations that will consistently outperform the many tinctures on the shelves of health food stores. Plenty of books teaching the basics of herbalism are available and should be consulted by the novice as a starting point.

A huge step up from working with the plant kingdom is the preparation of metals, minerals and gemstones. Nutritional science today has firmly established the need and use of many trace elements. Minerals and trace elements are at the very core of regulating the many biological functions of the organism. In veterinary medicine, simple mineral salts are often used. Some mineral supplements also contain these. Alchemy and also homeopathy show that minerals in a most finely divided state are best taken up and utilized. The Schuessler cell salts, triturated with lactose, are a good example. What belongs here is a brief discussion of toxicity: Many regular metal salts exhibit quite substantial levels of toxicity even at a low dosage and are thus limited in their use. The goal of alchemy in working with metals is first of all to reduce or entirely eliminate this toxicity, so that the benefits of the chosen metal or mineral can be reaped without undesirable side effects. The conversion of toxic metals into edible preparations starts in alchemy with the production of the so-called ‘calxes of metals’, called bhasmas in Ayurveda.[v] These calxes are either complex oxides in the form of micro-clusters, or the metal gets converted into the monoatomic form.

Most chemistry books today still state that water-soluble metal salts dissociate in water into a state of free ions. This information is outdated. Already in the 1950s, electron microscopy had reached a state that allowed to actually take a peek at the molecular and atomic level – today these microscopes are called nanoscopes and provide fascinating pictures of atoms in lattices that do not support the common accepted model of the atom in chemistry textbooks; the surprising find was that metals such as in gold chloride or comparable dissolved salts in water tend to stay in clustered aggregates and are surrounded by a cloud of chlorine, in our example, mimicking a true solution. Thus, the relatively new branch of cluster chemistry was born. The question became relevant: What happens if we attack the metal clusters and reduce their size? Remarkably, metal clusters will reform in their shape, depending on their size, and will eventually break up and rearrange themselves into single atoms or monoatoms.[vi] This transition from the state of metallic aggregation to single atoms is usually accompanied by a partial or total change of the physical and chemical properties of the metal at hand, which loses its metallic nature and becomes a monovalent or zerovalent atom. Once formed, these edible monoatoms are a distinct phase of matter and will re-aggregate, forming a material with a look comparable to ceramic crystals when examined under a microscope.

These monoatoms are less reactive than their metallic counterparts, and are found in nature. They cannot be returned to the metallic state by standard metallurgical means, and it is this test that can show if we have indeed produced the edible, often highly psychoactive monoatomic form of the element or if we have merely produced metallic oxides. In Alchemy, this ‘new’ phase of matter has been known and understood for a long time. Monoatomic elements are the ‘true calxes of metals’ that cannot be ‘revivified’ by conventional means, as alchemy books from the Middle Ages state. Another, more parabolic way to describe this phase of matter was to call it the dead ash of a metal out of which the phoenix rises, alluding to the idea that the metal had to first die in order to be reborn in a new form. Ayurveda recognizes this phase of matter by the same token: It is called a bhasma that passes the test of apunarbhavatva or ‘non-revivability’.[vii]

The masters of old have not only left behind a collection of alchemical texts, but also artwork as testimonies of their achievements: Modern researchers from the Technische Universitat Munchen were quite astonished to find in their analysis of the gold-ruby glass of the famous Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum, which dates from Roman times, the presence of monovalent gold as the coloring agent.[viii]

Monoatomic gold, to give an example of old and new production techniques, was manufactured in the Middle Ages by amalgamating molten gold with heated mercury, then amalgamating further with sulfur and distilling the mercury sulfide off. Our method is to dissolve gold powder in molten sodium metal and then to detonate the mass with water. Precipitating monoatomic gold out of the resultant solution with nitric acid will yield purple monoatomic gold, the ‘purple coat of the king’ as it was called in the Renaissance.

Metallurgical chemists may interject that an attempt to precipitate gold out of alkaline solution by a mineral acid is likely doomed to fail or produce only partial precipitation. Yes indeed! It may be hard to swallow for many that this process requires a direct interaction of the alchemist’s mind with the matter at hand, and that each individual may get a different quantity of purple gold out of the exact same volume of solution. Some may not get any, as I had the opportunity to observe. Furthermore, we should mention in passing that some of the monoatoms produced in the labs of contemporary universities are reported to not be stable.[ix] It is again the interaction of the alchemist’s focused will with the material at hand that needs to stabilize the material. Some web-based businesses offer monoatomic gold with the warning that you may experience headaches when taking it. Beware! These unfortunate producers have not mastered the art of stabilizing their products properly. Academic chemists will possibly discard this idea as pure fantasy, but alchemy, correctly performed, delivers stable substances that do not fall apart on their own. Alchemy is after all more an art than a science, and one that has always attempted to bridge the seen and the unseen!

Some contemporary authors have unfortunately equated monoatomic elements with the Philosopher’s stone. This idea does not hold up when we examine the facts closely: Calxes of metals are only at the first level of mineral alchemy, not the grand finale. Monoatoms are present in nature and therefore in our food chain, as solids in the soil and plants, and as monoatomic noble gases in the air we breathe. Monoatoms exhibit transformational potential, but do not have transmutative powers when projected upon molten base metals, the test for all true so-called oils and stones of the Great Work.

The next level up on the ladder of mineral alchemy, and at the core of our alchemical pharmacopoeia, are elixirs made from micro-clusters or monoatoms by extracting them, bringing forth what are conceived to be their respective spirits or ‘formative forces’, as Steiner puts it. The manufacturing process is initiated by what is called a ‘Lunar Extraction’ for the reason that the masters of our art have developed a sleek process utilizing the polarized light of the moon to perform the feat of creating the secret solvent. Moon magic! Among the cognoscenti it is reported that this technique coagulates the ether of the ancients, making it integral part of the resulting solvent, which is derived from organic sources and imbued with it. In traditional alchemical literature, this solvent is usually called spiritus mundi or ‘the spirit of the world’. It’s interesting to note in this context that Franz Bardon mentions in his work ‘Initiation into Hermetics’ that human digestion of food is actually the extraction of the vital principles of food by use of the fifth element that we take in with the air we breathe, Bardon relates to it by the Hindu name, ‘akasha’. If we follow this train of thought, then an alchemical preparation made with this ‘spirit of the world’ can be seen as an etherealized, pre-digested substance that does not need to go through any human digestion anymore. – Alchemical literature has called the extraction of such calxes by the spiritus mundi a ‘digestion’, a term that has migrated into modern chemistry, where it has assumed quite a different meaning. An alchemical digestion lasts for forty days and is performed in a hermetically sealed vessel at a consistent, mild heat. Today, we use thermostat-controlled incubators. In the old days, alchemists plunged their flasks into horse dung, which provided consistent and even heat for the task of this digestion. Talk about biotechnology!

I had the good fortune to be initiated into the process of manufacturing this solvent, albeit under an oath of secrecy, and am therefore not at liberty to discuss the details. If you think this is unfair, let me tell you this: There are already enough substances sold on the Internet, labeled ‘monoatomic’ that are indeed predominantly quite something else and toxic. An incorrectly done ‘lunar extraction’ of an incorrectly prepared toxic starting material yields something that may be mortal. Alchemy at this level deals with manipulating the fabric of space and time that holds together matter and life as we know it. Alchemy aims at working with exalting the forces of nature to induce a transformation of the human being for the better. But in the hands of ignoramuses who fail to be in alignment with the forces of nature alchemy turns into a dangerous weapon. And the one who transmits the knowledge indiscriminatingly becomes by default a co-creator of and co-responsible for the disaster that may strike.

[i] ‘spagyric’: Derived from the Greek words spao (to divide) and ageiro (to bind together), spagyric preparations incorporate the alchemical concept of first separating parts or ‘elements’ of an herb and then to reunite them in purified form.
[ii] As a reference see: Donden, Yeshi with Hopkins, Jeffrey: Health Through Balance: An Introduction to Tibetan Medicine, 1986 Paperback edition, publisher Snow Lion Publications
[iii] An excellent reference on plant spagyrics is the late Manfred Junius’ book: The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy, Rochester, Vermont, several editions, publisher Healing Arts Press
[iv] ORP measurements done at my own lab, using my own spagyric tinctures and store-bought herbal tinctures as reference samples
[v] A recommended contemporary reference on alchemy in Ayurveda is: Dash, Vaidya Bhagwan: Alchemy and Metallic Medicines in Ayurveda, New Delhi, India 1986, Concept Publishing
[vi] Possibly a good starting point to read more about this subject is the article: Microclusters by M. Duncan and D. Rouvray, Scientific American, Dec. 1989, p. 110ff
[vii] More details and references to relevant medieval Western and ayurvedic texts can be found at: http://www.alchemianova.com/articles/monoatomic.html
[viii] “Before striking gold in gold-ruby glass”, Nature, vol. 407, 12 Oct. 2000, p. 691f
[ix] “Superdeformed Nuclei Rotate so Fast They Make Heads Spin”, Physics Today, vol. 41, no. 2, Feb. 1988, p. 17ff

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Today’s new sorcerers’ apprentices, by the way, the researchers into Nanotechnology, are learning a similar lesson. A new carbon-based material, nanotubes, has caused severe damage and death in rodents that were subjected to them.[i] Potential side-effects and environmental impact of new and unknown molecular aggregates should at least be assessed before the materials are released. Nanotechnology as it is being practiced officially today produces new and exciting materials, no doubt. My few alchemist friends and I who form a loosely connected network around the globe and who discuss this new and emerging science wish them well, but it is also very clear to us that Nanotechnology as it is being practiced today is an exemplary outpouring of the predominant Western science paradigm of subjugating nature, disconnecting our culture more and more from the original source: Throwing billions of taxpayers’ dollars at the development of new molecular nano-structures of unknown properties, hailed, among other things, as the future of everything to-be-achieved in medicine, seems almost as foolish as burning through taxpayers’ billions in futile hot fusion experiments, when we could have the desired results now and at a fraction of the cost by simply applying what does already work: How little did it take China in comparison to establish a functional health care system, based upon chi gung, tai chi in the park, herbs, acupuncture and moxibustion? And how inexpensive and highly effective in comparison is the Eastern European low-tech approach of utilizing indigenous herbs, hydro- and physiotherapy, steam saunas and some malodorous tar-like poultices to cure almost everything? For the techno geeks, this is of course not sexy enough. Nanotechnology, in contrast, is marketed as the harbinger of a future akin to sci-fi movies. But no matter how convenient the Nanorobots of Naboo may one day be, we do already know one thing for sure: The Force is not with them.

Returning to our subject of laboratory alchemy, we should take a look at the third and highest level, the Great Work. This is the realm of the miraculous that only few aspiring Adepts have been allowed to enter. Persistence, good personal ethics and … of all alchemists, may eventually lead to success, but practicing alchemy does not come with a satisfaction & money-back guarantee. I do not claim to have entered that realm, so my guess here is as good as anybody’s. Alchemical literature suggests at least two possible paths towards the great Arcanum. One is long and tedious, working either on the decomposition and reassembling of the three alchemical principles[ii] of a particular sulfide ore in Western Alchemy or, in Ayurveda, taking mercury metal as the starting material: Ayurveda recognizes eighteen stages of mercury, which gets solidified after passing through several of the prescribed processes, is made to take up gold without an increase in weight ‘swallowing it’, is then made to take up further metals, sometimes with and sometimes without an increase in weight, until the finished product, the Philosopher’s stone, Vedic style, is achieved.[iii] It should become clear from reading authentic ayurvedic texts that the final product is actually an ultra-heavy, stable and newly created element. Interestingly enough, Russian metallurgists have discussed such ultra-heavy stable elements for some time, and have named one of them preliminarily ‘eka-lead’. Some of the literature regarding this subject was available on the Internet for some time and has now completely disappeared. You tell me why! Western alchemy has a quite similar path to offer, starting with the manufacture of the so-called incalescent mercury, which Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton are reported to have accomplished. Thanks to a group of contemporary alchemists in France [iv], the details of the process became fully understood. Later, Lawrence Principe published the process in his book: “The Aspiring Adept – Robert Boyle and his Alchemical Quest”[v]. I have, of course, made this incalescent mercury in my lab. The production method is to first make a so-called stellar Regulus of antimony, an alloy of antimony with some iron. This alloy gets further alloyed with silver or copper in order to allow it to amalgamate with mercury. The mercury gets distilled off, re-amalgamated with more of the Regulus and distilled off again. This process is called cohobation in alchemy. After seven to nine cohobations, the resulting mercury amalgamates readily with gold dust in an exothermal reaction, which means it gives off heat – hence the name ‘incalescent’. Another test for this mercury at that stage, which you will not find mentioned in the literature, is to weigh out a few grams and drop them into a crucible that has been heated to red heat or orange heat. The incalescent mercury does not evaporate, but solidifies by being transmuted in the fire into pure gold. Mature incalescent mercury solidifies at a conversion rate of 100% while an immature one loses some metal through evaporation and needs to be further cohobated. Modern treatises on the incalescent mercury do not indicate its uses, but my cross-referencing with Ayurvedic literature makes it quite apparent to me that the incalescent mercury is not a finished product per se, but only the highly reactive solvent that needs to be further processed by making it ‘swallow’ or devour other metals, to use the old term. Should you want to attempt this further elaboration, do not email me for advice, for I do not know how to proceed. But I have freely shared with you how to turn mercury into gold, so that the usual question ‘can you make gold?’ is hopefully more than sufficiently answered.

Besides the tedious mercurial path, sometimes referred to as the ‘wet way’, there seems to be a fast and even more dangerous approach, called the ‘dry path’. In Western as well as Taoist Chinese alchemy we find the discussion of so-called fixed arsenic, fixed cinnabar and fixed antimony. The named volatile and toxic starting materials are transformed into substances that do not evaporate in the fire, hence the term ‘fixed’. Ko Hung lists the uses of the various cinnabars he discusses, and tells us: “The eighth is called Fixed. On the very day you take it you become a genie.”[vi] How this fixed cinnabar is manufactured he tells us not.

Preciously little can be found in the alchemical literature in general on how to ‘fix’ these metals, and if you find advice such as in the Tan Ching Yao Chueh to use tin for a fixation of orpiment or realgar,[vii] two ores of arsenic, you may be disappointed by the resulting material. I have found a reference to pyrotechnics in Philalaetes[viii], though, and Rudolph Glauber tells us that the term alchemy is derived from hal-khemeia, which stands for ‘salt-fusion’ or ‘cooking with salt’, in contrast to khemeia or chemistry, which stands for cooking only. It is my opinion that this ‘cooking with salt’ refers to a pyrotechnical process of mixing a metal sulfide with a variation of black powder and igniting the substance in a metal container, thus launching an inverse space shuttle in the back yard. The oxidizers used in pyrotechnics, salts such as saltpeter as part of the traditional black powder formula, are many and the permutations that result as possible blends are endless. Fireworks pyrotechnicians and rocket scientists alike tend to keep the exact composition of their fuel powders secret, so we cannot readily expect that an alchemist will step forward and reveal the composition of his formula. But it seems to me that a pyrotechnical reaction is the key to fixing volatile metal salts by the use of the ‘secret salt fire’ or ignis gehennae. As a general rule we could state: We need to keep in mind that laboratory alchemy always aims at going beyond ordinary chemical reactions in order to achieve the miraculous.

Our tour de force through the laboratory of alchemy would not be complete if we had not put the lab work or external alchemy into a juxtaposition, but also in context with internal alchemy: Every once in a while at martial arts tournaments today practitioners of the internal martial arts show that by directing their chi they can send an opponent flying across the dojo by a seemingly light touch. Kundalini Yoga, Kundalini Tantra and other techniques from the East that teach to move non-physical energy have made it to our shores, too, and have found their followers. These techniques are applications of principles of inner alchemy. To some extent, the mastery of techniques of inner alchemy is a prerequisite for external alchemy, because we need to be able to focus, direct and project non-physical energies with our mind, as the discussion of stabilizing monoatomic elements has revealed. If this article has achieved nothing else, I hope that you may at least consider the possibility that right within our Western culture, we had and still have a group of people that hold a very unique reality embedded within society that easily matches the far-out reality created and held in place by sages of the East. Plenty of independent third-party witnessed and documented evidence from the Middle Ages recounts transformations of people of old age into young ones and of other miraculous deeds of the few Magisters of alchemy[ix]. This article should also explain why we are using metals and gemstones in lab alchemy and why achieving a transmutation of a base metal into gold is worthy of our time and labor, not for making gold to sell it to the smelter, an unrewarding task given today’s low purchasing power of the yellow metal, but as a starting point to delve deeper into the mysteries of nature in order to eventually gain an understanding how we can turn our own rusty selves into golden ones. If you feel inclined to attempt to become an alchemist yourself, let me extend to you the farewell of one of my own teachers: May the Sun, the Moon and the Stars be with you!

[i] Lam CW, James JLt, McCluskey R and Hunter RL. ToxSci Advance Access published 26, 2003. Pulmonary toxicity of single-wall carbon nanotubes in mice 7 and 90 days after intratracheal instillation.
[ii] The three alchemical principles are called mercury, sulfur and salt and do not refer to the common chemical elements or table salt. Much confusion has arisen from the use of these terms; Fulcanelli, in his book “The Dwellings of the Philosophers”, chapter VII, describes workable processes to extract the so-called mercury and sulfur out of metals.
[iii] For an exhaustive description of the manufacture of the eighteen stages of mercury see: Mookerji, Kaviraj Bhudeb (editor): Rasa-Jala-Nidhi or Ocean of Indian Chemistry & Alchemy, 5 vol., India: several editions by several publishers available
[iv] This group is no longer active; they used to call themselves Les Philosophes de Nature
[v] Lawrence Principe’s book “The Aspiring Adept” was published in Princeton, New Jersey in 1998 by the Princeton University Press and is still available. I recommend it to anybody interested in the ‘incalescent mercury’ and its manufacture together with ‘ Newton ’s Essay on the Preparation of Star Reguluses’, Univ. Lib., Cambridge, Portsmouth Collection, MS. Add. 3975
[vi] Ware, James R.: Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in the China of A.D. 320, the Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1966, The M.I.T. Press, p. 77f
[vii] Sivin, Nathan: Chinese Alchemy – Preliminary Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968, Harvard University Press, p. 207
[viii] A very veiled reference to the use of Nitrum flammans and pyrotechnics can be found in: Broddle, S. Merrow (editor): Alchemical Works – Eirenaeus Philalethes Compiled, Boulder, Colorado 1994, publisher CINNABAR, p. 532/533
[ix] Sadoul, Jacques: Alchemists and Gold, New York 1972, publisher Putnam

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# Research, http://alchemianova.com/research.html

AlchemiaNova is today’s leading research-driven manufacturer of alchemical products. AlchemiaNova discovers, develops, manufactures and markets alchemical medicines and food substances to substantially improve the quality of human life.

Our ongoing research can be categorized into three groups:

# Our in-house research and development laboratories. This is the exciting place where we research and develop new products. Classic alchemical medicines, monoatomic elements as sacramental material, stable aqueous solutions of physiologically available noble gases are highlights among the wide range of developments so far. Our R&D labs are also the place where we conduct our in-house testing: In contrast to manufacturers of allopathic medicines, we do not test our products on animals, but on ourselves. This assures that we know every product we release to be both safe and effective. It is our policy not to discuss the specifics of our currently ongoing in-house research with anyone outside of AlchemiaNova.

# Provings. Once new products have been developed and have passed our in-house testing, they are ready to be examined by our volunteer testers. In the case of alchemical gem elixirs in homeopathic form, this evaluation process by volunteer testers is done in alignment with classical concepts in homeopathy: Gem elixirs are submitted to a procedure called “provings”. For these provings, we rely upon the participation of volunteer testers who fulfill the following criteria: They are healthy adult persons in the greater Olympia, Washington area who declare not to be currently taking any allopathic drugs and who declare not to have any addictions to street drugs. For the proving per se, a tester is asked to take the submitted gem elixir daily for a period of three weeks and report his or her relevant observations on a report card. The sum total of observations of our volunteers thus collected allows us to gain a better understanding of the scope of a particular gem elixir, and the results of the proving form an important basis for formulating the entry of the particular gem elixir in our Alchemical Pharmacopoeia. For the testers, provings tend to be fun and exciting, and the gatherings at the end of a three-week period are usually filled with exhilaration and resemble more a party than anything else. If you think you qualify as a volunteer tester, and if you are interested in participating in one of the future provings we will conduct, feel free to contact us at .

# Clinical Research. We support independent, qualified research into our products. If you intend to conduct a study in a clinical setting, feel free to contact us at infoalchemy@alchemianova.com

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part One: The Origins, By Raoul Tollmann, founder of AlchemiaNova http://www.alchemianova.com/origins.html

Alchemy – the ancient art and science with the primary purpose of transforming the ordinary human into an enlightened being or immortal. Methods applied are the production of laboratory-made potions as well as inner techniques of energy work. Research into laboratory alchemy has produced metallic transmutations of base metals into noble metals, as well as the production of medicines.

What the bleep happened at the leading edge of science before we had quantum mechanics?

Sir Isaac Newton’s private answer might surprise you: He was investigating alchemy. Night after night in his lab he distilled the toxins that, when properly transformed, were supposed to lead to eternal youth, perfect health and wealth.

Robert Boyle was engaged in the same quest of alchemy as the redeemer of the human condition. A religious quest? Perhaps. A delusion? No. We have positive evidence that Robert Boyle succeeded in manufacturing the incalescent mercury, a substance that can be made today as it has been made since time immemorial; the laboratory-made running metal coagulates into pure gold when poured into a heated crucible, as my own duplication of the experiments has shown.

Recent academic discoveries show that these founders of our modern sciences were mystics, searching for the Philosopher’s Stone as the central theme of their lives. Did they succeed? No, they died of mercury poisoning.

So what is this alchemy quest about, that some of the brightest minds of all time died pursuing it and others, not-so fortunate either, have lost fortunes investigating it? In this series of articles we shall investigate and uncover the code and hidden meaning of alchemy, the mother of all modern sciences.

Western alchemical traditions : In the West, we can trace alchemy back to ancient Egypt where it was one of the temple sciences. The highest-ranking physicians of Egypt were priests, and people normally came to the temples for healing. There, they were treated with a combination of medicine, religious indoctrination and magic. Medicine meant extracts of herbs or animal organs and alchemical potions that were derived from gemstones, minerals and metals. In the Temple of Dendera, there was a long corridor lined with statues that had healing incantations inscribed on them. Water, poured over the statues, became empowered by the spells. Patients bathed in these magical waters, received their alchemical potions and spent the night in small, totally dark crypts in order to induce a therapeutic dream. The patient was expected to be able to converse directly with the gods to determine his cure. It must have been quite an experience!

Based upon the extended practice of directly conversing with the gods of the Egyptian pantheon, the priest-healers derived their cosmology, their sciences and their healing arts, which have partially survived in what are known today as the Hermetic Books, ascribed to the Egyptian god Thoth, better known by the Greek name Hermes. Modern physicians usually credit the Greek Hippocrates with being the father of Western medicine. Hippocrates separated the healing art from the other sciences of the temple in the fifth century B.C. One of the consequences of this separation is the present widespread scientific materialism in our Western culture.

Hermetic axioms and formulae actually coexisted with the set of Hippocratic doctrines until the Middle Ages, culminating in the spectacularly successful work and subsequent demise of Paracelsus. Since that time, they have been relegated to obscurity. Contemporary allopathic Western medicine, however, does not even come close to performing the miraculous cures of chronic diseases that the Egyptian priest-healers and the medieval alchemists were known for, and which are well documented.

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part Two: The Basics , http://alchemianova.com/basics.html

In part one of this series on alchemy, I promised we shall investigate and uncover the code and hidden meaning of alchemy, the mother of all modern sciences. While the first article was an overview, this time we plunge right into the very foundation of this ancient art by examining the basics of alchemical thinking.

The ancients tell us all things are composed of the four elements Fire, Air, Water and Earth, which in turn derive from the Fifth Element, sometimes referred to as Ether or Aether, sometimes called the Void, Akasha, Space, or the mind of God.

These four elements are not to be confused with our known, daily material phenomena or substances of the same name, but are the non-physical or rather pre-physical formative forces that pervade everything and that every object, as well as every living being, is composed of. An idea that is hard to swallow for most modern scientists, I know. But then, alchemy is not material science, but based upon a spiritual understanding. The four elements are not only seen as pre-physical building blocks, they are understood to be bearers of attributable, specific qualities and consciousnesses that can be experienced and worked with. This is, of course, a claim that lets us easily lose 99.95% of all contemporary scientists.

I remember my high school physics books from days gone by where at the beginning of the chapter on the atom the smug authors ridiculed Aristotle for his explaining everything with four elements. “Outdated!” was this model, they said. They told us that the atom is rather to be envisioned as something akin to a little solar system, with a big, heavy nucleus and tiny, light electrons orbiting around it. This is the Bohr/Rutherford model of the atom which is still taught today, even though it is totally contradicted by the atomic model of quantum physics. Here, of course, we encounter a world of whirling sub-atomic particles, a zoo of quarks and leptons and a myriad others with qualities such as “strangeness” and other weird attributes which are supposed to form the atom, a something that consists mostly of nothing. The problem with this model is: It does not hold up either once we enter the realm of Nanotechnology and look at individual atoms. Today’s advanced electron scanner tunneling microscopes let us actually take a peek at the molecular level. What we see there are orderly patterns of stable, calm and quietly sitting atoms – some look like round balls, while atoms of some metals are pyramidal in shape, nicely stacked together to form a solid structure which we call matter.

Hopefully not too confused by modern contradictions, we shall return to the ancient concept of the four elements and examine its practical application.

Two approaches are open to us: One is to examine matter and either separate the four elements in order to investigate their qualities, or find substances that are said to be dominated by one of the elements. The other approach is purely spiritual and produces results that belong to the realm of magic. Let us have a look at both.

In laboratory alchemy, a traditional experiment to uncover some of the attributes of the four elements is to collect rain water, let it ferment on its own without additives, and once the so-called putrefactive fermentation is complete, which happens within approximately six weeks, we fractionate the brew by distillation: The first quarter of the liquid that distills over is considered to be dominated by the fire element of rain water, which yields, when further fractionated, an acidic liquid.

The last quarter is the earth element -dominated part which yields an alkaline fluid when further separated. Acids and alkalis out of rain water! A complete description of the process can be found in Manfred Junius’s book: A Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy. This process has further implications for laboratory work in alchemy, but may not be of much interest to the more casual observer.

An easier approach to find out about the qualities of the four elements is to open the spice cabinet in our kitchen and engage our senses. Cayenne is the spice that is clearly dominated by the fire element, with its hot and dry qualities, while we may find a spice in our refrigerator that is on the other side of the spectrum and actually cooling: cilantro. All old Western herbals such as the Tabernaemontanus and Culpeper have listed the four element-related qualities, or energetics, of herbs and spices. Only contemporary herbals in our culture do not necessarily cover these qualities anymore.

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part Three: The Moon and Stars Within You, http://alchemianova.com/moonstars.html

In part one of this series we tracked the origins of alchemy, the mother of all modern sciences, and looked over the shoulder of alchemists on three continents to complete our overview. In part two we examined the Four Elements within you as well as in the outer world. We also presented a Four Element meditation.

This time around we will once again focus on you. No, not your New Years’ resolution to lose ten pounds! Rather we are going to investigate and uncover the meaning and the practical applications of one of the most outrageous claims you may have ever heard: that you harbor the Moon and the Stars within you!

First off, what does that mean? You may have seen in some books on Yoga, drawings of the seven main chakras of the human energy body. These seven chakras are energy transceivers along the spinal column that can be approached experientially by getting involved in certain forms of meditation, yogic or tantric techniques, and in Reichian therapy. In the West, man is sometimes referred to as a “book with seven seals” – here the term seal is the equivalent to the Indian term “chakra.”

No matter where on the planet they were located and what their culture, the mystics of old experienced and utilized the same seven main energy centers. Alchemists took their observations further and came up with a correlation of the seven seals within the human energy body and the energies of the so-called seven Hermetic Planets.

The view that we harbor the energies of planets and stars within is actually the real origin of the traditional Hermetic axiom: “as above, so below.” In Western alchemy, as well as in Ayurveda, the seven Hermetic Planets or their archetypal God-forms or energies are considered to rule the seven seals, which in turn rule particular organs.

The Western correspondences from top to the bottom are: 1) the moon rules the brain and head, and is represented by the metal silver; 2) Mercury rules the nerves and the lungs and is represented by quicksilver; 3) Venus rules the veins and the kidneys and is represented by copper; 4) The sun rules the heart as well as the arteries and is represented by gold; 5) Mars rules the gall bladder and is represented by iron; 6) Jupiter rules the liver and is represented by tin; 7) Saturn rules the spleen and is represented by lead. In addition, Earth rules the medulla oblongata and is represented by antimony.

The influence of the moon upon the head is modulated by the two nodes of the moon. The lunar north node, called Dragon’s Head or Rahu in India, is represented by zirconium and has a secondary effect upon the synchronization of brain functions. The lunar south node, Dragon’s Tail or Ketu, is represented by beryllium and has a secondary effect upon eyesight and psychic abilities. Humans are said to carry within them the archetypal energies of all the twelve signs of the zodiac, from Aries ruling the head all the way down to Pisces ruling the feet.

After reading all these correspondences, we may well ask – is this stuff from the ancients for real? Or is it all just some fancy metaphor for an archaic joke that is lost on us?

Aspiring students of modern medicine who go through what is lovingly called “cadaver lab” – an exercise in how to preserve life by focusing on dead organs pickled in toxic chemicals and proudly displayed in cut-open bodies – might well ascribe to the latter viewpoint. But the last laugh might be on them as they proudly practice such reputable cutting-edge “science” in an attempt to progress in the healing arts.

However, because all the ancient holistic healing arts formed core doctrines around these correspondences in their development of therapies and natural medicines, we should be able to find some evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, to back the claims of the ancients.

Quite remarkably, we do find modern corroborations. The late Italian M.D., Giuseppe Calligaris, mapped the human skin and discovered a network of lines – a grid of longitudinal meridians and parallels of latitude on the skin – that have less electrical resistance, are hyper-esthesic, and form geometrical patterns. Calligaris discovered that certain lines and points on the skin were related to specific conscious and subconscious portions of the mind, and, when stimulated, induced paranormal abilities. He discovered points of intersections of cosmic energies, which acted as mirrors, collectors and accumulators. And he showed conclusively that being born under a certain sign of the zodiac, with its ruling planet, activates a series of specific lines and points at the moment of birth which reflect the particular stellar and planetary energy at that point in time.

Calligaris’ findings clearly substantiate the basic claim of Astrology that the planets and stars influence us. But we do find a conflict here with modern Western tropical astrology: it is the archetypal energy of the planets and stars in the actual sky at time of birth that are reflected on the skin. The tropical zodiac that is used today, however, was aligned with the true, sidereal zodiac ca. 200 A.D.. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the tropical zodiac is about 23 degrees off today.

For the purpose of determining the true influences of planets and stars, we need to utilize the sidereal zodiac, which is done in Indian Astrology, better known as Jyotish, and in the traditional Egyptian Sidereal Astrology that has been rediscovered by Cyril Fagan.

Rudolf Steiner attempted to revive many aspects of this ancient knowledge of the alchemical correspondences. One of his students, Lilly Kolisko, performed hundreds of experiments of capillary dynamolysis, a technique that employs metal salts in solution on filter paper. She observed the formation of recurring patterns during certain planetary constellations. In 1926, one year after Steiner’s death, Kolisko first witnessed “the working of the stars on Earthly substance.” Here is how she describes the breakthrough moment:

“An invisible hand had blotted out the working of the lead in my solution. The Sun had stood before the planet Saturn and here below on Earth the lead could not manifest its activity. When the Stars speak man must stand still in silent awe.”

In the next article on alchemy, we will talk about the art of the alchemist and its value in corroborating the above basic axioms. For this purpose we will take a look at the use of alchemical medicines made of metals, minerals and gemstones that are considered to be the Earthly representatives of the above discussed stellar energies.

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part Four: The Art of the Alchemist, http://alchemianova.com/art.html

In part three of this series of articles, we’ve taken a closer look at a core concept of alchemy: That the archetypal energies of planets and stars are also manifest in you and work through you, the human. We’ve discussed some circumstantial modern evidence that this may well be so. We have examined the idea of metallic preparations and those of gems and minerals as being earthly representatives of these stellar energies or formative forces.

Today, we peek into the laboratory of the practical alchemist. What does he —well, mostly he. There have been very few female alchemists throughout the ages —attempt to create there?

We should emphasize again, for it is so far-out when looked at from a contemporary viewpoint, that he bases his entire practice on the system of correspondences between the stars and planets and the human, expressed in the concept of the human being as a microcosm or miniature representation of the formative forces of the greater universe or macrocosm. It is this key understanding that gives laboratory alchemy its raison d’être: producing pharmaceuticals on the basis of this concept, substances that address a specific zone or area of the human energy body and fortify the particular area, thus inducing a transformation of the human. Depending upon how skillful the preparations have been made, an immediate and strong effect, or a vague and miniscule effect, on the corresponding organ is noticeable.

Laboratory alchemy, as part of (at the peak of?) the natural healing arts, does not aim at killing microbes. This ‘shoot the invaders’ concept derived from the Parisian School of Biology, and was made famous by Louis Pasteur. But at the end of his life, Pasteur admitted that the microbe is nothing and the inner milieu is everything. At the same time, Antoine Bechamp, a biologist working at the University of Montpellier in Southern France (known as Cathar-Land to history buffs), presented a wildly differing concept to the astonished world. He utilized high-resolution optical microscopy and could demonstrate that human blood, which is usually considered sterile, carries besides red blood cells and white blood cells another, third element.

In the microscope, this third element shows as tiny specks of light in comparison to the much larger blood cells. Upon closer examination, these dots of light called mycrozymas or ‘tiny ferments’ by Bechamp, are changeable. In a healthy human, they undergo three stages of transformation, all of them empowering the human. If the internal environment deteriorates, however, these specks of light turn into pathogens! Thus, the invader is already within you – a natural component of every living being, and not there to kill you but to support life. As soon as the body deteriorates, however, the microzymas’ task is to dissolve the deteriorating tissue – disease is characterized by this stage.

Today, modern medicine holds onto the world-view of Pasteur and continues to administer antibiotics to target specific but ever changeable ‘invaders,’ while a few renegade naturopaths have taken Bechamp’s original work to new heights and understanding. The late German Herr Professor Enderlein has done some spectacular work in this regard. An internet search for the terms ‘Enderlein’ and ‘pleomorphism’ will lead to several websites that show the micrographs of the said microzymas or protits, as Enderlein called them, at their various stages.

Today, this arcane information is there for everyone to see who cares to look.

Ancient alchemists may or may not have had any idea of these mycrozymas, but they sure knew that any deterioration of health could be understood as a process of ‘fermentation’ or, as they put it more drastically, as ‘rotting.’ They also knew that this process is often preceded by a disturbance of emotional and mental well-being. It was therefore their goal to re-energize the diseased area and thus enable nature to go about the necessary repair. Alchemy, coming from a spiritual angle, has never been interested in manipulating biological functions on a biological level, but rather intervening where mind intersects with body.

It thus became necessary to extract the ‘formative forces’ of metals, rocks and gems and tie them to a carrier that allowed them to be introduced safely into the human system; to perform curative effects without doing harm. This seemingly impossible task has been, and is being, achieved by alchemists around the globe. Let us examine the various categories of preparations and the effects we can expect from them.

At the entry level of mineral and metal alchemy are the transformed metals, turned into edible substances with very little, if any, metal toxicity. These preparations are called ‘ashes of metals’ in alchemy, and more specifically, in the West they are called ‘calxes of metals.’ In India, they are called ‘bhasmas of metals.’ Ayurvedic physicians are carrying the torch of this art today, and many companies in India prepare bhasmas of various qualities. These bhasmas range from complex, micro-clustered metal oxides to the totally non-metallic, non-toxic form of a bhasma that passes the test of apunarbhavatva or ‘test of non-revivability.’ This strange terminology signifies that such an ash of a metal cannot be returned to the metallic stage by any standard metallurgical process. In Western alchemy we find the same idea: the high-end calx of gold was known and used in the Pharmacopoeia of Western Medieval Alchemy as ‘the retrograded calx of Gold that cannot be revivified’ [meaning again it cannot be returned to the metallic state by conventional metallurgical processes].

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part Five: The Great Work, http://alchemianova.com/greatwork.html

In part four of this series of articles, we’ve started to peek into the laboratory of the practical alchemist. We found edible calxes of metals that have lost their characteristics of a metal, and we found elixirs made with a secret solvent called ‘spiritus mundi’ or ‘Spirit of the World.’ We’ve concluded our last lab tour with my promise that this time around, I will discuss the highest form of laboratory alchemy, the Great Work, or the manufacture of the Philosopher’s Stone and its liquid cousins, the Oils of Metals.

J. K. Rowling has brought the Philosopher’s Stone, or – as it is called on the book title in the US: Sorcerer’s Stone – back on center stage in the mystical universe of Harry Potter. Bringing it to the attention of millions of readers it is sitting there, right in the first episode of the boy hero, and even Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, the glorious alchemist-couple of medieval Paris find their place in the story.

As with most other themes of the Harry Potter series, the issue of the Philosopher’s Stone has apparently been researched well by J. K. Rowling. But she does not reveal much about what it really is, why it is so precious, and certainly not how it is made. Just as an excellent author of fiction is expected to do, she leaves the mystery intact.

I will betake it upon myself to dismantle some of the mystery, possibly only to replace it with something that may look even more bizarre to the unsuspecting reader; but then, reality often is more bizarre than fiction!

Let us first of all make an attempt at a definition of the Philosopher’s Stone, as our starting point: We are looking at a group of artificial, laboratory-made liquid or solid substances with the property of transmuting base metals into precious ones and/or humans into immortals. In the West, the key representative of these substances is usually called the Philosopher’s Stone, while in India this is the Mercury of the 18 th Degree, and in China, the Pills of Immortality.

The modern skeptic may ask: you are kidding, right? Well, I am not. There is plenty of proof of the reality of physical transformation induced by the elixir of life, the liquid or crystallized, edible form of the Philosopher’s Stone. As for the reality of transmuting base metals into noble ones, I have performed this myself; the incalescent mercury that Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton were seeking and that modern-day alchemists have duplicated does just that. I’ve mentioned this substance in the first of this series of articles, and even though it does not qualify as a Philosopher’s Stone in the true sense, we can learn a lot from its manufacturing technique. But more about this a little later.

Right now we should have a look at one of the many independent third-party witnessed reports of a miraculous transformation, the full report of this one and a collection of others can be found in Jaques Sadoul’s book: Alchemists and Gold, New York, 1972, Putnam. On page 37, we can take a look at family papers of the Saint-Clair Turgot family in France as found and reported by Bernard Husson, concerning one of his sixteenth-century ancestors, a Councillor of State. The Councillor had a liaison with a lady who visited him daily. By way of safeguarding her reputation, she was always accompanied by an elderly equerry, Maitre Arnaud, who used to wait for her in the shop of a nearby apothecary with whom he struck up a friendship.

The pharmacist had been experimenting in alchemy for over 20 years, and one day he rushed to meet Arnaud, exclaiming: “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” The astonished Arnaud asked what he had got, and the pharmacist replied: “Why…the Stone. Arnaud, the Elixir! This morning I transmuted a dozen old tin spoons to gold. And here’s the elixir of life. (He brandished a vial containing a colorless liquid). Let’s drink some of it at once, old friend; at our age one can’t have enough of this sort of thing!” He poured out a spoonful and took it, inviting Arnaud to do the same. But Arnaud felt some hesitation and took only a few drops on the tip of his tongue. On the way home, Arnaud broke out in a cold sweat, followed by a sensation of burning fever. The lady, anxious for the life of her faithful servitor, sent for the apothecary, only to find out that he had died suddenly.

Arnaud subsequently lost his hair, his nails and even his teeth, which later all grew back. The personal physician of the Saint-Clair Turgot family later wrote down the full details of the story and made particular mention that, at the time of his writing, the equerry was in excellent shape, despite being one-hundred and twenty-three years old.

This particular elixir of the apothecary was apparently too strong for the poor alchemist himself, and as the crowning of his life he died of it. This is not uncommon in the literature of alchemy. Dosage is everything! As far as Arnaud is concerned, we can recognize typical side-effects of mercury and radiation poisoning. The elixir was apparently not very refined; it did, however, perform the complete rejuvenation of Arnaud once he recovered from his poisoning, plus the sudden introduction of massive surplus energy into his system, which showed immediately in the typical yo-yo effect of his body temperature.

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# The Return of the Alchemists Part Six: Of Tantric Bliss and Levitating Taoists – Applied Inner Alchemy, http://alchemianova.com/tantricbliss.html

In part five of this series of articles, we’ve taken a closer look at the laboratory-made Philosopher’s Stone and its ingredients. In what was a global premiere, I have discussed openly that radio-nuclides and mercury form the basis of this concoction, thus showing that laboratory alchemy aims at transforming some of the most dangerous toxins we know of into the fabled end-product of this art, with all its remarkable properties. The last article produced the widest spectrum of human reaction so far: Fellow alchemists were angry at me for revealing the secret that has never been published before. Friends feared for my safety. Two readers suspected I had walked off the deep end – university-chemists-turned-alchemists making artificial gold by the hundreds of pounds in Seattle, this must be pure, unadulterated nonsense, they pronounced. And yet, it all happened.

Today, we are looking at the inner secrets of how Tantrics attain immortality. We will take a look at one Chinese Master who can set things on fire or stop bullets with his own energy projection, and we will learn about the various Eastern and Western techniques of inner alchemy that have been applied for centuries to attain enlightenment, spiritual powers and conversation with the Gods.

But before we go into details, let me ask this: Why do you think it is impossible for some to believe that alchemists turn lead into gold, even though there is plenty of evidence to support the claim? (If you dig deeply enough and know where to dig). Can you believe that a yogi is actually levitating when you see him do so? Or do you have to doubt your perception and call it a fraud? Can you accept that Taoist-trained healers can heal from afar by projecting chi, while certain martial artists could kill from afar by performing a similar type of projection?

If you think about it, it is the sum of our perceptional filters that determine what we are ready to consider as real, and thus what eventually creates and keeps re-creating our reality. The good news is: once we are aware of these cultural imprints, we can discard these filters, change how we perceive life and allow a new, expanded reality to become ours for the taking. Alchemy is first about un-learning.

There is plenty of material on tantra available today, from Cosmo-style articles about better sex through tantra to some comments about the dangers of it. Apparently, this ancient technique from India that utilizes non-physical energies flowing through the human body, with an emphasis on awakening, kindling, amplifying and eventually directing raw sexual energy towards attaining enlightenment, provokes a wide range of reactions and evokes an even wider range of fantasies. The sincere practitioners of tantra will soon disenchant the casual seeker by making it known that tantra is a discipline, requiring tremendous self-discipline! Think about it: you’re sitting with your lover in sexual embrace, in a position called yab yum, and you are not supposed to do what rabbits do.

Instead you must gently, lovingly and yet in a very focused manner direct the heat of passion upwards and into the area of the third eye. This is achieved by performing the cobra breath, a combination technique of breathing, visualization and the moving of energy with pure intent.

This does not sound like the better sex article in the popular magazine, does it? Yet the reward of this kind of stellar discipline is the potential of attaining union with the universe – which may sound like a very abstract and distant concept. But for those who have experienced this altered state, it does stand for an experience miles beyond ordinary sex!

Eventually, tantric practitioners who keep up their practice can go through further levels of initiation and may arrive at being able to move their own focal point of being-ness, their true self, at will up and down the central channel of non-physical energy along the spine of their bodies. The goal of the fourth level initiation into the cobra breath is to enable the practitioner to attain immortality at the moment of death.

Let us pause here and review this concept again: Immortality through death. I told you alchemy is about un-learning! The tantric masters have found out the following: when ordinary, uninitiated people die, they usually leave their energy bodies through one of the first three seals or chakras that we have discussed before. These chakras, however, are also corresponding to certain levels of consciousness in the astral realm, and it is through this mechanism that people find themselves after the death of their physical body in certain circumstances that they may not necessarily like – but that are the exact mirror of their consciousness at the point of death. They have been FedEx’d, as it were, to the appropriate “frequency destination.”

The Western explorer of out-of-body phenomena, Robert Monroe, has mapped these levels of the astral world and has written about them extensively in Journeys Out of the Body, Far Journeys, and Ultimate Journey which are available at bookstores.

The tantric cure for the after-life blues is to simply avoid it entirely by leaving the body at the moment of death through the crown chakra, and thus leaving the various levels of the astral plane and the wheel of reincarnation behind. What awaits on the other side is another reality of non-linear time. Immortality is achieved, not by gaining something, but by actually re-gaining a state of being in timelessness that all of us were probably experiencing before we volunteered to jump off the cliff and engage this reality of linear time, reincarnation and burgers and fries.

(to link the article above use: #RA6)