THE GREAT ALCHEMICAL WORK

F. JOLLIVET-CASTELOT

DOCTOR IN HERMETISM AND DOCTOR IN KABBALAH
TITULAR PROFESSOR AT THE FREE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF HERMETIC SCIENCES IN PARIS.
GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE ALCHEMICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE.

Matter is one.
It lives, it evolves and transforms.
There are no simple bodies.

PROPAGANDA BROCHURE OF THE ALCHEMICAL SOCIETY.
HYPERCHEMISTRY EDITION
(Rosa Alchemica)

3 Savoy Street, 3
PARIS - VI
1901


Flourishing in old Egypt, in sacerdotal and magical Chaldea, in very distant centuries, then still taught at the School of Alexandria — Alchemy was proscribed with the Secret Arts; she became cursed like them and from then on shut herself up in the Mystery of occult and hermetic fraternities. The Gnostics, the Templars, the Alchemists, the Rose + Croix, preserved and transmitted Alchemy through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and finally modern times. And today, parallel to the other branches of Hermeticism, perhaps even better, Alchemy is reborn; very scientific in appearance, it won over the best minds. Experimental facts, of an industrial nature, confirm it. Tiffereau, Strindberg, Emmens Brice, manufacture gold. Neo-Alchemy is constituted alongside traditional Alchemy, finally ready to merge in it. Let us therefore sketch the whole of Spagyrics; let us see what the Great Work is, the Philosopher's Stone, let us lay down the practical conclusions.

First of all, what is Alchemy? Alchemy— Paracelsus will tell us—is a science that teaches how to change metals from one species to another. — And Roger Bacon: Alchemy is the science which teaches how to prepare a certain Medicine or Elixir, which being projected on imperfect metals, communicates perfection to them at the very moment of the Projection.

These two definitions are excellent, and we will see that modern works confirm the very substance of these masterful precepts.

In the briefest and most positive sense, Alchemy is indeed the Art of quintessential bodies, of transmuting them, of manufacturing them by synthesis.

Hyperchemistry must replace chemistry.

But these definitions specify above all, and only even, the coarsest part of Alchemy. Now, Alchemy is more and better than the Art or the Science of making precious metals. It is intimately linked to Hermeticism, to the occult sciences of which it constitutes an important branch. It borrows its Arcana from Kabbalah, Magic, Astrology, it gives birth to spagyric medicine, because Occultism is inspired by perfect Unity. Integral Science, it leads to the only unity by means of the fruitful law of Analogy, among others.

Alchemy, in summary, taken as a whole so vast, is one of the branches of Hermeticism, which is particularly attached, on the Physical Plan of Nature, to the study of Matter, of its constitution, of its genesis, of its evolution, and of its transmutations.

An ancient science cultivated by the Magi, it revealed the problem of Energy and the Atom, showing the identity of Substance polarized in Force and Matter which resolve into each other through the double current of Evolution and Involution, Inhale and Exhale of the Life Universe (1). Through the Ages, Alchemy remained more or less obscure, depending on the times, but always integral, pursuing the same scientific goal: the absolute Unity of living Matter, demonstrated with the help of the Synthesis of Bodies and Metals, which all derive from the same Atom, are constituted by the various combinations of atoms between them, which makes it possible to operate the interchangeability of molecules, the transmutation of atomic buildings.

Alchemy therefore gave - and gives - the means of manufacturing the most precious bodies, and among these especially Gold, of which men only perceive the utility, but of which the Adept knows the Essence, the beneficial influence on the organism from a therapeutic point of view, on Science from a synthetic point of view. Gold, a highly evolved element, the highest on the metallic scale, is the leader of the metals. Its manufacture consequently leads to the synthesis of the metals which precede it.

Currently, Alchemy, as we will see later, leads to the same effects, but Hermeticism not lavishing its teachings, and the Initiates being rare, alongside traditional Alchemy, a very "experimental" Alchemy has been formed, groping, seeking to obtain Gold, Silver by exoteric laboratory processes. It is Neo-Alchemy, the final triumph of which will be seen when it has merged with traditional Alchemy, the sole repository of the formulas, of the perfect recipes leading to the Great Work through the Philosopher's Stone.

It is to this task that the Société Alchimie de France and the review: Hyperchimie-Rosa Alchemica , are devoted, an organ of union between the Past and the Future.


TRADITIONAL ALCHEMY

It remains the privilege of Adepts. One must have discovered the Absolute, according to the words of the masters, to possess the Key to it. To know — to want — to dare — to be silent sum up all Initiation, Magic Initiation as well as Alchemical Initiation.

It is therefore not surprising that we give here only the general principles used to understand the ancient authors, very obscure in their rather complicated symbolism. The terms used are often synonymous and symbolic.

The Alchemists based their knowledge on the Quaternary of the Elements and the Ternary of the active specifications of the bodies. The operations of the Great Work resulted from this.

The Quaternary comprised: Fire — Air — Water — Earth; the Ternary: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt. — But the Alchemists did not mean by that to designate the elements or the vulgar bodies. By these terms, they in no way represented particular bodies.

They considered the 4 Elements as different states, different modalities of Matter. And that's why they said the 4 constituent elements of everything. Indeed, the Elements, resulting from the One Substance, of the One Matter, of which they only symbolize modifications, particular forms due to the orientation of the vortices and the etheric atoms — the Elements possess the principal qualities of which they are synonymous. Thus Water is synonymous with liquid, Earth corresponds to the solid state, Air to the gaseous element, Fire to an even more subtle state, such as that of Radiant Matter for example.

Since these Elements represent the states in which Matter offers itself to us, it was therefore logical to affirm — and it still is — that the Elements constitute the entire Universe.

For the Alchemists, the words Dry, Humid, Cold, Hot, meant: solid matter, liquid matter, gaseous matter and volatile matter. To the 4 Elements, a fifth state was often added, under the name of Quintessence. The Quintessence can be compared to the Ether of modern physicists. Occult, essential qualities belong to it, just as natural warmth belongs to Fire, subtlety to Air, etc.

The Elements, taught the Alchemists, are transformed into each other, act on each other, Fire acts on Water by means of Air, on Earth by means of Water; Air is the food of Fire, Water the food of Earth; together they serve for the formation of the mixtures, for the total production of the Universe. — We verify these precepts every day: Water changes into vapor, into Air when it is heated; solids liquefy under the action of dissolving liquids, and Fire, etc.

The second Principles: Sulfur — Mercury — Salt, form the Great Alchemical Trinity. The Matter differed, for the Alchemists, in 2 principles: Sulfur and Mercury, whose union in various proportions, constituted the multiple bodies, the innumerable chemical compounds.

The third principle: Salt or Arsenic, served as a link between the two previous ones, junction and balance, neutral point (composed of both).

Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, considered in themselves, are only abstractions serving to designate a set of properties. But, deriving from the Prime Matter, Sulphur, Mercury, Salt, considered from the practical point of view, are in some way the incarnation of the Elements; their combination in a body is variable, and one of the principles predominates over the other. They constitute, in a state of quasi-separation, the respective quintessence of the bodies.

Sulfur symbolizes the central ardour, the internal, active principle, the luminous soul of things. Igneous, it contains the Fire which tends to come out. In a metal, Sulfur represents the visible properties; the color, the combustibility, the hardness, the property of attacking other metals.

Mercury symbolizes, abstractly if you will, the universal vibratory force, the sonic fluid, the passive, extreme principle of things. Aqueous, it contains Water and Air, which constantly tend to enter. In a metal, Mercury represents hidden or latent properties: luster, volatility, fusibility, malleability. This divergent and convergent movement + and - of Sulfur and Mercury, finds its balance in the stable principle or salt: Salt is therefore the condensation of Sulfur and Mercury, the sensitive, fixed aspect of the body, the receptacle of energies, or proper substance. Ponderable, it corresponds to the Earth.

But chemically speaking, is it possible to relate these terms to current theories? I believe it, because according to what we have seen above, Sulfur and Mercury would respond very well in short — as the excellent brochure The Alchemical Idea has stated — to the radicals of which Chemistry speaks to us. Radicals, in fact, are none other than atoms or groups of atoms capable of being transported from one compound to another, by way of double decomposition.

Simple or compound radicals are isolatable; and in truth, however, no one has ever seen them, felt them, in the proper sense of the word, because these are chemical reactions that we know by the results, the combinations, the products.

Well ! It is exactly the same for Sulfur and Mercury. They perfectly personify simple or compound radicals. And this analogy helps us to understand the genesis, the constitution of bodies and metals, formed by the union, in various degrees, of Sulfur and Mercury, as the Alchemists taught.

The Sulfur and Mercury radicals, being transported from one compound to another, bring the new set of their properties, and give rise to the body corresponding to their active and dominant radical.

These two Principles: Sulfur and Mercury, separated in the bosom of the Earth, are constantly attracted to each other, and combine in various proportions to form metals and minerals, under the action of terrestrial fire. But according to the purity of the cooking, its degree, its duration, and the various accidents which result from it, more or less perfect metals or minerals are formed.

"The difference alone in the cooking and digestion of Sulfur and Mercury produces variety in the metallic species", Albert the Great teaches us, and here is condensed, the excellent theory of the Alchemists, on the genesis of metals. (2)

To summarize the question, we can define the Sulfur and the Mercury of the Alchemists, the essential principles of the Universal Prime Material, principles which form the base, the radicals of all metals and minerals.


THE PHILOSOPHAL STONE — THE GREAT WORK

The Spagyric Art is essentially based on fermentation. This means, in all clarity, that one must communicate life to the metals in the laboratory, life latent in them, that one must awaken them, provoke their activity by a sort of resurrection, as we see that Nature unceasingly operates in her eternal Hylozoism.

The capital effort of Alchemy consists in reducing the next materials into their ferments, which, united, will constitute the transmuting substance. The whole Great Work resides in the correct preparation of the metallic ferments.

Each metal has in it its own ferment that must be extracted: Gold will be the ferment of Gold, Silver the ferment of Silver, and so on.

The making of the Stone is done in this way:
From the Solar Gold (or secret Sulphur) — Sulfur is drawn.
From Lunar Silver (or secret Mercury) — one derives Mercury.

And according to certain alchemists, from ordinary mercury, or quicksilver, a particular salt is extracted. — These are complementary ferments, endowed with considerable activity.

Gold and Silver—the only bodies usable for the Stone, prepared with a view to the Work, bear the name of Gold and Silver of the Philosophers in the old treatises. The Sun and the Moon symbolize them.

They were first purified, Gold by cementation or antimony, Silver by cupellation, that is to say lead.

The Sulfur drawn from Gold and the Mercury from Silver, constitute the next matter of the Stone, these are the ferments, the radicals of Gold and Silver, united in Salt.

But how to extract Sulfur and Mercury from the Gold and Silver of the Philosophers?

We touch here on the Great Arcanum of Alchemy and Hermeticism.

One will never find any formal explanation of this problem, in any work, because this secrecy could not be communicated to the profane.

The Alchemists envelop in an obscure symbolism, for the uninitiated, this mysterious chapter of Science (3).

It is by means of the Solvent, of the Menstrue, of the Azoth extracted from Magnesia that one draws the Sulfur and the Mercury from Gold and Silver.

So what is Azoth? What is this strange magnesia, where does the Azoth come from? Let us just have a presentiment that it is the Astral Light that the Adept must know how to handle and attract. It is excited by a celestial fire, volatile, modification of the astral fluid, and which attracts itself by the hermetic distillation of an Earth called Magnesia, considered as the mother of the Stone.

From this Magnesia, universal mineral, we (ire the supreme, initial Sulfur and Mercury, which corporified, united in a Salt, constitute the Azoth or Mercury of the Philosophers.

It is this energetic solvent, alive so to speak, endowed with an electromagnetic power according to Stanislas de Guaïta, which is made to act on Gold and Silver, in order to isolate the two metallic ferments of which we have spoken.

To handle the forces of Nature, personal Asceticism is essential. It therefore seems to me useless to insist on the necessity of a hermetic initiation without which no one could practice Traditional Magical Alchemy (4).

Let us continue the examination of the alchemical operations of the Stone: the solutions obtained are frozen by making them crystallize. The salts obtained are decomposed by heat. Finally, after various treatments - indicated by A. Poisson in his superb work: Theories and Symbols of the Alchemists - we have the Sulfur and the Mercury intended for the Stone. They form the next matter of the Work. These ferments resulting from Gold, Silver and vulgar Mercury are combined. They are enclosed in a well-fighted closed balloon. The matrass is placed on a bowl full of sand or ashes, and it is heated over a wheel fire, for the controlled cooking will give the mass the property of transmuting metals. — The Alchemists called Athanor the special furnace in which they put the bowl and the egg.

The fire continues without interruption until the end of the Work.

From the beginning, the bodies enter into reaction; various chemical actions occur: precipitation, sublimation, crystallization, color changes. —Matter becomes black (symbolized by the crow's head) then white (symbolized by the swan). At this degree, it corresponds to the Small Work or transmutation of lead, mercury, copper, into silver. Then the intermediate, varied tints show themselves: green, blue, livid, iris, yellow, orange. Finally the perfect ruby ​​red which indicates the happy ending.

In summary, here is the general process:

1° (The matter being prepared, that is to say the ferments being extracted from Gold and Silver): Conjunction or coitus: union of Sulfur and Mercury in the egg. We heat up. Appearance of black color.
— We then arrived at the 2nd stage.
2°: Putrefaction.
3°: The Ablution comes: the whiteness appears. The Stone washes away its impurities.
4°: Rubification; Red color. The work is perfect.
5°: Fermentation. — Its purpose is to increase the power of the Stone, to perfect it. One breaks the egg, one collects the red matter, mixes it with molten gold and a little Azoth or Mercury of the Philosophers, and one heats again. Then we repeat this operation once or twice. The Stone increases in strength. She transmutes 1000 times her metal weight instead of 5 or 10 times.

This is called Stone Multiplication.

The base metals are changed into Gold and Silver. This is the 6th operation or Projection: we take a metal: mercury, lead, tin, we melt it, then in the crucible where the heated metal is, we project a little Philosopher's Stone wrapped in wax. After cooling, we have a gold ingot, equal in weight to the metal used, or less depending on the quality of the stone.

The Red Elixir or Grand Magisterium comes in the form of a bright red powder and quite heavy.

We cannot better define this powder than by likening it to an energetic ferment which causes the molecular transformation of metals, just as a ferment changes sugar, into lactic acid for example. Therefore why be surprised to see granting the. Philosopher's Stone the property of acting in infinitely small doses, and the Alchemists affirm that a grain of Stone can convert a pound of mercury into gold; the ferment also acts on organic matter in infinitesimal doses; diastase transforms into sugar 2,000 times its weight in starch. There is therefore nothing mysterious in the chemical and vital role of the Philosopher's Stone!


PROPERTIES OF THE PHILOSOPHAL STONE

All Hermetists are unanimous on this point; this perfect Elixir is a red, heavy powder, transforming the impurities of Nature.

“He causes to evolve rapidly what natural forces take long years to produce; this is why it acts, according to the adepts, on the vegetable and animal kingdoms, as well as on the mineral kingdom, and can be called medicine of the three kingdoms”, says the great and illustrious Master Papus in his Methodical Treatise on Occult Science.

The Philosopher's Stone has three general properties:

1. It effects the transmutation of base metals into noble metals, of lead into silver, of mercury into gold, and transforms metallic substances into each other. It also makes it possible to produce the formation of precious stones, to impart to them a splendid brilliance.
2° It cures quickly, taken inside, in the form of liquid, all the diseases, and prolongs the existence. It is Potable Gold, the Elixir of Long Life, the Universal Panacea.
It acts on Plants, makes them grow, mature and bear fruit in a few hours.
3° It constitutes the Spiritus Mundi and allows the Adept to communicate with extraterrestrial beings, to compose the famous homunculi of Palingenesia.

The Rose + Croix possess this triple privilege of the Philosopher's Stone, and as such are illuminated, thaumaturges and alchemists.

“These properties of the Stone, we will conclude with Dr. Papus, constitute only one: strengthening of vital activity. The Philosopher's Stone is therefore quite simply an energetic condensation of Life in a small quantity of matter, and it acts as a leaven on the body in whose presence it is placed. A little Philosopher's Stone is enough to develop the life contained in any matter whatsoever. » (5)

NEO-ALCHEMY. — Neo-Alchemy proposes to link Chemistry to Alchemy, by showing the identity of the goal pursued, in the sense that the Universal Synthesis and the Unity of the First Matter arise from one as from the other. Chemistry is only the gross and inferior part of Alchemy. She will only live by connecting to her, to the Alchemy that will lead her to the Principles.

Alchemy and Chemistry are enemy sisters only for official scholars. In reality, they must merge, because Chemistry is the daughter of Alchemy and it borrows its best theories!

Synthesis, the reasoned Synthesis of bodies, of metals, here is above all the bond which serves as a hyphen between Chemistry and Alchemy; Synthesis, here is the Fact on which rests Neo-Alchemy, experimental science, corroborating more and more every day the hermetic doctrine, in the eyes of modern people eager for usable industrial achievements.

Neo-Alchemy or Chemical Mathesis (union of extremes: Analysis and Synthesis in a living Reality, which I tend to constitute for my part, for several years now) is based on the very principles of Chemistry which it constantly confronts with the doctrines of the alchemists in order to prove the identity of the two teachings from an experimental and positive point of view. In this way, we will be able to elucidate, thanks to an impartial and rigorous method, the problems of the Composition of Matter, of its Unity, of Atoms and Molecules, of the Genesis and evolution of Bodies.
Neo-Alchemy must demonstrate the correctness of the operations of the Great Work, as far as possible, the depth of the Alchemical Doctrines as to ù. the study of Matter, its animation and its transformations. And for that, it inspires chemical works, modern theories, brings them back to their last expression which is well within the domain of Traditional Alchemy. — Current Chemistry, as a whole, is only a stammering; ordinary chemists are simple laboratory boys. They will never succeed in discovering the integral genesis of the Bodies, the handling of the Universal Agent, with whose help the Philosopher's Stone is realized.

And therefore, all that the Alchemist can attempt is this: to explain to scholars the true meaning of the chemical theories of experiments, of syntheses, to guide them in their research, to assure them and to show them, thanks to the processes of vulgar Chemistry, that one can arrive at the demonstration of alchemical doctrines, namely: the Unity of Matter, the Industrial Manufacture of Chemical Bodies, the Synthesis of Metals.

But the making of the Philosophical Gold, this Gold superior to the known chemo-physical gold, will always remain an enigma, the privilege of the Adepts alone, faithful to their oath of silence!

The Unity of Matter is undeniably proven by the phenomena of Isomerism and Allotropy of supposedly simple and compound bodies. It would be out of place to go into too many technical details here. Let us content ourselves, therefore, only with pointing out that the Allotropy of so-called simple bodies demonstrates that, in reality, they are composed, all composed of the same matter, of the same atoms variously grouped, resulting from an unequal condensation of etheric particles. The chemical elements are polymers of each other, starting from the lightest, no doubt.

Hydrogen or Helium. Hence the different compounds, and hence also the facts of isomerism, of allotropy, consisting of diverse chemical properties for two or more elements identical by their intrinsic composition. Ozone, Hydrogen, Chlorine, Sulphur, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, etc. and among the metals: Zinc, Iron, Nickel, Cobalt, Tin, Lead, Silver and Gold, present multiple, different, allotropic molecular states in a word. Classical Chemistry observes these examples but persists in not stating the conclusion of unity and synthesis. The Synthesis of Metals, which corroborates these previous cases, the Synthesis of Gold, nevertheless exists. Practical Alchemy appears today, Alchemy with industrial tendencies.

We make Gold: MT Tiffereau, who has been fighting for its discovery for almost fifty years, and who has recorded his work in a very curious little volume: L'Or et la Transmutation des Métaux, Mr. Tiffereau obtained gold ingots by dissolving silver combined with copper, in a mixture of nitric acid or concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids, under the action of sunlight. In agreement with the old alchemists, Tiffereau attributes to special ferments the molecular changes of bodies, the respective transmutations. To reduce a metal into its elements, then to reunite it with the ferment of the body which one wishes to produce, such is the very rational idea which presides over M. Tiffereau's experiments. — But the oxygenated compounds of nitrogen must, without a doubt, play an important role in fermentation on the metallic elements: Carbon and Hydrogen among others, nitric acid constitutes the most suitable agent for dissolution, under the influence of heat,

The Swede Auguste Strindberg, both a famous man of letters and an original researcher, obtained films of gold by operating with sulphate of iron, chromate of potash and hydrochloride of ammonia. He thus gave birth to Gold that was not fixed, not absolutely matured. — And more recently we remember, following Carey-Lea's experiments on the dissociation of silver in the form of gilded silver, the discovery made by Emmens (6). He keeps his process secret, but he revealed the main lines of his method, of which here is the substance: "If you want to try, he says, the combined effect of compression and a very low temperature, you will easily produce a little gold. Take a Mexican dollar (entirely free of gold, except perhaps traces) and put it in a device that prevents its particles from spreading outside, when it has been divided. Then subject it to powerful, rapid, continuous threshing and under such cold conditions that repeated shocks cannot produce even a momentary rise in temperature. Test it hour by hour, and in the end you will find more than traces of gold. »

Dr. Emmens employs in his gold factory: Argentaurum Laboratory , a high-performance machine capable of producing pressures of 800 tons per square inch. — The series of operations which he makes the Mexican silver dollars undergo to change them into ingots of Argentaurum, are as follows:

1° Mechanical treatment. — 2° Action of a flux and granulation. — 3° Mechanical treatment. — 4. Treatment by oxygenated compounds of nitrogen, that is to say by modified nitric acid. (This method was advocated by Tiffereau 50 years ago, as Emmens himself was pleased to admit). — 5° Refining.

The Argentaurum (somewhat special Gold which we would place between Silver and Gold on the serial table of Mendeleïeff, while the Gold of the Philosopher's Stone would take place above the vulgar Gold) has the general appearances and properties of Gold. The New York Mint Assay Office buys it as gold, in ingots, and Dr. Emmens must not make bad summaries, since he expects to be able to produce 1550 kilos of Argentaurum per month, which represents a profit of more than 46 million per year!

His compatriot Edward Brice claims to manufacture fairly large quantities of precious metal and this seems real because official chemists analyzed the product from his special ovens (temp. 5000 degrees?) and recognized its perfect authenticity, using the laboratory formula that we are going to transcribe. But let's take note of this title: laboratory formula...... There is therefore another one.... industrial:

“Take 5 parts of chemically pure antimony; 10 parts of sulphur; 1 part iron; 4 parts caustic soda. Put in a graphite crucible and hold in white for 48 hours. Take the mass that results from the fusion: slag and a metal button, and pulverize it all. Mix this powder as well as the metal which is incorporated in it, with the pulverized slag. Combine with: 1 part charcoal; 5 parts of litharge or oxide of lead. Add 4 parts caustic soda. Put everything in the crucible until you have obtained a metallic button: Slag and cut the metallic mass. The plot that will constitute the final result will be Gold and Silver. We see that this process consists in the formation, first of an antimony ooze, then of an iron ooze, finally of a sulphite of lead.

The facts therefore prove, don't they, that Gold, Silver and Metals are synthetic products?

Neo-Alchemy, by its clearly experimental conclusions, demonstrates the doctrines of Hermeticism. It reveals the ascending order of the Elements, the Law of Mineral Evolution, the mechanism of Isomerism and Allotropy, the secret of the genesis and composition of Metals, of so-called simple bodies. It leads to the creation of a rational and Unitary Science.

As for Magical Alchemy (7), it flies up to the spheres of the Infinite, it drinks in the Mystery itself, the secret of Life and of the Quintessence.

We would readily compare Neo-Alchemy to a pyramid whose base rests on the Earth and which will touch the Heavens — and Alchemy to a beam of light which descends from Heaven to blossom on the Earth. Let us unite these two Knowledges, O Adepts, and we will possess the Integral Science: THE SYNTHESIS OF THE ABSOLUTE!

NOTE: These few lines for those who, already initiated into Alchemy, are able to understand between the words, and to rise up to the Adeptate, by the preparation of the Stone: The Work, in summary, is simple. It is realized in fact in a positive order, by means of the revivification of materials.

It is necessary, in Azoth, subtle energy, to solve dissolve, to regenerate, two joint bodies in only one. (Sulfur and Mercury forming Salt). These bodies, like the Azoth which derives from them and from which they come (the cycle of the serpent biting its own tail) are widespread in Nature (8).

Once joined and placed in the matrass, it remains to direct the terrestrial Fire; the volatile Fire will act by itself, within the Philosophical Egg. All of this is strictly correct. I possess the Key of the Stone, communicated by an Adept.

With my friend Jules Delassus, we realized the Work and soon we will convince the official scholars.

Vital concentration, metallic ferment, the Powder of Transmutation constitutes, in a way, an allotropy, an isomerism. It acts and transmutes imperfect metals into Gold, by an energetic fermentation.

I affirm that all the secret of the Stone holds in these lines and that no alchemist has ever revealed the Work in less sentences and in such a complete way.


THE LIFE OF MATTER

The “Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France” of November publishes a work of Mr. Ch. Ed. Guillaume, Physicist of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, on “the Life of Matter. This report was read at the session of March 7, 1900, of the Astronomical Society.

The learned physicist bases his study on this formula that he borrowed from us verbatim, which we are very proud of: “Matter is one, it lives, it evolves”. (Placed on the front page of the review L'Hyperchimie and my works; The Life and Soul of Matter (published in 1894), L'Hylozoosité (1895), L'Alchimie(1895), in which moreover it is amply developed. He recognizes that, starting from there, if official science “still considers transmutation as an operation beyond our means, we are not far from admitting that the passage from one element to another is a possible operation in the absolute sense of the word. How to explain the obvious relationship of the chemical bodies, of those which we call the simple bodies, if one does not admit a common stock? Everything tells us that the elements form families, and it would be necessary to deny the evidence to affirm that they are entirely distinct.

If we have no illusions - he adds - when we affirm that the atom could be separated into similar elements whatever the matter from which it emanates, we touch on the dream of the alchemists... But the very fact that one could reasonably have recourse to this theory shows how much the belief in the complexity of Matter has become shaky. »

If Mr. Ch. Ed. Guillaume is willing to take the trouble to leaf through "L'Hyperchimie" again, as well as my various works, among others "La Vie et l'Ame de la Matière" published seven years ago, "L'Hylozoïsm" and "How one becomes Alchemist", he will recognize, I am convinced, "the scientific value" of my own ideas. I do not defend them here out of stupid personal vanity, but only in honor of the hermetic and alchemical doctrine.

Now, for seven years I have been writing this, and I have demonstrated it: — There cannot be simple bodies, because there are no distinct creations. Everything evolves imperceptibly, everything lives. The Chemical Elements are the "Mineral Species" as loose as the animal or vegetable Species which derive from them - and which also come from a primordial stock by transformations.

The Transmutation of the Chemical Elements constitutes their particular and generic evolution. Evolution is "gradual" change. »

Natural Selection, the influence of environments, the struggle for existence act on chemical elements, on bodies, atoms, molecules, cells, on all "living matter". Organic, zoological and vegetal transformism admitted, it is also necessary to discover mineral transformism.

The Law of Unity governs the Universe, from the Suns to the Atoms (9). Chemical Transformism is based on many facts. And I claim to have brought them to light (See How one becomes an Alchemist, part: Practice).
The phenomena of Allotropy and Isomerism, which irrefutably demonstrate the Unity of Matter, can be explained by means of atomic and molecular “sexual” Selection, because the differences, the divergences, the variations reside in the same mineral species. They are very close. They indicate the transition which must exist from one chemical type to another.

The progressive changes of the various and more complex chemical elements are attributable, without doubt, to Natural Selection which preserves the types with the most advantageous characters in the struggle for the existence of the chemical elements.

Examples of sexual selection: Phosphorus, Gold, Silver, Nickel, Iron, Sulphur, Oxygen, Carbon, etc., etc. Allotropics vary under the influence of a kind of "sexual" selection differentiating the same strain.

Examples of Natural Selection: the evolutionary, progressive series: Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, Fluorine, or else: Oxygen, Sulphur, Selenium. Tellurium, etc. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Arsenic, Antimony, polymerize and condense serially under the influence of Natural Selection (10) which acts on all the types, on the great families of elements, and thus facilitates the general Evolution, by large stages. The Heredity of Atoms, of Molecules, transmits the acquired properties and fixes the intermediate links. (Memory of Matter.)

To sum up, the highest chemical bodies are descended from the primordial condensed chemical bodies, just as Man and the quadrumana are descended from the antecedent animal forms.

Gold descends from Silver, for example, as Man descends from Pithecanthropes!

I wanted to fix in these few lines the concise theory of Mineral Evolution and to refer to the very sources, because if I am happy to see scholars such as Mr. Ch. Ed. Guillaume adhering to it today, in the name of official science, I would be sorry if we forgot that this Unitary Doctrine comes out of initiatory, Rosicrucian and alchemical fraternities.


RETURN NOTES

1. Force becomes Matter (Involution) and Matter becomes Force (Evolution), through Movement. This cycle comes from Unity and is reabsorbed there — because it moves there.

2. Some say that tancha (mercury sulphide), by absorbing the vapors of green blood (thousand principle, light, heat, activity), gives rise to a mineral, Kong-che, which, after 200 years, becomes native cinnabar. So the woman is pregnant.
After 300 years, this cinnabar turns into lead; this lead, after 200 years, turns into silver, and then, after 200 years, after having undergone the action of the KI (the vital, astral spirit) of the tabo (Grande Concorde?) — becomes gold. (Chinese Encyclopedia). But, adds the Japanese commentator, this is a mistaken opinion.
Lead sulfide gives rise to silver.
Sulfur is the origin of metals. — (Chinese Encyclopedia.)
The initiates will meditate on these notes. We urge them to bring them closer to our personal comments.

3. Let us say once and for all that: Sun and Moon; Gold and Silver of the Philosophers; Male and female ; King and Queen; Sulfur and Mercury are synonyms.

4. The reason for secrecy, from a social point of view, is due to the misuse that most men would make of Gold. They would hardly use it for the general good. Then a universal catastrophe, following a terrible monetary crisis, would shake the world. Nothing would be better; everything would undoubtedly go worse, and Pauperism would persist as before.

5. The historical transmutations of Nicolas Flamel, Jean Dee, Kelley, Van-Helmont, Helvetius, Sendivogius, Lascaris, St. Germain, carried out from the 14th to the 18th century alone would authorize not to cast doubt on the reality of the Philosopher's Stone in the absence of other considerations. If the documents on the Alchemical Synthesis are rare today, it comes from the destruction of the famous libraries of Thebes, Memphis and Alexandria which contained quantities of precious works concerning the Sacred Sciences. The tradition of the Red, Black and Yellow Races, their Knowledge, recorded in unique books, thus disappeared in the flames lit by the sacrilegious hands of Man. We know that the library of Alexandria was burned by Christians under the orders of Bishop Theophilus.
The fragmented Occult Sciences, transmitted by groups of initiates, have not yet reconstituted their Integral Unity.

6. Dr. Emmens, the famous astronomer Camille Flammarion are, among other scholars, honorary members of the Alchemical Society of France.

7. Magic is the natural science (there is nothing supernatural or outside of Nature) of Essences and Powers.

8. These are the S. and the M. of the Ph. the Gold and the Silver of the Sages extracted from Magnesia.

9. The Universe is the body of God; the Beings are its Soul; He WHO IS ONE is the Spirit. His unique Word, under his multiple appearances, governs Everything. Verbum caro factum est!

10. The transmutation of Arsenic into Phosphorus operated by Mr. Fitttca is a new proof of the action of Natural Selection and of the transformism of the elements; which only partially fix the types.
The polymeric compounds of Organic Chemistry fit admirably into our serial Evolutionism (hydrogen carbides, etc.)


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