#the great work

[curly4830]

who wants to join my girls night out(completing the great work)

[sspacegodd]

Remember this: WHATEVER you come across in your inner journey, YOU ARE NOT IT.

You are the one who is WITNESSING it. It may be nothingness, it may be blissfulness, it may be silence, but always remember that however beautiful and however enchanting an experience you come across, YOU ARE NOT IT. You are the one who is EXPERIENCING it.

If you go on and on and on, you'll find that the ultimate peak in the journey is the point when there is NO EXPERIENCING LEFT – neither silence, nor blissfulness, nor nothingness. No object; just witnessing. The mirror is empty; it is finally not reflecting anything.

That's you.

[chaospel]

lemme know when you get it

(meme contains: the first stage of the great work AKA the alchemist's laboratory : hans vredeman de vries)

[koyotetheblind]

Aka Dua and the Ring of Power

It was in 1998 that my Benefactor, Kachora, gave me the Ring of Power.  He was sending me away to complete a task after 3 years of apprenticeship. He told me, “you are learning too fast, Koyote, but the next task you have to do on your own. You must call and get your Ally.” The Ally, he explained, is an ancient being of great power and knowledge. “He will teach you magick,” Kachora said. He…

[timeclonemike]

Alchemy in the Wikke Archipelago

As Above, So Below: Like all magical practices in the islands, Alchemy is based around the study and use of cycles of energy and activity, specifically cycles that correspond with the passage of astral bodies through the sky. Nobody can argue that the activity of the sun has a defining influence on life, and the passage of the moon marks the tides; so it is also with the other planets even if their influence is more subtle in comparison. Rationalists are still attempting to isolate the exact mechanism by which astral bodies exert their influence on the world and everything in it, usually by reverse engineering the processes by which Elixirs and other Alchemical substances are made; light is obviously part of it, but there is definitely something else in play. (Great Works are accomplished less often, and with greater effort, meaning opportunities to study the involved processes are similarly scarce and difficult.)

Light, Sound, And Substance: Alchemical manuscripts often speak of attributes such as Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt, that do not necessarily correspond to the chemical substances of the same name. This has resulted in more than a few self taught or apprentice alchemists poisoning themselves, and the linguistic confusion alone has driven a wedge been Alchemists and non-magical chemists. Alchemists that have the benefit of an entire Society to maintain continuity of knowledge (and set proper safety standards for apprenticeships) understand that these terms are archaic definitions from proto-alchemy and proto-chemistry that stand for whole classes of properties instead; Salt represents the solidity of physical mass, Mercury stands for physical motion or mechanically measured energy, and Sulfur for heat, light, and electromagnetic energy. Learning how and under what conditions these properties can become interchangeable is the stereotypical pursuit of alchemists, but in practice learning the ins and outs of transmutation is only the first step in a long journey - and it involves so much mathematical calculation that the less devoted apprentices who want to make gold as a get rich quick scheme are filtered out very early.

Water Treatment: The body is between two thirds and three quarters water, depending on what medical authority is being used as a reference, and maintaining this balance is vital for all known vital processes. Water is also a relatively abundant substance in and around the islands (if not always fresh and drinkable) meaning it is and has been cheap and easy to experiment with magically. It has been argued that Alchemy originally started as a practice when water was discovered to be such a potent reservoir for magical energy; others argue that true Alchemy didn't begin until it was merged with Astronomy and the study of the heavens, but however it started, Alchemy boils down (pun intended) to collecting energy in water so that whoever or whatever drinks it gains the benefits (or drawbacks) of said energy. This was done earliest with plant life and herbs, harnessing existing cycles in plant growth throughout the seasons, though purely medical herbalism evolved independently of Alchemy and eventually lead to non-magical pharmacology. Later refinements involved complicated chemical processes done under auspicious astrological events, which were both more effective and more dangerous due to the risk of heavy metal poisoning.

Star Power: The most recent development in Alchemy involved the creation of the Alchemical Orrery, a miniaturized model of the solar system that replaced the planets with a set of mirrors made of their corresponding astrological and alchemical materials; gold, silver, tin, etc. Not every material is easily rendered reflective, and mercury being a liquid must be suspended in a carefully created hollow glass lens in order to maintain the proper shape, but the end result exploits the principle of As Above, So Below by recreating the same astrological influences on a smaller scale. The practical upside is that the Alchemical Society in particular, who could afford to build many such mechanisms and had the people to operate them around the clock, has become quite economically powerful; Elixirs and other substances that once took weeks or months to prepare in small batches can now be cranked out in bulk on a daily basis.

Skilled Trades: While the Orreries have drastically reduced the time scale needed for many things created with alchemy, this does come at a price. Part of that price is reduced efficacy; the mirrors capture less sunlight / moonlight / starlight compared to exposure to the actual Astral bodies they represent, and while the optics have been refined over many years and experiments the mass produced stuff still isn't as potent as the bespoke stuff. The other drawback is that operating an Orrery correctly requires the same knowledge of interacting forces that more traditional alchemy does, with the added burden of being able to make very precise calculations and adjustments to the mirrors and lenses, otherwise the astral influence will be dissipated or diffracted rather than concentrated. So the modern Alchemist has to be an accomplished herbalist, chemist, metallurgist, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer like their predecessor, while also adding mechanic and precision tool-making machinist to the mix.

The Great Work: For the particularly visionary, stubborn, inspired, and insane Alchemist, there is also the ever-present temptation of the Great Work. This multi-stage process gradually transforms the body of the Alchemist into an idealized state, banishing weakness and illness and leaving only strength and grace and clarity. Like so many things in life, it is easier said than done, as the ritual preparations for each stage are increasingly complex and demanding, and the margin of error for failure shrinks dramatically the closer an Alchemist gets to perfection. (Which makes sense if you think about it.) The process depends on the body being present at certain locations where astral energy is exceptionally potent, during planetary conjunctions that either amplify or diminish a given astral influence. There are many different ways to pursue the Great Work, but importantly, they are mutually exclusive; an alchemist can start with any number of conjunctions or eclipses or alignments but each one is only compatible with certain combinations of events going forward, and each of THOSE available events leads to a smaller number of future events. Trying to use an incompatible time or place to progress the work invariably leaves the Alchemist with too much of one influence, not enough of another, or some combination of mutually antagonist forces in their body with no mitigating third element. None of these outcomes are pleasant or healthy, with the exact degree of each depending on how far the Great Work has progressed.

Quitting While You're Ahead: For those unable or unwilling to attempt the full Great Work, there are various points to stop along the way, known appropriately enough as Lesser Works. These enhance the body, senses, and mind, push back the aging process a fair bit, and also add a fair amount of social standing too. The established theory states that the third step of the Great Work is the last step before the point of no return; beyond that point, the simple passage of the seasons and the planets in their courses can incapacitate or kill an Alchemist as their body still tries to reconcile all of the different forces running around inside it. By way of comparison, missing a conjunction for a stage two ritual progression will leave the Alchemist moody and irritable and in ill health for a few days to a week surrounding it, while missing the stage three ritual can leave an Alchemist bedridden for a day or two, and it only gets worse from there. Nobody knows for sure what happens if somebody misses the final stage ritual, but fragmentary texts (as in, the texts were blown up into fragments) point to widespread destruction of some form or another.

[eyeoftheheart]

“I can tell you this much: you are aware that in the official science of today the role of the observer becomes more and more important. Relativity, the principle of indeterminacy, show the extent to which the observer today intervenes in all these phenomena. The secret of alchemy is: there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call ‘a field of force’. This field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-a-vis the Universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call “The Great Work’.”

“But what about the philosopher’s stone? The fabrication of gold?”

“These are only applications, particular cases. The essential thing is not the transmutation of metals, but that of the experimenter himself. It’s an ancient secret that a few men rediscover once in a century.””

― The People of the Secret by Ernest Scott

(Artwork + Gandalf in the Library of Gondor)

[arbiterofthedead]

Shadows. Decay. The Deceased. The Living.

All serve a grand cycle.

[sinjones]

[idealog]

Crawl.

God is No Respecter of you PERSONS.

So why do you Make yourselves so low and shamefully degraded? Climb.

[almostlookedhuman]

[lovesinistra]

[koyotetheblind]

Happy new cycle!

This is the beginning of a new cycle, both in nature and in the consciousness of humanity. It is an auspicious moment to become aware of this window of opportunity. I invite you to use our collective awareness of the present moment to SEE a new dream.  As individuals, we create a simulation of the world in our minds. This is where we live the environment created by our judgements, our…

[scarletvisions]

Per i tre giorni di Scrittura del Libro della Legge

Cari Fratelli, ho pensato che potesse essere interessante condividere con voi tutti delle pratiche che osserverò durante la Celebrazione dei tre giorni di scrittura del Libro della Legge. Non si tratta di niente di speciale ma lo trovo un modo per riaccendere la fiamma della devozione che può essere associata al Bhaktiyoga, tramite delle pratiche di concentrazione e meditazione proverò a…

[eyeoftheheart]

“The alchemical operations were real, only this reality was not physical but psychological. Alchemy represents the projection of a drama both cosmic and spiritual in laboratory terms. The opus magnum had two aims: the rescue of the human soul, and the salvation of the cosmos.”

― Carl Jung

[ Artist • Jakob Böhme ]

[arbiterofthedead]

Purification Through Fire

Running his claw-like gauntlet across the rim of the brazier the Necromancer would let his crimson rubies settle upon the collection of bones that had been placed within the ancient fire holding vessel. The conclusion to an Ashkin hunt had come to a near close, now that the physical manifestations of the dead had been cut down Valerian knew that to stop them from returning he had to turn the bones into ash.

“Rest now forevermore...and return to the life stream, this world is no longer yours to wander.” Valerian muttered beneath his breath as he held out his left hand, focusing a degree of aether into his palm to allow a sickly green flame to manifest.

“Be at peace...” The Necromancer added as he held out his hand to the brazier where the flame would bounce from his hand and onto the pile of bones. The old bones were set ablaze almost instantly and quickly began to turn into fine ash. As the bones deteriorated Valerian could feel a sense of relief wash over him, knowing that the spirits bound to these wandering bones could now rest in peace in whatever life came after death.

Another hunt had come to a close...but there were countless more to conduct, he knew that there would be no end to these hunts and yet he continued to do them anyway. Even though Ashkin would continue to terrorize the living long after his own passing he knew that he could at least play a small part in bringing peace to at least a sliver of the stars Ashkin.

Once he watched the bones completely turn to ash the Necromancer turned his back to the ancient brazier before moving across the burial chamber to an old table that had certainly seen better days. Slowly leaning over he’d pick up a book bound in black leather before glancing over his shoulder towards the vessel for a split second.

Shaking his head briefly, as if pushing a thought away, he would secure his book under his right arm before he would venture from the chamber and towards Gridania where he would rest for a spell before returning home in the morning.