Substances spiritualization

Going further even than Muir, some eminent chemists stridently opposed modem alchemy and the transmutation hypotheses emerging to explain radioactivity. Toward the end of his life, Mendeleev, for example, became quite concerned about the implications of radioactivity for his scientific and chemical world view. As Michael Gordin explains, Mendeleev s most salient exposure to radioactivity, and the genesis of most of his hostile views of the phenomenon, was his visit to the Curies laboratory in Paris in 1902. What he saw evoked similar worries as the Spiritualists had. He wrote in his Paris notebook ... [M]ust one admit whether there is spirit in matter and forces Radio-active substances, spiritualism (Gordin 2004,213). Mendeleev... 

Essence of Vanilla.—The substance sold under this name is, properly, a spirituous extract of the vanilla bean. Many samples, however, are little more than alcoholic solutions of artificial vanillin, coloured with caramel. Some samples, which cannot be described as adulterated, contain a little coumarin or other odorous substance, added to varj- the characteristic vanillin odour and flavour somewhat. 

You have now constructed the citadel in the finer etheric, astral, and mental substances drawn out from your own aura, and so it has a close psychic link with you. As each chamber inside this Tower of the Art, corresponds to one of the subjective Sephirothic centers, you have thereby constructed a remote-control device. The tower is a means by which you can concentrate upon and direct energy to the chakras, without any concentration upon the physical centers at all. By working in the appropriate chamber in the castle, you can produce an effect upon the inner levels. From there, you work naturally through into physical, waking consciousness. So this etheric structure prevents damage to the physical body, but at the same time allows the spiritual powers of the etheric centers to unfold quite naturally. Most people incarnate today have a... 

When, in the preliminary exercises preceding the actual practice, practitioners build up the Tree of Life in their aura, the paths are formulated as a consequence, since they are subjective reactions to the objective power of the Sephiroth. The Fountain Breath exercise then unifies the influences of all the Paths and the Sephiroth. This happens because there is only One Power that flows through all the paths and manifests in a ten-fold aspect as the Sephiroth, the outpouring of the Most Holy One that is Mezla, grace, by which the worlds are nourished and sustained. For grace is not some abstract poetic metaphor, but an actual etheric, astral, and spiritual substance. Alchemy names it the water that burns and the fire that flows. It is the First Matter. 

Among the mineral substances I found one which exhibited many colours, and proved to be of the greatest efficacy in art. The spiritual essence of this substance I extracted, and therewith restored our sick brother, in a few days, to perfect health. For the strength of this spirit was so great as to quicken the prostrate spirit of my diseased brother, who, from that day to the day of his death, remembered me in his hourly prayers. And his prayers, together with my own diligence, so prevailed with God, that there was revealed to me that great secret which God ever conceals from those who are wise in their own conceits. 

Alchemy is ubiquitous, multiple, and self-repIicating. But what is alchemy A practice A theory Some combination of both A historical oddity or an atemporal spiritual mode Is alchemy primarily about the production of gold from a base substance If so, what does one do with the product Display it like a trophy Drink it in order to extend life infinitely Project it in order to make more gold And then what Like a coin that is passed around so often it is clipped, sweated, and worn, alchemy has entered our rhetorical circulation, so that the original circumstances of its... 

Paracelsus (1493-1541), one of the greatest alchemists and the founder of modern medicine, defined alchemy as the transformation of one natural substance into another, one fit for a new use. He created non-herbal medicines, which he considered the main physical goal of alchemy. However, he was equally strong in his belief that the true quest of the alchemist was his own spiritual transformation. The students of Paracelsus tended to split in two directions those who developed the science of medication, which led to modern medicine and then chemistry and those who abandoned the laboratory to search for spiritual gold within, a course which led to mystical philosophies like Rosicrucianism, a mystical brotherhood that emerged in the seventeenth century. 

Besides the four elements, the Great Work was divided into four stages and each was characterized by a color black, white, yellow, and red. The Great Work consisted of separation of the Primary Material into separate masculine and feminine parts that were joined in what was called the lesser conjunction. This substance was subjected to various chemical operations until the substance was killed and left to rot in a process called putrefaction. Next the substance was separated again, bathed and purified, and then recombined in the greater conjunction. This process brought the substance back to life in a spiritual form. Because of the Great Work, the substance... 

Know then, gentle Reader, that life is the only trae spirit, and that that which the ignorant herd look upon as dead may be brought back to permanent, visible, and spiritual life, if but the spirit be restored to the body — the spirit which is supported by heavenly nutriment, and derived from heavenly, elementary, and earthly substances, which are also called formless matter. Moreover, as iron has its magnet which draws it with the invisible bonds of love, so our gold has its magnet, viz., the first Matter of the great Stone. If you understand these my words, you are richer and more blessed than the whole world. 

After dissolution came Conjunction, wherein the separated elements were combined. Then followed Putrefaction, necessary for the germination of the seed which had been produced by calcination, dissolution, and conjunction. Putrefaction was followed by Congelation and Citation. The passage through the next gate, called Sublimation, caused the body to become spiritual, and the spiritual to be made corporal. Fermentation followed, whereby the substance became soft and flowed like wax. Finally, by Exaltation, the Stone was perfected. 

Philalethes says, in A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby. "The Philosopher s Stone is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetrative, and fixed substance, which brings all metals to the perfection of gold or silver (according to the quality of the Medicine), and that by natural methods, which yet in their effects transcend Nature.. . Know then that it is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only because, by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire as successfully as any stone. In species it is gold, more pure than the purest it is fixed and incombustible like a stone, but its appearance is that of very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous, and easily capable of tinging a plate of metal. If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more than the truth if we described it as corporeal, the expression would be equally correct."... 

The results supported the ancient theory which asserted that earth, water, air, and fire are the four Elements of the world. The solid residue represented earth, the liquid products of the distillation, water, and the spirituous substances, air. Fire was regarded sometimes as the means of purification, sometimes as the soul, or invisible part, of all substances. 

Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt[ ] they turn away from the soulless life of the present, towards those substances and ideas which give free scope to the non-material strivings of the soul. In each manifestation is the seed of a striving towards the abstract, the non-material. Consciously or unconsciously, [modem spiritualist artists] are obeying Socrates command—Know thyself. ... 

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