ALCHEMICAL
LABORATORY
BULLETINS
Vol. II, No. 9
1972
INDEX
Announcements
About the Magnet and Its Healing Power
Student Laboratory Fund
Questions and Answers
Please Give Us Your Answer
An Alchemistical Adventure in 1973
In the Next Bulletin
Translations From Our Old Books
Allopathy and Homeopathy
Announcements
Your Bulletin subscription has become due. Please mail your renewal form for the Alchemical Laboratory Bulletin if you have not done so or your name will be taken from the list. Thank you.
PARACELSUS BY TELEPNEF
We still have a few copies of this delightful little book about Paracelsus in stock. We recommnend the biography of this genius. You can make a wonderful gift to some one by having us mail this book for you. The cost is only $2.20 prepaid in the U.S.A. Would you care to donate one copy to a public library? We will mail it for you and name you as the donor.
WHEN WAS I BORN?
To those of you who have ordered "When Was I Born," do not despair! Soon the copy will go to the printer and hopefully you will receive your copy sometime in February. To those of you who have not yet ordered this title, it will be a four page pamphlet giving instructions on how to determine the 'hour and minute when you were born if you have the birthday of your mother. See Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 8, 1971. The cost will be 85cents or 2 for $l.25. Payment must be included with order.
CLASSES FOR 1972
As announuced in the last Bulletin only a few classes will be held during 1972. Not all applications can be accepted. Make your arrangements for next year as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Our waiting lists are getting longer all the time. Play safe and send your application as early as possible to insure a place for you.
ATTENTION ADVANCED STUDENTS
Those students to whom the work on the Alkahet has been given, should reserve the Fall of 1972 for a special symposium. Details will be forthcoming after our return from Australia and the Far East this year.
The Alchemical Laboratory Bulletin is a quarterly publication of the Paracelsus Research Society, P. O. Box 6006, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84106, U.S.A. Annual subscription $6.00. This price includes one complimentary copy to be mailed to an institution of learning or as otherwise designated by the subscriber. Individuals and institutions unable to pay the annual subscription fee may upon verification of their request, receive the Bulletin gratis. Copyrighted and printed in the U.S.A.
About the Magnet And Its Healing Power
The strange power to be found in a magnet has aroused the curiosity of many people from remote times up to the present. Simple experiments conducted by teachers in school demonstrate the underlying law of attraction and repulsion. Anyone can see it work but why the magnet acts in the way it does is still a mystery.
First, why does the magnetic pole differ from the geographic pole? The magnetic North pole is positive and the magnetic South pole negative. By contrast neither geographic pole shows such magnetic attraction. The geographic pole is man-oriented while the magnetic poles make a complete revolution in approximately 2,590,000 years, during which time the polarities become reversed or how long such rotation has gone on and will continue to go on is not known. But there is something about the magnetic power that we do know. A plain horseshoe or bar magnet will attract iron. This is in itself rather peculiar. One would ask: "Why iron?" It appears that the magnetic force of the earth centers around iron.
But what about the magnetic force of the moon? Here we find the magnetic power attracts water. One may assume, as the ancients observed, that the planetary forces have a relationship to the various metals and their inherent qualities making it possible by their individual polarities to attract to themselves those of opposing polarity and thus produce amalgams, i.e. copper and zinc give brass, and copper and tin make bronze, etc. Since we use metals as conductors beginning with gold as the best and then going down the line finding some that are extremely poor conductors while other refuse entirely to act as such. The ancient also related planetary polarities to some of the physical limbs and vital organs of man. And since male and female are considered positive and negative respectively, yet does each possess both polarities. The right half of the human body is considered positive and the left negative.
Should any ailments or disorders show within the human system it would indicate a weakening of the ability of the respective polarity to attract the opposite polarity and thus to create a harmonious field of attraction. This would clearly reveal magnetism at work. Not only does it reveal the magnetic attraction and repulsion like the removing or repelling of extraneous matter in the body of both the healthy and sick, but that the underlying cause of both attraction and repulsion is brought about by spirit. Since spirit is life and resides in matter to which soul (consciousness) is added we have the triune perfection of creation. The moment this harmony is disturbed we have what in Sanskrit is called "Tridosha," which means one or all three of the vital essentials are at fault. It, therefore, requires the conscious (soul) energy to act and it chooses the magnetic polarity found upon earth attracted to iron in combination with other planetary polarities to re-establish any harmony or magnetic equality. Our sense of balance is a typical example. The fluid found in both ears when unequally divided causes the equilibrium to be disturbed. The fluid in the ears would indicate that such an organ comes, as does the water in the oceans, under the magnetic force of the moon. Somnambulists show an extraordinary sense of equilibrium (balance).
It is no wonder that the magnet has been used to restore the equilibrium in the human system imbedded in an enormous amount of fluid, or the four humours of the ancients, of which our blood is the most prominent with lymph fluids, bile, etc, comprising the bulk. Considering that iron plays an important part in our blood we may assume that it acts as an internal magnetic substance (iron particles) diffused throughout the body acting as an internal magnet attracting or repelling external magnetic influences coming from planet and moon forces to the magnet of earthy origin (the human body).
It may be suggested that the force of attraction or repulsion of magnetic iron particles in the blood would be extremely weak compared to the ordinary horseshoe magnet used by children. This is not necessarily so. Admittedly such a child's magnet may consist of 300 gaus, yet the earth's magnetism is only 1/2 gaus. Since men are subject to continuous magnetic attractions and repulsions this force would have to be of a subtle nature considering the average life span of man. However, when a distortion has occurred extra strength may be required to set aright what has become out of balance. The magnet may thus be used as a conductor for the opposite polarity inducing a cohesion of particles.
The writer witnessed some magnetic manipulations while in India, that were interesting enough to warrant further evaluation.
The Chinese system of Acapuncture is another way whereby gold and silver needles are used as conductors and in some instances have been replaced with steelneedles. It is obvious that here too magnetism plays a part. Were one to add, what is known as animal magnetism, not to be confused as found with wild or domesticated animals only, but mainly inherent in men, we have further proof that magnetisim can be stored within men and used as either attraction or repulsion.
If such is the case what about the healing properties of the magnet. Here one must be very careful as a very thorough diagnosis of the various ailments under question is first necessary. One should not jump to the conclusion that a magnet may be applied "any old way" as long as it is a magnet. When a positive phase is needed to bring about an equilibrium then a negative polarity applied will not work. How one can know which polarity to apply and why could be ascertained through trial and error. If relief from the imbalance of the body after treatment is the result we know we have been correct in our treatment. A contrary result speaks for itself. However, it is wiser to get literature on magnet healing and check the results listed therein before experimenting.
About five hundred years ago Basilius Valentinus, the famed alchemist, says at the end of his book "Triumphant Chariot of Antimony," "I return to my monastery where I mean to devote myself to further study, and, if possible, to elucidate the secrets of vitriol, common sulphur, and the magnet, their origin, preparation and virtues."
Vitriol and sulphur, their preparation and virtues have received considerable attention in therapeutics, but the magnet and its virtues are just about to become known as being more useful in treating external and internal illness and disease.
In a future issue of the Bulletin we shall give some reliable evidences of how magnetic results in therapeutics have opened up entirely new concepts for treating ailing manlrind. Such findings are at present being tested and further evaluated. The results should prove very enlightening.
STUDENT LABORATORY FUND
IMPORTANT! PLEASE NOTE!
Perhaps many subscribers are not aware that there is a student laboratory fund that helps to cover some of the expenses to maintain the lab. It takes a considerable amount of money to operate and maintain these labs for the research projects underway.
In 1967 a Student Lab Fund was established by the students to enlarge the lab (which was done) and to cover a portion of the operating expenses. During the past four years these donations have done much to carry on the work. The student committee is grateful for this help and hopes that those subscribers will continue with their generosity. Mankind, as well as ourselves, will be the recipients of the results of our laboratory research projects.
We are now suggesting changes in procedure which will keep you bettter informed.
1. In order to reduce unnecessary bookkeeping and handling, students will please send their donations directly to P.R.S. in Salt Lake City, marked: STUDENT LAB FUND, beginning January 1973.
2. Quarterly the secretary-Treasurer of the P.R.S., Dr. Siegfried Karsten, will send a report to the chairman stating the donations, disbursements, and balance during that period.
3. The committee will see that the students are notified of the status of the fund. The committee would be glad to receive any suggestions or comments on the above changes of procedure. The first report will be for the fiscal year March 1, 1971 to March 1, 1972. Thereafter, we will keep you informed every three months.
Student Lab Committee, Viola Engel, Chairman 9620 West 57th Street, Merriam, Kansas 66203
QUESTIONS and ANSWERS
QUESTION NO. 61--The antimony vinegar can only be obtained from the ore (either calcined or not) but not from the regulus. Is this not true?
Answer: No. You can get antimony vinegar from the regulus but it does not have the spirit in it. A fixed spirit is found in the acid, but an acid does not necessarily have to contain the essential spirit--for instance com.monly prepared nitric acid does not contain an essential spirit as the Alchemist understands.
QUESTION NO. 62--Old alchemists, including Sully, claim that there is a stone and yet is not a stone. Is tartar such a stone?
Answer: No.
QUESTION NO. 63--Why are we so particular in making glass of antimony without any admixture when in making the red sulphide or trichloride, etc., we use other chemicals in their preparation.
Answer: Glass of antimony is pure antimony while in the red sulphide the sulphur remains and is calcined out when making the glass of antimony.
QUESTION NO. 64--How and when did the alchemists discover the three building blocks of creation, namely, salt, sulphur and mercury, and is there any historical record of it?
Answer: These are found in the beginning of creation here on earth. There is no historical record available.
QUESTION NO. 65--If planets are impersonal, then they must be personal. A so-called negative aspect of Saturn for instance should be an opportunity to contact the sanctifying Intelligence of Saturn directly. Since a personal, higher Intelligence is being contacted in LOVE, what is there to fear?
Answer: Only fear itself.
QUESTION NO. 66--Frater Albertus, if we are not being too personal, would you tell us how you, yourself, were drawn to Alchemy in your early years, something of what your training was like and of the teacher who guided you, that you in turn' might guide others, such as stumbling students like
ourselves?
Answer: This would be too long a story here. Such things are best given orally. When simply stated too much nonsense would be made out of such statements by people whose imaginations run wild.
QUESTION NO 67--What should be used to stop hardening of the arteries, all over the body?
Answer: The proper solvent that will loosen and/or dissolve the deposits found therein. These could be of many and different origins. In the case of cholesterol a solvent that would dissolve cholesterol deposits would be the one. Such a one could be derived from pure oleum vitelli, not commonly extracted oil of egg which contains a considerable amount of cholesterol impurities. In the Quarta class preliminary instructions on how to obtain such a solvent are given by way of research procedures. As was said before, there are many contributing factors causing hardening of the arteries. These factors must be ascertained before the proper solvent can be found.
QUESTION NO. 68--Is it good to let NH4C1 sublimate for more than 3 days for the K.M.?
Answer: It will depend on the type of sublimator used and the heat source and temperature available whether more or less than three days are needed.
QUESTION NO. 69--At the symposium in Kansas City, in answer to a question, you said that the oils (or tinctures) of the herbs should not be mixed. Does not your theriac contain just such a mixture?
Answer: We had reference then to making the herbal stone. Yes, our Theriac does contain just such a mixture, which is according to the transmitted formula for theriac, of which the Venetian seems to be the most famous.
QUESTION NO. 70--Would you please explain the benefits of fasting to body and mind and what takes place in the various body systems?
Answer: A good housecleaning is essential, not just necessary, every so often! Accummulations must be removed or these will cause putrefaction which will breed diseasd. The body will benefit thereby and so will the mind, as here, too, a housecleaning is in order. Too much is stashed away in the mind that has seen its usefulness and needs to be discarded or it will also breed an apathy against anything needed to cleanse it from indoctrinated or preconceived notions.
QUESTION NO. 7I--Would you tell us what the seven mother herbs are. Just heard of them this year.
Answer: We are not aware of any seven mother herbs. At least not the way you have worded it.
QUESTION NO. 72--How can we prove that the color system you use is correct? Your system differs from others on such basics as the four elements. It's understandable that there might be some variation in the shading areas; however, it seems all systems would agree on the four elements.
Answer: In alchemy the accepted four colors for the four elements are: red-fire; yellow-air; green-earth; blue-water. By mistake some have been changed such as water-green and earth-blue, etc., but so much has been adulterated in alchemical terminology that the meaning a symbol is trying to tell us becomes of importance. Color is also a symbol. An initiate alchemist is able to differentiate. We have no system of our own. We take what is to be had and by research discover which system serves a given purpose best under given circumstances. The Paracelsus Research Society is not tied down to a certain system and does not refuse to investigate all and any systems that might help clarify and simplify a matter under investigation.
QUESTION NO. 73--A heretical question perhaps, but here it is-why should the highest, the philosophical mercury, proceed from the lowest in so-called evolution, the metallic kingdom?
Answer: The philosophical mercury is found in the metallic realm because in the animal and plant kingdoms it does not have the necessary time to coagulate and even ripen into its watery (fluidic) consistency. In the end all three of the mercuries spoken of in alchemy are of the same origin. There is but one Universal Spirit but its ramifications are many by degree. The Philosophical Mercury is the one that lovers of wisdom (philosophers) discover hidden in the metallic realm and rejoice in the fact that it will do in the hands of men what nature would require an enormeusly long time (naturally) to accomplish and what the philosopher ("lover of wisdom"-which he must have first before he can love it) do by art in a comparatively short time compared to nature's way.
QUESTION NO. 74--C. G. Jung has placed great emphasis upon the psychological interpretation of alchemical symbols in his works in Depth Psychology. These symbols had emerged through his own and his patient's dreams. Will this aspect of Alchemy eventually play a part in our work?
Answer: Definitely. Man creates his own symbols according to his consciousness. Symbols may have different meanings to different people. It is not the symbol per se that is important but what it means in each case that gives the clue to the answer to be found therein.
Pleccse Give Us Your Answer
Frequently we are asked why the Paracelsus Research Society does not make, a greater effort to become known among people interested in alchemy and esotericism. What would you suggest we do? Write us a letter giving us your suggestions.
An Alchemistical Adventure In 1973
Next year, Hermetic students, interested especially in laboratory alchemy, will have the opportunity to visit places and meet people of past and present involvement in alchemy.
For our 1973 three-day European Seminar an outstanding program of an International character is being planned under the direction of Dr. Siegfried Karsten, Secretary-Treasurer of the P.R.S. Following the Seminar Frater Albertus will personally conduct a tour to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where, behind the Castle of Prague, is to be found the little "Street of the Goldmakers" with the interesting small houses of the alchemists showing their alchemical laboratory and living quarters. Here the alchemistical laborers performed their manual chores. In Switzerland the birthplace of Paracelsus will be visited. This is in a different location than present day information tells us it should be. In another part of Switzerland we will see the original laboratory with its alembics, furnace and typical alchemistical paraphernalia wherein Paracelsus worked for over two years. You will be transported back to the Middle Ages in a subteranean Alchemical Laboratory in Southern Germany and you will see a pharmacy for the "nobility" and one for the "common people" of those bygone times. Deep in the Black Forest is the place where Dr. Faustus, famed necromancer and alchemist, was employed at the Castle Stauffen. The ruins give mute testimony of the reigns of the Counts of Stauffen. Below in a little city is the Inn where Faust lived out his later years until, as legend has it, Mephistopheles came and broke his neck. After hundreds of years his room is still intact and is rented to overnight guests as is any other room in the Inn.
Not only will the romantic past be part of the tour, including the above mentioned places as well as walled in medieval towns where there are still only four gates allowing entrance to the city, such as Noerthlingen, Rothenburg, etc., but living alchemists, the few still to be found, will be visited. In France an alchemist working with his twenty-one-year-old son will be of special interest to visitors. Also, we will observe spagyrists at work in the Black Forest of Germany and in a few other places. Castle Donaumuenster, where the recently departed Baron von Bernus had his laboratory, which still manufactures spyagyric medications, will be of special interest to many. This was the site of the first modern alchemistical symposiuum in 1965. The Barones Isa von Bernus will act as hostess.
Such and many other pleasant surprises await those who will participate in such an alchemistical adventure in our times. Seldom is it possible for those in search of places of alchemistical interest to find even one such genuine place of the past--but to come in contact with places and people engaged in alchemy in our times is another mattter.
Looking down the River Danube from the ancient small Fortress Krempelstein, one will get a personal feeling of what alchemy is all about and will relive many moments of the remote past. This ancient Fortress was a stronghold of the Rosicrucians of the 14th century and even up to the present time has mystical and metaphysical functions going on within its massive walls.
Watch for the next issues of the Bulletin when Dr. Karsten will announce the Seminar program and the full itinerary of "An Alchemistical Adventure in 1973."
Those interested in participating in this adventure please indicate your desire by writing to the P.R.S. and further details will be sent. Attendance at the Seminar and the ten-day tour to follow will not be confined to students of the P.R.S. Relatives and friends of students and subscribers to the Bulletin may also attend. Roundtrip costs will be the same for all participants.
In The Next Bulletin
Second International Alchemistical Congress
August 9 - 11, 1973
Stuttgart, Germany
And more of your questions and answers.
Translation from our Old Books
A short tract of the particular and universal tinctures by an unknown artist, Nurnberg 1676
"For a long time alchemists have complained very strongly that they could not produce a croci martis that would unite with quicksilver and then, when added to Luna, would change it. Some have taken iron filings boiled in vitriol, rubbed it with mercurio until they could see an amalgam and accomplished nothing. Others, again, dissolved layer upon layer of iron in aqua fortis, thereafter reverberated it until it became glowing red. Some wanted to be even more clever and poured vinegar upon it, extracted its redness and coagulated one part and reverberated the marti until it became quite subtle. All this effort failed for a useful fluidic crocum could not be produced.
The correct way I shall bring here and make known:
First you have to use a strong distilled water after the manner of the metal to be used. Hang above such water, to the height of two fingers, some laminate iron. Close and don't touch the water or stir it. Let stand for twenty-four hours in a warm sandbath. You will then find a nice crocus on the iron which brushes off with a rabbit's foot. Continue this until no more crocus can he brushed off, for then is the metal dead. Thereafter, pour over it good vinegar drawn off from sal amoniac, which vinegar will become sweet in taste after it has been standing for half an hour. Filter and coagulate and you will have a beautiful good tasting salt, namely the sal martis.
Put this salt in a moist place and in a few hours it will dissolve into an oil. Take this oil and pour over the previously dried crocum marti, which will drink it up like thirsty earth and continue until no more will be absorbed by the salt. Gently dry it and let it revolve again in a cellar into an oil.
Mercurium sublimatum imbided in this oil, as much as it will take, will again dissolve in the cellar into an oil. Coagulate and it will not separate again.
This powder brought upon Luna runs like grease into the Luna and exalts the mind of each artist, because "the farmer has become a Lord."
Allopathy And Homeopathy
(from "Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored" by Archibald Cockran)
"At the present day we have two definite systems of medicine, the one termed allopathy, the other homeopathy. Both these systems have countless remedies, but neither is by any means perfect, for where the allopath gains his cures, the homeopathist has to admit defeat, and where the homeopathist succeeds, the allopath may fail. The allopath, whose methods are the more widely practiced at the moment, maintains that the homeopathist gains his successes through the imagination of his patients, but the homeopathist believes his methods to be the more scientific, since he deals with a more finely divided and spiritualized medium; for while the allopath uses his drugs without trituration, the homeopathist triturates his drugs from the first decimal to the higher potencies even up to the two-hundredth decimal. Even so, although his method is the more perfect of the two, it is still far from the ideal.
"The homeopathists, of course, teach that the founder of their system was Hahneman, but in actual fact this is inaccurate. Hahneman merely rediscovered in part a system which had been taught in alchemy for hundreds of years. I say in part because the alchemist's interpretation of the system was very much more perfect than in the modern homeopathist's.
"In regard to the question of potencies, I will repeat once again the definition of the Quintessence: 'Nothing of true value is located in the body of a substance but in the virtue thereof. And this is the principle of the quintessence, which reduces, say, twenty pounds to a single ounce, but that ounce far exceeds in potency the entire twenty pounds'."
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