ALCHEMICAL
LABORATORY
BULLETINS
Vol. II, No. 10
1972
INDEX
Announcements
Repeat of an Easter Egg Experiment
Basilius Valentinus About the Fire Stone
The Distant Drummer
Questions and Answers
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As payments are sent in, please be very sure to indicate what they are for. We no longer have a library fund. All payments which were formerly designated for that purpose should now read "Student Lab Fund." Donations other than for the "Student Lab Fund" should be marked for
"General Donations" or for specific donations such as the "Penny Ritual," "Class Lab Fund," etc. When for books please so indicate. This will enable us to credit your payments properly.
EUROPEAN SEMINAR 1973
We have received many requests for more information regarding the 1973 Alchemistical Adventure. At this time it is necessary for us to have more accurate information as to the people who are contemplating the trip. Please let us know your plans. An inquiry is in no way a commitment, but we need a formal Statement from you if you contemplate being a participant and plan to attend. Please let us know within a day or two so we may list you. We need a further answer from you before further particulars can be mailed to you. Many more details need to be worked out for the 1973 Alchemistial Seminar in Europe. A definite announcement will appear in the next Bulletin. As requested, please let us know if you plan to attend. Arrangements must be made ahead of time for transportation by an air-conditioned bus large enough to accommodate the English-speaking people who will make this alchemistical journey.
AFTER TWELVE AND FOURTEEN YEARS
The end of this year will mark the twelfth year since we came into the open and began teaching practical laboratory alchemy and the fourteenth year since the first Bulletin was issued. Much has happened with the P.R.S. since then but what will happen in the future will certainly surprise many-especially those who have consciously walked the path with us. But the disappointment will be great for those who were "round about." For the latter there is still time to again establish closer contact before the doors close. However, time is of the essence! Time is growing short for the latter.
The Alchemical Laboratory Bulletin is a quarterly publication of the Paracelsus Research Society, P. O. Box 6006, Salt Lage 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.
Repeat of An Easter Egg Experiment
Report on an experiment to find if results would be similar to the experiments described in Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 2, 1970 under the heading of Will all chicken eggs putrefy?, which experiments were undertaken to verify or disprove the ancient tradition that hen's eggs are sensitive to cosmic influences--in particular those held to be active during the three lays that constitute the celebration of the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ at Easter-tide.
During the period of April 4 through April 15, 1971, twenty-four eggs were kept, two each day. Each egg was marked with a date, care taken to be certain the eggs were laid on that day. The eggs were taken from chickens living under natural conditions.
The eggs were placed in cardboard egg cartons and stored in a cupboard in the basement for a period of seven months. This period of time "being sufficient time for normal putrefaction to have occurred." (Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 2, 1970)
The usually cooler basement temperature was not consistently natural during this seven month period, The eggs having; been placed inside a cupboard in a laboratory area of the basement were subjected to high temperatures for approximately two months during the summer because of other experiments being done that required an almost constant heat at the time.
The eggs were opened on Sunday, November 14, 1971. All 24 eggs with the exception of those, which will hereafter be separately described as to the difference, were observed in this manner:
The yolk was normal in color though slightly darker and of a somewhat firmer nature (much like that which can be observed when a fresh egg is opened, the yolk broken, and left uncovered in the refrigerator from 12 to 24 hours). Some of the yolks were almost entirely of this nature (though not broken), others only partially so.
Dehydration of some portion of the albumen was noted in all of the eggs, some eggs having more dehydration than others. The albumen which remained was for the most part thin. The viscous or thick portion of the albumen was not as apparent as in a normal egg. The color of the albumen appeared normal. The eggs were of a normal odor.
Differences: (Only 4 eggs out of 24 were different.)
April 5 (Monday)--One Egg: A black spot approximately one half inch in diameter was formed in the yolk. Other Egg: There were some pin-head size black Spots and slight amount of mold-appearing areas on a small portion of the membrane which surrounds the albumen.
April 9 (Good Friday)-One Egg: The yolk was entirely black. The albumen was like a watery custard having particles of a pale yellow, brown and orange coloration mixed throughout. The odor, though not that of a normal egg, was mildly malodorous.
April 10 (Saturday)-One Egg: Surrounding the albumen was a thin layer of a watery custard nature having a pale orange coloration.
The eggs were not immediately given to the cats because there were some friends who wished to see the opened eggs. The eggs were kept on a cool porch for two days. There was only a slight change in the appearance and odor of the eggs during this time.
On April 16th, two days after the eggs had been opened, all of the eggs were placed at once, but separately, before the farm cats, which are fed regularly and which at this time had other food to eat as well. All of the eggs were eaten.
There Is some reluctance -on my part to include the preceeding final information for we have a Siamese cat who turns her nose up at fresh eggs while I strongly suspect that the particular group of Nebraska cats referred to would most likely, given the opportunity, devour twenty-four putrefied eggs!
Note ON THE ABOVE: Recently while in New Zealand (1972) another test was made as to the wholesomeness of such eggs. Those marked as being layed during the specified Easter time proved wholesome, whilel the remainder were putrid and emitted a horrible stench.
Another report has reached us frorn Ohio wherein the writer says: "Our experience was that none of, the eggs taken from chickens raised on the ground three weeks before and three weeks afterward putrified after 6 months at room temperature.
In The Next Bulletin
Why Antimony? .What is it good for?
And more of your Questions and Answers.
Basilius Valentinus About the Fire Stone
(Not the Philosophers Stone)
"When you have reached this point, my friend, you have the Medicine of men and of metals; it is pleasant, sweet, and penetrating, and may be used without any risk. Without being a purgative, it expels all impure and morbid matter from the body. It will restore to you health, and relive you of want in this life; nor can you ever discharge to God your obligation of gratitude for it. I fear that as a monk and religious man I have transcended the proper bounds of reticence and secrecy, and spoken out too freely. At any rate, I have told you enough; and if after all that- has been said you do not discover the secret, it will not be my fault.
"I have spoken as lucidly and openly, nay, I fear, more openly, than the rules of our brotherhood permit."
The Distccnt Drummer
"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprise? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
More than one hundred years ago, these words were written by an individual who insisted on following the drummer whom he heard, and whose insistent beat led him to take two years of his life to live in solitude. This individual was Henry David Thoreau, who in July 1845 went to live in a one-room cabin he himself had built, beside Walden Pond in the woods near Concord, Mass. Described at that time as a "thin, shambling, ill-dsessed man at the late end of his twenties," he was considered a puzzle, an eccentric, by the townspeople who knew him. They had no inkling at that time that Walden--that masterpiece of literature, he was-.to write between the years 1845 and 1854- was to become a book translated into many languages, as well as to become a beacon of inspiration to those who sought other than materialistic values. His words pondered upon, even today stir the imagination--"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."
This statement implies that there may be many measures, many rhythms to the beat of the drum, or perhaps one should say, there may be many drummers who appeal as variously as there are diversities of individuals. It also implies that the drummer one hears may often be heard at a distance so that one must stop to listen to be able to hear. Thoreau took this time to stop and listen; day and night, at sunrise and sunset, hoeing his two acres of beans, or sitting at the doorstep of his cabin during a gentle rain, he harked to the harmonies and melodies in nature around him, and was richly rewarded as we see in Walden.
Now listen again to him--"I learned this, at least, by my experiment, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success uncommon in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an
invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of being."
Incidentally, this passage would seem to be some indication that during the period of writing Walden-~between his 27th and 28th year-at the age at which Dr. Bucke says cosmic consciousness is often experienced, that some measure of this could have been true of Thoreau.
As students of mysticism, has not each one of us listened to and heard the beat of the distant mystical drummer in one way or another? Perhaps it came in the form of a pamphlet some one gave us, perhaps from a word some one dropped about things mystical, or an advertisement in a magzine, or a lecture. Perhaps this sounded at first faintly as from a great distance and we almost lost it-as indeed many we know have--but finally it became so insistent in the consciousness, so appealing, even though heard from the other side of the woods, so to speak, that we must follow even though not knowing whither it might lead. We had to know and we must follow.
Unfortunately, not everyone stops to listen as did Thoreau; certainly not the townspeople of his day, who considered him not only eccentric but an impractical loafer. And in our day, even more than in his, we are bombarded on all sides by the many appeals to the five physical senses through radio, television, advertisements, requests to follow this or that school of thought in practically every area of our western culture--such as politics, religion, education, the new in the arts, sciences, music and literature. The ideologies in all these areas are changing so fast that it is confusing, and at times, we hardly know whither they tend or what we should think of them. So in the midst of all this flux and change, of calls to follow the liberal or the conservative, the far left, or the far right, of revolution to be accomplished by violence, or revolution to be brought about more slowly by change of consciousness, it is often difficult for the individual to discover the right path for him.
In addition to the confusion present in this time of change, there is always present the terrific pressure to conform -- socially, politically, religiously, etc. One is often asked to what organization does he belong-what church does he attend-what are his political affiliations, and so on. All these are matters not only scrutinized in his community, but commented upon, and especially if they vary conspicuously from the norm. Even the technological and scientific knowledge and achievements of our era tend to drown out the more delicate beat of the mystical drummer.
There is often the individual who has heard, although muffled, the beat of the drum and then denies he has heard it. Or there is another who hears the drummer distinctly, but chooses deliberately to not listen. There is the one who hears the call and wonders from whence it came, and lets it go at that. And there is another who hears and follows but only for a little way. So in response to the rhythm of the drummer, there is again a diversity of people. Finally, there is that individual who hears and simply likes the measure, the beat, because it is different from any other he has heard. Often, then, he becomes the one who knows he must follow-the music is so appealing that he cannot do otherwise, even though he knows not whither he is being lead. I suppose you might say that we fall in this class.
Since follow we must, we eventually pass beyond that "invisible boundry" of which Thoreau speaks, and enter into the life where the measured beat of the drum becomes much clearer and closer at hand. Slowly at first--to give our steps time to become accustomed to its measure---one learns what lies beyond this boundary, for if we progressed too swiftly, the light there might blind us. However, it gradually leads into that land of understanding of what we are, physically, mentally and psychically: who we are: why we are where we are. And if consistently followed, the student finds that the gently graduated lessons, degrees and experiments give him an expanded understanding and enlarged consciousness, which no amounut of secular or academic education can impart. It is indeed an "invisible boundary" we have passed, unseen and unknown to the world at large.
Perhaps one has listened to the same measured beat or rhythm in a past life or lives. Perhaps that is why we were almost compelled to follow in this.
As we look into the past, we see examples of those who have followed their particular drummer, perhaps for many lives, for how could their achievements be explained otherwise. We can, if we will, take courage from some of those towering geniuses. Witness Mozart writing musical compositions at the tender age of seven; or Wagner catching melodies from the air as he walked up and down his garden paths and then giving to the world some of the world's most transcendent musical passages in his.operas; Beethoven writing his symphonies and oher works until he produced his superb Ninth even during his growing deafness.
There were others we know who "listened" and gave to the world the harmonies of line, form and color, such as that many sided genius, Leonardo, who in his early twenties was surpassing his teacher, Verrochio; and Michelangelo whose marvelous conceptions in paint and stone, still leave us standing in awe. Whence came these accomplshments? Can we believe otherwise than that it was only after many lives of persistent effort that such perfection, such sublimity, could have been reached?
Did I say "we can take courage" from these towering geniuses? Well, here could be a tendency to do just the opposite, to be discouraged, and say we can never attain to such heights in any area: our talents are too small, our achievements too few. But like Thoreau, never let us be stopped by such a negaitive attitude; let us as he says, "advance confidently in the direction of our dreams and endeavor to live the life we have imagined," and then perhaps we "may meet with uncommon success in common hours." Persistence here is, I think, the key word in mysticism, as in all achievements, often against great odds. Why is the accomplished concert pianist still content to put in hours of practice every day, or the leader of the Symphony willing to go over and over again the same passage with the orchestra until they are perfect in nuances and interpetations. Why does the writer demand perfection of expression, often re-writing many times, until his article, story or book says what he means in the clearest, most forceful or most beautiful way. So I would say that in addition to talent, this quality of persistence is one of the most important which has come over from the past, or which is being developed in the present, as wefollow that steady, persistent beat sounding within.
Let us then persist along the path shown us. Each effort will not go unnoticed by the Self-that inner monitor, that inner drummer, so to speak, who looks on in austere silence as we progress along the path. Let us take advantage of the teachings and exercises as they advance our understanding of the actual duality of our being and our real relation to the cosmos. True they may bring to light the Karmic forces impinging upon us, whose effects we must here and now come to understand and either use or atone for in this life. This latter, this necessity of atonement, is something we may resist. We may not wish to see ourselves as we are; we may wish to keep the more flattering image of ourselves we now have. We may resist the Karmic ties which brought us into relation to those around us, or nearest us. But the drum beats on and perhaps with greater understanding, the rhythm, if we listen to it, may bring harmony wherebefore there was discord, as the expanding consciousness brings more light on the Karmic problems we face. And in this way, as Thoreau says, we "will put same things behind ... is new, universal and more liberal laws will be expanded and interpreted ... and one will live with the license of a higher order of 'being."
So I consider that we here who have heard and are still following the mystic drummer, who is now no longer the distant drummer, are indeed fortunate. I conceive thus that with us there is no limit to an expanding consciousness on through the aeons of time. The drummer we hear may lead us up to the foothills of achievement; perhaps across the fertile and pleasant plateaus of peace and growth for awhile; then eventually over difficult terrain and on up a narrow and rugged mountainous path; until perchance at last we can view all from a glorious mountain top, and know that as we look downward over that difficult upward path we have traversed, that all the tests and trials and pains are as nothing compared to the view that climb has bronght us.
One so fittingly expressed this idea: "Only through ceaseless application, and after incredible pains do the masters of the arts and sciences attain their superb insight and mastery ... only through steadfast service and never failing aspiration, through love and compassion and sacrifice, through success and failure, through lonely vigil and impassioned admonition, through all the heights and depths of thought and emotion of which the eager heart and the awakened mind is capable, shall we gain a true perspective of the pure and perfect action and become worthy exponents of the Master's technique."
In mysticism, this is of paramount importance, as we work on that most important of all instruments-the SELF, spelled in capitals.
We are indeed fortunate in this era that Hierarchy, behind and beyond that great invisible boundary, has permitted the ancient mystical teachings to be brought into the Light of our day and to be expressed in such clear and understandable language, enabling the student to advance by precept and experiment into higher levels of understanding end development.
It sounds difficult and challenging, but is there any goal more worthy of our efforts? In the meantime, let our minds return to that moment when we first heard the drummer; then how our pace accelerated at times, and often how it would slacken; and let us ask ourselves now where we are in relation to the rhythm and beat of our particular drummer. And hearing anew, then resolve to never stop listening intently, so that again as Thoreau says, we "eventually will live with the license of a higher order of being.
QUESTIONS and ANSWERS
QUESTION NO. 75--Has analysis of the tincture of antimony, especially the fixed tincture, derived from the brownish-red powder by the hydroxide process, shown any measurable amount of antimony or other trace elements?
Answer: A recent report, dated March 23, 1972, from an independent analytical and consulting Chemist Laboratory on file here at the PrR.S. shows, and we quote:
"We have to report the results of our analysis of the sample of 'Oil of Antimony' received from you on the 17th March, 197. Analysis of this sample revealed:
Antimony |
630 parts per million |
Arsenic |
1 part per million |
Iron |
63 parts per million |
Lead |
95 parts per million |
Sulphur |
was detected in trace quantities. |
"The antimony was determined by atomic absorption spectrephotometry and its presence confirmed by the Rheinsh test. Arsenic, iron and lead were also determined by atomic absorption spectrephotometry."
This report indicates that antimony is found in a homogeneous state in the tincture. However, it is not so much the antimony per se found therein which is of importance as it is the inert alchemical oil dispersed throughout the tincture, which in reality represents the curative or healing properties therein. The essentials in this oil, alchemical sulphur, cannot be determined as it shows only as a hydrocarbon. Clinical evaluation alone can do this.
QUESTION NO. 76--If the philosophical mercury is the universal solvent, capaible of dissolving all substances into their first matter, how is it possible for anything to contain this mercury without being dissolved also?
Answer: Substances referred to here are those which are products of nature. Since these contain the three essentials, sulphur, salt, and mercury, the philosophical mercury will react on its own as found therein causing a dissolution because of its excess. Artifically produced objects (containers) too will react in due course of time if the philosophical mercury is extremely highly rectified and in great preponderance. It may even volatilize itself through the porous subsances of containers before it breaks down their atomic structures if such containers have excessive cohesion due to their artificial composition.
QUESTION NO. 77--Would you explain how one bonds the pyrex tubing (which can be opened or closed with a flame) to the neck of a round bottom, long necked, 1000 ml flask.
Answer: There is a simpler way than fusing and breaking it. Use a flask with a ground joint 29/32 or the size to fit your flask. Place a stopcock with ground joint to fit flask opening 29/32 or size of flask. Use stopcock lubricant for tight seal, also grease stopcock liberally and then the stopcock may be opened for adding or draining off material when necessary. This way a hermetic seal on the flask is produced. If you wish, you may have the stopcock permanently attached to your flask. But this would best be done by an experienced glass blower.
QUESTION NO. 78--Could you give me a translation of he following Hebrew words: Nephesch, Ruach, Neschama? Are these connected wih alchemy or Qabalah?
Answer: Nephesch = body; Ruach = soul; Neschama = spirit, when applied to alchemy. As an example, Ruach is the intelligence inherent in or synonomous to consciousness or mind. It was Ruach (the mind) that brooded above he waters.
QUESTION NO. 79--There is such a diversity of teachings regarding the right use of sexual power for those who are consciously striving for great inner unfoldment or who are endeavoring to transmute the lower self into at-one-ment with the higher or Real Self. As each student progesses in the Work, does he or she find the answer yhat pertains to his or her own particcilar stage of unfoldment--or can some general instructions be given that would pertain to all students who are undergoing the quickening of the Alchemical process?
Answer: A clean, pure life is all that is necessary to bring about "the answer that pertains to his or her own particular stage of unfoldment." It begins with clean, wholesome thoughts and consummates in such actions. For here, too, separation and purification should precede cohobation.
QUESTION NO. 80--After we get a volatile oil by means of extraction by ether or alcohol can this oil be fixed by pouring over it acetic acid and then distilling off?
Answer: No.
QUESTION NO. 81--How can we be sure of the right people to work with, since things are not always as they seem; sometimes people think we are not what we are, while we're busy trying to prove that we are?
Answer: Why try to prove what you are when your own actions can do that so much better and without effort on your part?
QUESTION NO. 82--100 proof vodka already is half alcohol and half water, is it not?
Answer: Yes.
QUESTION NO. 83-AMORC recommended concentration on psychic centers to develop them but Paul Foster Case (Page 170 of Tarot book) says not to focus your attention upon the centers themselves, but upon the intelligence of each--to avoid psychic congestion. Correct?
Answer: What is meant by psychic centers? Psyche (Greek for soul) has but one place wherein it is centered in man, that is in his mortal mind or limited consciousness. All other so-called centers, no matter by what names, chackras, etc., are of a delicate "substance" permeated by excessive vitality (life force) when their functions are exercised or stimulated. Psyche (Soul) is not substance, neither is Spirit, but both are to be found within "substance"-Alchemistically-salt = body.
QUESTION NO. 84--Some years ago I enjoyed or suffered a salvation experience in a Pentacostal Revival Hall. Later I was filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues. The beauty of the experience still haunts me. I lost the experience within a year. I have never been able to accept purely psychological explanations of my experience. Can you help me to understand what happened when I accepted Jesus as my personal Saviour? The doctrine of vicarious atonement, being washed in the blood, being saved by grace, etc., may be invalid intellectually. That is of no concern to me. I speak of an experience lost.
Answer: Can an experience be lost? You may have forgotten it, a sign the experience was not of a lasting nature--but lose it! "The beauty of the experience still haunts me." ... Are the beauty and the experience not synonomous? You were "filled with the Holy Ghost!" What do you mean by that statement? According to your (Christian) interpretation you spoke in tongues. Then you were in a state of mind, of consciousness above your normal one. Is the Holy Ghost not mentioned as a Comforter to be sent by God. Is it not the mind which is comforted and may not the body "feel" such comfort when the mind is at ease? All you could possibly have lost is the superconscious state of mind you experienced during a short period of time, but the experience of having it? How can you still remember an experience which you claim you have lost? You had it in your mind as
you wrote the above question.
QUESTION NO. 85--Are you the Artist Elias? (Page 50 Triumphal Chariot footnote. )
Answer: We would not even dream of making such a claim.
QUESTION 86--Is the oil resulting from the use of mineral vinegar with Sb203 always of a fixed nature? In other words, can an unfixed oil be obtained with it.
Answer: It is a fixed oil and because of this cannot be made unfixed-just as wine turned into vinegar can never become wine again.
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