ALCHEMICAL
LABORATORY
BULLETINS
Vol. II, No. 5
1971
INDEX
Announcements
Dangers of Distilled Water
Bulletin Subscriptions
Alchemy in Our Times
Class Schedules
Questions and Answers
Announcements
QUESTIONNAIRES
We have not received all the questionnaires sent out with the Bulletin renewals. Please mail them in so we may proceed with our project.
LECTURE ROOM REMODELED
Students of the 1971 classes will be pleasantly surprised at the changes that have been made in the lecture room.
NEW TEACHERS
We are now selecting some of the advanced students to assist us in teaching at the P.R.S. We are happy to state that this has become possible after many years of preparation.
DAMAGED PARCELS
Books mailed by the P.R.S. are insured. In case of damage through the postal service please notify the Post Office and the P.R.S. and include insurance infaormation found on package. Only after receipt of this evidence can claims be adjusted and a new shipment be made.
IN MEMORIAM
Frater Julius Graham of Hubbard, Ohio left us for the great beyond. All who knew him will miss him. He was a wonderful student and an alchemistical pioneer in his own right. May peace be with you Frater Julius.
In the Next Bulletin
What is the Philosopher's Stone like? And more of your questions and answers.
European subscribers will submit their payments to the Paracelsus Research Society for books, etc, direct to our Postscheckkonto 90-10538 in Switzerland.
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 desigaated 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.
The Dangers of Distilled Water
Distilled water has a definite place in many applications. Where sterile equipment, etc. is concerned it is a must. Thus we assign it a rightful place. However, to drink distilled water regularly instead of natural water, even though the latter may be chlorinated to make it germ free, is to deprive the consumer of the important minerals found in a natural water supply. Not all distilled water, so labelled, is actually distilled, but most of it is deionized, which,means that the minerals found in our regular water supply are removed.
Man needs these inorganic minerals found in water. Lack of them with the resultant deficiency of essential mineral salts deprives the body. It should be remembered that water treated for culinary consumption by chlorination or otherwise removes organic germs that may prove harmful. This does not mean that inorganic mineral salts are thereby affected.
It has been suggested that minerals may be supplanted with Dr. Schuessler's minerals salts, etc. These perform a different function as supplements where such are lacking in the diet, but the minerals in water have undergone a process that is much more effective when assimmilated into the body and carried into the blood stream. Natural radiations in the ground complemented by sidereal influences produce entirely different mineral effects physiologically than those used in artificially produced mineral salts. Ferrum phosphate, for instance, is produced by the action of phosphoric acid on common iron wire, then washed, and the iron phosphate salt remains to be used. The Alchemist will know at once that here a "dead" metal has been used, whereas the iron found as oxide and otherwise in natural water is "alive." This applies to all the other minerals also.
Distilled water definitely has a place, but it should not be consumed when a fresh supply of natural water is available.
BULLETIN SUBSCRIPTION FEE
There seems to be some misunderstanding as to the cost of the Bulletin. The complete fee is $6.00. For this the subscriber receives his own Bulletin and one is donated to someone else--either someone of his own choosing or someone selected by the P.R.S. if the subscriber prefers. If you have not sent in the full subscription fee of $6.00 we would appreciate your doing so at this time. Among those who receive Bulletins as donations are those in underprivileged countries who are unable to pay the necessary subscription fee.
Transalation from Our Old Books
Under the above heading are to be found translations from our old books as well as contemporary writings of alchemistical importance. We consider the following article as such. The writer is well known here and abroad. His metaphysical literature has influenced thousands of people. However, to comply with the precepts of the P.R.S. no names of contributors to the Alchemical Laboratory Bulletins are given.
Alchemy In Our Times
It may come as a distinct surprise to some to learn that the above heading is a real possibility. Alchemy was supposed to be an outgrown and discarded medieval art, the parent of present-day chemistry which, as we all know, is transforming our lives in such a wide variety of ways. Like many other current beliefs, this belief is far from the case. Alchemy may have spawned modern chemistry, but the fact remains it has never ceased to be a distinct science in its own right. It has always existed, and still does.
Before it is concluded that the alchemists were quacks and deceivers, we might remember the remark made by E. J. Holmyard, one of the more erudite and thoroughgoing historians of alchemy. "It must be remembered," he wrote, "that to the alchemists was due much of the practical chemical knowledge upon which scientific chemistry was based...." This disposes of the notion that they were ignorant men. Furthermore, Holmyard, quoting from Boerhaave, a Dutch chemist of the early 18th century, the author of "New Method of Chemistry," adds:
"Wherever I understand the alchemists, I find them to describe the truth.in the most simple and naked terms, without deceiving us, or being deceived themselves. When therefore I come to places, where I do not comprehend the meaning, why should I charge them with falsehood, who have shown themselves so much better skill'd in the art than myself? ... Credulity is hurtful, so is incredulity; the business therefore of a wise man is to try all things, hold fast to what is approv'd, never limit the power of God, nor assign bounds to nature."
Whenever I hear references to alchemy made by people who obviously know nothing either of the literary or technical processes involved, I devoutly bless Boerhaave in his quiet wisdom, wishing that our contemporary critics and scoffers could be half as sagacious as he.
Popular fancy has it that the old alchemists were primarily interested in one subject, and that only--the transmutation of the base metals into gold. While there is little doubt that this may well have been true--enough texts are extant to substantiate this in part--nonetheless it must be stated categorically that this was merely one of its several goals. A closer examination of some of its important authorities indicates that they were also interested in healing mankind of some of its grosser ills, to substantially prolong human life so that man might pursue without a break his major interests, but at the same time not only to imbue him with more vitality and energy but to aim for the highest spiritual goals.
About a decade ago, an alchemical manifesto was issued, completely out of the blue, unheralded and unannounced--and largely unnoticed. It announced that the alchemist's goals and techniques were once more available for study, research and consultation. It stated that "whereas the term Alchemy is associated by most people solely with the Philsophers Stone, and the making of Gold, it becomes necessary to correct this false notion. Alchemy, as such, covers an enormous territory and consists of the raising of the vibrations. This varied and many sided manifestation is the outcome of profound study and contemplation.... In this new cycle of Alchemistical awakening it likewise becomes essential to commence cautiously our work, while making contact with those of like mind and aspirations, that may have been laying dormant for many years...."
Every now and again, I cannot help but be reminded of the Communist Manifesto issued by Karl Marx over a century ago. At the time of its issuance, very few people took serious notice of it--at best it was lightly dismissed as the ravings of a mad man. It may still be for all that. Nevertheless, whether you like it or not, the world has seen momentous changes in the entire social and economic structure as a definite result of that piece of paper. It has never been the same since--nor will it ever. In much that same way, I have the profound suspicion that before too much time has passed, this obscure Alchemistical Manifesto, noticed only by a few people within this country or the world at large, may begin to exert a greater influence on the minds and spirits of men than can possibly be conceived at this moment. It was a statement that was spoken softly and quietly at the time. Its vibrations however may permeate every nook and cranny of the scientific community before too long.
Because I sincerely think this may well be the case, I have taken the liberty of contributing this article on Alchemy in modern times. We are obliged to take the subject seriously. And we have to recognize that though it may now be accepted by only a few hundred people at the very most, yet they may turn out to be the spiritual and intellectual revolutionaries who are going to turn the whole scientific world topsy-turvy before it is capable of expanding its present limited point of view.
The alchemists of olden time were spirtually enlightened men--not merely blind and stupid workers or seekers in the chemistry laboratory. This fact must never be forgotten. They sought to perfect all phases of man his body, his mind, and his spirit. No one of these aspects of the total organism should be neglected. It was their belief that man is indefinitely perfectable. They were highly religious men, not vagabonds who sought to deceive and swindle the treasury of the country in which they lived.
"Art perfects what nature began." Man, and all the gross and subtle constituents of nature, are capable of being brought to a state of infinite perfection. But nature unaided fails to achieve this perfection. Evolution may ultimately succeed, though the time factor seems so preposterously slow when one watches through recorded history, the cumbersome, the appallingly slow, progress of mankind. So the alchemists sought to intervene by their art--to speed up the process of growth and evolution, and so to aid God's work.
Since organized religion for the greater part of the last couple of thousand years would have denounced this heretical point of view and condemned its advocates to the torture rack and to the fiery stake, great care and caution at all times had to be exercised in expressing what they believed or knew to be true. Often, then they used a scintillating variety of symbols and an even more exotic cosmological theory which, though considered defective and archaic from the point of view of twentieth century scientific philosophy, nonetheless enabled them to work out a satisfactory scheme of mythology. The latter, incidentally is a word covering all our philosophy and psychology as well as our scientific theory. Anyway, in that mythology the above-mentioned ideas could be expressed and recognized as valid by others similarly engaged.
Having mentioned the term "mythology," it is worth while to remember the concluding remarks of E. J. Holmyard in his "Introductory" to his historical work on alchemy. "It may be recollected that the theory of the unity of the world permeated by a universal spirit had a corollary in the assumption that every object in the universe possessed some sort of life. Metals grew, as did minerals, and were even attributed sex. A fertilized seed of gold could develop into a nugget, the smokey exhalation was masculine and the vaporous one feminine, and mercury was a womb in which embryonic metals could be gestated. These and similar animistic beliefs mingle with the more rational outlook of Aristotle, and are more closely related to late forms of "Platonism."
I wonder whether these ideas are so outrageous as they once seemed to many! The twentieth century, poised on the brink of the technology of multiple plastics, the exploration of space, and fantastic feats of engineering, is about ready to accept a mythology or a philosophy which at first sight seems far more fantastic than that espoused by the old alchemists.
Today, the threat of persecution at the hands of vested religious or scientific interests has passed, thus permitting, perhaps for the first time in centuries of social history, the re-emergence of alchemy and alchemists into the open. More than that, what has only recently occurred may never perhaps have been repeated. An actual school is in operation where the time-honored processes of alchemy are taught to carefully screened students.
These are from all walks of life, from all levels of society, and with educations that vary from those with little to those with multiple university degrees. Here is definitely disproved the popular notion that alchemy was the unscientific mother of some of our modern sciences. The processes are taught there as chemistry and physics are taught in our better colleges-by experiment, demonstration, and experience. In beautifully equipped laboratories--whose pyrex glassware and stainless steel accoutrements would have dazzled the classical scholars of former ages--there is a recrudescence of alchemical technique and process such as the world has never previously seen.
Nor is this merely a local phenomenon. Alchemy is once more rearing its head not only in this vast country of ours, but in Great Britain and in the heart of Europe as well, and in the Antipodes. There is communication now-a-days between its advocates as there always has been, since many of the famous published texts were simply the means whereby one adept in the art could convey to others somethings of his own knowledge and experience.
In one school, perhaps the most prominent ever, The Paracelsus Research Society, has embarked on a most ambitious program which, punctuated by a Quarterly Bulletin and frequent publications, shows every sign of achieving fulfillment. Some of its books have achieved poly-lingual publication. Two of the most recent in the German tongue are "Praktische Alchemie im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert" and "Men and the Cycles of the Universe," both by Frater Albertus. Not a great deal of time elapses before first editions of all the books are exhausted.
The "Lesser Work" is taught there prior, of course, to the "Magnum Opus," the "Great Work." And this naturally follows along classical lines. Herbs of all types are studied--from the picking and drying process, to that of extracting tinctures and similar final products. This no evidence of mere dillentantism. The work with metals and minerals is a necessary consequence of such investigations, but first things must come first. The metal and mineral operations have to follow in due course of time when the knowledge of the lesser work or circulation has been wholly mastered.
It might be well to emphasize here that respect for current laws is sternly inculcated. Students are not taught to diagnose or to prescribe for other people in violation of the medical practice acts of the State. But they are taught to study themselves--since the most outstanding task for man is
to know himself--and then to prepare a variety of herbal extracts and tinctures for themselves alone. The motive for such experimental work is to alter and raise their waves and frequencies so that they may become conscious participators in the great work of facilitating the onward progress of nature. But this work, like charity, must begin at home, with the student himself.
In addition to the practical work in the laboratory where alchemical processes are demonstrated and confirmed, there is also classroom work of lectures and study. Certain subjects are an absolute pre-requisite to laboratory experiment in order to arrive at a theoretical understanding of the laws of nature and so to appreciate what proceeds, as it were, in the test-tube. These subjects are astrology, known here as astro-cyclic pulsations, the Qabalah which is an archaic mystical system with a mathematical structure long in use by the earlier alchemists, and, of course, much more about herbalism. Where and when necessary a few of the basic princicples of metallurgy as it pertains to the alchemical work are reviewed and related to the task at hand.
Where the earlier generations of alchemists would have been surprised and undoubtedly pleased, is in the sophisticated utilization of all modern pedagogic methods. Visual aids are employed in addition to oral instruction, plus frequent laboratory demonstrations. Some students who have previously acquainted themselves with the classical literature, have frequently remarked that a mere five minutes in the laboratory with a modern alchemist clarifies brilliantly what years of faltering, difficult reading and study never came to reveal.
Admittedly what is written here is superficial to a degree, but it may demonstrate to some degree the significance of the title of this article--that there is an alchemy in modern times. It has never perished.
CLASS SCHEDULE FOR 1971
Prima |
March 21 - April 3, April 4 - 17 |
Secunda |
April 18 - May 1, September 19 - Oct. 2 |
Tertia |
May 2 - 25, May 31, June 13 |
Quarta |
November 14 - 27 |
Quinta |
October 17 - 30 |
Septa |
October 3 - 16, October 31 - November 13 |
QUESTIONS crnd ANSWERS
QUESTION NO. 30--Once started in practical alchemy and when the Lesser Work is completed, that is, the process has been mastered, is it not permissible to start on the Opus Magnus. After all, should not the Philosopher's Stone be man's highest quest on the material plane?
Answer: Having mastered the Lesser Work it is recommended that the alchemist work on antimony and produce the Fire Stone, before attempting the Philosopher's Stone. However, some have tried to get the Stone of the Wise even before they worked with antimony. We recommend a step by step procedure. It will prove helpful in the long run.
QUESTION NO. 31--Is spiritus mundi and the Universal Spirit the same?
Answer: No. Spiritus mundi refers to the spirit of the earth, while the Universal Spirit is the Universal Life permeating everything, of which the earth represents but a segment thereof. The sum total of all life found within and upon the earth is the spiritus mundi.
QUESTION NO. 32--We are supposed to compare our inner progress with the practical laboratory work of alchemical manifestations. This puzzles me, because how can I determine the progress made, if any?
Answer: Alchemy is a slow process. We hardly notice the changes that go on in the laboratory while we wait for them to show. If we leave for awhile and then return to the substance with which we are working we do notice the change. But the work has to go on and on and must not stop. Only then, after sometime, do we notice the progress made. As far as we are concerned others do notice the changes in ourselves before we do because we, ourselves, are involved in the slow process and everpresent in it.
QUESTION NO. 33--Is it better to use glacial acetic acid or 6 Normal for antimony extractions.
Answer: It all depends on what you are after. 6 normal acetic acid has water as an oxidizing agent in it. On some substances it works better, on others not so well. Are you referring to the brown powder precipitate or to the sulphide or oxide?
QUESTION NO. 34--It is hard for me to accept the teaching of reincarnation. How can one be an animal at one time, then a flower and again man?
Answer: You misunderstand the meaning of reincarnation. What you refer to is known as transmigration, a primitive belief of some lesser evolved individuals or tribes. Reincarnation means the evolving of the soul consciousness in the human body. Just as the holy books tell you, for instance the Bible, that Christ was with his Father before he came on this earth taking a resurrected
body as He returned to heaven, so will He on his second coming again appear as man in another body.
Never did reincarnation mean transmigration. The word "carna" means flesh a flower is no flesh. Admitted that the animals have flesh, but still the body is of secondary importance as a vehicle for the soul to develop therein. The human body is the greatest achievement of creation and therefore has been created to house the soul so it may evolve, while the body is permeated by the Universal Spirit which gives it life.
QUESTION NO. 35--You have said before that students will be selected to help teach at P.R.S. Has anything been done in this respect.
Answer: We have answered this question in another place in this Bulletin. However, anyone feeling competent to teach may submit a request to do so. Such requests will be very carefully screened and considered.
QUESTION NO. 36--Why are alchemistical activities which have been kept secret in times gone by, now made available so openly. Does this not constitute a violation of secret oaths by those who received such instructions, at least partially, from other sources such as esoteric bodies, they belong to?
Answer: Read what is said under "Translations From Our Old Books." This might help answer your question in more detail. Times have changed. There is no longer a need for secrecy because of fear for one's life. Besides why try to keep alchemical secrets when so much has been said and published on Alchemy in the past? All that is needed is a plausible explanation so mankind as a whole may benefit, instead of as formerly when only a few benefited. Furthermore, now as in the past, those who are unable to understand what they read cannot perform or produce the alchemical product. So what is violated if all has been said before openly for all to see and read? Besides, no one individual or group of individuals has a monopoly on alchemy or its teachings. Anyone claiming so, lays claim to entire evolution and that is pure nonsense.
QUESTION NO. 37--Can you please explain briefly, just to clear up the question a bit, what special purpose the different shapes of flasks best serve?
Answer: Basic types of flasks are round and flat bottomed boiling flasks and cone shaped Erlenmeyer flasks. For boiling the first are preferred. The latter are used when no violent boiling is necessary. Experience will teach us what to use and for what purpose. For maceration long necked flasks are preferable. The long neck serves as a condenser. Short: necked flasks let the steam rise a shorter distance, etc.
QUESTION NO. 38--Will your German language alchemistical hook be available in English?
Answer: At present no plan has been made to translate the book. However this German book basically deals with conditions and alchemists in Europe. At present we are engaged in revising the English Handbook. As well as correcting its many grammatical and printing errors it will be considerably enlarged with practical laboratory results from P.R.S. students. When the publication date is near further annoncements will be made in the Bulletins.
QUESTION NO. 39--Whnt do you think about messages people claim to have received from other planetary beings by recording or tape for all to hear or have received in some other manner.
Answer: It is very doubtful that exalted beings, which do exist, will stoop to such a low means to convey what they will. On the other side, infernal beings who have not succeeded in their former mortal life will use any mecns to get hold of willing minds, to become their dupes, especially weak ones. Such beings, dwelling at the lower regions of levels of consciousness, because of their former lives of crime and sordid living will gladly get hold of anyone whom they can use, even by bodily possession, to finish what they themselves by suicide or other infernal means had cut short themselves. A deeper insight and knowledge is need to distinguish these things. Those who do not know, will fall an easy prey, their sincerity notwithstanding. Exalted beings have exalted messages and they have nothing to do with lowly, personal, terrestrial things. There messages or visions will always take place in pure light and brightness, never in dark rooms, with curtains drawn and by using other people as messengers. They will come direct to you, when you are ready to receive them.
These messages are unmistakable and need no explanation or interpretation by others. That will be revealed to you which is willed to be revealed and is just that, namely a revelation. You, rather, are in a position to tell others what they do not know, instead of them telling you what they are trying to interpret. If you are not living a clean, pure and virtuous life you are suscepthible to those of like mind. On the contrary, if you honestly live a pure life, you don't have to worry about infernal beings getting hold of you, because they will flee the pure light of virtue, while making a last
strong stand to tear you down in a weak moment of doubt and despair. Yes, there are lying and deceiving infernal beings and holy, pure exalted beings. It is up to you to determine with whom you will associate. The former by lying and deceiving promise to make things easy and know what you don't know about here on earth, but they do not know or cannot endure the truth prevailing in the higher spheres or regions and they flee from the truth into their, to them, holy hell, while the pure in heart and in daily life, who do not mind their struggles to live a noble life, will get.a taste of the purer spheres, or heavens, that they will never trade for a moment of earthy satisfaction brought about by the lower senses upon their sense organs.
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