There are quite a few studies of tarot out there that focus quite a bit on the subject of Alchemy as a possible source for the imagery seen within decks of old. From that perspective, many modern decks have been created to illustrate the concepts of alchemy in an even more deliberate fashion than that of old. As mentioned numerous times throughout this site, the design and symbolism of The Numerical Tarot is NOT based on the wisdom of alchemy - it is base upon the archetypal armature of a theoretical model of existence, conceived from transcendental patterns in nature... and nothing more. But... that doesn't mean that there can't be some interesting similarities to be found between the The Numerical Tarot and Alchemy...

Many of the people who use tarot today are extremely focused on the psychology of readings, and the idea of using tarot as a tool in psychotherapy. In using tarot to explore the psyche of another, many have completely blinded themselves to any notion of negativity that one might guess there to be, among certain ominous looking cards of the deck - preferring instead to put a positive spin on every negative looking image they see (see Mitigate-the-Bad vs. A Blind Oracle elsewhere on this site). But while putting a positive spin on every dark, ominous, negative looking image they see might promote return business for a psychotherapist, I believe it also promotes a low level of contrast between cards that actually inhibits a full and complete assimilation of alchemy into its design.

People who use tarot for psychotherapy, have a tendency to mitigate the severity of the more ominous looking cards of the deck. They will typically mitigate the pain of The Hanged Man. They will rename the card of Death and call it Change. They will view The Devil as a mere challenge or warning against temptation. And then, with the hope of exiting this sequence of negativity as soon as possible, they will typically view the lightning flash of The Tower card as the first flash of enlightenment... rather than a disaster or sinners being struck down. They will then continue this desire for speedy exodus, by viewing The Star card as a second light of enlightenment, offering additional hope for a way out of the darkness. They will then view The Moon as a third card of further enlightenment, leading on to the Sun - a much more cheerful card that gets us out of the woods, and leads on to Judgement and the World. While some might admit that these ominous looking cards might have been meant to represent some sort of "dark night of the soul" or an alchemistic path of dissolution, they clearly have a bias toward shedding as much light along that path of darkness as they possibly can. Is this really what ought to be done along this path? The inability of so many to let go and fully embrace the darkness, as well as the unmitigated changes that a "dark night of the soul" can bring, makes the tarot deck more of a security blanket for these people than a description of life and death itself. The Numerical Tarot is not meant to be a security blanket, it is meant to be a visual documentation of the ideas found on this site that attempt to describe as full and complete a spectrum of human experience as possible - life and death... light and dark.

I don't really know much about alchemy, I haven't really read that much about it. But from what I have examined, it seems as though alchemy is demanding something more than mitigated pain, mitigated death, mitigated evil, mitigated disaster and a mitigated end. I might be wrong about that, but at the very least... that would be how I would craft an alchemical recipe. From what I've read, it sounds as though the alchemist is supposed to undergo a spiritual death, in order to be reborn anew and move on to enlightenment. All those acts of crushing, filtering, separating, putrefying, dissolving, burning, purifying and distilling are meant to annihilate the soul and the ego... completely... to DEATH. If these steps are all mitigated by someone with a bias that doesn't want to embrace the dark night of the soul, the results of this alchemistic process will obviously be incomplete... and they will not achieve the desired outcome. Why craft a tarot deck that misses this point? Why interpret a tarot deck that does get this point, in ways that miss this point?

In my study of tarot, I chose to craft a tarot deck that gets the point that I think is being made by alchemy. And while I have some problems with the ideas presented within alchemy - and other spiritual philosophies - with regards to our current state of existence being a mistake, or fall from grace, making us unworthy and impure beings... the idea of cleansing, or pruning the soul is itself not a bad idea. Thus it would be my opinion that convincing and persuading people that they need to cleans their soul because they are unworthy, impure and a mistake is a bad idea (see Consider the Source elsewhere on this site)... while choosing to cleans the soul is not a bad idea. Likewise, embracing one's dark night of the soul as a necessary evil along a path of enlightenment is also not a bad idea. Thus, I began to wonder how the traditional steps of alchemy might fit into my parallel nines approach to tarot - where I have already defined one 1 through 9 path as leading to enlightenment and the other as leading to death (see The Greatest Story Ever Told and A Significant Signature of Nature, elsewhere on this site).

For those who are able to set aside any bias they might have about how severe cards 10 through 18 were ever meant to be, the following description might be of interest. For those who will never give up the practice of mitigating the severity of these cards - move on.

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The Second Greatest Story Ever Told!

Personally, I don't have much interest in the chemical aspects of alchemy. But... I do have some interest in the spiritual aspects of alchemy, or at least the idea of using my system of numbers to describe a spiritual path of personal refinement and/or enlightenment. Along these lines, I see some similarities between my high contrast approach to tarot, and the Solve et Coagula of alchemy. Because of the way I alter the Major Trumps of traditional tarot into two rows of 1 through 9 - one row positive and the other negative - the idea of dissolving the soul or ego, and then rebuilding it better, is easily described with my decks.

I have not studied alchemy anywhere near as much as those who write about it at length. One reason for that is the utter confusion of multiple interpretations for a process that has proven, over time, to be ineffectual on a literal plane, and completely subjective and personal on the spiritual plane. Like tarot, being open to any interpretation because of its lost origins, alchemy too seems open to many interpretations, due to the fact that no one recipe has ever produced literal gold in the hands of any alchemist (despite claims to the contrary). Thus, I have encountered as many recipes for alchemistic enlightenment as I have theories of intent regarding tarot. Like tarot, there are a few sequences that seem more popular than others. But... still plenty that depart this way and that.

In most traditional decks, the cards of the Major Trumps are numbered from 0, or 1, to 21. This is in keeping with the idea that, when used in a game, one card trumps the other in sequence. In attempting to incorporate or assimilate the idea of dissolution (solve) being followed by enlightenment (coagula), some people will suggest moving through the deck backwards, so as to encounter those dark, destructive cards first, and the less ominous cards second. Others simply truncate the alchemical process, placing the dissolution steps between The Hanged Man and The Devil, or maybe extending them to The Wheel of Fortune and The Tower, and then utilizing the remaining cards as a description of the steps toward enlightenment (using the aforementioned levels of light; i.e. star, moon, sun, as evidence of the correctness of that interpretation). Personally, I have never found any of these interpretations satisfying. So I began to wonder how I might incorporate the steps of alchemy into my parallel nines approach. Or, better yet, how I might use my parallel nines approach to invent my own alchemistic recipe!

In the essay The Greatest Story Ever Told, I used my parallel nines approach to suggest a path that someone might use to write a fictional story involving the rise and fall of a central character. In this outline, cards within my deck that roughly correlate to cards 1 through 9 of a traditional deck were used to describe the rise, and cards within my deck that roughly correlate to cards 10 through 18 of a traditional deck were used to describe the fall. In this way, I did not stray too far from the normal ordering of trumps, I only strayed in my use of cards 10 through 18 as describing an unmitigated fall, or "dark night of the soul" that ends in either a literal or figurative death at card 18. But, whereas following the normal sequencing of trumps was in keeping with tradition, my decks are not so limited as that. In my decks, the cards of the Major Trumps are not numbered 1 through 21, or even 1 through 18. There are places around this site where I will number them that way, but only to help traditional minds follow a particular conversation. In the actual design of The Numerical Tarot, there is only one path - 1 through 9. That path can be further broken down into a positive 1 through 9 path, or a negative 1 through 9 path. In being two descriptions of the same thing, it is thus possible to begin a journey along either one of these two paths. Thus we can see how, in describing the path of alchemy, The Numerical Tarot can be used in a similar way as was used in The Greatest Story Ever Told, except... in this case... to describe the fall and rise of a central character, instead of the rise and fall.

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A New Paradigm

Like I have said, I don't really know that much about the stages of alchemy, especially, given the numerous variations I have encountered that seem to undo or rearrange what each one says. Likewise, I know even less about chemistry and what actually happens when various chemical reactions take place. Thus, my only purpose here is to take the various steps or stages of the various recipes I've heard, and place those ideas upon the archetypal armature that every theoretical model on this site is devoted to describing, to see what kind of recipe results. Thus it should be understood that my alchemistic recipe is devoted more to describing the spiritual path, and not so much concerned with the literal feasibility of chemical reactions, and how realistically they may or may not lead, one to the other, in producing a literal outcome of gold. I am simply looking at the stages of alchemy, and saying to myself "Hmm, this sounds like it is describing this stage of my theoretical model of existence... that is... when I am using it to describe an event over time."

The charts below summarize my alchemistic recipe. As you can see, I have used nine steps to describe the dissolution of the soul or ego, and nine more to describe the resurrection or regeneration to enlightenment. I did not include tarot trump names in the charts, but it will become apparent that the nine cards of tarot being used to describe the path of SOLVE are 10 through 18, and the nine cards of tarot being used to describe the path of COAGULA are 1 through 9. In the descriptions of each stage that follow, I will attempt to show how each stage correlates to tarot. However... because I make a few alterations to the sequence of trumps handed down to us from tradition, and because those alterations play such a significant role in viewing the Major Trumps as two contrasting rows of 1 through 9, I will occasionally depart from tradition and only mention how things fit my own arrangement of Major Trumps. People devoted to forever and only viewing tarot in the sequence given to us from its lost origins may object and reject this recipe. To that I will reiterate how the tarot being offered on this site is in fact being offered as an alternative to tradition - a new tarot paradigm. Thus we could also consider what follows to be a new alchemistic paradigm!

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.I.U.M. = "Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam", or... "Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine"

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The Madness of the Method

Just as I think my altered arrangement of tarot trumps maintains most of the character of tradition, I think the alchemistic recipe that is charted above and describe below also maintains most of the character of traditional alchemy (if there is such a thing). There may be a few ideas that are out of sequence in ways that might offend experienced alchemists. But I think a lot of what I've learned about alchemy fits rather well. Disagreement is welcome. As I learn more, I may alter this recipe. You are welcome to help if so motivated.

As mentioned, I simply placed ideas where I thought they belonged, based on how they described the archetypal armature being put forth everywhere on this site (when translated into a number line designed to show an event over time). I was not trying to force traditional recipes of alchemy to fit my design. Thus, the experienced alchemist might object right off the bat, to not having the Nigredo stage at the very beginning, as I have seen it in so many other recipes. Indeed, they may also object to the idea of Putrefaction coming third in line after Calcination and Fermentation. Some recipes of alchemy that I have read also have Conjunction following immediately after Separation. Again... it is not my goal to duplicate these various approaches - so many that there are. This is my own recipe, using as much of tradition as I could gather, and filling in the rest with my own conception of what should be, based on the oft mentioned archetypal armature being offered on this site.

As just mentioned, traditional, experienced alchemists might disagree with the arrangement charted above, where Decomposition or Putrefaction follow after Fermentation and Calcination. But... an interesting symmetry can be found within these charts that could rectify that problem... that is... if one were to go through the recipe by following the suggested arrangement of colors, and in doing so following the cool colors in sequence, followed by the warm colors after. When passing through the recipe in this manner, Putrefaction is followed by Fermentation and then Calcination. It should be noted, that this crossed symmetry is already part of the design of the theoretical model of existence being offered on this site. It's roots are in the design of any entity that draws elements together and mixes them together - at the core there is a trade off of sides. This idea is what causes the color arrangement being offered on this site to have the crossed symmetry it has between cool and warm colors at the core, even before we apply them to this alchemistic recipe (see Colors elsewhere on this site). Thus... for those who relish the idea of keeping mysteries secret through the use of blinds that deliberately throw people off track, this crossed symmetry could be viewed as a blind and used that way. However... I don't believe in the use of blinds, so I point out this symmetry for all to see, and always will. To me, it is beautiful and should not be hidden. It gives the recipe a certain "twist" that makes it divinely inspired.

Most of the number line models on this site are read straight through from 1 to 9. But alchemy, being all about mixing ingredients, takes a different path.

The interesting thing about the crossed symmetry just mentioned above, is how the sequence of operations can, in some ways, make sense in either direction. Burn, dissolve and decay, or decay, dissolve and burn. Depending on the Prime Material one starts with it may make sense to go one of either ways. Certainly, on a spiritual path, either one could make sense. I put Calcination first in my recipe, because it fits better with my fire-wielding Villain, and Decay fits better with the idea of a Devil eroding our integrity. But one could just as easily argue that the card of Death represents the loss of integrity seen in the decay of a corpse, and that The Devil is a more fitting representation for the fiery furnace of Hell. In fact, given the unique arrangement of the four elements, as presented elsewhere on this site, both of these cards are ruled by the element of Fire, thus providing a second reason for allowing them to be so inverted or interchangeable. So for now, I'm going to leave things the way they are.

One reason I placed Disintegration in the sixth position, was because it seemed like a more logical opposite to the Augmentation of Multiplication, seen in the positive path of Coagulation. Other models presented on this site have shown how a foundation is established at position 4, that is augmented in position 6, to a sort of critical mass, that leads to an explosion of expression (see A Significant Signature of Nature elsewhere on this site). Additionally, the idea of Solidification fits well with card 4 and the strength of The Emperor establishing a foundation, while the idea of Multiplication fits well with The Lovers and their "be fruitful and multiply" ways! But... once again, this inner sequence can also be read in the reverse, when thinking alchemistically.

Some of the recipes I've seen for alchemy tend to flip flop back and forth between opposing operations. First comes Separation, then Conjuction. Then Fermentation followed by Calcination. Then it's Dissolution followed by Coagulation.... with a Distillation or Sublimation thrown in to conform to seven steps... where seven steps are seen as sacred. In my recipe, Nine is sacred, not Seven... Nine, not Ten! Thus, in my recipe, I separate these dichotomous operations into positive versus negative, and place them on either the positive/coagula path or the negative/solve path. Separation being a subtractive operation gets put on the negative path of SOLVE. Only after the soul or ego has been completely destroyed do we Conjoin opposites with The Chemical Wedding of the positive path of COAGULA..

The ideas placed on the rest of these two paths are not really meant to be read in any inverted or interchangeable way, the way the 4/5/6 steps can be. But they are meant to be somewhat symmetrical in design, as most of the theoretical models on this site are. And they are meant to have relevance to the four elements, as seen spread across a full number line. Thus operations involving liquid, like Maceration, Filtration, Distillation and Precipitation are typically (but not exclusively) associated with the numbers 2 and 8. Operations like Desiccation, Pulverization, Evaporation, Granulation and Projection are typically (but not exclusively) associated with the element of Air and the numbers 1 and 9. And as already covered, operations of the 4, 5 and 6 are typically (but not exclusively) associated with Fire. Operations involving a critical pause fall under the 3 and 7 of Earth.

With all this in mind, let's try working through this alchemistic recipe.

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The Fall and Rise

With that brief overview, let us now follow these paths and see where they lead. Remember, this first half is supposed to be our dark night of the soul, where our ego is put to death. So first, the fall, or SOLVE...

1. A Negative 1 contributes to the dissolution of the soul by introducing the concept of randomness found within The Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel represents a turn of fate. Those devoted to mitigating the severity of all cards might refuse to ever see this turn of fate as the beginning of anyone's "dark night of the soul" but this alchemistic progression does see it that way. The idea, found within the recipe, of Pulverization, is thus symbolic of that randomness, as something that was an ordered mass is reduced to a jumble of parts. Lesson: it is folly to be certain. Nothing is certain, that's for sure.

2. A Negative 2 contributes to the dissolution of the soul by separating us from the familiar - i.e. dissociation. Like a cult that separates a new member from their family so that they can be brainwashed without distraction, the Separation process filters out those distractions. Like the card of Justice, deciding what is right and wrong, we separate the subtle from the gross. Or... to be more severe, Separation divorces us from our source of life, like the pall cast over us by The Haunt. Like Dante loosing his way in the woods, we are lost. Lesson: we must be lost before we can be found.

3. A Negative 3 represents the gross. Like The Hanged Man, a traitor who is despised and considered the Dregs of society, what we have left after Filtration is to face our own gross, ugly self. This might correlate in some way to the idea of Green Vitriol, symbolized by The Green Lion, as the color for a 3 is green, and Vitriol is very caustic... like the tongue of the rude and crude hanged man, or the people who spit their vitriol of hate upon him as they pass by. Lesson: the body is a disgusting mass of manifestation that should be abandoned.

Taking the inverse symmetry route...

6. A Negative 6 is about letting our gross, ugly self die off. It's all about letting go. Throw the body and ego in the trash and let them rot. Just as the Devil was cast out, we cast out our despised body and inflated ego. I of course do not agree that our body and ego should be despised, but if that helps people to let go, then go ahead and use it. Add some Green Vitriol if that will help. This act of Purtrefaction correlates to the Nigredo stage, because the rotting corpse turns black, symbolized by a Black Crow that flies away. In the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, The Devil is one of only two cards with a black background. Lesson: let go... completely, like a dead corpse rotting.

5. A Negative 5 is where the Disintegration of the body and ego leads to Fermentation. Like Temperance, adding some kind of liquid to the mixture will help the Fermentation process. Fermentation produces a kind of energy, making the associated card of Temperance characteristically unique in its energy, amid this sequence of dark decline. This would correlate with the stage know as The Peakock's Tail where iridescent colors fill the retort. To be more severe, this would be where we acknowledge the current mixture of ego and persona to be less that satisfactory. We are each an arena of conflicting thoughts, feelings and emotions that are not getting along well at all. Iridescence is a kind of competition to be seen. Like the recalcitrant Witch, this is the roil, boil, trouble and toil stage where we take heed, and dissolve all that is wrong, even though the iridescent colors might tempt us to think we have something of value. Lesson: take our hands off the controls.

4. A Negative 4 is where we burn the remains of the body and ego to ashes. Like the people in the card of Death, no one is spared. Like my fire wielding Villain card, everything is burned to the ground... women, children, royalty, clergy... every part of the ego is burned. This correlates with the Albedo stage, because the ash is white, symbolized by a White Eagle. In the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, Death rides a white horse carrying a black flag with a white rose. Lesson: we can't just let go, we must destroy everything in order to start anew.

7. A Negative 7 is about Sublimation of the blood gasses from the remains of the decaying corpse of the ego. If The Tower card is viewed as a metaphorical representation of a violent decapitation (as suggested in the essay The Spine of Tarot, seen elsewhere on this site) then the Yods or other debris falling from the tower would be analogous to blood spirting from the neck of the decapitated King, severed by The Sadist. In alchemy, this would be The Sick King... being put out of his misery. This might correlate to the Rubedo stage, as blood is Red, and the number 7 is also Red. The Rubedo stage is symbolized with a Pelican piercing its chest to feed its young with blood (or, alternatively, regurgitating a bloody mass of food that stains the chest). Often seen as symbolic of the blood shed by Christ... that would correlate well with the idea of crucifixion, presented at stage 7 in the essay The Greatest Story Ever Told. However, in this particular recipe, where death of the body and ego is desired, the blood found at this stage does not feed, but is a Poison or venom that leads to the exhaustion of energy found in the following stage. Lesson: dependence upon reality and the conscious ego leads to suffering and violent outbursts of anguish. Let it bleed.

8. A Negative 8 takes whatever is left after all this destruction and subjects it to the operation of Distillation. This is where the last bits of the ego are completely purged of all remaining poisons... like the water being purged from the vessels in the hands of the woman in the Star card. Many view the Star card as a representation of Hope. But in this case it represents NO hope - a complete purging of life forces, down to the last drop. The woman in the Star card pours onto land and water to symbolize the purging of both body and soul. She is naked, to symbolize nothing left, the final filter. Lesson: born naked, die naked.

9. A Negative 9 is where the ego has met its end. With nothing left but a trace of distillate dried to a powder - the salt of our brow. We've reached the stage of total annihilation. We have the Alkahest that will dissolve anything and everything. And so it has. We have completely let go of everything except the skin of our teeth, which will be the Matter we start with on the next path. Our "dead" state is accurately symbolized by the card of The Moon, which is a heavenly body that does not radiate any energy or life force of its own. It is a cold dead rock floating in a dark empty void. And now... so are we. And that is a good thing. The moon has eclipsed the sun. Now what...?

We've hit rock bottom in our dark night of the soul. Now, the rise, or COAGULA...

1. A Positive 1 is where the Resurrection of the body and ego begins. By putting our powdered solution into a vessel we are recreating order out of the previous chaos that just annihilated us. We are loading The Cosmic Egg, so it can be hatched. Like The Magician, or The Jinni, we administer the spark of life with our magic wand and give Ignition to Conception. This produces a catalyst. Lesson: we are the architect of our destiny - do it, make it happen.

2. A Positive 2 is where the combination of Matter begins to produce a new substance - what alchemists call The Lesser Stone. Like The Muse, we have found our way again. Opposites are reunited in harmonious balance. This would correlate with the idea of a Chemical Wedding, symbolized with entwined serpents along a staff (or a caduceus, like the one in the Rider/Waite/Smith 2 of Cups). Lesson: keep our eyes on the prize, while we harmonize.

3. A Positive 3 is where Fertilization produces new life - a process of Regeneration that is often symbolized by The Green Man. Thus, the substance produced at this stage is not Green Vitriol, but a kind of Ambrosia, or a Balm that heals... as we learn to be nice and soothing... like The Empress. Our body is a temple, a work of art drawn by the hand of God. Adorn it with ornate beauty. Lesson: be nice and love everyone, including our Self - be the ambrosia.

Taking the inverse symmetry route...

6. A Positive 6 is where we gather as much of the goodness of life as we can... like The Lovers embracing each other, our dark nigh of the soul has taught us to value life and never let go. It has taught us to chose life and never let go. Thus by analogy to the idea of a chemical accelerant, we Augment and Accelerate, and build up a Broth. Chemically, a massive Composite ruled by Fire could be symbolized with a Dragon, or Lizard warming itself on a rock. Like the lizard on his rock, we have needs that need to be met in order to live. Lesson: it is not a crime to be prosperous, be grateful for what has been earned.

5. A Positive 5 is where the Broth of built up goodness thickens, as we only mix together ingredients that are harmonious to life, thus creating a Potion of Panacea. Like the alchemistic Wizard, chemistry is important. This time we are going to get it right. Thus we are as righteous as The Hierophant or Pope. This idea of a perfectly harmonious mixture of opposites might correlate to the idea in alchemy of an Androgynous Hermaphrodite. Lesson: find, get to know, and marry the mate within, the Anima or Animus of the Self.

4. A Positive 4 offers Solidification of the thickened Broth of goodness, as it is cooked, into a loaf, rather than burnt to ashes. Solidification and Consolidation correlate with the solid muscles of The Hero, or The Emperor. Being cooked and not burnt to ashes might correlate to the idea of a Salamander emerging from fire. That would fit well with the number 4 being Orange in color. The idea of a cooked loaf could then correlate to the bread of religious sacrament, as both 4 and 6 represent the "body" of our theoretical mass and our newly evolving ego. Lesson: rebuild a better body, a better ego, a better Self.

7. A Positive 7 is where Crystallization of the blood leads to a Red Tincture, or Nectar of the Gods. In Drinking of the Nectar of the Gods we are transported, like The Chariot with numinous visions and epiphanies. Chemical Crystallization is thus analogous to spiritual Realization, which connects us with the unity of God (see A Significant Signature of Nature elsewhere on this site). And... as the idea of Red blood was compared to the idea of Christ's blood, this Nectar of Blood could also be compared to the wine of religious sacrament. This would again correlate to the idea of Consecration found at this stage within the essay The Greatest Story Ever Told. This then might be considered the true Rubedo stage, symbolized by a Red Lion. Lesson: we are all connected, we are all life in the bloodstream.

8. A Positive 8 is where we fuse all we've learned about life into pure, healing energy. At this stage, Fulmination and Ebullition cause a Detonation that fuses the Aggregate. Like nuclear radiation we radiate our newfound, reborn goodness. Like The Lumina and her little Luminaries, we are enlightened. Like the Rider/Waite/Smith Major Trump, we effortlessly control the Red Lion. Like an alchemisic Phoenix, we rise from the ashes of our dark night of the soul with orgamsic splendor! This would correlate to the Citrinitas stage, as the color of this numinous, luminous radiation is Yellow. Pour the Nectar of the Gods on the fused aggregate and create the Elixir that heals all. Lesson: life is contageous.

9. A Positive 9 is where Fixation produces something (a stone perhaps, or more powder, or an elixir) that can no longer be affected by fire. Through the process of alchemistic Projection we project the ingredients of our perfected state (our knowledge) to turn anything we touch into Gold! In the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, The Hermit carries this gold in his lantern. In The Numerical Tarot, this Vivification is metaphorically symbolized within the card entitled The God, with its inclusion of a Sun, a brilliant glowing ball of pure, life-giving GOLD! Gold, the incorruptable Element of God. And we found it! From Solution to Concretion. From Solve to Coagula, our journey is over. Lesson: ...or is it?

Perhaps we are too full of ourselves in thinking that we have turned ourselves to Gold, or God. Maybe we should take what we have and Pulverize it, to begin the purification process again. Maybe we should take the Elixir and Distill it a bit more. Maybe Desiccation of our refined body and newfound ego will purify things even more. And so it is that this recipe of enlightenment can be wrapped around so that one end leads directly into the other to produce an endless smelting process of ego destruction and renewal. Thus, the pruning and cleansing or alchemistic smelting of the ego continues, until all the life lessons are learned and put to flawless practice. Who among us is that pure and flawless? Anyone? You?

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The Alchemy Mandala

This is of course a very brief analysis of this alchemistic path - or cycle. And I may have gotten some of the symbolic references of traditional alchemy wrong. So I think that in the future I might invent my own symbolism for conveying this unique recipe. If anyone is able to see any correlation to traditional alchemy, that would be a bonus. But... as stated elsewhere, it has not exactly been the goal of this essay to assimilate tradition. The goal has been to describe an alchemistic-like path of enlightenment that is rooted in an archetypal armature, built from transcendental patterns in nature. Let me know if it works for you! In the mean time... here is a mandala you can use to meditate on this particular recipe of purification and regeneration.

This mandala doesn't include all the symbolic "characters" that appear in the recipe above. It mostly focuses on the inverted symmetry of the firey core, where black crow or raven is burned to white ash of eagle in Solve, and lizard morphs into salamander emerging from fire in Coagula. Then the separate snakes of Solve are opposed by the entwined snakes of Coagula. The end of each progression is illustrated with the death of ego by vulcher and the rebirth of ego with phoenix.