While transmutation may not be a "test" for the Stone, I would suggest that transmutations
are a good subject to study for the student of alchemy, even if they do not directly correlate with many of the classical texts. The reason being that they relate to the growth of things, and they often involve natural or dynamic systems, which may teach us to look at what we are meant to be doing in the lab through different eyes.
In the work of Ohsawa for instance, sodium was excited to a plasmic state by continuous electrical arcs in a vacuum, and then a molar amount of oxygen at normal temperature was introduced. Potassium was created in the process. This process was described in Adam McClean's Hermetic journal quite some time ago and is freely available on the web now in various forms. According to
this paper by Pappas, a similar process may take place within the human cell. The same criterion are required here: electromagnetic excitation of at least one of the matters (the agent) and the introduction of a matter to be transformed (the patient). In the case of the human cell, the excitation is usually provided by the release of energy through activity (nervous or otherwise), examples would be physical activity (release of energy from Mg-ATP complex), heat, fever, etc.
The work of Ighina (
here for example) also fits into this paradigm -- he indicated transmutation of atoms occurred when a materia reached a specific frequency of oscillation. His laws:
Now, the ones with a higher frequency we may perhaps say attract the others due to the harmonies between the two frequencies (eg ratio). For instance, by bombarding the sodium with electrical arcs to excite it to a plasmic state, introduction of the oxygen causes an equalization of potential between some of the oxygen introduced and the excited sodium, raising the oscillation of the oxygen material to a particular level co-incident with that of the lessening excitation of the sodium: bingo! transmutation, according to Ighina's theory.
In yet another different example of transmutation, Schauberger had a vision of fructigens (a fatty, oleaginous, nourishing material containing a storehouse of energy) interacting with oxygenes (active energies emanating from material due to excitation of matter by the sun). Incidentally, Schauberger and Ighina were both big fans of the Emerald Tablet. Schauberger's vision emphasized the importance of the carbones and fructigenic ethericities, because he understood that people well enough comprehended the idea of fire or excitation but did not comprehend the concept of the fuel and its generation. This concept is reflected today in the idea that proper nutrition is essential for those attempting to raise their level of consciousness/vibration through spiritual practices, since the fire is available for free, but the materia must first of needs be obtained and prepared, even though the fire performs most of the work on the materia.
This may seem like a bit of a digression, but what I am trying to point out here is that certain key important concepts apropos to Alchemy have been discussed and described in plain language by several "heretical" scientists, which can enlighten us on what is meant for instance by the "life preserving moisture" which the Rosicrucians and alchemists speak of with such reverence, as well as the mechanisms of evolution of matter (especially where Ighina and Ohsawa meet). For instance, armed with this information we may speculate on what effect the earth's magnetic field has on the process of the evolution of metals (such as where Sendivogius uses the concept of magnetism so prevalently, as does Philalethes in places), and how this might be improved. By properly understanding the growth process we can save a lot of mistakes in the lab working on futile materials or methods. This is in fact what I have endeavored to do for the last 12 years or so, so that when a lab is available or when it comes time to create the lab, we do not waste money on vain materials, and problems of the current world environment (where terrorism, meth labs, fertilizer bombs and so on are used as an excuse to reduce our freedom and liberty towards scientific experimentation and discovery) can be resolved through various ingenious methods.
I cannot stress enough the importance of understanding the life principle, and comprehending "this absence where all presence reigns" (to quote Fulcanelli). Comprehending this process of putrefaction in nature where all potentials become equalized and locked, only to be woken again by some kind of force to unbalance the equation such as sunlight or a contaminant. It has certainly taught me a lot.
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