Some alchemical results from simple experiements

[Dragon's Tail]

Forgive me if this is a little esoteric. I've given the instructions for these processes plainly already, many times. As I feel myself nearing something worthy of being a noteworthy philosophical preparation of plant matter, everything else is left only to experimentation, adaptation, and investment in the process.

The ancients stumbled upon the stone by accident, and those accidents must be repeated to have a true understanding of the nature of the world... here's some pictures.

It all starts very simply. Some water, some matter, and some fire. The three essentials.


These are used to make the golden water, as well as any number of products, based on the alchemist's needs. The golden water in particular is special. There is, I'm sure, a proper ratio and darkness that will yield the best results, but in general, the processes speed up with concentration until the mixture begins to gel, where the processes slow back down. Finding the right concentration and wait time for the work is up to the practitioner.
Addition of another wonderful product from the above list will also speed up the processes, allowing them to take place even with only the base golden water. A separation will appear, and the colors will shine.


There are downsides and complexities added when accelerating the process in this way, but they deliver some stunning results. Behold, the phoenix appears, risen from the ashes.


There are of course some other results, such as curious oily crystals floating above the now darkened massa:


I'm still tinkering with the process. Some of the pictures above came from simple experimentation, and a fault in my setup forced me to pause, where I noticed these same reactions taking place at a slower speed in my storage vessels. The process is slower, but the separation occurs. In order to completely strip the material naked of it's particular nature and get it in raw form takes some more work, yet all the same, the way is paved for the next portion of the work. I think in the simple variant, a particular plant essence can be evolved. For the more general stone, a proper removal of everything but the most essential elements shared among the vegetable kingdom as a whole is required, but it's a trivial thing to strip off these particulars.

[Kiorionis]

Cool pictures, DT

I’m surprised at the vibrant orange and red you’ve managed to extract from the plant matter. Typically plant + water + fire results in a darkish green ‘tea’.

[Seraphim]

Cool photos! That phoenix one is awesome. Do those floating crystals have a pretty colors? Looking forward to your experiment and how you proceed. Thanks for sharing.

[Schmuldvich]

Notice DT posted a picture of some herbs (juniper?) in a pot. Although purposefully inferred, nowhere did DT explicitly say that's what he is using as his base in this particular experiment. I love that orange juice, DT! It is very reminiscent of a liquid of a similar color that Kibric has posted before. Have you and he exchanged notes/ideas?

Awesome pictures as always!

Happy to hear from you!

[Dragon's Tail]

Cool pictures, DT

I’m surprised at the vibrant orange and red you’ve managed to extract from the plant matter. Typically plant + water + fire results in a darkish green ‘tea’.

I've found quite the opposite. It appears green until you filter out the herb matter. They have to cook for a long time, and before filtering, the fluid will look like a sort of soup, but after filtering, you will find the liquid quite yellow. At least in these experiments. After filtering, more concentration by reducing the liquid with bring about more oranges and reds.

Cool photos! That phoenix one is awesome. Do those floating crystals have a pretty colors? Looking forward to your experiment and how you proceed. Thanks for sharing.

I can't tell. They're really tiny and appear whitish. I'm sure it's the essential oils from the herb, possibly scorched a bit from the boiling temps. They appeared in my stored pots as well, in great quantity.

Notice DT posted a picture of some herbs (juniper?) in a pot. Although purposefully inferred, nowhere did DT explicitly say that's what he is using as his base in this particular experiment. I love that orange juice, DT! It is very reminiscent of a liquid of a similar color that Kibric has posted before. Have you and he exchanged notes/ideas?

Awesome pictures as always!

Happy to hear from you!

I didn't state it, you are correct. This was not an attempt to decieve, but rather a point of little relevance. This procedure has gone the same on every plant I've tried so far. J. Virginicum is in fact being used here to expand the process to cover more plants and ensure things proceed as expected, and because if it's abundance in this region. It's very easy to amass large amounts of it to test my theories on the vegetable kingdom as a whole. It has some other qualities that will be of use as I proceed as well. If I can make an evergreen smell like a grape, then I'll have accomplished something noteworthy, I believe.

Haven't really exchanged notes with Kibric. The process was conceived through analysis and speculation of how humans came across the ancient stone. I hope to have enough material to continue my experiments far beyond what I've done before. The materials are reduced to 1/1000th of the starting matter rather quickly.

[Kibric]

Interesting read. Thought of your plant work.

The ancients stumbled upon the stone by accident, and those accidents must be repeated to have a true understanding of the nature of the world.

take the white, clear and honoured Herb growing on the Hillocks, and pound it fresh as it is in its Hour, and that is the true Body not flying from the Fire.
And Aros said it is the Stone of Truth?

I will shorten for you the thing, as that clear body which is thrown upon the Hillocks, and is not obtained by putrefaction or motion

And the Philosophers have named it by many and all names, and received or gathered from the Hillocks it is a clear white Body, and these are the medicine of this Art, part is procured and part is found upon the Hillocks;

And the Science is in all Bodys, but the Stoicks, by reason of the shortness of their lives, and the Length of the Work, have concealed this; and they found out these tinging Elements, and they increased them, and all the Philosophers teach them, except the Vessel of Hermes, because it is divine, and of the Wisdom of the Lord hidden from Nations: and they who are ignorant of it, know not the Regimen of Truth, because of their Ignorance of the Vessel of Hermes.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/maryprof.html

[Dragon's Tail]

I've read this before, and reading it again it continues to riddle me. Like many of the texts, the "teacher" seems to wander or dance in circles, spouting instruction after instruction without really saying anything. Yet in other texts, I find my meanings and search for answers.

Best of all are portions that don't discuss preparations or recipes, but in their riddles about the patterns of nature, I think they bury the real formula. Can't find any good examples, but Ripley is a better read if you ignore his instructions and focus on the more colorful parts. Hollandus is the same, spending a good bit of time talking about the nature of the elements and how they work.

... edit ...

When thou hast brought thy work to this pass, thank God, and be glad that through his Grace and mercy thou hast obtained our Chaos dark and mistie, which is the true one Thing written of by all the Philosophers, our confused mass, and the prime ground of all our Secrets

Another pic. This is my small sample batch after cleaning with the ash and "putrefication" by heat. My pregnant Chaos, ready to give birth to Gaia. The process took a few days last time. I still haven't perfected the birthing, but like waiting for a seed to germinate, it will happen in its due time, or not at all.

[Michael Sternbach]

I've read this before, and reading it again it continues to riddle me. Like many of the texts, the "teacher" seems to wander or dance in circles, spouting instruction after instruction without really saying anything. Yet in other texts, I find my meanings and search for answers.

Best of all are portions that don't discuss preparations or recipes, but in their riddles about the patterns of nature, I think they bury the real formula. Can't find any good examples, but Ripley is a better read if you ignore his instructions and focus on the more colorful parts. Hollandus is the same, spending a good bit of time talking about the nature of the elements and how they work.

That is in accordance with my view that Alchemy is based on sound principles of natural philosophy, however, in order to figure out exactly how to put those into a practice that may lead to the Philosopher's Stone, the texts generally tend to be of limited value. I am not quite sure why that is the case, though.

Maybe the less specific descriptions can act as a template for a philosophically trained mind to connect the dots and to spell out its own knowledge. Maybe the authors were intentionally misleading when it came to concrete instructions. Maybe, in some cases, the author's own information was incomplete, and while they had a good grasp of the theory, they did not fully understand how to implement it in the laboratory.

At any rate, there are reasons why Alchemy was called an occult science.

These are just a few thoughts on this topic... If you have further ones, I would surely like to hear them.

[Dragon's Tail]

These are just a few thoughts on this topic... If you have further ones, I would surely like to hear them.

I wouldn't put it past some of them to be intentionally deceptive. In some of my spagyric work, I had the best results when doing the exact opposite of what was claimed in certain texts, short-lived as they were.

I also labor under the delusion that the final process is so intrinsically simple that to reveal it seems like a cheat. Alchemy, as far as I can tell, has ALWAYS been an occult science since the earliest civilizations. Egyptian priests hid the processes from the working classes (I don't think the modern term 'slave' really applies to ancient Egypt, but that's a selective opinion). I imagine that the earliest unrecorded civilizations ran into issues when the information was allowed to spread to a group larger than the usual wondering tribe.
All speculation, of course.

My biggest reason matches yours. I think a lot of alchemists did the same thing that's done today, on blogs, in books, and even on this forum. Their works were more speculation than instruction, and their experiments were still a work in progress while writing. I'm reminded of a post EM made about a dream he had, some kind of Cinderella story spagyric process. I'm not going to bother finding and linking the post.
In general, we're all fishing here, with very few getting more than a "nibble," yet we have cemented theories about what the stone should be and how it should be brought about. The older authors were probably more of the same.

[Kiorionis]

I wouldn't put it past some of them to be intentionally deceptive. In some of my spagyric work, I had the best results when doing the exact opposite of what was claimed in certain texts, short-lived as they were.

Well, as one of the Aristotles wrote:
“Reverse the Elements, and you shall find what you seek.”