How very peculiar...
Here it is again. Maybe it's a problem with monster posts...
[quote author=Bjorn link=topic=105.msg473#msg473 date=1286670156]
Could you go a bit more in depth about what exactly these experiments entail?
1. How would you go about discovering that you needed to perform an experiment in the first place?[/quote]
Sure - Alchemy postulates that the “inner’ (mental/spiritual) is inseparable from the “outer” (physical), so there are two kinds of experiments - physical experiments and mental/spiritual experiments.
OK, here's a mental experiment (I’ll explain something about physical experiments with the next question) -
Research question: When you "feel" something, is it "real" or is it "imaginary"?
Last night, I was out in the woods after completing some physical exercises I do regularly. Generally, I plan my time so that I go in the woods at about 6, work for an hour or so, then come back just as it is getting dark, at about 7:30. But I was tied up, so I went out late, and came back after dark.
On the way back it was very dark (moon rises late this time of year), and the trail is not very good (I’m the only one who uses it), and I got the creepy feeling that there was something lurking around, waiting to jump out at me.
My rational mind tells me that this was imagination. I could go through a whole list of the conditions that were operating which would cause me to have this kind of experience, but if I immediately accept the idea that I am imagining something, that acceptance is based on an a priori assumption (unexamined prejudice) that there actually is nothing there, and that my imagination is playing tricks on me.
So - I experiment. What happens if I drop the prejudice, and act as if there actually is something there, something “alive” which I might be able to meet and communicate with?
I won’t tell you what happens when you do this. You can try it yourself, or you may have already tried it or something like this. But something interesting does happen. And, the funny thing is, what happens is real - but you can make it stop happening by shifting the way you think back to the “rational” approach. Maybe.
So which view is “real”?
[quote author=Bjorn link=topic=105.msg473#msg473 date=1286670156]
2. Do you use any tools for these experiments? Is it like a ritual? Help me see more clearly[/quote]
Traditionally, Alchemy has been tied to experimental chemistry, and there is a whole mass of apparatus that can be used ranging from the Alchemist’s furnace (athanor) to distillation equipment (the pelican) to sealed containers used to allow mixtures to “incubate” (vulture’s egg) - and a lot more besides. The reason that Alchemy developed this way is that at the same time Alchemy was developing, interest in the natural sciences was developing, and the two fed on each other.
Conservative alchemists still do Alchemy this way, but I don’t. The reason I don’t is that as a modern man, I know that, when you mix two chemical together, something specific is supposed to happen. I don’t always know what that is, but I know that I can find a textbook which will tell me. That means that there is little room for the “unknown” to enter in (it would be different if I were a highly advanced chemist, but I’m not).
So the physical experimentation part of my work is done through art. When I work with a piece of metal (I make jewelry), I don’t always know exactly what will happen when I do something, and I never know all the possible variables until I’ve explored them, so there is always “the unknown” lurking just around the corner. This gives me a lot of range for my imagination which actual chemistry would not allow.
You could say that doing physical work (traditionally, chemistry - in my case, art) is the ritual in Alchemy. While you are mentally engaged in doing the physical work, your mind is also doing something - it is paying close attention in a state of expectation and converting the physical changes which it observes into a set of symbolic images. So the physical work becomes a form of meditation.
There might also be other specific ritual used by some Alchemists - ritual purification baths are common, for instance - but there really is no specific set of rituals that Alchemists perform. Alchemy is a very individualistic path, and each Alchemist generally develops his/her own method of working. It’s not at all like ceremonial magic where you get an instruction sheet…
[quote author=Bjorn link=topic=105.msg473#msg473 date=1286670156]
3. Could you explain the homunculi to me?
[/quote]
Yeah… uhm, things get tricky in Alchemy to explain because there are always two things going on - the external physical work, and the internal mental/spiritual work. The homunculi - the little man living in a bottle is a good example of this.
Some Alchemists were engaged in trying to create artificial life in their bottles - just as scientists are still trying to do today. The big difference between what the Alchemists were doing and what modern scientists are doing (aside from the lack of knowledge of advanced biochemistry on the part of 14th century Alchemists) is that the Alchemists believed that, to bring inanimate matter to life, one had to instill it with a kind of vital essence (soul) which they would have to transfer from [b]themselves/b] to the inanimate matter they were working with. They would have to “ensoul” it.
But not much has really changed. In order to “ensoul” something, the Alchemist would have to focus his/her thoughts, attention, and work on the substance - which a modern scientist would STILL have to do. Modern scientists just don’t think of it in the same terms, currently.
Symbolically, though, the homunculi represents the true “self” which exists within the bottle (or “vessel”), which is the body of the Alchemist.
Something funny happens when you engage in certain types of meditation (I see this in Buddhist traditions pretty clearly). You begin to see a separation between the body, the “ego” (the thing that you think of as “me” when you think of yourself. The part that does the talking when you talk to yourself), and something which observes what is going on, but does not act.
The unmoved observer (the one who does the listening when you talk to yourself) is the homunculus which the Alchemist creates through his/her work. This is the real self, which should be in control, but is usually subordinated to the body and/or the ego. When the real self is developed (actually strengthened by being acknowledged), it takes control and guides the body and the ego, rather than the other way around.
[quote author=Dufonce link=topic=105.msg483#msg483 date=1286671640]
would any of it entail mixing aluminum shavings with rust (iron oxide) and igniting it with some magnesium? mmmm.... thermite.... <3 lol burns up to 4500 °F (2500 °C) if ya ever need some really intense heat... like slightly less than the heat of the surface of the sun.
[/quote]
No, but it’s fun to do. Be sure to wear eye protection or you’ll burn your retina!
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