alchemy
Terence McKenna on the imagination:
... See moreThe imagination is central to the alchemical opus; the process goes on in the realm of imagination, taken on to be a physical dimension; we cannot understand the history ahead of us until we imagine a journey into the imagination. We have exhausted the Cartesian paradigm; the future of the human enterprise i
Can the hermetic practice be described as practice where symbolism is assigned to every action? Breathing, eating, washing, orienting in space, orienting in time, typing keys, etc. It is a kind of applied and active ritual superstition. The claim isn’t that a series of hand gestures will effect external outcomes, the claim is that a series of hand
... See morequaternity — yesterday I wrote about four poles; I was seeing it as an overall map of virtues, but it’s also a micro-concept that’s fractally lodged in other virtues. Take kairos: “up” is the ability to perceive the field, “down” is knowing the opportunity of an action, “right” is the ability to flow into it, “left” is the technical skill required
... See moreTerence McKenna on translating the Hermetic corpus over Plato:
... See moreNear the start of the Renaissance, Jemistus Pletho brought books to the Florentine council for translation. Medici said, “Plato can wait, I’m getting old, do the Hermetic Corpus first, it’s much more important, we’ll do Plato later.” A few years later, 1493, Cosmo Medici died and never s
Terence McKenna on the alchemist’s view on nature:
... See moreThe modern existential myth says we are cast into matter, lost in a universe with no meaning, and we must MAKE it. This is the absurd in Sartre. “Nature is mute,” is as far from alchemical thinking as you can get; for the alchemist, nature was a great, open book'; they put it through processes, to l
From The Book of Symbols, in the entry under STAR:
... See more"Alchemists called the imagination a ... super-celestial star because of its ability to shed light on, transform, and transcend the fetters of existence. Paracelsus used the term for the numinous "light of nature," which he believed was innate uniquely in each of us (and also in animals) as inborn s
In producing my “bonus thread” for my assay definition, I came across so much fascinating alchemical artwork. Need to dive deeper into that. It helped refine my intrigue to visit Prague. 3 places AI recommended:
The Speculum Alchemiae Museum: This museum is dedicated to the history of alchemy and features various exhibits, including artwork, labora
James Turrell’s 2014 exhibit at the Guggenheim—“Aten Reign”—translated to “Sun God.” It’s a visually encrypted meditation, one that you unlock by seeing a shape and it’s inverted shape at the same time (the tunnel & the pyramid). It is an alchemical mood, and there’s something about connecting Egypt to alchemy (alchemy actually translates to “f
... See moreThe sphere of the alchemist:
Like Horus I see prosche forward,
An inverted ray of myth shoots back,
To the right is imagination chains,
To the left is architectural pattern,
Left and right rotate,
Counter-clockwise,
All sides stretching,
Creating a sphere,
Of attunment and being,
Of fusing the opposites,
Of doing and seeing,