In It Are The True Black, White And Red

With all my magickal energy and attention having come back to me and my own priorities, I find myself looking at my alchemical processes and the Wheel of the Year.  I got off of following the Wheel as an alchemical process what with all the distraction and that's been a real disservice I've done myself.  A few years back, I had a year where I really followed the sequence of correspondences I established for myself and it would up facilitating a really amazing period of growth and prosperity that last several years.  Clearly I have come full circle and have to reinvent.  I'm trying to get on the 'upside' of Nigredo, working with it and diving deeper, seeking the Sol Niger instead of wallowing at it's mercy as has been the case for some significant portions of this past year. 

"Wherefore my Child, all is concealed in Saturn, which we have need of, for in it is a perfect Mercury, in it are all the Colours of the world, which may be discovered in it; in it are the true black, white and red Colours, in it is the weight, Saturn is our Lattin."
- "A Work of Saturn" by Johann Isaac Hollandus, From Of natural & supernatural things. London, 1670. Transcribed by Joshua Ben Arent

The cold snap has hung in there, although there is moisture coming and once our cloud cover/blanket returns, temps will warm up a bit.  But in that teeny overlap, we might get some snow flurries.  Alchemy has a lot of literature about collecting dew and other forms of water that carry life energy, but living in a place where dew in the spring just doesn't hardly happen, I've been investigating other forms of water collection.  The debate on snow is plentiful.  Some feel it's just frozen rainwater.  Some say it's got the lowest content of secret fire due to the time of year.  (nigredo water?)  Here's the "catch" on catching water:  it has to be captured without touching metal, plants or humans.  To do so will energetically realign it with one of those three realms.  So, using my weatherproof and lightweight metal mixing bowl of the past is out.  I'm going to try using a huge ceramic bowl or maybe an enameled cooking dish, the latter of which would be much more resistant to freezing and breaking.  Or I'll have to rig up some sort of fabric snow hammock. 

Made a supreme score for the Pagani wardrobe on eBay the other day.  Second time I've gotten a pair of their pants where the design is no longer available, and saved $50 off the retail price.  Those  are some serious peacock's tail pants.  

I did some work in the animal realm last spring, making a lard soap.  It came out a tad too brittle, a sign of being off just a tad on the fat to lye ratio, and I've just had it in the cupboard ever since, but now I'm about ready to grate the whole mess up, melt it down and add just a touch more oil to it and it should be able to be re-cured into functioning soap that may be just a wee bit super-fatted.  Which is actually a luxurious thing.  Working with animal fats is one of the few ways you can do alchemical work in the Animal realm in the modern age without running afoul of animal cruelty laws.  I don't mind if my vegan friends find it distasteful. 

My folks are off to CA to see my Mom's sisters.  Normally I would go house-sit at their place but with this chest cold still taunting me, I'm not up to it as much as they have a super comfy sofa that sits in front of a huge tv with way too many channels.  I'm just not up for being ill in a place that takes an hour and a half on public transit to reach. 

Tomorrow night, technically 12:01am Friday, we see the second installment of the Hobbit.... Me and my red beard are totally ready to go.  We sprang for the really good tix this time, no Lie-max, it's the real deal (and 3D) down at the Science Center.