I've been doing alchemical fire circles (alchemifires) with the Vegas Vortex and related groups for a decade now. It's been interesting to watch the process refine and change over the years, and I made the effort to go to a variety of different fires so that I could see how the various branches of the Fire Family did their own thing. Mostly I've interacted with the West Coast off-shoots. I'm glad I got to three of the Hawaii/Oahu events before that group chose to disband at the end of 2012. There were a few years where there was some really fun experimentation and exploration in terms of ritual structure and alchemical metaphors, but things seem to have settled down much more now.  Illumination is clearly the next-gen of circles but so far it's working on disseminating the established culture, or at least that's the direction it seemed to take in year two.  If I get the chance to go see how Four Quarters does their alchemifires, I'd be curious about that one.

A few years back I took Robert Bartlett's Prima class on practical lab work and seeing how all the alchemical metaphors and material applied to actual laboratory chemistry was fantastic. In turn, this inspired me to start looking at laboratory procedures and how we might find new ways to play in ritual, riffing off other processes versus sticking to just the classical seven-phase structure.  For my own ritual work, I've been working with nine phases, adding Multiplication and Projection at the end after Coagulation.  It makes more sense to me to not just be standing there holding gold, and to do something after making it as the proper conclusion.

" I, Saturn, the greatest of the planets in the firmament, declare here before you all, that I am the meanest and most unprofitable of all that are here present, that my body is weak, corruptible, and of a swarthy hue, but that, nevertheless, it is I that try you all. For having nothing that is fixed about me, I carry away with me all that is of a kindred nature. My wretchedness is entirely caused by that fickle and inconstant Mercury, by his careless and neglectful conduct. Therefore, I pray you, let us be avenged on him, shut him up in prison, and keep him there till he dies and is decomposed, nay, until not a drop of his blood is to be seen."

~ "The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine," from Ein kurtz summarischer Tractat, von dem grossen Stein der Uralten...', Eisleben, 1599.

Having had this recurring Ripley Scroll thing, as I mentioned last week, I got to exploring the work of George Ripley more, and his Twelve Gates writings.

1. Calcination
2. Solution
3. Separation
4. Conjunction
5. Putrefaction
6. Congelation
7. Cibation/Nutrition
8. Sublimation
9. Fermentation
10. Exaltation
11. Multiplication
12. Projection

Not only do I think there could be benefit in having the metaphorical ritual/inner process not end with Coagulation (creating the gold), but I also found from my own work that having more and shorter phases across a long period of time makes for a more smoothly flowing ritual.  There's less up-and-down as far as actions which mark the time, and it's easier to give more intentional action to a shorter period of time.  Less loss of momentum.  We already have an established structure at work in the community, so introducing a variation isn't that difficult.  It's sort of like how Illumination tried something last summer that was sort of like the usual affinity group process but they changed the metaphor and didn't assign specific group leaders.  There were enough attendees who were familiar with collaborative improvisation to hold the hands of everyone else who was freaking out from never having done it before.  In my perfect world, I'd like to do this at MayFire where almost everyone knows the drill, and we'd just play the game with some new pieces.  One catch to that might be that it is such a small event, having more groups would make them too small to be practical about this.  Illumination which runs double to triple the size of a MayFire could be more suitable.

Gates one through four are standard.  Putrefaction is really interesting, because at Vortex fires rotting is lumped in with Calcination and I think it would be really interesting to have done some purification work and then take a deep dive down to see exactly what the shit is at that point.  Congelation is a thickening and slowing down.  The Cibation phase is the perfect spot for literally "feeding" the ritual or group.  I'm not yet sure how a group would enact Sublimation.  That's rare enough physically as it is.  Fermentation is standard.  Exaltation, Multiplication and Projection seem like a great way to energize and head to the end.  Bring the energy up, expand it and then connect it to the world outside the ritual space.  Seems like a natural to me.  Ripley has a section after the gates he calls the Recapitulation and that seems like the afterglow part of the ritual.  I need to research more into the phases and explore their facets.  I also think the symbolism of "gates" could be significant.  

I'm still working out the manifestation of cob house workshops and festival fires for the spring and summer.  May has the potential for one cob workshop and two potential events.  In earlier May is MayFire in Vegas and (hopefully) at the end of May will be another Northwest Alchemy Conference.  I haven't heard from Karen since late summer so I guess it's time to go poke her and see what's up.  June or July could have cob building.  June has Shakespeare in Ashland.  Early July I usually house-sit for the 'rents, later July has a faerie festival potential.  And August is Illumination. 

I sat for several hours last Friday night with pendulum and grimoires, seeking the symbols for my left ankle tattoo.  It was divined that the emblems accompanying the original spiraling path shape need to be removed for clarity and construction due to intended size and medium, and some specific alchemical notations included instead.  The five symbols are copper, filter, oil, saffron and Virgo.  The overall design is going to follow the overall shape and appearance of the design which illustrates the Egyptian perception of the flow of energy between heaven and earth.  The fire circle at Forestdance the year I went to Costa Rica turned out to be this pattern, with a main fire and a root fire.  That added second fire is part of the Illumination fire structure too.  One cool detail that doesn't happen at the Oregon fires which did happen in Costa Rica was the brewing of a tea from plants on the land each night to support an aspect of each night's fire. 

"Things bright and clear being so obtained
The King and Queen being begot togeathere
Being put presently in the Secret Prison,
Feed them with heavenly Dew; not Watry things."

~ from 'A warning to the false Chymists or the Philosophical Alphabet by Thomas Rawlin' folios 14-55. This work was printed in Latin, Thomas Rawlin, Admonitio de Pseudochymicis, seu Alphabetarium Philosophicum in quo refutatur aurum potabile Antonii, 1611.

I got involved with the rangoli team the last night at Illumination 2013 and showed them this same design.  The two guys heading it up discussed for a bit and then dug out the jugs of playa dust they'd collected at Burning Man 2012 and used that to lay most of the design.  We ran short for some of the inner bits and the color changed slightly if you knew what you were looking for.  The smaller symbols got dropped out for space considerations but we kept the scarab.  On my ankle, I'm going to take that out too because I'm down to just a few inches of size. 

There are some days approaching which are positively-attuned and in the phase of Fixation, and that seems like a good time to get inked, so this might be happening next week.  It'd be healed before P-con if I do that, which would be another vote for next week too.

Speaking of cons, last Thursday I had my second night of ECCC minion training.  It was everything you ever wanted or needed to know about the show floor area and how it works or doesn't work.  It was raining, but I had a new umbrella with me (so it functioned the way it was supposed to) and I found a different bus stop to wait at to catch a bus home afterward than last time.  Everything went much faster.  Two sessions down, two to go.

Last Saturday I got together with Kalla.  We have both been busy with family for the last couple of weeks.  There was actual sunshine, it was a gorgeous winter day.  We went up to Saint Edwards State Park in Kenmore, WA.  It used to be a monastery and then a seminary.  They have a wonderful, Paganish, stone structure called the Grotto out behind the old seminary building.  I got some great macro images of spiderwebs.  After our outdoor adventures, we grabbed some dinner and had a very serious pow-wow about K's con workshop and plans beyond.  Very productive banter.  I had delicious yam tacos, but something in them set off several hours of inflammatory aches and pains and I haven't figured out just what it was.  ...le sigh...

Somehow, once upon a time, my housemate and I agreed to take another friend's treadmill which wasn't doing anything at their house.  And for a while, it did something in our garage, and then it took became just another thing to put things on.  Last week my sister found someone who was willing to be the next residence for the treadmill, so a huge space just opened up in our garage.  Behind where the treadmill was is a fairly comprehensive pile of boxes, most of which belong to me and many of which haven't done much since I moved to the Emerald City (on the winter Solstice 2005). 

I'm slowly making my way through the boxes.  I have a box that is now the "to be shredded box," and I'll probably borrow my dad's very sturdy home shredder to take care of that pile as I can feed more stuff into it compared to the teeny one I have.  Stuff that is garbage, goes right into the garbage can in the garage.  Same for stuff that can go right to recycling.  I have a box started that is for items to go to the thrift store.  So far, lots of what I've gotten into is paperish, but I know it'll get more thrifty when I get down to heavier boxes at the bottom of the stacks.  Some of it's funny, some of it is bizarre (as in why do I still have this junk?) and it's very much Nigredo work.

Take good heed for this your fire
The fire with water bright shall be burnt
And water with fire washed shall be
The earth on fire shall be put
And water with air shall be knit
Thus ye shall go to purification
And bring the serpent to redemption
~ David Beuther, Universal und Particularia... Hamburg, 1718

More Ripley Scroll energy. I had the extreme good fortune to see one in person in London in the summer of 2012. The British Museum had just discovered they had something like only the 23rd one to exist, and it had been sitting uncatalogued in their basement for several hundred years or something like that.  My meditations on Yule about finding a new formula upon which to possibly base an alchemical fire circle ritual led me to delve into Ripley's Twelve Gates. 

This blog then did something I've been trying to do for about a year and a half, and that's recover the lost originals from the early portion of the European trip.  My iPad crashed during the download and, for reasons that are still unclear, various other photo software programs never could access or find the originals.  However, the media function here can access that hidden folder, and I stumbled across them while looking through my photo files for images for this blog!  There's no coincidence in alchemy.  I get it.  There's a lot of work to be done to actually recover and organize them, but I have my missing larger file size photos from Glastonbury and London.  My GSW pics from that trip were all fine, but the really personal magickal stuff (totaling just over a thousand images) from early in the trip were cloaked until now.

In the Julian calendar, which was being used in England when he was born, Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642.  When the Gregorian calendar went into effect, that shifted his birthdate to January 4, 1643.  One website I read proposed that the two dates should frame "The Ten Days of Newton," and it should be celebrated as a holiday period in honor of the many discoveries and developments that came from Newton's explorations.  That would make a good Pagan holiday out of something scientific...

Nor is it possible to make those distinctions between the Mystic and the Occultist that have from time to time been attempted; as when it is averred that the former follows the path of Love and the latter the path of Power and Knowledge.

from THE SECRET FIRE: AN ALCHEMICAL STUDY by E.J. Langford Garstin

An interesting meditation I have been pursuing for some time now is "How do you tell what's real alchemy?"  How do you judge who knows their alchemy and who doesn't?  During my recently-ended association with the Grey School, I considered the one other person who was primarily associated with the alchemy department to be inexperienced and their teachings flawed based on their approach and explanations, or viable lack thereof in the latter.  In the last few weeks I was told by a friend of a duo on Kickstarter working to raise funds to start an alchemy laboratory and make spagyrics.  Having read their pitch and watched their video, I felt they don't demonstrate an appropriate level of knowledge and experience for what they are attempting to do.  Their recently added FAQ which states they just joined the IAG doesn't carry any weight in that all you have to do to join is pay your reg fee.  I emailed a few questions, and while the guy who answered seemed nice enough, the reply I got is that they are about to go into the cannabis oil biz and sort of run an alchemy lab on the side.  I'll stick with buying my spagyrics from the folks in OR who I met back in 2007 for now.

How much opinion comes from educational experience?  How much from association?  For me, both of those are easily a solid two-thirds of what informs my decisions.  The last third, which I've just recently come to name, is "the fire."  At the Esoteric Book Conference, I had a great conversation with a man and bought a deck of meditational alchemy cards he made.  He gave me a slim booklet of compiled artwork on the side for free, because he said he could see I had the fire for alchemy.  The spark, those flames, are something I look for in fellow alchemists.  That woman at the school and those guys on the internet.... I'm not feeling the heat, I'm not seeing the fire.  

Moving from the macrocosm to the microcosm, how do I judge my own alchemical growth?  I follow the Wheel of the Year as an alchemical cycle, moving from calcination through to projection, and then repeating.  Yule is calcination.  What do I need to burn away?  What am I doing to obscure myself?  What is my dross?  I'm not surprised I finally left the Grey School this year.  It wasn't serving my magickal growth.  My original goal in joining the school was to study alchemy, and that wasn't happening.  I had issues with how the school was being run, how the curriculum was developed and I feel that most of the teachers don't hardly practice magick themselves.  That last month there I was continually aware of being in an inflamed state of mortifactio. 

I got through my two solstice vigils in better physical shape than I anticipated.  The solo one was my longest yet, and I only dozed off once about 5:15am and woke up after about 15 minutes.  I broke the night into nine alchemical phases and did an appropriate spagyric each phase.  I picked an incense for each using my pendulum, and drew a Goddess affirmation card too.  For something I found in the toy/game aisle of the thrift store for just a few dollars, those cards have been amazing.  I should bring them to use for a daily draw at PantheaCon.  At the second vigil I was at the apartment of a couple I met at the cob workshop this past summer.  Among their other guests was the guy who owns The Purple Store (where my 'unapologetically purple' t-shirt comes from) and a man who was part of the Pagan group who staged the ritual at the alchemy conference last May.  He was the one handing out the small keys at one of the gates.  I offered several rounds of gongfu tea in the night, and the new water warmer (gift from my aunt and uncle in Boston) worked beautifully.  

Perhaps I'll revive my alchemical tea ritual at the alchemy conference....

My health finally recovered enough that I felt it appropriate to take a mini-retreat made possible by my parents doing some travel and wanting a house-sitter.  I waited until I'd had my glorious Hobbit late night last Thursday and traveled south on Friday afternoon.  It was one of those long-haul busing actions.  The second leg of that was me and about four dozen, hardened, urban middle-schoolers.  It was interesting to watch my aura auto-deploy itself:  in a space where the standing room was sardine-tight, no kid wanted to sit next to me but had no issue sitting next to any of the older-looking adults. 

I got to spend about four days on the shores of Lake Washington with Mt Rainier seemingly sitting just on the other side even though it's really a couple of hours away by car.  Yes, it's that huge.  It's blanketed with snow and is just beautiful.  There are an amazing number of hummingbirds there, taking advantage of the feeder my parents have hanging out on the deck.  When Kalla came by on Saturday we went outside so she could photograph the mountain, and the birds were zipping right past us, totally at ease and playing with each other.  That night we went to the luminary display around Greenlake.  It was nice, not too cold and dry. 

"When you see your matter going black, rejoice, for this is the beginning of the work."

- Rosarium Philosophorum

I have finally begun an undertaking that is an elementary and classical step in alchemy, and interestingly, one which many modern alchemists overlook.  I'm surprised that I didn't do this sooner, but then it also makes sense that I am doing this now as the sign that I am ready to do this, and wasn't supposed to do this before now.  I am about to begin my work with the seven essentials.  This is a course of spagyrics attuned to the planets and the days.  People who dismiss laboratory alchemy are those that tend to discount or miss this process in alchemical growth.  In straight-forward terms, the alchemist assembles seven spagryic tinctures, one for each planet and you take them as appropriately attuned on each day of the week for a year.  

As with all alchemy, there's no one way to do this.  In fact, one of the methods is to start completely randomly.  Others say to start based on choices made from one's own astrological chart.  Others work with plants native to where they live.  When I took Robert Bartlett's PRIMA class, he talked about this and how ingesting the plant medicine would bring about alchemical understanding no matter how you chose to start, and just by doing so, the process would unfold and offer up guidance in its own way.  Sort of like, if you just start walking the path, you'll learn and get there along the way.  While the taking of spagyrics is said to lead to comprehension and effects that can't happen any other way, it's in the making of your own spagyrics that is supposed to really bring about deep insight and subtle knowledge. 

For my first round of this, I am going to be working with spagyrics made by Al-Qemi, of which I already have an assortment.  I had to order a couple of planets for which I didn't have a representative tincture, and I did that using a pendulum to select the plants.  While I take these, I will work on a series of tinctures that I prepare myself, with the plants chosen based on things I grow myself or which come into my life or otherwise indicate they are part of the series. 

My sister found a friend to take the treadmill we have in our garage that we got from another friend of hers, and so this next week, when I am done with my mini-retreat, the garage should quite literally begin to open up.  I will have access to a variety of things of mine that are boxed up behind where the treadmill is now.  A definite dross pass through the garage is going to happen.  I'll be curious to see what's been stashed down there which I have forgotten.  I know there is some kitchen stuff in those boxes, but I can't be exactly sure what else.  Probably art supplies, and undoubtedly a goodly amount of novelty accumulation.  I'll get to confront feelings of needing to keep things with the fact that I have not had to use or access those things in about seven years.  Nigredo, anyone?  One other side effect of the garage makeover should be being able to have a bit more lab space.  I'd like to get my cordial stuff situation down there and not be in the kitchen with it as much. 

This coming weekend is going to be sort of stupendous.  Friday night I'm going to do my traditional Yule vigil, ahead of the actual moment of Winter Solstice on Saturday morning, about an hour after sunrise.  Damn, that's gonna be one hella long night, but then again, it always is.  Saturday itself has a variety of options.  From Saturday night into Sunday morning, I have been invited to attend a Yule vigil held by a couple I met at the cob workshop this past summer.  Most likely I will try and do the Unsilent Night Seattle event (dependent on weather), at 7:30pm and then head over to 2nd Yule when that finishes up.  I am going to bring all my tea gear and offer gongfu-style service to whoever is attending.  These are geeky, kinky peoples so I'm really looking forward to it.  It's going to be extra nice because my aunt and uncle in Boston gifted me with a water warmer off my Amazon wish list for the holidays.  Now I'm really ready to crank out the tea!  I'm looking at it as being like two nights of fire with the first being serious magickal workings and the second being a party fire.  Thank goodness it's not really fires because two sixteen-hour stints on my feet less than 12 hours apart would be rather painful.  I'm really looking forward to rocking the Gojira slippers the second night.  That crowd should dig on them.