The Tattooed Alchemist

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.... Smiley 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. 



Of Putrefaction And Nigredo

For most of the last three years, I made a weekly blog entry on the Grey School forums.  I was involved as both a student and as a faculty member.  I am no longer involved with that organization, but it's been a nice habit and a way of marking many magickal events and activities in my life.  I going to explore what it's like to make periodic entries of that sort here.    I don't yet know if I will stick with the weekly schedule or not.  

"Reason grounds the universe not only on a necrophilic intimacy but also in conformity with an undead machine imbued with the chemistry of putrefaction and nigredo."  ~ Reza Negarestani from The Corpse Bride: Thinking with Nigredo

One thing I really enjoyed about blogging about my magick and alchemy was that finding a quote each week to use as a title not only identified all manner of nuances in my own experience (there are no coincidences in alchemy) but it also kept me slowly but surely working my way through all manner of obscure and archaic texts.  I intend to continue that habit here as well.

December is shaping up interestingly.  Personally, some of the putrefactio has been expressing itself via a headcold.  Not enough to feel genuinely sick, enough to feel curtailed and forced to refocus.  That's not entirely bad as it's had me catching up on a variety of projects.  

I have my PantheaCon airline tickets all arranged for February.  The weekend after that is FaerieCon West and today I emailed them and asked about programming.  I'd like to offer a free workshop on repairing, fixing and improving fairy wings, called "A Wing and a Prayer."

I started my saffron spagyric, using the spice I grew and harvested myself in October.  It's just a few ounces in a minion bottle.  The grain alcohol turned yellow as soon as I added the ground saffron, and by day's end was already a deep orange.  

I placed a teeny order for some samples of new incenses from Mermade Magickal Arts the other night and they arrived today.  One is sandalwood and ambergris (beach-harvested in NZ), one is a complex blend described as a wet, balsamic forest and the third is named "Majoun Encens" and is an homage to the psychoactive Moroccan fruit paste.  The free sample included was a spruce-frankincense pastille.  Yummy stuff all around!

I have cordials filtering in the kitchen as I write this.  I want to add some vanilla to the blackberry, so I have fresh beans infusing in about an ounce of grain alcohol.  It's slowly turning golden from clear.  The elderberry tastes like it needs more sweetness.  Last year I made it in brandy so it had a completely different character.

Tomorrow I have my first training session to be a "minion" (aka volunteer) for the Emerald City Comic Con in March.  It's downtown in the evening.  I'm going to meet Kalla after she gets off work in the afternoon, then the two of us are going to catch a showing of FROZEN, and then some dinner.  She'll head home at that point and I'll go get trained.  I should bundle up well, as Seattle is having quite the snap freeze his week.  The ol' weather app says it's 28F outside right now.  Brrrrr.....