“Everything on the face of the Earth is constantly being transformed because the Earth is alive and has a Soul.”

The Alchemist

“In order that you may desire nothing that belongs to the theory and practice of our Philosophy, I will tell you that, according to Philosophers, there are three kinds of Gold.

The first one is an Astral Gold, whose center is in the Sun, which with its rays communicates it, at the same time as its light, to all heavenly bodies under it. It is an igneous substance, and a continuous emanation of solar corpuscles which, being in a perpetual flux and reflux, because of the movement of the sun and the stars, fills up the whole universe. Everything is penetrated by this Gold in the immensity of heavens upon earth, and, in its bowels, we breathe continuously this Astral Gold, the solar particles penetrate our bodies and are ceaselessly exhaled from them.

The second one is an Elemental Gold, that is, the purest and most fixed portion of the elements, and of all substances composed by them; so that every sub lunar being of the three genera contains in its center a precious grain of this Elemental Gold.

The third one is the handsome metal, whose brightness and inalterable perfection give it a price, which make it to be considered by all men as the sovereign remedy for all evils and needs of life, and as the only foundation of greatness and human power.”

The Hermetical Triumph

“The secret of alchemy is this; there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call a ‘field of force.’ This field acts on the observer and places him in a privileged position within the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, energy and matter. This is what we call The Great Work.”

Fulcanelli

“Few persons know how to extract from the rays of the Sun or of the Moon. The means to make this water to descend from Heaven is truly wonderful; it is in the stone which contains the Central Water, which is indeed one sole and the same thing with the Celestial Water, but the secret consists in the knowing how to make the stone a magnet to attract, embrace, and unite this Astral Quintessence to itself.”

Hermetical Triumph

“Nature and Art must assist each other to perfect the works; Art operates without, and Nature within the glass.”

la Fountain, 1797

“It is therefore necessary that theory is accompanied by practice, the one being the consequence of the other. Only laboratory practice gives mastership, for what is practice if not controlled by theory. The rigor of the former corrects the vagaries of the latter. The disciple must exert himself to realize all his concepts.”

Magaphon’s Commentary on  Mutus Liber

This quote of Magaphon’s creates a foundation for understanding of one of the fundamental principles of alchemy. Whatever it is that the alchemist believes to be the laws and processes of Nature and the Great Work must be tested in a personal laboratory for only there is truth to be obtained.

“The bodies of metals are domiciles of their spirits. When their terrestrial substance is by degrees made thin, extended, and purified; the life and fire hitherto lying dormant is excited and made to appear: for the life which dwells in the metals is laid hid, as it were, asleep nor can it exert its power or show itself unless the bodies be first dissolved and turned into their radical source.”

Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus

You are an alchemist; make gold of that.

William Shakespeare, The Life of Timon of Athens