Re: Spiritual Calcination

[BeautifulEvil]

We should all remember the point of calcination is the removal of any of the impure volatile components of the matter. In the end, you're left with the non-volatile bare essentials of the substance. This is the best thing about true egoloss and calcination of the ego, one is left with the pure essentials of the body/mind. If done properly (i.e. one unites the Mercury and Sulfur with the calcined Salt), this will turn you into the living Stone, and you shall be a light to all others.

This goes for both physical and psychological/spiritual alchemy.

[Israel]

We should all remember the point of calcination is the removal of any of the impure volatile components of the matter. In the end, you're left with the non-volatile bare essentials of the substance. This is the best thing about true egoloss and calcination of the ego, one is left with the pure essentials of the body/mind. If done properly (i.e. one unites the Mercury and Sulfur with the calcined Salt), this will turn you into the living Stone, and you shall be a light to all others.

This goes for both physical and psychological/spiritual alchemy.

Sorry, I just had a Eureka! moment. What you're saying is that calcination is not really losing your personality, sanity (or essence). What you are truly burning away are the superfluous parts - false parts. The Ego, as defined by Freud, is still there but the limits, your "self-entitlement", are reconsidered, reconstituted. Just as the salt, or ashes, remain of the original matter, so will our base ego remain. This, then, is a constant process and rarely if ever done to perfection.

[BeautifulEvil]

What you're saying is that calcination is not really losing your personality, sanity (or essence). What you are truly burning away are the superfluous parts - false parts.

Yes, sometimes I have a round about way of saying something. However, I see the meaning is definitely not lost in translation because you hit the nail on the head with that observation.

[m1thr0s]

It's just so habitual this whole lamblasting of *ego* all the time...

It's a fool's errand...it cannot be done and even if it could be you wouldn't want to do it.

The problem is largely rhetorical...historical alchemists never once talked of destroying the ego per se...individuals like Paracelsus were extremely fond of their egos as a matter of fact. Ego itself is a good thing...or it can be.

The problem lies with *false ego* - not ego itself. Hence the root of the problem is *unconscious ignorance*...not prideful ambition or anything else we might associate to *ego*...it's all good...so long as it isn't *false*...

In modern times this would be the language of *imprintation*...the idea of bonding to false notions of self, thus distorting the true potential of self and misdirecting ones energies accordingly. But we don't seem to be convinced enough of that language that we are prepared to swap it out for *ego* outright...and perhaps this is valid. There do seem to be a few holes left hanging somehow.

But belaboring the *badness* of *ego* is not the way to go...it is inaccurate and impossible to achieve in any case. I have seen dismantled ego's up close and personal...you really don't want to go there...

m1thr0s

[Oroboros]

Hi,

Yes I liked the PHOENIX = 93 image. Circa 3/08 my Phoenix birthed in my Heart chakra, & sent me on the most white hot 10 days of illumination I've yet encountered. During that time my soul transmogrified, & I experienced a milieu of spontaneous alchemical imagery arising, which was highly fascinating.

I'll post more of it soon, but after it birthed one of its eggs hatched into the "babe of the abyss", & I was propelled into the 8=3 Initiation basically. The experience was so intense I barely ate or slept for a week. This Child was the Holy Ghost/Divine Christ Child, & Homunculus perhaps (Cupid as the light above the pyramid's capstone). Anyway, he eventually wigged out like the face in the movie Tron upon uttering the Ultimate Knowledge to me (he was The Logos Itself speaking to me from Daath, as I was below the Abyss). Now when he did this, he himself shot up to Kether, exploded, & then quintessentialized by dropping back down & congealing into my white Philosopher's Stone of Pure Spirit. I have just begun writing up my summary & account from all my writing, but it was spurred by me reaching clarity on the basic correlations between Alchemy/The Tree of Life/& the Chakras:

1. Sahasrara = Kether = Ipsissimus (2 Mercury = Orange)
2. Ajna = Chockmah = Magus (3 Moon = Purple)
3. Vishuddha = Binah = Magister Templi (4 Venus = Green)
4. Anahata = Chesed = Adeptus Exemptus (11 Jupiter = Blue)
5. Manipura = Geburah = Adeptus Major (17 Mars = Red)
6. Swadhisthana = Tiphareth = Adeptus Minor (20 Sun = Yellow)
7. Muladhara = (Netzach-Malkuth) = Philosophus-Neophyte = (22 Saturn = Indigo)

Here is my tentative Alchemical parallel:

II. THE ALCHEMICAL PROCESS
A. SOLVE (OPVS MINOR)
I. NIGREDO
1. MULADHARA
2. SWADHISTHANA
II. ALBEDO
3. MANIPURA
4. ANAHATA

B. COAGVLA (OPVS MAIOR)
III. RVBEDO
5. VISHUDDHA
6. AJNA
7. SAHASRARA

I am not exactly sure where CALCINATIO fits, but I think it might be the Anahata Heart Chakra Opening Experience. I interpret this schema as a universal spiritual evolution process, just as we undergo physical aging & evolution. There seems a natural law that "The Lower Seeks The Higher", both in physical Order of evolution, & in the Spiritual, & so everyone has to eventually undergo something similar, is my view.

Peace,

OROBOROS = 124, 682 (I use a Greek-based Latin Gematria to flesh out the philosophical alchemical terms. I like the 4 O's evenly divided amongst the consonants, rather than a V to start it).

[deviadah]

1. Sahasrara = Kether = Ipsissimus (2 Mercury = Orange)
2. Ajna = Chockmah = Magus (3 Moon = Purple)
3. Vishuddha = Binah = Magister Templi (4 Venus = Green)
4. Anahata = Chesed = Adeptus Exemptus (11 Jupiter = Blue)
5. Manipura = Geburah = Adeptus Major (17 Mars = Red)
6. Swadhisthana = Tiphareth = Adeptus Minor (20 Sun = Yellow)
7. Muladhara = (Netzach-Malkuth) = Philosophus-Neophyte = (22 Saturn = Indigo)

Have a look at this thread (it fits with what you have done above): SEVEN

I am not exactly sure where CALCINATIO fits...

I think it equals Solve... but it is all in the interpretation!

[Oroboros]

Thanks for the link, there were some good correlations: I like the V.I.T.R.I.O.L. formula generally where the Stone finally perfected is posited as Sahasrara/Kether, & also like the life energy force descriptions.

You posit SOLVE = CALCINATIO, but looking upon my breakdown of them, what chakras would you posit as all in SOLVE--where do you think COAGVLA begins?--my separation is the Crossing of the Abyss on the Tree of Life, thus at Binah, as this is the most basic division of the Tree. "SOLVE ET COAGVLA" is a 2-step, & NIGREDO ALBEDO RVBEDO is a 3, which makes it a bit tough or incongruous. I put NIGREDO & ALBEDO both in SOLVE, as ALBEDO as the white ash or skull dust seems nearly the end of SOLVE. (Let me clarify that I realize these are all fluidly going on all the time as well).

Before my Initiation experience, I had only done some simple study of Jung for my Alchemy knowledge. Proof of such is that I was thinking of CITRINITAS "yellowing", which is why I said it was at Anahata (but might be better at Swadhisthana). Thus let me re-posit that CALCINATIO proper is probably in Manipura, which is the purifying fires of the furnace, which eventually burn the coarse stone to the white ash.

I simply need to do more study with better references & descriptions, & realize that even the alchemists didn't ever put it in an exquisitely exact order. But I think when one unites it with the chakras/Tree of Life, it becomes a definte hierarchical process that now may be tried to be ordered well. It is my goal anyway to try to achieve a great clarity in this sense. For I see the Tree of Life/Chakra diagrams as very Archetypal & True, & so I know that the Alchemical Process, since it is also True, MUST fit in some way quite nicely with it. The stumbling block is alchemy's plethora of ill-defined or multi-defined terms..., but as ever the stone of clarity is in that MASSA CONFVSA somewhere!

PAX,
OROBOROS

[deviadah]

In modern times this would be the language of *imprintation*...the idea of bonding to false notions of self, thus distorting the true potential of self and misdirecting ones energies accordingly. But we don't seem to be convinced enough of that language that we are prepared to swap it out for *ego* outright...and perhaps this is valid. There do seem to be a few holes left hanging somehow.

I've actually planned to respond to this quote for some time... somehow I never did! Until now...



It is wise words and I take them seriously!

I struggle between two worlds:

1. Speak in terms that even a small adult can understand
2. Speak in new terms

It does create confusion!

[Bionic_leg]

This is where I am now. I do feel some of it burning off. Ive been meditating about all the things in my life that led to humility and really trying to grasp the emotions. Right now im sorta bummed out and feel isolated. Actually I can feel the fires.

i dont know how long ill be in this stage, but it's very difficult, so I hope im doing it right. Im working through my meditation to see how things are going and Im sorta new so im trying to stay aware of all the emotions and trying to fan the flames of the fire inside me.

Wish me luck, and thanks.

-A

[deviadah]

Right now im sorta bummed out and feel isolated.

Then you are doing something right!

Often the people around you will wonder what is going on with you, and sometimes it can be difficult for them to understand... i.e. a forum like this is always helpful.

Also all these steps is not 1 2 3... but a synergy... it is not so one-sided that one step is made at a time. There is a little of everything in each part of the process. As above, so below, as without, so within!

Good luck!

[jgarrett]

We should all remember the point of calcination is the removal of any of the impure volatile components of the matter. In the end, you're left with the non-volatile bare essentials of the substance. This is the best thing about true egoloss and calcination of the ego, one is left with the pure essentials of the body/mind. If done properly (i.e. one unites the Mercury and Sulfur with the calcined Salt), this will turn you into the living Stone, and you shall be a light to all others.

This goes for both physical and psychological/spiritual alchemy.

I agree with this for sure, though I am trying to always keep the fire on under my ego, so the impurities get out, and stay out. This process is fairly painfull for me, and I have been blessed with some lucid dream integration to help my ego "play" situations and confront the reality of them. They must be kept under close watch, as someone else here stated "on a leash". I feel this is important untill all is complete. As stated in places, I feel this is where Distillation is an important, eventual stage, where there is a final purified ego as a result.

Psychologically, Distillation is the agitation and sublimation of psychic forces is necessary to ensure that no impurities from the inflated ego or deeply submerged id are incorporated into the next and final stage. Personal Distillation consists of a variety of introspective techniques that raise the content of the psyche to the highest level possible, free from sentimentality and emotions, cut off even from one’s personal identity. Distillation is the purification of the unborn Self, all that we truly are and can be.

Regards

[solomon levi]

In the old days, alchemists would calcine with large magnifying lenses which focused the rays of the sun.

When one practices self-observation, one practices calcination.

I'm reminded of the non-dual observation:
"Only the ego would want to destroy (perfect, improve, transcend, etc.) the ego."

[Salazius]

Yes, Solomon levi, today we can use the Fresnel lens in the biggest model to do that.
I saw on a forum that it can even melt a stone ...

Salazius