Spiritual Calcination

[deviadah]

I call this thread Spiritual Calcination in case there might be threads on Practical Calcination - and I'd like to avoid confusion (although both are two sides of the same coin)!

Calcination is the first step of the alchemical process. The image below is both a funny and truthful description as to what this step is all about:



A dictionary would describe calcination as "refinement by consuming grosser parts, to burn to ashes, and to harden by adding salt." When it comes to Spiritual Alchemy the grosser part is the ego, and the ego is built of beliefs that for most people can be hard to change or destroy. Calcination is all about burning them out. Think of the Phoneix and how it is burns up, and then later rises from its own ashes.



To destroy the ego is not to eliminate it completely, but it is all about lifting it up from the material bonds of this world. To shift its attention from those things that really is of no importance when the infinity of the universe is laid out before you.

When the ego is burns away the true essence of the individual emerges.

But how can one do this? From what could this fire be created from? How can one destroy that which is all that, for most people, one is?

The V in VITRIOL (Visita Interiora Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem) stands for Visita, and it means that you should Visit yourself i.e. use that ancient maxim of Know Thyself!

In the Gnostic text The Book of Thomas the Contender it states:

For he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the all.

Two quotes from The Gospel of Thomas:

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.

If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you...

I must excuse myself for using Gnostic texts since I understand that this can be confusing, but I think they show in a less complicated manner all the parts of the alchemical process. Some feel that gnosticism and alchemy have no relation, but I beg to differ.

Now I am not here to preach, but to learn and share, so time to put forth a question that might spark discussion. In fact here are three:

1. What is your view of calcination?
2. Have you burned your ego?
3. How would you seperate yourself from your ego?

[LadyHydralisk]

Cool image...kinda funny too...lol....mm baked brains...

Now I am not here to preach, but to learn and share, so time to put forth a question that might spark discussion. In fact here are three:

1. What is your view of calcination?
2. Have you burned your ego?
3. How would you seperate yourself from your ego?

I remember actually doing the physical process, getting a fever and having my whole outlook on life shift slightly, when I was 13.

Then there were all the sacred dances I went to, in the smokehouse at Tulalip in Washington state...the smoke literally burns your nostrils and I remember it not being very fun at the time actually. When I was young I loved water but I was always afraid of heat and fire, even though I could stand a very hot bath and lay in the sun for hours and hours. I don't know if I've gotten over this but I like fire...I could definately light myself on fire if the circumstances required it...

The process I used most recently was done completely mentally, I do recall tapping into my subconscious knowledge of alchemy to work my way through it, it consisted mainly of all kinds of reheating of the body using temperatures exceeding what most people are comfortable with...I have a tankless water heater so I can go on indefinately at extreme temperatures. There was a week or so where I was doing nothing except the basics of cleaning and cooking, having a superhot bath, meditating in asana, and repeating this...

I also had an incident where I mentally burned out everything in my mind, completely destructively, everything...it was very liberating.

I practiced Chod for some time, and still do...it means "to cut" and is a tibetan practice that involves visiting cremation grounds and summoning devils and demons and allowing them to chew on you a bit...these tests are overseen by dharma guardians and once you are initiated you never know when you will get a challenge...in Tibet or India you will become an ascetic and wander around to many charnel grounds and visit with the dakinis there. This is how Naljor recieved the transmissions from Niguma...

I'm not afraid of very many things anymore...my ego is dedicated completely to the service of the supreme absolute.

[LadyHydralisk]

Oh yeah I just remembered...

after all of that super hot bath stuff....ng told me to rub salt allover myself...

[deviadah]

A nice tale LH!

Any others that have baked their brains, and thrown away some of the mental chains in a spiritual calcination?

[Gunderic Mollusk]

1. What is your view of calcination? In brief, I feel as if the calcination process has a lot of similarities to the process of defragmenting one's hard drive, although with one's mind. It's a little trite of a description, but bear with a stimulant-addled mind for a mote.

2. Have you burned your ego? Well, as with many, it comes from a time of love gone awry. I'd been taken with a lass nine years my senior, back at the raw age of 20, and through some interesting circumstances (a massive leaking hole in my apartment, situated somewhere in a building with the kindness and warmth of a David Lynch film, complete with a fat dead neighbor in the apartment below mine) and her father dying, we ended up living together, which was a good deal too soon in our relationship for us. I learned a great deal from her and our time together, but in all, a lot of very, very horrible things came out from the both of us. We split, or rather my youthful hide was tossed from the domicile after a Saturnine month by astrological reckoning (2.5 years) and I squatted in the "smoke" room of my two friends who were, themselves, readying to move to England that December. I found a small, but comfortable domicile afterwards, and then took some time to meditate on the person I was before this relationship, who I was during, and what remained afterwards. A long, lonely period of self-doubt and lethargy continued until the point that I had removed a large amount of my hair (shoulder length at the time) with my own doing, severing those years of weight. It's all a work in progress, and it's all still warm, but nevertheless, we're a bit burnt by those fires.

3. How would you seperate yourself from your ego? Oftentimes, it's by doing something that makes me personally apprehensive, yet will ultimately cause no damage, or knowingly doing something destructive. Perhaps I'm a wet rag in comparison to Lady Hydralisk on such matters, but when feeling stuck, or that primary "I am" consciousness isn't cuttin' it, I do something that accentuates a conflict, such as consuming fast food from a major corporate chain (something I'm loathe to do on ethics as well as physically) to explore the nature of senseless craving. Did a strange ritual invoking Loki while doing such, but I can remember so little of it, save for a black, grinning horse that farted green flame and had no eyes in its sockets.

Hmh. My magical life can be dull. It's easily sated, and little discernable communication occurs.

[deviadah]

A very personal tale G.M., and it proves that calcination is a step that is continious throughout the work. Although V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 it is still not that simple - as I see it.

One simply does not complete calcination and then move onwards never applying the principles of it again. All the steps need to be working in unison throughout the process; as above, so within - as above, so without...

[LadyHydralisk]

And I'm no alchemist...primarily I'm a sex (re)sourceress, to coin my own terminology...I'm just weaving together various observable realities with what I piece together from *real* alchemists....



Everything I say here should be taken with a grain of (haha!) salt....

[aethegoths]

i have no comment about that...

spiritual calcination?...

maybe it can be work to your brains...

and bang!!

you're insane..

hehehehe...

i think all of alchemist have a brain problem?...

(joke)

[deviadah]

i have no comment about that...

I you don't have anything of value to say then please don't post your non-comment.

Alchemy is not a joke...

I strongly suggest you read THIS and THIS!

[BeautifulEvil]

First off, let us not forget the great alchemical truth: Solve et Coagula.

1. What is your view of calcination?

I'm not sure really, but I believe the task otf calcination first stars when one begins to attempt The Great Work, and the end of calcination is at the completion.

2. Have you burned your ego?

The more one attempts to reveal the unconscious mind, the ego and the conscious mind, begins to tear itself apart. In due time and with enough insight, the ego begins to understand that its very essence of being is nothing but a set of contradictions and illogical paradigms; it beholds its filth, ugliness, and flaws. I believe it was Jung that stated this hypothesis in one of his books. I was confounded when I read this in one of his books, because this accurately describes an occult and very REAL process.

Let me ask you this: what will you do when your consciousness is broken and your ego is burned to ash? How will you ressurect your "self" from this destruction, how will the Phoenix gain new life and rise again?

Either way, after this process is complete, "you" will no longer exist as your previous self. Your old "self" will have died and given birth to an entirely new perfected being that just happens to use your body!

Reference: "Master of the Temple, a grade of enlightened initiation achieved in
Crowley's own Magical Order only after crossing the Abyss, meant
renunciation of all that life meant. The Order of the Golden Dawn
taught that such awareness could not be accessed this side of death,
and Crowley affirmed this in his own way. The Angel of the fourteenth
Aethyr had warned him that the Master of the Temple is condemned to
darkness. Crowley in turn taught that becoming a Master of the Temple
implied not simply symbolic death and rebirth, a concept familiar to
all magical initiates, but the annihilation of the personal self. The
Abyss, then, was closely associated with the death of the
individual—although not necessarily on the physical level."

3. How would you seperate yourself from your ego?

There are many ways. The easiest but least fruitful involves the use of hallcinogenic substances; the apparent transformation is only temporary. The most promising involves YEARS and YEARS of dedication to The Great Work and the occult; the transformation and end result will be beyond anything you can imagine. A word of warning: If one does not successfully cross the abyss, madness and insanity will ensure.

Reference: "Failure to force Choronzon into submission would enslave the magician
to him, corrupting every subsequent undertaking and bringing disaster
in its wake."

Never lose the light of your insight whilst in the darkness of the abyss, or you shall become lost forever.

[BeautifulEvil]

I didn't want to add this to my previous post because I felt it was already too long!

Please review this book if you are seeking destruction of the ego: Liber OS ABYSMI vel DAATH.

16. Then will all phenomena which present themselves to him appear meaningless and disconnected, and his own Ego will break up into a series of impressions having no relation one with the other, or with any other thing.
17. Let this state then become so acute that it is in truth Insanity, and let this continue until exhaustion.

[deviadah]

A word of warning: If one does not successfully cross the abyss, madness and insanity will ensure.

Wise advice... it is very dangerous, also, to destroy your ego in some half-assed manner. You might end up not knowing who you really are. Must be a horrbile feeling to be lost within yourself!

The ego is not a thing that easily dies either. I've seen this a lot where I think it is subdued and then suddenly it pops forth stronger than ever. The ego should always be kept like this (if you imagine your ego to be the dog):

[Israel]

1. What is your view of calcination?
2. Have you burned your ego?
3. How would you seperate yourself from your ego?

Being a novice I cannot honestly say that I have truly burned my ego. I'd like to say that I've accomplished a certain level before realizing that what I was doing was alchemistic, but that's just pride.

Before beginning my studies, I meditated and would reach certain levels of euphoria wherein I felt as though I had lost my autonomy and joined with the All. This was never a complete conjoining because I always retained a certain aspect of my ego which anchored me. Had I been able to let go of that, I may have slipped into what people call "insanity"? Who knows.

[BeautifulEvil]

This was never a complete conjoining because I always retained a certain aspect of my ego which anchored me. Had I been able to let go of that, I may have slipped into what people call "insanity"? Who knows.

Believe me, if you had lost your ego and you were unprepared, it would take you many weeks to patch things back together, and even then you would probably always have a nagging suspicion that something is missing or something isn't quite right. This is under the best of circumstances.

This is just like taking a super heroic dose of psilocybin mushrooms, or a large dose of ayahuasca. That is what ego loss is like. If you're unprepared, this method will be very horrific for you, because you are literally thrown into the abyss while tripping. This is only recommended for those who have obtained a high level of awareness and understanding of self and his/her relation to reality. Those who are unprepared often experience some of the most horrific things ever, before, and after ego loss (they will also have a very very difficult time reconstructing their ego, and many fear they will be insane after the experience). You should check out erowid, and view some of the trip reports for psilocybin mushrooms or ayahuasca.

The easiest way to achieve this is through gradual work and meditation. This yields the easiest way to achieve certain egoloss.

[Sa(l)vage]

1. What is your view of calcination?

My view? I guess I am a firm believer in this is one of the most horrific phases, for myself at least. Imagine you had a torch and you lit everything all up, the logical part of you watching, but your inner alchemist (ARSONIST) is laughing and enjoying it all. I'd like to think the watching, hurting, burning part is my ego, but it's also things I am not. Relationships, cars, false dreams and hopes. Things I think I am made of, whereas I am deeply just... me. I used to experience this phase before knowing what it was. I'd take long baths, turn on Nine Inch Nails's The Downward Spiral and slip into an illogical dismay in the dark humid. For me, ego loss is not ego loss. It's ego... trimming, sculpting. For if we let go of it all, I thing we'd be very boring anyway, in truth.

2. Have you burned your ego?

Yes. And it was like a fall from a tall building. Breath-taking. The morning after was not fun.

3. How would you separate yourself from your ego?

Hm, I think this is a different matter. I personally do it by waiting for the other shoe to fall, to watch my life fall into chaos on it's own. I've been tamed by pain and the sting of loss. It's hard for me myself to hold the torch, anymore. I am relearning, though, slowly. I am watching as I destroy what I was.

[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!

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