the black art

393 Pages·2013·6.04 MB·English

T B A
HE LACK RT

P K , D. P
AUL IRITSIS HIL
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ONTENTS

Alchemy: Formative Principles

On the Four Elements……………………………………………………….6
On the Seven Planets and Metals………………………….……………13
On the Three Alchemical Principles…………………………………...39

Alchemy: Historiography

Historiographical Analysis 1…………………………………………….54
Historiographical Analysis 2…………………………………………….64
The Magnum Opus…………………………………………………..…….77
The Influence of Hellenistic Philosophy on Alchemy………………..87
The Dignity and Influence of Alchemy on the Renaissance……..109
Christian Theosophy and Alchemy…………………………….…..…135
Carl Jung and Alchemical Symbolism…………………………….…155

Alchemy: Objectives

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The Elixir of Life: A Critical Investigation into the Art of
Transmutation……………………………………………..……………..180
The Riddle of Alchemy: A Secret Desire Transformed……………213

Alchemy: The Cosmogony of the Splendor Solis

The Black Sun:
A Decisive Symbol of Transformation and Renewal………………244
Beleaguered by the Black Sun: Three Dreams……………………...254
Child’s Play: A Fundamental Key to Transformation……………..271
Women’s Work: Integral Mechanisms of Consciousness…………..283
The Spiritual Sun:
Disidentification from the Realms of Convention……..…….……..294

Alchemy as a Therapeutic Process

A Short Introduction……………………………………………………..307
A Psychological Interpretation of “The Emerald Tablet”…………315
Prima Materia and Nigredo …..……………………………………….321
Fermentatio………………………………………………………….…….329
Separatio…………………………………………………………………...335
Calcinatio…………………………………………………………………..341
Albedo………………………………………………………………………348
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Conjunctio…………………………………………………………………355
Mortificatio………………………………………………………………...362
Solutio……………………………………………………………………....368
Coagulatio…………………………………………………………………373
Sublimatio………………………………………………………………….381
Rubedo……………………………………………………….……………..387

Short Biography…………………………………………………………..393

Copyright © 2013 by Paul Kiritsis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any
means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written
permission of Paul Kiritsis except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.

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On the Four Elements

WATER

In the esoteric language, the four elements are not to be confused
with the four corporeal manifestations of the same name. They
are merely the initial or primary differentiations of the primal
virginal substance of all creation, the prima materia. All of them
exhibit two of four secondary properties–hot, cold, dry and moist.
This theory came down to us through the Aristotelian doctrine of
matter, though it most probably took shape under the
philosophical musings of the Ionic pre-Socratics. The ethereal
element of water is cold and moist, and its material manifestation
as a composition of two atoms of hydrogen and one of water
(H 0) is an immediate and exoteric expression of the former’s
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quintessential aspects–its volatility, passivity, amorphousness,
colourlessness and receptivity. Water is characterised by the
condition of heaviness, but also of expansion. On a scale which
orders the four ethereal elements on the basis of their pureness
and level of refinement, water would come third, after both air
and fire. Unlike the latter two which tend to rise, water is rather
dense and possesses a downward tendency. Nevertheless it’s not
as heavy, invariable and sluggish as the element of earth. In
alchemical manuscripts and other esoteric documents, it is
symbolised by an overturned triangle.

FIRE

Fire is the most revered of the four ethereal elements. In ancient
times, its inextricable connection to the sun rendered it of utmost
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importance as the source of life and all creation. In the temples of
many solar deities, fire would burn unremittingly in the
innermost sanctuary, or the holy of holies, where it symbolised
the undefiled first matter, the Empyrean of God. Heraclitus of
Ephesus (535-475BCE), a contemporary of Anaximenes of Miletus
(584-28BCE), was the first intellectual and philosopher to identify
fire as the most pivotal of the differentiating elements of the
original chaos, the prima materia, as well as the foremost quality
defining the latter. He posited that fire was the active and only
mover behind elemental rotation, that is, the transformation of
the four elemental properties into one another–earth into water,
water into air, air into fire, and fire into earth again. By this
virtue, it made perfect sense that the underlying cause of all
phenomena, the manifestations of the noumenal world, as well as
fundamental change through chemical processes including
calcination, coagulation, distillation, sublimation and dissolution
could be attributed to the subtle action of ethereal fire.
This pre-Socratic notion infiltrated the classical world
entirely, for philosophers of the likes of Pythagoras, Empedocles,
Plato and Aristotle all agreed that the primordial substance or the
receptacle of matter was probably an intangible fire of sorts. It
was theorised to be triune or threefold in nature, possessing an
ethereal or celestial, a subterranean and a terrestrial equivalent.
The element exhibits the fundamental properties of hot and dry,
and its material manifestation as the oxidisation of a particular
substance through combustion is an immediate and exoteric
expression of the former’s quintessential aspects–its
boundlessness, inscrutability and its propensity to purify and
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generate; its ability to rise and illuminate; and its relentless
activity and elasticity. In contradistinction to water which was
envisioned to be feminine in nature and connected with the
colour green, fire was masculine and linked with red. If the
elements were ordered according to the compass of all possible
movements, fire would come first. Unlike the other three first
differentiations of the prima materia which exhibit multiple
tendencies, fire remains faithful to just one–the condition of
rising. In alchemical treatises and in the realm of esotericism, it is
symbolised by a triangle.

EARTH

The formulation of the four ethereal elements of fire, water, earth
and air is more often than not attributed to the speculative
thought of Empedocles of Acragas (492-432BCE). It was generally
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agreed amongst most Pre-Socratic philosophers that these four
primary differentiations were the first spawn of a basic substance
known as the prima materia that has existed for time
immemorial. In scrying the memory bank of philosophical
conjecture, we see that the first person to identify ethereal earth
as a primary element was the sixth-century thinker Pherecydes of
Syros. Both he and Aristotle adhered to a train of thought which
placed the element at the exact centre of the heavenly rotations,
identifying it as the fecund from which the other three–fire, water
and air–miraculously sprung forth. In addition, it was also
common piece that everything filtering down into the physical
realm would filter through the ethereal element for the conferral
of form before it finally materialising. Aristotle reasoned that the
ethereal version of earth must be like its physical or material
constituent, characterised by the conditions of heaviness, solidity
and geometrical or concrete form. Hence it was likely that earth-
laden principles and substances would be orientated by a
gravitational tendency to drop towards the navel of the cosmos.
Together with water, earth was considered a wholly feminine
principle with a receptive and passive personality. Its two
fundamental properties were cold and dry, putting it last on a
provisional ladder that orders the four elements according to
their subtleties, intricacies and material fineness. Ethereal earth is
esoterically and symbolically connected to potentiality, the colour
white, the concept of life, as well as the cardinal direction of
south and the phenomena of heat and electricity. In the
alchemical theory of matter and in esotericism, the element is
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