The Great Work is in twelve stages corresponding to the
twelve signs of the zodiac. The twelve stages are:
CALCINATION, CONGELATION, FIXATION, SEPARATION,
DIGESTION, DISTILLATION, SUBLIMATION,
PUTREFACTION, INCINERATION,
FERMENTATION, DISSOLUTION and MULTIPLICATION.
The first stage is CALCINATION. This is defined as
the expulsion of the volatile substance from a matter by
the action of heat. Through the correspondence of this
stage of the Work to the sign Aries, it corresponds also
to the Hebrew letter Heh, first of the twelve simple
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus CALCINATION is
connected with the following attributions of the letter
Heh:
The Constituting Intelligence; the function of Sight; the
direction North-East; Tarot Key 4, THE EMPEROR.
Note, to begin with, that Aries is a FIRE sign, in which
the two fiery, electric bodies, Mars and the Sun, are
dominant. In the technical work of alchemy, then, the
first stage employs what a yogi would call Tejas or
Agni, that is, the element of fire, and it makes particular
use of the currents of energy which originate in the
Mars center, just below the navel, and in the Sun center,
above and behind the heart.
An old alchemical maxim says that to make gold one
must have it. And many of the adepts in the Great Art
assure us that the matter which is the subject of the
operation is none other than what they call "our gold. " It
is the radiant energy, invisible to the ordinary physical
eye, which produces all the manifestations of light on
this planet. From that energy all forms are made
manifest, for it is their substance.
This is the alchemical Sol, or Sun, that is exalted, or
lifted up in the work of CALCINATION. That
sublimation requires the action of fire, and the cooperation
of Mars, the astrological ruler of Aries. And if
you remember that Mars is represented by the 16th Key
of Tarot, which has particular reference to the Great
Work, you will understand the part that Mars plays in
CALCINATION. There, in the symbolism of Key 16,
you can see the fire at work on the matter. There, too, in
the falling figures, you may see the expulsion of the
volatile substance.
Psychologically, the process of CALCINATION is that
which drives out from consciousness (the matter), the
volatile, or changeable elements of emotion, personal
bias, erroneous opinion, and so on.
This stage of the work, because it is associated with the
direction North-East, is connected with that place in the
Masonic lodge where the newly initiated candidate
receives his white lambskin apron. Note that the
material of the apron, lamb-skin, is a direct reference to
the sign Aries. Note, too, that its color, white, is a
reference to the purification of the matter effected by
calcination. There is in the monitors, moreover, a direct
allusion to the alchemical use of the apron, for it is
called "more ancient than the Golden Fleece." The
Golden Fleece is one of the many symbols of the
Philosophers' Stone. The apron is said to be more
ancient, because the process of CALCINATION it
represents precedes the culmination of the Great Work
in the making of the Stone. Furthermore, the monitors
say that the Masonic use of the apron is to prevent
daubing with untempered mortar, a reference to two
passages in the prophecy of Ezekiel (13: 10 - 16 and
22:28). Look up these passages in this connection.
The Hebrew word translated "untempered morter" is
tawfale, (ThPL). It is used in Job 6:6 as meaning
"unsavory," and has this meaning from its root, which
signifies "something slimy, viscous or unpleasant." The
Masonic allusion points the way to the right solution,
both physically and metaphysically, for the apron is
directly connected with the Mars-force. Furthermore,
the term tawfale, as used in Ezekiel 22:28, is associated
with the mental condition of false prophets, who speak
lies and see vanity. It is no figure of speech that the
prophet uses here. This is what actually occurs. When
the Mars-force is uncontrolled and un-tempered, one
cannot help "seeing vanity."
For even physical sight is affected by an impure desirenature.
This is hinted in the story of Moses, who died,
we are told, at the age of 120 years. "And his eye was
not dim, nor was his natural force abated." Bodily and
mental purity is accomplished by the work of
CALCINATION, and this enables one to see even the
physical plane with vision of a clearer, better sort than
that of most persons.
Seeing vanity, is literally seeing falsehood, or seeing
that which is not. Millions of persons today are the
victims of just this kind of false vision. Everything they
look upon is colored by their false interpretations, and
by the false interpretations which they have received
from the race sub-consciousness. It is as if they looked
at the world through colored glasses. Some look
through dark glasses, some through spectacles of rosetint.
But here and there one finds a knower of Reality
who sees the world as it really is, and rejoices in the
vision. Such knowers are few, but they all know the
significance of the lambskin apron, and they have
performed carefblly this first stage of the Great Work.
Calcination, moreover, is directly connected with the
color white, for it is, in ordinary parlance, the process
whereby marble, sea-shells, and similar substances are
subjected to dry heat, so that they are reduced to calx, or
quicklime - a dry, white, burning powder. This, when it
is properly mixed with water becomes the lime used for
making tempered mortar whereby stones truly cut and
shaped are cemented together in buildings. Similarly, in
the alchemical sense, calcination is a purgation of the
sub-conscious, resulting in a new consciousness which
is like quicklime in its effect upon all the forms of error,
and like the slaked lime produced by the mixture of
quicklime and water, this new consciousness makes
firm and stable the structure of new and true
conceptions which is reared in place of the false Tower
of Key 16.
Ripley, in his Compound of Alchemy corrects error that
even so long ago as his day, had crept into the practice
of the art concerning CALCINATION. Says he: "If,
therefore, you intend to make gold and silver by craft of
our philosophy, see that you do not take for this purpose
either eggs or blood, but gold and silver, which,
calcined wisely and not manually, will naturally bring
forth a new generation, increasing their kind as does
each thing." Notice that the proper calcination is not
performed manually, but wisely, that is, through an
operation of consciousness. The reference to eggs and
blood is also important. Eggs are seed-forms, and are
related to the functions controlled by the Mars center in
the body. Blood is pumped through the body by the
heart, regulated by the Sun center. Certain passages in
the alchemical books have led some to conclude that the
Great Work is a direct modification of the products of
the gonads, and also a direct operation on the blood.
The "bellows-alchemists" sometimes went to great
lengths in their literal following of the directions left by
some of the adepts. They worked with blood, eggs, hair,
\"philosophical dew\", and wine - attempting in crude chemical
laboratories what is only to be accomplished with "our
secret vessels." But even those who are on the right
track in alchemical interpretation sometimes go astray
here. They try to modifj the working of the special
reproductive functions, and they also make the mistake
of attempting direct change in the composition of the
bloodstream. Thus Ripley tells us to take gold and silver
only, meaning thereby the solar current which controls
the heart and the lunar current which predominates in
all fbnctions under the immediate control of subconsciousness.
The calcination is of these two currents, a gradual
purgation which, Ripley tells us, takes a year or more.
Here he speaks without the slightest concealment. It
does take just about a full year, if one is diligent, to
purge sub-consciousness of its inherited and acquired
false knowledge.
Ripley tells us also: "Let the body be subtly filled with
Mercury, rendered subtle." He then tells us to use the
proportions of One for the Sun and Two for the Moon.
The subtilized Mercury is the consciousness represented
in Tarot by the Magician. The body filled by it is the
alchemist's own personal vehicle. The numbers One and
Two relate to Sun and Moon in Tarot, as in alchemy, for
Key 19, THE SUN, bears a number which reduces to 1,
and the Key representing the alchemical Moon, THE
HIGH PRIESTESS, is numbered 2. What Ripley means
is that sub-consciousness must be purified until it
partakes wholly of the esoteric quality of the number 2.
Similarly the calcined sun must partake only of the
quality of the number 1. Thus purified, they may be
blended, and their consistency is said to be like wax,
because it takes every impression.
None of this is in the least allegorical. The alchemist's
body is his subject, or thing worked upon. The work is
not directly on "eggs" and "blood," but upon the subtle
energies which take form as "eggs" and "blood." These
energies, being purged of their impurities, are then
mixed, and the mixture is the regenerated consciousness
of the adept. That consciousness is very properly
compared to wax, not only because wax is so
susceptible to impressions, but also because wax is a
product of the industry of bees. The regenerated
consciousness is not a product of nature. It is a work of
art. It is an acquired characteristic, resulting from
assiduous and prolonged practice. Thus the author of
The Sophie Hydrolith writes:
"The numerous writers on our most noble Art have
never wearied of singing its praises, and inventing for it
new and glorious names. Its most precious object they
have called the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, or the most
ancient, secret, natural, incomprehensible, heavenly,
blessed, beatified, and triune universal Stone of the
Sages. Their reason for naming it a stone, or likening it
to a stone, was this! First because its original Matter is
really a kind of stone, which, being hard and solid like a
stone, may be pounded, reduced to powder, and
resolved into its three elements (which Nature herself
has joined together), and then may be re-combined into
a solid stone of the fusibility of wax by the skilled hand
of the artist adjusting the law of Nature."
The perfection of the Stone, furthermore, is thus
indicated by the same writer: The substance should
instantly melt on red hot iron like wax. Now, iron is the
metal of Mars, and red hot iron is the active functioning
of the Mars force. The substance becomes instantly
fluid when it is brought into contact with such activity.
This is an excellent, though analogical, description of
the regenerated consciousness in its relation to personal
activity, symbolized by red hot iron. When selfconsciousness
and sub-consciousness are perfectly
purified and fused, they enter into action with perfect
freedom. There is no fixity of form, either conscious or
sub-conscious, to interfere with that free flow of the
Life-power. Or, as a modern psychologist might put it,
the consciousness of the adept is free from fixations.
The rest - Paul Foster Case Hermetic Alchemy
Subject: The Seven Steps? 
Tue Apr 23, 2013 10:57 am
