"Man is the subject of Alchemy; and the object of the Art is the perfection, or at least the improvement, of Man." [Ethan Allan Hitchcock (1798-1870)]

See Alchemy - Most Sacred Science

Alchemy originated, as far as we know, in ancient Egypt and Babylon.

Spiritual Alchemy - Spiritual alchemy consists of transmuting every human fault into its opposite quality. [Rosicrucian Manuscript, AMORC]

André Savoret
"If we read true initiates in the science of Hermes, such as Khunrath, Jacob Böhme, Eckhartshausen, Grillot de Givry or the admirable author of the Hortulus Sacer, we end up realizing that while also discussing the 'Metallic work, they mostly talk about something else.
What does that mean?
Let us explain it as we understood it, without claiming to have understood everything.
True Alchemy, traditional Alchemy, is the knowledge of the laws of life in man and in nature and the reconstitution of the process by which this life, adulterated here below by the Adamic fall lost and can recover its purity, its splendor, its plenitude and its primordial prerogatives: What, in the moral man is called redemption or regeneration; reincrudence in the physical man; purification and perfection in nature, finally, in the mineral kingdom properly so called: quintessence and transmutation.
Its domain therefore embraces all creation and, for militant humanity, all the portion of creation that it dragged down with it in its decline and which must resurrect with it and through it, such as it was before the Transgression.
Although its most central domain is the spiritual plane, Alchemy has a hundred more or less contingent applications, at all levels and in all aspects of life.
There is therefore an intellectual alchemy, a moral alchemy, a social, a physiological, an astral, an animal, a vegetable, a mineral, and many more. But spiritual Alchemy remains the model, the key and the reason for the others. And, in accordance with the statement of Hermes in the famous Emerald Table, the knowledge of any one of these adaptations implicitly discovers that of all the others. The universe is one and this unity is the seal of Truth.
Now the supreme Great Work, the only one that can be called without exaggeration "the Way of the Absolute", is the reintegration of man in his primordial dignity according to a process rarely carried out here below (but not impossible), a process which the ancients, we believe, called "the Work of the Phoenix" and which can be read, here and there, between the lines of certain passages in the Bible, the Gospels, the Apocalypse and a few works, Rosicrucian or otherwise, more than one of which does not seem to deal, at first sight, with what is commonly understood by "alchemy".
And this Work is neither to taste nor in the chords of lovers of "little individuals", collectors of recipes good only for uselessly torturing metals, manufacturers of homunculi, distillers of herbs, of blood , of marrow or sperm, nor of those who dream of bodily longevity only in the miserable hope of repeating the follies and disorders of a tumultuous youth!
It is even, quite probably, beyond the reach of more than one adept admired as such for his success, real or supposed, in the field of metallic alchemy.
Because this science (at all the degrees of its realization, including the Transmutatory Stone) is science of life, living science, living science forever - and science of the Living. And only the “Living” can practice it completely without lies and without damage.
Such is the origin of the misfortunes which have marred, and sometimes ended, the existence of quite a few gold makers who were, alas, nothing more than "gold makers" - not to mention those who were only "thieves of gold".
Only he who has regenerated, with assistance from On High, his own microcosmic metals and stripped them of the leprosy of the seven sins can by right, by divine right, regenerate at will the physical metals. This one only acts wisely, in the Light of the Word."
"In summary, regenerated man is the philosopher's stone of fallen nature, just as unregenerate man is the materia bruta of that Great Work of which the divine Word is the Alchemist and the Holy Spirit the secret fire: there are two Ways in the Work, but there is only one Agent: Love! And all true Christian hermetists - not prompters - are unanimous on this point as on that of the subordination of the physical Work to the mystical Work." [What is Alchemy? by André Savoret (1898-1977)]

Paul Foster Case
"Alchemy, then, is misunderstood if it is thought to be no more than a crude precursor of modern chemistry. Its true adepts sought other results than those aimed at by the modern chemist. The instruments of their work had nothing in common with the apparatus of our laboratories.
True, they described such apparatus. They even published illustrations of it in some of their books. They did so as part of their plan to prevent uninitiated readers from discovering their real secret. For, as we have already said, the alchemical books were written as supplements to oral instruction. They were aids to memory, rather than complete expositions of Hermetic practice. Thus, they were so arranged that none but those who were duly and truly prepared might guess the real meaning from a perusal of their strange, cryptic pages.
The Hermetic art has to do with a process carried out in a hidden laboratory. In the works of genuine adepts, the vessels of the art are invariably described as being secret, as are the processes. Bernard of Trevisan writes, "Dissolution is the whole mystery of the art, and is to be accomplished, not as some have thought, by means of fire, but in a wholly abstruse manner, by the help of Mercury." Here the adjective 'abstruse' has the now obsolete meanings: "concealed or hidden."
Thomas Charnocke gives a hint to the same effect when he says in his Breviary, "I think few potters within this realm have made at any time such cunning ware, as we for our science do fashion and prepare." Can anything be plainer than this continual repetition of such words as secret, hidden, abstruse? Even the adjective "Hermetic" has come to have this meaning, as when we say that a vessel is "hermetically sealed." Alchemical practice is primarily an interior operation.
At the same time, although we have said that alchemy is not crude chemistry and that all its instruments are contained in a hidden laboratory, you must not jump to the conclusion that it is a pure metaphysical process. It may be correctly described as a psycho-physiological operation. The Hermetic practice is a method of psychological transformation directed by the conscious mind of man.
This is the mode of human consciousness personified by the Egyptians as Thoth, by the Greeks as Hermes, and by the Romans as Mercury. Thus it becomes evident that what Bernard of Trevisan means by saying that the operation is performed by the help of Mercury is little more than a paraphrase of what we have quoted from the Katha Upanishad: "It should be grasped by the mind alone.
Dissolution is said to be the whole mystery of alchemy because Hermetic practice enables us to control those functions of our bodies which dissolve or break down into their constituent elements, the forms of materials taken from our environment. The laboratory of the alchemist is his own personality. The secret vessels therein are organs in his own physical body, together with their astral and etheric counterparts.
The principal piece of alchemical apparatus is a furnace, called an "athanor." Eliphas Levi says, "We are all in possession of the chemical instrument, the great and sole athanor which answers for the separation of the subtle from the gross and the fixed from the volatile. This instrument, complete as the world and precise as mathematics, is represented by the sages under the emblem of the pentagram, or five-pointed star, which is the absolute sign of human intelligence. I will follow the example of the wise by forbearing to name it; it is too easy to guess it."
Today there is no need for even the slight concealment which seemed advisable when Levi wrote. The athanor is the human organism. Its name, like many other alchemical terms, is derived from Hebrew. In that language, it is Ath-Ha-Nour, which means "Essence of Fire." Thus Bernard of Trevisan is correct when he says that the Great Work is not performed by means of fire, and so are the other sages who insist that the fire employed by them is "no common fire."
It is the essence of fire, manifested as the human organism, which provides us with the instrument for the Great Work. Hence the athanor is defined as a "self-feeding, digesting furnace, in which an equable heat is maintained." Is not this a fairly good description of the human body?" [Esoteric Keys of Alchemy by Paul Foster Case]

"One alchemist announced that one grain of this powder would transmute into purest gold one hundred thousand times its own weight. But his readers did not realize that this powder is wisdom, one grain of which can transmute all the ignorance in the world. Nor did the reader properly understand that the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE IS KNOWLEDGE, the great miracle worker, or that the elixir of life was Truth, which makes all things new. It was sad that misunderstandings should exist, but wherever great truths are given to small minds, misunderstandings are inevitable." [Manly Palmer Hall, A Monthly Letter, April 1937]

"Man must overcome the seven planets and transmute them into soul powers. Their negative forces are the seven deadly sins, which are overcome by a symbolic struggle with demons and dragons and, in turn, are transmuted into the seven cardinal virtues. This is the key to alchemy, for from the seven base metals, first spiritualized and then brought together as a secret compound, is produced the Philosopher's Stone, the purified soul." [Manly Palmer Hall]

C. G. Jung
"The purpose of Alchemy is to liberate the whole individual which is hidden in the darkness, threatened by the rational and correct conduct of life, consequently experiencing themselves as hindered and on the wrong path." [C. G. Jung]

Fulcanelli
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'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." [Fulcanelli]

Stages to Spiritual Alchemy:
1) Calcination: The process of breaking down parts of ourselves that are in the way of our own happiness. This represents the stage in our lives where we begin breaking down our egos, self-doubt, stubbornness, self-sabotaging behavior, pride and arrogance, and put it aside so we can find out what is underneath.
2) Dissolution: Our inability to take responsibility for our many faults, avoidance of traumatizing memories, and other inner tensions as they rise to the surface, causing us to become aware of how our behavior might be affecting others. This is the beginning of spiritual maturity and key to developing emotional intelligence.
3) Separation: Truly becoming aware of our authentic feelings for a person, or for ourselves. In this stage we experience our anger, frustration or disappointment towards another or ourselves, rather than reverting back to the old habit of dutifully trying to “forgive” or “forget” because it is the “right” or comfortable thing to do.
4) Conjunction: Provides the inner space – the simmering – that is required for us to truly and honestly accept all the parts of our authentic self. In this stage of spiritual alchemy, all of our unconscious thoughts and feelings bubble up to the surface and into the light of conscious awareness.
5) Fermentation: The beginning of our process of rebirth. This stage can be compared to the death of a grape, which then becomes the birth of wine. In this stage we begin to experience moments of our more “refined” self.
6) Distillation: The level of further purification. It is finding ways to live from a daily place of inner peace – even in the most mundane circumstances. This is what is mostly defined as “enlightenment.”
7) Coagulation: You become free from the mind and have allowed our consciousness or Soul, to connect with the Spirit. In this stage the physical universe is not separate from the mind or spiritual reality; it is a reflection.
These 7 Stages are essential to transmuting inner-elements of our past and transforming those elements into a substance that can be used to reach our highest and best self. Always remember, “One of the most powerful lessons that you can learn is how to convert the negative energy from the pain you suffered, into constructive actions that improve you, for others.”

Manly Palmer Hall
"Man has been an alchemist from the time when he first raised himself, and with the powers long latent pronounced himself as human. Experiences are the chemicals of life which the philosopher is experimenting with. Nature is the great book whose secrets he seeks to understand through her own wondrous symbolism. His own Spiritual Flame is the lamp by which he reads, and without this the printed pages mean nothing to him. His own body is the furnace in which he prepares the Philosopher's Stone; his sense and organs are the test tubes, and incentive is the flame from the burner. Salt, sulphur, and mercury are the chemicals of his craft. According to the ancient philosophers, salt was of the earth earthy, sulphur was a fire which was spirit, while mercury was only a messenger, like the winged Hermes of the Greeks, whose color is purple, which is the blending of the red and the blue—the blue of spirit and the red of the body.
The mystic realizes that he himself is the Philosopher's Stone, and that this stone is made diamond-like when the salt and the sulphur, or the spirit and the body, are united through mercury, the link of mind. Man is the incarnated principle of mind as the animal is of emotion. Man stands with one foot on the heavens and the other on the earth. His higher being is lifted to the celestial spheres, but the lower man ties him to matter. The philosopher builds his Sacred Stone by harmonizing his spirit and his body. The hard knocks of life chip this stone away and facet it until it reflects lights from a million different angles. The ultimate achievement is the Philosopher's Stone." [Manly Palmer Hall, The Initiates of the Flame]

THE FIVE THINGS NECESSARY TO OBSERVE IN THE PRACTICE OF ALCHEMY.
1. To recognize the true PRIMA MATERIA.
It is to be found everywhere; but if you do not find it in your own house, you will find it nowhere. It is a living substance that can be discovered only in places inhabited by man. It is the only substance from which the Philosopher’s Stone can be prepared, and without that substance no genuine silver or gold can be made. In thirty pounds of ordinary mercury, there is usually not more than one pound of the true substance; and a hundred pounds of ordinary sulphur usually contain not more than one pound of that which is useful. It can only be found above the earth, but not below it. It is before everybody’s eyes; no one can live without it; everybody uses it; the poor usually possess more of it than the rich; the ignorant esteem it highly, but the learned ones often throw it away. The children play with it in the street, and yet it is invisible. It can be perceived by the sense of feeling, but it cannot be seen with the material eye.
2. Use for the preparation of the PRIMA MATERIA only the rose-coloured blood of the Red Lion and the pure white gluten of the Eagle.
Let your Will be strong, but without anger, and your Thoughts be pure from that which infects the lower strata of the earth’s atmosphere. Let the fire of the divine Will penetrate deeply within your soul, and elevate your mind to the highest regions of thought.
3. Obtain the sacred Fire.
It is not of man’s making; it cannot be bought, but it is given for nothing to those who deserve it.
4. Then follow Multiplication and Increase, for which purpose weight and measure are necessary.
Weigh all things with the scales of justice, and measure them by the rule of reason.
5. The fifth is the Application, that is to say the Projection upon the metals.
This will be accomplished by nature without artificial aid.
- In the pronaos of the temple of wisdom, c. 1890 by [Franz Hartmann]
Pic. Source: Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, aus dem 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert

Franz Hartmann
"Quæ sunt in superis hac inferioribus insunt; Quod monstrat coelum, id terra frequenter habet. Ignis, Aqua et Fluitans, due sunt contraria; Felix talia si jungis, sit tibi scire satis.

ALCHEMY is that science which results from a knowledge of God, Nature, and Man. A perfect knowledge of either of them cannot be obtained without the knowledge of the other two, for these three are one and inseparable.
Alchemy is not merely an intellectual, but a spiritual science; because that which belongs to the spirit can only be spiritually known. Nevertheless, it is a science dealing with material things, for spirit and matter are only two opposite manifestations or "poles" of the eternal one." [Franz Hartmann "In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom, c. 1890]

"In the heavens and surrounded by both an outer and an inner aureole and by hierarchies of celestial beings are the radiant symbols of the Holy Trinity: ???? (the Father?), the Lamb (the Son), and the Dove (the Holy Ghost). The respective dignities of the heavenly host are determined by the number and arrangement of their wings.
The glory of the Godhead and the invisible world is concealed from the inferior creation partly by a line and partly by the circle of the starry heavens, itself obscured by clouds. Five birds- a crow (Saturn, lead); a swan (Jupiter, tin); a cock (Mars, iron); a pelican (Venus, copper); and the phœnix (Mercury, quicksilver) - occupy the half circle directly within the band of the starry heavens.
The upper half of the blue circle containing the five planetary signs is occupied by the zodiacal signs. In the green circle appear the words: "'The solar year, the stellar year, and the year of winds; in the yellow circle, "The mercury of the sages, corporeal mercury, and common, or visible, mercury; in the orange circle, "Combustible sulphur, fixed sulphur, and volatile, or ethereal, sulphur"; in the red circle, " Elementary salt, earthly salt, and central salt; and in the violet circle, " Four kinds of fire are requisite for the work. The white central triangle contains the figure of the solar mercury.
The entire upper section of the plate is an esoteric diagram of the constitution of the threefold spiritual sun. In the lower foreground is a hill upon which grow a number of trees, each bearing the symbol of an alchemical substance. (For details consult Basil Valentine's table of alchemical symbols on Page CLV.) At the lower right and represented by a nocturnal scene is the inferior world, while at the lower left and represented by a diurnal scene is the superior world. Thus water is symbolized by the right side of the plate and fire by the left side.
Under the wings of the phœnix are two circles containing the symbols of fire and air; under the wings of the eagle are two other circles containing the symbols of earth and water. The human figures, one male and the other female, both attached to the superior world by c golden chain and bearing upon their bodies the symbols of the creative forces, stand for the divine (male) and human (female) principles in every creature.
The spirit and will are represented by a lion rampant; the soul and intuition by a deer with twelve lights or stars upon its horns and bearing a trifoliate leaf symbolic of the threefold division of all natural things. In the center of the picture is the figure of philosophic equilibrium and the accomplishment of the magnum opus.
The double-bodied lion emphasizes to the initiated the necessity for the final union of all diversified parts; also that light and darkness (symbols of all natural opposites) are two bodies with a single head. Upon this strange creature which he has fabricated by his art and which symbolizes the reconciliation of apparently irreconcilable elements, stands the alchemistic philosopher. The stars upon his robe reveal the luminous nature of the purified and regenerated adept, and with the maces (the illumined intellect) he destroys the illusion of light and darkness and, uniting the various scattered parts of cosmos, fashions therefrom the philosophic androgyne.
In the Hermetic Museum this plate is accompanied by the following quotation: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens established, and their hosts by the breath of His mouth. The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the world. All things are satisfied with Thy goodness, O Lord. Thou turnest away Thy face, they are troubled.
Thou turnest away Thy Spirit, they die and return again to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit and they are created, and renewest the face of the earth. Thy glory is for everlasting."

IT CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE, EVEN IN THE MOST LOATHSOME FILTH
"For the alchemist the one primarily in need of redemption is not man, but the deity who is lost and sleeping in matter.
Only as a secondary consideration does he hope that some benefit may accrue to himself from the transformed substance as the panacea, the medicina catholica, just as it may to the imperfect bodies, the base or "sick" metals, etc.
His attention is not directed to his own salvation through God's grace, but to the liberation of God from the darkness of matter.
By applying himself to this miraculous work he benefits from its salutary effect, but only incidentally. He may approach the work as one in need of salvation, but he knows that his salvation depends on the success of the work, on whether he can free the divine soul.
To this end he needs meditation, fasting, and prayer; more, he needs the help of the Holy Ghost as his paredroz [ministering spirit].
Since it is not man but matter that must be redeemed, the spirit that manifests itself in the transformation is not the "Son of Man" but as Khunrath very properly puts it, the filius macrocosmi.
Therefore, what comes out of the transformation is not Christ but an ineffable material being named the "stone," which displays the most paradoxical qualities apart from possessing corpus, anima, spiritus, and supernatural powers.
One might be tempted to explain the symbolism of alchemical transformation as a parody of the Mass were it not pagan in origin and much older than the latter.
The substance that harbors the divine secret is everywhere, including the human body. It can be had for the asking and can be found anywhere, even in the most loathsome filth." [Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy (1944), translated by R.F.C. Hull. Bollingen Series XX, Vol. 12 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1953), pp. 299-300.]

Rosarium Philosophorum
“Geber - The Book of Perfect Magistery: It is necessary for the Artificer of this science to be most subtle of wit, and to know and understand the natures of metals and their generations, infirmities and imperfections in their minerals, before he can come to this Art. Let no workman come to search out this Art, being loaded with gross and dull wit, or being sparing or covetous in his expenses, nor any man of double or variable mind, either over-happy or captious, but the Son of Learning imbued with a subtle and politic wit, sufficiently rich, bountiful, healthful, firm and constant in his purpose, patient, gentle, long-suffering and temperate.
Alphidius: Know, My Son, that thou canst not obtain this science until thou purify thy mind onto God, and till God knoweth thee to have a staid and upright mind, and then he will make thee to reign and rule over the world.
Aristotle: If God knew there were a faithful mind in man, he would then reveal this Secret unto him.
The Correction of the Ignorant: It is necessary for every Art to imitate the Scoria, and to understand the nature thereof, and thus art imitates his nature. Know, ignorant man, that by Art nature itself is known and cannot be amended, and of necessity the follower of nature must come to a perfect end of the Secrets of the Philosophers.
Hermes and Geber: He which shall once bring this Art to a full end if he should live a thousand years, and should every day nourish four thousand men, yet he should never want.
Senior: He is so rich which hath the stone whereof Elixir is made, as he which hath fire may give fire to whom he will, when he will, and as much as he will without any peril or want unto himself.” [Rosarium Philosophorum]

"The attainment of a higher consciousness is the Magnum opus, the great work, of which the Alchemists said that thousands of years may be required to perform it, but that it may also be accomplished in a moment."
"They looked upon the human mind as being a great alembic, in which the contending forces of the emotions may be purified by the heat of holy aspirations and by a supreme love of truth. They gave instructions how the soul of mortal man may be sublimated and purified from earthly attractions, and its immortal parts be made living and free.
The purified elements were made to ascend to the supreme source of law, and descended again in showers of snowy whiteness, visible to all, because they rendered every act of life holy and pure. They taught how the base metals – meaning the animal energies in man – could be transformed into the pure gold of true spirituality, and how, by attaining spiritual knowledge and spiritual life, souls could have their youth and innocence restored and be rendered immortal."
"The riddle of the Egyptian Sphinx still waits for a solution, and will be revealed to none unless he becomes strong enough to discover it himself.
But the true Word still lives. The light of truth still shines deep into the interior world of man, and sends its divine influence down into the valleys, and wherever the doors and windows are open to receive it, there will it dispel the darkness, rendering men and women conscious of their own godlike attributes and guiding them on the road to perfection, until, when all their struggles have ceased and the law has been restored, they will find permanent happiness in the realisation of the highest universal ideal, their own divine self." [Franz Hartmann (1838-1912) - "Magic White and Black" c. 1888, 4th edition]

Stanton Marlan
"In a 1952 interview at the Eranos conference, Jung stated that “The alchemical operations were real, only this reality was not physical but psychological. Alchemy represents the projection of a drama both cosmic and spiritual in laboratory terms. The opus magnum had two aims: the rescue of the human soul and the salvation of the cosmos.”' This move brought alchemy into the realm of contemporary thought and was the beginning of a sustained psychology of alchemy.
To see alchemy in this way—as a psychological and symbolic art— was a major breakthrough for Jung and a key to unlocking its mysteries. The exploration and development of this insight led Jung eventually to see in alchemy a fundamental source, background, and confirmation of his psychology of the unconscious.
His imagination was captured by the ideas and metaphors of alchemy, with its dragons, suffering matter, peacock’s tail, alembics, athanors, red and green lions, kings and queens, fishes’ eyes, inverted philosophical trees, salamanders and hermaphrodites, black suns and white earth, metals (lead, silver, and gold), colors (black, white, yellow, and red), distillations and coagulations, and a rich array of Latin terms.
All of these images are, for Jung, the best possible expression of a psychic mystery that enunciated and amplified his maturing vision of the parallels between alchemy and his own psychology of the unconscious. Jung sees all of these as projected by the alchemists into matter.
Their effort was to bring about unity from the disparate parts of the psyche, creating a “chemical wedding.” Jung saw as the moral task of alchemy the unification of the disparate elements of the soul, symbolically represented as the creation of the lapis, or philosopher’s stone. Likewise, Jung’s psychology works with the conflicts and dissociation of psychic life and attempts to bring about the mysterious “unification” he calls Wholeness." [The Black Sun The Alchemy And Art Of Darkness, by Stanton Marlan]

"If any one complain of the difficulty of our Art, let him know that in itself it is perfectly simple, and can present no obstacle to those who love God, and are held worthy by Him of this knowledge. If any one blame me for setting forth the truths of this Art too plainly and clearly, so as to render it possible for any one to gain a knowledge thereof, I answer that I have indeed explained them with sufficient lucidity for those who are worthy and foreordained of God, but that the unworthy can derive no profit from them.
To some foolish and shallow persons I have several times expounded this Art in the simplest manner, and even word for word, but they despised it only, and would not believe me that there is exhibited in our work a twofold resurrection of the dead. Our Art, its theory as well as its practice, is altogether a gift of God, Who gives it when and to whom He elects: it is not of him that wills, or of him that runs, but simply through the mercy of God.
Though I had diligently studied this Art for 17 or 18 years, yet I had, after all, to wait for God's own time, and accept it as a free gift. No one need doubt the truth or certainty of this Art. It is as true and certain, and as surely ordained by God in nature, as it is that the sun shines at noontide, and the moon shews her soft splendour at night. But I must conclude this preface, and gird myself for writing the tract itself." [The Golden Tract Concerning The Stone of the Philosophers by Anonymous, c. 1678]

Grillot of Givry
"It is a transcendental alchemy, it is the alchemy of oneself. It is necessary beforehand to perfect the alchemy of the elements. The nobility of the work requires the nobility of the work.
Build the athanor; prepare the philosophical egg; features the aludel; separates the subtle from the thick; collect the tears of the eagle and the blood of the lion; make what is occult become manifest; these are the preliminaries of the Work without which you cannot succeed.
The transmutation must take place in your soul. The Stone, in its definitive state, is the Absolute itself; the purifying solvent are the formulas of beauty and perfection with which you will adorn your life.
The Magisterium is Sulphur, Salt and Mercury; thus your sublimated soul, which is the true Mercury of the Philosophers, will unite with the Sulfur of divine love, through the Salt of mortification and trials.
Coordinate therefore all your actions and all your impressions in order to form a perfect harmonic whole. Strive to acquire the extreme lucidity of your understanding. Turn away from what defiles the view. Do not listen to what pollutes the ear. Exalt in you the feeling of the personality, to endeavor then to absorb this one in the bosom of the Absolute.
Inflame your soul with alchemical fire, fire that does not burn. I will teach you to collect it; and it will form around you a protective circle, which will isolate you from Evil Influences.
Beware of wanting to taste the fruits of mystical life before you have done anything to possess them.
Do not say - oh the strange paradox: - "The Way is too arid, and to triumph over the difficulties of the Way one must be a Saint".
But, on the contrary, the Saints only became such because they first knew how to triumph over these difficulties. They started like you, in nothingness; they have climbed the philosophical ladder like you, beginning with the first degree.
So do not ask for faith in order to be able to pray afterwards. Pray first, and faith will flood your soul." [The Great Work 12 Meditations on the Esoteric Way of the Absolute, c. 1906, by Grillot of Givry]

Manly Palmer Hall
“Gold in alchemy in the 17th and 18th centuries was a synonym for soul, it was that part of man's nature which combined the elements which we find today symbolically in the symbol of Mercury.
The ancient system, or triad, for the production of Gold was Salt, Sulphur and Mercury; Salt being a symbol of body, Sulphur being a symbol of spirit and Mercury being a symbol of the binder, or the uniting substance, that which was capable of transmuting one into another. Therefore, the human being, in a sense, is spirit, soul and body; the spirit belonging to eternity, the body belonging to the earth and matter, and Mercury — a mysterious symbol to a combination, or union, of Heaven and Earth in the transmutation of life from a divided substance to a united essence.
This type of thinking was the problem of almost all of ancient philosophy. Paracelsus and others warned the alchemists not to center their attention upon the transmutation of metals — but, as Von Welling tells us in one of his alchemical writings, "That which is true on a spiritual level must also be true on all other levels." And if it is possible to transform mortality to immortality in man, it is also possible in nature, it is possible in all the kingdoms of life and it is possible of all the substances which make up the created Universe.
So Paracelsus did not deny the transmutation of metals — but warned that the acceptance of this as the primary factor in alchemy was a mistake, and that as a result of this mistake most alchemists failed, because they failed first of all to set up the transmutation within themselves by means of which the true understanding of the Mystery could be developed within their own consciousness. In other words, as another alchemist said, "There are seeds of life in everything." In India, in China, in Japan these are called "the Buddha seeds".
They are the seeds of all essences and substances. All things grow from their own seed, root or cause, and the cause of immortality is in every created mortal creature. The seed of immortality is in man, the seed of all knowledge is within the human being, the seed of all hope, and of all life, and of all wisdom, and all understanding - all these are locked within the individual, and they must grow as plants grow, they must gradually overcome the resistance of ignorance, they must day by day and year by year spread their life in all ways.
The Tree of Wisdom grows from the human mind, the Tree of Love comes from the human heart, the Tree of God comes from the eternal seed within the consciousness of the human being.
So all of alchemy was primarily a release, or a revelation, a transmutation of ignorance into wisdom, a transmutation of death into life ever lasting - and all this was done by a very elaborate process: the seekers of transmutation, beautifully and symbolically set forth in a number of works, many chemists were deceived by the terms, however, and felt that the formulas were purely physical - but they were not.
They were all keys to the release of the Infinite Life locked within existence itself. Transmutation was transformation, regeneration, resurrection, restoration, reflammation - all these things are releases of the seed of eternity within time, the seed of life ever lasting in the symbolic substance of illusional desintegration.
So we take this point to move a little bit to study the subject which is of great concern to us at the present moment - the regeneration of human society. Now, there are many attitudes on this particular subject. Many feel, for instance, today in the great disillusionment, that their hope for restoration is far removed.
Others doubted reality, just as scientists have doubted that gold could be made from base metals. Also politicians and diplomats doubt seriously that peace can be brought out of the confusion in human consciousness. Everywhere disillusion, division and mortality rule human relationship. This, however, is contrary to Universal Law, there is within humanity as a collective, also the seed of its own regeneration. Everything grows from seed, someone must plant the seed of peace - or there will never be seeds of peace in the world. In the Book of Revelation there is a tree that [...] which is for the healing of the nations. This tree represents a truth, a reality, a great revelation growing from a seed in human consciousness.
Now, human beings today all have within them the seed of their own perfection. Perfection is not something added, it is something released; it is not bestowed, it is revealed through the internal structure of human consciousness.
If we go back, for instance, to the period of Plato and Aristotle, we realize that when Plato died, there probably were not 20 copies of his Dialogues and Existence, and they were all hand-written by his disciples for their own use. So far as world knowledge, world recognition of Plato's contribution, in his own day there was none.
What have we attempted to do, he did and when he finally passed out of this life, he left no institution behind him, he left nothing that endured, he left not even a solid codex of his own writings - and yet today he is better read, better known and better appreciated than ever before, because somewhere within the nature of his own labor there was the seed of restoration. That which was truth in his writings can never die.
The same is true of the words of Christ. Those words were not printed in his own lifetime, only a few ever saw them or heard them or saw him - but that which is eternal, inevitable cannot die, and the true Tree of Life in us cannot die.
Today we have many confusions in the world. We have a series of labors that have gone sour. We have attempted to do great things but they were not the things that were necessary. And in the effort to be great we have failed to fulfill the natural simplicity of ourselves. We have accepted the idea that fame and fortune are the answers to the human problem.
But until fame and fortune are regenerated, until the true seeds within both fame and fortune are restored to their original scientific and spiritual dignities, we will never get anywhere with them. Every mistake, every sorrow, every problem that we have has within it the seed of its own solution, and also it is contributing to the ultimate perfection of ourselves, our world and our Universe.
To find these things we have to begin to search for the keys to regeneration, the keys to restoration. Now, if how so happens that these keys have not been entrusted to the sky or the earth, they have been entrusted to man himself, because of those creatures existing on Earth today, the human being is the most evolved, having the greatest potentials, having the greatest equipment with which to accomplish major good in this world.
The human being has the facilities, the mental abilities, the rational faculties by which he can take the seed of eternity within himself and release it, as described in the structure of Qabbalistic philosophy.
So we have here today a world of people — nearly 5 billion, perhaps a little more - each one of which, whether he knows it or not, is immortal. Each one of these creatures has been endowed with a potential. In each human being the seed of Eternity has been sewn in the fields of time. The human being could not breathe, could not walk, could not think, could not exist if Eternity was not within him.
The Eternal Life, the life of all things is that which gives man life. Each kingdom of nature unfolds its life according to its own rules and laws. Each kingdom of nature tries to expand its potentials. We see the gradual development of the plant kingdom, in which a small [...] somewhere gradually develops into a magnificent tree.
We see all the flowers of the field, we also see all the beautiful crystals on the rocks - everywhere something of a divine nature is being revealed through kingdoms of nature. In the animal kingdom other values are revealed. We discover perceptions, reflected powers that we do not even take for existing, let alone take for granted.” ["Alchemy As a Key to Social Regeneration", Lectures by Manly Palmer Hall]

See Also

Alchemy - Glossary of Terms
Alchemy - Most Sacred Science
aqua fortis
Awakening
Christ Consciousness
Figure 14.04 - The Alchemical Light
Figure 2.16 - Alchemical Graphics showing Celestial and Terrestrial Realms
Figure 2.8 - Alchemists Artwork showing duality or Polar States
Mercury