Rectification of Matter

As we have already said repeatedly, from the standpoint of the Myth under consideration, the world is born as the result of the interpenetration and mutual reflection of two primal principles — mind and environment — and this interaction transforms them from a separate potential state into a shared actual existence.

This process can be approached from two perspectives — as the Self‑knowledge of Spirit mirrored in the environment, and as the formation of matter under the influence of the mind.

From the mind’s point of view, the world is a field where activity occurs; from the environment’s standpoint, it is energy flowing into matter that turns into matter and back.

Since, from the perspective of Magic, the task of human existence is the realization of the potentials of its mind, this task can be approached “from both sides.” The first is the work on the mind itself: its manifestation, organization, and purification. The second is work on the “vessel,” the supports that realize the spirit’s activity. Both methods, though diametrically opposed in approach, ultimately lead to the same result — the creation of a “perfect being,” the ideal gaze of the supra‑real reality on itself.

One of the most effective forms of work on matter developed by humanity is alchemy. Whether we speak of the European “external” technology for producing the philosophical stone or of the Daoist “internal” tradition of creating and fostering the golden embryo, the matter at stake reflects a fundamental approach whereby the transformation of matter initiates the integral perfecting of the human being, bringing it from passivity to active agency — a perfect unity of spirit and environment.

From the alchemical point of view, the manifestation of spirit’s activity in matter is considered “alchemical sulphur,” while the manifestation of the inert properties of the environment is “alchemical mercury,” both imperfectly mixed in “ordinary” reality, which is called “alchemical salt.” Accordingly, alchemy’s task is the separation of the principles followed by their “proper” union, the result of which will be the “perfect salt” — the philosophical stone. By creating such an “ideal object,” alchemists aim to bring about an outcome that, in theory, will occur in the far future when the material world is “rectified” by the joint efforts of all embodied beings.

We have already discussed the stages of the alchemical process; now we will add a few remarks.

Three notions are fundamental to alchemy.

The first is that matter can exist in five states corresponding to different levels of its perfection. These states are characterized by different colors and are called respectively “earth” (the ordinary, unpurified state), nigredo (the black state of disintegration), albedo (the white state of separation and purification of the principles), citrinitas (the yellow state of mutual attraction between the purified principles), and rubedo (the red state of perfect union). Transitions from stage to stage correspond to the activation and transformation of the four elements: Earth — melanosis (blackening) — nigredo; Water — leukosis (whitening) — albedo; Air — xanthosis (yellowing) — citrinitas; and Fire — iosis (reddening) — rubedo.

The second is that in the process of transforming “earth” into the philosophical stone (or, as the rubedo stage is also called, the “tincture of the philosophers”) seven methods are employed, corresponding to passage through seven “planetary” spheres and the engagement and activation of their “secondary causations”: 1. Mercury — calcination; 2. Saturn — sublimation; 3. Jupiter — solutio; 4. Moon — putrefaction; 5. Mars — distillation; 6. Venus — coagulation; and 7. Sun — tincture. Calcination (roasting) signifies the destabilization of bonds; sublimation (volatilization) — the breaking of those bonds; solutio (dissolution) — the return of the principles to a primordial state; putrefaction (rotting) — the restoration in matter of the property of totipotency; distillation (purification) — a renewed separation of interactive potentials; coagulation (thickening) — ensuring contact between the pure primordial principles; and tincture — the creation of the perfect entity, the rebis, a “double thing” — the fruit of the perfect union, capable of inducing perfection in the substances it touches.

Third: the passage through the seven “secondary causations” is accompanied by the activation of the “tertiary” causations of the “zodiacal” sphere, which unfolds in the twelve stages of the Work itself discussed previously: calcination (“roasting”), solutio (“dissolution”), separatio (“separation”), conjunctio (“union”), putrefaction (“rotting”), coagulation (“fixing”), cibation (“nourishing”), sublimation (“volatilization”), fermentation (“fermenting”), exaltation (“arousal”), multiplicatio (“multiplication”), and projectio (“casting”).

Let us draw attention to a frequently overlooked point — an essential stage of the Work is projection, the “transmission” of the Stone’s activity. Many alchemists who obtained the stone could not transfer it and thus failed. The energy released during the Work requires flow, and, if it is stopped, it destroys the operator, as is the case with other Borrowings of power and magical chains.

We should also note that all three transmutations must be identified, undergone, and completed. Matter must undergo, reveal anew, and transform within itself all the forms and levels of its own manifestation, and only by passing the three ladders — of the four primary elements, the seven planets, and the twelve stars — can it reorganize into the perfect medium in which the manifestation of spirit does not cause crucifixion or suffering, but to free self-knowledge and expression.