Beginner in the study of Alchemy.

[Adrian1192]

Recently I've become more and more intersted in spiritual ascension and have came across alchemy. I see that alchemy emphasizes really well a process which its end brings the paradoxical spiritual state, like a return to the primordial paradox if you will. I'm new to this and want to know more about it, is it there something needed to be done in order to begin? Do you know any books that are rich in the informations provided about the subject?

[Nefastos]

Welcome to the Forum, Adrian!

Alchemy certainly is a fascinating object of study, and also manifold. While it originally seemed to have been twofold, physical (chemical) and mystical (symbolical), nowadays only the second part seem to have been remained alive & discussable: a shift from practical to speculative, not unlike freemasonry perhaps. For the modern Westerners, Jung gives alchemical interpretations on many occasions. Then there's the school which considers Jungian school too profane and theoretical, as is seen from Evola's Hermetic Tradition. Most modern books about alchemy are only incoherent listings of some of its symbols, and completely lack any red thread useful for an occultist.

I am no expert – or even an actual student – of alchemy by any means, but personally I would suggest that one should choose a viewpoint, an approach (which you already seem to have: "spiritual ascension"; "paradoxical spiritual state, like a return to the primordial paradox") and then just start reading & deeply meditating/pondering the original texts on alchemy. Maier, Vaughan, Paracelsus, and so on. Here is a site containing a thesaurus of texts that made me very happy two decades ago.

Funny that you brought this up at the same time than I was reading Pentagrammaton's second chapter after a while, and pondering its psycho-alchemical reading.

[Adrian1192]

That's golden, thank you very much!


Also, for my interpretation, I need to add that for 5-6 years I've been a really rock-headed atheist (that kind of person which believes that religion is even worse than Satan is to a Christian) and somewhere like the last year of my atheism I could have felt something like a hunger within' me to get something spiritual, to experience this reality on a more profound level. Through Carl Jung, Josepch Campbell, the ideas of Willian James also, I've got back into religion and understood its importance and now I see it from a very very different perspective. As the analytical psychology was like that which has got me back into it, and burned my interested to dig deeper, I wouldn't hesitate to read a jungian approach to it, but yes, I'm taking it in a more occult manner, I want more than just understanding how it works.

[Heith]

Welcome on the forum from me also! Apologies that I go a little bit off topic here, but:

Also, for my interpretation, I need to add that for 5-6 years I've been a really rock-headed atheist (that kind of person which believes that religion is even worse than Satan is to a Christian) and somewhere like the last year of my atheism I could have felt something like a hunger within' me to get something spiritual, to experience this reality on a more profound level.

I think, religion or spirituality (whichever term one wishes to describe their interest with) is much like poetry. It's perfectly possible to go through life without ever considering poetry in any way and to be content, or to simply dismiss poetry as something silly where words that rhyme are stringed together (or words that don't rhyme). But to open one's self to the possibility of being, lacking a better word, not in control of every moment and to allow poetry in its at times infuriatingly vague hints or moods to filter into one's life, can add a richness of colours or depth which is not easily found elsewhere.

I am not entirely sure if such goes to alchemy, but lately I've been interested of the four humours, or, the antique definitions of what kind of a cocktail makes up a man's temperament. These four humours then correspond to certain substances. For some reason this fascinates me greatly.