#adam mclean

[nofatclips]

Signs by Arson Daily, live at Indie Fest in Charlotte North Carolina on April 30th 2021.

[boanerges20]

Armoy Road Races Davey Todd Mike Brown Michael Dunlop Dean Harrison Adam Mclean Photo: Tommy Vennard // 2023

[pathofregeneration]

Hermetic Tria Prima, part I

“Therefore, let my child be aware that the first matter of everything in the world has been Mercury; since water existed before there was even time, and the Spirit of the Lord rested on it. But what kind of water was it? Was it cloudwater? Or another kind that one could pour? No, but it was a dry, slimy water into which God set His earth, which was His Sulphur, so that the earth coagulated the water, and there arose from it the four Elements which had been locked in these two by command of God and His supreme Will. Mercury dissolves the Sulphur, and Sulphur coagulates Mercury, and these two cannot be one without the other. Mercury is never without the Sulphur because it is transformed into it. The nature proper of Mercury is that it dissolves its Sulphur and makes it white, and the nature of the dry Sulphur purges and congeals its Mercury. As these two cannot be one without the other, they also cannot be without Salt. The latter is the principal means whereby Nature accomplishes her generation of all things in the whole world, in vegetables, minerals, as well as in animals, which teaching of mine you should well understand.

For if Nature did not have Mercury in her generation straight at the beginning of the original composition of every created thing, the latter could not keep together in its natural moisture, which is one of the most necessary ingredients for keeping a thing in its essence. And if she did not have the Sulphur, the moist parts would not be congealed. Likewise if she did not have the Salt (which is the means whereby she connects both and causes one to enter the other), it would neither mingle with anything in the world nor unite with it, because there would be no sharpness for entering, and it could not unite with anything. Consequently, these three, namely Mercury, Sulphur, and Salt, are none without the other; where you find one of them, you find them all three, and there is no created thing in the world wherein you do not find them. From these three everything has arisen that is in the world.”

— Isaac Hollandus, Opera Vegetabilia

* * *

Sulphur, Mercury, Salt — 18th-century engraving Based on the work of Basil Valentine (Coloured by Adam McLean)

[ana-goncalves]

“There is no coming to the One with one jump, and none, without going about.”

Dionysius Andreas Freher, Paradoxa Emblemata, séc. XVIII

Fonte: McLean, Adam (ed. por) (1983), The Paradoxical Emblems of Dionysius Andreas Freher. Edimburgh: Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

the hidden stone

Image: an anonymous alchemical print, colored by Adam McLean

* * * * *

The alchemists said the magic formula for enlightenment was "Visita Inferiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem," or "Seek out the lower reaches of the earth, perfect them, and you will find the hidden stone"—the treasured philosopher's stone.

Jungian psychologists might describe the process this way: Engage in a relationship with the wounded and sickly parts of yourself, refine them, and you will awaken your hidden divinity.

[Free Will Astrology]

+

“Water: 35 liters, Carbon: 20 kg, Ammonia: 4 liters, Lime:1.5 kg, Phosphorus: 800 g, salt: 250g, saltpeter:100g, Sulfur: 80g, Fluorine: 7.5 g, iron: 5.6 g, Silicon: 3g, and 15 other elements in small quantities.... thats the total chemical makeup of the average adult body. Modern science knows all of this, but there has never been a single example of successful human transmutation. It's like there's some missing ingredient..... Scientists have been trying to find it for hundreds of years, pouring tons of money into research, and to this day they don't have a theory. For that matter, the elements found in a human being is all junk that you can buy in any market with a child's allowance. Humans are pretty cheaply made.” ― Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1

.

[argentvive]

Stages of Alchemy

In an earlier post I outlined the main way alchemists organized the Opus Alchymicum, in 4, 7, 12, or 14 stages.  

https://www.tumblr.com/edit/argentvive/643426690373173248

As I noted, for writers of poems, drama, and novels, the principal guides are the black/white/red color stages and/or the twelve process stages (”gates”) of George Ripley.  

But of course nothing is so simple.  

To give you an idea of the diversity and complexity of alchemy and its stages. consider this example  from the manuscript Speculum veritatis [The Mirror of Truth], 17th century, Vatican library.  Stanislaus Klossowski di Rola (the son of the artist Balthus) is a massive alchemy enthusiast and like his inspiration, Carl Jung, started rummaging around the monastic and church archives of Europe looking for unknown and unpublished alchemy manuscripts.  He found this one in the Vatican library and published it in 1973 (Alchemy: The Secret Art). 

This illustration shows the alchemical process as a wheel, the opus circulatorium, the “circular work of the elements,” in Lyndy Abraham’s definition in her dictionary.  I wrote about this a little with respect to Daenerys Targaryen’s promise to “break the wheel” in GOT.  I speculated that when Daenerys completed the Great Work, completed all the stages of the wheel, she would achieve the Philosopher’s Stone and break the cycle of oppression and slavery.  That certainly didn’t happen on the show; we’ll see (hopefully!) if it happens in the books.   

On the right is a representation of Sulphur (he holds the symbol for Sulphur in his left hand).  In a post from a couple of years ago I explain why I believe that Daenerys is Sulphur (and thus by definition Sun, fire and air, Red).  In this image, Sulphur is stopping (“fixing”) the wheel with a nail in the stage labeled “Ciner.”, the abbreviation for cineres (ashes), and thus gray.  All the labels are in Latin and abbreviated, but most are easy to figure out.  

To make it even easier, Adam McLean prepared a colored version of the entire image, including the seated guy on the right.  Here’s what I think the 8 stages are. 

1.  Ciner. = Cineres, Ashes, gray

2. Nig. - Niger, black

3. Colores Vary. - Mixed colors (note also the symbol for Mercury)

4. Unlabeled - McLean has colored it orange, not sure why

5. Citrin. / Purpu Obscuri - Citrinus, yellow / purpureus obscurus, “hidden purple”

6. Flau. Obscu / Cauda Pavon. -  Flavus Obscurus, “hidden yellow”  /   cauda pavonis, peacock’s tail

7. Vir. Cerul. /Rub. Palid -  viridis ceruleus, green-blue / ruber pallidus, pale red,  McLean just ignores the “pale red” label and makes the whole section green.  

8. Album - White. Note the crescent moon. 

You can see how the words for the color stages derived from the color words: niger becomes nigredo, the black stage; album becomes albedo, the white stage; citrinus becomes citrinitas, the yellow stage, and ruber becomes rubedo, the red stage.

I would love to find a novel that has all these stages.  Presumably it would be a book published after 1973.  

Green does show up quite a bit in literature, Jaime Lannister as the “green lion,” for example.  And we get living, breathing peacocks from time to time--Norman and Barry in HDM, or the albino peacocks at Malfoy Manor in HP.  A rainbow is a common symbol for peacock; GRRM throws in a rainbow at particularly transformative moments in ASOIAF, as when Jon takes his vows to the Night Watch, for example.  

[tattooed-alchemist]

Khunrath's engraving of the Hermaphrodite analyzed in-depth by Adam McLean.

[nofatclips]

Devil by Arson Daily from the album Late Reflections