The Ways in Alchemy

According to our understanding and based on that we have read in the great Master works of alchemy and also in our experience, there is fundamentally, four Alchemical Paths.

The Wet Way, the Dry Way, the Mixed or the Amalgam Way and the Brief Way.

The Wet Way

This Path according to the Masters is the noblest way. As its name 'wet' indicates the liquid or saline material that usually composes the matter's solvent - also known by secret fire.

Its duration time is more or less long according to the method used. There are humid methods that take long months to accomplish and others less than one month, as the one of Kamala Jnana's methods.

The temperatures used can reach 500 degrees at the most in some special cases where it is necessary to perform the sublimation of the matter and during the vitriol distillation.

In some humid methods a glass Pyrex retort and some flasks of the same material will be enough to carry out the process. The ovens vary which in some cases could be a small gas stove with temperature regulation and a bowl or stainless steel porringer that contains the necessary sand bath.

Other methods such as the Vitriol way they need a special Glauber retort for natural vitriol dry distillation just as it is described in Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament.

The Subject mineral of most of the wet method is the Red Dragon of which, after sublimation with the secret fire, the philosophical mercury will be extracted, known by the name Azoth too.

Red Dragon:

In another methods as in the one of Kamala Jnana, in the beginning, there will be extracted from this dragon through the secret fire the two principles: Sulphur and Mercury.

There is also the acetate Path but we never approached it. We know how to prepare canonically all the materials for this approach but never tried it.

Before beginning any one of these Paths there are the accessory works also called Hercules' works because they are painful and slow. It is necessary to prepare canonically the Subject, the salts that will form the secret fire and the spirits.

The Dry Way

This way is executed exclusively in the oven and in crucibles of refractory mud with temperatures about 1000 degrees. It is a difficult and very laborious way that an artist, even so, having some knowledge of this way, will never get to execute it without the help of a master or a brother that knows it already. It is probably best not to attempt it.

The subject of this work, described by Fulcanelli and, above all, by his disciple Eugene Canseliet, is the Black Dragon or Grey Wolf.

As in the wet way, there are also the preliminary works for the Subject's preparation, of the salts that serve as melting and also the wise choice of its Metallic acolyte.

The Black Dragon:

The time of duration is not simply of some few days as some people suppose. It is not as much as in a traditional wet way but it is also a good period of time; everything will depend on the artist's ability and of the amount of material that he has to work with.

Besides, in this way much depends on the "external conditions" and, therefore is a favourable season in which to begin. During the remainder of the year he will get ready all the materials and the "hand work" for the canonical way. Everything is also expensive in this way.

To Summarize: this method is a difficult way that is not really within the reach of any one, because, besides demanding an appropriate and well ventilated place to build the oven, the artist needs a great deal of experience in order to execute it as we have described.

The Mixed Way or Amalgam Way

This approach, above, is the way described, as that of Philalethes, Flamel, Lull, Albert, Artephius, etc.

Why do we call it the "mixed" method? Because in the beginning it needs to start bas in the dry way for the martial regulus' preparation as in the case of the of Flamel, Philalethes and Artephius' methods.

After this first operation by the dry way, and the obtaining of the martial regulus, that is not determined by the same "external conditions" of dry way, the first operations will be made in small crucibles in which to make the philosophical amalgam. After this operation, we distil it in a stainless steel dismountable retort to obtain the philosophical mercury and so on.

Amalgam:

There is an exception in Albert's way that, in the beginning the Subject is sublimated to obtain the Azoth and afterwards to prepare the Water third and fourth passes to the amalgam just as in the Philalethes or Flamel methods.

Artephius' method is a little more complicated but also is based on the martial regulus and on the sublimation of the mercury to obtain the solvent. Some variants on this way exist where the Sulphur of the noble metal can be substituted inclusively by another from the dry way.

We don't know exactly the time of duration of these methods but Philalethes describes it in full detail in the Open Entrance to the Close Palace of King.

The Brief Way

In this way is included the "particular" that is a method not considered a truly alchemic work.

So much as we know our Master he worked in the Brief way and we saw some splendid pictures of the plasma emitted by the melting matter in the crucible to high temperatures.

If the dry way is not accessible from this entire brief it is only for the experts and it is necessary to have special conditions to carry it out.

With relationship to the particular many exist inclusively the Subfusion described in Blaise Vigenere's Traicté du Feu et du Sel and others that you can see in Albert Cau’s Web and not only on it.

Here it is a synthesis of the several alchemic works. Seek the true great Masters classic books and you should not bother with dubious translations that will cause you to be confused.

We already said it and we should repeat. The Fulcanellis (Lubicz, Dujols, Champagne and Canseliet) they are good and we recommended them to learn workable bibliography, alchemic philosophy, symbology and some of the dry way modus operandi but they are not easy to understand for the beginners.

Most is therefore that are beginners are years entering in to a blind alley as happened us and also the other brothers.

Rubellus Petrinus

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