The Alchemist's Handbook - Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy by Frater Albertus rev ed (1974), Alchemia i ...
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR
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Alrqtuttaf
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Drei NoveIlen (German) 1932
The Alchemist's Handbook-First Edition 1960
From One to Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. 1966
Praxis Spagyrica Philosophica
1966
The Seven Rays
of
the Q.B.L.-First Edition
1968
Praetische Alchemie irn Zwanzigsten Jahrundert
1970
(Practical Alchemy
in
the
20th
Century-German)
Der Mensch und die kosmischen Zyklen (German)
1971
(Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy)
Men and the Cycles of the Universe
1971
Von Eins bis Zehn (From One
to
Ten-German)
1972
El Hombre y los Ciclos del Universo (Spanish)
1972
by
Die Sieben Strahlen der Q.B.L.
1973
(The Seven Rays of the Q.B.L.-German)
FRATER ALBERTUS
SAMUEL WEISER
New York
CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Revised Edition
Chapter
I
Introduction to Alchemy
Chapter 11
The Lesser Circulation
Chapter
III
The Herbal Elixir
Chapter
IV
Medicinal Uses
Chapter V
Herbs and Stars
Chapter VI
Symbols
in
Alchemy
Chapter VII
Wisdom of the Sages
Conclusion
Alchemical Manifesto
6
10
13
14
Samuel Weiser,
Inc.
740 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10003
24
First Published 1960
Revised Edition 1974
Third Printing 1978
43
©
1974 Paracelsus Research Society
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.
47
ISBN 0 87728 181 5
56
65
100
120
ILLUSTRATIONS
Printed in U.S.A.
by
NOBLE OFFSET PRINTERS, INC.
NEW YORK, N.Y.
10003
On
the Way to the Temple
Soxhlet Extractor
Basement Laboratory
Essential Equipment
Qabalistic Tree
of
Life
Alchemical Signs
5
34
41
42
57
58
ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING AT PARACELSUS RESEARCH SOCIETY
...
out of the mists of doubt and despair emerge the twelve symbolic human types.
On their way to the temple of wisdom, to receive their initiation into the mysteries,
are they contemplating the new responsibilities awaiting them.
It
is the beginning of
a new phase of life eternal is The entry into the Sanctum Sanctorum Spiritii of the
Alchemists.
. . .
FOREWORD
7
FOREWORD
metals and the elimination of sickness and disease from the human
race, but he affirmed that Alchemy as Science and Art provided both
a means to synthesize all the other sciences and a training of the
intellectual and spiritual faculties.
The fascination that Alchemy has always held over mankind has
surely been tainted in that rarely were there higher institutions of
learning where promising students might study the ancient Art. Or
where the proper techniques and methods might be learned as with
other arts and sciences. No doubt, after the manner of the mysterious
seventeenth century Rosicrucians, individual disciples were selected
and trained by a master alchemist. We know that they had assistants
and apprentices-for who would have kept the fires stoked in the
furnaces, and washed the unending stream of glass and clay utensils
employed in calcining, separating and distilling? Or who would have
done all the thousand and one menial things that are so easily per-
formed today that we barely have to think about them? But whether
or not these assistants were ever encouraged to learn or to acquire
the requisite disciplines and procedures-this is problematical.
In the vast literature on the subject, there is nothing that I have
ever found that even pretended to demonstrate fundamental principles.
Traditional alchemy, with its emphasis on piety, secrecy and allegory,
is admittedly obscure. Over the years, I have met many men who
could talk a good line about alchemy, but nothing practical ever
emerged from them. Nor did anyone volunteer to demonstrate its
basic truths in a laboratory or over the kitchen stove. Not one-until
I met the author of this Manual some years ago. Not one-until I read
the first limited edition of this Manual which literally is worth its
weight in gold.
Incidentally, a few years ago I wrote something in recommendation
of this manual, yet expressing criticism of its literary style, its form
of expression, the innumerable typographical errors. This was silly
and arrogant. For even
if,
theoretically, the book were written in the
worst possible style, it would still be unique and a genuine masterpiece.
Had it not been written and published, we would be the losers by
far.
It
teaches with clarity, simplicity and accuracy the technical
means whereby the lesser circulation may be accomplished.
It
should
be a revelation to those who have not previously been introduced to
this method of dealing with herbs. The Great Work is said to be
This is the age of "how to do it" books. There is one on almost any
subject you can think of. Since they fill a variety of needs, they have
proven a boon. From them you can learn to paint, sew, plant a herb
garden, build a brick barbecue
in
the backyard, become an interior
decorator, and re-wire your own home. Almost every imaginable topic
has been covered by these books. So
if
you assumed that this Manual
falls in this category, you would be right-save for the simple fact
that it is a great deal more.
Alchemy has exerted a strange fascination over mankind for cen-
turies. The underlying philosophical theorem was that if the Divine
Will had originally acted upon the
prima materia
to produce the
precious metals and all else, why should not the alchemist-purified
in mind and body, and an expert in the then known laboratory
techniques-seek to emulate the same natural process in a shorter
span of time? One has only to read a good history of chemistry,
or to peruse a little of the vast alchemical literature, to become
aware of its awful seductiveness. Men have left homes and families,
squandered fortunes, incurred sickness and disease, gambled away
prestige, social and other positions in quest of the goals perceived in
the alchemical dream-longevity, perfect health, and the ability to
transmute base metals into gold.
One must not be deluded by superficialities here. The alchemical
adepts were patently dedicated and God-fearing men, holding the
highest spiritual ideals conceivable. It is too bad more practitioners
of the art did not perceive these goals.
Only recently, a journalist wrote that the Paracelsus Research
Society which sponsors this Manual, offered to teach alchemy in
two
weeks.
How could one be so myopic? Or illiterate?
In the early fourteenth century, Bonus of Ferrara spoke of Alchemy
as "the key of all good things, the
Art
of Art, the Science of Sciences."
Not only was the alchemist to be concerned with the purification of
6
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