Cicero Sandra Tabatha - The philosophers stone: spiritual alchemy, psychology, and ritual magic

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

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The Philosophers Stone: Spiritual Alchemy, Psychology, and Ritual Magic 2013 by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero.

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First e-book edition 2013

E-book ISBN: 9780738737362

Cover design by Lisa Novak

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Contents

by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero

by Israel Regardie

Introduction

BOOK ONE: Alchemy, Psychology, and Qabalah

The Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus

Commentary

Commentary (cont.)

BOOK TWO: Magnetism and Magic

The Magnetic Theory

The Six Keys of Eudoxus

Commentary on the Six Keys of Eudoxus

The Magical View

BOOK THREE: The Mystic Core

Coelum Terrae by Thomas Vaughan

Conclusion

BOOK FOUR: Practical Alchemy and Ritual Magic

The Spiritual Alchemy of the Golden Dawn
by Charles Chic Cicero

Introduction to AlchemyA Golden Dawn Perspective
by Mark Stavish

Basic Alchemy for the Golden Dawn
by Samuel Scarborough

Golden Dawn Ritual Method and Alchemy
by Samuel Scarborough

The Elixir of the Sun: A Ritual of Alchemy
by Steven Marshall

Solve et Coagula: The Union of Sol and Luna
by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero

BOOK FIVE: Resources

A Selection of Books on Alchemy

Practical Alchemy: Some Basic Safety Rules

List of Illustrations

The Black Crow with the Body and Twin Birds of Soul and Spirit
(Basilius Valentinus, Azoth, Paris, 1659)

INTRODUCTION TO
THE THIRD EDITION

Alchemy is philosophy; it is the philosophy,
the seeking out of the Sophia in the mind.

mary anne atwood

T he Philosophers Stone was written in 193637 when Israel Regardie was confined to bed for a prolonged period of time due to a severe bout of bronchitis. To make the best use of this downtime, Regardie was determined to tackle a lengthy and difficult book on alchemy, Mary Anne Atwoods A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery , the meaning and implications of which had escaped him in earlier reads. Published in 1850, Atwoods comprehensive tome documented the enormous impact of hermetic philosophy on human spirituality. A Suggestive Inquiry presents readers with cryptic alchemical treatises such as The Golden Tractate of Hermes and The Six Keys of Eudoxusdocuments infused with riddles and symbolic codes used to secretly communicate to fellow alchemists the true purpose of the Hermetic Art. In studying this complex text, Regardie found that Suddenly, and to my utter amazement, the whole enigma became crystal clear and alive. After this breakthrough, insights came rapidly, and over the course of the next two weeks, Regardie wrote the bulk of The Philosophers Stone which was published in 1938.

Regardies admiration for Atwoods work is not surprising. Born in 1817, the only child of metaphysical historian Thomas South, Mary Anne Atwood took an active role in her fathers research at an early age. Her first book, Early Magnetism in Its Higher Relations to Humanity, was published under a pseudonym in 1846. Her magnum opus, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, was published by her father in 1850. Later, both father and daughter became convinced that the book exposed far too many alchemical secrets, and except for a few copies sold or owned by the author, all other copies were destroyed. After the death of her father, Mary Anne married a clergyman, Rev. Thomas Atwood, but she continued to study hermetic and theosophical writings for the rest of her life.

What was the secret that had been revealed in A Suggestive Inquiry? It was that alchemy was actually a method for transforming the human soul through altered states of consciousness, during which the soul ascended to the spiritual world for powerful transformational experiences and descended back again into the physical body. Atwood posited that all mention of metals, minerals, and alchemical processes were merely symbols and metaphors for spiritual alchemy. This was the secret that Atwood attempted to re-conceal once the genie had been let out of the bottle, and it was also the secret that would captivate Regardies mind as he recuperated.

At this point in his life, only a couple of years after finishing his Golden Dawn studies and having left the Bristol Temple of the Stella Matutina, Regardie was convinced that alchemy was in reality a thinly veiled psycho-spiritual processthe operations in laboratory alchemy that professed to work on metals, minerals, and plant matter were essentially focused solely at mans mind, soul, and spirit. He had concluded that practical laboratory alchemy was simply wrong-headed, and that only theoretical, spiritual, or psychological alchemy was valid. Although he admitted that a certain number of alchemical texts could be construed as having a literal, primitively chemical interpretation, Regardie felt that alchemical writings should be interpreted solely in terms of psychological and mystical terms.