Gary St.M. Nottingham - Ars Alchemica: Foundations of Practical Alchemy: Being a Prima in the Paracelsian Art of Solve et Coagula

Alchemy the Great Arte indeed the Royal Arte has held a fascination for mankind for all time, its imagery and symbols have been used by various people to try and describe their teachings on a wide array of mystical thoughts and deeds. Yet science would deny the arte and many would consider it to be little more than a superstitious trifle, something belonging to another age. However therein lies its safety, as others dismiss it and decry the students and practitioners thereof as being foolish. They, the critics, have put in place their own barriers which impedes their understanding not only of the arte itself but the wider mysteries of life. And as such alchemy has survived centuries of persecution, particularly in the early centuries of Christianity, when the great alchemical minds of Alexandria were persecuted and the arte went underground. Yet it didnt quite go away, enough survived the centuries to create a modern renaissance and this work hopefully will contribute something to this.

During 1972 I was reading a copy of the old occult magazine Man, Myth & Magic which contained an article concerning the work of a modern alchemist; at the time this fired my imagination and the romance of the mystery has always stayed with me. Later I discovered Regardies alchemical work The Philosophers Stone, of which I could make no sense, and thus it was many years before I found ingress into the arte.

Some years later I read Manfred Juniuss work on spagyrics, this at last was a way into the arte, however it wasnt long before I realised that there were major keys being left out. As a practitioner of the wider field of the Western Magical Traditions I sought to remedy this deficit by the conjuration of grimoire spirits to aid in rectifying this. Subsequently I performed a conjuration of the spirit Sophiel from the Greater Key of Solomon to aid me and assist me with my alchemical undertaking. The work appeared to produce no phenomena at the time and I considered it a failure, but decided to use the experience as a dry run and repeat it the following full moon. However events took over and I didnt follow this up and half forgot about the working. Nine weeks later to the day, (nine being significant as the number of the moon) I was attending an occult conference and an elderly American approached out me of a crowded hall and asked if I was interested in alchemy, I was a surprised at this but agreed to meet up the next day. Perhaps he didnt think that Id be there, I wasnt certain whether he would be either, it all seemed so unusual... then I remembered the working previously, checked the date that it was nine weeks previously and realised that this was a manifestation of the working and it wasnt a failure at all. This fired me with new vigour. True to his word the gentleman was there waiting for me, subsequently we had lunch and a long discussion on alchemy and he came back home to continue the work. Before he left next day he put me in touch with somebody who had been hosting alchemical weekends at their manor house on the edge of Dartmoor to which, at a later date, I was invited. My first meeting was the following May: I was met at the railway station in Exeter, from where I was chauffeured across Devon to God knows where on the edge of Dartmoor. I remember coming around the corner of an overgrown lane and entering a short drive which suddenly ended at a large rambling manor house. Outside were parked several very expensive cars and the whole atmosphere was like something out of Dennis Wheatleys novel The Devil Rides Out. I was more intrigued than apprehensive and thought that this was not the average pagan moot! Having been introduced to some twenty people, many from various parts of the world, the weekend started with a couple of lectures and meditations. Great stuff... then the lab works followed!