The Alchemy Guild is a qualified non-profit organization and you now may make cash and item donations through eBay. 100% of your donation goes to the Guild.

Take a look at eBay Giving Works! Alchemy Guild Inc.

http://givingworks.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/alchemy-guild-inc/63385/ 

The MetroActive magazine of San Jose has written a nice article on the Alchemy Museum being built in the former Rose-Croix University building at the Rosicrucian Park.  The opening of the museum is planned for 2015.

http://www.metroactive.com/features/columns/Alchemy-Museum-Rosicrucian-Park.html

   Have you checked out the Guild affiliated Facebook alchemy forums yet? 

There is lots of discussion and sharing of information going on in these forums.  Sign up for those that interest you:

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AZOTH LABORATORIES

The philosophy of the AZOTH Laboratories is that alchemy unites all things in life.  It is like the center of the flower and life experiences are the petals around the center.  As such we teach that alchemy touches all aspects of life.

During 2013, spagyrics production at the Laboratories has increased by 200%, and antimony sales have tripled.  Aura sprays have doubled in sales and are now sold in 12 countries around the world.

2013 also saw an expansion of our laboratories with the opening of The Rosarium in Toronto, Canada, directed by  Franca Lanyon.  Spagyric essences produced there conform to Azoth Labs formulas.  Mini Labs have also been opened in London, Cape Town, Manila and Osaka.

Twenty-six seminars were conducted during the year, 22 smaller labs and 4 large ones, from which 44 students graduated in Level One lab work.

Ongoing classes at the Laboratories are: Kabbalah, Enochian Magick, Hermetic Astrology, Esoteric teachings, Tarot, and Channeling.

For additional information, go to: www.officegudnason.com

   The long awaited master continuously journeyed from his far off land to bless all those who loved him. Those who sincerely longed for and awaited him had always their lanterns prepared and lit during the night time, for they knew that he would come in the night when all was quiet and the sincere were at rest. With discipline they tended to the flame of their lanterns, as they never knew when he would come. Every night they kept their vigil, holding up their lanterns as they gazed out their windows looking for a sign of his arrival. In the deepest darkness, patiently and in silence they awaited his arrival. One night, when least expected, the master arrived to the little town. He saw many lanterns aglow in the houses and he was filled with joy, for he knew he was being invited by sincere disciples who truly loved him. He went to each house and as he entered, everyone fell on their knees in praise and joy. The light and the warmth of the master paled the light of their own lanterns. He feasted with all of them, blessed them all and gifted each of them with a pure white garment that glowed and radiated with his own light, and he then departed on to other towns. The disciples were amazed by the warm comfort of the robe of light he gave them. Their ills were healed and their beings were regenerated by it. Their spiritual selves were elevated and they gave thanks.

In the morning when all the towns folks awoke and gathered in the town square, those who had not their lanterns lit and who fell asleep were jealous of those who had received the blessings and the garment of the master. They blamed those who received the master for not waking them up and alerting them that the master had arrived. They asked those who kept the vigil why they did not awaken them. The sincere ones who kept the vigil replied that since they had let their lanterns die out, their houses were so dark that they could not find them, and neither did the master. The master let them continue with their sleep, as he knew that his own light would not truly be appreciated by those who themselves could not tend to and keep their own little light.

The moral of this allegory is applied to our inner work.  It is said that the Master will appear when the student is ready. Of course the Master is our own Higher Self. The aspirant must always be ready in his meditative and spiritual work. He must keep the alchemical fire within his soulalways lit by tending to it through visualization, concentration, pranayamic breathing, meditation, contemplation, prayer, love and yearning for that which is the divine in him. When the inner psychic energies reach a certain specific charge, the robe of glory as the astral light will be received and mastership into a higher order of being will be attained.

Mr. Kalec may be contacted at:  skalec@videotron.ca

Halloween or All Soul's Day ushers in the holiday season.  Ana Paty Lopez gives us insight into the celebration in her native Mexico.

Since ancient times, death has been a subject that has always defied humans either by trying to fathom what might lie beyond this physical existence or because of the fear of what one might find in the afterlife. As a part of some cultural, philosophical and religious views, some people believe in a continued existence in a spiritual realm. That is the case in regard to pre-Columbian civilizations in Mexico.

Day of the Dead origins can be traced back to the Mesoamerican indigenous, such as Mexica (also known as Azteca), Maya, Purepecha, Nahua, Mazhaua and Totonac peoples. When conquistadors arrived in America, they became shocked at the indigenous pagan practices, and in their attempt to convert the Indians to Catholicism they prohibited those practices. 

Mexica culture seemed to have been solid enough to preserve and pass on some of their knowledge and traditions - later merged with Catholic beliefs - leaving, among others, the legacy of what today is: the Day of the Dead Ceremony, that is, the testimony of the singular importance the indigenous people gave to life and death becoming ceremonial in nature because of their close connection with ideology, ancestral worldview, religion, art and agriculture, which were the foundation of Mesoamerican thought, incorporating, at the same time, the colonial evangelization. 

Mexicas (Aztecs) believed that the direction the energy of the deceased one took was determined by the type of death he or she had suffered, rather than by their behavior in life. They believed that deceased ones needed food, beverages and some utensils which would serve them in their journey to the underworld where they would find Mictlantecuhtli, god of death, who along with his wife, Mictecacihuatl, dwelt in the Mictlan. They honored life and death – life, by amalgamating all that incorporated their most sacred way of living, and death, by performing ceremonies and rites to honor the deceased ones’ lives, often exposing their skulls as a symbol of death and rebirth. Death, therefore, was not an ultimate state of being but a passage to an upper life, and their ceremonies confirmed it by joining an exquisite mixture of colors, aromas and music where art, traditional cuisine, floral ornaments and incense were combined to honor the physical existence, and more importantly, the temporal state of death or passage of the beloved ones who had left this plane of existence. 

In actuality, the Day of the Dead is an integration of Indigenous and Catholic thoughts, beliefs and traditions where the religious ceremony becomes part of the multicolored, joyful, pagan celebration to welcome their beloved ones who are allowed to “cross the bridge” and come to this plane of existence to partake, for two days a year, of the joyful music played by the mariachi and marimba, and the table lovingly prepared by the living ones to celebrate together life and death. The table, or tomb, is overflowing with the most wonderful traditional dishes, beverages, cigarettes, liquors, wines, or whatever the deceased ones loved when in physical form, as well as the delicious “bread of dead”, sugar/chocolate skulls, tamales and cocoa. The altar is adorned with characteristic yellow and purple flowers called “cempasuchil” and “cresta de gallo,” respectively, which are only used during that celebration each year, and crowned by magnificent crafts made from paper cut into wonderful and elaborate designs. 

Day of the Dead celebrations, therefore, are not a time of sadness, as most people in the world consider it to be, but a joyful time to celebrate Eternal Life.

Mercury stands for the principle of transformation itself.  

OP ED

A fear many of us have is looking within to those dark corners of our being.  But it is the descent into the lower emotions, the clearing and cleansing that occurs there that is the work of the alchemist….if we were not willing to dive to such depths, we would not be able to climb to the heights of an expanded view wherein lies the elusive stone.

The early alchemists knew there were no short cuts to attaining the stone, either to purify the Soul within or working without in the laboratory.  Being in allowance of time spent in the lower emotions rather than resisting the process helps one to let go of those things that no longer serve us.  Letting go opens a space of light within for something new to be created, and we rise again moving ever closer to morphing as the Phoenix.

It is perhaps "shooting oneself in the foot" when we entertain preconceived ideas or have expectations of what alchemy's journey is.  We read and intellectually come to understand the "process" but it is in the experience, it is in the doing where our greatest learnings evolve.  What we hear and read of this journey through the stages of alchemy is merely a gauge, sign posts along the way, but not necessarily what will happen for each of us.  Some of us will work our way numerically through the seven stages; others may skip a step; and some may revisit the same one over and over again.  No matter, it is all alchemy and we are enriching ourselves and the environment as we pursue our path. As in the laboratory working with plant matter, the experimentation takes surprising twists and turns, yet the gratification that comes is what causes us to persevere.

The value of reading and listening to lectures stimulates the mind and prepares us for developing and relying on our intuition as our experiences unfold.  It is this melding of the head and the heart that creates balance or what is referred to as Conjunction.