From SALAMANDER AND SONS:

Two new books from Salamander and Sons’ Unearthed Arcana imprint are available now. Both titles are selected and translated into English by the widely respected translator of alchemical texts, Russell Yoder.

The first of the two books, Hyleal, Pri-material, Catholic, or Universal Natural Chaos, consists of excerpts from the companion volume to Henricus Khunrath’s alchemical classic, Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (or, Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom). More about this new translation of Khunrath here: HYLEAL-PRIMATERIAL

The second of the two books, Three Treatises of Art, is comprised of three texts, Alchemy for the Behmenist Adept, The Little Alchemical Farmer and The Lead of the Wise and Its Dual Species. Two of these three treasures are presented in English for the first time, while the third is presented anew for the first time since the 18th century. More about this book examining and expanding upon Jacob Boehme’s Hermetic corpus here:  THREE-TREASTISES-OF-ART

IAG member LENNY PEDERSEN, owner of Hermetic Science Enterprises, the parent company of Lapis Publications, announces the world's first official English translation of Roger Caro's classic Tout le Grand Œuvre Photographié - The Entire Great Work Photographed.

The book is published in a beautiful Smyth sewn, cloth-wrapped hardcover. The entire book is printed in full color on gloss art paper and contains cleaned & enhanced versions of the photographs for greater clarity and detail. The original pictures as seen in the 1968 edition are added in an appendix for those readers interested in seeing them in their unaltered state. A bibliography and index, as well as a foreword, introduces this piece of alchemy history to the world.

A must-have for your alchemy library.

To order your copy, please visit: http://www.lapispublications.com
http://www.hermeticenterprises.com
mailto:info@hermeticenterprises.com

PAUL HARDACRE and MARISSA NEWELL announce their new venture:

 MARE MAIA  

A range of spagyric tinctures are now available from Mare Maia, the home laboratory of Paul Hardacre and Marissa Newell. Of their new venture, Paul and Marissa say:

“We confect alchemical plant medicines (mainly spagyric tinctures) for our own family's daily consumption. Often we end up with more of a given tincture or extraction than we need ... so we decided to make the 'extra' quantities available to our friends – initially at a local level here in Chiang Mai, and more recently, internationally. And thus, Mare Maia was born!”

Spagyric tinctures currently available include sage, German chamomile, garlic, goji berry, and soursop (graviola) leaf, with new tinctures available each month.

Mare Maia supplies to individuals, holistic health practitioners, and retail stores.

For further information, including pricing and shipping details, get in contact via MARE MAIA

 

 WEBSITE DOMAIN NAMES FOR SALE TO MEMBERS ONLY! 

The Alchemy Guild is offering a number of domain names for sale to members only for a donation of $100 per name. For more information and to reserve your domain name, go to: WEB_DOMAIN

. . .And An Opportunity to Serve

The Spiritual Alchemy Workshop  -  A  Journey to the  Source lead by Dennis William Hauck on Memorial Day Weekend was a huge success with more than 100 people in attendance! This inspired gathering added much needed funds for the ALCHEMY MUSEUM PROJECT.

 Your contributions to the ALCHEMY MUSEUM PROJECT are tax deductible and will bring to fruition the first museum of its kind in the United States and the largest in the world!

To make your donation, go to: DONATE TO ALCHEMY MUSEUM

Mathew Ingalls, President of the Denver Chapter announces that the name of the Chapter is its name!  

Since we have started receiving membership requests from those out of state we decided to change our name to better reflect our membership. Our new name is The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the International Alchemy Guild. We have also updated our website, twitter, and Facebook page. Once the servers update and our new site goes live, we will pull down our old site within 30 days. Here is the new contact information:

Website: http://rockymountainchapteriag.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IAG_RockyMt

President Mathew Ingalls:  mailto:mingalls@rockymountainchapteriag.com

Vice President Greg Carroll:  mailto:gcarroll@rockymountainchapteriag.com

Information: mailto:info@rockymountainchapteriag.com

This was the last year of the NorthWest Alchemy Conference sponsored by the Karen & Robert Bartlett of the NorthWest Chapter. The Summer of 2016 Conferences will be held in Denver, Colorado! When we have a venue, exact dates and fees, we will provide that information to the membership. Here are the future links for the website and Facebook page to keep you up-to-date.

Rocky Mountain Alchemy Conference Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/therockymountainalchemyconference/timeline

The Chapter has initiated informal meet ups at a local coffee house for members and guests in Denver. Members are being encouraged to come out and bring along guests if they wish for discussion of the Hermetic sciences. This is allowing the members to spend more time with each other and share knowledge. The goal of our Chapter isn't just to provide information, but to get to meet with those within our community.

August will be the one-year anniversary of our first open house. We will be having a get together in Denver to discuss the success of the year and the opportunities to improve. We are looking forward to the future of Alchemy in the Rocky Mountains.

Mathew Ingalls, President

TRANSHUMANISM AND COMPUTERS

By Dennis William Hauck

At my recent workshop in San Jose, I was asked my opinion about transhumanism as it applies to artificial intelligence. In other words, do I believe computers will ever develop consciousness. As for the idea of transhumanism, I certainly am open to the idea. In fact, in all traditions I have studied, it is implied as the final step of transformation. Something entirely new must be created on a whole new level of being. It may be an entirely new kind of human being, a new species, or perhaps some kind of artificial intelligence.

Like many spiritual traditions, I believe human beings are fundamentally flawed, and the work necessary to overcome that in individuals is so arduous and rare that it is hard to imagine that happening to our entire species any time soon. Of course, that still remains the focus of the Great Work of alchemy and the Hermetic sciences. In those traditions, transmutation of some kind is a necessary requirement in the evolution and embodiment of higher consciousness. Like most alchemists, I believe it is possible for it to happen to an individual in one lifetime. That life exists solely to create this state in machines is a truly humbling and controversial idea.  

The work of mathematicians Kurt Godel and Alan Turing seems to imply that machines using linear or algorithmic programming will not be able to achieve consciousness. Breakthroughs in fuzzy logic, parallel processing, and recursive functions might appear to get beyond that ontological problem, but such computers will only be able to mimic human consciousness.  

I am quite certain that the current buzz on the Internet becoming conscious when the number of computer nodes matches the number of synapses in the human brain around 2020 will not take place. There is no reason to assume that the "magic number" of neuronic connections in the brain is what makes consciousness possible. I also do not think any silicon-based computers will achieve actual consciousness.

A far more likely scenario of machine consciousness seems possible in the current work on quantum computers, which are light-based and will have an infinite number of parallel paths available at one time. That could create the "ghost in the machine" that gets beyond the current mechanical limitations.

Quantum computing is a mind boggling possibility that will definitely bring artificial intelligence to a whole new level that will change our society and planet. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on developing quantum computers, but it is at least 30-50 years away. This is fascinating stuff, and alchemy has always been the cutting edge of such ideas, even though the alchemical laboratory has morphed over the centuries to include the computer lab.

The larger question is will such machines possess a soul? Like Carl Jung, I believe the human soul is very real, an infinite essence we all carry within us. Yet the alchemists also believed every created thing possessed a soul – from stones to stars. So a better question might be, can human beings create machines with souls? It is an unanswered question we may not think about much today, but it will become a pressing problem to future generations.

Dennis W. Hauck's website:  http://www.DWHauck.com

  A Book Review

Students of mineral alchemy, especially of the acetate path will be happy to learn that the "missing" first treatise of Samuel Norton's "Key of Alchemy" (Of the Vegetable Stone) has recently been painstakingly transcribed and posted to Adam's website. This completes the historically interesting work, which consists of 11 sections in all, written for circa 1577 CE for HRM Elizabeth.

Samuel Norton was the grandson of Edward Norton, famous author of "Ordinall of Alchemy" and contemporary of Sir George Ripley. The first treatise "Of Vegetable Stone" in Samuel's "Key of Alchemy" is understood by educated students of practical Alchemy to mean the path of the acetate, or "Work of Saturn" (and not an herbal stone).

Samuel Norton writes very clearly of the crude matter to be taken in hand to begin the Work. He also sheds much light on Ripley and other authors, even providing elucidation and alternatives in the elusive processes of purifying and recombining of the elements obtained by pyrolitic distillation of the acetate, preparation of the "ferments,” and alternate ways of accurtation (short cuts). Some modern Alchemists say that Norton was the most clear writer on the acetate path who ever put his true name to his writings. Here's the link to read the treatise transcribed verbatim for free: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/norton_k.html

Adam's newsletter also recently announced that he is resurrecting his "Hermetic Studies" series, in a different format. No longer doing the expensive hand-binding in leather, he's farmed out the printing to another company that allows him to offer a paperback version for a lot less cost.
The first "new" work in the series is No. 9, "The Key of Alchemy" by Samuel Norton. Only $29 including shipping.

The link for ordering is: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/herm_studies9.html

I'm personally looking forward to the whole bound copy with all the illustrations and the text cleaned up and modernized for readability. This is a much more practical and usable format. Please try not to buy them ALL up before I can get one!

The archetype of Cancer is deeply intertwined with nurture and sustenance, and cooking is one of the oldest and most practical forms of magic. In fact, every nuance of the food we eat is connected to the Mysteries and the Wheel of the Year. Cooking is alchemy in the truest sense of the word. All of the elements are invoked: water, air, earth and fire, all combine to transform the body of our Mother into the food that gives us life. What could be more magical than earth, sunlight, rain and air turning into an apple?

Author: Danielle Blackwood from "Ritual of the Grandmothers."

Anne Frank

Op Ed

I have always considered myself to be a “kitchen alchemist,” planting and tending herbs on the deck and concocting with them in my kitchen laboratory. I still consider myself a kitchen alchemist but as oftentimes happens when writing, the subject unfolded differently. 

These past months I’ve been healing from surgery--this time a shoulder replacement.  My response to this surgery, however, has been different from prior ones.  Past surgeries left me expecting the worst when it came time for the next one, and my resistance to surgery caused frustrations and disappointments that resulted in partial healings.  This time the experience has been different.  I embraced the challenges of surgery and rehabilitation and became proactive in my healing rather than passively accepting what I had been told by medical professionals.  Listening to my body and working in cooperation with a very capable physical therapist enabled me to focus on one area of the body without exacerbating preexisting conditions in other parts of my body. 

I consciously chose to recover with the principles of alchemy as my guide, working on the laboratory within as well as the outer laboratory. As I persevered every day to complete the exercises, I paid attention to the beat of my heart and the rhythms of my inner knowing. Being mindful of my emotional body and physical body while exercising brought me into a contemplative, meditative state that felt beneficial to a successful healing outcome.

Those inevitable times of discouragement when I reached a plateau were the toughest to maintain a sense of balance but reaching out to accept encouragement from others gave me the fortitude to keep going.  The first breakthrough came when I was able to lift my arm to my head and shampoo my hair.  That moment of elation taught me to celebrate each little victory along the path.  Doing so renewed my commitment to keep going.

In alchemy when something happens that is life altering, it is considered to be the first alchemical stage of Calcination.  This stage is one of crisis, be it a surgery or other life event.  Your world collapses and you feel disconnected and disoriented.  Moving through the next stages of rebuilding is arduous but very gratifying when a new and wiser “you” emerges.

Through my healing experience, I have learned that putting into practice the elements of alchemy during times of stress can mitigate Calcination so that it is not as intense as it is effective.  In letting go of labeling, preconceived notions and expectations, it is clear to me now that while I may be a kitchen alchemist, I am so much more than that. The Great Work of alchemy helps me to understand where I am in the greater scheme of life.

It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.

Ram Das