The Mystery of ALCHEMY
Alchemy is obscure and can be off-putting, with it’s enigmatic and strange imagery and odd terms. However, once it becomes clarified, it is powerful system for spiritual development and manifestation. To provide this clarification is one of the goals of Sacred Circuit.
There are two basic types of Alchemy, spiritual and physical. Spiritual alchemy comprises the bulk of what you find when you search the term online, or browse books on the subject. Spiritual alchemy involves a system of personal refinement and growth; it is highly psychological in this way. Physical alchemy is actual lab work and experiments. Both of these systems include seven “operations” which are loosely based on the planetary and chakra systems. True Alchemists of old advised that integrating both spiritual and physical alchemy was necessary if substantial personal transformation was desired.
There is another more rarely used system of twelve operations, which correspond to the Zodiac. The twelve steps can be seen as a more detailed version of the seven steps, in which some of them have been split, but most are added in. For Hermetic purposes, which integrate Qabalah, Tarot and Astrology with Alchemy, and for use with work with the Astrological signs of the Zodiac, the twelve-operation system is highly effective, and it is what we have embraced here at Sacred Circuit.
The twelve alchemical operations can be seen as a Hermetic roadmap of spiritual transmutation — a journey in which the raw matter of the self, or Lead, is refined into the radiant gold of awakened consciousness. Each operation — Calcination, Congelation, Fixation, Dissolution, Digestion, Distillation, Sublimation, Separation, Incineration, Fermentation, Multiplication and Projection — corresponds to an Astrological sign, and mirrors a stage in the initiate’s inner work — dissolving attachments, purifying desires, and reuniting fragmented aspects of the psyche, all in alignment with the celestial Ecliptic.
This Alchemical-Zodiacal journey is not only about personal growth and spiritual enlightenment, it is also about manifestation. As the soul undergoes inner purification, it evolves to become a more receptive vessel for the Divine to enter into the realm of forms. Through these operations, the practitioner does not simply manifest desires — they come to embody them. Alchemy, Qabalah, Tarot and Astrology together teach that manifestation is not control over reality, but harmony with the Great Work —the Magnum Opus of the Soul.
THE SECRET ALCHEMY of of TAURUS
The Alchemical Operation assigned to Taurus is Congelation. Congelation is the process of solidifying, crystalizing or coagulating a liquid, vapor or “spirit”, or otherwise hardening something which was soft. However congelation is not necessarily permanent; something which is congealed usually reverts back to its previous state. Sulfer, for instance, in the days of yore, was often congealed in order to make an impressions for molds. After a certain amount time, it would revert back to its original state.
In psychological terms, this idea of “making an impression” carries through. Broadly speaking, as children, our institutions of schooling and organized religious (attributed to the Hierophant card) make deep impressions on us. As we grow, these impression mature; some are held for life, some are held and then released, some are discarded. Our psyches, once fluid, become crystallized it into systems of belief, meaning and moral codes as we age.
On a day to day level, we are constantly bombarded with information of varying degrees of impact. Some of this information adds to the patterns our psyches hold, some does not.
However, Congelation is not just about setting a condition where an impression can be made, it is actually about encoding pattern into matter. What is captured in the moment of solidification is not just shape, but memory. It becomes an imprint of conditions, influences, and forces that were acting upon the substance, or us, at that exact time. Congelation might even be regarded as a kind of alchemical memory device, a snapshot of conditions frozen in time. Impressions frozen in time do more than condition us, they organize perception itself, creating the underlying space-time matrix through which experience is filtered. The Hierophant, then, is not merely a teacher, but a transmitter of pattern, embedding frameworks that determine how meaning is recognized and stabilized in the psyche.
This brings us to the step at which we recognize our conditioning and patterning. Once we recognize something, we can “level up”, so to speak, and choose to break our conditioning. To “break out of the matrix” in this context is not necessarily about rejecting the matrix, but about becoming aware of the matrix exists. It is the moment when one recognizes that their beliefs, perceptions and reactions are not purely original, but have been shaped or imprinted by inherited, societal or institutional patterns. This awareness begins to loosen the rigidity of those patterns. What once felt solid and absolute starts to feel contrived, and therefore, changeable. In alchemical terms, this is the beginning of a reversal of congelation: the return to fluidity, the original state, where the psyche is no longer fully bound by its prior crystallizations. But this time, it holds the memory of the imprints, and can use them to create new paradigms.
In the “real world” this can feel like stepping outside the stability and authority of established systems. Suddenly one finds themselves questioning everything and falling down numerous rabbit holes. Many people, who have gone down this road, experience a sometimes earth-shattering de-and re-construction of their psyches in this way. But the goal is not chaos and conspiracy for the sake of chaos and conspiracy; the goal is to consciously participate in the shaping of one’s own inner framework towards Truth. Instead of unconsciously living within a fixed and possibly false matrix, we can begin to re-write and re-form our own patterns, choosing what to keep, what to dissolve, and what to rebuild. True freedom, then, is not the absence of structure, but the ability to move between structure and fluidity at will, no longer confined by the matrix and being capable of reshaping it.
And the Hierophant is actually our guide. Just like a hard solid can melt back into pliability, the evolution of our conscious awareness, our psyches and our mental power is dynamic. In simple terms, our minds aren’t meant to stay rigid, they’re meant to shift between structured and flexible, so we can not only keep growing and updating the patterns we live by, but also make positive impressions in the collective matrix in order to create the world we want for ourselves and our children
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Sources:
Mytho-Hermetic Dictionary by Dom Antoin-Josef Pernety
The Alchemy of Tarot by Juno Lucino
Hermetic Alchemy - The Golden Dawn Alchemy by Paul Foster Case
Qabalistic Tarot by Rober Wang
Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kynes
The Idiot’s Complete Guide to Alchemy by Dennis William Hauck
Spiritual Alchemy, Metamorphosis of the Body, Mind and Spirit, by Dennis William Hauck
Hermetic Qabalah by Oliver St. John
The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall
