July 6, 2016: Calcination, Wild Unknown Tarot Death card

July 6, 2016:

Back to reality after a nice long 4^th of July weekend.  My next step is to review the alchemic process, since alchemy is one of the correspondences of Haftorang. 

The alchemic process, or Great Work, can be used as a literal method or a mental method.  I will be making use of this process for spiritual growth, so I will focus on the mental method.  I have gone through the seven steps before, but taking them one at a time will enable me to get more from them.  I gathered a bit of information from several websites on the internet, and I pulled out and dusted off my copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy by Dennis William Hauck.

The first step is Calcination.  Chemically, Calcination is achieved by heating a substance until it is reduced to ashes.  The process is said to correspond with sulfuric acid, which eats away flesh and reacts with every metal except gold.  Calcination corresponds with the element of Fire, the planet of Saturn, and the metal of Lead.  In the body, Calcination corresponds to metabolic discipline or aerobic activity, which tunes the body and burns off excesses that are the result of overindulgence.  Calcination creates a lean, mean fighting machine!  The process of Calcination begins in the root chakra, at the base of the spine. 

Calcination represents the destruction of ego, which can be an uncomfortable process that takes place suddenly, or over a period of days, weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime.  It can be a deliberate surrender, or it can be forced upon us.  If purposely experienced (and I’m assuming this time it should be deliberate), Calcination involves introspection and self-evaluation, with heat being generated by personal consciousness and by life experiences.

All this heat has a drying effect, burning away the “inner moisture” that are emotions and feelings.  I am being told that I need to be objective, I need to look at myself without hurt, judgment or pride.  I also need to remember that this process of Calcination, and the Great Work itself, is not meant to be performed on just one level.  I need to do this work physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually in order for the process to be effective. 

Calcination could be seen as a form of Death; interesting that I threw the Death card today.  This is not physical death, but rather the death of habits, attitudes, attachments and dependencies that no longer serve me.  Here is what I wrote about the Wild Unknown Death card, which shows the skeleton of a bird: “I adore the image on this card; it absolutely captures the idea of transformation without bringing in the fear.  Here is the duckling of The Fool and the swan of the Cups Court Cards, or at least what is left of them after their life forces have departed and their bodies have mostly decayed and gone back to where they began so new life can spring from their ingredients.  There are still some feathers left, and a beak on the skull, like the fading memories left in our minds of someone who was once alive.  Most of what was here once has gone on to another plane of existence, the life force back to the Divine and the body back to the Earth.  We don’t know what it is like to die, but there is a rightness to this image that reassures.  Life may not be forever, but neither is Death.”

Have a nice weekend!

$>