Terence McKenna--Lectures on Alchemy - Shroomery

approach of the end of the world based on his discovery and he was not secretive at all. He propagated hisrecipes and in fact sampled the distillates of some of his brother alchemists and popularized this very widely.To this day the reason certain cognacs are in the hands of monastic orders and no one else can make these thingsis because they were originally alchemical secrets and many of these early alchemists were men of the cloth,quite a number of them.So what I thought I would do is, in a highly chaotic fashion, read you some of this alchemical literature. Thebig bring down about alchemical literature is that apparently the muse didn't always smile on the alchemist andsome of this poetry is pretty tormented stuff. Why this is, who can say, but let's try one here and see if youcan bear with it. Also, my Middle English is not as good as it might be. This is a short one, and typical, andyou will see why the alchemists were charged with unbearable obscurity and prolex prose. This poem is called "ADescription of the Stone:"Though Daphne fly from Phobeus bright yet shall they both be oneAnd if you understand this rite you have our hidden stoneFor Daphne is fair and white but volatile is shePhobeus a fixed god of might and red as blood is heDaphne is a water nymph and hath of moisture storeWhich Phobeus doth confine and heat and dries her very shoreThey being dried into one a crystal flood must drinkTill they be brought to a white stone which washed with with virgin's milk So long until they flow as wax and nofume you can seethen have you all you need to ask. Praise God and thankful be.This is a recipe for the production of the philosopher's stone and the author, I'm sure, felt that he'd spoken asclearly as he dare speak. And yet making something of this is no easy task. This is from the Teatrium ChemicumBritannicum and the late phase of alchemy. Here's another one:The world is a maze and what you whyFor sooth of late a great man did dieAnd as he lay a-dying in his bedThese words in secret to his son he said'My son' quoth he, 'tis good for thee22