*Redrawn from an original manuscript dated 1577

Excerpt from The Secret Teachings Of All Ages:

Alchemy, the secret art of the land of Khem, is one of the two oldest sciences known to the world. The other is Astrology.

According to the earliest records extant, alchemy and astrology were considered as divinely revealed to man so that by their aid he might regain his lost estate.

The earthly body of alchemy is chemistry, for chemists do not realise that half of The Book of Torah is forever concealed behind the veil of Isis and that so long as they study only material elements they can at best cover but half of the mystery.

Astrology has crystallised into astronomy, whose votaries ridicule the dreams of ancient seers and sages, deriding their symbols as meaningless products of superstition.

Nevertheless, the intelligentsia of the modern world can never pass behind the veil which divides the seen from the unseen except in the way appointed – the Mysteries.

The Leaves of Hermes’ Sacred Tree

In his Key to Alchemy, Samuel Norton divides into fourteen parts the processes or states through which the alchemical substances pass from the time they are first placed in the test tube until ready as medicines for plants, minerals or men:

1. Solution: The act of passing from a gaseous or solid condition into one of liquidity
2. Filtration: The mechanical separation of a liquid from the undissolved particles suspended in it
3. Evaporation: The changing or converting from a liquid or solid state into a vaporous state with the aid of heat
4. Distillation: An operation by which a volatile liquid may be separated from substances which it holds in solution
5. Seperation: The operation of disuniting or decomposing substances
6. Rectification: The process of refining or purifying any substance by repeated distillation
7. Calcination: The conversion into a powder or calx by the action of  heat; expulsion of the volatile substance from a matter
8. Commixtion: The blending of different ingredients into one compound or mass
9. Purification (through putrefaction), disintegration by spontaneous decomposition; decay by artificial means
10. Inhibition: The process of holding back or restraining
11. Fermentation: The conversion of organic substances into new compounds in the presence of a ferment
12. Fixation: The act or process of ceasing to be a fluid and becoming firm; state of being fixed
13. Multiplication: The act or process of multiplying or increasing in number; the state of being multiplied
14. Projection: The process of transmuting the base metals into gold