079: Modern Alchemy
"Alchemy leads to perfection on all planes, by the separating and 'death' of the body, followed by the a rejoining of the purified parts, this time in perfect proportion, via the transforming powers of earth, water, fire, air and ether, soul and spirit -- i.e. evolution speeded up by man." [Diana Fernando]
I was paging through Diana Fernando's Dictionary of Alchemy over the weekend and paused on her definition of the subject matter. As a historical subject, alchemy is one of those many occult subjects which interest me. But as a course of living in the 21st century? Where are the modern alchemists? I see the name Fulcanelli bandied about a bit, but he's a 20th century alchemist at best (and, admittedly, I know very little beyond his name and that he was working the alembics during this last century).
Who are the 21st century alchemists? Is it the transhumanists, seeking to speed evolution by the addition of the mechanoid to their human shells? Is it...well, I don't really know, actually. A question to go have answered, I suppose.
But the above quotation and this question of modern alchemy have gotten me thinking about the Secret Plan in the BOOK OF LIES. In this age, would you actually apply the principles of alchemical transformation on yourself or would you conduct the experiments on unsuspecting subjects? You wouldn't want to evolve them completely, but getting the framework right before you slipped it onto yourself would be the safe route.
Genetic experimentation = modern alchemy?
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
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