As I put substances through various irreversible chemical changes in art (and Art) processes I wonder about the correlatives to those processes in ritual, most particularly initiation rituals. What are the actions and reactions that bring about transmutation, what are the necessary conditions? I do not mean a description of the specifics to one particular operation, but what are these actions in a more general, identifying sense?
What are they, and what is the good?
Practically, in the micro: what should one pay attention to, what not to worry about. One of the first things to figure out before anything can be done. In the macro: “what is thy will?” That decides pretty much everything else.
But back to the operation-
How may the “harmonious detachment” be mapped, those separate spaces of the materia’s own potential and mystery that are really not the (explicit) business of the operator? And on the other side of the mirror, the evolutionary needs/impulses of the operator that cause him to undertake the work, yet the materia cannot fathom these factors, nor is it necessary for it to do so. Yet both are united in the work, and each catalyzes the other albeit in different ways.
-the natural law of the realm they share unites them, as both must abide by it in whatever place they coexist enough to work one upon the other, the field in which the work takes place
-perhaps karma brings them together (though I admit that I am not sure that I know enough about “karma” to use that word.)
-other forces unite them – the animated and animating air, the living fire, the vessels, pure water, invoked beings of whatever sort, the physical space of the lab- all have one hand on the operator, one hand on the materia. There are a lot of officers at that wedding, it seems.
Can an increase in sensitivity to observing physical transmutations lead to better perception of more subtle ones? I think so. My modest experience in this so far has led me to believe so. Otherwise, why undertake any sort of regular practice? It’s why things must be done as much as studied.
What irreversible chemical changes have I observed in materia and/or operator as a result of dramatic ritual? What transmutations, even if they started invisibly?
I’m not ready to analyze this in terms of (my) life-particulars yet, I’m still soaking in this, still experiencing the question and I don’t want to hurry out of that lovely state. It feels like a good direction to be tending.