Our Dragon which devours his own tail is as a Phoenix rising from its own ashes

transformed into Nature’s Philosophical Earth by Artful Alteration. — LW Osburn

“I must rest here a while to speake somewhat of alteration; which hath almost the same
course to runne; save that when the first earth in putrefaction is done with Lunarie, it is
to be imbibed with his first menstrue unseparated immediately upon the stilling thereof:
doe therefore on this sort: Take 4 or 5 oz. of the earth that remaineth of the same distil-
lation & calcine it into a faire yeallow colour, & thereupon pour so much of the menstrue
as may even scarcely cover it throughlie, & so make fast the glass; for the commixtion is
done.” — The Vegetable Stone, Samuel Norton

As the Dragon devours and the Phoenix rises we see our Earth transformed many
times. Each time the Phoenix rises from the seed of our Green Lyon which is the
Soul/Spirit innate to our Antimonial Compound condensed into our Mercury and Sulfur
essential for Conjunction to Seed the evolution of our Philosophical Mineral Life.

Our first Earth is the extracted herbal Body. Being a green colored pulp we call it our
Green Lead in Ripley’s Realm. As such the herbal Body is the ore we extracted in the
First Work with vinegar. It is our Green Lyon we can transform Philosophically 24 ways
by Art in Ripley’s World. Our first Earth has many “Brothers” as the evolution of the
Green Lyon unfolds.

“Take earth of earth, & the

brother of the earth, the which
is no other thing than the wa-
ter & fire of an earth most pre-
cious, And in the choosing of
this earth see that thou be
wise. If therefore thou do de-
sirest to make a true elixir,
see that of the Earth thereof,
thou extractest of our subtile
earth fayr & good.” — Earth
of Philosophical Earth,
George Ripley.

“Take in the name of god

adrop, the green lyon, which I
have afore mentioned, & dissolve it in aq. vite for the space of three days, stirring it well
thrice every day & let it be well mixed, then separate the feces thrice by balneum. After-
wards evaporate the aq. vite with a gentle fire until it be as thick as milk, the which then
pour out & keep. On this wise must thou dissolve 12 pounds of the green lyon. Then
hast thou the earth of earth, the earth’s brother, of which the philosophers have made
so much mention.” — Key to the Golden Gate, George Ripley

Adrop is the Porta or entrance, key or gateway to obtaining Philosophical Matter our El-
ements of transformation and transmutation. The Green Lyon is the entrance to Ripley’s
alchemical paradigm. That Soul/Spirit is the intelligence able to transform itself and
transmute one thing into another. The Green Lyon is at once the thing itself and the
Soul/Spirit entangled with it manifesting the unique individuality of the thing.

Our work is primarily one of untangling the subtle Soul/Spirit from the gross matter. This
is the Great Work of Philosophic Alchemy: discovering the Hidden Entrance or Key to
the Golden Gate that opens the Matter imprisoning the Soul/Spirit within. Or as the old
alchemists would have it, releasing Anima Mundi and Spiritus Mundi from material
bonds into the Chaos of Elements.

The Matter and the material bonds are relative constructs of a fundamental Principle of
alchemy: Body which is the form of manifestation expressing unique localized interac-
tion between Anima Mundi and Spiritus Mundi. These fundamental Principles of Al-
chemy Body, Soul and Spirit cannot be separated from each other because they are
one thing. This one thing is capable of infinite manifestations each a unique ratio or
combination of the Three in One.

These Philosophical Principles, this Transcendent Trinity is the Universe Intelligence

manifesting Everything. The actual Matter or Material persistence of the Thing is nothing
more than the cyclic sequencing of the Information System which is the dynamic ratio of
Body, Soul and Spirit being observed. What is being observed and who is observing?

Body, Soul and Spirit Intelligence entangled in a specific or local Information System co-
herency observes the demonstration of Intelligence emanating gravitation from another
localized or Specific Information System. The two become entangled as a result. These
observations are best studied in the Celestial Theater.

Those observations apprehended within the Celestial Theater alchemists put to trial by
examination in the Terrestrial Theater in our laboratories. We put bodies to trial by fire
and water to examine the Elemental Fire and Water within. We do find these Elements
in everything as foretold in the Celestial Theater. These Elements are Philosophical in
Nature just like our Philosophical Principles. As such our Elements are condensations of
specific ratios of our Trinity of Principles.

The Philosophical Elements Fire, Water, Earth and Air are Philosophical in that they are
“alive” and immortal like our Principles being inspired by our divine Trinity. Yet at the
same time they are caught up in “relative bodies” concrete manifestations fixed into the
cycling Information System as it repeats itself in Space/Time. We end the cycling of that
Information by fire. Stopping that Wheel collapses the Information into a Chaos of our
immortal Elements, and feces: orphaned snippets of information from the old cycling Na-
ture. These “snippets” are inert and worse they obstruct the flow of Principle to the Ele-
ments.

This is observed upon the first distillation of the Green Lyon our Portal or Key to Al-
chemystic Philosophy. All of the substance of our Green Lyon is broken into elements
by the fire. We capture water, oil and air that flee the fire in our receivers leaving a black
basaltic earth in the retort. All of these crude elements are foul and stinking if not sick-
ening to the senses. This offensiveness to the senses disappears with the feces as they
are removed by our “water wheel.”

“And our SECOND WORK manifests those things which were before hid from sight,
namely, it makes our four Elements to appear visibly, and to be had generally and dis-
tinctly. But in this Second Work if thou extract our Air and our Fire with the phlegm wa-
ter, they will the more naturally and easily be drawn out of their infernal prison, and with
less losse of their Spirits, than by the former way before described.” — Liber Secretissi-
mus, George Ripley.

As our Philosophical Elements are freed from the feces they exhibit a “liveness” not
seen in ordinary water, oil, air and earth. Our Water is living, Aqua Vite, a Blessed Wa-
ter, and it is our Mercury capable of wondrous solutions. In its purest state after at least
7 rotations it still retains some Fire and Air in it. This can be seen by letting the 7 times
distilled Water age several days and it will tinge slightly yellow again in that time.

“... distil the Water that was first drawn out of the Compound, seven times, until it be
clear as Crystal, but do it by itself alone, not intermixing any other thing therewith, and
then hast thou our pure river of Water of Life, which hath power and virtue to revive the
dead body from whence it sprung, and to make it white and Shining like a pure Alabast-
er. As for our other Arie and fiery Waters, they are so fixed and permanent, that no fire
will again elevate their substances.” — Liber Secretissimus, Georgy Ripley.

Our Fire is living Sulfur a ruby red oil solu-

ble in our Water. And what Fire that re-
mains in our Water after the 7 distillations
is sufficient to grow medicinal gem Stones
with profound therapeutic and thalmatur-
gic effects.
Our Air is alive, the Spirit of Armoniac invisible. At first perceived when enough is pres-
ent as a sharp penetrating aroma at once hot and icy cold usually abiding invisibly within
the stinking red oil tar along with the Fire. This Philosophical Air saturates Our Water
from the initial distillation and remains there in the Water after it is purified.

Our Earth is alive as well

though it is reduced to
an off-putting black mas-
sa confusa after the fire
is done with it. Once pu-
rified of the feces ob-
structing expression it
becomes a mysterious
magical Earth Ripley
calls Calx. This Earth
Calx is our Philosophical
Body that will manifest
the determination or in-
telligent design of our
Philosophical Trinity.

Ripley says of this Earth,

“Take out the black feces which remain in the bottom of our Vessel, called our Dragon,
and grind it into small powder, and calcine it in two crucibles luted together, in a potters
furnace, or in a glass, or wind furnace, until it look whitish o something grey, which Calx
keep by itself, for it is called the Base and Foundation of our Work, and it is now called
MARS, and our White Fixed Earth.” — Liber Secretissimus, Georgy Ripley

This Philosophical Earth is our

Dragon a mystical being emblem-
atic of our Triune Principles.
Once pure or freed of impedi-
ments imposed on it by those bro-
ken snippets of inert information
from the previous life that still en-
tangle it, those damnable feces,
the Dragon will rise again on fixed
wings of Fire and Air out of our
Earth steeped in our Water.

“Take the abovesaid calcined fae-

ces called MARS, or Our Dragon
which devoureth his own Tail,
and put thereof so much into a glass body, as scarcely fill half of it, and pour thereon so
much of our rectified water of Life, as well may but cover the Calx made into powder,
which done, incontinently stop the glass with a blind head well luted to the body, and set
it in hot ashes, until the Calx have drunk up and congealed all the Liquor, which it will do
in eight days, and so from eight days to eight days imbibe the said Calx with his own
water, and that he will drink no more...” — Liber Secretissimus, Georgy Ripley

And so from one Earth evolves another Earth each alive with the Intelligence of our
Green Lyon throughout the ongoing Philosophical Metamorphosis manifest through our
Philosophical Dragon rising from its own ashes. All of this happens in a localized Gar-
den, a World spun up by Alchemical Art wherein our Philosophical Elements are whorl’d
into new entanglements inspired by our Philosophical Principles.

This our new Whorl’d a new

World born in the sphere of our
Vessel nested in our Vase
within the Secret Furnace is
alive with amazing potential far
beyond the ramparts of indus-
trial chemistry and the econom-
ic limitations of applied physics.
It is a Metaphysical Mineral
Garden where LifeForce be-
comes our Protoculture we cul-
tivate into Information Systems
enabling us to explore the Cos-
mos of possibilities in sub-
stance beyond speculation.

It is as rare this day as in the

Past that a spiritual Pilgrim gain
access to our Realm our Mineral
Garden. So well hidden and ob-
scured have the old adepts made
it.