Stuff

[01:08:43] <Sulphur> mayrh karakaxa
[01:08:48] <Sulphur> leykos kyknos
[01:09:06] <Sulphur> pagwni
[01:09:12] <Sulphur> pelekanos
[01:09:16] <Sulphur> kai foinikas

[01:10:31] <Sulphur> The Black Crow sometimes also the Raven is the beginning 
of the great work of soul alchemy. This indicates the initial stages of the 
alchemist's encounter with his inner space, through withdrawing from the outer 
world of the senses in meditation, and entering what is initially the dark inner
world of the soul. Thus this stage is also described in alchemical texts 
as the blackening, the nigredo experience, and it is often pictured as a 
death process, as in the caput mortuum, the deaths head, or as some alchemical
 illustrations show, the alchemist dying within a flask. Thus in the symbol of 
the Black Crow we have the stepping out in consciousness from the world of the
 physical senses the restrictions that bind us to the physical body.

[01:12:43] <Sulphur> The next stage, is often shown as The White Swan. 
Now the alchemist begins to experience the inner world as being light filled - 
the initial inner brightness which is often erroneously mistaken for true 
illumination. This is merely a first conscious encounter with the etheric world, 
and in comparison with physical sense experience is for many souls so overpowering 
as to be pictured as bright white light. The alchemical tradition recognised this 
and symbolised this stage as the White Swan. The swan is a bird which is rarely 
seen in flight, but rather swimming upon lake or river, gracefully moving on the
 surface of water- in soul terms, on the soul's surface, its etheric interface with 
the physical.

[01:14:28] <Sulphur> With the Peacock stage, the alchemist has entered into
 the inner experience of the astral world, which initially appears as ever 
shifting patterns of colour. This experience is often symbolised in alchemy by
the appropriate image of the peacock's tail with its splendid iridescence of colour.
 In terms of this series of five stages, the turning point is reached with the 
Peacock. Up until this point the alchemist has experienced aspects of his being
 which he was formerly unconscious of - the etheric forces and the astral body.
 Essentially these experiences have happened to him, although he had to make himself
 open to the experiences through entering into the initial Black Crow state, 
however, in order  to progress he must begin to work upon his inner being.

[01:18:36] <Sulphur> This active working with the soul forces is perfectly 
pictured in the Pelican. The Pelican is shown stabbing its breast with its 
beak and nourishing its young with its own blood. The alchemist must enter 
into a kind of sacrificial relationship with his inner being. He must nourish 
with his own soul forces, the developing spiritual embryo within. Anyone who has
 made true spiritual development will know well this experience. 
One's image e the spiritual self, transformed through the Pelican experience.
 The Pelican was in this spiritual sense a valid image of the Christ experience 
and was used as such by the early alchemists.

[01:40:46] <Sulphur> The Phoenix completes this process of soul development. 
The Phoenix bird builds its nest which at the same time is its funeral pyre, 
and then setting it alight cremates itself. But it arises anew from the ashes 
transformed. Here we have captured the alchemists experience of spiritualisation
He has integrated his being so much, that he is no longer dependent upon his 
physical body as a foundation for his being. He now stands upon the sureness of
 the spiritual - he has in this sense attained the Philosopher's Stone, the 
Spiritual core of his being. Thus we can sketch shortly the process of Soul
 alchemy, the integration, purification and transmutation of the soul, as pictured 
in this series of bird symbols.