--- title: "Alchemy, Gnosis, and the Path to Understanding: Interview with John H Reid III" url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/alchemy-gnosis-and-the-path-to-understanding-interview-with-john-h-reid-iii/ date: 2024-09-10 modified: 2026-07-03 lang: en author: "Perseus Arcane Academy" description: "Introduction If you have an interest in Hermetics, Alchemy, Franz Bardon, then I think you will find this interview to be very special. I want to say a huge thank..." categories: - "Alchemy" - "Interviews" tags: - "Alchemy" - "Franz Bardon" - "Hermetics" image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/image.jpeg word_count: 7454 --- # Alchemy, Gnosis, and the Path to Understanding: Interview with John H Reid III ## Introduction If you have an interest in Hermetics, Alchemy, Franz Bardon, then I think you will find this interview to be very special. I want to say a huge thank you to John H. Reid III for being so open to sharing his work. I discovered John as I was going through the old correspondence from ‘A Bardon Companion’, a gold mine of information. After following some links, I was met with John’s site [now closed] – InnerWork.Guide. So, I was lucky to get an email off to him before the site came down, the result is this wonderful and super informative interview. If you enjoy what you read here, then please let us know in the comments. Johns contact information is available at the end of this post. [See the interview on YouTube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIZNeoXQ-E&list=PLxBjUOoqa2Y-Suz_X-D9oSHCn873Hf2s5) --- ## Personal journey and Experience **PAA: You mentioned having over three decades of experience in Alchemy. Can you share a pivotal moment in your journey that significantly shaped your understanding of ****A****lchemical ****G****nosis?** I’d say the first time that I had an inkling about what was possible with Alchemy was when I began ingesting the first spagyric pseudo-Alchemical products that I made and the very detailed vivid dreams that I started having. It wasn’t just because they were dreams. I mean, everybody dreams, but these were more like psychedelics. It was not disjointed like an acid trip, but still very intense and visceral, more than an ordinary dream. And it wasn’t just because I had made these products using that very rudimentary understanding that I had of Spagyrics and Alchemy at that time because, in truth, I had no understanding. I was a tyro, a beginner, a neophyte. But what I did do was follow the directions that Frater Albertus had left, dispersed in his writings. And one of those was the Vigil of Nature. You were supposed to study the Alchemical documents, such as the Alchemical Laboratory Bulletins. There are 53 of them. So if you study one a week, you will reach the end of the year at 52. On the 53rd Bulletin, you can inaugurate your physical work in the laboratory, and that’s precisely what I did. And that’s a test in itself. Part of it was because I adhered to those instructions. But it wasn't just studying the material. It was also exposing oneself to Nature each day. No matter the weather, allowing oneself to feel one's emotions freely is essential. And that was very different from anything that I had ever done. I also overcame the temptation to begin doing some lab work because there were elementary experiments in the first few Alchemical lab bulletins you're studying about how to make an herbal product or oil of iron. Very simple. That just required, you know, mason jars, distilled water. And the oil of iron, a mason jar, some iron oxide, and acetone. Of course, it's not really an oil, but it feels like an oil, floats on water, like an oil, and phenomenologically, it looks like you're extracting a tincture. To withstand the desire to do that is a sort of initiation in controlling one's desires. And it was in combination of those things. Studying the material and not doing physical or spiritual work while also exposing myself to Nature each day, no matter the weather did something to me and opened something inside of me. It was the key to the Egregore, and it allowed me entrance. And so those first dreams were so intense that they left me befuddled and wondering if I was losing my sanity. Because you just didn't read anything about that at the time. You must remember that these were pre-internet days folks, in the mid-80s or early 90s, when I'm doing this work. And there weren't newsgroups, and I didn't even own a computer at that time to get on a newsgroup. So I had never really contemplated what it meant when Frater Albertus wrote about Alchemy being meant to raise one's vibrations. I had some nebulous ideas, but I didn't know it involved an internal initiation. So that was very interesting. **PAA: How do you balance the practical and inner aspects of Alchemy in your teachings?** Well, that initial experience I spoke about earlier, those very intense dreams, from following some straightforward stuff and entering that Egregore that way, really sent me on a quest to understand what was happening. Why did this happen? And why wasn't it more fully disclosed, talked about, or mentioned that this could happen to you? I'll admit that the route I took was somewhat circuitous. At first, I was gun-ho to make and even sell the products, not considering what might happen to other people. I mean, I was just like, wow, this is great. You can trip off Rosemary and Chamomile; what could be wrong with that? Well, back in my early days before the internet, I used to travel, to teach a class. I’d set up a little lab, and give a demonstration over a weekend as much as you could do in three days. It's not enough to do anything Alchemically or Spagyrically, but you can set up some props and show people how to distill and calcine and make a plant glass. That's all nice and good. So, at one of these seminars I was giving, I had created a really unique and powerful Rosemary Stone over the previous year and a half. And it affected a person who ingested it in quite a remarkable way. You would take it, sit down, and begin doing a meditation, and it was like you would feel this gong like somebody had rung a gong inside of you. And you feel this reverberation gently move through your entire body. And obviously, I was pretty proud, and people were, wow, that's a great experience. The next day, everyone came back in and talked about how profound their dreams were and how vivid they were, except this one lady. And she was quiet, so I asked her, well, you know, everybody else had an experience. You had to experience something too. I just had never heard of anyone not experiencing something after taking it. And she finally just blurted out furiously. I said I didn't feel anything, and I don't want to talk about it. Obviously, the woman did feel something, and it had touched something she wasn't ready for. And that was my first introduction to how unique and profound these products are. You know, you shouldn't be playing with it. But of course, I needed another lesson. So, there was a lady I used to work with when I was programming at a company in Long Island. She knew about some of the stuff that I did regarding making herbal products and things. She asked to try some; this time, it was a liquid Rosemary product. Again, it is rather unique in its confection, quite opening regarding dreams and things. And so she went and took the product and came back the next day and accused me of wanting to rape her. She said that I had to have given her drugs because she never had dreams like that before in her life. I assured the woman that I did not know where she lived and did not want to know where she lived, and had no intention of ever wanting to rape her. And that's when I realized that this stuff is not candy, especially the advanced herbal products and the tinctures made from crystals and gems. Many people today are talking about the oil of rose quartz and stuff. But you know, I'm the one who originally wrote about in the late 1990’s when I started making it. That level of product, people are making and posting pictures about today, prepared in the way they write about, only has some slight efficacy. But if you're going to try and use those things for initiation, only the stuff that Basil Valentine's ‘dexterous distillation’ has been performed on can even provide that type of experience. So, I continued with my search for understanding. After a few decades of teaching and studying spiritual science with my mentor, I developed the practice called Alchemical Inner Reconciliation or AIR. Its main goal is to lead a person to Alchemical Gnosis. My initial initiatic experiences would eventually bloom into the realization that there's an exact paradigm, an exact pattern to follow involving Hermetic Initiation. True Alchemy begins inside, though for many people, even myself, are drawn to it from its physical aspects in the laboratory. But the main thrust of the work to the original question, of balancing the practical and inner aspects, is to achieve what we call the Vision of Hermes. But before we can dive into the Vision of Hermes, we need to cover the next section's questions. And that involves Alchemical concepts. > Well, frankly, succinctly, without death, there is no Alchemy. > > John H Reid III ## Alchemical Concepts **PAA: Can you explain how the concept of putrefaction fits into the Alchemical process and its importance in achieving transformation?** Well, frankly, succinctly, without death, there is no Alchemy. Death brings about the dissolution of the matter that the Alchemist is working with. And, of course, it has to be the proper death. Many things will kill something, but its fecundating principle will also be lost. So, the idea is that the Alchemist wants to bring about a radical dissolution of the matter so that he can return it to its chaos. Only then can the elements obtained from the matter be used to make a new exalted being, to force its evolution. So Alchemy, the whole idea behind Alchemy, is about transmutation. To do that, you must access the matter's core, and this is how you will bring about its forced evolution. To do that, you will have to utilize parts that are thought of in most peoples thinking as noxious or harmful or unpleasant. To work with Alchemy, you have to work with the totality of the matter, whether it's a human being and all of its complexities or a plant or a mineral. It doesn't matter. And so, as I mentioned before, Alchemical Gnosis is meant to bring about this Vision of Hermes. It's intended to bring about this vision of unity while existing in this world of polarity. You can't operate alchemically if you really think that things in the universe are out to get you. That somehow or another, there's some part of the universe that is evil, abhorrent. There are just things that we don't understand or have been trained to move away from. But that doesn't mean that that learned behavior is productive. > So, in the Vision of Hermes, the first thing to be done is to destroy your old view of the world and the understanding that that view built for you. > > John H Reid III So, in the Vision of Hermes, the first thing to be done is to destroy your old view of the world and the understanding that that view built for you. It destroys your previous relationship with how you saw and interacted with the world because now you have a new perspective. You're seeing things closer to the truth than most people can. And because of that, you act differently. So, an authentically initiated Hermetic Scientist understands and lives the saying ‘every daily occurrence is an interaction of the divine with your soul.’ And to live that statement can be a painful process because it entails what we would call good and evil. And in the ultimate sense of the practice, of living the life of a Hermetic Scientist, there is no distinction between good and evil. And in fact, we seek deliverance from the bondage of seeing the world that way. We know that in every case, the voice of the One communicates with us through these varied experiences. There's a saying in BOTA, and I believe Paul Foster's Case wrote it. He said that behind the adversary's mask is the lover's face. And that understanding, putting it into practice, allows you to begin seeing the world through the Vision of Hermes. Because now it's not an adversarial thing. It's okay, why do you want my attention? What do I need to understand? So bringing about a proper death, controlled death of the product is more akin to a fermentation than a putrefaction because putrefaction, a thing is just running wild, and there are all types of stuff being created. And that's not really what we're seeking to do in Alchemy. And so it's about controlled dissolution. Control is central to this, and unfortunately, it has become watered down and led to a misunderstanding, which is the next section we will discuss. And that's Plant Alchemy and Spagyrics. ## Plant Alchemy and Spagyrics’ PAA: **You mentioned that many modern practitioners incorrectly associate plant Alchemy with Spagyrics. Can you explain how plant Alchemy differs from Spagyric work with plants?** In order to really understand why you need death in Alchemy, first you need to understand the difference between plant Alchemy and Spagyrics. Then, we can talk about Alchemy and Spagyrics. Well, first of all, the word Spagyric means to separate and recombine. We throw in purify between separation and recombination, because it would make little sense to break a stick and then bind it at the breakpoint to use it as a crutch or anything else. It’s just weaker. Nothing has been done to improve it. It just makes it worse. So, we have to do something to the constituent parts of the matter after the separation, hence purification. Many people today claim that Plant Alchemy and Spagyrics are synonymous, but they are not. All you have to do is download a free copy of the Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus. You can find it in a PDF. Do a search for the word Spagyric, and you’ll see that the majority of the time, he uses the word when writing about minerals and metals. But he does use it in connection with plant work and animal work, if memory serves me correctly. In all cases, Paracelsus was writing about a methodology applied to working with any of the members of the three kingdoms of nature: plants, animals, and minerals. As humans are animals and have souls, as does all life, the Spagyric process can be applied to one’s internal world. In a very broad sense, the word Spagyric can be applied to any herbal preparation, especially those that are standardized because they go through being separated or extracted. The various active constituent parts are purified or concentrated. And then it’s all recombined into a finished product. So, in a broad sense, you could say, well, many things fall under the definition of to break, purify, recombine. But fortunately, in Hermeticism, there is an exact pattern to follow to achieve the Minor and Magnum Opus. Now, to understand the difference between Plant Alchemy and Spagyrics, we need to explain the difference plainly between Spagyrics and Alchemy. That will lead to a better understanding because so many of these terms have become somewhat convoluted or conflated, that would be the better term. They’re not synonymous. Spagyrics is in Plant Alchemy. But everything Spagyric is not Alchemy, as we’ll see. ## Spagyric vs Alchemy **PAA: "You discuss the distinction between Spagyrics and Alchemy. How do you think this misunderstanding affects modern practitioners of Alchemy?"** In the last recording, we discussed that the Spagyric method is a manual method and that there's a difference between Plant Alchemy or just regular Alchemy and Spagyrics. Now, we can begin to discern what that difference is. As I mentioned above, Spagyric is simply a methodology applied to the matter being worked on, whether physical or psychological. And there is a maximum in Hermeticism that goes. Everything Alchemical is Spagyric, but not everything Spagyric is Alchemical. And to understand the premise of Alchemy, you need to understand the central ideas of Hermeticism. So, while Spagyric is a manual method, you need to apply that method within the understanding of the central ideas in Hermeticism to make it Alchemical. - There is only One Mind. - This One Mind knows itself completely; no aspect of itself is hidden from itself. Thus, it exists in a state of illumined self-knowledge and equilibrium. - Everything we think, see, smell, taste, and feel—the entire universe—is this One Mind. There is no separation from it, and there is nothing that is not it. - Because the One Mind knows itself thoroughly, there is nothing inimical to it; thus, it is beneficent. - The One emanates adaptations of itself to present the varied experience of existence, to experience itself and evolve. In doing so, the experience of polarity is born. - Because every adaptation of The One contains, at its core, in a non-physical space, that complete illuminative self-knowledge and equilibrium of The One. Every adaptation contains what it needs to arrive at salvation or, better put, reconciliation. - The Arcanum of the matter, which is the understanding and wisdom contained within the non-physical space, can be accessed. - The Arcanum will instruct how to use those things within the matter to move the illuminative self-knowledge and equilibrium of the matter into physical space, thus emanating a Quintessence. - In Alchemical work, the artist uses only those things that are found within the matter and acquired during its normal life cycle. So, for plants, yeast in the air is an example of something they encounter in the course of their normal life cycle. - The job of the Alchemist is to apply the Spagyric method within the context of Alchemical practice and Hermetic Philosophy to bring about the death and rebirth of matter into something beyond what Nature could produce in such a short time. Transmutation, whether physical or psychological, might be thought of as forced evolution. Alright, so you have to do the Spagyric method within that context. **PAA: Can you provide an example of a Spagyric process that highlights its differences from traditional Alchemical methods?** So again, let's take plants; that's the easiest. The modern Spagyricist believes they can achieve the Alchemical work by using the familiar Three Essentials from a plant: ethanol for the Spirit, essential oil for the Soul, and mineral salts for the Body. Those salts are obtained through incinerating, calcining, and leaching the ash. So we have Body, Soul, and Spirit, or mineral salts, essential oil, and ethanol, respectively. And while that's a good place, a good starting point for wrapping your Mind around the Spagyric concept, it's not Alchemical. Even if you assign the various fractions you can obtain from working with a plant and give them assignations belonging to the elements where some folk would use essential oil for the Fire Element, alcohol for the Air Element, vinegar for the Water Element, and the plants fixed sulfur and mineral salts for the Earth Element, you are still not doing Alchemy unless you know how to elicit each of these items ‘philosophically’ from the matter. As I mentioned earlier, Alchemy begins in death, and while ethanol is considered by some a vehicle for the Essential of Spirit, one is not bringing about the death of a plant by pouring sugar or grape juice into the mix with the herb so fermentation can be performed. The fact is this: Any plant with cellulose has sugar because that's what cellulose is—long linear chains of D-glucose. It's just real dang hard to get at. So what are you to do if you want to do Alchemy on a plant and you're not going via the destructive distillation aka pyrolysis route to produce solvents? The query goes to my definition of a Philosopher because every plant does indeed provide a means of breaking itself down using only the material of the plant to accomplish the task. When done correctly, one can perform indigenous fermentation’s on herbs and get a potable alcohol equal in volume to about a quarter and, in some cases, half of what one would expect from distilling wine. Okay, so what is it then to be Philosophical? And that's what we're going to cover in the next section. ## Philosophical Mercury **PAA: You mentioned the Philosophical Mercury as a critical element in Alchemical operations. How can one cultivate the understanding necessary to create it?** I mentioned in the last section that knowing how to break a thing down, using only those inherent constituents, is part of my definition of being a Philosopher. So there's a maximum Alchemy, and I think this will be the last one I use. And it goes, ‘no Alchemical work can be begun or brought to completion without Our Mercury.’ Now, this enigma or conundrum seems to be a closed circle because how can you produce this Alchemical product, the Philosopher's Mercury, if you don't have any to begin with? Its moniker gives a hint, and that is 'philosophical.' A Philosopher is a person who thinks yes, but just thinking isn't going to do you any good. That thought should have brought on an understanding of the subject matter being worked on, so much so that you've gained a privileged perspective. And in perceiving that, you know how to break down and reconstruct the base elements of the matter into a new expression. Now, I'm always just getting to the point of giving some information and then pulling back, and well, yeah, that's on purpose. Real Alchemy isn't about broadcasting stuff all over the place. It's about initiation and an unfolding of the Art, a blossoming of the Art in the artist's soul. And that can't be done by chasing recipes. You have to walk the ‘Path of Return.’ So remember, in the section concerning Spagyrics vs. Alchemy, I wrote that in the Alchemical work, the artist uses only things found within matter and acquired during its normal life cycle. So, for plants, an example of something they encounter in the course of their normal life cycle is yeast in the air. So, understanding how to break down a plant without the addition of anything foreign to its life cycle. So that you can perform an indigenous fermentation of the plant is as much a riddle today to modern science as the production of the Philosophers' Mercury. So, you know, modern science is spending a lot of money trying to get quote-unquote renewable energy from plants because they've got cellulose, which is sugar. If we can find a way to speedily break it down, open it up, get to that sugar, and ferment it. We can have fuel. The Alchemical process I don't think would, or at least the Spagyric pseudo Alchemical process that I use wouldn't be quick enough. You're talking a few weeks, two to three weeks of preparation of the matter. But modern science is looking for something happening in as short as six hours. Nonetheless, the method works. It releases the plants' inherent sugars, and you can do an indigenous fermentation. We know that it's possible to get to those things without using all the fancy technology and corrosives that laboratories do because Nature does it every day. Our job as Alchemists is to do it in a controlled fashion, eliminating the propagation of deleterious growth so that the full nature of the Arcanum may be experienced. So, irrespective of dealing with plants, animals, minerals, or metals, I see the Philosopher's Mercury as a Spagyric product made with the sole aim of being used to bring about the radical dissolution of the matter. Erstwhile adepts stated that only the Philosophers Mercury could radically bring on the dissolution of the matter without altering or destroying what they termed the matter's egg and sperm. You see, while the Alchemist initially accesses the Arcanum via their own Esosphere, their own inner world, the job of the Alchemist is to create a physical analog, think the Ark of the Covenant / Quintessence, for the actual habitation of the Arcanum. Part of that creation is the acquiring of the necessary elements from the matter in a form that is considered unspoiled in Alchemical philosophy. No other solvent known is capable of performing the necessary radical dissolution of the matter, especially when we're talking about minerals and metals, and delivering the sperm and egg intact and capable of fecundity. > When people start to understand the depth and breadth of authentic Western Inner Tradition initiation and how it profoundly changes a person as they travel the Path of Return towards illumination, it will become a central practice to gain a true awareness and understanding of self > > John H Reid III ## Future Directions **PAA: What do you believe is the future of Alchemical practice in contemporary society?** When people start to understand the depth and breadth of authentic Western Inner Tradition initiation and how it profoundly changes a person as they travel the Path of Return towards illumination, it will become a central practice to gain a true awareness and understanding of self. You know, today, a lot of people are using psychedelics, taking trips to use Ayahuasca and other things, and a lot of that stuff, especially the Ayahuasca, can cause many people to well frankly evacuate on themselves. So it can be a very violent experience. The Alchemy practice of using Alchemical products doesn't do that. Some things can act as a purgative but not in the violent manner that I know happens with Ayahuasca, and the visions and dreams that you experience are very gentle. They are very intense, but again, you're not going through this traumatic experience to have them. You take these products, and then there's a nocturnal astral erudition. You're taught, you're instructed, you're initiated. That can be enhanced, of course, by seeking a guide and having them instruct you on what to do. **PAA: What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing the path in Alchemy today?** - Make haste slowly. By that, I mean read and study before you try to begin any actual Alchemical work. I can not count the number of times I've met people who say they are just starting to work in Alchemy and ask how you distill mercury (Hg). - My course on Practical Alchemy is found at https://Alchemywebsite.com/johnreid.html. - Alchemist Handbook by Frater Albertus - Alchemical Laboratory Bulletins by Paracelsus Research Society [you can find online] - The Handbook of Plant Alchemy by Manfred Junius - Initiation into Hermetic by Franz Bardon - The Golden Chain of Homer by Anton Joseph Kirchweger Parts 1 and 2 - Collectania Chemica by Eirenaeus Philalethes - The Complete Alchemical Writings of Issac Hollandus Parts 1 and 2 - The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony by Basil Valentine - First two to three years of Tarot Training with BOTA - Join a reputable hermetic organization like Inner Garden: [https://www.innergarden.org/](https://www.innergarden.org/) [info@innergarden.org](mailto:info@innergarden.org). To make true progress in Alchemy, you need a Guide. - You should read all the above books within your preliminary year of study without succumbing to the temptation to begin physical work in the laboratory or on yourself. - The second year begin physical work and the BOTA lessons. - When you begin work, if you're going Ronin, learn to distill water safely first. - Then, move into the work of plants and only graduate to metals once you understand the plant work from both the Spagyric and Alchemical perspectives. - Another thing that people need to realize so that they don't rush into doing minerals is that the minerals obtained from plants are no different than those obtained from the earth. They're the same. They're minerals, and they all come from the ground. The plants don't produce those minerals just like we don't produce the minerals in our bodies. They come from the foods that we eat. Humans and animals don't produce those things, and plants do not. It's all taken up from the soil in the plants. The animals eat the plants. We eat the plants and the animals. So, in that sense, you're always doing mineral Alchemy. There is no rush. Paul Foster Case also wrote that the 'Adept walks as if eternity is before them and omnipotence is at their disposal.' Make haste slowly. I'm telling you, take it easy. Plants are just safer to learn from and much safer to make mistakes with. **W****hat are my future plans with my new website?** Over a year ago, I needed to discern which direction to take. Whether or not I should move forward with doing a sort of pre-k type of instruction that was not initiation through InnerWork.Guide or just concentrate fully on initiating people through Inner Garden. The only way to find out about that was to ask the god-of-my-heart to please show me. I went about the work not unlike forming a physical analog via the Quintessence for the Arcanum to inhabit. I went about setting up the InnerWork.Guide website with information about the two possible choices a person can make. Thus enabling the Arcanum to 'show its preference' for habitation in the chosen analog. The groundwork laid, the Arcanum would show by the preponderance of which avenue people chose to take, whether it was through Inner Garden or doing work with InnerWork.Guide. Now, a lot of people will say well, you should put more effort into it or whatever, but I asked to be shown. And when you're shown something, you have to be passive. It's not an active thing. Yes, you have to lay the groundwork. It's the same as if you ask an expert to come in and teach Plant Alchemy. Well, he's going to come in and teach a seminar, but you'll have to assemble all the laboratory stuff he will need. The glassware will be arranged in the place where the instructions are going to be. You know, just provide for the things that are needed to lay the groundwork so that the teaching can be performed. That's exactly what I did, and it was shown that the preference was for Inner Garden. So, the InnerWork.Guide website is gone as of August 2024, but the Inner Work Guide Alchemical Gnosis podcast will continue, the episodes will no longer be weekly. They'll be either monthly or quarterly, depending on the time, because quite a few people joined Inner Garden because of the podcast. And so, I have quite a bit of work ahead of me. ## Teaching and Community **PAA: How do you foster a sense of community among your students, especially those who may be new to Alchemy?** Well, first, let me say that Inner Garden teaches for free. None of our courses come with a price tag, except, for example, the cost associated with putting on a seminar or conference where presentation space, etc., needs to be procured. There is a one-time membership fee of 100 Euros, but other than that, the organization survives by the time, talent, and treasure donated by its members. In all of our courses, the student is paired with a guide. You're not just given a bunch of correspondence; instead, you have someone you can turn to and ask questions and correspond freely with. We don't limit your correspondence or charge you if you go over some limit or amount. Many of our classes are live and presented via Discord or some other streaming solution. Inner Garden has a wide range of experts in various fields of the Hermetic Science, from Astrology, Kabbalah, and multiple paths concerning inner work, as well as exploring various paths relating to practical laboratory Alchemy from plants to advanced mineral work. The course material I teach is based on a graduated approach to the Hermetic Science. The Alchemical Inner Reconciliation I, or *Air **I*, is where we introduce the traveler to the concept that their outer experience is based on their inner world. The coursework consists of over 400 pages of material. It takes six months to complete, and we meet live via Discord every two weeks during the class cycle.  *Air Two* is all about learning to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's where we delve deeper into the inner world and help the traveler with inner resistance. "Frankly, if you're not conversant and cannot exert some modicum of control over your inner forces, learning practical laboratory Alchemy would be a waste of time on the aspirant's part." The *Air* program consists of four levels, three of which need to be completed before entry into my Alchemical Laboratory course can be petitioned. Frankly, if you're not conversant and cannot exert some modicum of control over your inner forces, learning practical laboratory Alchemy would be a waste of time on the aspirant's part. You have to be conscious of what's going on inside of you. The only way to do that is through various practices, and Hermeticism has a very detailed practice that, in my opinion, offers a rather unique perspective on what you're seeking to achieve. **PAA: What are some of the most rewarding experiences you've had while teaching Alchemy and ****S****pagyric practices?** I mentioned above that *A**IR I* consists of over 400 written pages of instruction and practice. One of the things we do is have the perspective travelers make what we call the Basic Seven Herbal Extracts, which they use in their inner Alchemical work. Many people who have done some previous herbal work or study in Spagyrics or Alchemy generally express displeasure at the idea of doing something they feel they've already done. They typically give the refrain, "Well, you know, I've done this already. Why? Why is it going to be any different with you?" And I always tell them at the end of the course, let's revisit that query. To a one, they all say they've never experienced anything like that before when they're done. As long as they do the work as assigned, in the time assigned, the process is organic. It cannot help but to unfold. The degree to which it will unfold, nobody can say, but it is an organic process. If you follow the instructions, you will experience something unique. So, the best experience is seeing travelers make those inner connections and utilize the teaching to bring about changes in their lives in real-time. ## Other **PAA: I originally discovered you from Rawn Clark's documents from many years ago. Do the Franz Bar****d****on teachings have any influence on your work?** The short answer is yes. Bardons' teachings play a role in the lessons, especially the magic of food, air, and water. As to food, many people do not realize that Alchemical products are a sort of Eucharist. Each liquid product could be considered an extremely concentrated and potent ‘Fluid Condenser.’ Just as the lesson material is based on a graduated presentation of information, Alchemical products can be used in a graduated manner, being an order of magnitude higher with each new product. It would start with, say, plant extracts, then a plant tincture, then plant essence, plant stone, what we call a plant Resurrection Tincture, and then the oil of minerals or crystals and the oil of metals. In regard to the oil of minerals, crystals, and metals, as well as the plant Resurrection Tincture, only the dexterous distillation makes it worthwhile for use in a work. I've mentioned Basil Valentine's dexterous distillation before. Essentially, what that is, is getting what Basil calls the Soul, the tincture to come over the head of the alembic, but it's done very gently at body temperature. Just imagine for a moment that you make tea. You steep the tea, and the water changes its color. That's a tincture. Now, a dexterous distillation allows you, without burning that colored portion, to have it distill over the alembic. It does not matter if the tincture is from minerals, metals, animals or plants. That tincture, that product that is made, or what the old Alchemist would call an oil—again, it's not. Phenomenologically, it looks like you're extracting something from minerals; in truth, it's a chemical reaction with the minerals and metals that form a hydrocarbon, from what I've been told. Then, you can do various things to it. But the thing is this: there is a way to get that colored liquid to come over the head of the alembic, literally at body temperature, distill over, not burning. That's why you call it a Resurrection. In the mythology of Christ—and I don't know if there was a person named Jesus Christ, just like I don't know if a person named Buddha walked the earth ever, or Muhammad, or any of the other guys that people look up to, we all talk about—what matters to me is how you treat each other. But from an analogy point of view of teaching a lesson, when Christ was crucified and put in the grave, Mary went to the grave after three days and found it empty, and then she saw what she perceived as the gardener, the cemetery's caretaker. She said they've taken my master. Do you know where he is? It wasn't until he spoke to her that she realized who he was. But the point is that what Mary saw, to her eyes, was a human being. It wasn't a spirit. It wasn't a ghost. She saw it as a living, breathing being. That's what the resurrection is: the Body, the Soul [color], and Spirit. So how do you know you have a tea? Because the water changes color. It's not just the taste. That would be an essence. What we're talking about… is the second greatest secret in Alchemy: how to perform that dexterous distillation because it's the Resurrection. The first secret is how to bring about death properly, philosophically. And that's the Philosophical Mercury. So you need the two, the Death and the Resurrection. Only products that have actually achieved, or an artist who has achieved the understanding and knowledge to bring about that dexterous distillation, are the only things you can use at that higher level to do the job. The lower stuff helps start the process, but you don't get to finish it unless you're able to do the dexterous distillation. > I will experience everything that the god-of-my-heart has intended for me. So why step into it in fear? > > John H Reid III **PAA: Alchemical gnosis. What is this state? And how does it compare to other terms that we use to express achievement such as enlightenment?** Well, Alchemical Gnosis is the full knowledge and conversation with the god-of-your-heart. For the Hermetic Scientists, every adaptation, every expression, everything experienced has a gender/polarity, an age, an appearance, a name, and purpose for being. And so, since everything is part of the One, we see nothing as being preferential. Instead, we seek to understand the adaptation the One has taken, even the stuff we call dark. Because of the nature of the Hermetic inner work, one needs to find an authentic guide. I'm going to stress this again. I know a lot of people want to go, Ronin, but you're going to be tripped up. I can't tell you how many people I've seen convince themselves of the most ludicrous things concerning laboratory Alchemy, let alone inner work, that are just demonstrably false. It's not even debatable. But people can contort and rationalize all kinds of things. That's why you need a guide. There is a reason why, in Hermeticism, we say the Art is passed from mouth to ear. The subtlety of the intelligence charged with maintaining division is elusive in its apprehension while you are engaged in the work. That elusive division shows itself when people rationalize things and contort them. That intelligence will, one of the first things it does is to stroke the ego. And when people can't readily figure something out, especially today with the proliferation of information, they're more apt to say, well, you know, I say this is ‘my truth.’ Well, you know, what do you mean, ‘my truth?’ There's the truth, the proper way of doing something, and then everything else is a falsity. So it takes an objective third party to help the traveler navigate the path and teach the ways and means of discerning truth from falsity, especially in regards to inner work, so that the traveler may eventually do so unaided. We seek understanding above all in Hermeticism. And when doing inner work, we instruct travelers to take the following attitude when they encounter what we call intelligences: I am not here to fix anything. I am not here to heal anything. I'm not here to correct anything. And I'm certainly not here to get rid of anything. I'm just going to allow myself to let go of my judgments, to have no agenda, and simply be with what is here and give it my full, undivided attention. The above is how you gain understanding—not through force of will or magically binding something, beating it, or causing… No human being would respond favorably to such conditions, nor will spirits. As above, so below. As below, so above. So everything wants to be treated with a modicum of respect, that's all. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. So we seek, in Alchemical Gnosis, to ennoble our conscious mind and bring it into complete alignment with the One so that it can be used as the tool it was intended to be. Because ultimately, for the Hermeticist, physical creation is not something that is thought of as an impediment or something to escape or an illusion. Rather, it's seen as an arena of necessary experiences and training. Because for the One to achieve evolution—the evolution of its continually unfolding expressions and adaptations—it needs a place of polarity, of unbalance, yay, even dysfunction, to explore its entire range. And that's what we're here for. Everybody says I have free choice or free will. Unless you have polarity, you don't have a choice. If everything's in unity, there's no choice. To experience choice, or what we call free will or an active will, you have to have a way of discerning things, and that's what this arena is for. It's for you to know and experience what people call good and evil, but we prefer to call productive and non-productive behaviors and attitudes. Because, you know, look, if I sit down and I say, well, you know, today I want to complete some code that I need to write. Instead, I ended up playing an online game. That doesn't mean the game is evil or that I'm evil. It just means I decided to do something, and I wasn't productive in the way that I had intended to be. I was productive in playing the game but not in completing the code. And that's it. Deliver me from evil and from good. I simply want to experience the full milieu of life. I will experience everything that the god-of-my-heart has intended for me. So why step into it in fear? You know, a person cannot become whole by cutting off their digits. And the shadow is just repression. It's ignorance—what we're unaware of. But the thing is, a shadow can only be created by a light source being shown on something, something that seems to be blocking the transmission of light. But if you step into that shadow and you have the testicles or ovaries to walk through the umbra, metaphorically—or if it's a physical thing, walk around—there's only one thing you can find on the other side when you exit that umbra. So, above all, we seek understanding, not elimination. Alchemy is about transmutation. Think about copper. You can do all kinds of wondrous things with copper today. And all those things, potentialities, and possibilities existed when humankind picked up its first piece of copper. The only difference is that those people did not have the perspective, the philosophical insight, so that they could perceive those possibilities. That's what a Philosopher is. All right, well, thank you for your time. And that concludes this interview. **PAA: What a wonderful interview, thank you very much for sharing.** --- ## Important Information from the Interview - My course on Practical Alchemy found at https://alchemywebsite.com/johnreid.html - Alchemist Handbook by Frater Albertus - Alchemical Laboratory Bulletins by Paracelsus Research Society [you can find online] - The Handbook of Plant Alchemy by Manfred Junius - Initiation into Hermetic by Franz Bardon - The Golden Chain of Homer by Anton Joseph Kirchweger Parts 1 and 2 - Collectania Chemica by Eirenaeus Philalethes - The Complete Alchemical Writings of Issac Hollandus Parts 1 and 2 - The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony by Basil Valentine - First two to three years of Tarot Training with BOTA - Join a reputable Hermetic organization like Inner Garden [https://www.innergarden.org/](https://www.innergarden.org/) [info@innergarden.org](mailto:info@innergarden.org) to make true progress in alchemy you need a Guide. - [See the Inner Work Podcast.](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inner-work-guide) --- https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/metamagick-an-interview-with-dr-peter-duchemin/