Le Blog des Trouvailles

Après autorisation de l'intéressé, je publie un échange de courriel avec un alchimiste anglo-saxon suite à mes questions. Il s'agit d'Adam MacLean, à cette adresse :
http://www.alchemywebsite.com

C'est en lisant le texte d'alchimie hénokéenne "la Vision de la Maison Ronde" d'Edward Kelley que j'ai pensé voir du titane là ou l'ange Levanaël présente "un corps spongieux". Voici la réponse de l'alchimiste, qui pense que c'est de la "loupe" :
(j'alterne les courriels dans l'ordre du dialogue en les séparant par des pointillés, et je commence l'échange)

Hello,

I would like to ask you what is the value of the following "alchemical"
text (to me, it resonates deeply) :
"The Vision of the Round House". Unfortunately, the text is not on the
Web; it is in the book "enochian magick for beginners". One of the seven
metals is described as being "spongious"; I first thought of raw
titanium. What do you think ?

Best regards,
Hiramash.

http://www.hiramash.net

---------------


Titanium was not isolated until the closing decade of the 18th Century.
By "spongy" I think you are referring to a stage of the modern (i.e.
20th century) method of extracting and enriching the ore of Titanium.
This has entirely modern and would not be known about in
1580-95, the time that Edward Kelley was producing his visions.

Kelley must have been referring to something known of in his time.



With best wishes,

Adam McLean

---------------

Yes, but what ? It was really written "spongy" in the text, since the
name of the metal was not given, just its appearance to Kelley...

Best regards,
Hiramash.

PS : thank you for replying, indeed !

---------------

If you send me the text where this is mentioned I may
be able to identify it from the context.



With best wishes,

---------------

Hi Adam,

The text is long, and i have no working scanner. I shall give you a
piece of the text and the reference of the book :
http://www.amazon.com/Enochian-Magic-Beginners-Original-Llewellyns/dp/1567187471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255544542&sr=8-1

At page 363 in Appendix B :
"[...]Levanael : Let cold cover thy face, let the North truly beget
thee, for thou art an enemy to thy predecessors. But thou are of great
vertue, for of thy excrement shall vertue receive dignity. And thy
vertue shall be a garland to Nature; for thou shalt be visible when the
other are silent: the Seas shall not hinder thy virtue, notwithstanding,
thy vertue shall differ with the Seas : For as they differ, so shalt
thou.
Kelley : Now he taketh it out. It is a ragged thing like Smiths cynder
of iron, and it hath holes in it, as if it were spongy.
Now he taketh up another Ball of the earth: he putteth in it.[...]"

Cheers,
Hiramash.

----------------

Dear Hiramash,

At 19:46 14/10/2009, you wrote:
>Kelley : Now he taketh it out. It is a ragged thing like Smiths cynder
>of iron, and it hath holes in it, as if it were spongy.
>Now he taketh up another Ball of the earth: he putteth in it.[...]"

The blacksmith's cinders of iron are probably the scales
of impurity created by the smith when purifying a bar of iron,
continually placing it in the fire to heat it, then pounding it
on an anvil with a hammer, then the impurities come to the
surface and flake off. If the smith uses a fire fed with a
blast of air so that the iron is heated in an oxygen rich
atmosphere but at a temperature a little below the melting
point of iron, then the iron does not melt but becomes soft
and pasty. These pasty grains of iron can settle to the bottom of
the crucible where they cohere and form a spongy mass
of iron called "loupe". This is well known in iron smelting.

Kelley says "Now he taketh up another Ball of the earth" -
this will be a ball of iron ore mixed with charcoal. This was
one method of iron purification used in the 16th century.

Once it is heated in the fire blown with bellows, the paste
or iron becomes like a sponge with air holes which are
with filled with cindery material, in which the impurities
of the ore and the ash of the charcoal combine with
unreduced oxides of iron from the ore.

I think Kelley was a good observer of the work of blacksmiths
and metal workers.


With best wishes,

Adam McLean

----------------------

Hi Adam and thank you for your information :D ...

Would you authorize me to publish your explanation on one of my blogs ?
(For instance the "Livre des Trouvailles") ? You and your website would
be cited, of course...

Best regards,
Hiramash.

---------------------

Dear Hiramash,

Surely.


With best wishes,

Adam McLean

Voilà...
A+,
Hiramash.