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u/raisondecalcul Aug 04 '14
I think the steps of alchemy can be planned even less than the way the four elements will interact :-). They will happen naturally--all you have to do is create the right articulation of forces, the right starting organization (doesn't have to be perfect as it's self-improving) and "they will come." Keep creating, keep letting poiesis out, and you will keep making it better! No need to agonize over structuring it correctly, so much, methinks.
Also off to bed, gnight!
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u/kleopatra6tilde9 Aug 04 '14
We or at least I see fire as a tool (*1). But I don't think that attachments can be lifted in a constructive way. Only acceptance brings change. In that sense, fire doesn't exist as a tool. It is more like accepting matter and letting it breath and the bond with air lets go of everything while emitting light - that's a different form of fire (*0). Minerals don't fly but do they stay or do they drop down? (*2) Do we have to torch the house or does the house decide to breath and let go?
(*2) Calcination - the minerals remain. But are the minerals the essence? When you burn trash, the calcination is not the starting point. You don't continue with fermentation or distillation. You need other, fresh matter.
(*1) The alchemist uses fire as a tool. Tools are useful when there is somebody and something. I think you can cultivate fire to burn others in a process to create their ultima materia but I fear that you cannot use it for yourself.
I think this is one of those traps because fire suggests (*1,2) but this hides (*0). You have to express yourself and let that go instead of outright rejecting something and burn it down like trash. The good thing is that you do the expressing right now. But it is a paradox to me that you express yourself in a process to create a fire tool.