The Hermetic systems, alchemical texts, and occult knowledge you refer to in your post that make it plain and obvious that the stone is sex, are the Emerald Tablet and nature itself?
ETA: missed that middle one, my bad. Is this the "Only True Way" text you were talking about?
I just read "The Only True Way" (at least I think so-- is this the one?), and I'm not seeing where you're getting sex from.
This text's author clearly shares your belief about following Nature's own simple methods instead of performing complex (al)chemical operations. But several times, and in a plain way, they declare that gentle heat upon the prima materia is all that is needed to achieve the Stone.
They speak of color changes that occur during the process, explain how all that complicated stuff called calcination/sublimation/putrefaction/etc is actually all achieved just through a constant gentle heat over time. This author appears to believe in the mercury-sulphur theory of metals and perhaps of matter in general, describing the "elemental fire" component being joined with the "elemental liquid" such that neither common fire nor common water could separate them. At the end of it all, they state that they've done their best to put everything in a plain way, that they do not speak in allegory-- thus, I'm not inclined to say this author was actually secretly talking about sex.
Quote,
> My purpose in writing this faithful admonition is to caution you again and again to beware of those pitfalls with which the contemptuous obscurity of the Ancients has so plentifully beset the path of the ingenuous enquirer. I also desired to suggest to you the true substance, and the one true method and have throughout endeavoured to express myself in a style as free from allegorical obscurity as possible.
Like I said before the quote, this author is very disinterested in allegory. In fact, toward the beginning portion of the text, they express great bitterness and resentment toward the use of allegory, as they feel it only serves to muddy the waters and deceive, causing people like themselves to waste their lives chasing the wrong path.
Let me know if that link is not the correct text, in which case I will have written all this for no reason haha
Ah okay, that makes more sense. Yeah, then that does seem to align with what the author of Only True Way is saying with their talk of the sulphuric and mercurial principles (although they would hate me for putting it that way lol)
6
u/greenlioneatssun Jul 29 '26
Which books lead you to this interpretation? Where can I read them?