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Hermes Rough Stone Alchemy(25) Victor. Arturo. Hair. Kings.🌹 "A world dwells in the Heart of a millet Seed, in the wing of a bird is the Ocean of Life, and in the pupil of an Eye is a Heaven." (Mahmud Shabistani🌹, The Garden of the Mystical Rose🌹) From early in the Middle Ages, bishops, theologians and monks, friars and canons practiced the sacred science of alchemy in monasteries and abbeys. Mendicant, Dominican and Franciscan orders and many friars in their monasteries practiced the Magnum Opus. From and during the Middle Ages, monasteries, convents and abbeys were transformed into places and temples of alchemical knowledge. Cathedrals of Knowledge! As for alchemy – miraculous as it may seem – its search was associated with the stone = Christ, as well as with the process of Creation and the Eucharist. Therefore, alchemy as a science of knowledge and a science of nature is similar to the attempt of creation and its understanding from chaos to Light. Undoubtedly, like the search for the Grail (twelfth and thirteenth centuries), alchemical monks "Christianized" the alchemical message in a spiritual and material way. It is said that in each monastery there was a particular place to place the 'alchemical furnace' and some wise monks to treat the philosophical stone in its various forms. On the other hand, from the tenth to the thirteenth century, the monastic school opened up and the mendicant orders (Premonstratensians and Cistercians) founded colleges of alchemical knowledge controlled by intellectual monks who, thanks to the existence of the monastic life, acted as masters and sages of metallurgical workmanship. "A university Freemasonry dreams of leading Christianity." (Jacques Le Goff, The Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, p.p.118-119) However, the rough Stone is then roughened and polished into the Philosopher's Stone, thanks to the work tools and the technique required for physical, mental, material and spiritual transmutation; Art of transforming impure metals or imperfect stones into polished stones. Transmute dead stones into living philosophical stones! ''This Booke the greatest Clearkes mayteach...''=''To the Clerics this Book wants to teach...'' (Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchemy) It is the Officium divinum = Magisterium Artifex of the alchemist monk. It is striking that it is part of what was considered heresies from the fourth to the eleventh century, since the clerics have a determining role in the fundamental and historical study of alchemy. In the same way, when a construction was carried out (Gothic Cathedral), the workforce was administered and regulated by certain provisions and plans according to a hierarchy from the architect (almost always a monk), to the master and "stonecutter" officers. From the end of the eleventh century, it is known that the Benedictine monk Theophilus described, among notes and notes, a whole valuable series of inventions made by monks in monasteries, such as the production of glass, fire paints, and the "alchemical" mixture of colors=( Schedula diversarum artium). And indeed, in the "artistic work" were hidden alchemical symbols and the harmonization of stone forms. The particular contributions of monk-masons are examined by the architectural master-monk, and are harmonized between forms and styles of polished stone. In this way, the cathedrals = Chartres, Reims, Paris, Strasbourg, Cologne and Vienna were built. On the other hand, the Freemasons-Workers remained united and 'artistic freedom' was directed by the preconceived ideas of the master-architect. The stone is carved and chiseled for transformation and polishing. In fact, the Hermetic and Solomonic tradition is fused by wise translator and educated monks. "Solomon is the master of all Eastern and Hebrew science, not only the Sage of the Old Testament, but he is the great representative of Hermetic Science and under his name is placed the encyclopedia of magical knowledge, since Solomon is the master of secrets, the possessor of the mysteries of Science". (Jacques LeGoff, The Intellectuals in the Middle Ages, p.62) Manuscripts, oriental parchments and vellum, come into contact with monks educated in Italy and Spain = (Greek, Latin and Arabic). It is striking that these monks work with Arabic manuscripts and versions of Greek texts, some of which are clearly of "alchemical-hermetic" origin from the Ars Regia of the Sons of the Golden Head. Bernard of Sylvester, centuries before Paracelsus, wrote his fundamental allegory between macrocosm and microcosm; the original foundation of the Whole. As can be seen, the medieval alchemist in most cases was a cleric = ''a learned clerk'', they, formally educated in the study and reproduction of all kinds of manuscripts and ancient parchments, from the 9th century to the middle of the 17th century, the practice of alchemy reached monarchs and emperors. Let us remember the monk Geoffrey Chaucer, a great connoisseur of alchemy in the 14th century who satirically writes about alchemy in his Canon's Yeoman Tale (1390). In summary, many were theologians, master monks and alchemists='Theophilus (tenth century), Robert of Chester, archdeacon of Pamplona and Valencia, Thomas Norton of Briseto (1433-1513), Abbé Dom Pernety, Benedictine de Saint Maur (eighteenth century), Albertus Magnus, Arnau de Vilanova-theologian and possible alchemist, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon (1214-1294), George Ripley (1450-1490), Canon of Bridlington, the abbot Trithemius, Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187), Basil Valentine (1394), Abbot Cremer, of Westminster, John Dastin (wrote Alchemical Letters to Pope John XXII and Cardinal Orsini), Thomas Vaughan (1621-66). ''... The Earth as raw material is not a dead body, but is inhabited by Spirit, which is the Life and Soul of the earth. All creatures, minerals as well, receive their forces from the Spirit of the earth. Spirit is Life. He is fed by the stars and he nourishes all living things in his lap." (Basilio Valentín) In this way, the stone is polished and worked according to the model; often with deep alchemical and Kabbalistic elements included among the forms and symbols. On the other hand, the work of the 'rough stone' always expresses its suspicious dimension rich in hidden elements that comes to light every day. In the Vatican Apostolic Library (Cod.Urb. lat. 899, f.106 v., 91=Nicola d'Antonio degli Agli (1480), the famous column of the Temple = Boaz, the farmer of Bethlehem and his wife Ruth the "gleaner" appears; symbolizing the alchemical spirit and masculine principle = seed of the work. The science of alchemy was jealously guarded by the alchemist clerics as a secret and sacred science = Royal Priestly Art! To this end, spiritual-material science and worldview. Hermes Rough Stone Alchemy(25) Victor. Arturo. Hair. Kings.🌹