Ceration

Ceration is a chemical process, a common practice in alchemy. Pseudo-Geber's Summa Perfectionis explains that ceration is "the mollification of an hard thing, not fusible unto liquefaction", and stresses the importance of correct humidity in the process. [1] Ceration is performed by continuously adding a liquid by imbibition to a hard, dry substance while it is heated. Typically, this treatment makes the substance softer, more like molten wax. [2]

Antoine-Joseph Pernety's 1787 mytho-Hermetic dictionary defines it somewhat differently as the time when matter passes from black to gray, and then to white. Continuous cooking effects this change. [3] Ceration may be synonymous with similar terms for alchemical burning processes. Incineration, for example is listed by Manly P. Hall.[4] (Also see Calcination.)

References

  1. ↑ Stanton J. Linden. The alchemy reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge. 2003. pg 93.
  2. ↑ Martinus Rulandus. Lexicon of Alchemy. 1612
  3. ↑ Antoine-Joseph Pernety. Dictionnaire mytho-hermétique, dans lequel on trouvre les allégories fabuleuses des poètes, les métaphores, les énigmes et les termes barbares des philosophes hermétiques expliqués. 1787 p.70
  4. ↑ Manly P.Hall. The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Los Angeles. 1928. p. 507
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