#alchemy

Two years away. To an Incarnate, it's nothing. But when you have people who care about you, who you're excited about, each day becomes significant. ↗

— Avery Williams

#alchemy-of-forever #incarnate #incarnation #life #love

The essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy. ↗

— Francis Ford Coppola

#cinema #combination #during #editing #emotional

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words. ↗

— William H. Gass

#writing #change

This is why alchemy exists," the boy said. "So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold. That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too. ↗

— Paulo Coelho

#life

Know this: I, Mercurius, have here set down a full, true and infallible account of the Great Work. But I give you fair warning that unless you seek the true philosophical gold and not the gold of the vulgar, unless you heart is fixed with unbending intent on the true Stone of the Philosophers, unless you are steadfast in your quest, abiding by God’s laws in all faith and humility and eschewing all vanity, conceit, falsehood, intemperance, pride, lust and faint-heartedness, read no farther lest I prove fatal to you. For I am the watery venomous serpent who lies buried at the earth’s centre; I am the fiery dragon who flies through the air. I am the one thing necessary for the whole Opus. I am the spirit of metals, the fire which does not burn, the water which does not wet the hands. If you find the way to slay me you will find the philosophical mercury of the wise, even the White Stone beloved of the Philosophers. If you find the way to raise me up again, you will find the philosophical sulphur, that is, the Red Stone and Elixir of Life. Obey me and I will be your servant; free me and I will be your friend. Enslave me and I am a dangerous enemy; command me and I will make you mad; give me life and you will die. ↗

— Patrick Harpur

#elixir-of-life #hermeticism #mercurius #mercury #philosopher-s-stone

People are always looking for magic, when the natural world holds true miracles ↗

— Avery Williams

#magic #miracles #world #nature

As though eavesdropping, the whistling wind refuses to speak above a whisper. The winding road is cut into the side of the mountain in such a way that it seems they are not making any progress; the walk down will require endurance. She looks up at the cluster of clouds which have been pencilled in neatly against the sky, and hopes it doesn’t rain. It occurs rapidly, a geisha brusquely folding shut her fan; the sun sets, and brilliant darkness replaces light. ↗

— Curtis Ackie

#dreams #magic-realism #surrealism #dreams

You can make a good show, but you still need some magical alchemy to get people to watch. ↗

— Shawn Ryan

#get #good #magical #make #need

It’s said that the shuffling of the cards is the earth, and the pattering of the cards is the rain, and the beating of the cards is the wind, and the pointing of the cards is the fire. That’s of the four suits. But the Greater Trumps, it’s said, are the meaning of all process and the measure of the everlasting dance. ↗

— Charles Williams

#christian-hermeticism #inspirational #supernatural #tarot #inspirational

Photography is essentially an act of recognition by street photographers, not an act of invention. Photographers might respond to an old man’s face, or an Arbus freak, or the way light hits a building—and then they move on. Whereas in all the other art forms, take William Blake, everything that came to that paper never existed before. It’s the idea of alchemy, of making something from nothing. ↗

— Duane Michals

#art #invention #nothing #photography #surfaces