Begin with the Crow

I set up this blog with some definite ideas about what I wanted to do with it, but I'm finding that the hardest part is beginning.

Ultimately, I intend to try to teach my readers two things - Alchemy and Metalsmithing, and my first impulse is to immediately launch into some definitions and history in order to show why these two things are so intimately connected. Eventually I'll have to give some definitions, but... it occurs to me that, when one begins, it might be better to begin at the beginning. As I progress, things will become increasingly clear to the careful reader (I hope).

Anyway, in Alchemy - as with all things - you begin with the Black Crow:

Hermes sez:
My Son, that which is born of the crow is the beginning of this Art. Behold, I have obscured the matter treated of by circumlocution, depriving it of light. I have termed this dissolved, and this joined, this nearest I have termed furthest off.

(Hermes is the mythological Ur teacher and prime mover in Alchemy. When I quote from the Alchemical literature, I'll just attribute everything to Hermes - it saves me from falling into the abyss of scholasticism.)

Alchemy can be described as a process of transformation, leading from Chaos to Order (weirdly, Chaos and Order are the exact same things, but seen from two different vantage points). Or it can be described as the understanding of the process of transformation because, if things go through a predictable series of changes as transformation occurs, to understand one series of transformations is to understand the underlying principles of them all.

The process is often described as a series of color changes - black to white, white to red, red to yellow. Other colors are sometimes added in (green and blue are common) to describe specific details, but the general black-white-red-yellow sequence is the most fundamental.

So we begin with black, and with the Crow.

The black stage is the stage of chaos and putrification. Hermes sez: Putrification before generation. All colors must return to black before proceeding.

Putrification occurs when things loose their coherence, they begin to fall apart and mingle indiscriminately with the things around them. This is chaos as well. But the trick here is to understand that chaos is a way of looking at things. All things follow their nature, therefore, if the nature of a thing is understood, what was once chaotic becomes orderly. So - to transform chaos into order, all that is required is to understand.

Black, then, is ignorance.

Enter the Crow.

In many mythologies, ranging from Native American to Norse, the crow, because it feeds upon the dead, thereby returning dead material to life, is the intermediary between the world of the living and the world of the dead, or the messenger between us and the Gods. It is also the guide which leads from the world of the living into the world of the dead (technically referred to as a "psycho pomp"). This is also the traditional role ascribed to the god Hermes, which is why the Crow is equated with Hermes.

Death is putrification - matter which, in life, is well ordered, in death becomes chaotic. The role of the Crow, the messenger of the gods and psycho pomp, and of Hermes, then, is to bring death and life, chaos and order, into alignment as a complete system in which each becomes an inseparable part of the other, creating balance.

Hermes the Crow brings about the first transformation - from death to life, or, as Hermes sez, "Putrification before generation..." By the way - in a complete system, the flow goes both ways. Ignorance leads to knowledge, but knowledge also leads to ignorance. Or, to put it more clearly, the more you know, the more your realize how much you have yet to learn…

If black is ignorance, and ignorance is chaos, then, to transform chaos into order, you must gain knowledge. When knowledge arises out of ignorance - when the crow flies - you have entered the second stage, the "whitening," which is purification.

At this point you are scratching your head and asking "Well, what the HELL does this have to do with metalsmithing?"

Good question.

And good questions demand good answers, so here goes:

If you decide that you want to learn metalsmithing, that you want to learn how to turn a lump of dead, boring metal into a living work of art, you must begin with what you know, and, in the beginning, you know nothing.

You look at the work of master metalsmiths, and stand in awe of what they have done. You wonder if it is possible - even remotely - to learn to do yourself what others have done before you. The work of the masters is what Carlos Castenada refers to as "A tale of power," and, at first, all we can do is listen to that tale of what others have done, and stand amazed.

But Hermes tells me: "What one man has done, so may another."

Follow the Black Crow. Do not be afraid to begin in ignorance - it is the only place from which to start. As the Crow flies, the blackness will drop from it's wings, and the white crow will emerge. One day your work will be a tale of power to someone else...