Nicholas Flamel (also spelled Flammel) was born at Pontoise, France, in 1330. Little is known of his life prior to his undertaking the study of alchemy. However, as a result of his subsequent fame, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris contains copies of works made by him, as well as his own writings, in addition to his marriage certificate, deeds for gifts made while alive, and his last will and testament.
Flamel made his living as a scrivener, notary, and bookseller, with a stall that backed onto the columns of St. Jacques la Boucherie and measured little more than two and a half feet by two feet, or slightly larger than a telephone booth. He was also skilled in painting and poetry. As literacy was limited, even among the commercial and ruling classes, it was possible to make a modest living by reading and writing letters or documents for a fee or by teaching writing to those who were required to sign documents.
Flamel later purchased a house, possibly with the assistance of his wealthy wife, a widow several years his senior, and used the ground floor for business. Several employees were retained, and business was good.
It is known that he was born, like many, into poverty but was fortunate enough to have parents who instilled within him the virtues of honesty and ethics. He was able to acquire an education, and as such he moved to Paris, where he made his living. Like many in his occupation, he lived on the Street of the Notaries, near the Chapel of St. James of the Bouchery. Flamel's fortunes changed in 1357, when according to his own account he purchased a large, heavily gilded book for two florins. The book's cover was made of brass (or copper) and engraved with various symbols and letters. The pages were made of very thin leaves of bark, each being covered with beautifully drawn and colored symbols and text.
APPENDIX OVERVIEW
The Book of Abraham the jew
The Great Work Is Completed
• A Modern Experience on the Flamel Path
Every seventh page was free from any writing, holding only a picture. The first image was a serpent swallowing rods; the second, a serpent crucified on a cross; and the third, a vast desert with a bubbling fountain surrounded by serpents. The book appeared to have been written for the expert, at least in Qabala,1 and assumed a knowledge of alchemy, and possibly even success in the art.
On the title page, the following was written in gold: Abraham the Jew, Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer and Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, by the Wrath of God dispersed among the Gentiles, sendeth Health. The book was unlike anything being produced in Europe at that time, or previously, and suggests Middle Eastern origins.
According to the text, Abraham the Jew, its author, undertook the process of creating gold through transmutation to relieve the Jews of the burden imposed upon them by excessive taxation while in European lands-lands ruled by Christian monarchs who not only oppressed the Jews but also used such "taxes" collected to finance Christian churches and institutions. To help his fellow Jews deal with the burden placed upon them while in the Diaspora, the author gave the method of transmutation to his people.
The word Maranatha was repeated many times on the pages, adding to the allure of the book. Maranatha, believed to be a curse or malediction equivalent to referring to the person as excrement, in its Aramaic original is actually a blessing. Maranatha is composed of two words, maran and atha, and means "The Lord has come!" or "Oh Lord come." This misuse of the word in the text suggests either a non-Jewish origin of Abraham the Jew's book or later Christian interpolation.' Despite this flaw, authentic Hebrew sentiments are stated elsewhere in the text.
However, what makes this book so special, so unique to Flamel, is that he was waiting for it to arrive. In his book Lives of the Alchernys- tical Philosophers, Arthur Edward Waite recounts a story regarding a vision Flamel had prior to acquiring the book that led to his success. An angel named Bath-Kola appeared to Flamel, holding a book similar to the one he would later purchase, engraved with an iron pen, and said, "Flamel! Behold this book of which thou understandeth nothing; to many others but thyself it would remain forever unintelligible, but one day thou shalt discern in its pages that none but thyself shall see."4 In Flamel's dream, he reached for the book, only to find that it and the angel disappeared in a radiant flash of light.
While dreams such as this appear throughout the Hermetic tradition and are familiar to students of Qabala, Rosicrucianism, and alchemy, in this case, we know the book Flamel would later find-and it exists to this day. For twenty-one years, Flamel studied the book, even painting its images on the walls of his home.
Flamel was no doubt familiar with alchemy, as books on it abound, and he possessed manuscripts on it himself, but the images in this book were a mystery to him. What he lacked was knowledge of Jewish mysticism.
Christian scholars were unable to help Flamel decipher the book's meaning, so he sought out a rabbi who could help him. Unfortunately for Flamel, the Jews had been driven out of France by brutal and systematic persecution. Massacres, imprisonment, expulsions, confiscation of property, and heavy fines were common. Since the chief rabbis were in Spain, it is there that Flamel went. He met a sage and was rewarded with success within three years after his return to Paris.
Many Jews had emigrated to Spain, settling in Granada and Malaga, where Moorish rulers were more tolerant than their Catholic neighbors to the north. In these areas, Jewish communities flourished, producing learned scholars, physicians, and Qabalists.
Traveling under the cloak of a pilgrim, with staff, shell, and hat, and carrying a few carefully copied pages of the book hidden on his person, Flamel headed toward Galacia. At the time of his journey, he would be nearly fifty years of age.
His welcome was not a warm one, as Jews made to leave their native France would hardly be inviting to a Christian poking around in their new homeland. Discouragement seemed to overtake Flamel. On his return journey through Leon, he stopped at an inn and had the good fortune to share the evening's table with a merchant, also French, who was from Boulogne. After a discussion of their reasons for traveling-the merchant on business, Flamel seeking a wise Jewthe merchant informed him of an associate of his who could help him, an old scholar and Qabalist known as Master Canches. The merchant offered to introduce Flamel to him.
Master Canches was impressed with the few pages Flamel had brought and decided despite his age to travel with him to Paris. Conveniently, he was also a convert to Catholicism. This may have been a genuine conversion or simply one of convenience, an insurance policy against further troubles. Canches's health faded over the course of the journey, and after seven days of vomiting and delirium, he died in Orleans. Flamel arranged for him to be buried in the Church of St. Croix, with accompanying masses. Flamel had learned enough from Master Canches so that upon his return home he was able to return to his work and studies with the confidence that he would be able to decipher the remaining pages.
After three more years of work, he and Perenelle were crowned with success: on Monday, January 17, 1382, at noon, according to Flamel, he succeeded in making a projection on mercury into silver. The following April 25, at 5:00 p.m., he converted mercury into gold. Only two additional accounts are known of the projection powder being used to make gold. Each time, the proceeds were used for charitable purposes. The lifestyle of Nicholas and Perenelle did not change after their alchemical success blessed them.
Perenelle assisted in the experiments, and since they had no children, they donated their wealth, endowing churches and hospitals and restoring cemeteries, as was the custom of the day.
Louis Figuier, a historian, wrote: "Husband and wife lavished succor on the poor,' founded hospitals, built or repaired cemeteries, restored the front of St. Genevieve des Ardents and endowed the institution of the Quinze-Vingts, the blind inmates of which, in memory of this fact, came every year to the church of St. Jacques la Boucherie to pray for their benefactor, a practice which continued until 1789."'
The couple's generosity aroused suspicion and attracted attention. A bookseller who had endowed so many social and religious institutions and undertaken public works to ease the suffering of the poor must have a secret indeed, and Charles VI ordered an investigation into the matter. Fortunately for Nicholas and Perenelle, the results of the investigation were favorable toward them.
Under a commission from Louis XIV, Sieur Paul Lucas (1664-1737) traveled in search of antiquities, visiting Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Africa. On his return, he, like all good travelers of the day, published a memoir of his journey, titled Voyage de sieur Paul Lucas, Par ordre du Roi daps la Crece, etc. (Amsterdam, 1712). The book was dedicated to his sponsor, Louis XIV Given Louis's temperament, it is suggested that Lucas took great risks in losing the king's support if it was thought that his accounts were in any way exaggerated for public consumption or royal gullibility.
In summary, Lucas states that while traveling in Natolia, he came across a small mosque (in the city of Broussa, Turkey) with four dervishes inside. Lucas states that his guests received him with extreme hospitality and, in the custom of the day, invited him to share their meal with them. One of the dervishes was said to be from Uzebek (modern Uzbekistan) and was extremely well educated. Lucas says, "And I believe verily that he spoke all the languages in the world."
Their conversation began in Turkish but changed to Italian and then again to French. It was apparent that that dervish spoke at least Latin, Spanish, and Italian in addition to Turkish and French. Lucas states that his host's French was distinctly Parisian.
Despite an outer appearance of about thirty years of age, the dervish confided to Lucas that he had retired to this location for study and meditation. He shared accounts of his own travels, giving the impression of being much older. In addition, he stated that he was one of seven wandering scholars who traveled the world seeking to perfect their studies and themselves. Upon parting, they promised to meet again in twenty years' time, and it was upon this meeting that Lucas had stumbled. Four of the seven friends were present, and the other three were expected to arrive soon. Many topics were covered in Lucas's conversation with the dervish, with philosophy, science, metaphysics, and esotericism dominating. The dervish explained to Lucas that a dervish was a philosopher, a person who has no bonds to the material world and yet has all power within his grasp because of his renunciation. He could live a thousand years if he so desired.
Flamel is said to have died at the age of 116 after a period of illness. However, other records state that he was 80. Perenelle went first, and Nicholas followed later that year. He left details on how he was to be buried in St. Jacques la Boucherie at the end of the nave. The tombstone was large, measuring 58 by 45 centimeters and 4 centimeters thick, and was designed to discourage grave robbers. In this task, it failed. Even the monthly masses arranged did not keep vandals away. His tomb was vandalized, and when it was opened by robbers, it was found empty.
St. Jaques la Boucherie was demolished in 1717. Flamel's headstone was later found in a grocer's shop in Rue des Arias, where its smooth marble back was used for chopping herbs and vegetables. Only when it was turned over was it discovered to be the headstone of the adept. The engravings on the stone were of a key with a sun above it and a closed book below it, and on the very top were engravings of Christ, St. Peter, and St. Paul-the symbols of his life.
With no children, the Flamel estate went to a nephew named Perrier, who had some interest in alchemy and presumably benefited from being such a close relative to the fourteenth century's greatest living alchemist. Giving access to Nicholas's papers and the prized book by Abraham the Jew, Flamel's bequest to Perrier was worth more than its weight in gold-if the process actually worked.
During the reign of Louis XIII, a descendent of Flamel, Dubois, seems to have taken to the bad habit of public demonstrations of transmutation-a practice made worse by the fact that it seems it was a supply of the powder that Dubois possessed, and not the knowledge to replenish it. When his store was used up, he found himself imprisoned in Vincennes. Richelieu had him condemned to death on account of past offenses and confiscated his property, with it the Book of Abraham the Jew, annotated in Flamel's own hand. Richelieu had a laboratory at Chateau du Rueil but seems to have had little success in deciphering the book's text or images. It was during this period that Nicholas's tomb was broken into and was said to have been found empty. The properties attached to the Flamels were ransacked at various times by those seeking the projection powder.
Apparently, copies of the book were made, or at least the images, and these would surface from time to time, with the copy in the Paris Bibliotheque Nationale (Ms Francais 14765) being the most complete.
It is not surprising that several modem schools of alchemy and alchemical research undertake the "Path of Flamel" as an operative practice in their search for the Philosopher's Stone. One of the more peculiar aspects of the Flamel Path, or even mineral alchemy in general, is the tremendous amount of energy that it generates.
The following statements were made regarding the Flamel Path during a part of the operation known as "Flying Eagles," in which mercury is distilled to increasing levels of purity and, as such, power. The operation took place in the fall of 1993.
The author states:
Indeed, the most famous alchemical author of all time, who is even cited in contemporary children's books and movies, has a very unusual name. Nicholas is derived from the Greek word meaning "conqueror of the stone," and Flamel is of course the juxtaposition of flame and El, giving us "the Conqueror Stone of the Holy Flame," or "Conqueror of the Holy Fire Stone."
The most famous copy of the manuscript of Abraham (or "a Brahmin") the Jew, presently kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, was written by a Chevalier Denis Molinier. We are at first stunned by the word Chevalier, which was not a title of nobility in the seventeenth century, when he allegedly wrote this copy from a former manuscript or the original itself. In reality, Chevalier is literally translated as knight in English, meaning "a soldier on a horse." This is very similar to Qabalist (or Cabalist) in the ancient usages.
Here we must note that by tradition, because of the Holy Inquisition and also as a means to repel the unworthy, alchemists and Qabalists of the past were very familiar with puns and plays on words, as well as borrowing from dead languages. All the educated gentry of old Europe was busy creating such anagrams, using ciphers as simple intellectual challenges.
We must look at the name of Chevalier Denis Molinier from this same state of mind, and the following work must be done in the original language. Here in French we have:
Chevalier Denis Moligner
Cavalier Sine(D) Minier
Cabale D(de) Miniere
In Greek B=V
La Cabale est la miniere de 1'Or.
Translated in English: "Cabala is the source of Gold."
Also, Molinier can be separated into Mol (soft, puttylike) and inier, which sounds like igne (igneous). In the laboratory, these are the qualities of the Philosopher's Stone: a soft, fiery substance as well as a knowledge of all Western esoteric sciences. Indeed, in the old days, one was not so much an alchemist or a Qabalist as a person pursuing alchemy, Qabala, and astrology as a triptych of the unified art and science of Hermeticism.
But let's go back to our story, the legendary Flamel and his pilgrimage to St. Jacques de Compostella, to find the meaning of the book. In those days, many people undertook this journey. A modern equivalent would be the pilgrimage to Mecca that any good Muslim is supposed to undertake during his lifetime. Some went on foot; richer ones on horseback. Coming from all over Europe, one of their gathering points was Paris, where Nicholas allegedly started his journey. Little is known of this first leg of his trip by land, except that he reaches Montjoye (Mount of joy), but much more is known of the return by sea. This is because the Dry Way (by land) is reputedly much faster than the Wet Way (by sea).
Once in Compostella (Field of the Star), Nicholas embarks on a ship, where he meets a merchant from Boulogne, a French seaport. We leave to your sagacity to decipher the Boulogne part, but we would like to point out that this man is a merchant. Why? Because the god Mercury was reputed to be the patron saint of merchants (as well as of thieves, but that's a whole different story). In confidence, the merchant introduces Flamel to a reputed wise man, Master Canches (the white, the Sulfur) who lives in Leon (anagram of Noel, or Christmas, a subtle hint at Tiphareth or the Sun, the Christ state of consciousness, which is the state an adept acquires once in possession of the Philosopher's Stone) and who travels with Nicholas back to Paris and, during the journey, deciphers for him the meaning behind the illustrations of the book. On the way to the city of Orleans (anagram of "L'or es an," or "Gold is in"), Master Canches starts vomiting profusely and dies seven days into his illness, terrified that Flamel would leave him. Indeed, the sulphur will give its soul to the mercury and after seven philosophical days is conjoined so intimately with the mercury that the whole becomes a perfect union.
The first time Nicholas Flamel does the projection is in the company of his soul mate, Perenelle (perennial), on Monday, January 17, 1382, when he transmutes half a pound of mercury into pure silver. As it turns out, a simple calculation shows that this specific date was a Friday. When we know that the days of the weeks are linked to dif ferent metals and planetary influences, we wonder what Flamel transmuted on that day. Furthermore, the second transmutation occurred on April 25 of the same year, which would have been a Friday once again. Since Friday is linked to Venus and copper, we have to take into consideration that it is mentioned that the cover of the Book of Abraham the Jew was made of finely delineated copper. Whoever heard of such a cover for a book?
As a student who has practiced for a long time at the furnace, we must add here that the book, available in English thanks to the translation made by one of our friends, is the most candid explanation of what is known as the Flamel Path, one of the ways to the Stone. Unfortunately, it still requires a good twenty years of one's life full-time, as well as a good deal of money, to reach the aim of this path-perhaps not very compatible with our modern lifestyle.
• Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel were real people who lived in the fourteenth century.
• Nicholas Flamel had a dream in which he would receive a book. The messenger took the form of an angel.
• Nicholas studied for twenty-one years before traveling to Spain to find a rabbi who could instruct him in Qabala so that he could decipher the manuscript.
• Upon receiving instruction, Flamel returned to Paris, where within three years he and Perenelle created the Philosopher's Stone and transmuted mercury in silver, and later into gold.
• Legends of the Flamels' survival abound in common and esoteric literature.
• Many people have taken an interest in Flamel, as they seek the Philosopher's Stone for personal and selfish reasons.
• Modern practitioners of the Flamel Path state that mineral alchemy produces a force field that produces chemical and psychic changes in the operator.
1. Read about fourteenth-century France and Spain. Collect images of Paris, Leon, and other major cities. Allow them to sink into you and stimulate your imagination.
2. Begin reading a book on Qabala, such as Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah or Gareth Knight's A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism. Have a special notebook for when you read, dividing it into sections for History, Theory and Philosophy, Practical Exercises, and any results of meditations you may have done, just as you have for your alchemical studies.
1. Read the story of Nicholas Flamel. Imagining that you are Flamel, go through each step, starting with the angelic dream and ending with your own transition. Use the alternate ending as well, meeting the dervish in India and continuing to live until at least the eighteenth century. Carefully note your experiences and responses to this form of alchemical pathworking.
2. Meditate on what it would be like to undertake the Flamel Path or similar mineral work. Imagine yourself before a furnace, the heat intense, and feel the ensuing psychic force field that it creates. What is this like? How does it affect you?
3. Meditate on the nature of the furnace, its heat, and the idea of fire or energy in transmutation. What is this like? Where is the furnace in you? How has studying alchemy changed your life?
4. Repeat your earlier meditations on the Philosopher's Stone. What is it like? What does it impart? Spend much time on these meditations.