Project G
Same fire,
shorter time.
A deck for the dark stretches, the fog, and the gaps between people.
The dark
1
It starts black
The dark part is the beginning of the work, not proof you failed.
Source before 1800
The dark
2
If it never goes black
Nothing that never went dark ever changed.
Source before 1800
The dark
3
Ordinary material
What you start from is close by, cheap, and easy to despise.
Source before 1800
The work
4
Separate
Sort the feeling from the story you're telling about it.
Source before 1800
The work
5
An easy fire first
Start gentle. Heat comes later, once you can take it.
Source before 1800
SHEET 1 · FRONTS · cut on the dashed line · trim 2.75 × 4.75 in
How to use it
Draw one when you are stuck, or deal the fog cards before a decision that smells urgent.What is on the backsThe words of the person who wrote it, their date, and what it means now. Cards marked Our reading are ours, not theirs.The honest partThe alchemists were mostly doing chemistry. Reading their work as a map of the inner life mostly begins in 1850. We borrow it anyway, and say so.Moreindex.html
The dark
1
The beginning of our work is the Black Raven, which, like all things that are to grow and receive life, must first putrefy.
Attributed to Edward Kelly · printed 1676
Every account of the work starts here. Nobody skipped it.
The dark
2
if it be not black, proceed no further, for it is unrecoverable
Aurifontina Chymica, London · 1680
A hard stretch you refuse to enter tends to wait for you.
The dark
3
It is familiar to all men, both young and old, is found in the country, in the village, in the town, in all things created by God; yet it is despised by all.
Gloria Mundi, dated in the text · 1526
You don't need better raw material than the life you already have.
The work
4
Seperate thou ye earth from ye fire, ye subtile from the gross sweetly wth great indoustry.
The Emerald Tablet, translated by Isaac Newton · c. 1680
Sweetly. It's sorting, not scouring.
The work
5
as the Infant in the beginning is nourished with light meats, but the bones being strengthened with stronger: so this mastery also, first it must have an easy fire
Attributed to Roger Bacon, English edition · 1597
Most people try to fix everything at once, and burn the batch.
SHEET 1 · BACKS · mirrored for long-edge duplex
The work
6
Haste ruins it
If you can't wait, don't start.
Source before 1800
The work
7
One hour
Don't let one bad hour throw away months of work.
Source before 1800
The dark
8
Don't hand it the hatchet
Keep the feeling. Don't give it your hands.
Source before 1800
The cycles
9
Same fire, shorter time
The second time through the same trouble is quicker than the first.
Source before 1800
The cycles
10
The first round is the hard one
It gets easier. It does not start easy.
Source before 1800
The cycles
11
Back through the black
Shorter isn't the same as skipped.
Source before 1800
SHEET 2 · FRONTS · cut on the dashed line · trim 2.75 × 4.75 in
The work
6
he who has no patience, let him refrain his hands from the work
Rosarium philosophorum · 1550
Urgency is the most reliable sign that someone is being worked on — including by yourself.
The work
7
it would be foolish to let one hour rob you of the fruits of all your labour.
Eirenaeus Philalethes, written · 1645
Send it tomorrow. Say it tomorrow. It keeps.
The dark
8
In my fury I tooke a Hatchet in my hand, And brake all my Worke … The Crowes head began to appeare as black as Iett
Thomas Charnock · 1557
Nine months of work, smashed in a rage at the moment it began to turn. The war was out of his hands; the hatchet was in them.
The cycles
9
The Second work is concocted as the First, in the same or a like Vessel, the same Furnace, and by the same degrees of fire, but is perfected in a shorter time.
Jean d'Espagnet · 1623
He meant a chemical process, not a life. We're borrowing it — and it holds up.
The cycles
10
In this first section of our work, nothing is to be done without hard and persevering toil
Eirenaeus Philalethes, written · 1645
Later rounds were called child's play by people who had done the first.
The cycles
11
The Crows head will be blacker, the Dragons Blood redder, the Lac virginis whiter
J. R. Glauber, English edition · 1689
Each round goes through the dark again, sometimes darker. It just takes less time.
SHEET 2 · BACKS · mirrored for long-edge duplex
The cycles
12
Count the days
Mark the day it starts and the day it lifts. That number is the thing you're shortening.
Our reading
The fog
13
Deceived by the deceived
The person pushing it was usually fooled first.
Source before 1800
The fog
14
Greed is the handle
What they hook is something you already wanted.
Source before 1800
The fog
15
Name your evidence first
Decide what would change your mind before you're in the room.
Source before 1800
The fog
16
Sleep on it
Anything sold as urgent that can wait an hour can wait a night.
Source before 1800
With others
17
Ask, don't imagine
Picturing their side doesn't work. Asking does.
Modern research
SHEET 3 · FRONTS · cut on the dashed line · trim 2.75 × 4.75 in
The cycles
12
Our reading, not a source
You can't shorten a cycle you have never measured. One mark a day is enough: in it, turning, clear.
The fog
13
Take heed that you be not deceived by them that are deceived.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa, in a letter of · 1527
Most manipulation is second-hand. That makes it no less expensive.
The fog
14
To the Covetous, an easie way without Expence: To the Hasty, Rash and Unstable, multiplicity of Distillations.
A Short Enquiry concerning the Hermetic Art, London · 1714
The adepts wrote traps for greedy readers on purpose. Ask what want of yours is being used.
The fog
15
compassing almost the whole world, met with none but impostors, false deceivers, and no philosophers … at length I found the truth
John Pontanus · 1600
He also admitted erring two hundred times. Doubt plus persistence, not cynicism.
The fog
16
The World hath been much abused by the Opinion of Making of Gold … the Meanes (hitherto propounded) … full of Errour and Imposture
Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum · 1627
Tomorrow you'll read the same offer with different eyes.
With others
17
getting another person's perspective directly, through conversation, increased accuracy but … perspective taking did not
Eyal, Steffel & Epley, 25 experiments · 2018
Then write down what they said, in their words, not your summary of it.
SHEET 3 · BACKS · mirrored for long-edge duplex
With others
18
The gap is smaller
They dislike you about half as much as you think.
Modern research
With others
19
The lamp ahead
Somebody went first with a light you couldn't see. Later that's you.
Source before 1800
The vessel
20
The vessel before the fire
If the extremes run hot fast, build the container first: sleep, ground, people, help.
Source before 1800
SHEET 4 · FRONTS · cut on the dashed line · trim 2.75 × 4.75 in
With others
18
think that the levels of prejudice … held by the outgroup party are approximately twice as strong as actually reported
Moore-Berg et al., PNAS · 2020
And when people are shown the real figure, they judge the other side less harshly.
With others
19
In all thy wandering in Darkness, the lamp of the Kerux went before thee, though it was not seen by thine eyes.
Golden Dawn, Neophyte ceremony · c. 1888
The Kerux is the one who carries the lamp. It is a job, not a rank.
The vessel
20
The aim of moral discipline is to purify the heart from the rust of passion and resentment, till, like a clear mirror, it reflects the light of God.
al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness · c. 1105
Not killing the passion. Cleaning the rust off it. If the dark is too much right now, tell someone today — in the US, call or text 988.
SHEET 4 · BACKS · mirrored for long-edge duplex