THE ALCHEMIST
   (song)

By Nema

(Chorus)

This is the formula from the beginning
to satisfy all of your needs:
"Torture the Eagle until she weeps,
and the Lion until he bleeds."

In the dark of my dwelling the athanor glows,
with fleece I have captured the dew,
in the heap in my courtyard Homunculus grows,
and the sacred Elixir I brew.

I’ve studied the wisdom of Hermes Thrice-Great,
I have Mercury, sulphur and salt.
In the passion of work all my candles burn late,
and I’ve spent my three nights in the Vault.

The Philosophers’ Stone feels no closer to me
than it did when I first started out,
but my quest will continue until I am free--
Of this one thing I harbor no doubt.

The Mysteries wait for the patient of mind
and the Alchemist’s work’s never done,
but a formula lives that’s for all humankind:
it’s the Numinous two equals none.

It’s the Mystery of Lovers, the Mystery of Art,
that two joined as one should be naught.
The truth of experience lives in the heart,
and not in the knowledge we’re taught.

Experimentation’s the soul of this Quest,
and work is its heart and its hand.
What transforms the Alchemist transforms the rest--
and the Cosmos is at our command.

(Intoned)

Visit the interior of the Earth and there make straight
the hidden stone.