Introduction

My goal has been to record the unique way each person expresses the special relationship they have with their altar. I’ve networked through spiritual communities around the world to find individuals who are willing to be photographed. Subjects have also contacted me, asking to be included in the project. Early on I photographed a photographer who used ceremonial magic as part of his spiritual practice. He suggested I reach out to a man named George Kingswood. “He’s an Alchemist and I’m pretty sure he has an altar.” I was intrigued. “I think he’d be willing to let you take pictures because like the two of us, he’s also a photographer.” This person sounded exactly like someone I was looking for!

 

I Googled the name to find contact information but the only search result was a picture of a tombstone inscribed: “George Kingswood, 1825-1851”. The internet, my primary resource for information, came up empty. By going back to the source of the lead I got a P.O. box address and mailed a letter that day. After several rounds of letters, I was invited to meet this “alchemyst”*, philosopher, and self-proclaimed photographer, Mr. George Kingswood, who I will now refer to as GK.
*Spelling provided by George Kingswood.

 

Throughout our correspondence, it became clear that he was not what I imagined. My mental picture of an “alchemist” was a bit outdated. I had pictured an enigmatic character speaking in riddles, similar to Mary Anne Atwood’s description of an individual “brooding over his crucibles and alembics that are to place within his reach the philosophers’ stone, the transmutation of metals, the alkahest, and the elixir of life" (Atwood, 11). Yet, Evelyn Underhill wrote, “Of all the symbolic systems in which this truth has been enshrined none is so complete, so picturesque, and now so little understood as that of the ‘Hermetic Philosophers’ or Spiritual Alchemists” (Underhill, 141). Underhill, an author on mysticism, penned those words in 1911 and her observation painted an enduring picture in my imagination, well over a century later.
 

GK responded to my naivete, stressing that he was not the “puffer” or “sooty empiric” I had envisioned. He hoped I was not imagining him “toiling in his dark, smokey laboratory, surrounded by a pack of oath-bound demonic servants, all driven by a common lust to turn lead into gold.” He ended the paragraph with “Rubbish!” GK is a descendent of fourth-generations of alchemists who were also photographers. He is also a direct beneficiary of those ancient practitioners of the true hermetic art. Some of which (GK confirmed) were only concerned with the projection of gold. 

 

I was surprised to learn that contemporary alchemists aren't as rare as I thought. In fact there are currently a number of present-day alchemical organizations, like the International Alchemy Guild, the Temple of Mercury: A College for the Hermetic Arts, the Fraternity of Hidden Light, and others. One such twentieth-century practitioner of the art was Frater Albertus (1911-1984). He argued, “Many people think of alchemists as strange, mysterious individuals, half crazy, if not completely insane, who belong more properly to the Dark Ages. To mention that true alchemists are living and working today sounds, to most people, like a fable from 1001 Nights. But the remarkable fact remains that even to this day, unknown to the world at large, alchemists continue to practice their art and science, faithful to a centuries-old tradition. More often than not, those apparent miracles that happen here and there are the results of the deeds of these unselfish men and women” (Albertus, 104). That said, GK adds that authentic alchemists have always been able to exceed the limits of space, time, physicality, and the limited capacity for perception of the ordinary person. “And” he pointed out, “I regularly use those abilities to help others.”

*Albertus, Frater. The Alchemist’s Handbook, Samuel Wiser, Inc., New York, 1978, p. 104.

 

GK turned out to be a modern-day alchemist who, from the beginning, had set his sights higher than the avaricious desires of some predecessors, those self-interested relics who longed for riches and fame. Instead, he is on a mystically oriented path that he refers to as the “Opus Magna Lucis et Umbrae” (The Great Work of Light and Shadow) or simply, the Great Work. A unique aspect of GK’s approach to the Great Work is that it is a photocentric subcategory of Western Mysticism. He pairs a metaphysical approach with photography as a sacerdotal art. In doing so, photography becomes the main vehicle for his life’s alchemical pursuits. In this context, his approach to the art could be defined as what authors Philippe Gross and S. I. Shapiro call, “the path of conscious camerawork” (Gross et al., 141). GK faithfully follows the teachings of his ancestor, Abraham, who recognized in the late 19th century, that “Alchemy is an art form above all other arts, a noble craft that calls on the highest degree of creativity and like photography, is an art of fire.” He also believed what most others overlooked, that “light”, in the words of scholar of mysticism, Henry Corbin, “is the agent of Revelation” (Corbin, 191). 

 

The main reason I contacted GK was to ask if I could photograph him with his altar. From the very beginning he seemed interested, but wanted to learn more about the project. As we sent letters with questions, our rewarding conversation carried on for more than a few months. I realized that my creative goal had been reformed into GK’s larger purpose, which was to have me make five photos of him as illustrations for a manuscript idea about the theories and practices of his family’s system of western transformational alchemy (Spirituele alchemie) and its interdependence with photography. Furthermore, he asked me to write the book. GK’s ultimate purpose was to bring his beliefs and practices out into the open, beyond the sanctuary of his ancestral home. His hope was that there would be interested readers who might feel a sense of recognition with this, “particular philosophical vantage point of the Hermetic arts.” He also said that there needed to be a contemporary book of authenticity as a counterpoint to what the honorable alchemist, Éliphas Lévi called, “catch-penny mystifications and impostures of dishonest publishers” (Lévi, 42).

 

I was surprised that GK asked me to author the book. I believe he did so because of my knowledge and experience with photography, while concurrently having a simplistic understanding of alchemy. Instead of finding a writer who was steeped in alchemical understanding, he thought it would be better to have someone with an uninitiated, objective viewpoint. Most of what I knew about alchemy was its status as an ancient pseudoscience that was relentless in finding a way to transmute lead into gold. GK thought this state of ignorance was the perfect place from which to start my education into the Western Mystical Tradition.

 

GK had a timeline in mind. He wanted to finish our conversations and photography sessions by the end of 2022. He felt that because our time together would be limited, and the amount of information was so vast, that he urged me to “listen carefully, and from the inquiring light within.” I should ask questions to clarify my understanding (especially when feeling mystified). That I should learn as much as I could. It was easy to comply because the more stories I heard, the more I wanted to know about his extraordinary ideas, his fascinating work with alchemy, and how his forebearers discovered a spiritual dimension to photography. 

 

At the onset of this project, I needed to gain a better understanding of alchemy, particularly the arcane tradition of spiritual alchemy, which historian and scholar Mike Zuber defines as, “the practical pursuit of inward but physically real transmutation” (Zuber, 38). From an academic perspective, I started a parallel line of research in which I began studying alchemy’s ancient history, while working my way up to its significance in our 21st century world. By becoming familiar with the theory and practice of the alchemical arts and the esoteric process of the Great Work, I hoped to be able to ask relevant questions during our interviews. I knew that if I wasn’t able to understand the topics for myself, I would never be able to write about the subject with clarity. Furthermore, I would have to know enough information to put GK’s accounts into context. I would need to help readers by defining unfamiliar terms and citing sources for some of his arcane references. 

 

GK talked about being, “thrice born”. Once as a human, once as an Initiate of the Hermetic-Gnostic Mysteries, and lastly, the dissolution and reemergence into a state of gnosis, or more specifically, photognosis, meaning, light’s divine wisdom. Between the first and second birth there is a series of transformations. During the third birth there was transmutation in which he experienced a total psychological and spiritual reawakening. He said that in alchemy there is a saying, Durare mori et non perire, which means, Endure death and do not perish. This refers to the alchemical process of, “solve et coagula”, defined as, dissolution and reformation. Through the process, one dissolves their self (a kind of death) and re-forms (coagulates) into a new and higher form of being…a “third birth”. GK said, “It was perfectly described when Albertus Magnus said alchemy was, ‘nothing else but to dissolve and recongeal the spirit, to make the fixed volatile and the volatile fixed, until the total nature is perfected by the reiteration, both in its Solary and Lunar form’”(Atwood, 103). GK’s commanding appearance, his intelligence, and authoritative delivery helped emphasize the impact of what he intended to convey about his personal experience with life, death, and reemergence into a new form of being. I was convinced.

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