“What the Fuck is a Fluid Condenser?!”

Seriously, though, what is it?

When I first began threatening (e.g. I promised some folks an essay on the subject) to write on Fluid Condensers, I received several emails requesting more information from folks I know. My favorite email was the one-line title for this blog entry. Since I promised some of you a basic explanation prior to finishing my essay on the subject, this blog (although admittedly late) is that response.

So, what the fuck is a Fluid Condenser, anyway? The Fluid Condenser is a body of water and other materia which the magician prepares at an appropriate time to hold or maintain “Vital Forces” or to serve as an anchor for a spirit.

The technique, which is based on the principles of “Natural Magick,” appears to have been developed by Paschal Beverly Randolph during the middle of the 19^th century. I am not sure when precisely he developed the method, but I think it is very likely around the time he had an Alchemy lab in New York City which later burnt down. It first appears in his Mageia Sexualis (Sexual Magic; P. 79). He explains:

“To operate with these forces, according to the laws which regulate them, it is necessary, first of all, to concentrate them in a point or on a given surface. One can, then, guide and channel them at will. These operations, which are very important and which offer the possibility of many varied realizations can be made in four different fashions:

1. The operator can make use of his own energy proper.
2. He can act with the outer forces by means of induction and of the correspondences.
3. He can bind the outer force to an individual object which has been chosen for this.
4. He in bind these forces to an object that, in general, is of the material of his choice.

This last procedure has been known for thousands of years as talismanic magic...”

- Randolph, Sexual Magic (P. 80).

Thus, the Fluid Condenser finds its basis in Talismanic Magic, and functions as a type of storage vehicle or fluid object which is manipulated by the given magician. While I state that it appears that Randolph himself produced the first series of Fluid Condensers, it is very, very likely that his study of the works of Franz Anton Mesmer and alchemy both in turn helped combine into the method used today and continuing to be put to use by the students of Franz Bardon. In fact, Bardon offers his own Fluid Condenser variants in Initiation to Hermetics, which will be discussed more in depth in my essay on the subject for the When Kingdoms Come anthology.

But Where Can We Find the Guiding Principle?

Despite being a fairly recent development, the guiding principle of the Fluid Condenser can be found (along with a great many other things, only some of which I think I understand) in John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica, which is a treatise on symbolic language and Alchemy. I want to take a moment to assert that creating a Fluid Condenser is not the same as producing a form of Spagyric medicine. You might go so far as to call it “the cheater's method”!

However, in his Tenth Theorem, Dee writes the singular line which permits the creation of the Fluid Condenser. (Note: it's the part that is in bold-text.):

“The following figure of the zodiacal sign Aries (see the link for the symbol of Aries, which you ought to already know...), in use amongst the astronomers, is the same for all the world (a sort of erection both cutting and pointed), and it is understood that it indicates the origin of the fiery triplicity in that part of the sky.

Therefore, we have added the astronomical sign Aries to signify that in the practice of this Monad the use of fire is required.

We finish the brief hieroglyphic consideration of our Monad, which we would sum up in one only hieroglyphic context:

The Sun and the Moon of this Monad desire that the Elements in which the tenth proportion will flower, shall be separated, and this is done by the application of Fire.”

The biggest difference between the creation of Bardon's Condensers and Randolph's is that Randolph's require permeating the plant matter in a solution of alcohol and sealing them up – a process which appears to be based on practical Alchemy. Bardon (Initiation into Hermetics, P. 244 - 252), on the other hand, has his liquid Fluid Condensers (he also has Solid and Gaseus Fluid Condensers in that marvelous book; Randolph has solid condensers as well) subjected his Condensers directly to flame as well as including alcohol, which is very helpful for the preparation. This subjection of the material and fluid components of his Condensers follows along the lines of the Dee quote above, allowing the extraneous elements of the material to be separated (by the process of boiling and evaporation) and then “filled” with the appropriate element, planetary essence, etc. I do not consider either of these methods of significant difference as I consider alcohol to be the “Fire of Water” in a sense. I do recommend you take a look at both versions before creating your own, but if you can't be bothered with doing that, you can wait for my essay. Heh!

There is one additional note about these differences to make before I stop this discourse and say everything before the time is right: Bardon's variants require less toxic, 'magical', and dangerous plants to create! Two of Randolph's Condensers require extract of Mandrake and one requires extract of Atropa Belladonna! Also, don't bother buying anyone else's condensers. I am well aware some “Adepts” occasionally sell them, complete with their own blood and semen (a method that Bardon explicitly states should be kept for one's own ends), but it will do you far more good to make your own.

Incidentally, I do not recall Bardon or Randolph stating this, but I have found it very useful to prepare my Condensers during appropriate planetary hours for elemental or planetary based “Fluid Talismans”!

Be seeing you,

Jack.

P.S. If none of this makes sense, please feel free to bother me privately or here. I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner.