"Seek ye the Secret Fire for without it you can do nothing in our Art, even if the Matter be known." - Garstin
The Secret Fire
Ignis Secretus
the Secret Fire (Ignis Secretus), an invisible, transformative energy that alchemists believed was the key to transmutation. This fire is not physical but spiritual—a divine spark that animates all life and drives the process of inner and outer transformation. The Secret Fire is often described as the "fire of the soul," the force that purifies and elevates the alchemist's consciousness.
"The hidden aspects of the Fire are concealed in the manifest, and the manifest is produced in the hidden.” - Simon Magus
This is that fire that burns upright in the human clay and animates it, it is found in every cell of one's body and reside in its proper place at all times. It is the "All in all".
“modern science refuses to recognize this universal principle which animates substance, to whatever kingdom it belongs. Yet it manifests itself all around us, under our very eyes, either by the new properties which matter inherits from it or by the phenomena which accompany its liberation. He says that light rarified and spiritualized fire possesses the same chemical virtues and power as elementary crude fire.” - Fulcanelli
“this is the heavenly fire, whereof a spark being once kindled, caused such a change in the bodies, that the blackness is made to shine like a sparking gem, wherewith as a diadem our young king crowned.” - Philalethes
From the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster
“There is above the celestial fire an incorruptible flame, always sparkling; the spring of life, the fountain of all being, the original of all things! This Flame produceth all things, and nothing perisheth but what It consumeth. It maketh Itself known by Itself. This Fire cannot be contained in any place; It is without body and without matter, It encompasseth the heavens. And there goeth forth from it a little spark, which maketh all the fire of the sun, of the moon and of the stars. Strive not to know more of Him, for that is beyond thy capacity, how wise soever thou art. There is in God an immense profundity of flame !Nevertheless the heart should not fear to touch this adorable Fire, or to be touched by it; it will never be consumed by this so sweet Fire; whose mild and tranquil heat maketh the binding and harmony and the duration of the world. Nothing subsisteth but by this Fire, which is God Himself. No person begat Him. He is without mother. He knoweth all things and can be taught nothing. He is infallible in His designs and His Name is unspeakable.”
The Secret Fire by Steve Kalec
Seek ye the Secret Fire, for without it we can attain nothing in our work, even if the Matter be known". Once set , it will do all the work for us that is in its nature. Its nature is one of light, warmth, purification, elevating, and comforting. It is a constructive energy, creative, positive, healing, life giving and transforming. The setting of this fire is achieved through a “path of the breath and the blood”, to arrive at a concentration and purification of the Vital Life Force in us. Also through an inward way, the metaphysical force is then directed through aspiration, visualization, concentration, mystical zeal, inspiration, and love for that which is the divine in us. Mary Ann Atwood has said, "And this is the Grand Hermetic Secret, that there is a Universal Subject in nature and that subject is susceptible of nourishment in Man; and this is the greatest mystery, of all mysteries the most wonderful, that man should be able not only to find the Divine Nature, but to effect it."