swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

prima materia
Jodi Bosin

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prima materia

“They have compared the “prima materia” to everything, to male and female, to the
hermaphroditic monster, to heaven and earth, to body and spirit, chaos, microcosm, and the
confused mass; it contains in itself all colors and potentially all metals; there is nothing more
wonderful in the world, for it begets itself, conceives itself, and gives birth to itself.”
– Paul Kugler, The Alchemy of Discourse: Image, Sound and Psyche

i always feel rushed

i want to do everything and
right now

i feel the tightness of time

i feel it go by like
an urgency

as it gives life, so too it
squeezes from me

it’s not enough to just get through the day
i have to make something of it

but i don’t know what that looks like
i need to figure it out and fast

but no no no not this again

this is an old pattern, a bad one
this is a trap

this is my own tail in my own mouth
this is a path
paved a hundred thousand years ago¹

you may know me by my many names

including but not limited to²:
– microcosmos
– the philosophical stone
– the eagle stone
– water of life
– venom
– poison
– chamber
– spirit
– medicine
– heaven
– clouds
– nebula or fog
– dew
– shade
– moon
– stella signata and lucifer
– permanent water
– fiery and burning water
– salt of nitre and saltpetre
– lye
– bride, spouse, mother, eve
– pure and uncontaminated virgin
– milk of virgin, or the fig
– boiling milk
– honey
– a spiritual blood
– bath
– a syrup
– vinegar
– lead
– tin
– sulphur of nature
– spittle of the moon
– ore
– the serpent
– the dragon
– marble, crystal, glass
– scottish gem
– urine
– magnesia
– magnet
– white ethesia
– white moisture
– white smoke
– dung
– metallic entity
– mercury
– the soul and heaven of the elements
– the matter of all forms
– tartar of the philosophers
– dissolved refuse
– the rainbow
– indian gold
– heart of the sun
– venus
– healer
– angel of violet light

(tag urself i’m dissolved refuse)

you may know me as chaos

the formless disorder of the universe
the soul that makes itself

if you’d like a taste you can purchase the prima materia truffle collection³
for $95 – “a transformative chocolate experience”!

at primamateria.com you’ll find a “European investment company
that builds, grows and owns companies”⁴ but don’t worry
they are “driving real progress in areas that matter most”!

don’t worry we all slay ourselves
the key is to integrate the shadow⁵
swallow your opposite

it’s very easy you just need to
learn a couple steps that can’t be taught
and then be infinite

check it out
i’m actually doing it right now

¹ the first known depiction of the ouroboros was in The Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld, an Egyptian funerary text

² from Martin Ruland’s 1612 alchemical dictionary Lexicon Alchemiae Sive Dictionarium Alchemistarum

³ https://www.vosgeschocolate.com/products/prima-materia-truffle-collection

⁴ https://primamateria.com/faq

⁵ Carl Jung: “Ouroboros slays himself and brings himself to life… He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which… unquestionably stems from man’s unconscious.”

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Jodi Bosin is a writer and social worker from the incomparable city of Philadelphia. She has poetry published in Always Crashing, Metatron Press, and Peach Mag. Find her on the front porch and on Instagram @jodi_bosin.