Can gold be refined past 24 carats physically? I remember reading (sorry no sauce) that gold refined into its purest form (spiritual) is translucent. That made me think of of the asgard bridge in Thors/Norse mythology.
Something I am pondering in this golden moment we are all sharing in.
Also the alchemic transmutation of lead to gold. A less commonly known written alchemical text is the Golden Tractate by Hermes Trismegistus ⚚
https://gnosticteachings.org/scriptures/alchemy/222-golden-tractate.html
The beginning of the Golden Tractate.
Section I
Even thus saith Hermes: Through long years I have not ceased to experiment, neither have I have spared any labour of mind And this science and art I have obtained by the sole inspiration of the living God, who judged fit to open them to me His servant, who has given to rational creatures the power of thinking and judging aright, forsaking none, or giving to any occasion to despair. For myself, I had never discovered this matter to anyone had it not been from fear of the day of judgment, and the perdition of my soul if I concealed it. It is a debt which I am desirous to discharge to the Faithful, as the Father of the faithful did liberally bestow it upon me.
Understand ye, then, O Sons of Wisdom, that the knowledge of the four elements of the ancient philosophers was not corporally [physically] or imprudently sought after, which are through patience to be discovered, according to their causes and their occult [secret] operation. But, their operation is occult [secret], since nothing is done except the [sexual] matter be decompounded [transformed], and because it is not perfected unless the colours [that define its state of purity] be thoroughly passed and accomplished. Know then, that the division that was made upon the [sexual] water by the ancient philosophers separates it into four substances; one into two, and three into one; the third part of which is colour, as it were-a coagulated moisture; but the second and third waters are the Weights of the Wise.
Take of the humidity, or moisture, an ounce and a half, and or the Southern redness, which is the soul of gold, a fourth part, that is to say, half-an-ounce of the citrine Seyre, in like manner, half-an-ounce of the Auripigment, half-an-ounce, which are eight; that is three ounces. And know ye that the vine of the wise is drawn forth in three, but the wine thereof is not perfected, until at length thirty be accomplished.
Understand the operation, therefore. Decoction lessens the matter, but the tincture augments it; because Luna in fifteen days is diminished; and in the third she is augmented. This is the beginning and the end. Behold, I have declared that which was hidden, since the work is both within thee and about thee - that which was within is taken out and fixed, and thou canst have it either in earth or sea.
Keep, therefore, thy Argent vive [Mercury], which is prepared in the innermost chamber in which it is coagulated [your sexual glands]; for that is the Mercury which is separated from the residual earth [the body].