11 April, 1995—Petulu, Bali—
In the Mutus Liber—the Mute Book of alchemy in which the entire secret of the Art is illustrated without a single word—the Great Work begins with a rather laborious collection of dew. A man and a woman set out squares of cloth on the grass overnight, and at dawn they wring them out over a basin—with great effort gathering night’s manna-from-heaven. All this is done under the sign of Aries—spring being the season in which the prima materia sacrifices itself in its perfect infancy.
I have accidentally stumbled upon a different recipe for the collection of dew, one which eliminates the need for cumbersome cotton cloths and copper basins and aching laundry-muscles. There is a little saucer of salt which remains on my porch table after all the other breakfast dishes have been cleared away. It remains there all afternoon, all evening, all night. Each dawn I wake to find this small saucer full of dew-drenched salt—salt saturated up to, but not past, the point of dissolution. I have leapt to the wholly poetic conclusion that not only does the salt attract (like blades of grass) the cold sweat of the stars to earth—but that there is a dew hidden in the salt to begin with, a latent dew—.
Mine is the simplest of dew-harvesting recipes, a boon and a blessing for the overworked alchemist: LEAVE SALT OUT UNDER STARS. ABANDON AND SERVE.
I hear tell you can grow little men inside bottles as well...
Posted by: Susan Sanford | December 08, 2008 at 08:59 PM
Somebody get me outta here...!
Posted by: Nemo | December 09, 2008 at 05:50 AM
Imagine that! A recipe for star-borne dew! what other little magic potions are locked away in your little black book?
Posted by: Karen | December 10, 2008 at 05:53 AM
Actually, it's a little blue book...
Posted by: Nemo | December 10, 2008 at 06:49 AM
abandon & serve. words to live by if ever they existed...
Posted by: Acey | December 14, 2008 at 11:11 AM
wow. what a concept. I kept grains of rice in my salt so that it doesn't get soggy.
i guess i should open it up to the stars with abandon and celebrate in some soggy salt of the earth!!!!
Posted by: jan in nagasaki | December 14, 2008 at 02:36 PM