introduction to vitriol, by Lapo Guzzini

vitriol [vi-tree-uh l] noun 1. Chemistry. any of certain metallic sulfates of glassy appearance, as copper sulfate or blue vitriol, iron sulfate or green vitriol, zinc sulfate or white vitriol, etc. 2.

oil of vitriol; sulfuric acid.

3.

something highly caustic or severe in effect, as criticism.

“I will take it all: tongs, molten lead, prongs, garrotes, all that burns, all that tears, I want to truly suffer. Better one hundred bites, better the whip, vitriol, than this suffering in the head, this ghost of suffering which grazes and caresses and never hurts enough.” Jean-Paul Sartre

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he magazine you are holding in your hands is the result of an intersection of forces, visions and communities. Quiet Lightning, Name Drop Swamp Records and The Emerald Tablet — respectively a literary nonprofit organization which began as a reading series, a record label which serves as vehicle for Andrew Paul Nelson’s musical taste and prowess, and an art gallery and cultural center devoted to bringing back the literary and philosophical salon — have joined up to create, and hereby present, a cross-section of the moment in time that the San Francisco Bay Area creative scene is going through. I’ve been running The Emerald Tablet since 2011 in partnership with artist and entrepreneur Della Heywood, and more recently with the invaluable support of Quiet Lightning’s founder Evan Karp. Located in North Beach, the space hosts a rich programming of artistic and cultural events as well as rotating art exhibits. In addition to hosting outside bookings and roving recurring events like Quiet Lightning’s monthly readings, we produce some things entirely in house. In particular, we have designed several series: Under the Influence, in which five performers present work by a muse of theirs, paired with their own original material. Call and Response, in which a presenter expounds on areas of their own expertise, prompting an improvised response by an ensemble of creative musicians. And most recently, a series of events known as Chemical Wedding, which features bands booked by Name Drop Swamp and presented alongside authors invited by Quiet Lightning. That last series has served as catalyst for this new publication, vitriol. It occurred to us that the peculiar curatorial activities which bring us to work together are creating a space where disparate communities, ideas and art forms can intersect

and combine, forming a single multifaceted experience which anyone so inclined can access. Chemical Wedding is the crucible for a three-way partnership between The Emerald Tablet, Quiet Lightning and Name Drop Swamp. We wanted a way to acknowledge, record, and build upon this intersection. On a beautiful morning in Muir Beach, California, sitting in the home of a Zen master, Evan Karp and I came to the realization that letting the live events provide content for a periodical was the natural next step. Chemical Wedding takes its name from a very unusual book, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, published in Strasburg in 1616 by anonymous members of the order known as the Fraternity of the Rose Cross, or Rosicrucians. The story’s protagonist, Christian Rosenkreutz, is invited to go to a royal palace in order to attend the “Chymical Wedding” of the king and the queen. Throughout the journey, esoteric ideas related to the alchemical tradition are explored via codes, riddles and allegories, and the whole tale is itself an allegory for the process of spiritual transformation pursued by the alchemists. The union

of the “king” and “queen” hints at the joining of opposite polarities into a single reborn and perfected being. In turn, The Emerald Tablet takes its name from a brief and obscure esoteric text believed to have been written sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries, and held in high regard by alchemists ever since. You can read a rather elegant English translation by Isaac Newton, as well as other renderings, by searching for “Emerald Tablet” on Wikipedia. To keep a long story short and to our point, the reason we borrowed this manuscript’s name for our venue is found in its second and third lines: That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing And as all things have been & arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation. This idea, often simplified into the adage “as above, so below” is a standard expression of belief in the ultimate unity of the opposites. We referenced it because from the beginning, Della

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and I had wanted to create a space where things that appear separate or disconnected can find and expose their points of union: from dichotomies like science/art, intellectual/emotional, etc. to the various art forms and creative avenues, to disparate communities that don’t traditionally communicate with each other, to other more subtle links, such as those between the intangible realm of ideas and the very tangible human existence we share in the here and now. As above, so below. And vitriol? One of the riddles encountered by Christian Rosenkreutz while on his way to the Wedding concerns the acronym V.I.T.R.I.O.L., which stands for the motto Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem, meaning: “Visit the Interior of the Earth; by Rectification (i.e. Purification) You Will Find the Hidden Stone.” The hidden stone is the philosopher’s, the legendary substance that can turn common metals into gold. And rectification refers to a process by which all vile elements are stripped away, leaving only the most noble of metals. Vitriol, to the alchemists,

was the substance by which this purification was achieved: an acid that would corrode all metals except for gold, on which it had no effect.

A goal that transcends and outweighs all the things you were supposed to, but somehow knew better than pursue.

While alchemy has been an objective endeavor, now deprecated, that helped form the basis for modern chemistry, the allegorical reading of these ideas is what’s timelessly inspiring about it. Towards the end of the Rosicrucians’ remarkable 1616 novel, just as Christian is closing in on the secret chamber in the palace in which the Wedding is to occur, he happens upon another room, in which alchemists are literally transforming base metals into solid gold. Despite the lure of this display of earthly power, our hero knows not to stop there, because a far greater prize awaits a few steps away. Philosophical gold, representing the evolution of the human self, the crowning of our attempts to come into being, the finding of the only matter that truly matters: what does not cheapen or rust over time, what remains after everything else has been destroyed by the ruthless acids of temporal life, the vitriol of our days.

We don’t mean these analogies to provoke religious reflections, some urge to save your immortal soul, or the decision to join a spiritual group. By now you catch our drift. There is an alchemy in coming together as the individuals and ensembles featured in these pages do, at the happenings you will read about. There is something sublime, an essence rare, to be found by those who won’t stop at reaching for the coin of the realm. There is a royal palace that we can travel to, and as the alchemical scholar Adam McLean has written, all of us are eternally invited to the Wedding. If you have already accepted the invitation, we hope that this magazine, like its symbolic namesake, will be a tool to take you some of the way there. For the rest, may it be an echo of the invitation, and a telling of travel tales from others who have set out on the journey. Onwards!

Lapo Guzzini is executive director of events and activities for The Emerald Tablet. In the years from 1996 through 2001, while residing in Rome, Italy, Lapo created video projections and installations in collaboration with musical artists, developing conceptual and textual material as well as visual experiences for audiences across Italy, Spain and France. Since moving to California from Italy in 2001, Lapo has been studying and producing art in a variety of media, passing through painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics to his current focus on the written word. From 2007 through 2009, Lapo attended UC Berkeley and studied mathematics and logic with leading experts in the field. He is a strong believer in the fundamental unity of the human pursuits of reasoning and creativity. By curating the scene that gravitates around The Emerald Tablet, he seeks to create a welcoming and vibrant community space for creators, a melting pot for all the multifaceted expressions of the human spirit to intersect and find points of synergy. Contact him at [email protected]

JUN E - O CTOBER 2014