Ceration is a

chemical process In a scientific sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by an outside force, and involves a chemical reaction of some ...

, a common practice in

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

. It is performed by continuously adding a

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...

imbibition Imbibition is a special type of diffusion that takes place when liquid is absorbed by solids-colloids causing an increase in volume. Water surface potential movement takes place along a concentration gradient; some dry materials absorb water. A ...

to a hard, dry substance while it is heated. Typically, this treatment makes the substance softer, more like molten

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...

(''cera'' in Latin). Pseudo-Geber's ''

Summa Perfectionis Summa and its diminutive summula (plural ''summae'' and ''summulae'', respectively) was a medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin, born during the 12th century, and popularized in 13th century Europe. In its simplest sense, they might ...

'' explains that ceration is "the

mollification In mathematics, mollifiers (also known as ''approximations to the identity'') are smooth functions with special properties, used for example in distribution theory to create sequences of smooth functions approximating nonsmooth (generalized) fun ...

of an hard thing, not fusible unto liquefaction", and stresses the importance of correct humidity in the process. Antoine-Joseph Pernety's 1787 mytho-Hermetic dictionary defines it somewhat differently as the time when matter passes from black to gray, and then to white. Continuous cooking effects this change. Ceration may be synonymous with similar terms for alchemical burning processes.

Incineration Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...

, for example is listed by

Manly P. Hall Manly Palmer Hall (18 March 1901 – 29 August 1990) was a Canadian author, lecturer, astrologer and mystic. Over his 70-year career he gave thousands of lectures and published over 150 volumes, of which the best known is ''The Secret T ...

References

{{Alchemy Alchemical processes

See also

References