How Labless Defines Me

Teaching chemistry without a lab is a pain. Yes, I do tutor students in that subject, but most of the time, these tutorials aren't carried out in any place remotely usable as a lab. I miss my labs.

The thing is that the chemistry lab is a place of professional, personal, public and priestly functions, just as any other dedicated human space is. Professionally, it is where chemistry teachers, lab technicians or technical officers work; personally, it is redolent with familiar smells, contains the experiences that remind one of discovery and scientific achievement; publicly it is the domain where students come to learn something about the substances of this world and their interactions; hierophantically, it is where the holy mysteries of alchemy are illuminated through rites and rituals that go back to Hermes Trismegistos.

All these things were part of my identity as an Adept of the Hermetic Arts. Now, without a lab, I am reduced in power and identity; I am no longer so much an alchemist; I am less, in one way, than I was before.

And so, I must turn to cooking, where the Great Art gives way to the Great Craft, and the alembic gives way to the saucepan.