Where the symbols of the Craft and the tools of the alchemical workbench share a vocabulary — read from the published record, mortar in hand.
Kyle Bamboo · August 13, 2026
One image. Three traditions. In medieval Christian bestiaries, the pelican pierces her own breast to feed her starving young with her blood—a legend so potent that it became the emblem of Christ’s sacrifice, though real ornithology offers no support for it. The image lodged itself so deeply in Western symbol-work that alchemists named a glass … Read more
Kyle Bamboo · August 6, 2026
I am not a Freemason. I say this plainly at the start because what I’m about to describe comes from the published record—Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, grand lodge ceremonial guides printed for public purchase, and two centuries of historical archive. I read these texts as a herbalist and plant alchemist reads any craft tradition: … Read more
Kyle Bamboo · August 6, 2026
Freemasonry’s best-known plant emblem, as published in every public Masonic reference since the 19th century, is the sprig of acacia — an emblem of immortality and remembrance. I don’t handle emblems for a living; I handle plants. So this essay reads the acacia the way I read any plant that comes across my bench: botany … Read more
Kyle Bamboo · July 27, 2026
On 16 October 1646, in Warrington, Lancashire, Elias Ashmole wrote in his diary that he was made a Free Mason — one of the earliest surviving records of a speculative, non-stonemason initiation in England. The same man spent those years collecting alchemical manuscripts, and six years later published the most important anthology of English alchemy … Read more
Kyle Bamboo · July 27, 2026
I am not a Freemason. I want to say that plainly at the start, because what follows is a reading from outside the lodge—a spagyrist and plant alchemist examining the published record of Masonic practice the way I might study a historical text on mineral work or distillation. I read Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, … Read more
