ceration

Ceration is a chemical process, a common practice in alchemy. It is performed by continuously adding a liquid by imbibition to a hard, dry substance while it is heated. Typically, this treatment makes the substance softer, more like molten wax (cera in Latin).{{cite encyclopedia| title= ceration | first= Martinus| last= Rulandus| encyclopedia= Lexicon of Alchemy| year= 1612}} Pseudo-Geber's Summa Perfectionis explains that ceration is "the mollification of an hard thing, not fusible unto liquefaction", and stresses the importance of correct humidity in the process.{{cite book| first= Stanton J.| last= Linden| year= 2003| page= 93| title= The alchemy reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton| publisher= Cambridge University Press| isbn= 978-0-521-79662-0}}

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.{{cite book| first= Antoine-Joseph| last= Pernety| title= Dictionnaire mytho-hermétique, dans lequel on trouvre les allégories fabuleuses des poètes, les métaphores, les énigmes et les termes barbares des philosophes hermétiques expliqués| url= https://archive.org/details/b2876724x| language= fr| year= 1787 | page= [https://archive.org/details/b2876724x/page/70 70]}} Ceration may be synonymous with similar terms for alchemical burning processes. Incineration, for example is listed by Manly P. Hall.{{cite book| author-link= Manly P. Hall| first= Manly P. | last= Hall| year= 1928| page= 507| title= The Secret Teachings of All Ages| location= Los Angeles| publisher= Philosophical Research Society| oclc= 1358719}}