I wrote a book titled Awakened Ash and Alchemy. Coming up with that title was more of a process that led to questions, so here are the answers.

Ash and Alchemy has meaning.

True story.

Ash and Alchemy aren’t just two words stitched together because they sound good. It’s a description for a process where you have to reduce something to ash before you can alchemize it into something new. It’s basically the whole book. So it turns out…

 

What Does Alchemy Actually Mean?

Not turning lead into gold. That’s the myth everyone knows, including me! I bet you were thinking of turning lead into gold.

Close.

Real alchemy starts with destruction. You reduce something into nothing before it can become something else. Heavy, huh?

This can mean things like your personal beliefs get roasted. Your certainty on something is toast! Or how the person you thought you were now makes you wonder who you are today? That’s the part that is like hitting rock bottom first. Ash comes first. Alchemy is what comes next.

 

Ash First. Alchemy After.

Alchemists call the first stage: nigredo, the blackening. It’s where everything burns down before it can be rebuilt into something better.

Then comes the next part the alchemists call rubedo, the reddening, the finished work. Think of melting metal down to forge a sword.

Nigredo to rubedo is destruction to transformation.

It’s not a metaphor I picked at random for this gothic fantasy romance, and like I said before,  it’s the actual shape of the story. A woman’s entire belief system gets reduced to ash before anything new can be built in its place. But it’s more than that. *Winks!

 

The Three Primes and Salt

Not talking about the Primes in Transformers, but the alchemists who worked with three prime elements: salt, sulfur, and mercury.

Salt represented the body. Sulfur was the soul. Mercury was the spirit — the thing that connects the other two primes.

You can see where I’m going with this. Right?

Salt is something the heroine in Awakened Ash and Alchemy uses… Well, you’ll have to read it and find out how. And it’s not just to add to the pasta water to boil on the stove either.

 

Alchemists You Didn’t Know Were Alchemists

If you’re like me, I’d pictured alchemists in some dark forge with a fire blazing, smelling of sulfur, where this bearded wizard works with measuring out the primes. Oh, the visuals.

But alchemists show up more than we realise:

  • Nicolas Flamel, from the Harry Potter books, created the Philosopher’s Stone.
  • Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and made a deal that cost more than it looked like — classic alchemy, dressed as a fairy tale.
  • Walter White, in Breaking Bad, is technically an alchemist: turning base chemistry into a new kind of gold, going from hero to villain, one cook-up at a time.
  • John Dee was Queen Elizabeth I’s court alchemist and occultist in the real world. And he shows up as a character in A Discovery of Witches, Season 2.
  • Isaac Newton spent more time on alchemy than he ever did on physics.

 

Where Alchemy Hides Inside Awakened Ash and Alchemy

Once you know what to look for, it’s everywhere.

Starting with the first page, in the alley Angela gets cornered — it’s nigredo. Where that one singular incident turns her entire belief system into ash, in more ways than one.

 

Quick Questions to help readers:

What does the title Awakened Ash and Alchemy mean?

It’s describing a single process, not two separate things — ash (the destruction) comes before alchemy (then the transformation) can happen. It’s the book’s central metaphor and is part of the story, too.

Is alchemy real magic in the Paradox Accords?

Alchemy in this post refers to the historical practices and symbolism, which the book’s title draws upon. The magic system inside Paradox itself runs on different rules, but then there is an even more ancient magic at play too…

What are the three alchemical primes?

Salt, sulfur, and mercury, which traditionally represent the body, the soul, and the spirit. All three show up as a thread throughout this story that is split into two books.

What is nigredo in alchemy?

A great name for an opera, which is what I first thought. Ha. But, nigredo is the first stage of the alchemical process — the “blackening,” where something is broken down completely before it can be transformed into something new. And we have a villain who does that very well as the original alchemist within the Paradox Accords Duology.

Oh, and the title is actually discovered by a historian in the story.

Find out how in book one: Awakened Ash and Alchemy

 

Awakened Ash and Alchemy is a richly atmospheric gothic fantasy romance that flips the fated mates trope and makes it the enemy, fuelling a forbidden love powerful enough to ruin the hidden realm of Paradox.

 

Available at:

Ebooks: AMAZON AU  |  AMAZON US  | AMAZON UK