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).^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[3] Ceration may be synonymous with similar terms for alchemical burning processes. Incineration, for example is listed by Manly P. Hall.^[4]

• Calcination
• Incineration