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Alchemy
An ancient pseudoscience chiefly
concerned with the transmutation of base metals into gold and silver, with the
discovery of a single effective cure for all diseases, with a way to extend life
indefinitely, and with the manufacture of artificial life.
Alchemy can be
described as a method of investigating nature in a spiritually creative way,
the skill that transforms the impure into the pure. Symbolically,
alchemy is a mystical art for human spiritual transformation into a higher
form of being.
No doubt the word alchemy is an Arabic one, but where it came from, no one
knows exactly. A popular explanation is that it originally meant "the art of
the land of Khem," Khem being the name the Arabs gave to Egypt, since it was
from there that they acquired their knowledge of this strange science.
Another possibility is that it could be derived from the combination of the
Arabic words al (the) and kimya (chemistry). E. A. Wallis
Budge, in his
Egyptian Magic,
states that it is possible that it may be derivative from the Egyptian word
khemeia, that is to say "the preparation of the black ore," or "powder,"
which was regarded as the active principle in the transmutation of metals.
To this name the Arabs attached the article al, thus al-khemeia,
or alchemy.
Whatever the origin of the word, since the dawn of human consciousness, long
before alchemy's rising, the seductive gleaming of gold captured man's
imagination. Over 40,000 years
ago,
Paleolithic cave dwellers
gathered bits of the metal, hoarding them in their caverns, and the ancient
Incas thought of it as "the sweat of the sun," used to make everything, from
ceremonial tiaras to fishhooks. To Hindu sages it was "the mineral light," a
physical token of divine intelligence.
Pindar, the
Greek poet, called it "the child of
Zeus."
Gold's possession was indicative of wealth and
power and, known as the perfect metal, it soon acquired symbolic meaning,
standing for excellence, wisdom, light and flawlessness, and always carrying an
aura of mystical power. Merchants traded
for it, princes went to war for it, and increasingly, through the ages,
kings and commoners alike solicited the aid of supernatural intervention to
obtain it, motivated by the ancient belief that magical powers were present
in fluxes and alloys.
The obvious goal of alchemy was the
production of gold from base metal, but the hidden part of the quest is
mainly forgotten. The alchemist was also searching for a way to reach
spiritual perfection, and believed that purifying base metals into the
perfect Sun metal, gold, was the outward symbol of the transmutation of his
soul from an ordinary state to a condition of union with God.
Alchemy surfaced in China and in Egypt during
the early centuries of this era, but its precise origins and antiquity are
exceptionally difficult to ascertain. As an art, it is undoubtedly very
ancient; its starting point is likely to have been the primitive process to
which craftsmen learned, in the second millennium before
Christ, to smelt iron and other metals, and
hoped to find a way of producing rarer substances like silver and gold.
According to ancient tradition, the originator of alchemy was Hermes
Trismegistus, a legendary figure said to have lived some 2,500 years BC, and
who takes the role of teacher in a series of dialogues of uncertain and
mysterious origin. Another legend connects alchemy with Adam and Eve at the
time they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The story goes that an
angel at the gate took pity of the two as they were leaving, and instructed
them in the secrets of astrology and alchemy. As
they descended from the spiritual realm to the material world. these secrets
would also change, eventually becoming astronomy and chemistry, but Adam and
Eve would be able to remember the spiritual source of these material
sciences, astrology and alchemy. By virtue of this remembering, and diligent
practice, they would eventually find their way back to the Garden.
On yet another legend, the mummy of Hermes Trismegistus was found in an
obscure chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza, holding an emerald tablet in
its hands. The words written on the tablet revealed the alchemical belief
that "It is true and without falsehood and most real: that which is above is
like that which is below, to perpetuate the miracles of one thing. And as
all things have been derived from one, by the thought of one, so all things
are born from this thing, by adoption." Within the secrets inscribed on the
tablet was the "most powerful of all powers," the process by which the world
was created and by which all "subtle things" might penetrate "every solid
thing," and by which base material might be transformed into precious metals
and gems.
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A startled alchemist
recoils from a sudden burst of smoke in this 17th
century Dutch painting (from the Fisher Collection, Fisher
Scientific, Pittsburg). Fire and explosion were
ever-present perils of the laboratory because alchemists
frequently dealt with chemicals whose properties were
not yet fully understood. |
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In the East, in China and India, alchemy
probably started
with medicine and meditation. It was associated with
Taoist philosophy and
professed to transmute base metals into gold by use of a 'medicine'.
The gold so produced was thought to have the ability to cure diseases and to
prolong life. There are references to alchemical processes in the
Nei Ching (The Yellow Emperor's
Book of Medicine), whose origin is lost in the dim past.
In the West, in Egypt, alchemy almost certainly
developed
from metallurgy and glass-making on the one hand, and the
pyramid mysteries and initiation rites on
the other. The methods of transmutation of metals were kept secret by temple
priests. Those recipes became widely known (2nd century) at the academy in
Alexandria. There is, moreover, a strong possibility that the Jews in Egypt
from the time of Moses influenced visionary or spiritual alchemy through
Kabbalah. The connections between the
Egyptian theogony and the Kabbalistic sephiroth are striking.
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