alchemy

(ăl'kə-mē)

1. A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity.
2. A seemingly magical power or process of transmuting: "He wondered by what alchemy it was changed, so that what sickened him one hour, maddened him with hunger the next" (Marjorie K. Rawlings).

[Middle English alkamie, from Old French alquemie, from Medieval Latin alchymia, from Arabic al-kīmiyā' : al-, the + kīmiyā', chemistry (from Late Greek khēmeia, khumeia , perhaps from Greek Khēmia, Egypt).]

View more Science videos

For more information on alchemy, visit Britannica.com.

Alchemy was not merely misguided chemistry; it made many contributions to chemistry. Alchemy was, however, a magical or mystical way of looking at the world. Alchemy seems to have started with the Taoists in China and the Pythagoreans in Greece sometime after the sixth century bce. As the ideas of alchemy developed and moved westward, Taoist ideas about chemicals were combined with Pythagorean number mysticism. Another alchemical tradition came from the Egyptian embalmers, such as Zosimus, who wrote one of the first summaries of alchemical ideas extant.

In China, the early alchemists were searching for what came to be called the elixir of life, a way to provide immortality. Some of their accomplishments were remarkable, such as the embalming of the Lady of Tal. This woman was buried about 186 bce in a double coffin filled with a brown liquid containing mercuric sulfide and pressurized methane. Under these conditions there was no observable deterioration of her flesh when she was exhumed after more than 2000 years. She appeared more like someone who had died only a week or so before.

Chinese alchemy passed on to the Indians, who were more interested in using alchemical ideas to cure diseases. Eventually, the Arabs put together the ideas from the East with the Alexandrian tradition of alchemy that had descended from the Pythagoreans. In this form of alchemy, astrological influences were important. Chemical reactions were thought to occur because of the influences of the planets. Numerology and even the shapes of the vessels also helped determine reactions. In this tradition, the elixir of life became mingled with the concept of a philosopher's stone, an object whose presence would enable one to transmute other metals into gold. To some degree, the mingling of the elixir with the philosopher's stone was due to Geber, who was the first to use the term "elixir." Geber's writings from the eighth century ce so dominated alchemy that a talented chemist of about 400 years later is known as "the False Geber" since, like many other alchemists, he signed all his works with the name of the master.

Despite mystical theories of matter, the alchemists managed to develop various practical tools, including the first strong acids and the distillation of alcohol.

During the Renaissance, the West absorbed Arabic alchemy along with more conventional science. By the 16th century, alchemy was being practiced mainly in Europe. Paracelsus was one of the alchemists who was also a successful physician and scientist. Some of his achievements include the first known description of zinc, the recognition that coal mining causes lung disease, and the use of opium to deaden pain. Paracelsus proclaimed that he had found the philosopher's stone and would live forever. Unfortunately, he drank a lot and died before he was 50 in a fall that some attribute to drunkenness.

Libavius was a follower of Paracelsus who also was a successful scientist despite his belief in alchemy. His 1597 book Alchemia is the first good book on chemistry. The tradition of alchemy persisted well into the 18th century. Newton spent much of his later life trying to find the philosopher's stone, and may have gone mad from mercury poisoning caused during his experiments. Finally, Lavoisier, in the later part of the 18th century, put together a scientific view of chemistry that effectively wiped out the alchemical tradition that had persisted for 2000 years.

Alchemy, an art of ancient origins, can be interpreted as an enquiry into man's relationship with the cosmos and the will of the Creator, manifested as either a devotional philosophy transforming sinful man into perfect being (‘esoteric’), or attempted transmutation of base metals into gold or silver (‘exoteric’). The catalyst required was the elixir of life, tincture, or philosophers' stone, the search for which long obsessed men of all ranks.

Probably arising in Hellenistic Alexandria, alchemy (al-kimia) was transmitted to Europe through Islamic culture. Whilst earlier Taoist alchemists had aimed principally for longevity, medieval western alchemists' objectives were gold-making or creating superior medicines. Since the gold-makers' skills rendered them vulnerable to avaricious magnates, circumspection was advisable, but public credulity encouraged conjuring and dishonesty. Practical alchemy, nevertheless, had much to offer medicine, giving rise to metallic rather than herbal remedies, much favoured by Paracelsus, and eventually to iatrochemistry.

Despite interest from John Dee, Kenelm Digby, the ‘Wizard’ 9th earl of Northumberland, Walter Ralegh, and even Charles II, alchemy received its death-warrant in the mid-17th cent. when Robert Boyle demolished the theory of the four ‘elements’.

The medieval combination of chemistry, philosophy, and secret lore aimed at transmuting base metals into gold (by means of the philosopher's stone), and discovering the universal cure for disease and mortality.

Alchemy is a philosophical and chemical "opus" with roots in ancient times and branches throughout the world's cultures. It is both an experimental and symbolic practice, a technical research into the nature of matter, and an imaginal exercise on the spirit of matter and its potential for change. It is also a mythopoeic meditation and a projective method, a moving Rorschach for the practitioner.

Using its experiments as metaphors, it has sought an enlivening elixir, a healing panacea, and the transformation of base metal into gold through release from crude impure ores. This occurs through producing a transmuting agent, itself a transformation from the prima materia of the common "philosopher's stone" into the precious "stone of the philosophers" or "lapis."

Alchemy posits an original unitary energy which separated in space-time into distinct physical elements, "falling apart" and differentiating in the four directions. Perceived as transmutable through shared qualities or correspondences, these elements could one day be reunited in a reconstituted wholeness. The dicta—"Return to chaos is essential to the work," "Volatize the fixed and fix the volatile," and "Dissolve and Coagulate"—express a dialectic process between complements and opposites in analysis and synthesis.

The alchemists might quicken this process through their outer intervention in matter and their interior practice of soul and spirit. The opus is the work of persons or couples, whose integration or dissociation are operative. While using common references, it values the individual and dynamic over the collective and dogmatic. Through the interior change of the adept and his soror mystica (mystical sister) and the chemical changes in the "well closed vessel" of the retort, the microcosm and macrocosm affect and reflect each other.

The Freudian psychoanalyst Herbert Silberer first observed the analogy to transference in the conjoinings and confrontations among sulphurs, mercuries, and salts, between the "masculine" and "feminine" matter, called king and queen, sun and moon, gold and silver, day and night, male and female.

Jung cited Silberer in his work on the "coniunctio" (conjunction) of transference and countertransference. In alchemy, Jung found a precursor of depth psychotherapy's dyadic and interactional model. He came to understand the psyche, the unconscious, and depth analysis as alchemical process, the "stone" as transformational consciousness, both a means and the goal of individuation. He also noted alchemical images in modern dreams.

Bibliography

Jung, Carl Gustav. (1946). The psychology of the transference. Collected Works (Vol. XVI). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

——. (1953). Psychological reflections: An anthology of the writings of C. G. Jung (J. Jacobi, Ed.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

——. (1955-56). Mysterium Conjunctionis. An inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy. Collected Works (Vol. XIV). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

—BEVERLEY D. ZABRISKIE

In the early modern period the term "alchemy" did not refer solely to the transmutation of metals. A variety of laboratory procedures, including the separation of metals, sublimations, and distillations, were generally described in alchemical terms, and alchemy had already for a long time been associated with making medicines. In this regard the medieval tradition of separating from substances a fifth essence, or quinta essentia, underscored later attempts among Hermeticists and Paracelsians to extract a celestial, life-giving force from plants, animals, and metals that, in turn, could perfect specific bodies. The sulfur-mercury theory, based in Aristotelian natural philosophy and further articulated by Arab scholars, in which all metals were believed to be composed of an original sulfur and mercury in various degrees of purity, also continued to provide a basis for some alchemical discussions. The extent to which Aristotelian principles continued to influence practical alchemical procedures is well illustrated by a text called Alchemia written in 1597 by a German physician, chemist, and schoolmaster named Andreas Libau (c. 1550–1616). Libau's book looks very modern, and has been referred to as the first textbook of modern chemistry. It teaches, among many other things, how to analyze minerals, metals, and mineral waters, how to make use of assaying techniques, and how to prepare medicines from metals and minerals. It describes analytical reactions, presents quantitative methods for determining alloys, and gives precise instructions on how to build a variety of laboratory furnaces and vessels. It also describes extracts and essences at the same time that it provides evidence for various sorts of transmutation. All of this falls under the heading of alchemy.

Hermeticism and Paracelsus

At the same time as some alchemists were being led by older theories to create new chemical technologies, others were inspired by more spiritual traditions, especially by the legacy of Neoplatonism and by the discovery in the second half of the fifteenth century of texts reputed to have been written by an ancient sage named Hermes Trismegistus. The tradition that followed, called Renaissance Hermeticism, viewed the celestial bodies, sometimes through the mediation of a cosmic spirit (spiritus mundi), as the link between God and terrestrial things. Divine virtues penetrated everything in nature, and the Hermetic alchemist sought to extract such powers and virtues particularly for the purpose of making useful medicines. A very similar idea prompted the thinking of an especially significant figure in the history of early modern alchemy, Paracelsus (1493/94–1541). Paracelsus described the creation of the physical universe and the processes that maintained the life of the body in essentially alchemical terms. All of nature stemmed from an initial separation of light from dark, earth from water, and so on, and the body operated by means of an "inner alchemist," called the archeus, which separated that which was pure and helpful to the maintenance of life from that which was not. Regarding transmutation, Paracelsus, like many others, thought in embracive terms. In a work called De Natura Rerum (On the nature of things) he notes, "transmutation is when a thing loses its form or shape and is transformed so that it no longer displays at all its initial form and substance. . . . When a metal becomes glass or stone . . . when wood becomes charcoal . . . [or] . . . when cloth becomes paper . . . all of that is the transmutation of natural things." By this definition almost everyone in the early modern period was engaged in alchemy. "Nature," Paracelsus adds, "brings nothing to light which is completed in itself, rather, human beings have to do the completing. This completing is called alchemy." To complete the work of nature and to delve into her secrets Paracelsus recommended the processes of distillation, calcination (producing a powdery calx, or oxide, usually by heating a metal), and sublimation (heating to a gaseous state and then condensing a vapor into solid form). Through these one could separate the elements and discover the healing and perfecting tinctures, magisteria (substances whose external impurities had been removed and which were then said to be exalted or ennobled), and arcana (divine secrets) within things, and learn about the generative qualities associated with the first principles of creation, the socalled tria prima: salt, sulfur, and mercury.

The art of separation was, for Paracelsus and his followers, the key to knowledge of both natural philosophy and medicine; in this regard Paracelsus distinguished between what he called alchemia transmutatoria and alchemia medica. Both types of alchemy involved looking for a powerful agent capable of perfecting or healing. That agent had long gone by several names, including elixir, grand magisterium, or philosophers' stone, and in the early modern period different traditions traced this agent to specific material origins. One tradition linked to Paracelsus sought to prepare the elixir or stone from "vitriol." Others, who followed in the tradition of an alchemical writer named Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636), referred to niter. A third tradition, which included the authors Jean d'Espagnet, Alexander von Suchten, Gaston Du Clo, and Eirenaeus Philalethes (a pseudonym for George Starchy), pursued processes involving vitriol (sometimes called the remedy of the Green Lion) and mercury.

Works by an author using the name Basilius Valentinus directed attention to the use of antimony in alchemical operations, and those writings supplied seventeenth-century chemical physicians with much information about compounding medicines from antimony. Panaceas of various sorts boasted alchemical heritage; one of the most famous was the drinkable gold (aurum potabile) described, among others, by Angelo Sala, Francis Anthony, and Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604–1668). Producing medicines by means of chemical synthesis was a direct outgrowth of alchemical and Paracelsian practices. Both came together as a university subject early in the seventeenth century when Johannes Hartmann (1568–1631) was appointed public professor of chemiatria (chemical medicine) at the University of Marburg. Hartmann's patron, the German prince Moritz, landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (ruled 1592–1627), was one of a number of European potentates, including several Medici princes and the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II (ruled 1576–1612), at whose courts alchemical projects served economic, political, and aesthetic ambitions. In England, traditions of alchemy and Paracelsianism came together in the hands of social critics and educational reformers. Samuel Hartlib (c. 1600–1662), Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), and the dramatist John Webster (c. 1580–c. 1625) each acknowledged the practical results of alchemical labors. Webster especially concluded that the traditions of medieval alchemy and Paracelsus should find a place within the university as an "art that doth help more truly and radically to . . . discover the secret principles and operations of nature." Outside the court and academy, alchemy in various forms continued to be part of the everyday business of popular culture, reflected in vernacular pharmacy books, books of secrets, and a variety of household manuals.

The Bible itself could be read as an alchemical text. One frequent reference was to the book of Exodus, where Moses grinds up the golden calf and gives it (as a kind of aurum potabile) to the children of Israel to drink. The knowledge of Moses, received from Egyptian priests, reflected, many thought, a prisca sapientia, an ancient pure wisdom that had been corrupted over time, but which, through the comparison of texts with experience, might be discovered again.

Alchemy and Modern Science

As an artifact of the early modern period, alchemy continued to exert an influence throughout the scientific revolution. Robert Boyle (1627–1691) and Isaac Newton (1642–1727) both pursued alchemical programs. That Boyle accepted the reality of transmutation and the validity of claims about the powers of the philosophers' stone is clear from an unpublished dialogue on the transmutation of metals. There opponents of transmutation are soundly refuted with the report of an "anti-elixir" that, when projected onto molten gold, transmutes it into base metal. Among Boyle's papers are hundreds of pages of laboratory processes, many related to metallic transmutations and largely written in code. In one instance he wrote a precise account of a transmutation that he had personally witnessed. To Boyle, the corpuscular philosophy, which defined matter as composed of tiny particles, was not at all inconsistent with alchemical ideas. Transmutations took place, he argued, when changes took place in the sizes, shapes, and motions of the particles of an original matter.

Another adherent of alchemy and corpuscularianism was Isaac Newton. The largest particles of every sort of matter, he theorized, were composed of very subtle sulfurous or acid particles surrounded by larger earthy or mercurial particles, the latter piled up like rings or shells around the volatile center. Every substance, he held, was composed of particles analogous to tiny universes. Transmutation resulted when the larger particles of a substance were reduced to smaller particles and then rearranged. Newton was also fond of ancient texts, especially those related to the Egyptian magus Hermes, and he collected bits and pieces of alchemical wisdom in the form of transcriptions, extracts, and collations of ancient, medieval, and contemporary alchemical authorities. He labored over the construction of an index chemicus, an inventory of chemical and alchemical writing arranged by topic that, in its final form, comprised a volume of more than a hundred pages, with 879 separate headings. Another text of "Notable Opinions" consisted of quotations from seventy-five printed and handwritten alchemical sources. The alchemist George Starchy described to him the concept of chemical mediation (the means by which two unsociable bodies are made sociable by means of a third) and recounted also for Newton procedures for making philosophical mercury and for preparing an antimonial amalgam called the "star regulus." Accepting the presence of spiritual agents in nature, Newton thought that metals could both grow and decay as part of a cycle of creation in which the return to chaos gave rise to new substances.

Bibliography

Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter. The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy. Cambridge, U.K., 1975.

Kopp, Hermann. Die Alchemie. 1886; rept. Hildesheim, 1971.

Martels, Z. R. W. M. von, ed., Alchemy Revisited. Leiden, 1990.

Principe, Lawrence M. The Aspiring Adept. Princeton, 1998.

Principe, Lawrence M., and William R. Newman. "Some Problems with the Historiography of Alchemy," in Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, ed. by W. R. Newman and Anthony Grafton. Cambridge, Mass., 2001, pp. 385–431.

—BRUCE T. MORAN

The art and science by which the chemical philosophers of medieval times attempted to transmute the baser metals into gold and silver. Alchemy is also the name of the Gnostic philosophy that undergirded the alchemical activity, a practical philosophy of spiritual purification. There is considerable disagreement as to which, the scientific or the philosophical, is the dominant aspect and the manner in which the two were integrated (which to some extent varied tremendously from alchemist to alchemist).

There is also considerable divergence of opinion as to the etymology of the word. One highly possible origin is the Arabic al (the) and kimya (chemistry), which in turn derived from late Greek chemeia (chemistry), from chumeia (a mingling), or cheein (to pour out or mix). The Aryan root is ghu, (to pour), whence comes the modern word gush. E. A. Wallis Budge, in his Egyptian Magic, however, states that it is possible that alchemy may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia, "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 affixed the article al, resulting in al-khemeia, or alchemy.

History of Alchemy

From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skillful workers in metals, and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers, and it was thought that there resided within it the individualities of the various metals—that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. It is probable such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. (See Shelta Thari)

It was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth century, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources, was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works.

The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their instrumentality the art was carried to Morocco and in the eighth century to Spain, where it flourished. During the next few centuries Spain served as the repository of alchemical science, and the colleges at Seville, Cordova, and Granada were the centers from which this science radiated throughout Europe. The first practical alchemist was probably the Arabian Geber, who flourished in the early to mid-eighth century C.E. His Summa Perfectionis implies that alchemical science had already matured in his day, and that he drew his inspiration from a still older unbroken line of adepts. He was followed by Avicenna, Meisner, and Rhasis; in France by Alain of Lisle, Arnaldus de Villanova, and Jean de Meung the troubadour; in England by Roger Bacon; and in Spain by Raymond Lully.

Later, in French alchemy, the most illustrious names are those of Nicolas Flamel (fourteenth century), and Bernard Trévisan (fifteenth century), after which the center of interest changes in the sixteenth century to Germany and in some measure to England, in which countries Paracelsus, Heinrich Khunrath, Michael Maier, Jakob Boehme, Jean Van Helmont, the Brabanter, George Ripley, Thomas Norton, Thomas Dalton, Jean Martin Charnock, and Robert Fludd kept the alchemical flame burning brightly. In Britain, the great scientist Sir Isaac Newton conducted alchemical research.

It is surprising how little alteration is found throughout the period between the seventh and the seventeenth centuries, the heyday of alchemy, in the theory and practice of the art. The same sentiments and processes put forth by the earliest alchemical authorities are also found expressed by the later experts, and a unanimity regarding the basic canons of the art is expressed by the hermetic students of all periods, thus suggesting the dominance of the philosophical teachings over any "scientific" applications. With the introduction of chemistry as a practical art, alchemical science fell into disuse, already having suffered from the number of charlatans practicing it. Here and there, however, a solitary student of the art lingered, and the subject has to some extent been revived during modern times.

The Theory and Philosophy of Alchemy

The grand objects of the alchemical art were (1) the discovery of a process by which the baser metals might be transmuted into gold and silver; (2) the discovery of an elixir by which life might be prolonged indefinitely; and there is sometimes added (3) the manufacture of an artificial process of human life (see Homunculus). Religiously, the transmutation of metals can be thought of as a symbol of the transmutation of the self to a higher consciousness and the discovery of the elixir as an affirmation of eternal life.

The transmutation of metals was to be accomplished by a powder, stone, or elixir often called the philosophers' stone, the application of which would effect the transmutation of the baser metals into gold or silver, depending on the length of time of its application. Basing their conclusions on the examination of natural processes and metaphysical speculation concerning the secrets of nature, the alchemists arrived at the axiom that nature was divided into four principal regions: the dry, the moist, the warm, the cold, from which all that exists must be derived. Nature was also divisible into the male and the female. She is the divine breath, the central fire, invisible yet ever active, and is typified by sulphur, which is the mercury of the sages, which slowly fructifies under the genial warmth of nature.

Thus, the alchemist had to be ingenuous, of a truthful disposition, and gifted with patience and prudence, following nature in every alchemical performance. He recalled that like attracts like, and had to know how to obtain the "seed" of metals, which was produced by the four elements through the will of the Supreme Being and the Imagination of Nature. We are told that the original matter of metals was double in its essence, being a dry heat combined with a warm moisture, and that air is water coagulated by fire, capable of producing a universal dissolvent. These terms the neophyte must be cautious of interpreting in their literal sense, for it is likely that alchemists, other than the several frauds, were speaking about the metaphysics of inner spirituality. Great confusion exists in alchemical nomenclature, and the gibberish employed by the scores of charlatans who in later times pretended to a knowledge of alchemical matters did not tend to make things any more clear.

The neophyte alchemist also had to acquire a thorough knowledge of the manner in which metals "grow" in the bowels of the earth. They were said to be engendered by sulphur, which is male, and mercury, which is female, and the crux of alchemy was to obtain their "seed"—a process the alchemistical philosophers did not describe with any degree of clarity. The physical theory of transmutation is based on the composite character of metals, and on the presumed existence of a substance which, applied to matter, exalts and perfects it. This substance, Eugenius Philalethes and others called "The Light." The elements of all metals were said to be similar, differing only in purity and proportion. The entire trend of the metallic kingdom was toward the natural manufacture of gold, and the production of the baser metals was only accidental as the result of an unfavorable environment. The philosophers' stone was the combination of the male and female "seeds" that form gold. The composition of these was so veiled by symbolism as to make their precise identification impossible.

Occult scholar Arthur Edward Waite, summarized the alchemical process once the secret of the stone was unveiled: "Given the matter of the stone and also the necessary vessel, the processes which must be then undertaken to accomplish the magnum opus are described with moderate perspicuity. There is the calcination or purgation of the stone, in which kind is worked with kind for the space of a philosophical year. There is dissolution which prepares the way for congelation, and which is performed during the black state of the mysterious matter. It is accomplished by water which does not wet the hand. There is the separation of the subtle and the gross, which is to be performed by means of heat. In the conjunction which follows, the elements are duly and scrupulously combined. Putrefaction afterwards takes place, 'Without which pole no seed may multiply.' "Then, in the subsequent congelation the white colour appears, which is one of the signs of success. It becomes more pronounced in cibation. In sublimation the body is spiritualised, the spirit made corporeal, and again a more glittering whiteness is apparent. Fermentation afterwards fixes together the alchemical earth and water, and causes the mystic medicine to flow like wax. The matter is then augmented with the alchemical spirit of life, and the exaltation of the philosophic earth is accomplished by the natural rectification of its elements. When these processes have been successfully completed, the mystic stone will have passed through three chief stages characterised by different colours, black, white, and red, after which it is capable of infinite multication, and when projected on mercury, it will absolutely transmute it, the resulting gold bearing every test. The base metals made use of must be purified to insure the success of the operation. The process for the manufacture of silver is essentially similar, but the resources of the matter are not carried to so high a degree.

"According to the Commentary on the Ancient War of the Knights the transmutations performed by the perfect stone are so absolute that no trace remains of the original metal. It cannot, however, destroy gold, nor exalt it into a more perfect metallic substance; it, therefore, transmutes it into a medicine a thousand times superior to any virtues which can be extracted from it in its vulgar state. This medicine becomes a most potent agent in the exaltation of base metals."

Other modern authorities have denied that the transmutation of metals was the grand object of alchemy, and from reasons highlighted earlier, among others, inferred from the alchemistical writings that the object of the art was the spiritual regeneration of mankind. Mary Ann Atwood, author of A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, and Civil War General Ethan Allen Hitchcock, author of Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists, were perhaps the chief protagonists of the belief that, by spiritual processes akin to those of the chemical processes of alchemy, the soul of man may be purified and exalted. Both somewhat overstated their case in their assertion that the alchemical writers did not claim that the transmutation of base metal into gold was their grand object. While the spiritual quest may have been dominant, none of the passages that Atwood and Hitchcock quote was inconsistent with the physical aspect of alchemy. Eugenius Philalethes, for example, in his work The Marrow of Alchemy, argues forcefully that the real quest is for gold. It is constantly impressed upon the reader, however, in the perusal of esteemed alchemical works, that only those who are instructed by God can achieve the grand secret. Others, again, state that while a novice might possibly stumble upon it, unless guided by an adept the beginner has small chance of achieving the grand arcanum.

The transcendental view of alchemy, however, rapidly gained ground through the nineteenth century. Among its exponents was A. E. Waite, who argued, "The gold of the philosopher is not a metal, on the other hand, man is a being who possesses within himself the seeds of a perfection which he has never realized, and that he therefore corresponds to those metals which the Hermetic theory supposes to be capable of development. It has been constantly advanced that the conversion of lead into gold was only the assumed object of alchemy, and that it was in reality in search of a process for developing the latent possibilities in the subject man."

At the same time, it must be admitted that the cryptic character of alchemical language was probably occasioned by a fear on the part of the alchemical mystic that he might lay himself open through his magical opinions to the rigors of the law.

Meanwhile, several records of alleged transmutations of base metals into gold have survived. These were reportedly achieved by Nicholas Flamel, Van Helmont, Martini, Richthausen, and Sethon. In nearly every case the transmuting element was said to be a mysterious powder or the "philosophers' stone."

Modern Alchemy

A correspondent writing to the British newspaper Liverpool Post in its Saturday, November 28, 1907, edition gave an interesting description of a veritable Egyptian alchemist whom he had encountered in Cairo not long before: "I was not slow in seizing an opportunity of making the acquaintance of the real alchemist living in Cairo, which the winds of chance had blown in my direction. He received me in his private house in the native quarter, and I was delighted to observe that the appearance of the man was in every way in keeping with my notions of what an alchemist should be. Clad in the flowing robes of a graduate of Al Azhar, his long grey beard giving him a truly venerable aspect, the sage by the eager, far-away expression of his eyes, betrayed the mind of the dreamer, of the man lost to the meaner comforts of the world in his devotion to the secret mysteries of the universe. After the customary salaams, the learned man informed me that he was seeking three things—the philosophers' stone, at whose touch all metal should become gold—the elixir of life, and the universal solvent which would dissolve all substances as water dissolves sugar; the last, he assured me, he had indeed discovered a short time since. I was well aware of the reluctance of the medieval alchemists to divulge their secrets, believing as they did that the possession of them by the vulgar would bring about ruin of states and the fall of divinely constituted princes; and I feared that the reluctance of the modern alchemist to divulge any secrets to a stranger and a foreigner would be no less. However, I drew from my pocket Sir William Crookes's spinthariscope—a small box containing a particle of radium highly magnified—and showed it to the sheikh. When he applied it to his eye and beheld the wonderful phenomenon of this dark speck flashing out its fiery needles on all sides, he was lost in wonder, and when I assured him that it would retain this property for a thousand years, he hailed me as a fellow-worker, and as one who had indeed penetrated into the secrets of the world. His reticence disappeared at once, and he began to tell me the aims and methods of alchemical research, which were indeed the same as those of the ancient alchemists of yore. His universal solvent he would not show me, but assured me of its efficacy. I asked him in what he kept it if it dissolved all things. He replied 'In wax,' this being the one exception. I suspected that he had found some hydrofluoric acid, which dissolves glass, and so has to be kept in wax bottles, but said nothing to dispel his illusion.

"The next day I was granted the unusual privilege of inspecting the sheikh's laboratory, and duly presented myself at the appointed time. My highest expectations were fulfilled; everything was exactly what an alchemist's laboratory should be. Yes, there was the sage, surrounded by his retorts, alembics, crucibles, furnace, and bellows, and, best of all, supported by familiars of gnome-like appearance, squatting on the ground, one blowing the fire (a task to be performed daily for six hours continuously), one pounding substances in a mortar, and another seemingly engaged in doing odd jobs. Involuntarily my eyes sought the pentacle inscribed with the mystic word ' Abracadabra, ' but here I was disappointed, for the black arts had no place in this laboratory. One of the familiars had been on a voyage of discovery to London, where he bought a few alchemical materials; another had explored Spain and Morocco, without finding any alchemists, and the third had indeed found alchemists in Algeria, though they had steadily guarded their secrets. After satisfying my curiosity in a general way, I asked the sage to explain the principles of his researches and to tell me on what his theories were based. I was delighted to find that his ideas were precisely those of the medieval alchemists namely, that all metals are debased forms of the original gold, which is the only pure, non-composite metal; all nature strives to return to its original purity, and all metals would return to gold if they could; nature is simple and not complex, and works upon one principle, namely, that of sexual reproduction. It was not easy, as will readily be believed, to follow the mystical explanations of the sheikh. Air was referred to by him as the 'vulture,' fire as the 'scorpion,' water as the 'serpent,' and earth as 'calacant'; and only after considerable cross-questioning and confusion of mind was I able to disentangle his arguments. Finding his notions so entirely medieval, I was anxious to discover whether he was familiar with the phlogistic theory of the seventeenth century. The alchemists of old had noticed that the earthy matter which remains when a metal is calcined is heavier than the metal itself, and they explained this by the hypothesis, that the metal contained a spirit known as 'phlogiston,' which becomes visible when it escapes from the metal or combustible substance in the form of flame; thus the presence of the phlogiston lightened the body just as gas does, and on its being expelled, the body gained weight. I accordingly asked the chemist whether he had found that iron gains weight when it rusts, an experiment he had ample means of making. But no, he had not yet reached the seventeenth century; he had not observed the fact, but was none the less ready with his answer; the rust of iron was an impurity proceeding from within, and which did not affect the weight of the body in that way. He declared that a few days would bring the realisation of his hopes, and that he would shortly send me a sample of the philosophers' stone and of the divine elixir; but although his promise was made some weeks since, I have not yet seen the fateful discoveries."

That alchemy has continued to be studied in relatively modern times there can be no doubt. Louis Figuier in his L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes (1854), dealing with the subject of modern alchemy, as expressed by the initiates of the first half of the nineteenth century, states that many French alchemists of his time regarded the discoveries of modern science as merely so many evidences of the truth of the doctrines they embraced. Throughout Europe, he said, the positive alchemical doctrine had many adherents at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth.

Reportedly, a "vast association of alchemists" called the Hermetic Society, founded in Westphalia in 1790, continued to flourish in the year 1819. In 1837 an alchemist of Thuringia presented to the Société Industrielle of Weimar a tincture he averred would effect metallic transmutation. About the same time several French journals announced a public course of lectures on hermetic philosophy by a professor of the University of Munich.

Figuier further stated that many Hanoverian and Bavarian families pursued in common the search for the grand arcanum. Paris, however, was regarded as the alchemistical Mecca. There lived many theoretical alchemists and "empirical adepts." The first pursued the arcanum through the medium of books; the others engaged in practical efforts to effect transmutation.

During the 1840s Figuier frequented the laboratory of a certain Monsieur L., which was the rendezvous of the alchemists of Paris. When Monsieur L's pupils left the laboratory for the day the modern adepts dropped in one by one, and Figuier relates how deeply impressed he was by the appearance and costumes of these strange men. In the daytime he frequently encountered them in the public libraries, buried in the study of gigantic folios, and in the evening they might be seen pacing the solitary bridges with eyes fixed in vague contemplation upon the first pale stars of night. A long cloak usually covered their meager limbs, and their untrimmed beards and matted locks lent them a wild appearance. They walked with a solemn and measured gait, and used the figures of speech employed by the medieval illuminés. Their expression was generally a mixture of the most ardent hope and a fixed despair.

Among the adepts who sought the laboratory of Monsieur L., Figuier noticed especially a young man in whose habits andlanguage he could see nothing in common with those of his strange companions. He confounded the wisdom of the alchemical adept with the tenets of the modern scientist in the most singular fashion, and meeting him one day at the gate of the observatory, M. Figuier renewed the subject of their last discussion, deploring that "a man of his gifts could pursue the semblance of a chimera." Without replying, the young adept led him into the observatory garden and proceeded to reveal to him the mysteries of modern alchemical science.

The young man recognized a limit to the research of the modern alchemists. Gold, he said, according to the ancient authors, has three distinct properties: (1) resolving the baser metals into itself, and interchanging and metamorphosing all metals into one another; (2) curing afflictions and the prolongation of life; and (3) serving as a spiritus mundi to bring mankind into rapport with the supermundane spheres. Modern alchemists, he continued, rejected the greater part of these ideas, especially those connected with spiritual contact. The object of modern alchemy might be reduced to the search for a substance having power to transform and transmute all other substances one into another—in short, to discover that medium known to the alchemists of old as the philosophers' stone and now lost to us. In the four principal substances of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and azote, we have the tetractus of Pythagoras and the tetragram of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. All the sixty elements are referable to these original four. The ancient alchemical theory claimed that all the metals are the same in their composition, that all are formed from sulphur and mercury, and that the difference between them is according to the proportion of these substances in their composition. Further, all the products of minerals present in their composition complete identity with those substances most opposed to them. For example, fulminating acid contains precisely the same quantity of carbon, oxygen, and azote as cyanic acid, and "cyanhydric" acid does not differ from formate ammoniac. This new property of matter is known as "isomerism." Figuier's friend then proceeded to quote in support of his thesis the operations and experiments of M. Dumas, a celebrated French savant, as well as those of William Prout and other English chemists of standing.

Passing on to consider the possibility of isomerism in elementary as well as in compound substances, he pointed out to Figuier that if the theory of isomerism can apply to such bodies, the transmutation of metals ceases to be a wild, unpractical dream and becomes a scientific possibility, the transformation being brought about by a molecular rearrangement. Isomerism can be established in the case of compound substances by chemical analysis, showing the identity of their constituent parts. In the case of metals it can be proved by the comparison of the properties of isomeric bodies with the properties of metals, in order to discover whether they have any common characteristics.

M. Dumas, speaking before the British Association, had shown that when three simple bodies displayed great analogies in their properties, such as chlorine, bromide, and iodine, barium, strontium, and calcium, the chemical equivalent of the intermediate body is represented by the arithmetical mean between the equivalents of the other two. Such a statement well showed the isomerism of elementary substances and proved that metals, however dissimilar in outward appearance, were composed of the same matter differently arranged and proportioned. This theory successfully demolished the difficulties in the way of transmutation.

If transmutation is thus theoretically possible, it only remains to show by practical experiment that it is strictly in accordance with chemical laws, and by no means inclines to the supernatural.

At this juncture, the young alchemist proceeded to liken the action of the philosophers' stone on metals to that of a ferment on organic matter. When metals are melted and brought to red heat, a molecular change may be produced analogous to fermentation. Just as sugar, under the influence of a ferment, may be changed into lactic acid without altering its constituents, so metals can alter their character under the influence of the philosophers' stone. The explanation of the latter case is no more difficult than that of the former. The ferment does not take any part in the chemical changes it brings about, and no satisfactory explanation of its effects can be found either in the laws of affinity or in the forces of electricity, light, or heat. As with the ferment, the required quantity of the philosophers' stone is infinitesimal.

The alchemist then averred that medicine, philosophy, every modern science was at one time a source of such errors and extravagances as are associated with medieval alchemy, but they are not therefore neglected and despised. Why, then, should we be blind to the scientific nature of transmutation? One of the foundations of alchemical theories was that minerals grow and develop in the earth, like organic things. It was always the aim of nature to produce gold, the most precious metal, but when circumstances were not favorable the baser metals resulted. The desire of the old alchemists was to surprise nature's secrets, and thus attain the ability to do in a short period what nature takes years to accomplish. Nevertheless, the medieval alchemists appreciated the value of time in their experiments as modern alchemists never do.

Figuier's friend urged him not to condemn these exponents of the hermetic philosophy for their metaphysical tendencies, for, he said, there are facts in our sciences that can only be explained in that light. If, for instance, copper is placed in air or water, there will be no result, but if a touch of some acid is added, it will oxidize. The explanation is that "the acid provokes oxidation of the metal, because it has an affinity for the oxide which tends to form"—a material fact almost metaphysical in its production, and only explicable thereby.

Alchemy in the Twentieth Century

Since the nineteenth-century speculations of Figuier, the modern view of alchemy has primarily regarded it as a mystical approach to chemistry. With the development of subatomic physics and nuclear fission, the transmutation of elements became a reality, culminating in the atomic bomb and atomic power stations, but the vast apparatus and energy needed to transmute elements has increased skepticism that the old alchemists ever succeeded in their dreams.

The alchemical work gave way to ceremonial magic, which today carries most of what is left of the alchemical hermetic tradition. However, there have been a few contemporary figures who followed the alchemical metaphor. Among these was Frater Albertus, who emerged in the 1970s as head of the Paracelsus Research Society in Salt Lake City, Utah. He wrote a number of books about his work, however these only hinted at any alchemical success.

Sources:

Albertus, Frater. The Alchemist of the Rocky Mountains. Salt Lake City, Utah: Paracelsus Research Society, 1976.

——. The Alchemist's Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy. Rev. ed. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974.

Atwood, Mary Anne. A Suggestive Inquiry Into the Hermetic Mystery. London, 1850. Rev. ed. Belfast, 1918. Reprint, New York: Julian Press, 1960. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Bacon, Roger. The Mirror of Alchemy. London, 1597. Los Angeles: Press of the Pegacycle Lady, 1975.

Barbault, Armand, Gold of a Thousand Mornings. London: Neville Spearman, 1975.

Boyle, Robert. Works. 5 vols. London, 1744. Rev. ed. 6 vols. London, 1772.

Cummings, Richard. Alchemists: Fathers of Practical Chemistry. New York: David O. McKay, 1966.

De Givry, Grillot. Witchcraft, Magic & Alchemy. London, 1931. Reprinted as Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic & Alchemy. New York: Causeway, 1973.

De Rola, Stanislaw K. Alchemy: The Secret Art. Bounty Books/ Crown, 1973. Reprint, London: Thames & Hudson, 1973.

Doberer, Kurt K. The Goldmakers: Ten Thousand Years of Alchemy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1948.

Dobbs, Betty Jo T. Foundations of Newton's Alchemy; or, The Hunting of the Greene Lyon. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible. London, 1962.

Federmann, Reinhard. The Royal Art of Alchemy. New York: Chilton, 1969.

Ferguson, J. Bibliotheca Chemica; a Bibliography of Books on Alchemy, Chemistry and Pharmaceutics. 2 vols. London, 1954.

Figuier, Louis. L'Alchimie et les Achimistes. Paris, 1856.

Hitchcock, C. A. Remarks Upon Alchemy and the Alchemists. Boston: Crosby, Nichols, 1857. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1976.

Journal of the Alchemical Society 3 vols., London, 1913-15.

Jung, C. G. Psychology and Alchemy. Volume 12 of the Collected Works. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968.

Laoux, Gaston. Dictionnaire Hermetique. Paris, 1695.

Lapidus. In Pursuit of Gold: Alchemy in Theory and Practice. London: Neville Spearman, 1976.

Lenglet, Dufresnoy N. Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique. 2 vols. Paris, 1792.

Read, J. Prelude to Chemistry. London, 1936. Reprint, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1957.

Redgrove, H. Stanley. Alchemy: Ancient and Modern. London: Rider, 1922. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1969.

——. Bygone Beliefs. London, 1920. Reprinted as Magic & Mysticism: Studies in Bygone Beliefs. New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1971.

Sadoul, Jacques. Alchemists and Gold. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1972. Reprint, London: Neville Spearman, 1972.

Silberer, Herbert. The Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts. New York: Dover Books, 1971. Reprint, Magnolia, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1972.

Thompson, Charles J. Alchemy: Source of Chemistry & Medicine. London, 1897. Reprint, Sentry Press, 1974.

Valentine, Basil. Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. London, 1656.

Waite, A. E. The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973.

——. Alchemists Through the Ages. Blauvelt, N.Y.: Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1970.

——. Azoth, or the Star in the East. London, 1893. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1973.

——. The Occult Sciences. London, 1923. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1973.

Waite, A. E., ed. The Hermetical & Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus. 2 vols., London, 1894. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1967.

——. The Works of Thomas Vaughan, Mystic and Alchemist. London, 1919. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1968.

Zetznerus, L., ed. Theatrum Chimicum. 6 vols. Strasbourg, France, 1659-61.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Alchemy is the ancient discipline from which the modern science of chemistry arose. The aspect of this discipline that is best remembered is the quest to discover how to transform ordinary substances into gold. Alchemy came to be related to dreams through the work of Carl Jung, who perceived archetypal images in the symbolic language of alchemy.

Jung postulated the existence of an unconscious urge toward psychological growth and health that he termed the individuation process. This process propelled the individual toward psychic integration, bringing progressively more of the contents of the unconscious mind into the expanding awareness of the ego. Jung believed that the primary goal of alchemy-discovering the series of operations through which gold is produced-could be read symbolically as the individuation process.

Jung noted four stages in the individuation process-stages that could be symbolized in dreams by the numbers one, two, three, and four. Dreams that seemed to stress duality, triplicity, or quaternity Jung interpreted as referring to these stages. The ancient alchemists associated certain colors with the stages, and Jung sometimes interpreted the predominance of black, white, yellow, and red in a dream as referring to one of the four stages of personal transformation.

A science (no longer practiced) that sought to transform one chemical element into another through a combination of magic and primitive chemistry. Alchemy is considered to be the ancestor of modern chemistry.

• Branches and Disciplines - alchemy: medieval chemistry and speculative philosophy that attempted to transmute base metals into gold and to discover cures for disease
• Belief Systems and Theories - alchemy: medieval chemistry and speculative philosophy aimed at transforming base metals into gold and prolonging life

"Alchemist" redirects here. For other uses, see Alchemist (disambiguation).

For other uses, see Alchemy (disambiguation).

Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness) – a text on Islamic philosophy and spiritual alchemy by Al-Ghazālī (1058–1111).

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base metals into the noble metals gold or silver, as well as an elixir of life conferring youth and immortality. Western alchemy is recognized as a protoscience that contributed to the development of modern chemistry and medicine. Alchemists developed a framework of theory, terminology, experimental process and basic laboratory techniques that is still recognizable today. But alchemy differs from modern science in the inclusion of Hermetic principles and practices related to mythology, religion, and spirituality.

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Relation to the science of chemistry 1.2 Relation to Hermeticism 2 Etymology 3 History 3.1 Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt 3.2 Alchemy in the Islamic world 3.3 Alchemy in Medieval Europe 3.4 Alchemy in the Renaissance and modern age 3.5 The decline of Western alchemy 3.6 Indian alchemy 3.7 Chinese alchemy 3.8 Alchemy as a subject of historical research 4 Modern alchemy 4.1 Alchemy in traditional medicine 4.2 Nuclear transmutation 4.3 Psychology 5 Magnum opus 6 See also 7 Notes and references 8 Bibliography 9 External links

Overview

The best known goals of the alchemists were the transmutation of common metals into gold or silver, and the creation of a "panacea," a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely; and the discovery of a universal solvent.^[1] Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications, and its esoteric aspects. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences who have examined the subject in terms of proto-chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism. The latter is of interest to the historians of esotericism, psychologists, spiritual and new age communities, and hermetic philosophers.^[2] The subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. Despite the modern split, numerous sources stress an integration of esoteric and exoteric approaches to alchemy. Holmyard, when writing on exoteric aspects, states that they can not be properly appreciated if the esoteric is not always kept in mind.^[3] The prototype for this model can be found in Bolos of Mendes' second century BCE work, Physika kai Mystika (On Physical and Mystical Matters).^[4] Marie-Louise von Franz tells us the double approach of Western alchemy was set from the start, when Greek philosophy was mixed with Egyptian and Mesopotamian technology. The technological, operative approach, which she calls extraverted, and the mystic, contemplative, psychological one, which she calls introverted are not mutually exclusive, but complementary instead, as meditation requires practice in the real world, and conversely.^[5]

Relation to the science of chemistry

Main article: History of chemistry

Practical applications of alchemy produced a wide range of contributions to medicine and the physical sciences. Alchemists Jābir ibn Hayyān^[6] and Robert Boyle^[7] are both credited as being the fathers of chemistry. Paracelsian iatrochemistry emphasized the medicinal application of alchemy (continued in plant alchemy, or spagyric).^[8] Studies of alchemy also influenced Isaac Newton's theory of gravity.^[9] Academic historical research supports that the alchemists were searching for a material substance using physical methods.^[10]

It is a popular belief that alchemists made contributions to the "chemical" industries of the day—ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of gunpowder, ink, dyes, paints, cosmetics, leather tanning, ceramics, glass manufacture, preparation of extracts, liquors, and so on (it seems that the preparation of aqua vitae, the "water of life", was a fairly popular "experiment" among European alchemists). Alchemists contributed distillation to Western Europe. The attempts of alchemists to arrange information on substances, so as to clarify and anticipate the products of their chemical reactions, resulted in early conceptions of chemical elements and the first rudimentary periodic tables. They learned how to extract metals from ores, and how to compose many types of inorganic acids and bases.

During the 17th century, practical alchemy started to evolve into modern chemistry,^[11] as it was renamed by Robert Boyle, the "father of modern chemistry".^[12] In his book, The Skeptical Chymist, Boyle attacked Paracelsus and the natural philosophy of Aristotle, which was taught at universities. However, Boyle's biographers, in their emphasis that he laid the foundations of modern chemistry, neglect how steadily he clung to the scholastic sciences and to alchemy, in theory, practice and doctrine.^[13] The decline of alchemy continued in the 18th century with the birth of modern chemistry, which provided a more precise and reliable framework within a new view of the universe based on rational materialism.

Relation to Hermeticism

In the eyes of a variety of esoteric and Hermetic practitioners, the heart of alchemy is spiritual. Transmutation of lead into gold is presented as an analogy for personal transmutation, purification, and perfection.^[4] This approach is often termed 'spiritual', 'esoteric', or 'internal' alchemy.

Early alchemists, such as Zosimos of Panopolis (c. AD 300), highlight the spiritual nature of the alchemical quest, symbolic of a religious regeneration of the human soul.^[14] This approach continued in the Middle Ages, as metaphysical aspects, substances, physical states, and material processes were used as metaphors for spiritual entities, spiritual states, and, ultimately, transformation. In this sense, the literal meanings of 'Alchemical Formulas' were a blind, hiding their true spiritual philosophy. Practitioners and patrons such as Melchior Cibinensis and Pope Innocent VIII existed within the ranks of the church, while Martin Luther applauded alchemy for its consistency with Christian teachings.^[15] Both the transmutation of common metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect, diseased, corruptible, and ephemeral state towards a perfect, healthy, incorruptible, and everlasting state; and the philosopher's stone then represented a mystic key that would make this evolution possible. Applied to the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment, and the stone represented a hidden spiritual truth or power that would lead to that goal. In texts that are written according to this view, the cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and textual imagery of late alchemical works typically contain multiple layers of meanings, allegories, and references to other equally cryptic works; and must be laboriously decoded to discover their true meaning.

In his 1766 Alchemical Catechism, Théodore Henri de Tschudi denotes that the usage of the metals was a symbol:

Q. When the Philosophers speak of gold and silver, from which they extract their matter, are we to suppose that they refer to the vulgar gold and silver?
A. By no means; vulgar silver and gold are dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life.^[16]

During the renaissance, alchemy broke into more distinct schools placing spiritual alchemists in high contrast with those working with literal metals and chemicals.^[17] While most spiritual alchemists also incorporate elements of exotericism, examples of a purely spiritual alchemy can be traced back as far as the sixteenth century, when Jacob Boehme used alchemical terminology in strictly mystical writings.^[18] Another example can be found in the work of Heinrich Khunrath (1560–1605) who viewed the process of transmutation as occurring within the alchemist's soul.^[17]

The recent work of Principe and Newman, seeks to reject the 'spiritual interpretation' of alchemy, stating it arose as a product of the Victorian occult revival.^[19] There is evidence to support that some classical alchemical sources were adulterated during this time to give greater weight to the spiritual aspects of alchemy.^[20][21] Despite this, other scholars such as Calian and Tilton reject this view as entirely historically inaccurate, drawing examples of historical spiritual alchemy from Boehme, Isaac Newton, and Michael Maier.^[22]

Etymology

Main article: Chemistry (etymology)

The word alchemy may derive from the Old French alquimie, which is from the Medieval Latin alchimia, and which is in turn from the Arabic al-kimia (الكيمياء). This term itself is derived from the Ancient Greek chemeia (χημεία) or chemia (χημία)^[23] with the addition of the Arabic definite article al- (الـ).^[24] The ancient Greek word may have been derived from^[25] a version of the Egyptian name for Egypt, which was itself based on the Ancient Egyptian word kēme (hieroglyphic Khmi, black earth, as opposed to desert sand).^[24]

The word could also have originally derived from the Greek chumeia (χυμεία) meaning "mixture" and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry.^[26] With the later rise of alchemy in Alexandria, the word may have derived from Χημία, and thus became spelled as χημεία, and the original meaning forgotten.^[27] The etymology is still open.

History

Extract and symbol key from a 17th century book on alchemy. The symbols used have a one-to-one correspondence with symbols used in astrology at the time.

Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be largely independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy, centered in China and its zone of cultural influence; Indian alchemy, centered around the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center has shifted over the millennia from Greco-Roman Egypt, to the Islamic world, and finally medieval Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths, whereas Western alchemy developed its own philosophical system that was largely independent of, but influenced by, various Western religions. It is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other.

Alchemy in Greco-Roman Egypt

Ambix, cucurbit and retort of Zosimos, from Marcelin Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (3 vol., Paris, 1887–1888).

The origin of Western alchemy may generally be traced to Hellenistic Egypt. The Hellenistic city of Alexandria was a center of Greek alchemical knowledge, and retained its preeminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods.^[28] Here, elements of technology, religion, mythology, and Greek philosophy, each with their own much longer histories, combined to form the earliest known records of alchemy in the West. Zosimos of Panopolis wrote the oldest known books on alchemy while Mary the Jewess is credited as being the first non-fictitious Western alchemist. They wrote in Greek and lived in Egypt under Roman rule.

Mythology – It is claimed by Zosimos of Panopolis that alchemy dated back to pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class; there is little or no evidence for such a claim though.^[29] Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and allegorize alchemical transmutation.^[30] These included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others.

The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (or Thrice-Great Hermes). His name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemy's principal symbols. According to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the "forty-two books of Hermes", covering all fields of knowledge.^[31] The Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners. These writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era.

Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, extending back to 3500 BCE.^[32] Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books^[33] after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (292 CE). Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X. Dating from 300 to 500 CE, they contained recipes for dyeing and making artificial gemstones, cleaning and fabricating pearls, and the manufacture of imitation gold and silver.^[34] These writings lack the mystical, philosophical elements of alchemy, but do contain the works of Bolus of Mendes (or Pseudo-Democritus) which aligned these recipes with theoretical knowledge of astrology and the Classical elements.^[35] Between the time of Bolus and Zosimos, the change took place that transformed this metallurgy into a Hermetic art.^[36]

Philosophy – Alexandria acted as a melting pot for philosophies of Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Stoicism and Gnosticism which formed the origin of alchemy’s character.^[35] An important example of alchemy’s roots in Greek philosophy, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed.^[37] The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are. "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form."^[38] Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept.

Alchemy coexisted alongside emerging Christianity. Lactantius believed Hermes Trismegistus had prophesied its birth. Augustine (354–430 CE) later affirmed this, but also condemned Trismegistus for idolatry.^[39] Examples of Pagan, Christian, and Jewish alchemists can be found during this period.

Most of the Greco-Roman alchemists preceding Zosimos are known only by pseudonyms, such as Moses, Isis, Cleopatra, Democritus, and Ostanes. Others authors such as Komarios, and Chymes, we only know through fragments of text. After 400 CE, Greek alchemical writers occupied themselves solely in commenting on the works of these predecessors.^[40] By the middle of the seventh century alchemy was almost an entirely mystical discipline.^[41] It was at that time that Khalid Ibn Yazid sparked its migration from Alexandria to the Islamic world, facilitating the translation and preservation of Greek alchemical texts in the 8th and 9th centuries.^[42]

Alchemy in the Islamic world

Main article: Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam

Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), considered the "father of chemistry", introduced a scientific and experimental approach to alchemy.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Islamic World. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy because it was better documented: indeed, most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations.^[43] The word alchemy itself was derived from the Arabic word الكيمياء al-kimia. The Islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy. Platonic and Aristotelian thought, which had already been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science, continued to be assimilated during the late 7th and early 8th centuries.

In the late 8th century, Jābir ibn Hayyān (known as "Geber" in Europe) introduced a new approach to alchemy, based on scientific methodology and controlled experimentation in the laboratory, in contrast to the ancient Greek and Egyptian alchemists whose works were often allegorical and unintelligible, with very little concern for laboratory work.^[44] Jabir is thus "considered by many to be the father of chemistry",^[45] albeit others reserve that title for Robert Boyle or Antoine Lavoisier. The historian of science, Paul Kraus, wrote:^[44]

“To form an idea of the historical place of Jabir’s alchemy and to tackle the problem of its sources, it is advisable to compare it with what remains to us of the alchemical literature in the Greek language. One knows in which miserable state this literature reached us. Collected by Byzantine scientists from the tenth century, the corpus of the Greek alchemists is a cluster of incoherent fragments, going back to all the times since the third century until the end of the Middle Ages.”

“The efforts of Berthelot and Ruelle to put a little order in this mass of literature led only to poor results, and the later researchers, among them in particular Mrs. Hammer-Jensen, Tannery, Lagercrantz , von Lippmann, Reitzenstein, Ruska, Bidez, Festugiere and others, could make clear only few points of detail…

The study of the Greek alchemists is not very encouraging. An even surface examination of the Greek texts shows that a very small part only was organized according to true experiments of laboratory: even the supposedly technical writings, in the state where we find them today, are unintelligible nonsense which refuses any interpretation.

It is different with Jabir’s alchemy. The relatively clear description of the processes and the alchemical apparatuses, the methodical classification of the substances, mark an experimental spirit which is extremely far away from the weird and odd esotericism of the Greek texts. The theory on which Jabir supports his operations is one of clearness and of an impressive unity. More than with the other Arab authors, one notes with him a balance between theoretical teaching and practical teaching, between the `ilm and the `amal. In vain one would seek in the Greek texts a work as systematic as that which is presented for example in the Book of Seventy.”

Jabir himself clearly recognized and proclaimed the importance of experimentation as follows:

The first essential in chemistry is that thou shouldest perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain to the least degree of mastery.^[46]

Early Islamic chemists such as Jabir Ibn Hayyan (جابر بن حيان in Arabic, Geberus in Latin; usually rendered in English as Geber), Al-Kindi (Alkindus) and Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rasis or Rhazes in Latin) contributed a number of key chemical discoveries, such as the muriatic (hydrochloric acid), sulfuric and nitric acids, and more. The discovery that aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, could dissolve the noblest metal, gold, was to fuel the imagination of alchemists for the next millennium.

Islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical hermeticism. The most influential author in this regard was arguably Jabir. Jabir's ultimate goal was Takwin, the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory, up to and including human life. He analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness.^[47] According to Jabir, in each metal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was externally cold and dry, while gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, a different metal would result.^[47] By this reasoning, the search for the philosopher's stone was introduced to Western alchemy. Jabir developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance's name in Arabic, when treated with various transformations, held correspondences to the element's physical properties.

The elemental system used in medieval alchemy also originated with Jabir. His original system consisted of seven elements, which included the five classical elements (aether, air, earth, fire and water), in addition to two chemical elements representing the metals: sulphur, ‘the stone which burns’, which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties. Shortly thereafter, this evolved into eight elements, with the Arabic concept of the three metallic principles: sulphur giving flammability or combustion, mercury giving volatility and stability, and salt giving solidity.^[48] The atomic theory of corpuscularianism, where all physical bodies possess an inner and outer layer of minute particles or corpuscles, also has its origins in the work of Jabir.^[49]

During the 9th to 14th centuries, alchemical theories faced criticism from a variety of practical Muslim chemists, including Alkindus,^[50] Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī,^[51] Avicenna^[52] and Ibn Khaldun. In particular, they wrote refutations against the idea of the transmutation of metals.

Alchemy in Medieval Europe

Painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1771

The introduction of alchemy to Latin Europe occurred on February 11, 1144, with the completion of Robert of Chester’s translation of the Arabic Book of the Composition of Alchemy. Although European craftsmen and technicians preexisted, Robert notes in his preface that alchemy was unknown in Latin Europe at the time of his writing. The translation of Arabic texts concerning numerous disciplines including alchemy flourished in twelfth century Toledo, Spain, through contributors like Gerard of Cremona and Adelard of Bath.^[53] Translations of the time included the Turba Philosophorum, and the works of Avicenna and al-Razi. These brought with them many new words to the European vocabulary for which there was no previous Latin equivalent. Alcohol, carboy, elixir, and athanor are examples.^[54]

Meanwhile, theologian contemporaries of the translators made strides towards the reconciliation of faith and experimental rationalism, thereby priming Europe for the influx of alchemical thought. Saint Anselm (1033–1109) put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian thought before the first works of Aristotle reached the West. Later, Robert Grosseteste (1170–1253) took Abelard's methods of analysis and added the use of observations, experimentation, and conclusions in making scientific evaluations. Grosseteste also did much work to bridge Platonic and Aristotelian thinking.^[55]

Through much of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, alchemical knowledge in Europe remained centered around translations, and new Latin contributions were not made. The efforts of the translators were succeeded by that of the encyclopaedists. Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon are the most notable of these.^[56] Their works explained and summarized the newly imported alchemical knowledge in Aristotelian terms. There is little to suggest that Albertus Magnus (1193–1280), a Dominican, was himself an alchemist. In his authentic works such as the Book of Minerals, he observed and commented on the operations and theories of alchemical authorities like Hermes and Democritus, and unnamed alchemists of his time. Albertus critically compared these to the writings of Aristotle and Avicenna, where they concerned the transmutation of metals. From the time shortly after his death through to the fifteenth century, twenty-eight or more alchemical tracts were misattributed to him, a common practice giving rise to his reputation as an accomplished alchemist.^[57] Likewise, alchemical texts have been attributed to Albert’s student Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274).

Roger Bacon (1214–1294) was an Oxford Franciscan who studied a wide variety of topics including optics, languages and medicine. After studying the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum around 1247, he dramatically shifted his studies towards a vision of a universal science which included alchemy and astrology. Bacon maintained that Albertus Magnus’ ignorance of the fundamentals of alchemy prevented a complete picture of wisdom. While alchemy was not more important to him than any of the other sciences, and he did not produce symbolic allegorical works, Bacon's contributions advanced alchemy’s connections to soteriology and Christian theology. Bacon’s writings demonstrated an integration of morality, salvation, alchemy, and the prolongation of life. His correspondence with Pope Clement IV highlighted this integration, calling attention to the importance of alchemy to the papacy.^[58] Like the Greeks before him, Bacon acknowledged the division of alchemy into the practical and theoretical. He notes that the theoretical lied outside the scope of Aristotle, the natural philosophers, and all Latin writers of his time. The practical however, confirmed the theoretical through experiment, and Bacon advocated its uses in natural science and medicine.^[59]

Soon after Bacon, the influential work of Pseudo-Geber (sometimes identified as Paul of Taranto) appeared. His Summa Perfectionis remained a staple summary of alchemical practice and theory through the medieval and renaissance periods. It was notable for its inclusion of practical chemical operations alongside sulphur-mercury theory, and the unusual clarity with which they were described.^[60] By the end of the 13th century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use the technique to purify the human soul). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practiced their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul was divided within himself after the fall of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God.^[61]

In the 14th century, alchemy became more accessible to Europeans outside the confines of Latin speaking churchmen and scholars. Alchemical discourse shifted from scholarly philosophical debate to an exposed social commentary on the alchemists themselves.^[62] Dante, Piers the Ploughman, and Chaucer all painted unflattering pictures of alchemists as thieves and liars. Pope John XXII’s 1317 edict, Spondent quas non exhibent forbade the false promises of transmutation made by pseudo-alchemists.^[63] In 1403, Henry IV of England banned the practice of multiplying metals. These critiques and regulations centered more around pseudo-alchemical charlatanism than the actual study of alchemy, which continued with an increasingly Christian tone. The 14th century saw the Christian imagery of death and resurrection employed in the alchemical texts of Petrus Bonus, John of Rupescissa and in works written in the name of Raymond Lull and Arnold of Villanova.^[64]

Nicolas Flamel lived from 1330 to 1417 and would serve as the archetype for the next phase of alchemy. He was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's stone. His work spends a great deal of time describing the processes and reactions, but never actually gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations. Most of his work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him, especially as regarded the philosopher's stone.^[65] Though the historical Flamel existed, the writings and legends assigned to him only appeared in 1612. Current scholarship suggests that they are fiction—another example of the tradition of pseudepigraphy and allegory in alchemical writing.^[66]

Through the late Middle Ages (1300–1500) alchemists were much like Flamel: they concentrated on looking for the philosophers' stone. Bernard Trevisan and George Ripley made similar contributions in the 14th and 15th centuries . Their cryptic allusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art.

Alchemy in the Renaissance and modern age

Further information: Renaissance magic and natural magic

Page from alchemic treatise of Ramon Llull, 16th century

European alchemy continued in this way through the dawning of the Renaissance. The era also saw a flourishing of con artists who would use chemical tricks and sleight of hand to "demonstrate" the transmutation of common metals into gold, or claim to possess secret knowledge that—with a "small" initial investment—would surely lead to that goal.

However, it is important to emphasize that the terms "chemia" and "alchemia" were used as synonyms in the Renaissance, and the differences between alchemy, chemistry and small-scale assaying and metallurgy were not as neat as in the present day. There were important overlaps between practitioners, and trying to classify them into wizards (alchemists), scientists (chemists) and craftsmen (metallurgists) is anachronistic.

One of these men who emerged at the beginning of the 16th century was the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535). This alchemist believed himself to be a wizard capable of summoning spirits.^{[citation needed]} His influence was negligible, but like Flamel, he produced writings which were referred to by alchemists of later years. Again like Flamel, he did much to change alchemy from a mystical philosophy to an occultist magic.^{[citation needed]} He did keep alive the philosophies of the earlier alchemists, including experimental science, numerology, etc., but he added magic theory, which reinforced the idea of alchemy as an occultist belief. In spite of all this, Agrippa still considered himself a Christian, though his views often came into conflict with the church.^[67][68]

The most important name in this period is Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541) who cast alchemy into a new form, rejecting some of the occultism that had accumulated over the years and promoting the use of observations and experiments to learn about the human body. He rejected Gnostic traditions, but kept much of the Hermetical, neo-Platonic, and Pythagorean philosophies; however, Hermetical science had so much Aristotelian theory that his rejection of Gnosticism was practically meaningless. In particular, Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Agrippa and Flamel.

Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, and wrote "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines."^[69] His hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man the microcosm and Nature the macrocosm. He took an approach different from those before him, using this analogy not in the manner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them.^[70] While his attempts of treating diseases with such remedies as Mercury might seem ill-advised from a modern point of view, his basic idea of chemically produced medicines has stood time surprisingly well. Alchemy became known as the spagyric art after Greek words meaning to separate and to join together the word probably being coined by Paracelsus. Compare this with one of the dictums of Alchemy in Latin: Solve et Coagula  — Separate, and Join Together (or "dissolve and coagulate").^[71]

"Alchemist Sędziwój" (1566–1636) by Jan Matejko, 1867

At the beginning of the 16th century, King James IV of Scotland kept an alchemist, John Damian, and a furnace of the quintessence in Stirling Castle.^[72] In England, the topic of alchemy in that time frame is often associated with Doctor John Dee (13 July 1527 – December, 1608), better known for his role as astrologer, cryptographer, and general "scientific consultant" to Queen Elizabeth I. Dee was considered an authority on the works of Roger Bacon, and was interested enough in alchemy to write a book on that subject (Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564) influenced by the Kabbalah. Dee's associate Edward Kelley — who claimed to converse with angels through a crystal ball and to own a powder that would turn mercury into gold — may have been the source of the popular image of the alchemist-charlatan.

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the late 16th century, sponsored various alchemists in their work at his court in Prague, one of which was a particular alchemist named Edward Kelley. Kelley had been a protegee of John Dee in England.

Another lesser known alchemist was Michael Sendivogius (Michał Sędziwój, 1566–1636), a Polish alchemist, philosopher, medical doctor and pioneer of chemistry. According to some accounts, he distilled oxygen in a lab sometime around 1600, 170 years before Scheele and Priestley, by warming nitre (saltpetre). He thought of the gas given off as "the elixir of life". Shortly after discovering this method, it is believed that Sendivogious taught his technique to Cornelius Drebbel. In 1621, Drebbel practically applied this in a submarine.

Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), better known for his astronomical and astrological investigations, was also an alchemist. He had a laboratory built for that purpose at his Uraniborg observatory/research institute.

Up to the 17th century, alchemy was practiced by scientists, such as Isaac Newton – who devoted considerably more of his writing to the study of alchemy (see Isaac Newton's occult studies) than he did to either optics or physics. Other alchemists of the Western world who were eminent in their other studies include Roger Bacon, and Tycho Brahe.

The decline of Western alchemy

The demise of Western alchemy was brought about by the rise of modern science with its emphasis on rigorous quantitative experimentation and its disdain for "ancient wisdom". Although the seeds of these events were planted as early as the 17th century, alchemy still flourished for some two hundred years, and in fact may have reached its apogee in the 18th century. As late as 1781 James Price claimed to have produced a powder that could transmute mercury into silver or gold.

Robert Boyle (1627–1691), better known for his studies of gases (cf. Boyle's law) pioneered the scientific method in chemical investigations. He assumed nothing in his experiments and compiled every piece of relevant data; in a typical experiment, Boyle would note the place in which the experiment was carried out, the wind characteristics, the position of the Sun and Moon, and the barometer reading, all just in case they proved to be relevant.^[73] This approach eventually led to the founding of modern chemistry in the 18th and 19th centuries, based on revolutionary discoveries of Lavoisier and John Dalton — which finally provided a logical, quantitative and reliable framework for understanding matter transmutations, and revealed the futility of longstanding alchemical goals such as the philosopher's stone.

Meanwhile, Paracelsian alchemy led to the development of modern medicine. Experimentalists gradually uncovered the workings of the human body, such as blood circulation (Harvey, 1616), and eventually traced many diseases to infections with germs (Koch and Pasteur, 19th century) or lack of natural nutrients and vitamins (Lind, Eijkman, Funk, et al.). Supported by parallel developments in organic chemistry, the new science easily displaced alchemy from its medical roles, interpretive and prescriptive, while deflating its hopes of miraculous elixirs and exposing the ineffectiveness or even toxicity of its remedies.

During the seventeenth century, a short-lived "supernatural" interpretation of alchemy become popular, including support by fellows of the Royal Society: Robert Boyle and Elias Ashmole. Proponents of the supernatural interpretation of alchemy believed that the philosopher's stone might be used to summon and communicate with angels.^[74]

The words "alchemy" and "chemistry" were used interchangeably during most of the seventeenth century; only during the eighteenth century was a distinction drawn rigidly between the two.^[19][75] In the eighteen century, "alchemy" was considered to be restricted to the realm of "gold making", leading to the popular belief that most, if not all, alchemists were charlatans, and the tradition itself nothing more than a fraud.^[75] The obscure and secretive writings of the alchemists was used as a case by those who wished to forward a fraudulent and non-scientific opinion of alchemy.^[76] In order to protect the developing science of modern chemistry from the negative censure of which alchemy was being subjected, academic writers during the scientific Enlightenment attempted, for the sake of survival, to separate and divorce the "new" chemistry from the "old" practices of alchemy. This move was mostly successful, and the consequences of this continued into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and even to the present day.^[77]

During the occult revival of the early nineteenth century, alchemy received new attention as an occult science.^[76][78] The esoteric or occultist school, which arose during the nineteenth century, held (and continues to hold) the view that the substances and operations mentioned in alchemical literature are to be interpreted in a spiritual sense, and it downplays the role of the alchemy as a practical tradition or protoscience.^[19][79][80] This interpretation further forwarded the view that alchemy is an art primarily concerned with spiritual enlightenment or illumination, as opposed to the physical manipulation of apparatus and chemicals, and claims that the obscure language of the alchemical texts were an allegorical guise for spiritual, moral or mystical processes.^[80]

In the nineteenth century revival of alchemy, the two most seminal figures were Mary Anne Atwood, and Ethan Allen Hitchcock who independently published similar works regarding spiritual alchemy. Both forwarded a completely esoteric view of alchemy, as Atwood claimed: "No modern art or chemistry, notwithstanding all its surreptitious claims, has any thing in common with Alchemy."^[81][82] Atwood's work influenced subsequent authors of the occult revival including Eliphas Levi, Arthur Edward Waite, and Rudolf Steiner. Hitchcock, in his Remarks Upon Alchymists (1855) attempted to make a case for his spiritual interpretation with his claim that the alchemists wrote about a spiritual discipline under a materialistic guise in order to avoid accusations of blasphemy from the church and state. In 1845, Baron Carl Reichenbach, published his studies on Odic force, a concept with some similarities to alchemy, but his research did not enter the mainstream of scientific discussion.^[83]

Thus, as science steadily continued to uncover and rationalize the clockwork of the universe, founded on its own materialistic metaphysics, alchemy was left deprived of its chemical and medical connections — but still incurably burdened by them. Reduced to an arcane philosophical system, poorly connected to the material world, it suffered the common fate of other esoteric disciplines such as astrology and Kabbalah: excluded from university curricula, shunned by its former patrons, ostracized by scientists, and commonly viewed as the epitome of charlatanism and superstition. These developments could be interpreted as part of a broader reaction in European intellectualism against the Romantic movement of the preceding centuries.

Indian alchemy

Main article: Rasayana

See also: History of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent

According to Multhauf & Gilbert (2008):^[84]

The oldest Indian writings, the Vedas (Hindu sacred scriptures), contain the same hints of alchemy that are found in evidence from ancient China, namely vague references to a connection between gold and long life. Mercury, which was so vital to alchemy everywhere, is first mentioned in the 4th- to 3rd-century-BC Artha-śāstra, about the same time it is encountered in China and in the West. Evidence of the idea of transmuting base metals to gold appears in 2nd- to 5th-century-AD Buddhist texts, about the same time as in the West. Since Alexander the Great had invaded Ancient India in 325 BC, leaving a Greek state (Gandhāra) that long endured, the possibility exists that the Indians acquired the idea from the Greeks, but it could have been the other way around.

Significant progress in alchemy was made in ancient India. Will Durant wrote in Our Oriental Heritage:

"Something has been said about the chemical excellence of cast iron in ancient India, and about the high industrial development of the Gupta times, when India was looked to, even by Imperial Rome, as the most skilled of the nations in such chemical industries as dyeing, tanning, soap-making, glass and cement... By the sixth century the Hindus were far ahead of Europe in industrial chemistry; they were masters of calcinations, distillation, sublimation, steaming, fixation, the production of light without heat, the mixing of anesthetic and soporific powders, and the preparation of metallic salts, compounds and alloys. The tempering of steel was brought in ancient India to a perfection unknown in Europe till our own times; King Porus is said to have selected, as a specially valuable gift from Alexander, not gold or silver, but thirty pounds of steel. The Moslems took much of this Hindu chemical science and industry to the Near East and Europe; the secret of manufacturing "Damascus" blades, for example, was taken by the Arabs from the Persians, and by the Persians from India."

An 11th century Persian chemist and physician named Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī reported that they "have a science similar to alchemy which is quite peculiar to them, which in Sanskrit is called Rasayāna and in Persian Rasavātam. It means the art of obtaining/manipulating Rasa: nectar, mercury, and juice. This art was restricted to certain operations, metals, drugs, compounds, and medicines, many of which have mercury as their core element. Its principles restored the health of those who were ill beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age." One thing is sure though, Indian alchemy like every other Indian science is focused on finding Moksha: perfection, immortality, liberation. As such it focuses its efforts on transmutation of the human body: from mortal to immortal. Many are the traditional stories of alchemists still alive since time immemorial due to the effects of their experiments.

The texts of Ayurvedic Medicine and Science have aspects similar to alchemy: concepts of cures for all known diseases, and treatments that focus on anointing the body with oils.

Since alchemy eventually became engrained in the vast field of Indian erudition, influences from other metaphysical and philosophical doctrines such as Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika and Ayurveda were inevitable. Nonetheless, most of the Rasayāna texts track their origins back to Kaula tantric schools associated to the teachings of the personality of Matsyendranath.

The Rasayāna was understood by very few people at the time. Two famous examples were Nagarjunacharya and Nityanadhiya. Nagarjunacharya was a Buddhist monk who, in ancient times, ran the great university of Nagarjuna Sagar. His famous book, Rasaratanakaram, is a famous example of early Indian medicine. In traditional Indian medicinal terminology "rasa" translates as "mercury" and Nagarjunacharya was said to have developed a method to convert the mercury into gold. Much of his original writings are lost to us, but his teachings still have strong influence on traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda) to this day.

Chinese alchemy

Main article: Chinese alchemy

Taoist Alchemists often use this alternate version of the Taijitu.

Whereas Western alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble ones, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists. However, in the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than initially appears.

Black powder may have been an important invention of Chinese alchemists. Described in 9th century texts and used in fireworks in China by the 10th century, it was used in cannons by 1290. From China, the use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols, the Arab world, and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century.

Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and to martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan and Kung Fu (although some Tai Chi schools believe that their art derives from the philosophical or hygienic branches of Taoism, not Alchemical). In fact, in the early Song Dynasty, followers of this Taoist idea (chiefly the elite and upper class) would ingest mercuric sulfide, which, though tolerable in low levels, led many to suicide. Thinking that this consequential death would lead to freedom and access to the Taoist heavens, the ensuing deaths encouraged people to eschew this method of alchemy in favor of external sources (the aforementioned Tai Chi Chuan, mastering of the Qi, etc.).

Alchemy as a subject of historical research

The history of alchemy has become a significant and recognized subject of academic study.^[85] As the language of the alchemists is analyzed, historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the evolution of science and philosophy, the sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities, kabbalism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements.^[86] Institutions involved in this research include The Chymistry of Isaac Newton project at Indiana University, the University of Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO), the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), and the University of Amsterdam's Sub-department for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. A large collection of books on alchemy is kept in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam.

Modern alchemy

Due to the complexity and obscurity of alchemical literature, and the eighteenth century disappearance of remaining alchemical practitioners into the area of chemistry; the general understanding of alchemy in the general public, modern practitioners, and also many historians of science, have been strongly influenced by several distinct and radically different interpretations.^[87] Hundreds of books including adulterated translations of classical alchemical literature were published throughout the early nineteenth century.^[20] Many of these continue to be reprinted today by esoteric book publishing houses, along with modern books on spiritual alchemy and poor translations of older alchemical texts. These are then used as sources by modern authors to support spiritual interpretations. Over half of the books on alchemy published since 1970 support spiritual interpretations, mostly using previously adulterated documents to support their conclusions. Many of these books continue to be taken seriously, even appearing in university bookshelves.^[21]

Esoteric interpretations of alchemy remains strong to this day, and continue to influence both the public and academic perceptions of the history of alchemy. Today, numerous esoteric alchemical groups continue to perpetuate modern interpretations of alchemy, sometimes merging in concepts from New Age or radical environmentalism movements.^[88] Rosencrutzians and freemasons have a continued interest in alchemy and its symbolism.

Alchemy in traditional medicine

Traditional medicine sometimes involves the transmutation of natural substances, using pharmacological or a combination of pharmacological and spiritual techniques. In Ayurveda the samskaras are claimed to transform heavy metals and toxic herbs in a way that removes their toxicity. These processes are actively used to the present day.^[89]

Twentieth century spagyrists Albert Richard Riedel and Jean Dubuis merged Paracelsian alchemy with occultism, teaching laboratory pharmaceutical methods. The schools they founded, Les Philosophes de la Nature and The Paracelsus Research Society, popularized modern spagyrics including the manufacture of herbal tinctures and products.^[90] The courses, books, organizations, and conferences generated by their students continue to influence popular applications of alchemy as a new age medicinal practice.

Nuclear transmutation

Main articles: Nuclear transmutation and Synthesis of noble metals

See also: Glenn T. Seaborg

In 1919, Ernest Rutherford used artificial disintegration to convert nitrogen into oxygen.^[91] From then on, this sort of scientific transmutation is routinely performed in many nuclear physics-related laboratories and facilities, like particle accelerators, nuclear power stations and nuclear weapons as a by-product of fission and other physical processes.

The synthesis of noble metals enjoyed brief popularity in the 20th century when physicists were able to convert platinum atoms into gold atoms via a nuclear reaction. However, the new gold atoms, being unstable isotopes, lasted for under five seconds before they broke apart. More recently, reports of table-top element transmutation—by means of electrolysis or sonic cavitation—were the pivot of the cold fusion controversy of 1989. None of those claims have yet been reliably duplicated.

Synthesis of noble metals requires either a nuclear reactor or a particle accelerator. Particle accelerators use huge amounts of energy, while nuclear reactors produce energy, so only methods utilizing a nuclear reactor are of economic interest.

Psychology

Alchemical symbolism has been used by psychologists such as Carl Jung who reexamined alchemical symbolism and theory and presented the inner meaning of alchemical work as a spiritual path.^[92][93] Jung was deeply interested in the occult since his youth, participating in seances, which he used as the basis for his doctoral dissertation "On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena."^[94] In 1913, Jung had already adopted a "spiritualist and redemptive interpretation of alchemy", likely reflecting his interest in the occult literature of the nineteenth century.^[95] Jung began writing his views on alchemy from the 1920s and continued until the end of his life. His interpretation of Chinese alchemical texts in terms of his analytical psychology also served the function of comparing Eastern and Western alchemical imagery and core concepts and hence its possible inner sources (archetypes).^[96][97][98]

Jung saw alchemy as a Western proto-psychology dedicated to the achievement of individuation.^[92][98] In his interpretation, alchemy was the vessel by which Gnosticism survived its various purges into the Renaissance,^[98][99] a concept also followed by others such as Stephan A. Hoeller. In this sense, Jung viewed alchemy as comparable to a Yoga of the East, and more adequate to the Western mind than Eastern religions and philosophies. The practice of Alchemy seemed to change the mind and spirit of the Alchemist. Conversely, spontaneous changes on the mind of Western people undergoing any important stage in individuation seems to produce, on occasion, imagery known to Alchemy and relevant to the person's situation.^[100] Jung did not completely reject the material experiments of the alchemists, but he massively downplayed it, writing that the transmutation was performed in the mind of the alchemist. He claimed the material substances and procedures were only a projection of the alchemists' internal state, while the real substance to be transformed was the mind itself.^[101]

Marie-Louise von Franz, a disciple of Jung, continued Jung's studies on alchemy and its psychological meaning. Jung's work exercised a great influence on the mainstream perception of alchemy, his approach becoming a stock element in many popular texts on the subject to this day.^[102] Modern scholars are sometimes critical of the Jungian approach to alchemy as overly reflective of nineteenth century occultism.^{[19][78][103]}

Magnum opus

Main article: Magnum opus (alchemy)

The Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of four stages represented by colors.

• nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
• albedo, a whitening or leucosis
• citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
• rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis^[104]

See also

• Alchemy in art and entertainment
• Biological transmutation
• Chemistry
• Chinese alchemy
• Cupellation
• Hermes Trismegistus
• Historicism
• List of alchemists
• Metaphysics
• Nuclear transmutation
• Outline of Alchemy
• Philosopher's Stone
• Physics
• Porta Alchemica
• Protoscience, Pseudoscience, and Anti-science
• Scientific method
• Superseded scientific theories
• Synthesis of precious metals

Notes and references

1. ^ Alchemy at Dictionary.com.
2. ^ For a detailed look into the problems of defining alchemy see Linden 1996, pp. 6–36
3. ^ Holmyard 1957, p. 16
4. ^ ^{a b} Antoine Faivre, Wouter J. Hanegraaff. Western esotericism and the science of religion. 1995. p.96
5. ^ von Franz 1997, p. ^{[page needed]}
6. ^ N.C. Datta. The Story of Chemistry. p.23
7. ^ Arthur Greenburg. From alchemy to chemistry in picture and story.
8. ^ H. Stanley Redgrove. Alchemy Ancient and Modern p.60
9. ^ Mitch Stokes. Isaac Newton p. 57
10. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, pp. 397–8,400
11. ^ William R Newman & Lawrence M Principe (1998) "The Etymological Origins of an Historiographic Mistake" in Early Science and Medicine, Vol. 3, No. 1 pp. 32–65
12. ^ Deem, Rich (2005). "The Religious Affiliation of Robert Boyle the father of modern chemistry. From: Famous Scientists Who Believed in God". adherents.com. http://www.adherents.com/people/pb/Robert_Boyle.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
13. ^ More, Louis Trenchard (January 1941). "Boyle as Alchemist". Journal of the History of Ideas (University of Pennsylvania Press) 2 (1): 61–76. doi:10.2307/2707281. JSTOR 2707281. 
14. ^ Allen G. Debus. Alchemy and early modern chemistry. The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry. p.34.
15. ^ Raphael Patai. The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book. Princeton University Press. p.4
16. ^ Théodore Henri de Tschudi. Hermetic Catechism in his L'Etoile Flamboyant ou la Société des Franc-Maçons considerée sous tous les aspects. 1766. (A.E. Waite translation as found in The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.)
17. ^ ^{a b} Raphael Patai. The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book. Princeton University Press. p.3
18. ^ Daniel Merkur. Gnosis: an esoteric tradition of mystical visions and unions. State University of New York Press. p.75
19. ^ ^{a b c d} Newman & Principe 2002, p. 37
20. ^ ^{a b} Newton and Newtonianism by James E. Force, Sarah Hutton, p211
21. ^ ^{a b} Principe & Newman 2001, pp. 395–6
22. ^ Calian 2010, p. ^{[page needed]}
23. ^ alchemy, Oxford Dictionaries
24. ^ ^{a b} "alchemy". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989. Or see Harper, Douglas. "alchemy". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=alchemy. Retrieved 2010-04-07. .
25. ^ See, for example, the etymology for χημεία in Liddell, Henry George; Robert Scott (1901). A Greek-English Lexicon (Eighth edition, revised throughout ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0199102058. 
26. ^ See, for example, both the etymology given in the Oxford English Dictionary and also that for χυμεία in Liddell, Henry George; Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon (A new edition, revised and augmented throughout ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0199102058. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=xumeia&la=greek#lexicon. 
27. ^ The original source for this analysis is the article on pp. 81–85 of Mahn, Carl August Friedrich (1855). Etymologische untersuchungen auf dem gebiete der romanischen sprachen. F. Duemmler. http://books.google.com/?id=-BMLAAAAQAAJ. 
28. ^ New Scientist, December 24–31, 1987
29. ^ Garfinkel, Harold (1986). Ethnomethodological Studies of Work. Routledge &Kegan Paul. pp. 127. ISBN 0415119650. 
30. ^ Yves Bonnefoy. ‘Roman and European Mythologies’. University of Chicago Press, 1992. pp. 211–213
31. ^ Clement, Stromata, vi. 4.
32. ^ Linden 1996, p. 12
33. ^ Partington, James Riddick (1989). A Short History of Chemistry. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 20. ISBN 0486659771. 
34. ^ Linden 2003, p. 46
35. ^ ^{a b} A History of Chemistry, Bensaude-Vincent, Isabelle Stengers, Harvard University Press, 1996, p13
36. ^ Linden 1996, p. 14
37. ^ Lindsay, Jack (1970). The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. London: Muller. p. 16. ISBN 0-389-01006-5. 
38. ^ Hitchcock, Ethan Allen (1857). Remarks Upon Alchemy and the Alchemists. Boston: Crosby, Nichols. p. 66. ISBN 0405079559. 
39. ^ Fanning, Philip Ashley. Isaac Newton and the Transmutation of Alchemy: An Alternative View of the Scientific Revolution. 2009. p.6
40. ^ F. Sherwood Taylor. Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry. p.26.
41. ^ Allen G. Debus. Alchemy and early modern chemistry: papers from Ambix. p. 36
42. ^ Glen Warren Bowersock, Peter Robert Lamont Brown, Oleg Grabar. Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world. p. 284–285
43. ^ Burckhardt, Titus (1967). Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Trans. William Stoddart. Baltimore: Penguin. p. 46. ISBN 0906540968. 
44. ^ ^{a b} Kraus, Paul, Jâbir ibn Hayyân, Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque,. Cairo (1942–1943). Repr. By Fuat Sezgin, (Natural Sciences in Islam. 67–68), Frankfurt. 2002: (cf. Ahmad Y Hassan. "A Critical Reassessment of the Geber Problem: Part Three". http://www.history-science-technology.com/Geber/Geber%203.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-09. )
45. ^ Derewenda, Zygmunt S. (2007). "On wine, chirality and crystallography". Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations of Crystallography 64: 246–258 [247]. doi:10.1107/S0108767307054293. PMID 18156689. 
46. ^ Holmyard 1931, p. 60
47. ^ ^{a b} Burckhardt, Titus (1967). Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Trans. William Stoddart. Baltimore: Penguin. p. 29. ISBN 0906540968. 
48. ^ Strathern, Paul. (2000), Mendeleyev’s Dream – the Quest for the Elements, New York: Berkley Books
49. ^ Moran, Bruce T. (2005). Distilling knowledge: alchemy, chemistry, and the scientific revolution. Harvard University Press. p. 146. ISBN 0674014952. "a corpuscularian tradition in alchemy stemming from the speculations of the medieval author Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan)" 
50. ^ Felix Klein-Frank (2001), "Al-Kindi", in Oliver Leaman & Hossein Nasr, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 174. London: Routledge.
51. ^ Marmura Michael E. (1965). "An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines: Conceptions of Nature and Methods Used for Its Study by the Ikhwan Al-Safa'an, Al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina by Seyyed Hossein Nasr". Speculum 40 (4): 744–6. doi:10.2307/2851429. 
52. ^ Robert Briffault (1938). The Making of Humanity, p. 196–197.
53. ^ Holmyard 1957, pp. 105–108
54. ^ Holmyard 1957, p. 110
55. ^ Hollister, C. Warren (1990). Medieval Europe: A Short History (6th ed.). Blacklick, Ohio: McGraw–Hill College. pp. 294f. ISBN 0-07-557141-2. 
56. ^ John Read. From Alchemy to Chemistry. 1995 p.90
57. ^ James A. Weisheipl. Albertus Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays. PIMS. 1980. p.187-202
58. ^ Edmund Brehm. "Roger Bacon’s Place in the History of Alchemy." Ambix. Vol. 23, Part I, March 1976.
59. ^ Holmyard 1957, pp. 120–121
60. ^ Holmyard 1957, pp. 134–141.
61. ^ Burckhardt, Titus (1967). Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Trans. William Stoddart. Baltimore: Penguin. p. 149. ISBN 0906540968. 
62. ^ Tara E. Nummedal. Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire. University of Chicago Press, 2007. p. 49
63. ^ John Hines, II, R. F. Yeager. John Gower, Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation, and Tradition. Boydell & Brewer. 2010. p.170
64. ^ Leah DeVun. From Prophecy, Alchemy, and the End of Time: John of Rupescissa in the late middle ages. Columbia University Press, 2009. p. 104
65. ^ Burckhardt, Titus (1967). Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Trans. William Stoddart. Baltimore: Penguin. pp. 170–181. ISBN 0906540968. 
66. ^ Linden 2003, p. 123
67. ^ Edwardes, Michael (1977). The Dark Side of History. New York: Stein and Day. pp. 56–59. ISBN 0552114634. 
68. ^ Wilson, Colin (1971). The Occult: A History. New York: Random House. pp. 23–29. ISBN 0-394-46555-5. 
69. ^ Edwardes, Michael (1977). The Dark Side of History. New York: Stein and Day. p. 47. ISBN 0552114634. 
70. ^ Debus, Allen G. and Multhauf, Robert P. (1966). Alchemy and Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California.. pp. 6–12. 
71. ^ Davis, Erik. "The Gods of the Funny Books: An Interview with Neil Gaiman and Rachel Pollack". Gnosis (magazine). Techgnosis (reprint from Summer 1994 issue). http://www.techgnosis.com/gaiman.html. Retrieved 2007-02-04. 
72. ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. iii, (1901), 99, 202, 206, 209, 330, 340, 341, 353, 355, 365, 379, 382, 389, 409.
73. ^ Pilkington, Roger (1959). Robert Boyle: Father of Chemistry. London: John Murray. p. 11. 
74. ^
    • Journal of the History of Ideas, 41, 1980, p293-318
    • Principe & Newman 2001, pp. 399
    • The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest, by Lawrence M. Principe, 'Princeton University Press', 1998, pp 188 90
75. ^ ^{a b} Principe & Newman 2001, p. 386
76. ^ ^{a b} Principe & Newman 2001, p. 387
77. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, pp. 386–7
78. ^ ^{a b} Kripal & Shuck 2005, p. 27
79. ^ Eliade 1994, p. 49
80. ^ ^{a b} Principe & Newman 2001, p. 388
81. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, p. 391
82. ^ Rutkin 2001, p. 143
83. ^ Daniel Merkur. Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions. SUNY Press. 1993 p.55
84. ^ Multhauf, Robert P. & Gilbert, Robert Andrew (2008). Alchemy. Encyclopædia Britannica (2008).
85. ^ Antoine Faivre, Wouter J. Hanegraaff. Western esotericism and the science of religion. 1995. p.viii–xvi
86. ^ See Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism website
87. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, p. 385
88. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, p. 396
89. ^ Junius, Manfred M; The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy: An Herbalist's Guide to Preparing Medicinal Essences, Tinctures, and Elixirs; Healing Arts Press 1985
90. ^ Joscelyn Godwin. The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions. Quest Books, 2007. p.120
91. ^ [|Amsco School Publications]. "Reviewing Physics: The Physical Setting". Amsco School Publications. http://www.stmary.ws/physics/amsco_review_and_glencoe/chapter05.pdf. ""The first artificial transmutation of one element to another was performed by Rutherford in 1919. Rutherford bombarded nitrogen with energetic alpha particles that were moving fast enough to overcome the electric repulsion between themselves and the target nuclei. The alpha particles collided with, and were absorbed by, the nitrogen nuclei, and protons were ejected. In the process oxygen and hydrogen nuclei were created." 
92. ^ ^{a b} Jung, C. G. (1944). Psychology and Alchemy (2nd ed. 1968 Collected Works Vol. 12 ISBN 0-691-01831-6). London: Routledge.
93. ^ Jung, C. G., & Hinkle, B. M. (1912). Psychology of the Unconscious : a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido, a contribution to the history of the evolution of thought. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. (revised in 1952 as Symbols of Transformation, Collected Works Vol.5 ISBN 0-691-01815-4).
94. ^ The Jung Cult, by Ricard Noll, Princeton University Press, 1994, p144
95. ^ Noll. Aryan Christ. p171
96. ^ C.-G. Jung Preface to Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching.
97. ^ C.-G. Jung Preface to the translation of The Secret of The Golden Flower.
98. ^ ^{a b c} Polly Young-Eisendrath, Terence Dawson. The Cambridge companion to Jung. Cambridge University Press. 1997. p.33
99. ^ Jung, C. G., & Jaffe A. (1962). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. London: Collins. This is Jung's autobiography, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffe, ISBN 0-679-72395-1.
100. ^ Jung, C. G.—Psychology and Alchemy; Symbols of Transformation.
101. ^ Redemption in Alchemy, by Carl Jung, p210
102. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, p. 401
103. ^ Principe & Newman 2001, p. 418
104. ^ Joseph Needham. Science & Civilisation in China: Chemistry and chemical technology. Spagyrical discovery and invention : magisteries of gold and immortality. Cambridge. 1974. p.23

Bibliography

• Calian, George (2010). Alkimia Operativa and Alkimia Speculativa. Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy. Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU. http://www.archive.org/stream/AlkimiaOperativaAndAlkimiaSpeculativa.SomeModernControversiesOnThe/FlorinGeorgeCalian-AlkimiaOperativaAndAlkimiaSpeculativa.SomeModernControversiesOnTheHistoriographyOfAlchemy#page/n0/mode/2up. 
• Eliade, Mircea (1994). The Theosophical Enlightenment. State University of New York Press. 
• Holmyard, Eric John (1931). Makers of Chemistry. Oxford: Clarendon Press. http://www.archive.org/details/makersofchemistr029725mbp. 
• Holmyard, Eric John (1957). Alchemy. Courier Dover Publications. http://books.google.com/books?id=7Bt-kwKRUzUC&lpg=PP1&dq=alchemy&pg=PP1&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Linden, Stanton J. (1996). Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English literature from Chaucer to the Restoration. University Press of Kentucky. http://books.google.com/books?id=isJY9jWdru0C&lpg=PP1&dq=alchemy&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Linden, Stanton J. (2003). The Alchemy Reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press. 
• Newman, William R.; Principe, Lawrence M. (2002). Alchemy Tried in the Fire. University of Chicago Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=eQERmMdykZEC&lpg=PP1&dq=alchemy&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• von Franz, Marie Louise (1997). Alchemical Active Imagination. Boston: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 0-87773-589-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=wOVUUMirSnEC&lpg=PP1&dq=alchemy&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Kripal, Jeffrey John; Shuck, Glenn W. (July 2005). On the Edge of the Future. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253345561. http://books.google.com/books?id=mffc2m9D3REC. Retrieved 2011-12-17. 
• Principe, Lawrence M.; Newman, William R. (2001). "Some Problems with the Historiography of Alchemy". In Newman, William R.; Grafton, Anthony. Secrets of Nature, Astrology and Alchemy in Modern Europe. MIT Press. pp. 385–432. ISBN 9780262140751. http://books.google.com/books?id=CMuJGpztRFMC. Retrieved 2011-12-17. 
• Rutkin, H. Darrel (2001). "Celestial Offerings: Astrological Motifs in the Dedicatory Letters of Kepler's Astronomia Nova and Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius". In Newman, William R.; Grafton, Anthony. Secrets of Nature, Astrology and Alchemy in Modern Europe. MIT Press. pp. 133–172. ISBN 9780262140751. http://books.google.com/books?id=CMuJGpztRFMC. Retrieved 2011-12-17. 

External links

Look up alchemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alchemy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alchemy

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Alchemy

Wikibooks has more on the topic of Alchemy

• SHAC: Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
• ESSWE: European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
• Association for the Study of Esotericism
• The Alchemy Website. – Adam McLean's online collections and academic discussion.
• Alchemy on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Alchemy
• Book of Secrets: Alchemy and the European Imagination, 1500-2000 – A digital exhibition from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University

v d e Alchemy (Outline) Concepts Alkahest  · Chrysopoeia  · Classical planets (Suns)  · Elements  · Elixir of life  · Homunculus  · In art and entertainment  · Philosopher's stone (In art)  · Substances  · Symbols Branches Chinese (Neidan)  · Iatrochemistry  · Medieval Islamic  · Rasayana  · Spagyric Magnum opus Nigredo  · Albedo  · Citrinitas  · Rubedo Processes Calcination  · Ceration  · Cohobation  · Congelation  · Digestion  · Distillation  · Fermentation  · Filtration  · Fixation  · Multiplication  · Projection  · Solution  · Sublimation Alchemists Arthur Dee  · Isaac Newton  · Jābir ibn Hayyān  · John Dee  · Khālid ibn Yazīd  · Mary the Jewess  · Nicholas Flamel  · Paracelsus  · Robert Boyle  · Roger Bacon  · Wei Boyang  · Zosimos of Panopolis Works Alchemical Studies  · Aurora consurgens  · Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit  · Cyranides  · Emerald Tablet  · Fasciculus Chemicus  · Hermetic Definitions  · Hermetic Journal  · Hermetica  · Kitab al-Kimya  · Liber Ignium  · Musaeum Hermeticum  · Mutus Liber  · Occult Chemistry  · Psychology and Alchemy  · Rosary of the Philosophers  · Splendor Solis  · Suspicions about the Hidden Realities of the Air  · Theatrum Chemicum  · Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum  · Turba Philosophorum

v d e Metaphysics Metaphysicians Parmenides Plato Aristotle Kapila Plotinus Duns Scotus Thomas Aquinas René Descartes John Locke David Hume Immanuel Kant Isaac Newton Arthur Schopenhauer Baruch Spinoza Georg W. F. Hegel George Berkeley Gottfried Leibniz Henri Bergson Friedrich Nietzsche Charles Sanders Peirce Ludwig Wittgenstein Martin Heidegger Alfred N. Whitehead Bertrand Russell Dorothy Emmet G. E. Moore Jean-Paul Sartre Gilbert Ryle Hilary Putnam P. F. Strawson R. G. Collingwood Adolph Stöhr Rudolf Carnap Saul Kripke Willard V. O. Quine Donald Davidson more ... Theories Anti-realism Cartesian dualism Free will Liberty Materialism Meaning of life Idealism Existentialism Essentialism Libertarianism Determinism Naturalism Monism Platonic idealism Hindu idealism Phenomenalism Nihilism Realism Physicalism MOQ Relativism Scientific realism Solipsism Subjectivism Substance theory Type theory Sankhya Concepts Action Abstract object Being Category of being Causality Change Choice Concept Cogito ergo sum Embodied cognition Entity Essence Existence Experience Form Idea Identity Information Insight Intelligence Intention Matter Memetics Mind Meaning Mental representation Modality Motion Necessity Notion Object Pattern Physical object Perception Principle Properties Qualia Quality Reality Subject Soul Substance Thought Time Truth Type Universal Unobservable Value World soul more ... Related articles Cosmology Epistemology Ontology Teleology Philosophy of psychology Philosophy of mind Philosophy of self Philosophy of space and time Axiology Theoretical physics meta- Portal Category Task Force Stubs Discussion

v d e Philosophy of science Philosophers Albert Einstein Alfred North Whitehead Aristotle Auguste Comte Averroes Berlin Circle Carl Gustav Hempel C. D. Broad Charles Sanders Peirce Dominicus Gundissalinus Daniel Dennett Epicurians Francis Bacon Friedrich Schelling Galileo Galilei Henri Poincaré Herbert Spencer Hugh of Saint Victor Immanuel Kant Imre Lakatos Isaac Newton John Dewey John Stuart Mill Jürgen Habermas Karl Pearson Karl Popper Karl Theodor Jaspers Larry Laudan Otto Neurath Paul Haeberlin Paul Feyerabend Pierre Duhem Pierre Gassendi Plato R.B. Braithwaite René Descartes Robert Kilwardby Roger Bacon Rudolf Carnap Stephen Toulmin Stoicism Thomas Hobbes Thomas Samuel Kuhn Vienna Circle W.V.O. Quine Wilhelm Windelband Wilhelm Wundt William of Ockham William Whewell more... Concepts Analysis Analytic-synthetic distinction A priori and a posteriori Artificial intelligence Causality Commensurability Construct Demarcation problem Explanatory power Fact Falsifiability Ignoramus et ignorabimus Inductive reasoning Ingenuity Inquiry Models of scientific inquiry Nature Objectivity Observation Paradigm Problem of induction Scientific explanation Scientific law Scientific method Scientific revolution Scientific theory Testability Theory choice Metatheory of science Confirmation holism Coherentism Contextualism Conventionalism Deductive-nomological model Determinism Empiricism Fallibilism Foundationalism Hypothetico-deductive model Infinitism Instrumentalism Naturalism Positivism Pragmatism Rationalism Received view of theories Reductionism Semantic view of theories Scientific realism Scientism Scientific anti-realism Skepticism Uniformitarianism Vitalism Metaphysics Related Epistemology History and philosophy of science History of science History of evolutionary thought Philosophy of biology Philosophy of chemistry Philosophy of physics Philosophy of mind Philosophy of artificial intelligence Philosophy of information Philosophy of perception Philosophy of space and time Philosophy of thermal and statistical physics Philosophy of social science Philosophy of environment Philosophy of psychology Philosophy of technology Philosophy of computer science Pseudoscience Relationship between religion and science Rhetoric of science Sociology of scientific knowledge Criticism of science Alchemy more... Portal Category Task Force Discussion Changes

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - alkymi, guldmageri

Nederlands (Dutch)
alchemie

Français (French)
n. - (lit, fig) alchimie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Alchimie

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αλχημεία

Italiano (Italian)
alchimia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - alquimia (f)

Русский (Russian)
алхимия

Español (Spanish)
n. - alquimia, crisopeya

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - alkemi

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
炼金术, 神奇力量

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 煉金術, 神奇力量

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 연금술

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 錬金術

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألخيمياء : ألكيمياء ألقديمه هدفها تحويل ألمعادن الخسيسه الى ذهب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אלכימיה, שינוי פלאי או האמצעים לבצעו‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.