Alchemy (page 3)

	Alchemical symbolic references were often reflected in strange images. This 16th century print shows the importance of the three vital elements — salt, mercury, and sulphur — as a vision of an undeveloped human form, housing the subconscious, inchoate and unrefined natures (from the 1612 edition of Martin Rutland's Lexicon Alchemiae).

Gold truly represented the alchemist's quest, and kings and commoners from the Mediterranean to the Baltic came to see alchemy as a shortcut to limitless wealth. Greed generated corruption, creating a darker side to all this. Charlatans, swindlers, and humbugs that preyed on the humble and the powerful alike, thrived. Some of them, as mentioned before, ended up paying the ultimate price for their unscrupulous exploits. Their histories present a rich catalog of the flaws as well as the follies of humankind.

Yet in its proper manner the art of arts was a higher calling. Numerous alchemists were men of vast wisdom and profound moral principles. For these men, the pursuit of spiritual perfection took precedence over the search for easy riches, and transforming a troubled and unclean soul into spiritual gold was as important as the physical procedure of transmuting metals. These authentic adepts viewed the universe as a unity and believed that by searching the complicated workings of its elements they could discover the essence of the whole.

Thus alchemists saw their superior vocation as a holy art that had a dual nature. Assiduously pursued, it could supply both a spiritual pathway to knowledge of the cosmic objective and a practical means to improve humanity. The dynamically renewed spirit of the Renaissance inspired thinkers to question ancient authority and to seek practical answers to nature's mysteries. Alchemists were at the forefront of this new directive, paving the way for the development of chemistry as a science. And since true alchemists had elected as one of their goals the betterment of the human condition, it was an obvious next step to apply their chemical skills to the field of medicine.

To achieve such enlightenment was a formidable undertaking, however, and the grueling path led a large number of alchemists to a lifetime of frustration and a pauper's grave. Yet on its highest plane alchemy was a magnificent obsession, and the genuine adept had nothing but disdain for the petty practitioner whose only objective in life consisted of a base aspiration to find his fortune in a gold-filled crucible.

When Nicholas Flamel was earning a name for himself in 14th century Paris, the beginning of the age of scientific chemistry was a long way off. Flamel and his fellow alchemists knew almost nothing about the constitution of matter. Most scholars believed confidently in the ancient theory that all matter sprang from an elemental material, known as the prima materia, from which was formed the four basic elements — fire, air, water, and earth. They still accepted Aristotle's explanation that everything in the universe was formed from these four elements and that the exact proportions, combined with divergent qualities such as wet and dry, hot and cold, defined whether a metal turned out to be lead or gold.

In this context, the concept of transmutation made perfect sense. Most scholars thought that the metals were naturally formed in the earth's interior furnace by an essentially alchemical process that acted on the prima materia. Furthermore, since all things in nature were energized with the divine spirit and for that reason aspired to a higher, more perfect state, metals, too, steadily perfected themselves inside the earth's womb. For this reason even lead, in the course of a natural process of transmutation, would ultimately become silver or gold. The alchemist's role, therefore, was to speed up nature's work by executing the transmutation in the laboratory. Such artificial transmutation seemed completely reasonable to the Renaissance intellectuals. The predicament was how to go about it.

One of the fundamental principles of alchemy was that its secrets should not be revealed to the uninitiated. "I swear to you upon my soul," the 13th century alchemist Ramon Llull vowed to his readers, "that if you reveal this, you shall be damned." A later adept, writing under the name of Basil Valentine, was no less graphic when he warned that "to speak of this even a little further would mean being willing to sink into hell."

The rationale for secrecy went beyond mere elitism. Greed, of course, played its part in prompting some alchemists to retain their formulas under wraps. Another potent restraint was imposed when the Catholic Church in the 14th century pronounced alchemy to be a diabolic art. But still more persuasive, for the true adept, was an authentic fear of the evil that possibly would be wreaked on society should the stone find its way into the wrong hands. As Englishman Thomas Norton wrote in the 15th century:

"This art must ever secret be. / The cause whereof is this, as ye may see: / If one evil man had thereof all his will, / All Christian peace he might easily spill, / And with his pride he might pull down / Rightful kings and princes of renown."

Norton's anxiety may sound picturesque today, but he was dead serious, and it would not be unusual to associate his concern to a 20th century statesman's apprehension about nuclear proliferation.

The Philosopher's Stone may not have been part of the Renaissance citizens' everyday life, but most believed that it existed and that some of the sorcerers, necromancers, and wizards of the time possessed it. Written and oral histories of the period abound with tales of the stone's prowess, and the accounts — some might call them legends or fairy tales — deal in perfectly matter-of-fact tones with the phenomenon. Today, most of the narratives come out as being a fascinating blend of truth and wishful thinking, but not all the facts can be sorted out, and many mysteries still remain.

See Agrippa, Casting Black Magic Spells, Commanding Spirits, The Tarot Store and Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies.

Sources: (1) Dictionary of the Occult, Caxton Publishing; (2) Steiger, Brad and Sherry H., The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, Thomson Gale; (3) Spence, Lewis, An Encyclopedia of Occultism, Carol Publishing Group; (4) Fernando, Diana, Alchemy: An Illustrated A to Z, Sterling Publications; (5) Alchemy: The Art of Knowing (Medieval Wisdom), Harper Collins Publishers; (6) Secrets of the Alchemists, Mysteries of the Unknown series, Time-Life Books; (7) Walker, Charles, The Encyclopedia of the Occult, Random House Value; (8) Mysteries of Mind, Space & Time: The Unexplained, H. S. Stuttman Inc. Publishers; (9) Powell, Neil, Alchemy, the Ancient Science, Doubleday.

 

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Suggested Art Prints and Posters:

The Alchemist's Laboratory Giclee Print Wyck, Thomas Buy this art print			Alchemy Versus Doctrinus Poster Buy this poster
The Story of the Inky Boys Tall Agrippa and His Inkwell Giclee Print Hoffmann,... Buy this poster			The Philosophers Will, from a Manuscript of Alchemy, 14th Century Giclee Print French School Buy this poster
Hermes Trismegistus, Perceived by Neoplatonists as the Presiding Deity of Alchemy Giclee Print Buy this poster			Alchemists at Work, from a Manuscript of Alchemy Giclee Print French School Buy this poster
Alchemist at Work in His Laboratory Giclee Print Wimbush, J.l. Buy this art print			An Alchemist at Work at His Furnace Giclee Print Payne, Harry Buy this art print

Real Alchemy: A Primer of Practical Alchemy Buy this Book

Suggested Books:

-- A Commentary on the Mutus Liber.

-- A Golden and Blessed Casket of Nature's Marvels: Concerning the Blessed Mystery of the Philosopher's Stone.

-- Alchemical Medicine.

-- Alchemical Studies.

-- Alchemy.

-- Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology.

-- Alchemy: An Illustrated A to Z.

-- Alchemy and Mysticism: Hermetic Museum (Klotz Series).

-- Alchemy: The Art of Knowing (Medieval Wisdom).

-- Alchemy: The Art of Transformation.

-- Alchemy, the Golden Art: The Secrets of the Oldest Engima.

-- Alchemy: The Philosopher's Stone.

-- Alchemy: The Secret Art.

-- Archidoxes of Magic: Of the Supreme Mysteries of Nature, of the Spirits of Planets, Secrets of Alchemy, Occult Philosophy, Zodiac Sign.

-- Creations of Fire: Chemistry's Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Age.

-- From Alchemy to Chemistry (Dover Science Books).

-- Elements Of Alchemy.

-- Herbs in Magic and Alchemy: Techniques from Ancient Herbal Lore.

-- Hermetic Fundamentals Revealed.

-- Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts.

-- Intermediate Studies in Alchemy.

-- Robert Fludd: Hermetic Philosopher and Surveyor of Two Worlds.

-- Saint Germain on Alchemy: For the Adept in Aquarian Age.

-- Scientifica Hermetica: An Introduction to the Science of Alchemy.

-- Secrets of the Alchemists.

-- Sorcerer's Stone: A Beginner's Guide to Alchemy.

-- Splendor Solis.

-- Studies in Alchemy: The Science of Self-Transformation.

-- Studies in Medieval Science: Alchemy, Astrology, Mathematics and Medicine.

-- The Alchemical Mandala: A Survey of the Mandala in the Western Esoteric Traditions.

-- The Alchemical Works of Geber.

-- The Golden Fleece and Alchemy.

-- The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century.

-- The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book.

-- The Modern Alchemist: A Guide to Personal Transformation.

-- The Philosopher's Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy.

-- The Philosopher's Stone: Michio Kushi's Guide to Alchemy, Transmutation and the New Science.

-- The Philosophy of Natural Magic.

-- The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy: An Herbalist's Guide to Preparing Medicinal Essences, Tinctures, and Elixirs.

-- The Secret Teachings of All Ages

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