Alchemy

Table of contents

1 Overview of Alchemy 2 History of Alchemy 3 Alchemical Philosophy 4 Back to the Middle East 5 Back to Europe 6 Alchemy in the Renaissance

Overview of Alchemy

In a sense, alchemists, the practitioners of alchemy, can now be regarded as proto-scientistss applying a fusion of science, art, and religion to chemical physics, and alchemy can be regarded as the precursor of the modern science of chemistry prior to the formulation of the scientific method.

The word alchemy comes from the arabic language al-kimiya or "al-khimiya" (الكيمياء or الخيمياء), which is probably formed from the article al- and the greek word χυμεία (chymeia) meaning "cast together", "pour together", "weld" etc.

The common perception of alchemists is that they were pseudo-scientists who attempted to turn lead into gold, believed all matter was composed of the four elements earth, air, fire, and water, and dabbled around the edges of mysticism and magic. From today's perspective, these perceptions have some validity, but if we are to be objective we should judge them in the context of the times they lived in. They were attempting to explore and investigate nature before many of the most basic scientific tools and practices were available, relying instead on rules of thumb, traditions, basic observations, and mysticism to fill in the gaps.

To understand the alchemists it is helpful to consider how wonderfully magical the conversion of one substance into another would seem in a culture with no formal understanding of physics or chemistry. The transmutation of base metals into gold symbolized an endeavour toward perfection or the highest heights of actual existence, and the division of the world into four basic elements was as much a geometric principle as a geological one. The literal interpretations of the alchemists' uninitiated contemporaries, or the fraudulent hopes fostered by some of their colleagues should not diminish the undertakings of the more sincere alchemists.

Further, the field of alchemy evolved greatly over time, beginning as a metallurgical/medicinal arm of religion, maturing into a rich field of study in its own right, devolving into mysticism and outright charlatanism, and in the end providing some of the fundamental empirical knowledge of the fields of chemistry and modern medicine.

In alchemy, the chemical, elemental or material dimension was not kept distinct from the interpretive, symbolic or philosophical one: a physics devoid of metaphysical insight was as partial and incomplete as a metaphysics devoid of physical manifestation.

Eminent alchemists of the Western world (Europe) included Roger Bacon, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Thomas Browne.

History of Alchemy

The origins of alchemy lie in Ancient (Pharaonic) Egypt and Ancient (Hellenic) Greece, and we can trace its onward development from there outward through India and the Middle East. Metallurgy and mysticism were inexorably tied together in the ancient world, as the techniques of converting ores into an almost holy metal seemed to be a priestly art. Alchemy in Ancient Egypt was the domain of the priestly class. This is the reason why the word is arabic in origin.

Legend has it that the founder of alchemy was Thoth or the Thrice-Great Hermes (Hermes-Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus). According to Egyptian legend, Thoth wrote what were called the forty-two Books of Knowledge, covering law, medicine, alchemy, and everything (all knowledge). Legend suggests these books were lost in the flames of Alexandria or some other disastrous fate. Hermes is associated with the Caduceus, which became one of many of alchemy's principal symbols.

The "Emerald Table" (the Hermetica) of Thrice-Greatest Hermes, which seems to have survived fires and other disasters in its translated versions (thanks to vigilant Arabic scribes) is generally understood to form the basis for alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by the early alchemists.

Alchemical Philosophy

The first point of the "Emerald Tablet" tells the purpose of hermetical science: "in truth certainly and without doubt, whatever is below is like that which is above, and whatever is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing." (Burckhardt, p. 196-7)

This is the macrocosm-microcosm belief central to the hermetic philosophy. In other words, the human body (the microcosm) is affected by the exterior world (the macrocosm), which includes the heavens through astrology, and the earth through the elements. (Burckhardt,p. 34-42)

The Greeks appropriated the hermetical beliefs and melded with them the philosophies of Pythagoreanism, ionianism, and gnosticism. Pythagorean philosophy is, essentially, the belief that numbers rule the universe, originating from the observations of sound, stars, and geometric shapes like triangles, or anything from which a ratio could be derived. Ionian thought was based on the belief that the universe could be explained through concentration on natural phenomena; this philosophy is believed to have originated with Thales and his pupil Anaximander, and later developed by Plato and Aristotle, whose works came to be an integral part of alchemy. According to this belief, the universe can be described by a few unified natural laws that can be determined only through careful, thorough, and exacting philosophical explorations. The third component introduced to hermetical philosophy by the Greeks was gnosticism, a belief prevalent in the pre-Christian and early post-Christian Roman empire, that the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner, and that learning about the nature of spiritual matter would lead to salvation. They further believed that God did not "create" the universe in the classic sense, but that the universe was created "from" him, but