ALCHEMY: The science by aid of
which the chemical philosophers of
medieval times attempted to transmute the baser
metals into gold or
silver. There is considerable divergence
of opinion as to the etymology
of the word, but it would seem to be derived
from the Arabic al=the, and
kimya=chemistry, which in turn derives from the
late Greek
chemica=chemistry, from chumeia=a mingling, or
cheein, `to pour out` or
`mix', Aryan root ghu, to pour, whence the word
`gush'. Mr. A. Wallis
Budge in his "Egyptian Magic", however, states
that it is possible that
it may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia,
that is to say 'the
preparation of the black ore', or `powder', which
was regarded as the
active principle in the transmutation of metals.
To this name the Arabs
affixed the article `al', thus giving 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
in the individualities of
the various metals, that in it their various
substances were
incorporated. This black powder was mystically
identified with the
underworld form of the 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.
Probably such a belief
existed throughout Europe in connection with
the bronze-working castes
of its several races. Its 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 brought to Morocco
and thus in the eighth
century to Spain, where it flourished exceedingly.
Indeed, Spain from
the ninth to the eleventh century became the
repository of alchemic
science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova
and Granada were the
centers from which this science radiated throughout
Europe.
The first practical alchemist may be said
to have been the Arbian
Geber, who flourished 720-750. From his
"Summa Perfectionis", we may be
justified in assuming that alchemical science
was already matured in his
day, and that he drew his inspirations from a
still older unbroken line
of adepts. He was followed by Avicenna,
Mesna and Rhasis, and in France
by Alain of Lisle, Arnold de Villanova and Jean
de Meung the troubadour;
in England by Roger Bacon and in Spain itself
by Raymond Lully. Later,
in French alchemy the most illustrious names
are those of Flamel (b. ca.
1330), and Bernard Trevisan (b. ca. 1460) after
which the center of of
interest changes to Germany and in some measure
to England, in which
countries Paracelsus, Khunrath (ca. 1550), Maier
(ca. 1568), Norton,
Dalton, Charnock, and Fludd kept the alchemical
flame burning brightly.
It is surprising how little alteration
we find 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 are found expressed in the later alchemical
authorities as in
the earliest, and a wonderful unanimity as regards
the basic canons of
the great art is evinced by the hermetic students
of the time. On the
introduction of chemistry as a practical art,
alchemical science fell
into desuetude and disrepute, owing chiefly to
the number of charlatans
practicing it, and by the beginning of the eighteenth
century, as a
school, it may be said to have become defunct.
Here and there, however,
a solitary student of the art lingered, and in
the department of this
article "Modern Alchemy" will demonstrate that
the science has to a
grate extent revived during modern times, although
it has never been
quite extinct.
THE QUESTS OF ALCHEMY: The grand
objects of alchemy were (1) the
discovery of a process by which the baser metals
might be transmuted
into gold or silver; (2) the discovery of an
elixir by which life might
be prolonged indefinitely; and there may be added
(3), the manufacture
of and artificial process of human life. (for
the latter see Homunculus)
THE THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ALCHEMY:
The first objects were to be
achieved as follows: The transmutation
of metals was to be accomplished
by a powder, stone or exilir often called the
Philosopher`s Stone, the
application of which would effect the transmutation
of the baser metals
into gold or silver, depending upon the length
of time of its
application. Basing their conclusions on
a profound examination of
natural processes and research into the secrets
of nature, the
alchemists arrived at the axiom that nature was
divided philosophically
into four principal regions, the dry, the moist,
the warm, the cold,
whence all that exists must be derived.
Nature is 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. The alchemist must be ingenuous,
of a truthful disposition, and
gifted with patience and prudence, following
nature in every alchemical
performance. He must recollect that like
draws to like, and must know
how to obtain the seed of metals, which is produced
by the four elements
through the will of the Supreme Being and the
Imagination of Nature. We
are told the the original matter of metals is
double in its essence,
being a dry heat combined with a warm moisture,
and that air is water
coagulated by fir, capable of producing a universal
dissolvent. These
terms the neophyte must be cautious of interpreting
in their literal
sense. 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 beginner must
also acquire a thorough
knowledge of the manner in which metals grow
in the bowels of the earth.
These are engendered by sulphur, which is male,
and mercury, which is
female, and the crux of alchemy is to obtain
their seed - a process
which the alchemist philosophers have not described
with any degree of
clarity.
The physical theory of transmutation is
based on the composite
character of metals, and on the existence of
a substance which, applied
to matter, exalts and perfects it. This,
Eugenius Philalethes and
others call 'The Light'. The elements of
all metals is similar,
differing only in purity and proportion.
The entire trend of the
metallic kingdom is towards the natural manufacture
of gold, and the
production of the baser metals is only accidental
as the result of an
unfavorable environment. The Philosopher's
Stone is the combination of
the male and female seeds which beget gold.
The composition of these is
so veiled by symbolism as to make their identification
a matter of
impossibility. Waite, summarizing the alchemical
process once the
secret of the stone is unveiled, says:
"Given the matter of the stone
and also the necessary vessel, the process which
must be then undertaken
to accomplish the `magnum opus' are described
with moderate perpicuity.
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 medicines 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 the chief stages characterized
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 its vulgar state.
This medicine becomes a
most potent agent in the exaltation of base metals."
There are not wanting authorities who deny
that the transmutations of
metals was the grand object of alchemy, and who
infer from the
alchemistical writings that the end of the art
was the spiritual
regeneration of man. Mrs. Atwood, author
of "A Suggestive Inquiry into
the Hermetic Mystery", and an American writer
named Hitchcock are
purhaps the chief protagonists of the belief
the by spiritual processes
akin to those of the chemical process of alchemy,
the soul of man may be
purified and exalted. But both commit the
radical error of stating the
the alchemical writers did not aver that the
transmutation of base metal
into gold was their grand end. None of
the passages they quote, is
inconsistent with the physical object of alchemy,
and in a work, "The
Marrow of Alchemy", stated to be by Eugenius
Philaletes, it is laid down
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 a tyro may possibly stumble
upon it, but that unless
he is guided by an adept he has small chance
of achieving the grand
arcanum. It will be obvious to the tyro,
however, that nothing can ever
be achieved by trusting to the allegories of
the adepts or the many
charlatans who crowded the ranks of the art.
Gold may be made, or it
may not, but the truth or fallacy of the alchemical
method lies with
modern chemistry. The transcendental view
of alchemy, however, is
rapidly gaining ground, and probably originated
in the comprehensive
nature of Hermetic theory and the consciousness
in the alchemical mind
that what might with success be applied to nature
could also be applied
to man with similar results. Says Mr. Waite,
"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 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.
RECORDS OF ACTUAL TRANSMUTATIONS:
Several records of alleged
transmutations of base metal into gold are in
existence. These were
achieved by Nicholas Flamel, Van Helmont, Martini,
Richthausen, and
Sethon. For a detailed account of the methods
employed the reader is
referred to several articles on these hermetists.
In nearly every case
the transmuting element was a mysterious powder
or the "Philosopher's
Stone".
MODERN ALCHEMY That alchemy has been
studied in modern times there
can be no doubt. M. figuier in his
"L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes",
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 says, the positive alchemical
doctrine had many
adherents at the end of the eighteenth century
and the beginning of the
nineteenth. Thus a "vast association of
alchemists", founded in
Westphalia in 1790, continued to flourish in
the year 1819, under the
name of the "Hermetic Society". In 1837,
an alchemist of Thuringia
presented to the Societe Industrielle of Weimar
a tincture which 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. He
further states that many Honoverian and Bavarian
families pursued in
common the search for the grand arcanum.
Paris, however, was regarded
as the alchemical Mecca. There dwelt many
theoretical alchemists and
"empirical adepts". The first pursued and
arcanum through the medium of
books, the other engaged in practical efforts
to effect transmutation.
M. Figuier states that in the forties of
the last century he
frequented the laboratory of a certain Monsieur
L., which was the
rendezvous of the alchemists in 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 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 the 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
illumines. Their expression was generally
a mixture of the most ardent
hope and fixed despair. Among the
adepts who sought the laboratory of
Monsieur L., Figuier remarked especially a young
man, in whose habits
and language he could 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 proceeded to fix a limit
to the researches of the modern
alchemists. Gold, he said, according to
the ancient authors, as three
distinct properties: (1) that of resolving the
baser metals into itself,
and interchanging and metamorphosing all metals
into one another; (2)
the curing of afflictions and the prolongation
of life; (3), as a
'spiritus mundi' to bring mankind into rapport
with the supermundane
spheres. Modern alchemists, he continued,
reject 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 the power to transform and transmute all
other substances into
one another - in short, to discover that medium
so well known to the
alchemists of old and lost to us. This
was a perfectly feasible
proposition. 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 established the fact
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. Thus
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".
M. Figuier's friend then proceeds to quote support
of his thesis and
operations and experiments of M. Dumas, a celebrated
French savant, as
is well known to thous of Prout, and other English
chemists of standing.
Passing to consider the possibility of
isomerism in elementary as well
as in compound substances, the points out to
M. Figuier that id 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 isometric bodies
with the properties of
metals, in order to discover whether they have
any common
characteristics. Such experiments, he continued,
had been conducted by
M. Dumas, with the result the isometric substances
were to be found to
have equal equivalents, or equivalents which
were exact multiples of one
another. This characteristic is also a
feature of metals. Gold and
osmium have identical equivalents, as have platinum
and iridium. The
equivalent of cobalt is almost the same as that
of nickel, and the
semi-equivalent of tin is equal to the equivalent
of the two preceding
metals.
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 demolishes the difficulties in the
way of transmutation.
Again, Dr. Prout says that the chemical equivalents
of nearly all
elemental substances are the multiples of one
among them. Thus, if the
equivalent of hydrogen be taken for the unit,
the equivalent of every
other substance will be an exact multiple of
it - carbon will be
represented by six, axote by fourteen, oxygen
by sixteen, zink by
thirty-two. But, pointed out M. Figuier's
friend, if the molecular
masses in compound substances have so simple
a connection, does it not
go to prove the all natural bodies are formed
of one principle,
differently arranged and condensed to produce
all known compounds?
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
Philosopher`s 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 Philosopher`s 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 Philosopher`s
Stone is
infinitesimal. 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.
Wherefore, then, should we be blind tot he scientific
nature of
transmutation?
One of the foundations of alchemical theories
was that minerals grew
and developed 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. M.
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 be placed
in air or water, there will
be no result, but if a touch of some acid be
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 most metaphysical in its production,
and only explicable
thereby.
He concluded his argument with an appeal
for tolerance towards the
medieval alchemists, whose work is underrated
because it is not properly
understood.
LITERATURE:
Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into
the Hermetic Mastery, 1850
Hitchcock, Remarks on Alchemy and
the Alchemists, Boston, 1857
Waite, Lives of the Alchemystical
Philosophers, London, 1888
"
The Occult Sciences, London, 1891
Bacon, Mirror of Alchemy, 1597
S. le Doux, Dictionnaire Hermetique,
1695
Langlet de fresnoy, Histoire de
la Philosophie Hermetique, 1792
"
" Theatrum Chemicum, 1662
Valentine, Triumphal Chariot of
Antimony, 1656
Redgrove, Alchemy Ancient and Modern
Figuier, L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes,
Paris, 1857
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taken from a 1960 reprint
of "AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF OCCULTISM", by
Lewis Spence; University Press,
Hyde Park, New York. Originally
Published in 1920, it is considered
to be one of the most complete
texts on the subject.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
