Intro to Alchemy - Coin's Notes
This is a quick primer on Alchemy, what it is, where it came from, and how it’s used today taken straight from my notes. This will likely be a series of posts as the topic of Alchemy is vast despite it being somewhat difficult to find resources on!
Alchemy is sort of like magical chemistry but with some spirituality added to it, to put it vaguely. It likely has its roots in ancient Egypt but spread almost everywhere and is still used today—more on that later. Sadly over time, we’ve lost a lot of alchemical knowledge what little knowledge we do have has been reimagined in a more romanticist way, causing a lot of what was known to be skewed.
The mysterious nature of alchemy is not just in this lack of knowledge, but the texts we do have are often riddled with codewords, called decknamen, that can make the text difficult to read unless decoded. Why? Think of these books as containing "trade secrets", you don't want to share those around all willy-nilly!
Famous alchemists that you may know are Isaac Newton, Paracelsus, and Agrippa, though there are many more exemplary alchemists that you can find here.
The modern word alchemy is a bit of a mystery itself --as it comes from the Arabic word al-kīmiyā (the al- being the Arabic definite article “the”), but the origin of ladder half, -chemy, is unknown.
There is speculation that -chemy comes from the Late Greek khēmía means "land of black earth”, an old name for Egypt. Or possibly from the Greek khymatos meaning "that which is poured out”. (EtymologyOnline)
Another likely candidate is the greek cheo meaning "to melt or fuse" (L. M. Principe).
Transmutation; Lead to Gold
One goal of alchemy, the transmutation of base substances into gold—termed chrysopoeia—is possibly the most widely known to the average person. We know now that it’s impossible to transmute base substances into gold by chemical means, but not impossible by other means (scientists turn bismuth into gold using a particle accelerator). Different alchemists had their own ideas as to how to do this but of course, none of them succeeded.
That’s not to say alchemy as a whole is a failure, alchemists through the ages have made some of the most important inventions or discoveries to this day and we know of alchemy as a predecessor of modern chemistry.
The Great Work; Magnum Opus
More than just a creator’s largest or most famous piece of work, the Magnum Opus—a.k.a The Great Work—is an alchemical term for the process of working with the prima materia ("first matter”) to create the Philosopher's stone (wiki).
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
These were later expanded upon and eventually came to 12 steps/processes. The order of these steps would vary by alchemist.
Philosopher’s Stone and Immortality
It is a common misconception that the purpose of the Philosopher’s Stone was to give infinite life, it was just meant to prolong one’s life. It was also thought to cure disease and transmute base substances into gold.
Seeking immortality is noted more in Chinese "alchemy", it's proper names being Waidan 外丹 (External Alchemy) and Neidan 內丹 (Internal Alchemy) [Pregadio].
Alchemy in a Modern Context
From my understanding, there are as many approaches to alchemy as there have been alchemists, but in attempts to make this easier let's give it some labels: there are two paths when studying modern alchemy, though these labels are loose as these paths are not mutually exclusive. The two paths are a spiritual path and a traditional path. These are not set-in-stone labels or definitions, and if either interests you then I suggest looking into them more on your own time, there are links and resources at the end of the post to get you started!
Some folks try to reconstruct alchemical formulas, or even make their own, either out of curiosity or as an attempt to revive the lost art. This approach takes a more reconstructionist perspective and leans closer to chemistry than psychology. That being said, alchemy was not solely empirical and there are almost always going to be spiritual aspects involved.
Sometimes when alchemy is used in a modern context you’ll see it talked about in a more spiritual or psychological way. The approaches of alchemy from a spiritual perspective will vary by person, just as the scientific approaches will vary by person.
I won’t go too much into it here, but essentially spiritual alchemy is the idea that alchemical texts are spiritual or philosophical, and thus interpret them as such; practitioners of spiritual alchemy decode the texts from a psychology-based perspective and rarely, if ever, do they involve chemicals or substances in the way traditional alchemy does.
This path is usually focused on self-transformation (or self-transmutation) and doesn’t necessarily use a body of chemical knowledge to practice.
Ok so you know the bare bones about what alchemy is and a few of its uses, so what now? Well, you could either wait until my next "coin's notes" post and see what I talk about then, or you can check out the "References and Further Reading" section and get started on your own research journey!
Enjoy my posts? Consider leaving me a tip on my ko-fi!~
References and Further Reading
Esoterica - Alchemy (playlist)
Livescience - What is Alchemy?
Sacred-texts - Alchemy (subject)
Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored by Archibald Cockren (via Sacred-texts)
Alchemy Restored by Lawrence M. Principe
The Secrets of Alchemy by Lawrence M. Principe
Victorian Alchemy: Science, Magic, and Ancient Egypt by Eleanor Dobson (via Jstor)
