Alchemy

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Alchemy refers to a quest for a fabled elixir capable of turning copper and other base metals to gold and also a quest for something to prevent human beings' bodies from becoming old. Alchemy is both a philosophy and an ancient practice that seeks to prepare the "elixir of longevity" or philosophers' stone, accomplish the transmutation into gold, and attain ultimate wisdom. It supposedly involves the manufacture of several substances with unusual properties, as well as improvement of the alchemist. Some alchemical sources treat the various substances, equipment and processes in an allegorical sense, as metaphors for a spiritual discipline. Practical alchemy, on the other hand, can be viewed as a protoscience, the precursor to modern inorganic chemistry, having provided many procedures, equipment and names of substances that are still in use.

Alchemy has been practiced primarily in medieval Iran as well as Egypt, Mesopotamia[citation needed], India[citation needed], China, Japan[citation needed], Korea[citation needed], the classical Greco-Roman world[citation needed], the medieval Islamic world, and then medieval Europe up to the modern era, in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2,500 years.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Etymology

Main article: Chemistry (etymology)

The word alchemy derives 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) [1] with the addition of the Arabic definite article al- (الـ‎).[2] The ancient Greek word may have been derived from[3] 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).[2] The word could also have originally derived from chumeia (χυμεία) meaning "mixture" and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry.[4] 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.[5] The etymology is still open, and recent research indicates that the Egyptian derivation may be valid.[6]

[edit] Alchemy as a philosophical and spiritual discipline

Page from alchemic treatise of Ramon Llull, 16th century

Alchemy became known as the spagyric art after Greek words meaning to separate and to join together in the 16th century, 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").[7]

The best-known goals of the alchemists were the transmutation of common metals into gold (called chrysopoeia) or silver (less well known is plant alchemy, or "spagyric"); the creation of a "panacea", or the elixir of life, a remedy that, it was supposed, would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely; and the discovery of a universal solvent.[8] Although these were not the only uses for the discipline, they were the ones most documented and well-known. Certain Hermetic schools argue that the transmutation of lead into gold is analogical for the transmutation of the physical body (Saturn or lead) into (Gold) with the goal of attaining immortality.[9] This is described as Internal Alchemy. Starting with the Middle Ages, Persian and European alchemists invested much effort in the search for the "philosopher's stone", a legendary substance that was believed to be an essential ingredient for either or both of those goals. Pope John XXII issued a bull against alchemical counterfeiting, and the Cistercians banned the practice amongst their members. In the late 14th century, Piers the Ploughman and Chaucer both painted unflattering pictures of Alchemists as thieves and liars; and in 1403, Henry IV of England banned the practice of Alchemy without first receiving a licence to practise it from the King. However, by the 16th C, Elizabeth I employed the polymath John Dee, regarded by many as an alchemist, as her astrologer and occasional advisor. By contrast, 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.

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 double origin of Alchemy in Greek philosophy as well as in Egyptian and Mesopotamian technology set, from the start, a double approach: the technological, operative one, which Marie-Louise von Franz call extravert, and the mystic, contemplative, psychological one, which von Franz names as introvert. These are not mutually exclusive, but complementary instead, as meditation requires practice in the real world, and conversely.[10]

Several early alchemists, such as Zosimos of Panopolis, are recorded as viewing alchemy as a spiritual discipline, and, in the Middle Ages, metaphysical aspects, substances, physical states, and molecular material processes as mere metaphors for spiritual entities, spiritual states, and, ultimately, transformations. In this sense, the literal meanings of 'Alchemical Formulas' were a blind, hiding their true spiritual philosophy, which being at odds with the Medieval Christian Church was a necessity that could have otherwise led them to the "stake and rack" of the Inquisition under charges of heresy.[11] Thus, 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" in order to discover their true meaning.

In his Alchemical Catechism, Paracelsus clearly denotes that his 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.[12]

[edit] Psychology

Alchemical symbolism has been occasionally used by psychologists and philosophers. Carl Jung reexamined alchemical symbolism and theory and began to show the inner meaning of alchemical work as a spiritual path.[13][14]

Jung saw alchemy as a Western proto-psychology dedicated to the achievement of individuation.[13] In his interpretation, alchemy was the vessel by which Gnosticism survived its various purges into the Renaissance,[15] 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.[16]

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).[17][18]

Marie-Louise von Franz, a disciple of Jung, continued Jung's studies on Alchemy and its psychological meaning.

[edit] Magnum opus

Main article: Magnum opus (alchemy)

The Great Work; mystic interpretation of its four stages:[19]

After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages.[20]

[edit] Alchemy as a subject of historical research

The history of alchemy has become a vigorous academic field. As the obscure hermetic language of the alchemists is gradually being "deciphered", historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities, kabbalism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements, cryptography, witchcraft, and the evolution of science and philosophy.

[edit] History

Main article: History of alchemy

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, centred around the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center has shifted over the millennia from ancient Egypt, to the Greco-Roman world, 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.

[edit] Modern connections to alchemy

In the Islamic world, alchemy was a forerunner of modern scientific chemistry, with alchemists such as Al-Kindi, Rhazes, Avicenna, Imad ul-din and Hayyān.

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.

During the 17th century, practical alchemy started to evolve into modern chemistry,[21] as it was renamed by Robert Boyle, the "father of modern chemistry".[22] In his book, The Skeptical Chymist, Boyle attacked Paracelsus and the venerable 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.[23] 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.

[edit] Alchemy in traditional medicine

Traditional medicines involve transmutation by alchemy, using pharmacological or a combination of pharmacological and spiritual techniques. In Chinese medicine the alchemical traditions of pao zhi will transform the nature of the temperature, taste, body part accessed or toxicity. In Ayurveda the samskaras are used to transform heavy metals and toxic herbs in a way that removes their toxicity. These processes are actively used to the present day.[24]

[edit] In literature

Sir Thomas Malory uses Alchemy as a motif that underlies the personal, psychological, and aesthetic development of Sir Gareth of Orkney in Le Morte d'Arthur[citation needed]. Sir Gareth's quest parallels the process of Alchemy in that he first undergoes the nigredo phase by defeating the black knight and wearing his armor. After this, Gareth defeats knights representing the four elements, thereby subsuming their power. In fighting and defeating the Red Knight (the overall purpose of his quest), he undergoes and passes the rubedo phase. Gareth, toward the end of his quest, accepts a ring from his paramour, Lyoness, which transforms his armor into multicolors. This alludes to the panchromatic philosopher's stone, and while he is in multicolored armor, he is unbeatable.

The award-winning novel by Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist, is largely about a boy named Santiago and his travels with an Alchemist.

A play by Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, is a satirical and skeptical take on the subject.

Part 2 of Goethe's Faust, is full of alchemical symbolism.[25]

According to Hermetic Fictions: Alchemy and Irony in the Novel (Keele University Press, 1995), by David Meakin, alchemy is also featured in such novels and poems as those by William Godwin, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Emile Zola, Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, James Joyce, Gustav Meyrink, Lindsay Clarke, Marguerite Yourcenar, Umberto Eco, Michel Butor, Paulo Coelho, Amanda Quick, Gabriel García Marquez and Maria Szepes.

Hilary Mantel, in her novel Fludd (1989, Penguin), mentions the spagyric art. 'After separation, drying out, moistening, dissolving, coagulating, fermenting, comes purification, recombination: the creation of substances the world until now has never beheld. This is the opus contra naturam, this is the spagyric art, this is the Alchymical Wedding'. (page 79)

In Dante's Inferno, it is placed within the Tenth ring of the 8th circle.[26]

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, real-life alchemist Nicolas Flamel is supposed to have successfully created the Philosopher's stone, which could turn metal into gold and create an elixir of immortality that enabled him to live into the 1990s, when the book is set.

The manga and anime series Fullmetal Alchemist bases itself on a more fantasised version of alchemy, based on the principle of equivalent exchange. Also, alchemy is used to create homunculi.

In the manga and anime series Buso Renkin, alchemy is used to form Kakugane, which transforms into a weapon based on a human's fighting instincts.

The main character in the play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), by Ann-Marie MacDonald, attempts (and succeeds) at determining the alchemy behind Shakespeare's work, Othello.

Alchemy plays a central role in the Baroque Cycle novels of Neil Stephenson.

[edit] In contemporary art

In the twentieth century alchemy was a profoundly important source of inspiration for the Surrealist artist Max Ernst, who used the symbolism of alchemy to inform and guide his work. M.E. Warlick wrote his Max Ernst and Alchemy describing this relationship in detail.

Contemporary artists use alchemy as inspiring subject matter, like Odd Nerdrum, whose interest has been noted by Richard Vine, and the painter Michael Pearce,[27] whose interest in alchemy dominates his work. His works Fama[28] and The Aviator's Dream[29] particularly express alchemical ideas in a painted allegory.

The installation, video and performance artist Matthew Barney has also made reference to alchemical ingredients in his work, notably in his performance pieces Ren (2008), Guardian of the Veil (2007) and Khu (2010) which reference the book Ancient Evenings.[30] The experimental filmmaker James Whitney planned a series of four alchemical films in the mid 1970's. Of these only one was made, called Dwija (1976),[31] described by William Wees as "an alchemical vessel dissolving and materialising again and again within a pulsating stream of coloured light."[32] Jordan Belson[31] and Harry Smith[33] also referenced alchemical ideas and imagery in their experimental films. More recently, the German experimental filmmaker Jürgen Reble has referenced alchemical processes in his physical and chemical manipulation of the filmstrip, describing one particular work, Alchemy, as bridging the gap between the "processing and fixing" of the film.[34] In 2010 the moving image artist Richard Ashrowan created a video installation, Alchemist, which used texts by the twelfth century alchemist Michael Scot and included performances related to alchemical themes.[35]

[edit] In film

The Holy Mountain is Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 cult film in which the alchemist transforms the thief character's excrement into gold by proclaiming: "You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold." [36][37]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ alchemy, Oxford Dictionaries
  2. ^ 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. .
  3. ^ 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. 
  4. ^ 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. 
  5. ^ 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. 
  6. ^ The article by David Bain, entitled "Μελανίτις γή, an unnoticed Greek name for Egypt: New evidence for the origins and etymology of alchemy?" expresses the current debate. The world of ancient magic. Bergen: The Norwegian Institute at Athens. 1999. http://www.norwinst.gr/Publikasjoner/Papers.htm. 
  7. ^ 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. 
  8. ^ Alchemy at Dictionary.com.
  9. ^ The True Nature of Hermetic Alchemy.
  10. ^ von Franz, M-L. Alchemical Active Imagination. Shambala. Boston. 1997. ISBN 0-87773-589-1.
  11. ^ Blavatsky, H.P. (1888). The Secret Doctrine. ii. Theosophical Publishing Company. 238. ISBN 978-1557000026. http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/SDVolume2.htm. 
  12. ^ Paracelsus. "Alchemical Catechism". http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/tschoudy.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 
  13. ^ a b Jung, C. G. (1944). Psychology and Alchemy (2nd ed. 1968 Collected Works Vol. 12 ISBN 0-691-01831-6). London: Routledge.
  14. ^ 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).
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ Jung, C. G. - Psychology and Alchemy; Symbols of Transformation.
  17. ^ C.-G. Jung Preface to Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching.
  18. ^ C.-G. Jung Preface to the translation of The Secret of The Golden Flower.
  19. ^ The-Four-Stages-of-Alchemical-Work.
  20. ^ Meyrink und das theomorphische Menschenbild.
  21. ^ 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
  22. ^ 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. 
  23. ^ 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. 
  24. ^ Junius, Manfred M; The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy: An Herbalist's Guide to Preparing Medicinal Essences, Tinctures, and Elixirs; Healing Arts Press 1985.
  25. ^ see Alice Raphael: Goethe and the Philosopher's Stone, symbolical patterns in 'The Parable' and the second part of 'Faust', London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1965.
  26. ^ Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto 29, hosted on the Internet Sacred Text Archive.
  27. ^ Cal Lutheran | Department of Art - Faculty.
  28. ^ The Gilded Raven Blog + » fama.
  29. ^ The Gilded Raven Blog + » Storm / The Aviator’s Dream.
  30. ^ [1].
  31. ^ a b Moritz, William. "Non-Objective Film: The Second Generation", 1979
  32. ^ Wees, William. "Light Moving in Time". University of California Press, 1992
  33. ^ Sexton, Jamie. "Alchemical Transformations: The Abstract Films of Harry Smith". Senses of Cinema, 2005
  34. ^ Reble, Jurgen. "Chemistry and the Alchemy of Colour". Millennium Film Journal, 1997
  35. ^ Alchemist Artist's web page and documentation, accessed 03/03/2011
  36. ^ Slifkin, Irv (May 2004). VideoHound's groovy movies: far-out films of the psychedelic era. Visible Ink Press. p. 318. ISBN 978-1578591558. 
  37. ^ Cobb, Ben (August 17, 2007). Anarchy and alchemy: the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Creation Books. p. 125. ISBN 978-1840681451. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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