Alchemy

 Hello, and welcome to another one of my articles. As autumn slowly aproaches, I´ve decided to post one more article before the school starts. Oh, I´m so excited about school. This year I´ll start going to brand new school. In Croatia, children first go to the primary school from the age of 7 to the age of 14 and when they are 15 they head of to the middle school after which they can go to the college. I shall enter the middle school now and I´m extra currious about how will my class look like and what are the teachers like... It will probably be much harder than primary school because I choose to go to one of the hardest schools in the town. That is why I am a bit scared that I will not have enough time for reading, watching Doctor Who or Winx and writing, but I guess I shall manage somehow.

 For the last couple of days I´ve dedicated some of my free time to do some research on alchemy. Since I was in Prague in the Museum of Alchemists and Magicians of Old Prague I wanted to find out something more about this interesting topic, so I went to the local library, borowed some books about it and amde some notes. For those who never heard of it, alchemy is not really a science, but something between science and faith. The alchemist appeared few centuries B. C. and were present in the world untill 17th century, somewhere even longer.

 Alchemists wanted to get gold from other metals and make the elixir of life.

Hermaphrodite

  Alchemy

 Alchemy can not be called a forerunner of chemistry, that would be protochemistry which started in Alexandria in the 3rd century B. C. When the first chemists tried to turn metals into noble metals ( mostly gold ). This is also a big part of alchemy, but except alchemists wanted to turn others metals into gold, they tried to make an elixir of life which protoalchemists did not do. Protoalchemists, and later alchemists, thought that they could change the nature of a metal. Aristotel, the Greek philosopher, said that all elements are based on the four basic elements; fire, water, wind and aether, so the first alchemist thought that every metal is made of those four, so if they could change representations of those elements inside a metal, they could turn it into gold.

 Alchemy came to Europe through Arabian culture. Whenever the Christian fate started to spred through Rome and Europe, protochemists were expelled and their books burned. The emperor Diocletian burned their books in the 3rd century because he thought their theories were fake and they themselves liars making fake gold. They escaped to Siria and started to spread their knowledge there where noone persecuted them. There the Arabian alchemy was born, and it included the making of elixir as much as turning metals into gold.

 

Wei Boyang, "Father of the Chinese alchemy"

 However, this was not the first alchemy in the world. In China, alchemy apeared in the second century B. C. We know that because there is a document from that century in which the emperor forbiddens alchemy. However, the emperor Wu Di ( Wu Ti ) allowed alchemists to continue with their work only few years after it was forbidden, but only at the court. There, the life elixir was called wai dan. To make wai dan was the main goal of the Chinese alchemist, and they wanted to make gold because they thought it was needed to make the elixir. Cinabarit and mercury were laso thought to be the main contains of the elixir. The first Chinese alchemists were mostly sorcerers and people thought they were immortal. 

Making of homunculus

 There are two learnings that alchemist in China used. Daoism is the learning about the conection betwen human and the nature and the learning about jin and jang is the learning of two opposing forces that complement each other ( „if you increase the jang in the metal, you might make it noble“). They believed in five, not four, main elements that affect everything in the world; wood, fire, aether, metal, water; they called them xing. They also believed in qi, which is simmilar to pneuma in Europe, the core of all substances.

 Period from 4th to 8th century is called „the golden age of Chinese alchemy“. The emperors of the dinasty Wei were inclined to the alchemists at this time. The only problem was that the elixirs they were making were often poisonous instead of medicinal. The most important alchemists from China were Tao Hongjing and Sun Simo from the golden age, Wei Boyang who wrote the first alchemy book in the second century and Ge Hong who wrote the book Baopuzi which contains two parts; Waipian ( his life story and political thinking ) and Neipian ( alchemy and exorcism... ) and it is thought he brought back king to life. Later, wai dan ( „external“ elixir ) was replaced by nei dan ( „interior“ elixir ) which is achieved by exercise and productivity and the alchemy became some sort of religion untill it dissapeared.

Hermes Trismegistos, Arabian wise man and alchemist

 Meanwhile, in Siria, bookseller Ibn al-Nadim made a catalogue of books which was full of alchemy books.This bookseller also wrote Fihrist, a biography of Geber, who was thought to be the biggest Arabian alchemist, but in Europe. It is not sure if he even existed or is he just a legend, but there are many books under his name. Arabian alchemists took the learning of the nature of elements from protochemists; warm, cold, dry, humid. They thought some of them were interior and some external ( example; lead is cold and dry on the outside and warm and humid on the inside – to get gold you must suppress the exterior in the interior ). Some alchemists tried to make homunculus; artificial human for which they used organic substances ( blood, sperm, egg white... ) and the picture of what was supposed to be made ( Edward Kelley and Paracelsus tried this later in Prague ). Al-Razi was famous doctor and alchemist who allegedly made gold out of silver.

 In the 11th century came the Crusades, Arabians lost their land in Europe and Arabian alchemy disappeared.

Alchemist´s laboratory, 16th century

 Through booksellers and sailors from 11th to 13th century alchemy books came from Siria to Europe and started to be translated into Latin. Some of the translators were Michael Scot, Constantin of Africa, Herman Dalmatin, Robert from Ketton and others. Alchemy could be sepparated into experimental and spiritual. In Europe, it appeared as experimental with a slice of Arabian spirituality and a bit of Christian simbolic. There were three kinds of alchemists in Europe; 1) scholar who is exploring, mostly nobles, rich men or scientists, 2) self-taught enthusiast and 3) a fake, those who tried to make fake gold and sell it. 

 Nicolas Flamel was benefactor who donated a lot of money to the Church and to help the poor. There is a story that he turned half pound of mercury into silver and later mercury into gold, a huge amount of gold, and got rich. Johan Baptista van Helmont ( 1579.-1644.) wrote Ortus medicinae which contains many fantasy stories about the philosopher´s stone which was supposed to turn metals into gold. The philosopher´s stone or lapis philosophorum was first mentioned in Summa perfectionis magisterri which is attributed to Geber.This book was the most wanted alchemy book for centuries. It was written somewhere durring 13th or 14th century. The wife of Sigismund I. (1368.-1437.), German, Hungarian and Croatian emperor, Barbara,  was amateur alchemist, so the Croats called her „The Black Queen“. The first original Latin alchemy text is attributed to Arnaldo from Villanova. Inquisition burned some of his books and he was accused of being heretic.

 The spiritual access to alchemy started when in 1330 Petrus Bonus wrote Pretiosa margarita novela which contains complete view of the alchemy knowledge ferom that time, compares the medicine and alchemy and says that „The purpose of alchemy is to heal the metals and speed up their conversion into gold, the final state of their development“ and „Alchemy is both natural and divine“.

Green lion devouring the sun

 Many alchemists were making their own symbols they used in their recipes, but there were some who constantly appeared and always meant the same thing.

King – Gold

Queen – Silver

Marriage – Reaction ( if the queen and king marry, Hermaphrodite will be born )

Eagle – volatility

A green dragon devouring the sun – Aqua regia

A greed lion devouring the sun – Copperas

 And others...

 In 17th century alchemy started to be shown in books through the pictures. Tripus aureus shows 12 keys of Basil Valentine ( he was not actually real ) which show how to make the philosopher´s stone. In 1618 Atalanta fugiens was written with it´s 50 painted alchemy signs inspired by Greek mithology.

 In 18th century, A. L. Lavoisier found out the reactions of burning and breathing and defined all elements. Alchemy lost it´s meaning and slowly disappeared. 

 In India, in 4th century, alchemy was present, but never really important. Alchemist wanted to make the elixir of life and they thought, just like alchemists in China, that gold was a part of it. They also believed in soma, holy medical plant. They thought that they could drink it´s soul by drinking it´s liquor and become immortal. However, in India all of these experiments were mostly simply medical. Tantrism was mistic learning of un-accepted budists and worshipers of the god Shiva and it was spiritual base of alchemy at this part of the world. In 8th century occult procedures have flourished, but not for very long. Around 1200 Rasarnava was witten and it contained huge chemistry knowledge and the description of how to „kill“ metal so that it would become medicine. 

The first "key" of Basilis Valentine, King and Queen as Gold and Silver

 Thank you very much for reading my article. I hope you have enjoyed it and that you have learned something new and interesting. Come back soon and always remember that things do not always have to be like they seem and that there´s magic in the air all year round.❤