5/22/2023 0 Comments Mercurius patrick harpur![]() ![]() When scholars look to Egypt to see if they can trace the origin of alchemy there, they are puzzled. The truth is alchemy is simultaneously chemistry and mysticism, which is why it is so difficult to square. The other view is that of the spiritual counterculture, where the complex symbols found in alchemical manuscripts, from peacock’s tails and the revolutions of Sol, represent spiritual realities, and alchemy is the key to inner, mystic transformation. We know more therefore, alchemy is useless to us. The alchemists were trying to do the impossible and transmute metals we enlightened moderns, on the other hand, have the periodic table. One claims it is a pseudoscience that has been discarded. There are two attitudes towards alchemical practice. But is this philosophical gold, the aurum non vulgi, or the gold of the vulgar? Given the purposeful inscrutability of the alchemists, it is often impossible to tell. ![]() Alchemy, from the Arabic al-khimia―which Plutarch tells us means ‘the Egyptian Art’―is the art of turning lead (♄) into gold (☉). ![]()
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