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Alchemy conjures up images of mad medieval pseudo-scientists laboring in dark labs in the hopes of turning base metals into gold, but alchemy was much more than forbidden occult capitalism.

Alchemy is a phenomenon that has been known to be around us for many years. Some consider a butterfly hatching out of a caterpillar as an alchemical process. Chickens don't eat much calcium, yet they lay eggs rich in calcium. Speaking of eggs, consider the transformation process in the womb. Soil converts aluminum to zinc. This is Alchemy.
In alchemy the sages of old held hopes of discovering the answers to not only transmutation, but also immortality and good health... they felt it held the answers to the meaning of life. Alchemy has had a definite impact and influence on our modern life. From Alchemy grew Chemistry and Medicine. The tinkerers of the past gave way to cures we still use. Alchemy has also influenced literature, such as Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling and Fullmetal Alchemist.

"Alchemy was (and is) considerably more than the attempt to turn base metals into gold. To an alchemist, all material things ripen toward perfection unless something gets in the way. The alchemist's mission is to remove the obstacles that keep material things from attaining their perfection. For metals, that perfection is gold; for the human body, health; for the human spirit, union with the divine-and all these and many more are appropriate goals for alchemical work." ~John Michael Greer

"Alchemy is about perfection -- taking an imperfect thing and making it perfect. According to alchemy, all things in creation have within them the seed of perfection."~Rosemary Ellen Guiley

In the process of trying to obtain a certain thing, the alchemists stumbled upon many others. "During the centuries when alchemy flourished, gunpowder was invented, the art of printing was established, the compass was brought into use, the art of painting and staining glass was begun and carried to perfection, paper was made from rags, practical metallurgy advanced by leaps and bounds, many new alloys of metals came into use, glass mirrors were manufactured, and considerable advances were made in practical medicine and sanitation." M.M. Pattison Muir

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung saw in alchemical drawings and symbols images something that his patients were experiencing. And of course, alchemy is the foundation of modern chemistry... the "al" in front of the word "chemistry" coming from the Muslims of old.

Joseph Hayes explains our fascination with alchemy thusly: "It is not strange that a belief should have arisen that one metal could be changed into another, or that this belief should have taken such a strong hold upon the imagination of the people. Did not the church teach that the bread and wine were actually changed into the flesh and the blood of Christ? Men actually believed that such change in reality took place."

One goal of alchemy, the transmutation of base substances into gold, is now known to be impossible by chemical means but possible by physical means. Although not financially worthwhile, Gold was synthesized in particle accelerators as early as 1941.

Much of what is contained in this book is historical, speculative, sometimes repetitive, but always interesting. As I've seen stated in certain books: "there is no art without alchemy;" "without alchemy metallurgy cannot be fully understood;" "perfume as we know it could not have taken shape without alchemy;" and some state that born-again Christianity would not have arisen without Alchemy.

In 2014 the Smithsonian Magazine published an article "Alchemy May Not Have Been the Pseudoscience We All Thought It Was." Maybe by reexamining Alchemy we can discover something we may have lost over time.

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  • We started tracking this book on August 24, 2021.
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  • Print Length: 349 Pages
  • File Size: 1,579 KB

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