L003

The Science
of Alchymy
Spiritual and Material
An essay by

‘Sapere Aude’

Published in 2010 by Inner Garden

First Edition

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 THE SCIENCE OF ALCHYMY.
BY S. A.

The subject of Alchymy is one of great interest, both to the

members of the Eastern Theosophic school and to
Hermetists; but it is preferable to approach the consideration
of the science of Alchymy from the standpoint of the Western
Occult Philosophy, handed down to us from the sages of
medieval Europe, and which they obtained from three
principal sources. First, from the Arabs, who almost alone
preserved the ancient sciences through the dark ages.
Secondly, from Jewish scholars, Rabbis of Hebrew culture,
who had received the traditional lore now identifed by the
name ‘Kabalah,’ that tradition of high magic to which ancient
Chaldea and Babylon so largely contributed. Lastly, from
Egypt, the ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs, ruled by those
mighty priest kings of old, whose wisdom instructed Moses,
and whose training enabled him to supersede all minor
professors of magical arts, and to rule with some success a
turbulent and rebellious people – the early Hebrews.

If we look upon the subject from the point which affords

the widest view, it may be said that Alchymy has two aspects:
the simply material, and the religious. The dogma that
Alchymy was only a form of chemistry, is untenable by any-
one who has read the works of its chief professors. The
doctrine that Alchymy was religion only, and that its chemical
references were all blinds, is equally untenable in the face of
history, which shows that many of its most noted professors
were men who had made important discoveries in the domain
of common chemistry, and were in no way notable as teachers
either of ethics or religion.

Firstly, then, Alchymy must be regarded as a science

uniting ancient chemistry with a religious basis.

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 Secondly, it is convenient and permissible to discuss the
merits and aims of Alchymy from a Triple point of view, for it
has a Cosmic, Human and Terrestrial side. Cosmic, in that by
analogy its conclusions when true must be universal as well as
particular. Human, because as aforesaid, it has a religious
side; and Terrestrial, when it is concerned with mere earth,
metals and minerals.
Thirdly, as Blavatsky said, Alchymy, like many of the
religio-scientifc myths of antiquity, is a suitable subject for
consideration under Seven Heads. For Seven is the number of
the Key whose action is most general throughout the universe.
Fourthly, the Hermetic Kabalist will be justifed in
demonstrating to his pupil the complete ftness of the
Sephirotic scheme of the Decad to illustrate the secrets of
Alchymy, even as he has found that the Sephiroth have never
failed to furnish a symbolic allegory of all the forms of
manifested creation.
Yet, ffthly, there is the Key of the Twelve; but this special
form of attribution is somewhat limited in use; referring to
time and space, rather than form or thought.

No attempt can here be made to follow up these several

schemes to their logical conclusions. Space will alone permit
of a superfcial view of the common exoteric knowledge of the
science and of its professors; followed by a glance at Alchymy
in its most material aspect, its relation to chemistry, and the
reconciliation of chemistry to Alchymy; and alternately a short
consideration of the subject as a form of religious and ethical
instruction.

Chemistry, the modem science which investigates the

constitution of material substances, is the lineal descendant of
Medieval and Ancient Alchymy. The syllable AL is the Arabic
defnite article – like the Hebrew He’, meaning ‘The’
chemistry, the Higher chemistry; treating of the essential

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nature of the Elements, metals and minerals; while modern
chemistry rejoices rather in being a science devoted to
utilitarian and commercial uses. The earliest use of the word
‘Alchymy’ is believed to be found in the works of Julius
Firmicus Maternus, an Astronomer, who lived in
the time of the Emperor Constantine.

Firmicus wrote: ‘he should be well skilled in Alchymy, who

is Born when the Moon is in the house of Saturn.’
The Imperial Library of Paris is said to possess the oldest
Alchymic Volume known; it is by Zosimus of Panopolis,
written in Greek, and entitled, The Divine Art of making
Gold and Silver, and was written about A.D. 400.

The next oldest tract upon Alchymy known to exist is by

Aeneas Gazeus, written in Greek, about A.D. 480. The
Medieval authors often call Alchymy the ‘Hermetic Art,’
implying an origin from Hermes Trismegistus of Egypt, the
prehistoric demigod, or inspired teacher, to whom we owe the
‘Emerald Tablet,’ which has been not inaptly described as
being a résumé of all alchymic science on a single page.

During the earliest Christian times all the sciences

fourished at Alexandria, where men of learning were fostered
by the rulers; but with Roman predominance there came a
change, so far at least as Alchymy is concerned, for the
Roman Emperors, partly from jealousy of the subject city,
partly because they feared the reality of the Pharaonic claim to
gold making, and that by such means the Egyptian nation
might be supported in its efforts. at independence, issued
orders for its suppression. History tells us that the Emperor
Diocletian ordered that all books relating to the Egyptian
ancient arts and sciences should be collected and destroyed.

From this time, science took refuge among the Arabs,

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whose sages cultured it for centuries, and introduced the
sciences into Spain, whence they spread into Germany, where
Alchymy, one of the Eastern sciences, was adopted by the
monks, who seem in many places to have been permitted to
study and investigate, although the clergy in general
persecuted laymen who practised the art.

Lenglet du Fresnoy, who made a long and patient

investigation among the old Alchymic authors, states as the
result of his researches, that he has traced ten famous
authorities previous to the Christian era, setting aside the
almost unknown works of the Egyptian Magi, whose remains
are found among the papyri of Egyptian mummies and the
inscriptions of the Tombs of the Nile Valley; Berthelot has
lately, in Paris, published a volume of most instructive
extracts from these most ancient documents. Lenglet
discovered twenty one alchymic authors in the frst 1000 years
after Jesus, fve in the 11th century, three in the 12th, eleven
in the 13th, ffteen in the 4th, seventeen in the 5th, thirty in
the 16th, and sixty-seven in the 17th century of our time.
Amongst the most famous names of European Alchymy we
note that several were men who rose to hold high dignities in
the church: such were Pelagius, Lynesius a Bishop,
Heliodorus a Bishop, Cremer, Ripley a Canon, Albertus
Magnus a Dominican, Aquinas, Basil Valentine a
Benedictine, Raymond Lully a Franciscan, Trithemius an
Abbot of Spanheim, and Pope John XXII.

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 A SHORT CATALOGUE OF THE MORE FAMOUS
ALCHYMISTS IS HERE GIVEN.

Geber, an Arab philosopher Circa 730 A.D

.
Rhazes, an Arab physician ” 920 ”
Alfarabi, an Arab chemist ” 954 ”
Avicenna, the Arab physician ” 1030 ”
Kalid, a king in Egypt ” 1110 ”
Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon ” 1289 ”
Thomas Aquinas, a theologian ” 1260 ”
Artephius ” 1160 ”
Alain de Lisle ” 1298 ”
Arnold of Villanova, Professor at the ” 1305 ”
University of Barcelona
Peter of Abano, or Apone ” 1300 ”
Raymond Lully, a Spanish prelate ” 1314 ”
Roger Bacon, the inventor of gun powder ” 1270 ”
Pope John XXII* ” 1316 ”
Jean de Meung, author of the Romance ” 1340 ”
of the Rose
Nicholas Flamel, a benefactor of the poor ” 1415 ”
of Paris
George Ripley, Sir, a canon of the ” 1490 ”
Church
Basil Valentine, prior of a monastery ” 1450 ”

* Villani says he left a fortune of 25,000,000 forins

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Bernard of Treves or Trevisanus ” 1490 ”
Trithemius of Spanheim; an abbot ” 1516 ”
Cornelius Agrippa, a very famous occult ” 1536 ”
philosopher
Paracelsus, physician and professor ” 1541 ”
Agricola ” 1555 ”
Denis Zachaire ” 1560 ”
Dee, John, an English clergyman ” 1608 ”
Kelly, Edward, a notary ” 1595 ”
Seton the Cosmopolite ” 1603 ”
Sendivogius, Michael ” 1636 ”
Libavius, Andrew ” 1609 ”
Oswald Croll ” 1617 ”
Michael Maier, author of the Atalanta ” 1619 ”
Fugiens
Jean d’Espagnet, author of the Hermetic ” 1620 ”
Arcanum
Robert Fludd, theologian and mystic ” 1638 ”
Van Helmont, Jean Baptiste ” 1643 ”
Eireneus Philafethes, i.e., Thomas ” 1645 ”
Vaughan
George Starkey ” 1646 ”
Elias Ashmole, the antiquary ” 1648 ”
Rudolf Glauber, physician ” 1650 ”
Robert Boyle, chemist ” 1668 ”
Olaus Borrichius ” 1675 ”

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Matthieu Dammy, one of the last famous ” 1739 ”
Parisian Alchymists
Jean Christophe Kunst, a German ” 1737 ”
professor

In 1404, here in England, the art of transmutation was

made a felony by 5, Hen., IV. c. 4; this Act was repealed in
1689.
In its most material form the science of Alchymy taught
that all substances were. essentially and primordially derived
from one basic ‘ h y l e ’ or foundation. From this basis
differentiation arose, and by myriad steps the immense variety
of material substances – such as we now see around us –
originated by progression. From the common minerals were
developed the metals, also in gradation of purity and
excellence, until an acme was reached in the two so-called
Perfect Metals – Silver and Gold. From this theory arose the
Art of Alchymy, the Art of Transmutation, by which it was
sought to produce Silver and Gold from other metals the next
below them in the series, notably from Mercury, Antimony
and Lead. Many indeed were the processes devised, but there
was a general consensus of opinion that the last three stages of
the chemical process were notable by a series of colour
changes, from Black, through White to Red; this red matter
was the Philosophers’ Stone, or Red Elixir, which could not
only transmute Silver into Gold, but could also procure health
and prolong life.

Modem chemistry has, above all things, prided itself on its

complete severance from the Alchymy of the Ancients. No
modem science has shown more intolerance towards its
ancestors than the chemistry of our era has shown to the
discoveries of those Egyptian, Arabian and Medieval sages
who were the founders of chemistry in the dim and distant

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past.

The discovery of the elements has been the grand

achievement of modern chemistry, and sure and certain
renown has for half a century been granted to any chemist
who has added a new Element to the existing catalogue. But if
we may trust one of the most eminent chemists of the day,
Professor Crookes, the future will change all this system, and
a niche in the Temple of Fame will in the future be allotted by
preference to one who succeeds in dividing one of our present
elements into its constituents. The Chemistry of the Future is
to destroy the present theory, and to gain the power of
reducing all compounds, and all the Elements to one
primordial matter, to be named PROTYLE. In other words
the most ancient chemical doctrine of the πρώτη ϋλη, or FIRST
MATTER, is to become paramount. This, then, is the
Reconciliation of the Future.

No sooner is the modern Doctrine of Elements laid aside,

than the discoveries of the Primordial Matter, the
Transmutation of Metals, and the Elixir of Life reappear and
once more enter the range of the possible. Ancient Alchymy
claimed no Elements, in our modern sense. An element being
defned as ‘a body which cannot be decomposed,’ or ‘a
something to which we can add, but from which we can take
away nothing,’ or ‘a body which increases in weight with every
chemical change,’ or ‘a body different from all others, yet
having constant characters itself, and indivisible except into
parts of itself.’ True, the word element was applied to the
group of four properties which they so highly esteemed, viz.,
Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. But a close study of the oldest
authors show that these four names are types of four modes of
matter, and further that they are four correlative terms,
implying states mutually related and dependent, and in no
way independent and opposed entities. They were names of

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the four states,

Heat and Dryness = Fire,

Heat and Moistness = Air,
Cold and Dryness = Earth,
Cold and Moistness = Water,

as is amply demonstrated even by Aristotle, who shows that

the one matter, simple, or combined with its developments,
may exist in each of these states.
The Alchymist affrmed the existence of the Primum Ens,
or First Being, or First Matter; two opposites or contraries;
three principles; and four elementary states of matter.

Beyond these came the seven metals, as forms of matter,

essentially stable, except in the hands of the skilled operator,
to whom might be given the power of Transmutation, or of
changing one of them into the other. Gold as the most perfect
onel was the effect of the greatest transmutation, which
process once known rendered all others of no importance.
Hence all the efforts of the greatest Alchymists were directed
to this the crowning achievement of the work. For this process
one substance was requisite, the Philosopher’s Stone, the
Quintessence, Son of the Sun, our laton: this was to be
derived from the Philosophical Mercury, Salt and Sulphur,
and had to pass in the process through the colours Black and
White to the Red. This Stone, all powerful for Transmutation,
was expected to be also the basis of the Great Elixir of Life
when employed to affect living beings, and so confer the
power of indefnite prolongation of earthly existence.

Historical proof may be wanting that the Stone of the

Philosophers was ever found and used, but no candid
observer can doubt that the life, long labours of the
Alchymists, and especially their discoveries in Synthesis, and

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