While the alchemists never did manage to discover the elixir of life, science is in their debt for the discovery of oxygen, as well as the saying “only the dose makes the poison.” Their chemical investigations and ethos laid the foundation for modern science.
In his book The Forge and the Crucible, the Romanian philosopher and scholar of religion, Mircea Eliade, notes that both craft and alchemy are based on transforming material. In both cases, the human becomes a demiurge who speeds up time. The blacksmith heats up iron, gives it a new shape, forges it into something. The alchemist in turn changes the properties of a metal to obtain a new substance. The craftsperson and the alchemist here become creators, using fire to transform ores, or as Eliade puts it, the embryos of Mother Earth. The person who learns this art observes closely the transformations that take place in nature, and then tries to replicate them and use them for the student’s own purposes.
Secret Knowledge
Egypt is seen as the cradle of alchemy, and it was from there, thanks in part to the Arabs, that that alchemist ideas traveled in the Middle Ages to other parts of Europe. Though each alchemist had different priorities, we can recognize the most widely held goals they pursued. First and foremost, of course, was creating the philosopher’s stone, a substance that would allow non-precious metals to be transformed into gold (chrysopoeia) and silver (argyropoeia). The lapis philosophorum was said not only to transmute metals, but also to be a universal medicine for all ailments, and the elixir of eternal youth. According to the alchemists, it was a combination of five elements: at the time it was believed that the basis of matter is air, fire, earth and water, and this fifth element—indestructible, eternal, known as the quintessence (quinta essentia, or simply the fifth essence, fifth element). While the philosopher’s stone was never discovered (even though, according to the records, several ancient alchemists managed it, including Mary the Jewess from the third century, recognized as the first alchemist), but their efforts were not in vain. The alchemists mastered the art of smelting metal and learned to create alloys such as bronze and brass.
While they shared the products of their work, such as medicines, they kept their methods secret. They often wrote their mysteries by hand (even after the spread of printing). Deciphering these manuscripts was not easy, as the texts were bursting with symbols and codes (metals were ascribed to planets and other heavenly bodies, such as Mercury; gold was associated with the sun). And certain processes were often described not linearly, but from the middle, through the beginning, to the end.
The alchemist’s laboratory (the word comes from the Latin laborare, to work) was usually divided into a section devoted to meditation or prayer, and one where experiments were conducted. A key part of the work area was the furnace, the athanor. Inside it, the alchemist would set a vessel known as the philosophical egg, in which they placed gold or silver and a solvent. Also essential were the crucibles used to melt substances, and the alembics: glass or metal vessels for distillation. The most important solvents included processed mercury; aqua vitae (the water of life, a solution of ethanol in water); aqua regia (royal water, a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acid); aqua fortis (strong water, a nitric acid solution); and vitriol (concentrated sulfuric acid or hydrated sulfates of certain metals, including copper).
In the case of vitriol, interestingly, the name can be an acrostic for a maxim of alchemy: Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem (Enter the interior of the earth and by purification you will find the hidden stone). In turn, the name aqua vitae gives us the Old Polish name for strong alcohol: okowita or akwawita. So, if the “water of life” does not seem to us like the most appropriate name for vodka, it’s worth getting to know the history of how it emerged as the product of distillation, initially serving only as a medication. Once equipped with all the necessary equipment, solvents and metals, the alchemist could move on to the most important part of their work, dissolving and combining.
Rebirth and Immortality
The process of creating the philosopher’s stone, known as the opus magnum (great work) supposedly was comprised of four phases. The first was the nigredo, symbolized by the color black. It refers to disintegration and death. The ingredients were subjected to the action of temperature, boiled and dissolved (sometimes charred, burning them directly in the fire); the purpose was to reduce the material to its elemental state, the materia prima. It was to reach a form similar to water or mercury: shapeless like the chaos from which everything arises. The animal that symbolized the nigredo was the raven. The next phase, albedo, was represented by the dove. In our cultural milieu, white means purification and rebirth. The third state, yellow—citrinitas—was associated with sunlight. The final stage, rubedo, was connected with the color red or crimson, and meant the goal had been achieved: the philosopher’s stone had been created.
Eliade sees in this process a ritual known in mythology and religion which consists in an initiatory death and resurrection, leading to salvation. The philosopher points to the example of the Dionysian mysteries, in which the symbolic body of the god is dismembered, to later rise from the dead. Likewise, the gold that would be obtained as a result of an alchemical transformation has a symbolic significance: in Egypt it was associated with immortality, and the bodies of deities were comprised of precisely this material. The quest to create this precious metal is thus also a metaphor for seeking perfection and a pathway to redemption. Alchemical transmutation is the repetition of a known pattern: suffering, death, resurrection. While Christianity may be the first association that springs to our minds, this is a ritual that’s present in many cultures: an example is the drowning (or burning) of Marzanna from the ancient Slavic faith, a ritual putting winter to death so that spring will take over and nature will reawaken.
Some alchemists wanted to reach even higher. They wanted to somehow enter the divine role and create a living, reasoning being. The conviction that this is at all possible most likely came from a theory of Aristotle, who recognized the existence of spontaneous generation, the emergence of living organisms from non-living matter. In the Middle Ages, this view was also shared: e.g. larvae were said to come from the body of a dead horse, and flies from meat. In 1537, Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist and doctor, argued in his work De natura rerum (Of The Nature of Things) that a child can be grown from a seed. This was to happen from a man alone; as we can see, the role of the woman here drastically undervalued. The scholar maintained that from semen stored in a warm place for 40 days (imitating the inside of a living organism), a child would eventually emerge, identical to one born of a woman, just a little smaller.
Other alchemists had a different concept, and quite a risky one: they believed that new life could emerge from ash because fire doesn’t kill, it only disperses particles. This theory is associated with the mythical phoenix, which dies in flames, later to be reborn. The Jewish mystics, in turn, inspired by the Kaballah, supposedly attempted not so much to grow a human but to bring to life an entity made of clay—a Golem. This word most likely comes from Hebrew and means formless material, an embryo from which something can later be formed. The creature, though it understood the commands of its invigorator, didn’t have its own will, and was completely obedient.
More Down-to-Earth
Some of the alchemists also worked on more practical questions, which could have a real influence on everyday life. The aforementioned Paracelsus, paved a new path: medical alchemy, known as iatrochemistry. He opposed Hippocrates’ theories because he believed the human body is a microcosm, where harmony must reign. Here, we can note similarities to the assumptions of the Chinese Taoists (still prevalent in Chinese medicine), who also saw the causes of illness as a disturbance of the bodily order. Paracelsus assumed that alchemical medicine should be based on four pillars: philosophy, astronomy, alchemy and virtue, i.e. the spiritual condition. For each illness there must exist a medicine called the arcanum, but whether it would work well, or turn out to be a poison, depends on the dose.
We can find an even more practical application of alchemy in the works of the Italian alchemist Isabella Cortese. In 1561, her book, I secreti della signora Isabella Cortese, was published. Today, we could call the genre a guidebook; at the time it was called a “book of secrets.” These publications, popular until the eighteenth century, contained various pieces of advice concerning both metal refining and everyday life. In her work, Cortese betrays how to change non-precious metal into gold, but also gives recipes for medicines, ways to remove stains and formulas for cosmetics.
End and Beginning
The critical date in the history of alchemy is generally seen as 1661, when Robert Boyle, a chemist, alchemist, physicist, and philosopher, published The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes. In it, he demonstrates that the basis of matter is not the four elements, as the alchemists had thus far believed, but particles that are in constant motion. While the alchemists never managed to find the philosopher’s stone, they did lay the foundations for the development of chemistry, pharmacy, and physiology. One of the most important things we can learn from them is their ethos: an alchemist should be modest, patient, constantly broaden their knowledge, pray and meditate, observe closely the processes taking place around them, steadfastly pursue their goals, and willingly share their knowledge with others. Surely these attributes can also help us in the transformations that we perform in our lives every day?
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