Gold Cooks
Plato says that there are four species of beings—those of the air, the birds; those of the water, the fishes; those of the Earth, the pedestrians; and those of the heavens, the stars, whose element is fire.
During the Renaissance, Agrippa von Nettesheim, reluctant to accept the idea that the stars were related to the Earthly fauna, modified Plato’s statement. Agrippa, basing his opinion on Aristotle, Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder, said that, ‘fire shelters salamanders and crickets.’ A simple experiment would have proven that salamanders and crickets die in fire, like any other animal, but Agrippa shared with the past an aversion to experimentation. From Pliny we learn that similar beliefs concerning the marvelous virtues of salamanders existed in Egypt and Babylon. Without a doubt Aristotle had gathered his wisdom from Oriental neighbors, and did not find it necessary to submit the salamander to a scientific test. Thus did a superstitious belief perpetuate itself for about two thousand years.
—Kurt Seligmann
The History of Magic and the Occult
Alchemy stresses that non-human substances—the dematerialized earth substances—participate vicariously in a mysterious transformation. The alchemists saw ‘spiritualized’ substance as able to become a pontifex, ‘bridge builder.’ They called it the lapis philosophorum (philosopher’s stone) or Caelum, Heaven, and likened it to the Christ as an imago Dei, man’s likeness to God. A caelum, Jung tells us, was ‘described as a universal medicine (the panacea, alexipharmic, medicine catholica, etc.), as a life pro-longing, strengthening and rejuvenating magical potion.’ It was ‘living stone,’ a ‘stone that hath a spirit ... Above all, its incorruptibility is stressed: It lasts a long time, or for all eternity; though alive it is unmoved; it radiates magic power and transforms the perishable into the imperishable and the impure into the pure; it multiplies itself indefinitely; it is simple and therefore universal.’ (C.G. Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 14, par. 770; Princeton University Press, 1963.)
—Edward C. Whitmont, MD
The Alchemy of Healing: Psyche and Soma
Elixir of Life
The word “elixir” originates from the Arabian word “aliksir,” and in ancient Greek chemical writings translates to “the transmuting agent, by which base metals could be turned into gold and silver.” European alchemists referred to the “Philosopher’s Stone” which was generally believed to possess universal curative powers, as the Elixir of Life. Many ancient scholars recorded that the elixir could be concocted from other stones not identical to the philosopher’s stone. A notation in the Universal Lexicon by H. Zedler, an eighteenth century reference, defined the word elixir as “a dark-coloured medicine, composed of many ingredients dissolved in a strong solvent.”
A belief in a “panacea” or universal remedy for all diseases can be traced back to the ancient times when the immortality of the gods was explained by their consumption of special foods and drink—the nectar and ambrosia of the Greek gods. It was generally believed that the Elixir of Life and other panaceas could be created from a mixture of rare ingredients like gold, pearls, and a variety of jewels.
During early centuries AD, Alexandria was the center for the secret doctrine that promised to convert impure metals into gold and concurrently to convert humans into pure sages. And the grand goal for their alchemical beliefs was to be able to produce the “universal remedy”—the panacea.
The theory posed that if in fact the philosopher (alchemist) had achieved a level of expertise such that he could become an expert in metallic transformation by turning base metal into gold, he should be able to employ these skills for solving the problems of humans, including all diseases. This is where the lofty goals of the Western and those of the Chinese came together. There are myths and legends of a great Chinese master of the secrets of alchemy of the second century AD, Wei Po-Yang, who is said to have become immortal along with one of his disciples and his dog, which had accidently eaten the leftovers of the magical panacea.
In Europe the hunger for gold created a single-minded obsession, and as a result the interest in synthetizing and transmuting base metals into gold was raised to a feverish pitch and spoken of more frequently than the original loftier goal of searching for the Elixir of Life.
Typically, medicines are formulated to treat or cure a specific disease; however, the alchemist’s ultimate goal was the creation of the panacea that would cure all maladies and produce immortality. The theory that would support the lofty goal included the concept that all diseases had a common or universal etiology that was “a disturbed balance of the elements and humours.” Therefore, if it were possible to find an agent able to redress this balance, the universal remedy would be found.
Numerous alchemists had claimed to have created the panacea, including Paracelsus and Jan Baptist van Helmont (1577–1644 AD). In the writings of Paracelsus’s followers, the medical alchemists who cured disease by means of inorganic compounds rather than drugs, there are numerous references to a mysterious “tincture philosophorum” or Philosopher’s Tincture. One of the written works of 1560 points out that by employment of the art of the true alchemist the tincture is concocted, and that “the true aim of the true medical men is the resurrection and regeneration of nature.”
In a written text attributed to Paracelsus and published initially in 1570, entitled De Tinctura Physicorum (On the Tincture of the Physicians), is found: “This is the tincture by which some of the first physicians in Egypt, afterwards, up till our times, have lived for 150 years. The lives of many of them lasted for some centuries, as history clearly teaches, although this does not seem to be true to anybody: because its force is so miraculous, that it is able to enlighten the body . . . and to strengthen him to such a degree that he will remain free of all diseases and although afflicted by old age, will appear as it had been in his youth. Therefore the tincture physicorum is a universal remedy which devours all sicknesses like a fire devouring wood. Its quantity is tiny, but its force is mighty.”
More than any other ancient culture, the Greeks used inductive reasoning and a mix of poetry and mythology. Natural phenomena were looked at through the prism of “the higher realms of the mind which were thought to partake of the divine.” This process of reasoning may explain why the Greeks failed to pursue experimental investigations to prove or disprove theories or myths.
Despite the Greeks legendary feats of logic, they proposed very weak and unscientific theories for the explanation of natural events. This process and the Greek rejection of experimentation resulted in an unquestioning acceptance of authority without experimental proof. Western doctors acquired this unscientific procedure from Hellenic philosophy. Throughout the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance, and even yet today, the natural sciences and the medical arts use inductive reasoning and authority to arrive at and support their version of “truth” rather than facts and deductive reasoning.
It appears that the practice of alchemy migrated to the West at the beginning of the second century of the Christian era. The most believable evidence came from Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79), who devoted a considerable volume of his writings to metallurgy. The variety of information and beliefs concerning metals and their treatment noted by Pliny show that he supported the use of alchemy.
Despite the general belief of alchemists that their art is an ancient Egyptian practice, it is a fact that alchemy is the youngest of magical wisdoms. The belief that alchemy was widely employed in the time of the pharaohs has been dashed.
It was in the fourth century, during the vicious battles that Christianity waged against pagans, that alchemy became generally popular.
Zosimus of Panopolis, a scribe and writer of the time became a historian of the alchemical arts. His writings are thought to be the most accurate and complete of the zealous believers.
Zosimus stated that an expertise and the use of metals, precious stones, and scents were recorded in the writings of Genesis in the Old Testament: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.” The men named as the “sons of God” were thought to be “fallen angels” who had “mated” with the women of antediluvian times.
These angels are thought to have trained these women various skills and arts, including how to create jewelry, fashionable clothes, and perfumes.
The sages of the Christian era believed that the fallen angels were “evil perverters of morals and manners.” Zosimus felt these events were “the beginnings of alchemy.”
Zosimus names the legendary and mysterious Chemes, an early master of the alchemical arts, as one of the founders of gold-makers. It was generally accepted that Chemes had written a book entitled Chema, and that fallen angels had used the book to train the daughters of men.
The Greek word Chemia, the early name of the art of alchemy, is thought to have been derived from Chemes and his book Chema. Arabs then added the prefix ‘al’ and the art then became alchemy.
Found in a conceptual manuscript (this manuscript holds great importance to the believers and students of alchemy), a priestess who identified herself as Isis wrote to her son Horus that she had gained her knowledge of alchemy from Amnael, the first of the fallen angels and prophet. Isis noted that Amnael had rewarded her with the knowledge of alchemy for sexual favors.
An additional book, written by a woman with the pseudonym of “Mary the Jewess,” is also considered to be a manuscript of extraordinary value. Mary, a Greek, is thought to be the first alchemist of the West. Much of her writings are found in fragments because of the ravages of time, but she is identified by Zosimus as “a sister of Moses called Miriam.”
The alchemist Olympiodorus, who lived in the fourth century of the Christian era, quotes a famous note in Miriam’s book that suggests she was a Jewess: “Do not touch it (if you are not of the Abrahamitic race), unless indeed you are of our race.”
Another female alchemist, a woman who called herself Cleopatra, wrote a book entitled Chrysopeia (Gold-Making); a third woman, Theosebia, the sister of Zosimus wrote numerous tracts on alchemy in the third century of the Christian era.
There are additional early Greco-Egyptian texts such as the well-known Leyden and Stockholm Papyri, which date back to AD 300.
Scholarly writings of Zosimus (fourth century), Stephanus (seventh century), Olympidorus (fourth century), and Synesius (fifth century) cannot be impeached.
While in some instances alchemy embraced religion, there were also some of the alchemic scholars who crossed swords with religion. Along with magic and other forbidden arts, alchemy was thought to be shared with humans by fallen angels, “the betrayers of God’s secrets.”
The practitioners of the forbidden arts had to be cursed and punished.
Experimentation in the works of nature were deemed to be sacrilegious. St. Augustine censured the vain and curious desire of investigations referred to as “knowledge and science.”
Lucretius (98–53 BC) in his book On the Nature of Things touted, “Thus is religion trod down, by a just reverse; victory makes us akin to gods.” Then he adds, “Do not think that I wish to teach you the principles of impiety, or to lead you to the path of crime.”
In 167 BC the Roman general Aemilius Paulus conquered and routed King Perseus of Macedonia and decimated the dynasty that was a descendent of Alexander the Great and his father King Philip. Perseus and his three sons were sent to Rome in chains and paraded through the streets of Rome behind the triumphal chariots.
Following the practice of national kleptocracy, Aemilius Paulus shipped wagons full of plunder to the Roman treasury, keeping for himself a single tribute— the defeated king’s library. This act was to be a display of the crowning glory of the conquering general’s personal fortune and the incredible value he placed on Greek culture, literature, and knowledge.
It became a fashion statement for wealthy Romans to collect large private libraries in their homes and villas. Books could also be bought from booksellers in southern Italy and Sicily where the Greeks had established cities such as Naples, Tarentum, and Syracuse.
The grammarian Tyrannion was legendary for his accumulation of 30,000 volumes; Serenus Sammonicus, a physician who became an expert in the employment of the magical formula “Abracadabra” to fend off illness, is reputed to have collected 60,000 volumes. Rome had become addicted to books, a penchant that was described as the “Greek fever.”
On the Nature of Things by Lucretius is the work and writings of a disciple of Epicurus, who was collecting and publishing ideas and thoughts that had been espoused centuries earlier. Epicurus, Lucretius’s “philosophical messiah,” was a philosopher and polymath, born at the end of 342 BC on the Aegean island of Samos, where his father, a poor Athenian schoolmaster, had immigrated. Many Greek philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, were born of wealthy families and flaunted their distinguished ancestry.
Epicurus’s philosophical opponents trumpeted their own personal social superiority and pointed fingers at his humble family background. He used to accompany his mother while she made rounds reading charms and omens. Lucretius and numerous others fostered him as “godlike” in his wisdom and courage. The center piece of his vision can be traced back to a single thought— “hyle,” the Greek word for “stuff.”
Epicurus believed “that everything that has ever existed and everything that will ever exist is put together out of indestructible building blocks, irreducibly small in size, unimaginably vast in number.”
Epicurus claimed, “Moreover, the universe as a whole is infinite, for whatever is limited has an outermost edge to limit it, and such an edge is defined by something beyond. Since the universe has no edge, it has no limit; and since it lacks a limit, it is infinite and unbounded. Moreover, the universe is infinite both in the number of its atoms and in the extent of its void.”
Epicurus lived until 270 BC and wrote more than 300 books on topics ranging from moral philosophy to physics and epistemology. He taught that the human soul does not survive the body’s death and that the gods, even though they exist, do not govern fate or destiny.
The Greeks had a word for these invisible building blocks, the particles that, as they thought of them, could not be divided into any smaller particles called “atoms.” This notion of atoms (the Greek: “can’t be cut”), which had come to life in the fifth century BC with Leucippus of Abdera and his protige’ Democritus, was in its beginnings, a wild speculation. The proof would not come for more than two thousand years.
The prevailing thoughts of the time included the theory that the core matter of the universe was fire, water, air, and earth. Others posed that if one could see the smallest particle of a man, you would see a tiny man, and the same would be true for a horse, water, or a leaf. Others believed that the order of the universe was itself evidence of an invisible mind or spirit that carefully put the pieces together in a pre-orchestrated grand plan. Democritus’s conception of “endless numbers of atoms that exhibit no special talents other than small size, shape, and weight— particles that are not miniature versions of what we can see, but construct what we see by combination with others in a wide variety of shapes—was a fantastically daring solution to a problem that engaged the great intellects of his world.”
It took many centuries of wrestling with the concept of atoms to develop a uniform theory. Epicurus began at the age of twelve, when his teachers could not define the meaning of chaos. Democrittus’s earlier theory of atoms filled the missing piece and provided the missing clue. At the age of thirty-two he established a school, and there in a garden in Athens, Epicurus conceived an entire theory of the universe and a philosophy of human life.
He theorized that atoms, in constant motion, collide with one another, and they would join to form more complex and larger bodies. He conceptualized that the largest bodies, the sun and the moon, are made of atoms, as are humans, waterflies, and grains of sand, meaning there are no super categories of matter: no hierarchy of elements. He believed heavenly bodies are not divine beings that have a power to control and shape human destiny for good or evil—and they do not move through space under the guidance of gods—they are simply part of the natural order, giant combinations of atoms subject to the same laws of creation and destruction that govern all things. It was felt that “even if the natural order is unimaginably vast and complex, it is nonetheless possible to understand something of its basic constitutive elements and its universal laws. Indeed, such understanding is one of human life’s deepest pleasures.”
Throughout the first centuries of our era, the “tree of knowledge” of the Old Testament book of Genesis remained the symbol of sinful alchemic investigations. Alchemists believed that “by eating the forbidden fruit man had gained God’s level of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Ophites “worshipped the serpent of the Bible as a beneficent being, after all, didn’t the serpent give man (access to) the knowledge that only God knew?”
The tree of knowledge and the serpent became the most revered and cherished symbols of alchemists and physicians.
The first alchemists were treated as badly as heathens. Their persecution was initiated when the art was still centered in Alexandria. The study and practice of medicine and alchemy occupied buildings next to the Serapeum, the temple of Serapis.
Theophilus, the archbishop of Alexandria, ordered the destruction of the temple, and when he met with local resistance the Emperor Theophilus directed the scholars to retreat and the temple was destroyed. The library of Alexandria, already burnt by rioting Christians under the rule of Caesar, was spared, allowing medical and alchemic practices to continue in the attached museum until the murder of the woman-philosopher Hypatia (415 AD). Her death brought pagan studies to an end in Egypt. The persecuted pagan practitioners, physicians, and alchemists fled to Athens.
When alchemy first developed in the early centuries after Christ, it was able to draw on the “scientific” achievements of the Ancient World: in the previous 3000 years many crafts and processes had become highly organized, and huge volumes of knowledge and experience had been recorded in many crafts and specialties.
Metal work and glassmaking, the culture of dyes, perfumes, cosmetics, drugs, poisons, and chemical-mixing gained sway throughout the world through commercial enterprises and trade.
In Egypt, craftsmen created collectables for wealthy customers out of gold, silver, and precious stones. With equal zeal they produced for the greater numbers of the less wealthy, imitations of gold-hued alloys that were good enough to pass for gold and colored glass “gems.”
In 529 AD Justinian ordered the official suppression of the ancient learning of medicine, science, and philosophy. As a result, Pagan culture came to an end, but medicine and alchemy survived by mutating. A major setback was inflicted upon the survivors by Theodosian who created a new law that required that all books of alchemy and related medical books be burned publically in the presence of a Bishop.
New followers of alchemy and medicine practiced the beliefs of the “cursed,” blending orthodox religious elements into their doctrines, which made their practices favorable in the eyes of the emperors. Stephanus of Alexandria dedicated his Nine Lessons in Chemia to Heraclius, Emperor of the East (575–641AD). An expert in the philosophy of Pathagoras and Plato, yet a Christian mystic, Stephanus made the bridge between medicine and ancient alchemy and the new Europe.
Byzantine monks translated and copied ancient manuscripts for centuries trying to reassemble the wisdom that early fanaticism had destroyed. Nicephorus (758–829 AD) was interested primarily in Greek authors. In the eleventh century Psellus restored Platonic writings. The reclaiming of the early medical and alchemic literature brought new followers and devotes, including the “Christian Philosopher,” the pseudonym for a monk well versed in the dark practices and who melded Christian culture and theology with pagan studies, medicine, and alchemy.
Women medical authors and alchemists, who had hidden behind pseudonyms to avoid persecution, became revered practitioners and philosophers.
It is thought that the few manuscripts that did survive and were transported to Europe would not have prevented Europe from plunging into ignorance—it was the invading Arabs that brought the ancient wisdom and practices of medicine and alchemy to Europe.
Alchemists state that two principles, the theory of the composition of metals and that of their generation, served as the heart of their belief system. They believed that metals were alloys of unrelated substances, yet all metals contained sulphur and mercury, and it was the varying proportions of each one that determined whether the metal would become gold, silver, copper, tin, or other metals.
For instance, gold was supposed to be composed of a large amount of mercury and small amounts of sulphur; copper contained equal amounts of mercury and sulphur; and tin contained an imperfect blend of impure mercury and a large quantity of sulphur.
The alchemic students and theorists likened the process of transmuting one metal into another “to the generation (reproduction) of animals and vegetables”— therefore, “to find the secret to the production of metals it would be necessary to discover their seed.”
The believer of alchemy was fixated on the theory that there was no inorganic substance and all substances were alive. They believed that life and its functions were guided by the stars which were continuously moving metals towards perfection—to gold!
From the twelfth century, alchemists had pronounced that for their transmutations to reach completion an agent was necessary. The agent had many names and manifestations, for instance the philosopher’s stone, philosopher’s powder, the great elixir, and the quintessence. When the philosopher’s stone touched a liquid metal it would be transmuted into gold.
Paracelsus describes the philosopher’s stone as solid and dark red; Berigard of Pisa describes the stone as the color of poppies; Raymond Lully stated that the stone was the color of a carbuncle; Helvetius held the stone in his hands and claimed it was bright yellow; the Arab Khalid wrote, “This stone unites within itself all the colors; it is white, red, yellow, sky-blue and green.” Is the philosopher’s stone perhaps an opal?
At the age of sixteen Paracelsus entered the university in Basel and is thought to have gone to Wurzburg to study with Hans von Trittenheim, a recognized scholar of magic. When he became twenty-two years old, Paracelsus was employed by the mining school of Sigismund Fugger, a well-known alchemist. Paracelsus then went on what could be described as an “odyssey” through Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, Scandinavia, and Russia.
At the age of thirty-three Paracelsus was hired to the position of town physician and professor of medicine. Paracelsus quickly made enemies of the town officials and physicians by saying, “If you will not learn the mysteries of putrefactive fermentation, you are unworthy of the name of physicians.” For the remainder of his years Paracelsus wandered through dozens of cities and countries, writing books and papers in a mix of German, Latin, and made up words of his own design. He used the Arabic word for black eye makeup (al-kohl) and used it to describe the spirits of wine, which became the word “alcohol.” Paracelsus created the word “zinc,” and from the German word “all-geist” he created the word “alkahest” that is the universal alchemic solvent with the powers to convert all things into their liquid primary matter. For his own brand of alchemy, primarily designed for healing disease, Paracelsus coined the term “spagyric.”
Paracelsus was not alone, however. Another physician by the name of Henry Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, who served as a soldier in Germany, traveled through France, Spain, Italy, England, and Switzerland, and during his brief life of 49 years was a professor, courtier, theologian, lawyer, doctor, and alchemist.
Agrippa’s philosophy was outlined in The Occult Philosophy (1510 AD), his legendary book on magic he wrote while in England. His philosophy was that “man is made in the image of God.” He saw God as the whole universe, and it was simply reason that man then was a miniature replica (a sort of “mini-me”) of the Universe.
Agrippa believed that, just as man’s body was filled with his spirit, “so all material substances are permeated by a Universal Spirit.” He believed this spirit was very abundant in the celestial bodies and traveled to earth via the star’s light and energy rays. He believed that various earthly materials such as gems, metals, plants, and animals were under the influence of a particular star or planet. Agrippa also believed the materials were influenced by the “spirit” of that star. He strongly advocated charms of all kinds which would be “worn on the body bound to any part of it or hung around the neck, changing sickness into health or health into sickness . . . When any star ascends fortunately take an herb and a stone that are under that star, make a ring of the metal that is congruous therewith, and in that fix the stone with the herb under it.”
Emperor Rudolf II, the king of Prague, Bohemia, was an enthusiastic alchemist. His laboratory filled two rooms; the equipment included three great furnaces that were designed to smelt ore, heat a water bath (bain-marie), and distill volatile liquids and uncountable numbers of glassware, including “glass phials, pewter funnels, hourglass of different sizes, spoons, spatulas, and knives.”
The alchemists who were invited to work in this laboratory lived on Olden Lane between Saint George’s church and Saint Vitus’ Cathedral. On September 3, 1584, Dr. Thaddeus Hajek, the court physician, received two visitors from England: Dr. John Dee and his assistant Edward Kelley. They arrived to gain support from the Emperor for a Polish count (Albert Laski) who wanted to be king of Poland. The count believed the alchemic skills of Dee and Kelley would cause Rudolf to become an ally.
Early in 1582 Kelley showed up at Dr. John Dee’s house, about the same time as Dee had begun his experiments in “scrying” (crystal-gazing) with a crystal sphere and a disc of polished black obsidian that had been brought back from Mexico. Dee called these two objects his “shewstones.” Kelley became a skillful scryer, and the two spent every spare minute in raising-up visions of spirits and angels.
While abroad, Dr. Dee had been spreading his vision of religion and scientific beliefs. He was considered one of the foremost thinkers of his age, and his ideas carried considerable authority. Dee’s views, however, were not on the same track as those of the Catholic Church, and in the spring of 1586 word came to Dee and Kelley that the Church had made the decision to bring charges against them. They left Prague and learned later that they had left just in time, as the Pope’s representative had accused them of “conjuring and practicing black magic” and had ordered Emperor Rudolf to arrest them and send them to Rome for interrogation by the Catholic Church.
Modern chemistry deals with the structure, composition, and reactive properties of elements under different circumstances. Before arriving at a theory or conclusion, a chemist will rerun an experiment many times under exactly the same conditions, keep reliable records and come to a repeatable conclusion.
Until the 16th century, the alchemist’s primary interest in basic elements was the ingredients in, and the makeup of, the “philosopher’s stone.” Alchemists were not motivated to do more investigation as they already had their answer as to the nature of substances. This was primarily Aristotle’s theory of the four elements, and then in the division of elements into sulfur and mercury or the division of sulfur, mercury, and salt of later alchemy. Their belief in a mystical, hermetic philosophy, with its ideas of occult sympathies between objects, allowed them to engage in bizarre “occult sympathies between objects, encouraged them to wild flights of fancy and speculation, often on the basis of a single observation.” As a result, numerous experimental facts and theories were recorded by alchemists, but each existed in isolation and rarely was found to be generally useful.
It was Paracelsus who through unintended events began the decline of alchemy and the march toward modern chemistry. A giant 16th century physician, he put his arms around both the practical and the mystical aspects of alchemy. He insisted that the true purpose of mystical alchemy was to develop secret powers within the human soul, and the ultimate goal of practical alchemy was to find medical cures. The followers of Paracelsus regarded these two beliefs as too far afield from their own original training.
Many alchemists began to devote more energy to their spiritual growth. Others, happy to be released from the quest to find the philosopher’s stone, began experimentation guided by facts, and as a result, they revealed many new basic revelations. Finally the foundation was put together for the creation of “iatro,” or medical chemistry, and for the science of basic chemistry.
Some alchemists believed that the philosopher’s stone was a diamond since it had attained the “pinnacle of beauty and perfection equal only to that of gold among metals and the Sun among planets.” One of the diamond symbols of alchemists was the Shameer, a unique diamond that had been snatched from the beak of a rooster before it was swallowed. It is said that the Shameer was employed by Moses to cut the precious stones for the priestly Jewish vestments (the ephod) and it is also thought to be the stone that was used by Solomon for his wisdom.
Of all of the precious and semiprecious stones, the star ruby is thought to be the most magical. It is thought to represent the creative energy of the Sun (the creator star) and the pentagram (the star of magic). The star of the pentagram has been employed for centuries to call forth angels, demons, elementals, and spirits.
Trautmansdorf claimed to have discovered a bean-shaped philosopher’s stone that glowed in the dark. This version of the philosopher’s stone was often compared to the Indian Brahman’s Pentarbe, a magic stone that was viewed by Apollonius of Tyana, who remarked, “In the night time it glowed like fire, for it is red and emits rays; and if you look at it, it smits your eyes with a thousand gleams. And this light with in it is a spirit of mysterious power, for it absorbs to itself everything in its neighborhood.”
Through history, the assignment of different jewels to people according to their birth date was calculated in relationship to the planet’s influence through the Zodiac. Each of the twelve different stones were given to the planets assigned by the birth date. Modern astrology has maintained this tradition and belief of the lucky “birthstone.”
It was believed that in addition to having the power to transmute metals, the philosopher’s stone had other mystical benefits. It could cure all diseases and extend life far beyond its natural limits—it was the panacea!
The Chinese believed that gold was immortal and when consumed by a human it could make humans immortal. Their problem was that they had to find or make the wonder preparation of medicine because gold powder could not be absorbed; it came through the intestinal tract unabsorbed. Therefore they needed to find a process to dissolve gold into a “marvelous powder,” which would then be “spread mistily like wind driven by rain” through the five organs. It was believed that such a powder could only be obtained through an alchemical procedure. This universal medicine, referred to as “huatan” cured its user of all Earthly miseries and disease.
“Like produces like” is the ancient maxim of magic, meaning the most perfect and imperishable metal will produce immortality and perfection. The Chinese alchemist employed magical formulas to promote his trade, and he looked to the stars for favor and success of his efforts.
The West believed, incorrectly, that the Chinese strove to make true gold. But in reality, the Chinese believed that artificial gold, not true gold, was endowed with great magical power. They used the mercury ore, cinnabar, and additional metals. In fact the Chinese consciously intended to make alloys that appeared to be gold!
The Chinese believed it was sufficient to eat meals each day from plates made of alloys that looked like gold to gain immortality.
There is a legend that tells of the great Wei Po-Yang (100–150 AD), who when he was able to create the true gold medicine, he and his student Yu became immortal. Additionally the sage’s dog had eaten the scraps on the plate and had also attained immortality.
The Chinese aimed only to rejuvenate and attain immortality. The concept of the alchemist philosopher’s gold was not known to the Chinese.
Paracelsus, born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, wandering mystic, and alchemist. He pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicines. Science journalist Philip Ball reports, “Paracelsus lived from 1493 to 1541—he was a fulcrum of western history, the dawn of the modern age. This was a world where magic was real, where demons lurked in every dark corner, where God presided over all creation, and yet it was also a time when humankind was beginning to crack nature’s codes and map the geography of heaven and earth.”
Paracelsus is famous for his railing against the ancient ideas of Hippocrates and Galen, both of whom suggested that illness was the result of an imbalance of four humors (liquids): blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Paracelsus, by contrast, believed that disease resulted from the body being attacked by agents outside the body or by other abnormalities that could be treated with chemicals.
In 1527 Paracelsus publicly burned the standard medical texts of the day, which included the works of Galen and Avicenna. This burning of the masters’ writings and thoughts on a huge log fire, lit by students, “could be viewed as a turning point in the history of medicine,” according to author, Hugh Crone. Physicians of the day had to destroy the very foundations of Galenic medicine, be free to question authority, and employ current observations and rational experiments while at the same time look for new medicines.
One of Paracelsus’s primary ideas was to document the occupational hazards of metal works and mining. As a result he is often times referred to as the father of toxicology. He wrote, “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison—only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.” He also proposed the concept of “like cures like,” and that “if a poison caused a disease, then the same poison might be used as a cure if administered in the proper dosage and form.” His ideas may have been one of the forerunners of the science of homeopathy where, “Like treats Like.”
“Faith must take first place among all the other laws of philosophy,” stated a Jesuit spokesman in 1624, “so that what, by established authority, is the word of God may not be exposed to falsity.” The statement was a strict warning to restrict unnecessary speculation: “The only thing necessary to the philosopher, in order to know the truth, which is one and simple, is to oppose whatever is contrary to Faith and to accept that which is contained in Faith.”
While the Jesuit did not name a specific heretic to which the warning was directed, his contemporaries would have certainly understood that his remarks were specifically hurled at the author of a scientific paper entitled “The Assayer” by Galileo Galilei.
Galileo was already in hot water with authorities because he used his own observations of the heavens to support the Copernican belief that the earth was in an orbit around the sun. Galileo had bowed to the authority of the Inquisition by pledging to drop his claims supporting the earth’s orbit around the sun. However, his book The Assayer, printed in 1623, revealed that Galileo was unrepentant and continued to preach the dangerous theory.
As a follower of Lucretius, “Galileo defended the oneness of the celestial and terrestrial world: there was no essential difference, he claimed, between the nature of the sun and the planets and the nature of the earth and its inhabitants. Like Lucretius, he believed that everything in the universe could be understood through the same disciplined use of observation and reason. Like Lucretius, he sought to work through this testimony toward a rational comprehension of the hidden structures of all things. And like Lucretius, he was convinced that these structures were by nature constituted by what he called “minims” or minimal particles, that is, constituted by a limited repertory of atoms combined in innumerable ways.”
Galileo had powerful friends of great status and credibility. The Assayer was dedicated to none other than the highly respected newly-elected pope, Urban VIII, born Maffeo Barbarini, and who as Cardinal had endorsed Galileo’s research and theories of the universe.
As long as the pope was supporting Galileo, he would be able to pursue his stellar research. However, the pope was besieged by the Jesuits to restrain Galileo from expressing his heresies. On August 1, 1632, the Society of Jesus prohibited and condemned the theory of atoms. The prohibition in of itself could not have initiated a condemnation of Galileo, as The Assayer had been approved eight years earlier. However, Galileo’s printing of the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in 1632 gave his opponents the opening that they had been praying for: they promptly reported Galileo’s transgression to the Congregation of the Holy Office which was also known as the Inquisition.
On June 22, 1633, the Inquisition published its verdict, “We say, sentence, and declare that you Galileo, by reason of the evidence arrived at in the trial, and by you confessed as above, have rendered yourself in the judgment of this Holy Office vehemently suspected of heresy.” However, because of Galileo’s favor with the pope he avoided torture and execution, but was sentenced to life imprisonment under house arrest.
Gradually, hermetic beliefs in the “unity of the cosmos” lost support, and scientists began to look for new theories to embellish or replace Aristotle’s beliefs. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries alchemists continued to believe in the possibility of transmuting base metals into gold. But they were too busy, either with examining their own souls and spiritual pursuits, or with their laboratory experiments to chase transmutation; the producing of gold by cooking base metals became the song of those who wanted to generate wealth or to mislead others, which was a great departure from the spiritual pursuits of the original alchemists.
Scientific thought from other specialties gradually began to tear apart the position of alchemy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Francis Bacon, the English essayist and scientific philosopher who died in 1626, vigorously supported the proper organization of experiments and accurate recording of data and results so they could be repeated and confirmed. Open discussions that included well-respected scientists and thinkers from all over Europe began to replace the mysterious persona of the alchemist.
In England in1660, Charles II supported the formation of the Royal Society of London. Robert Boyle, one of the societies original members, was instrumental in setting chemistry up as a science, separating it from the transmutation of metals and from the creation of medicines.
In 1661 Boyle published the Sceptical Chymist, and in it he dismissed as being unscientific the Aristotelian theory of the four elements and the alchemist’s notion of the three principles of salt, sulfur, and mercury.
In 1669 Hennig Brandt, a German alchemist, had tried to transmute insignificant materials into gold—the most noble of metals. Brandt “reasoned that nothing could be more noble than the human body and materials connected with it.” So “perhaps it would be possible to change something connected with the noble human body into the noble metal—gold.”
Brandt combined human urine with common beach sand, then heated the mix in an oven. The soft white residue glowed in a dark room and Brandt named it “phosphorus” (Greek for “I bear light”).
Boyle procured a sample of Brandt’s phosphorus and began to manufacture it in large quantities and sold it throughout Europe. Although Boyle’s scientific influence was strong, many continued to embrace Aristotle’s ideas until late in the 18th century, and in an effort to preserve their theories they retreated from the stage of science to mysticism.
A curious manifestation of alchemical mysticism was the story of the Rosicrucian fraternity, a secret order that claimed to hold great powers and to count among its members the greatest alchemists of two centuries. The total of what is known of the Rosicrucian fraternity is found in three anonymously published pamphlets that appeared in Germany between 1614 and 1616. The pamphlets contain the strange language and symbolism that is employed and embraced by mystical alchemists.
No one was able to determine whether the Rosicrucian brotherhood actually existed, whether it had been created to convey alchemy in symbolic terms, or whether it was a hoax designed to discredit zealous students of alchemy and the occult. The pamphlets produced extreme excitement and wild speculation throughout Europe. Many followers attempted to get in touch with the authors by printing their own pamphlets in reply. The fever pitch and interest lasted for the entire 17th century and included highly regarded scientists and philosophers—even Descartes and Leibniz expended considerable effort in an attempt to reveal the truth.
The first pamphlet, “Fama Fraternitatis,” describes the travels of Brother C.R.C. who is in search of alchemic expertise and wisdom. C.R.C. was generally thought to be an abbreviation for Christian Rosenkreuz, which translates to “Rosy Cross.” Rosenkreuz established himself in Germany and with three other monks founded the Rosicrucian Order, or Fraternity of the Rosy Cross. The small fraternity of monks recorded everything C.R.C. had learned the known skills in science, magic, and the healing arts, and they gradually grew in numbers to eight. They eventually disbanded after pledging to keep the secrets of the fraternity for 100 years.
In 1615 the second pamphlet showed up. It was written in the identical alchemic language of the “Fama,” and it encouraged alchemic scholars to join the fraternity, but the pamphlet gave no instructions on how to accomplish the contact.
The third pamphlet, “The Chemical Wedding,” was printed in 1616, and its contents left no doubt that it was a tool of alchemy. It contained well-known alchemic symbols and other information that resonated with the Renaissance magician, including mathematical puzzles, descriptions of unique mechanical toys, and the “most strange Figures, and dark Sentences and Speeches.” Many years later an eminent German theologian, Johann Valentin Andreae of Wurtemberg, confessed that he had written “The Chemical Wedding” as a schoolboy joke. It was never determined whether he was also the author of the two additional pamphlets. Although he had confessed to his joke, many faithful supporters continued to believe in the contents of the pamphlets. Many cultists believed that the pamphlets contained coded alchemical and hermetic secrets. Others looked at them as having a deeper purpose through a reformation in science, not unlike the Lutheran reformation in religion.
The mysterious curtain of alchemical symbolism enabled alchemists to invent their individual translations of the symbols and recipes. Some symbols were looked at as segments of the laboratory process or as steps for the progress of the soul, or both. Alchemy employed a wide palate of symbolism, including astrology, religion, and magic.
Alchemists had from the beginning taken every effort to preserve the secrecy of their formulas and methods. There was no uniformity in the alchemical language, which frequently employed hundreds of different symbols that might have been used for a dual purpose, so they could be used to remember stages of an experiment or a recipe without writing them out.
The 17th century was an era of rapid progress in scientific thought and discovery; however, numerous pioneers of true science were also solid believers in alchemy. One of the most famous of these was Sir Isaac Newton, who had put forth the “law of gravity.” He spent a considerable amount of time studying alchemy and the magical nature of the world. His mathematical investigations were used to confirm his belief in the “mystical harmonies of the Universe.”
In addition to Newton, Descartes, who is thought by many to be the father of modern philosophy, was seriously interested in alchemy. A more eccentric personage having this interest was Johann Rudolf Glauber. Born in Germany in 1604, he became a physician and chemist and was a passionate believer in alchemy. He made many valuable observations and discoveries, particularly in the chemistry of wine-making and the science of the distillation of spirits. While examining the chemical content of a healing mineral spring where he had visited to “take a cure,” he identified the substance as sodium sulfate. He became very excited and announced that he had at last found one of the vital constituents of the philosopher’s stone. Crystallized sodium is known as “Glauber’s salt.” However, it is used, not as the Elixir of Life, but as a laxative.
Thomas Jefferson, a wealthy Virginia plantation owner, possessed five Latin editions of On the Nature of Things by Lucretius with translations of the poem in English, Italian, and French. It was one of Jefferson’s favorite books, confirming his belief that “there is nature alone and that nature consists only of matter.”
Lucretius contributed to Jefferson’s belief that “ignorance and fear were not necessary components of human existence,” and Jefferson used the theme of this ancient poem to create a government whose goal was not only to guarantee the lives and liberties of its citizens, but also to guarantee “the pursuit of Happiness.” The atoms that Lucretius and Epicurius had envisioned had contributed significantly to the content of America’s Declaration of Independence!
On August 15, 1820, the seventy-seven year old Jefferson penned a letter to former president, John Adams, who was eighty-five: “I feel: therefore I exist. I feel bodies which are not myself; therefore, there are other existencies then. I call them matter. I feel them changing place. This gives me motion. Where there is an absence of matter, I call it void, or nothing, or immaterial space. On the basis of sensation, of matter and motion, we may erect the fabric of all the certainties we can have or need.”
“I am” Jefferson penned to a writer who enquired on his philosophy of life, “an Epicurean.” Jefferson believed in atoms!