Hermeticism
Mythology
Hermes Trismegistus Thoth Poimandres
Hermetica
Corpus Hermeticum The Kybalion
"Three Parts of the Wisdom of the Whole Universe"
Alchemy Astrology Theurgy
Movements
Freemasonry
Rosicrucianism
Theosophy
Thelema
Ariosophy
Orders
Holy Royal Arch Freemasonry
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
Hermetic Brotherhood of Light
Knights Templar
Knights Templar (Freemasonry)
Ordo Templi Orientis
Rosicrucian Order
Scottish Rite
Freemasonry
Topics
Hermetic Qabalah
Influence and influences
Occult and divinatory tarot
People
Aleister Crowley
John Dee Manly P Hall Arthur Edward Waite Thābit ibn Qurra
Paracelsus Giordano Bruno Ahmad al-Būni Eliphas Levi William Westcott Franz
Bardon Jakob Böhme
In the eyes of a variety of esoteric and Hermetic
practitioners, alchemy is fundamentally spiritual. Transmutation of lead into
gold is presented as an analogy for personal transmutation, purification, and perfection.
The writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus
are a primary source of alchemical theory. He is named "alchemy's founder
and chief patron, authority, inspiration and guide".
Early alchemists, such as Zosimos of Panopolis (c. AD 300),
highlight the spiritual nature of the alchemical quest, symbolic of a religious
regeneration of the human soul. This
approach continued in the Middle Ages, as metaphysical aspects, substances,
physical states, and material processes were used as metaphors for spiritual
entities, spiritual states, and, ultimately, transformation. In this sense, the
literal meanings of 'Alchemical Formulas' were a blind, hiding their true
spiritual philosophy. Practitioners and patrons such as Melchior Cibinensis and
Pope Innocent VIII existed within the ranks of the church, while Martin Luther
applauded alchemy for its consistency with Christian teachings. Both the transmutation of common metals into
gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect,
diseased, corruptible, and ephemeral state toward a perfect, healthy,
incorruptible, and everlasting state, so the philosopher's stone then
represented a mystic key that would make this evolution possible. Applied to
the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to
enlightenment, and the stone represented a hidden spiritual truth or power that
would lead to that goal. In texts that are written according to this view, the
cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and textual imagery of late alchemical
works typically contain multiple layers of meanings, allegories, and references
to other equally cryptic works; and must be laboriously decoded to discover
their true meaning.
In his 1766 Alchemical Catechism, Théodore Henri de Tschudi
denotes that the usage of the metals was merely symbolic:
Q. When the
Philosophers speak of gold and silver, from which they extract their matter,
are we to suppose that they refer to the vulgar gold and silver?
A. By no means; vulgar silver and gold are
dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life.
Magnum opus
The Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of
four stages represented by colors.
Nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
Albedo, a whitening or leucosis
Citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
Rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis
Modern alchemy
Due to the complexity and obscurity of alchemical
literature, and the 18th-century disappearance of remaining alchemical
practitioners into the area of chemistry; the general understanding of alchemy
has been strongly influenced by several distinct and radically different
interpretations. Those focusing on the
exoteric, such as historians of science Lawrence M. Principe and William R.
Newman, have
interpreted the 'decknamen' (or code words) of alchemy as
physical substances. These scholars have reconstructed physicochemical
experiments that they say are described in medieval and early modern texts. At the opposite end of the spectrum, focusing
on the esoteric, scholars, such as George Calian and Anna Marie Roos, who
question the reading of Principe and Newman, interpret these same decknamen as
spiritual, religious, or psychological concepts.
Today new interpretations of alchemy are still perpetuated,
sometimes merging in concepts from New Age or radical environmentalism
movements. Groups like the Rosicrucians
and Freemasons have a continued interest in alchemy and its symbolism. Since
the Victorian revival of alchemy, "occultists reinterpreted alchemy as a
spiritual practice, involving the self-transformation of the practitioner and
only incidentally or not at all the transformation of laboratory
substances", which has contributed to a merger of magic and alchemy in
popular thought.
Traditional medicine
Traditional medicine can use the concept of the
transmutation of natural substances, using pharmacological or a combination of
pharmacological and spiritual techniques. In Ayurveda, the samskaras are
claimed to transform heavy metals and toxic herbs in a way that removes their
toxicity. These processes are actively used to the present day.
Spagyrists of the 20th century, Albert Richard Riedel and
Jean Dubuis, merged Paracelsian alchemy with occultism, teaching laboratory
pharmaceutical methods. The schools they founded, Les Philosophes de la Nature
and The Paracelsus Research Society, popularized modern spagyrics including the
manufacture of herbal tinctures and products. The courses, books, organizations, and
conferences generated by their students continue to influence popular
applications of alchemy as a New Age medicinal practice.
Psychology
Alchemical symbolism has been important in depth and
analytical psychology and was revived and popularized from near extinction by
the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Initially confounded and at odds with
alchemy and its images, after being given a copy of the translation of The
Secret of the Golden Flower, a Chinese alchemical text, by his friend Richard
Wilhelm, Jung discovered a direct correlation or parallels between the symbolic
images in the alchemical drawings and the inner, symbolic images coming up in dreams,
visions or imaginations during the psychic processes of transformation
occurring in his patients. A process, which he called "process of
individuation". He regarded the alchemical images as symbols expressing
aspects of this "process of individuation" of which the creation of
the gold or lapis within were symbols for its origin and goal. Together with his alchemical mystica soror,
Jungian Swiss analyst Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung began collecting all the old
alchemical texts available, compiled a lexicon of key phrases with
cross-references and pored over them. The volumes of work he wrote brought new
light into understanding the art of transubstantiation and renewed alchemy's
popularity as a symbolic process of coming into wholeness as a human being
where opposites brought into contact and inner and outer, spirit and matter are
reunited in the hieros gamos or divine marriage. His writings are influential
in psychology and for persons who have an interest in understanding the
importance of dreams, symbols and the unconscious archetypal forces
(archetypes) that influence all of life.
Both von Franz and Jung have contributed greatly to the
subject and work of alchemy and its continued presence in psychology as well as
contemporary culture. Jung wrote volumes on alchemy and his magnum opus is
Volume 14 of his Collected Works, Mysterium Conuinctionis. Ralph Metzner,
speaking to CG Jung Society of Seattle, 2014, sees the historical emergence of
psychedelics in the work of alchemists.
Literature
Alchemy has had a long-standing relationship with art, seen
both in alchemical texts and in mainstream entertainment. Literary alchemy
appears throughout the history of English literature from Shakespeare to J. K.
Rowling, and also the popular Japanese manga Full Metal Alchemist. Here,
characters or plot structure follow an alchemical magnum opus. In the 14th
century, Chaucer began a trend of alchemical satire that can still be seen in
recent fantasy works like those of Terry Pratchett.
Visual artists had a similar relationship with alchemy.
While some of them used alchemy as a source of satire, others worked with the
alchemists themselves or integrated alchemical thought or symbols in their
work. Music was also present in the works of alchemists and continues to influence
popular performers. In the last hundred years, alchemists have been portrayed
in a magical and spagyric role in fantasy fiction, film, television, novels,
comics and video games.
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