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Modern historical research |
The history of alchemy has become a significant and recognized subject of academic study. As the language of the alchemists is analyzed, historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the evolution of science and philosoph... |
Journals which publish regularly on the topic of Alchemy include 'Ambix', published by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, and 'Isis', published by The History of Science Society. |
Core concepts |
Western alchemical theory corresponds to the worldview of late antiquity in which it was born. Concepts were imported from Neoplatonism and earlier Greek cosmology. As such, the classical elements appear in alchemical writings, as do the seven classical planets and the corresponding seven metals of antiquity. Similarly... |
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 |
Modernity |
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... |
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 spiri... |
Esoteric interpretations of historical texts |
In the eyes of a variety of modern esoteric and Neo-Hermeticist practitioners, alchemy is fundamentally spiritual. In this interpretation, transmutation of lead into gold is presented as an analogy for personal transmutation, purification, and perfection. |
According to this view, early alchemists such as Zosimos of Panopolis (c. AD 300) highlighted the spiritual nature of the alchemical quest, symbolic of a religious regeneration of the human soul. This approach is held to have continued in the Middle Ages, as metaphysical aspects, substances, physical states, and materi... |
In his 1766 Alchemical Catechism, Théodore Henri de Tschudi denotes that the usage of the metals was merely symbolic: |
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 Chin... |
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 Coniunctionis. |
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 Fullmetal Alchemist. Here, characters or plot structure follo... |
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 l... |
Science |
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. |
See also |
Alchemical symbol |
Biological transmutation in Corentin Louis Kervran |
Cupellation |
Historicism |
History of chemistry |
List of alchemists |
Nuclear transmutation |
Outline of alchemy |
Porta Alchemica |
Renaissance magic |
Spagyric |
Superseded theories in science |
Synthesis of precious metals |
Western esotericism |
Notes |
References |
Citations |
Bibliography |
Further reading |
General |
Lawrence Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy, Chicago, 2013. |
Jennifer M. Rampling. 2020. The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700. University of Chicago Press. |
Greco-Egyptian alchemy |
Texts |
Marcellin Berthelot and Charles-Émile Ruelle (eds.), Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (CAAG), 3 vols., 1887–1888, Vol 1: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k96492923, Vol 2: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9680734p, Vol. 3: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9634942s. |
André-Jean Festugière, La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2014 (, OCLC 897235256). |
Robert Halleux and Henri-Dominique Saffrey (eds.), Les alchimistes grecs, t. 1 : Papyrus de Leyde – Papyrus de Stockholm – Recettes, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1981. |
Otto Lagercrantz (ed), Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis, Uppsala, A.B. Akademiska Bokhandeln, 1913, https://archive.org/details/papyrusgraecusho00lage/page/n8. |
Michèle Mertens and Henri-Dominique Saffrey (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, t. 4.1 : Zosime de Panopolis. Mémoires authentiques, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1995. |
Andrée Collinet and Henri-Dominique Saffrey (ed.), Les alchimistes grecs, t. 10 : L'Anonyme de Zuretti ou l'Art sacré and divin de la chrysopée par un anonyme, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2000. |
Andrée Collinet (ed), Les alchimistes grecs, t. 11 : Recettes alchimiques (Par. Gr. 2419; Holkhamicus 109) – Cosmas le Hiéromoine – Chrysopée, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2000. |
Matteo Martelli (ed), The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, Maney Publishing, 2014. |
Studies |
Dylan M. Burns, « μίξεώς τινι τέχνῃ κρείττονι : Alchemical Metaphor in the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1) », Aries 15 (2015), p. 79–106. |
Alberto Camplani, « Procedimenti magico-alchemici e discorso filosofico ermetico » in Giuliana Lanata (ed.), Il Tardoantico alle soglie del Duemila, ETS, 2000, p. 73–98. |
Alberto Camplani and Marco Zambon, « Il sacrificio come problema in alcune correnti filosofice di età imperiale », Annali di storia dell'esegesi 19 (2002), p. 59–99. |
Régine Charron and Louis Painchaud, « 'God is a Dyer,' The Background and Significance of a Puzzling Motif in the Coptic Gospel According to Philip (CG II, 3), Le Muséon 114 (2001), p. 41-50. |
Régine Charron, « The Apocryphon of John (NHC II,1) and the Greco-Egyptian Alchemical Literature », Vigiliae Christinae 59 (2005), p. 438-456. |
Philippe Derchain, "L'Atelier des Orfèvres à Dendara et les origines de l'alchimie," Chronique d'Égypte, vol. 65, no 130, 1990, p. 219–242. |
Korshi Dosoo, « A History of the Theban Magical Library », Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 53 (2016), p. 251–274. |
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