ALCHEMY

This word either means "The Black" or "The Egyptian", since Khem was the Arabic word for black, and was applied to Egypt because of its rich black soil.

The Egyptians either created or perfected two marvellous processes, one for creating bronze and the other for creating beer. In both cases an apparently miraculous event had taken place, the metallurgists and brewers had created something apparently pure from ingredients that did not, on their own, contain the desired properties of the products. Bronze is suppler than tin and harder than copper, and none of the ingredients of beer have intoxicating properties. This process was therefore seen as magical, which, given a reasonable definition of magic, is true.

The processes were kept secret and developed as Alchemy, as the practitioners wished all of the wealth created for themselves, and they speculated that their abilities could be extended. The three main objects of Alchemy were eternal life, perfect health and the creation of gold. Some Egyptian processes described as for faking gold may actually have been quite honourably created: to someone who has no knowledge of atomic theory if a metal looks like gold and behaves like gold it might well be considered to really be gold. The wealth such knowledge would bring to a successful alchemist meant that it was the one occult art to remain free from persecution in Europe right down to the modern day.

Various texts were considered important. Arabic and Egyptian texts were much sought after, and "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus" was the greatest of these.

Alchemical theory was hidebound by the idea that a single process would create all of the necessary ingredients for all of their objects. Their failure to achieve any of them was explained in various ways:

1) The original material to which the process was to be applied was a lost secret. When rediscovered it would create such things as "The Powder of Projection", which could be stirred into molten lead to turn it into gold, and "The Philosopher's Stone".

2) The alchemist had to be a spiritually pure person, so if he or she failed it was their fault.

3) The processes needed further refinement, or had to be done at particularly astrological moments that passed more quickly than the processes.

Certain things are known about alchemy:

1) The original matter was usually organic, was entirely pulverised (in the case of plants, the entire plant was usually used) and heated only at slow, low temperatures.

2) It is known how certain substances used during the processes were made, such as Rectified Spirits of Wine. The distillation of spirits was an Alchemical invention, and is why the somewhat religious word ‘spirit' is used.

3) Alchemical equipment has survived, some of which is identical to modern lab equipment and some of which isn't.

4) The names of the seven basic stages have survived, as have the signs used to represent the metals used, as found in most tables of correspondence.

What is not known is the meaning of most of the wonderful diagrams used by mediaeval alchemists. It is clear that they refer to chemical processes, but the mysterious and occasionally sexual imagery has led to the growth of alchemical bullshit.

As real Alchemy declined, Spiritual Alchemy arose. The main forms are described below:

1) Jungian Alchemy. Carl Jung proposed that Alchemy was actually a system of self development disguised as chemistry. He was wrong, but a lot of post-Jungian groups use the term to mean this. My statement that this is a misuse of the word does not mean that their systems are of no use, just misnamed.

2) Sexual Alchemy. Basically a mixture of New Age "Tantra" and "Taoism", neither of which resemble their oriental originals that much, it is a great excuse for people who have only got half way through shedding their inhibitions to have sex, and not worth much else.

3) Psychedelic Alchemy. Now replaced by the term ethno-botany, this was applied to people who manufactured certain types of drugs, those who took them and the effects that they had. Mainly used by people who needed spiritual excuses for taking fun substances, given that one of the first two alchemical processes was for making beer it isn't too bad a term, although the processes usually resemble chemistry (high temperatures, speedy) rather that alchemy.

4) Alchemical Ritual Magic. Some ritualists use the Alchemical stages as a magical formula. There is no good reason why this shouldn't work, but it cannot be claimed that this was what alchemists actually did, although some may have tried this.