The origins of alchemy

By admin · Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The Origins of Alchemy

The roots and origin of the practice known as Alchemy take us back all the way to ancient Egypt, although many cultures throughout time have been involved in the seeking out of alchemy’s secrets. Alchemy, the transmutation of base elements into gold for the purposes of both chemistry and metaphysical exploration, has been a field cloaked with mystery and controversy.

Throughout its history, alchemy has often had practioners of two kinds. One was the true adept who sought transmutation that alchemy could bring for spiritual enlightenment, while the other groups who sought the teachings of alchemy did so for the purposes of earthly wealth and often greed as well. Those who practiced the art for it’s metaphysical and spiritual benefits had contempt for those that sought alchemy as a short-cut to material wealth. That was not the real purpose of purified gold, was the thought the true alchemy adept. Indeed, the alchemist got his concept of this by observing how the process of purification occurred in nature. They understood that the four elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire, plus the element of Spirit as the fifth element, were what all things were comprised of. They believed that as the base metal lead perfected and purified themselves in the belly of the earth through fire, eventually turning into gold or silver through a process of natural transmutation, so too could this be done in a lab, they reasoned. What was needed, though, was something they referred to as the Philosopher’s Stone. A 4th century alchemist named Zosimus referred to it as “the stone which is not a stone”, as it allegedly had amazing properties which afforded it the ability not only to transmute base metal into gold, but also to soften glass, or give the alchemist the ability to levitate, or to communicate with angels. The reason for these powers of the Philosopher’s Stone was said to be because of its being comprised of what they called prima materia, or the prime material, from which every thing on earth is made. The prima material, it was believed, was the essence of physical matter which contained pure Divine essence. The first order of business of early alchemists, then was creating a philosopher’s stone from the revered prima material. This often proved to be the bane of alchemy however, as the Stone remained elusive.

Roots of Alchemy

As we look at the roots of alchemy, we first find the concepts of it in ancient Egypt, going back between 5,000