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COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE -- Issue 2

Alchemy, as everyone knows, is the basis of modern science. But is it as fledgling scientists that we see those pioneering seekers after knowledge? In their low-tech laboratories, lit by furnaces that barely cut through the fumes and smokes emanating from retorts and crucibles, with sinister liquids dripping from alembics and strange substances waiting to be mixed into some mysterious brew .... Scientists? Sorry, wrong ‘s’ word. Sorcerers, that is the word we are looking for. The robe might be straight out of the Mickey Mouse bit in Fantasia but the sentiments are not. For it is in the image of the archetypal sorcerer that the ancient meaning of alchemy persists. Disguising itself as science or not, alchemy was and is one of the principal ritual magic systems practised in the West.
....It was, of course, the heretical nature of alchemy that made the long but not totally successful cover-up a matter of life or death necessity. Throughout Europe, the Inquisition were barbecuing people for a lot less than the alchemists were doing. But, despite the fact that in its origins, philosophy, methods and objectives it was clearly in almost total opposition to everything the Church held dear, somehow alchemy survived.
....The survival of alchemy, a heart-warming tale of a hypocritical and dishonest Church being trapped in a web of its own making, would be remarkable under any circumstances. Given, however, the true nature of the alchemical heresy it is truly improbable. Drawing on many strands of arcane knowledge few of which even come into the same ballpark as Christianity, alchemy was a complete anathema to the Church.
....Alchemy is a complicated art (yes, we know we said it was ‘science’ but in its full value it is much more of an art) within which many opposing elements are reconciled. At the heart of the alchemical process is the search for the Philosopher’s Stone. A legendary substance that turns base metal into gold and grants eternal life, the Philosopher’s Stone is found through an elaborate series of processes that are both mystical as well as chemical. If alchemy is a process of chemical reaction and purification, it is also one of spiritual transformation from a state of earthly impurity to one of heavenly (but not necessarily Christian) perfection.
....It was not, however, the prospect of eternal life that kept kings, popes and almost everyone with some money and a mind scouring the impenetrable alchemical texts and slaving away over hot test tubes. It was the desire for gold.
....If the possibility that there might be some substance capable of changing base metal into gold seems bizarre to us, it was not the least improbable for Al and his chemical friends. Not only was there an elaborate rationale that explained everything — if you could only understand it — butthere was also considerable hard evidence.
....Drawing on the earliest pre-Christian sources, the alchemists found repeated references to the Philosopher’s Stone. In a medieval Arab text, 'The Book of Ostanes,' there are 84 different names for the Philosopher's Stone. And, as alchemy found its feet, there was even harder evidence.
....The 1600s were the happening period for the alchemical conspiracy. Coins were produced from alchemical gold for Christian of Denmark in the 1640s. In the same year J. B. van Helmont, a chemist and inventor of the term ‘gas’, described the Stone which he used to turn eight ounces of mercury into gold. In 1666, medical pioneer Helveticus performed the same remarkable feat. Ten years later an alchemist converted both copper and tin to gold in the presence of Emperor Leopold 1 and, subsequently, turned silver into gold; when a medallion cast from the alchemical gold was examined in 1888 it was found to have a specific gravity between that of silver and gold.
....Remarkable stuff. But what was truly remarkable was that they could actually work out where to start. If the making of the Stone could only be achieved by one who had acquired a profound understanding of the deepest mysteries of the universe, the alchemists were damned (and they probably were) if they were going to make the knowledge available to just anyone. Anyway, such mysteries could not be stated in plain language; they could only be conveyed through a richly .confusing system of symbolism and allegory.
....Thus it is that the ‘Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus’, the majority of which dates from the 4th or 5th centuries BC, says: ‘Take one ounce and a half of the humidity; and of the Midday Redness, the soul of gold, take a fourth part which is half an ounce. Of the citrine Seyre take similarly half an ounce. Of the Auripigment take half (which are eight) thus making a total of three ounces; and you must know that the Vine of the Wise is drawn forth in three, and the Wine of it is perfected in Thirty.’
....Honestly, that is what it says. You work it out. We can’t. But, somehow or other, the alchemists did.
....Alchemy has given us so much. The word 'gibberish' is a corruption of Gerber, the name by which one of the most famous Arab alchemists, Jabir ibn Hayyan (c. 722-815,) was known in Europe. But the contribution alchemy was made to society is much richer and more influential than mere words. Almost all of our knowledge of metallurgy, chemistry and laboratory practice comes straight out of alchemy. And, indeed, many alchemists are numbered amongst those who have been instrumental in changing our view of the world and how it works.
....If the influence of alchemy and all it stands for has long since been assimilated by society, it would be wrong to think that the ancient art is dying or dead. While science and technology have left the arcane sciences way behind, that is how all those involved would wish it to be. Generally now perceived as the scientific allegory that it always was, alchemy can assume its true role as a magical art. Alchemy lives on and, indeed, flourishes. In a world that is so spiritually barren that Westerners must look to the East for a spiritual heritage, alchemy and ritual magic offer the only real alternatives to Christianity. It is, however, a sorry state of affairs that the West can only call upon three distinctly homegrown philosophical/spiritual traditions.