ALCHEMY, CONTINUED
FROM THE OXFORD DICTIONARY
OF
WORLD RELIGIONS

(I will repeat one sentence here for continuity) In its earlier forms (alchemy) pervades all religions, though moving increasingly to interior and spiritual transformations. Thus, in *Taoism, ther were two different levels: practicioners of Wai-tan (external alchemy) sought a potion for immortality, based on a belief that a person's vital energy (*yüan-ch'i) was a particular balance of *yin and yang, which, if it is disturbed, produces illness and death; gold and cinnabar have the power to restore the balance. The practicioners of Nei-tan (internal alchemy) aimed to develope an immortal soul from *ching, *ch'i, and shen, by meditative exercises, especially breathing and control of bodily functions. European alchemy seems to have begun in Hellenistic Egypt around the first century CE, and possibly even earlier. It enjoyed flourishing periods in 2nd and 3rd century Greece, and in various parts of the Arab world in the 7th and 8th centuries, thus taking its name from the Arabic al-kimiya, the Syriac kimiya, and the Greek chemeia. In the 10th century, alchemy re-entered Europe via Islamic Spain, where it also received influence from the *Kabbala. At its peak in Renaissance Europe, in addition to having produced a well-developed medical system under such as Paracelsus, alchemy came for some to rival the Church as the epitome of *Hermetic philosophy; its adherents counted themselves as the true Christians, and pointed to the necessity of transformative experience for spiritual realization. Their pretensions were mocked in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist (1610), which identifies all alchemists as charlatans and deluded mystics; but strong cases have been made for the The Tempest (1611) as a reply to Jonson (Francis Yates, Shakespeare's Last Plays, 1975) and also for King Lear (1605) as an allegory par excellence (Charles Nicoll, The Chemical Theatre, 1980). Alchemical theory in this period involved the belief that all metals in the ground are steadily evolving into gold, and that similarly all men are evolving into Christs. The alchemists saw themselves as only speeding up a natural process, a vision in which *Jung saw the inherent implication of God's imperfection and need for eredemption by Man (a fact which he suggested the alchemists themselves did not fully recognize). Alchemical practice correspondingly involved a dynamic *cosmology whereby the process whereby the process of creation was re-enacted in the alchemical process and, mystically, within the alchemist himself by meditative identification with that process (Jung describes this as the `projection of the psychic contents' onto the working material). The return of matter to its precreation state (termed `chaos', `massa confusa', or `prima materia') was achieved by the application of heat to a retort containing the material (which was not always lead: sometimes eggshells, or the alchemists' faeces, fingernails, hair, etc., were used), which released the spiirt from matter in a transmuted state (hence, lead into gold) whereby it-and consequently the alchemist-would be a more suitable vessel to receive the Holy Spirit again. Gerhard Dorn, Philosophica Meditativa (1602), expleains the rationale: Knowest thou not that heaven and the elements were formerly one, and were separated from one another by divine artifice that they might bring forth thee and all things?...Again, in every generation such a separation is necessary, and needs to be effected of thyself, before thou settest sail towards the true philosophy. Thou wilt never make from others the one which thou seekest, except first there be made one thing of thyself. A guarantee of the success of the process was believed to be the `philosopher's stone', whose mere presence would ensure positive results but which also symbolized the completion of the process. It is not known whether an identification of the philosopher's stone with *Christwas overtly made before Petrus Bonus did so in his Pretiosa Margarita Novella (c.1330-9), but this was certainly a strong current in alchemy from then until its demise, being forcefully repeated by such as Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) and Rober Fludd (1574-1637). It is thus evident that many alchemists sincerely beleived in (or at least, hoped for) the presence of Christ during their work, and saw their goal as the transmutation of their own mundane personality into Christhood. A strengthening of church roles in government in 17th century Europe contributed to the suppression of many great alchemical and Hermetic intellects. In England John Dee was condemned to a live of poverty (Do tell! - Jesse); in Italy, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake. To a large extent, alchemy was driven underground, resulting in the birth of Rosicrucianism. However, it was essentially the growth of rationalism, the development of chemistry out of alchemy as a material, not spiritual enquiry, and works such as Robert Boyle's the Skeptical Chymist (1661) which undermined the alchemical theory of the elements, which were seminal in the death of alchemy as a spiritual pursuit. Soon. the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions reading list for this entry. THIS will take you back to the Alchemy of Hope page.