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History of Alchemy
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The History of Alchemy from Hermes Trismegistus to the Age of Enlightenment
The word Alchemy (late Latin alchemia, alchimia, alchymia) goes back through Arabic to the Greek chemeia from cheo lew, cast, which indicates the connection of alchemy with the art of melting and casting metals.
Another interpretation is from the Egyptian hieroglyph "hmi", which meant black (fertile) land, as opposed to barren sands.
This hieroglyph denoted Egypt, the place where alchemy, which was often called "Egyptian art", may have originated.
For the first time, the term "alchemy" is found in the manuscript of Julius Firmicus, an astrologer of the 4th century.
The most important task of alchemists was the transformation (transmutation) of base metals into noble (valuable) ones, which was actually the main task of chemistry until the 16th century.
This idea was based on the ideas of Greek philosophy that the material world consists of one or more "primary elements", which under certain conditions can pass into each other.
The spread of alchemy falls on the 4th 16th centuries, the time of the development of not only "speculative" alchemy, but also practical chemistry.
There is no doubt that these two branches of knowledge influenced each other.
The famous German chemist Liebig wrote about alchemy that it "has never been anything other than chemistry."
Thus, alchemy relates to modern chemistry in the same way as astrology relates to astronomy.
The task of medieval alchemists was to prepare two mysterious substances with which it would be possible to achieve the desired ennobling (transmutation) of metals.
The most important of these two preparations, which was supposed to have the property of converting not only silver into gold, but also such metals as lead, mercury, etc., was called the philosopher's stone, the red lion, the great elixir (from the Arab. al iksir — the philosopher's stone).
It was also called the philosopher's egg, red tincture, panacea and life elixir.
This remedy was supposed not only to refine metals, but also to serve as a universal medicine; its solution, the so called golden drink, was supposed to heal all diseases, rejuvenate the old body and lengthen life.
Another mysterious remedy, already secondary in its properties, called white lion, white tincture, had the ability to turn all base metals into silver.
Alchemy is the highest stage of symbolic thinking.
A whole science that teaches how to "reach the center of all things".
Alchemy is defined as the modeling of the cosmic process and the creation of a"chemical model of the cosmic process".
The alchemist created a model of the world and world creating processes in his retort and then described chemical dishes, equipment, scales and laboratory techniques in detail in his writings.
In general, alchemists were characterized by a careful attitude to the description of the experiment.
Because the alchemist sets as his task the reproduction and spiritualization of the cosmos, participation in the cosmo creative process.
It proceeds from the idea of the substantial unity of the world and the universality of change.
Both in Europe and in the East, alchemy was one science with astrology and medicine.
This is a form of axiological and pragmatic knowledge that uses highly symbolic terminology in combination with the isomorphic symbolism of the alchemical operation, where metals and minerals act as signs of the forces of the universe.
It is characterized by structural polymorphism, which includes ontological, cosmological, natural philosophical, psychotechnical and technological aspects.
Alchemy is perceived as a path to spiritual perfection.
By improving a person, they achieve an impact on the processes in the micro - and macrocosm.
Alchemy is characterized as a lifestyle and a type of human behavior.
There is a difference between internal and external alchemy: internal is a form of internal doing and is aimed at achieving an enlightened state by the adept through the spiritualization of the microcosm.
External alchemy works with the purification of cosmological entities hidden under the form of matter.
Considering the micro and macrocosm to be isomorphic, alchemy works on the principle of "perfection of the perfect cosmos".
It is based on the ancient idea of materia prima( primordial matter), which is a substance of the micro - and macrocosm, capable of transforming and forming new forms.
"As all things came out of One, as a result of the reflection of One, so everything was born out of this one thing" (Hermes Trismegistus).
Alchemy works in a system of four modes of primordial matter - the primary elements of Greek natural philosophy: air, earth, fire and water (plus the fifth in Greek alchemy - the all pervading ether or metal in Chinese) in combination with three philosophical elements: salt, sulfur and mercury.
Mercury (Mercury) - passive feminine (yin) - represents the first purification and is a feeling, imagination.
Sulfur acts as an active masculine principle (an analogy of yang in Chinese alchemy) - a more subtle purification: reason, intuition.
The Great Work, or transformation, is cinnabar an alchemical androgynous, a harmonious combination of male and female (yin and yang): "Those who fail to' become two in one body 'will become two in one spirit" (de Olivier).
Cinnabar as a form of combining sulfur and mercury (a synonym for the elixir of immortality) is a sign of comprehension of the law of eternal transformations, a sign of unity and harmony of cosmic forces.
The opposite of such knowledge is the state of oblivion.
The alchemical cosmos is permeated with "universal sympathy", or kinship of species.
It contains a model of anthropogenesis and cosmogenesis.
He distinguishes in nature four forms of existence, or four states: dry and wet, warm and cold, as well as the work of the feminine and masculine principles.
The four elements, in two pairs of basic states: hot and dry, cold and wet, represent the parental principles.
Alchemy recognizes the Divine breath in nature and the active fiery principle that manifests through it, which works in it through sulfur.
It proceeds from the premise about the dual principle of the essence of metals, which includes dry heat and warm moisture, and about the transition of elements from one state to another under the influence of cold or fire: for example, water, evaporating under the influence of fire, passes into steam - air and vice versa.
Alchemy teaches a person to pass through different planes of existence in search of a universal solvent of matter.
He sets the task of ennobling substances, achieving a mystical union between the microcosm and the macrocosm.
The process of achieving enlightenment is called the Great Work in alchemy and has physical and spiritual aspects.
Alchemy is also known as the interaction of the energy of Kundalini, the symbol of the female aspect, with the higher energy, or the male principle.
Through understanding the work of the male and female principles, she is connected with the Tarot system.
The transmutation of metals must be completed by obtaining the Philosopher's stone - in the form of a metal powder, a stone or an elixir of life.
Obtaining an elixir is a goal in itself.
However, the stone extracted by the seeker primarily indicates a deep inner desire to find his true spiritual nature, known to alchemists as the active principle.
The first agent represents the passive principle, the embodied energy, which most people have no idea about, but which contains opportunities for spiritual growth.
If the combination of the active and passive principles takes place in the "furnace" of deep meditation, then it is found impossible to master the passive principle through a struggle in which the active principle is used to achieving what it wants.
This leads to the dark night of the soul, which the mystics talk about, in which the passive and active principles seem to be destroyed and the person is completely abandoned.
Out of this despair arises the revelation of the need for the manifestation of the principle of love, not power, and this is followed by the unification of two principles: the red king and the white queen, whose offspring are born from water and spirit.
Meditation is a common spiritual practice that accompanies each stage of this symbolic process.
It is an androgynous principle that contains the seeds of all things.
Evgeny Filalet et al. they call it the Light that transforms matter.
Based on the idea of the physical transmutation of metals, alchemy is looking for a spiritual principle that controls matter.
A well developed system of analogies has allowed alchemy to occupy one of the leading places in the mode of symbolic thinking to this day, becoming the universal language of modern literature, theater, and mysticism.
In alchemy, various manifestations of the creative activity of a medieval person are inextricably linked.
In this regard, the allegorical nature of many alchemical treatises can be explained by the fact that they organically merged natural scientific and artistic ideas about the world (such are the alchemical poems of the classic of English literature of the XIV century, J. P. Blavatsky).
In addition, the activity of an alchemist is also a philosophical and theological creativity, and one in which both pagan and Christian origins were manifested.
That is why it turned out that where alchemy is Christianized (white magic), this kind of activity is legalized by the Christian ideology.
Where alchemy appears in its pre Christian capacity (black magic), it is recognized as an unofficial, and therefore forbidden business.
This largely explains the tragic fate of some European alchemists (for example, Roger Bacon, the alchemist Alexander Seton Cosmopolitan, etc.).
Thus, in European alchemy, an experimental theorist and a practical craftsman, a poet and an artist, a scholastic and a mystic, a theologian and a philosopher, a magician warlock and a devout Christian could be combined.
This view of alchemy allows us to understand it as a phenomenon that concentrated many features of the way of life of the ancient, dark and Middle Ages.
There were Greco Egyptian, Arabic and Western European schools of alchemy.
Hermeticism, a religious and philosophical trend of the Hellenistic era that combined elements of popular Greek philosophy, Chaldean astrology, Persian magic, and Egyptian alchemy.
It is represented by a significant number of works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (the so called "Hermetic Corpus", 2-3 centuries).
In an extended sense, it is a complex of occult sciences (magic, astrology, alchemy).
The tradition of Hermeticism was continued in the European Renaissance (M. Ficino, J. Pico della Mirandola), C. Agrippa, Paracelsus, influenced J. Bruno and I. Newton.
Elixir (from the Arab. al ixir the philosopher's stone), the life elixir - the medieval alchemists have a fantastic drink that prolongs life, preserves youth.
Homunculus (Latin homunculus a man), according to the ideas of medieval alchemists, a being similar to a person, which can be obtained artificially (in a test tube).
Animalculists believed that a homunculus is a small man enclosed in a sperm cell, and when it enters the mother's body, it only increases in size.
Panacea, the alchemists have a medicine that supposedly cures all diseases [ named after the ancient Greek goddess Panakeia (Panakeia — all healing)].
Literature
S. I. Levchenkov.
A course of lectures on the history of chemistry.
Department of Physical Chemistry of RSU
http://physchem.chimfak.rsu.ru/Source/History/Sketch 1.html
V. L. Rabinovich.
Alchemy as a phenomenon of medieval culture.
- M., 1975
Hermeticism, magic, natural philosophy in European culture of the XIII XIX centuries -M., Canon, 1999
The Book of Alchemy.
History, symbols, practice.
- M., Amphora, 2006
An encyclopedic dictionary.
Brockhaus F. A., Efron I. A.
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