Chapter 150: Introduction to Alchemy

Alchemy is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in the countries of China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its most defined Western form, alchemy as a discipline of inquiry is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts originally written in Greco-Roman Egypt found during the first few centuries of Anno Domini (in the current era).

Alchemists have originally attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain forms of materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia (the artificial production of the element gold), the transmutation of known "base materials" (e.g. lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of the elixir of immortality; and the formulation of panacea that is able to cure any type of disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to be the result of knowledge obtained from the treatise contained in sources obtained from the alchemical magnum opus (Latin phrase for "Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosopher's stone (which is a mythical substance supposed to change any metal imto gold or silver, with healing properties believed to prolong life indefinitely) was also variously connected with all of these projects.

Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, similar to the nature of the accepted branches of science, some of which are still in use today. However, they did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is ultimately composed of four elements, and they tended to guard their body of work surrounded in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism in representing concepts in the tradition. In the European continent in particular, the 12th-century translations of medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy gave birth to a more flourishing tradition of Latin alchemy. The late medieval tradition of alchemy would go on to play a significant role in the development of a more systematic early forms of modern science (particularly in the field of chemistry and medicine).

Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its esoteric spiritual aspects, despite criticisms by some known scholars on the matter such as Eric J. Holmyard and Marie-Louise von Franz that both of the identified qualities should be understood as relatively complementary. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences, who examine the subject in terms of early topics in chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism, and the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events naturally occured. Meanwhile, the latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists and some philosophers and spiritualists. The subject of alchemy has also made an on-going impact on the further development of the condition affecting literature and the arts.

Western alchemical theory's focal discussion corresponds to the worldview of late antiquity in which the subject was born. Concepts involved were directly imported from Neoplatonism and earlier works in Greek cosmology. As such, the classical elements are mainly featured in most alchemical writings, as do the traditional enumeration of the seven classical planets (also known as the seven luminaries), composed of (enumerated from brightest to dimmest): the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn, and the corresponding seven metals of antiquity (gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron and mercury). Similarly, the gods of the Roman pantheon who are associated with these luminaries are chiefly discussed in major alchemical literature. The concepts of prima materia (first matter) and anima mundi (world soul) are central to the theory of the efficacy of the philosopher's stone (also known in some famous editions of fictional literature as the Sorcerer's Stone).

The articulation of the Great Work of Alchemy is often described as a series of four stages represented by colors as stated below:

• Nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
• Albedo, a whitening or leucosis
• Citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
• Rubedo, or a reddening, purpling, or iosis

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