What is alchemy and where did it come from? Neither of these questions is straightforward to answer, particularly in a short blog post like this, but we can at least provide a starting point.
Alchemy: what is it?
Alchemy is probably best thought of as a holistic system that seeks to improve the spiritual and physical condition of human beings. Since it preceded modern science, it can be thought of as a branch of natural philosophy (a protoscientific discipline that included physics, botany, zoology, anthropology, chemistry and philosophy) and a mystical system.
Although alchemists would stress that alchemy is one unified whole, some people have divided it into exoteric alchemy, covering physical experimentation, and esoteric alchemy, dealing with the spiritual aspect.
Is alchemy a science or an art? Well, the theories that underlie alchemical experimentation are not accepted by modern science, but the scientific method is, to a large extent, followed by alchemists. Indeed, it was alchemists that first created nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, potash and sodium carbonate. If, by art, we acknowledge the role of intuition in finding meaning in and guiding the expression of alchemy, then it can be seen as an art. However, practitioners would probably describe alchemy as a spiritual discipline, with insights and guidance coming from the divine source.
From where did alchemy arise?
The geographical and philosophical origins of alchemy are no easier to define because there are at least three similar systems that have originated, seemingly independently, from China, Egypt and India, although the Egyptian and Indian systems are more similar to one another than the Chinese one.
For the purposes of this blog post, we will focus on the Egyptian strand of alchemy because it is this one that was developed in Europe through the Middle Ages. We will definitely explore the Indian and Chinese systems in future articles.
We have written evidence that alchemy was practised in Greco-Roman Egypt, but there is a strong possibility that its origins go further back, all the way to Pharaonic Egypt, three millennia B.C. The clue could be in the name.
Khemia: the black earth of the Nile
A fascinating, if complicated, etymological exploration of the Ancient Egyptian name for Egypt, KMT, explains how the word is likely to mean ‘the black one’ in reference to the fertile black silt of the Nile delta. This was contrasted with the red sands around Egypt, the DSRT lands. The Greek philosopher Plutarch explained how the Egyptians named their country Khemia because its lands were like the ‘black of the eye’ (i.e., the pupil). In Ancient Egypt, KMT was also the name for the pupil and was pronounced the same way (KM/E/T).
Khemia became al-kimiya following the Arabic translations of the Egyptian alchemical texts during the medieval Islamic Golden Age. There is another theory though: that the word comes from the Ancient Greek ‘khemeia’ which means the creation of metallic objects through casting.
In the 12th Century, European scholars first translated the Arabic alchemical texts into Latin. At the same time, theologians were making progress in bringing faith and natural philosophy together which would provide a fertile foundation for the development of alchemy. Alchemy would make a significant contribution to chemistry and medicine, but this blog post is more concerned with the core work of alchemy – its ultimate goals.
The goals of alchemy
As we said earlier, alchemy is a holistic system that seeks to improve the spiritual and physical condition of human beings. So how exactly did they seek to achieve this?
On a physical level, alchemy sought to change non-precious ‘base’ metals into precious metals, and to create potions, known as elixirs, that could improve health. Central to the alchemical belief system was the existence of a substance, called the philosophers’ stone, which could be used to ‘transmutate’ base metals into gold and create an elixir of immortality.
Holistically, alchemists were also engaged in the Magnum Opus (the Great Work) which is the purification and perfection of the human body and soul.
There is a lot more to be said about alchemy, and we will delve into more specific aspects in detail in future blogs.
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