All About History

1 min read

Throughout the long history of fascination with alchemical ideas, there are several women of note who are credited with forming the very early precepts of hermetical understanding and belief. One of these was the pseudonymously named Cleopatra the Al

Nautilus

8 min read

By the time Cornelis Drebbel built an oven with a simple thermostat, one of the first manmade feedback mechanisms in history, in the 1620s, he was regarded in Europe as a magisterial, if not mad, inventor. He had already enchanted royalty and common

All About History

5 min read

On 11th of February 1144, a monk laid down his quill on a work that would resonate throughout Europe for centuries. Robert of Chester had just completed his translation of an Arabic text that first introduced the word alchemy to Latin Europe. We know

All About History

10 min read

Today there’s a clear delineation between the concepts of religion, magic, and science, but this is a relatively recent invention, and one that’s intricately entwined with the history of alchemy. In the 3rd century Roman province of Aegyptus, however

All About History

1 min read

A prodigious body of work has been attributed to Jabir, whose name adorns thousands of books, covering everything from alchemy to philosophy, and music to magic. Much of the ‘corpus Jabirianum’ was believed to have been penned by his students and ini

All About History

2 min read

Earth, air, water, fire: almost everyone is familiar with this quartet of elements. It it testament to the power of the concept of the four elements that this idea, established back in antiquity, is still deeply embedded in modern culture. The concep

Ask

5 min read

An old castle. A small room. Inside, a stone furnace burns brightly. Foul-smelling smoke fills the air. Odd tools, strange glass jars, and small bone cups clutter the table. Two robed figures bend over the fire gazing into a bubbling pot. Is it gold

All About History

1 min read

Few scientific disciplines defined the complexity of the Renaissance as much as alchemy, an area where philosophy, science, theology and magic came together. The tradition dates back to Hellenistic Egypt, where ancient alchemists attempted to create

All About History

1 min read

All alchemists frequently used their furnaces to heat metals and other substances, but they also literally tried to test every single other process they could think of, some of which seem quite absurd today. This was primarily due to their lack of un

All About History

3 min read

Western alchemy is in some ways rooted in the ancient city of Alexandria. At a meeting point of Asia, Africa, and Europe, some of the foundational texts of alchemy were written there. It is impossible to trace a smooth descent of alchemical lore from

All About History

1 min read

The chemist Angelo Sala (1576-1637) stood apart from the mass of his fellow Italians on account of his Calvinist Protestant religion. Like Boyle and Newton, he straddled the dividing line between alchemist and chemist, being a believer in the theory

All About History

1 min read

Earth, air, water, fire: almost everyone is familiar with this quartet of elements. It it testament to the power of the concept of the four elements that this idea, established back in antiquity, is still deeply embedded in modern culture. The concep

All About History

1 min read

The earliest figures in Alexandrian alchemy are semilegendary. In a world in which similar-sounding words across different languages were enough to prove a deep connection, an early alchemist, and one who apocryphally was thought to have given his na

All About History

1 min read

Part of what makes alchemy so fascinating is its sense of mystery. It owes its enigmatic aura in large part to the series of signs and symbols used to represent different elements and processes, or even hide its knowledge from the uninitiated. When w

All About History

1 min read

For an apparently defunct subject, alchemy has had a vast impact on the modern world. On one hand, its spiritual theories have been informing religious thought since the 3rd century, culminating in the overwhelming influence they’ve had on the recons

All About History

1 min read

One of the lesser-known alchemical symbols, the Dark Sun, or sol niger, is symbolic of change, essential to the goals of transmutation that alchemists worked towards. It can also be linked to the blackening of matter, or even putrefaction. This image

All About History

3 min read

Alchemy, the Noble Art, is an ancient practice that has taken on myriad forms over the centuries. Alchemists of all nations have sought to transform base metals into glittering gold. They have delved into secrets of immortality and tried to create pa

All About History

2 min read

Renowned Graeco-Egyptian alchemist and mystic Zosimus of Panopolis is believed to have lived from the end of the 3rd century into the beginning of the 4th century. Some suggest the beginnings of Western alchemy date back to the Hellenistic period – t

Yoga Journal

3 min read

Before I started working with alchemy, a forerunner of chemistry based on the transformation of matter, I was trying to juggle mind, body, and soul practices separately. I was following different programs and driving myself a bit crazy in the process

All About History

3 min read

It is almost impossible to declare where the origins of alchemy lie, if indeed it was not invented in many places at the same time. Some scholars consider China or Egypt to be the originators of alchemical thought, but there are those who believe Ind

All About History

1 min read

Thomas Norton, who lived from c.1433-1513, was the disciple of another famous English alchemist called George Ripley. As an alchemist, Thomas was supposedly successful in creating the elixir of life not once but twice, only to have it stolen from him

All About History

6 min read

Alchemy in late Medieval Europe brought with it many risks. The Roman Catholic Church was deeply opposed to its practice, being highly suspicious of its ancient connections to pagan practices and magic. Bodily immortality granted by potions such as t

Nautilus

4 min read

Robert Boyle, a founding member of the Royal Society, was part of an “invisible college” of natural philosophers and physicians who lived by the motto: “nullius in verba,” or, “nobody’s word for it.” This gang of 17th century intellectual rebels ques

All About History

1 min read

The process of transmutation, or the quest to find a way to turn base metals into gold and silver, is a central part of alchemy’s history. This goal has had many names: the Philosopher’s Stone, chrysopoeia, and the Magnum Opus, or Great Work. Across

The Millions

9 min read

What faith teaches is that we're all exiles from that Zion that is eternity, to which we shall one day return. What Vaughan understands is that if we seek eternity, it is now. The post Henry Vaughan’s Eternal Alchemy appeared first on The Millions.

All About History

1 min read

Complementing the idea of the four elements in alchemy are the three principles. These emerged during the Islamic Golden Age, in particular via the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan. To fire, water, air and earth, Jabir added sulphur and mercury. These do n

Ask

1 min read

Alchemists used secret codes to hide their work. They wrote their recipes in puzzling riddles and mysterious pictures. They didn’t want their secrets stolen or put to evil use. They also feared the Church, which frowned on alchemy. Adding to the conf

All About History

3 min read

Paleolithic peoples create artwork based around the acknowledgement of prey animals and the ritual propitiation of their ancestors. Some paintings include strange, human-animal hybrids that are later theorised to be shamanistic figures. Paleolithic e

All About History

2 min read

The Philosopher’s Stone can be considered the ultimate goal of alchemy. Alchemists might not necessarily agree on what precisely the Philosopher’s Stone is, but almost every alchemist coveted it in one way or another. In legend, some are even said to

All About History

4 min read

The time between the classical era and the Age of Reason was a golden age for magic. It seems strange to say this when for much of the medieval and early modern periods it was feared, to the extent that tens of thousands of people were persecuted in