Real Alchemy

A Primer of Practical Alchemy

Nicolas Hays, Inc.

Contents

CHAPTER 1

A Brief History of Alchemy

The origins of alchemy are lost in history and theories abound as towhere it might have originated:

• God taught it to Adam and later to Moses.

• Fallen Angels taught it to human women in exchange for sex.

• It is a remnant of lost Atlantean technology.

• Extraterrestrials taught it to our ancestors.

Whatever its true origin is, recorded history documents an esoterictradition that has existed for several thousand years.

Mystery and magic permeate all that is ancient Egypt. From beginningto end, Egypt has been called a theocratic state, ruled by a very powerfulpriesthood. The priesthood was divided into various castes, each withspecific duties -- such as scribes and astronomers. Of special interest to usare the priests, who worked with materials in ways we might describetoday as chemistry. These priests, often working under an oath of secrecyregarding their art, developed skills in metallurgy, ceramics, medicine,mummification, and winemaking, to name just a few.

The study of the operative forces at work in the universe was theprimary goal of the priesthood. They called these forces the "Neteru"from which we obtain our word, "Nature." The Neteru are the forces ofNature.

From the small number of writings which remain to us, it is apparentthat these priests were skilled healers who possessed a materials science,much of which is still a mystery to us. There were always two parts tothese sciences -- one was mental/spiritual and the other physical. Forexample, the preparation of a medicine included the processing of amaterial accompanied by certain words, spells, incantations or rituals.And in prescribing, the patient was given the medicine with instructionsto repeat a spell or prayer. The proper timing of these things was equallyimportant.

In the Egyptian Mysteries, Man was composed of various spiritual andmental components as well as the physical component and each had itsproper "medicine."

These Secret Sciences advanced over time and tales of wondroushealing oils, life-giving potions, and imitations of gold and preciousstones have survived even to our day.

When ancient tomb robbers would plunder a pharaoh's tomb, theseprecious oils were one of the first things to be stolen. They wereconsidered to be as precious as gold and easier to carry and sell. Stolengold was heavy and had to be melted down before you could sell it.

When Alexander the Great arrived in Egypt around 300 B.C.E., he fellin love with the whole culture, and the Egyptians welcomed him withopen arms. This began the so-called Greco-Egyptian or Ptolemaic periodof Egyptian history. The Greeks called Egypt Khem or Khemet. Thisliterally meant "The Black Land" and is in reference to the thick layer ofdark fertile soil deposited by the annual flooding of the Nile. Knowledgeof Egyptian Secret Sciences made its way into Greece where it wascalled Khemia "The Black Art" and spawned a long line of Greekalchemists.

In Egypt, Alexander initiated a sweeping campaign of construction andrestoration, including the city named after him -- Alexandria. The GreatLibrary of Alexandria is legendary. It has been estimated that this librarycontained nearly a million volumes of the collected writings of the knownworld. Scholars from everywhere flocked to Alexandria and it became amelting pot of ideas and philosophies. If is here that the HermeticPhilosophy and alchemy congealed as a Path to Spiritual Attainment andits secrets were only revealed to initiates under an oath of silence.

By around 30 B.C.E., the Roman legions had swept the world and thelast of the Egyptian Ptolemies had fallen to Roman rule. During thisinsurgence, a very large part of the Great Library was destroyed by fire.Initially, Rome was tolerant of Egyptian ways. In fact, the worship of Isisspread well into the Roman world with temples in Rome itself. As theearly Roman Emperors became converted to Christianity, this level oftolerance dropped off.

In 290 C.E., the Emperor Diocletian feared that the influx of imitationgold produced by the Egyptian Art could disrupt the Roman economy.Fearing also that it would allow someone to gather enough wealth to forman army which could move against Rome, Diocletian passed an edictcalling for the destruction of all texts and materials dealing with themanufacture of gold and precious stones. This order was carried out withgreat severity.

Great masses of information were indiscriminately destroyed as well aswhat remained of The Great Library. In 325 C.E., Rome officiallybecame Christian and in 391 the Emperor Theodosius made heresypunishable by death and ordered the destruction of pagan temples. In theRoman world, which at the time covered quite a large area, you wereeither a Christian or you were exiled or killed.

Most of those practicing the Hermetic Philosophy fled the country andmigrated east to Arab lands not occupied by Rome. The early PersianCaliphs were much more hospitable to the alchemists and the center ofThe Art shifted there, although in a much more guarded capacity. It washere that the Arabic prefix Al was added to the Greek Khemia to giveus Al-Khemia, later to become Alchemy.

Scientific pursuits in early Christian Rome became dormant forcenturies.

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the "civilized world" was thrown intochaos. Thus began "The Dark Ages."

Beginning with the Islamic invasions around 800 C.E., knowledge ofalchemy spread into Western Europe, largely through the works of IbnSinna (also known as Avicenna.) He formulated a medical system thatwas popular for several centuries. Another was Abu Musa Jabir ibnHayaan. Jabir had a very cryptic style of writing, designed to concealalchemical secrets. It is from his name that we derive our wordfor Gibberish. They collected many of the ancient Egyptian and Greekalchemical works and translated them into Arabic, which were latertranslated into Latin in Europe.

In Medieval Europe, alchemy became very fashionable. By now, kingsand rulers everywhere had heard of the wonders possible throughalchemy, especially the turning of lead into gold. Alchemy, as a means tomaking gold, became a popular pursuit by the rich and the poor. Therewere also a great number of cons and scams perpetrated by those whopretended to know the secrets of the alchemists. Many unsuspectingpeople lost their life savings in hopes of finding the way to inexhaustiblewealth.

Alchemy began to acquire a bad reputation as a fraud because of this,and people began to distrust the whole matter without really knowinganything about the true alchemical art. Then, around 1310, Pope JohnXXII issued a decree prohibiting the practice of alchemy, and gold-makingin particular, with heavy fines against those who traded inalchemical gold.

In 1404, King Henry IV of England issued an "Act" declaring gold-makinga crime against the Crown. By the fifteenth century, the inventionof the printing press made knowledge more available to the public. Textsabout alchemy became very popular and began to multiply.

Paracelsus (born Phillipus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim inSwitzerland 1493) revolutionized the Alchemical Art and is considered tobe one of the fathers of modern chemistry and pharmaceutical medicine.A respected physician and university lecturer, Paracelsus was also skilledin all of the arts of the Hermetic Philosophy. Paracelsus repeatedlydemonstrated the power and effectiveness of alchemically preparedmedicines.

He stressed to his colleagues the importance of looking carefully intoalchemy as a source for medicines far beyond what the currentpharmaceutical technology could produce. He was constantly at oddswith the medical professionals of his day and was looked upon verysuspiciously by the Church because of his views and opinions. Because ofthis some believe Paracelsus was murdered in 1541. However, his ideasand writings did not go unnoticed. In a strange twist of irony, thesehelped lead to the end of the Age of Alchemy and the beginnings ofchemistry as we know it today.

The writings of Paracelsus shifted the view on alchemy from the pursuitof gold into which it had fallen, back toward its original intent -medicinesfor the body and soul leading one to perfect health, wholeness,and initiation into Nature's mysteries. Paracelsus recognized man'sphysical and occult constitution according to Hermetic Principles.

By the seventeenth century, there was a growing religious freedomwhich sparked a wave of interest in all things Mystical. Alchemical textsbecame still more widely available, and scholars openly identifiedthemselves as Rosicrucians, Adepts or Alchemists. The spiritual aspectsof alchemy appealed to many, apart from any practical works.

Robert Boyle (another "Father of Modern Chemistry") and IsaacNewton studied alchemy during this time. Newton was fully involved andproduced volumes of work. In fact, he considered himself to be more ofan alchemist than a physicist or mathematician. His notes indicate that hebelieved he was very close to success in the alchemical art of metallictransmutation.

Boyle was also an ardent student trying to clarify many alchemicalconcepts which were becoming obscured even in his day. He was ameticulous experimenter and realized the differencebetween Philosophical and Unphilosophical workings upon materials.

In his very influential book, The Sceptical Chymist, Boyle called intoquestion the number and nature of the elements and called for a moreorganized terminology. His alchemical insights have been largelymisinterpreted to be a debunking of vitalistic alchemy in favor of a morerigorous concentration on the physical facts. It was the beginning of amore mechanical world-view, which would last into the twentiethcentury.

Around 1660, King Charles II signed the first Charter of the RoyalSociety and the study of chemistry soon became an officially recognizedscience.

America also had its alchemists, including several state Governors.There were groups in Pennsylvania who brought with them many of theearly German alchemical writings (which were quite extensive.)

By the 1800s, the practice of Alchemy had largely disappeared in theouter world in favor of its still young offshoot -- chemistry. Alchemysurvived underground in various "Secret Societies" which becamepopular, especially towards the end of the nineteenth century.

In the early 1900s, H. Spencer Lewis received a charter from some ofthese European contacts to form the Ancient Mystical Order of the RosaeCrucis, better known as AMORC. Among other things, they taughtlaboratory alchemy as it was handed down by earlier Rosicrucian sources.

In the early 1940s, one student of these classes was Albert Reidel.Frater Albertus went on to teach these classes himself and then later splitoff on his own to establish the Paracelsus Research Society in 1960,which became accredited as Paracelsus College in the early 80s.

With the passing of Frater Albertus in 1984, there seemed to be a voidin alchemical teachings and a lack of a central point where students couldexchange information. By the early nineties, through the efforts of severalPRS students, contact with a French group was made and thePhilosophers of Nature (PON) was formulated to fill the void with freshideas and to carry on research in alchemy. The PON closed in the latenineties. Now we have the Internet -- the new "Library of Alexandria."As we shall see, chemistry, left to grow unfettered, has nearly come fullcircle to rediscover the Hermetic Philosophy.

CHAPTER 2

Theory of Alchemy

The First Law of Hermetics – All is from One

Perhaps the most concise exposition of alchemical theory, acknowledgedby adepts from all ages, is the famous "Emerald Tablet of HermesTrismegistus." Legend has it that this tablet predates the Biblical floodand was inscribed by Thoth himself on a large plate of alchemicallyproduced emerald:

VERBA SECRETORUM HERMETIS

It is true, certain, and without falsehood, that whatever is below islike that which is above; and that which is above is like that which isbelow: to accomplish the one wonderful work. As all things arederived from the One Only Thing, by the will and by the word of theOne Only One who created it in His Mind, so all things owe theirexistence to this Unity by the order of Nature, and can be improved byAdaptation to that Mind.

Its Father is the Sun; its Mother is the Moon; the Wind carries it in itswomb; and its nurse is the Earth. This Thing is the Father of all perfectthings in the world. Its power is most perfect when it has again beenchanged into Earth. Separate the Earth from the Fire, the subtle fromthe gross, but carefully and with great judgment and skill.

It ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again, new born, to theearth, taking unto itself thereby the power of the Above and the Below.Thus the splendor of the whole world will be thine, and all darknessshall flee from thee.

This is the strongest of all powers, the Force of all forces, for itovercometh all subtle things and can penetrate all that is solid. For thuswas the world created, and rare combinations, and wonders of manykinds are wrought.

Hence I am called HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, having mastered thethree parts of the wisdom of the whole world. What I have to say aboutthe masterpiece of the alchemical art, the Solar Work, is now ended.

The alchemists always admonish their students, "Know the theory firstbefore attempting the praxis." They say, "You must walk in the Book ofNature to understand our Art."

"The alchemical concept of life and matter lies at the opposite pole ofthat of the current scientific community. Science is trying to find outhow matter created life. Alchemy states that life created matter.Alchemy affirms that at the origin, there is consciousness.Consciousness is the need to Be of the Absolute.

In order to satisfy this need, consciousness created life, and in order toevolve, life created matter."

-- Jean Dubuis (PON Seminars 1992)

Alchemy is an exploration of the involution of the Absolute into matterand its subsequent evolution back to the source, depicted as theOuroborus or serpent eating its own tail. There's a very old saying, "TheAll is mind. The universe is Mental."

The All or The One is, that which is the Fundamental Truth, theSubstantial reality, (i.e., standing under and supporting Reality.) This Allis beyond comprehending or the ability to truly name it, so we use asymbol and call it -- The All, the Absolute, the Divine, Spirit, the Force,The One Only One. Whatever you choose, it is just a symbol so we cantalk about it. This is perhaps best described as Infinite Living Mind.

"Only by mental creation, can the All manifest the universe and stillremain the All. For if a substance was used or acted upon, it would beseparate and the All would not be All."

--The Kybalion

What we call "matter" is only that portion of the All we apprehendthrough our senses. It is only a label we use to designate the manifestationof the All within the range of our limited sensory apparatus. All things areconnected but separated only by their rates of vibration.

Each one of us is a unique and complex waveform, though we alsoshare many of the same "harmonics." Like fingerprints, we are unique butall related. Modern science takes advantage of this fact in order toidentify materials by their vibratory nature in the form of spectralresonances in visible light, infrared, microwaves, etc. Einstein once said,"Everything is energy, beyond that is divine."

We live in a vast ocean of energy and everything seen and unseen is apart of it. The alchemists called this energy the Celestial Fire, PrimaMateria, the First Matter, Chaos, and many others. Everything around us,though it seems separate and different from ourselves is One only One.All is from One is the First Law of Hermetics.

The Second Law of Hermetics -- Polarity

The One reflecting on itself creates the first movement towards polarity-- the division of the One into a most subtle spiritualized energy anddense material energy; the One divided into Spirit and Matter. Today wemight call this energy and matter, which are the same.

The Second Law of Hermetics is the law of Polarity.

One of the earliest observations of Nature was that everything has itsopposite -- day/night, male/female, hot/cold, wet/dry. The One dividesinto active and passive modes, with the active energy constituting theenergies of life, and the passive one the energy of matter. Consider theimage of a sine wave -- two opposite energies but One wave.

The Golden Chain of Homer, a book written about 1730 and highlyesteemed by several generations of alchemists, called the active energy"Celestial Niter" and the passive energy "Celestial Salt." We call these"The Volatile" and "The Fixed." These two modes of the One express aninherent polarity as well.
(Continues...)Excerpted from Real Alchemy by Robert Allen Bartlett. Copyright © 2007 Robert Allen Bartlett. Excerpted by permission of Nicolas Hays, Inc..
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