{"id":197,"date":"2023-10-08T21:42:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T21:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2023-10-08T22:04:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T22:04:03","slug":"top-10-gold-making-alchemists-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/08\/top-10-gold-making-alchemists-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Gold-Making Alchemists of All Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Teaser<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Top 10 Gold-Making ALCHEMISTS of all Time\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oYEyvrlL-44?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>See our corresponding video!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is there a magical powder or \u201cstone\u201d with the power of turning lead into gold? Is there a potion capable of prolonging life indefinitely?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the wake of pandemics and rising prices, these questions are perhaps more pressing now than ever before. Surely the answer to both is\u2026 <em>no<\/em>. <em><u>Right<\/u><\/em>?!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But\u2026 dotting the timeline of history, like gold ore embedded in gravel, are a minority of dissenters who not only answer a resounding \u201cyes!\u201d \u2013 but who also claim to have developed repeatable techniques for accomplishing these (and other) fabulous ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, we\u2019re speaking, here, about the diverse cluster of men <em>and women<\/em> who engaged in a storied discipline known as <em>alchemy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working alone and in secret, these alchemists communicated with one another in code, and they took pains to shroud their beliefs \u2013 and, more importantly, their <em>methods<\/em> \u2013 under a veil of elaborate and even grotesque symbolism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The received view is that these practitioners were largely deluded and superstitious failures who misspent their lives on chimeric quests but who managed, with their fledgling efforts, to pave the way for the advent of Science, which has now cleared the field of these ill-educated dilettantes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>And yet<\/em>\u2026 whispers remain about a select group who may have achieved the impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term \u201calchemy\u201d is one striking example of a fascinating family of still-current words whose origins \u2013 and primary meanings \u2013 are shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the etymological candidates is the root, <em>khemia<\/em>,<a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> which may have been an ancient reference to Egypt.<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes provocatively labeled the \u201cgay science,\u201d alchemy \u2013 which is conspicuously preoccupied with quasi-miraculous changes known as \u201ctransmutations\u201d \u2013 is commonly represented as <em>divine chemistry<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alchemical formul\u00e6 purport to provide something like a \u201crecipe\u201d for elemental transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And these lofty pretensions are not for nothing. You see, the art and science of alchemy was said to have been primordially and supernaturally communicated to humankind by otherworldly beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The legendary Hermes Trismegistus is one of the earliest initiates, if not the source, of this tradition.<a href=\"#_ftn4\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the first place, Hermes is a reference to the Greek god of communication.<a href=\"#_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Hermes \u2013 and his Roman counterpart, Mercury \u2013 are frequently further identified with the Egyptian Thoth.<a href=\"#_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> In this sense, Hermes was believed to have been the fountainhead of all the esoterica associated with Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, Hermes Trismegistus \u2013 via \u201cmany mythical and contradictory genealogies\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> \u2013 is also said to have been a contemporary (and possible teacher) of the Biblical patriarch Moses. He therefore leads a kind of double life, here being identified with a (presumably human) initiate who became a proficient sorcerer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By the way, \u201cTrismegistus,\u201d means \u201cthree times great\u201d and celebrates Hermes\u2019 alleged mastery over a trio of disciplines \u2013 alchemy, astrology, and magic \u2013 that make up a system known as \u201chermeticism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(For an introduction, see \u201c10 Arcane Words.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the last two of these disciplines will have to occupy us another time, we note that the first, alchemy, influenced the development of numerous fields that now function as self-contained sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the most important of these is modern physics<a href=\"#_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> which, before the era of Albert Einstein, was dominated by the theories of the 17<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 18<sup>th<\/sup>-c. English polymath, Sir Isaac Newton. According to researchers at Cambridge University in Britain where, once upon a time, Newton himself held a prestigious position as head of the mathematics department, of Newton\u2019s surviving writings, no fewer than one million words \u2013 or 10% of his voluminous output \u2013 were devoted to his study of alchemy. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chemistry is another of the so-called \u201chard sciences\u201d that owes a huge debt to alchemy.<a href=\"#_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Here, we\u2019ll name 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. figures like Belgian physician Jan-Baptiste van Helmont and, again in England, Sir Robert Boyle. Boyle was one of the founders<a href=\"#_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> of England\u2019s Royal Society<a href=\"#_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> and is sometimes regarded as <em>the father<\/em> of modern chemistry.<a href=\"#_ftn12\">[12]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps most surprisingly, alchemy also informed the investigations of pioneering thinkers operating in sciences that are often considered to be \u201csofter.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> For example, the 19<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung created a strand of depth psychology that notably diverged from that of his teacher, the Austrian-Jewish founder of \u201cpsychoanalysis,\u201d Sigmund Freud. Among the elements that differentiated this Jungian, \u201canalytic\u201d approach from its Freudian parent, was its originator\u2019s fascination with, and use of, the symbolism of medieval alchemy. Jung was inspired by the writings of the 3<sup>rd<\/sup>&#8211; to 4<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Greco-Egyptian alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis who employed \u201cchemical symbols and analogies\u201d to describe a process of \u201cpsychological transformation\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn14\">[14]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is it about this subject that so captivated these, and other, undisputed geniuses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this video, we\u2019ll lay some historical groundwork for an answer by looking at ten people with enduring reputations for having been able to command nature itself by becoming adepts of alchemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nicholas Flamel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among people who are most famous for their connexions to alchemy, perhaps none has achieved the renown enjoyed by the remarkable, 14<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 15<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; c. Frenchman Nicolas Flamel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a sidenote, in the video titled \u201c10 \u2018Sex-Magic\u2019 Cults,\u201d we introduced viewers to the possibility that the name \u201cNicholas\u201d (and its cognates) is a pre\u00ebminent \u201cname of power.\u201d As a first pass, this means that you may expect it to appear \u2013 like in the present context \u2013 as a landmark for high strangeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most historians will attest that Nicolas Flamel was indisputably a real person. The burning question, however, is whether the flesh-and-blood man managed to realize two of the main alchemical goals: (1) the creation limitless wealth by means of the fabled \u201cPhilosopher\u2019s Stone\u201d; and (2) the attainment of immortality through the so-called \u201cElixir of Life\u201d \u2013 both of which are the result of a glamorous but hazy process termed the <em>Magnum Opus<\/em>, or \u201cGreat Work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the prevailing scholarly view, the historical Flamel was a run-of-the-mill manuscript salesman who had his life story fancifully embellished by 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. chroniclers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, legend has it that in 1357 Flamel acquired a copy of an enigmatic spell book, or grimoire, known as the <em>Book of Abramelin the Mage<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among myriad curious \u201cmagical squares,\u201d the book<a href=\"#_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> specified rituals which would later become part of the erotically suffused system of notorious 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. British esotericist Aleister Crowley, whom we highlighted both in our \u201cTop 10 Occultists\u201d and \u201c10 \u2018Sex-Magic\u2019 Cults\u201d videos.<a href=\"#_ftn16\">[16]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flamel reportedly spent two fruitless decades attempting to decipher the seemingly impenetrable text with his wife, Perenelle, before deciding, <em>circa<\/em> 1378, to travel in search of a knowledgeable interpreter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spain was the logical place to seek such a venerable sage since, until the tail end of the 15<sup>th<\/sup> century, it had the distinction of being one of the very few feasible European destinations where adherents of the \u201cBig Three\u201d religions \u2013 Christianity, Judaism, and Islam \u2013 coexisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, indeed, Flamel supposedly cracked Abramelin\u2019s secrets with the help of a Jewish <em>converso<\/em> (that is, a Jew who had converted to Catholicism) during a chance encounter while on his Iberian tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By 1382, the Flamel was supposedly capable of producing silver <em>and<\/em> gold using his decrypted formul\u00e6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Masonic philosopher Manly Palmer Hall provides a threefold taxonomy of alchemical enlightenment. The lowest rung on Hall\u2019s \u201cHermetic ladder\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> are the <em>Initiates<\/em> \u2013 those people who <em>know of<\/em> the true secret. Slightly higher are the <em>Illuminates<\/em>, who have had their propositional knowledge bolstered by witnessing a live transmutation. Finally, the <em>Adepts<\/em> are the ones who have the know how to create the Philosopher\u2019s Stone. Chief among them is Flamel. (Diagram: Imitates [Knowers]; Illuminated Ones [Seers]; Adepts [Doers])<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond his significance for fellow occult practitioners, Nicolas Flamel\u2019s impact has been most noticeable in the arenas of arts, entertainment, and literature, where he has several noteworthy mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For one thing, in his masterful 1831 novel <em>Notre-Dame de Paris<\/em>, better known as <em>The Hunchback of Notre-Dame<\/em>, French Romantic novelist Victor Hugo gives his villain, Monseigneur Claude Frollo, an insatiable lust for knowledge. This leads Frollo to pore over various hermetic insignia attributed to Flamel and carved throughout Paris\u2019s Holy Innocents\u2019 Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hugo\u2019s American contemporary, the Confederate general and high-ranking freemason Albert Pike, connected Nicholas Flamel with famed 13<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 14<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Italian poet Dante Alighieri.<a href=\"#_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> For more on Pike, who, in his capacity as Sovereign Grand Commander of the order, rewrote the rituals for the Scottish Rite\u2019s so-called Southern Jurisdiction, see our \u201cTop 10 Occultists\u201d presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, on the current scene, Nicholas Flamel is mentioned throughout J. K. Rowling\u2019s first installment in what would later become the wildly successful <em>Harry Potter<\/em> franchise. In the United States, her debut novel was labeled <em>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\u2019s Stone<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn19\">[19]<\/a> But, in the United Kingdom, it bore the unmistakably alchemical title <em>Harry Potter and the <u>Philosopher\u2019s<\/u> Stone<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn20\">[20]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flamel is introduced into Rowling\u2019s story as a 665-year-old \u201cFrench wizard \u2026who was the only known maker of the Philosopher\u2019s Stone.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn21\">[21]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maria the Jewess<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alchemical histories are interlaced with fable to such an extent that it is difficult to disentangle the strands. Be that as it may, some names crop up repeatedly.<a href=\"#_ftn22\">[22]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One such, and a possible candidate for the founder of the entire enterprise (at least, as we think of it), is the Greco-Egyptian woman remembered as Maria the Jewess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her appellation is exceedingly interesting, not least because a principal stream of Western occultism \u2013 the Kabbalah \u2013 coalesced partially out of Jewish-mystical currents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any case, competing accounts place Maria variously in Memphis during the 5<sup>th<\/sup> century, B.C.,<a href=\"#_ftn23\">[23]<\/a> or in Alexandria in the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> century, B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She is credited with the invention of alchemical paraphernalia, for example, the <em>Bain-Marie<\/em>. The phrase, which translates as \u201cMary\u2019s Bath,\u201d denotes a double boiler that is still used in industry and cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her distillation vessel, called a <em>kerotakis<\/em>, incorporated \u201ccopper foil\u201d which, at a point in the alchemical process \u201c\u2026change[d] colors \u2013 giving the impression that it was taking on the spirit of gold.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn24\">[24]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You should realize that, early on, hermetists such as Zosimus of Panopolis began to syncretize alchemy with other mystical doctrines, such as Gnosticism (for an introduction, see \u201c10 Arcane Words\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea that an overarching entity, called the \u201cworld soul,\u201d or <em>anima mundi<\/em>, pervaded all reality became part of the emerging alchemical gnosis. Consequently, one aim of various \u201cspagyric\u201d operations, was to harness the individual latent <em>pneuma<\/em> that was trapped both in inorganic and organic matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, liquor distillers (among others) retain some of the alchemical lingo, and routinely refer to various alcoholic preparations as\u2026 \u201cspirits.\u201d Moreover, cosmeticians, herbalists, and perfumers also must familiarize themselves with a variety of usually plant-based \u201cessential oils.\u201d These \u201cnatural oil[s are] typically obtained by\u201d processes of \u201cdistillation\u201d that hearken back to those of the ancient alchemists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suffice it to say that Maria\u2019s legacy of devices and reputed knowledge resulted in her commemoration as one of the few alchemists who had managed to create the Philosopher\u2019s Stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Jabir \/ Geber (Al-Sufi)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The so-called \u201cDark Ages\u201d \u2013 spanning roughly from the 5<sup>th<\/sup> to 11<sup>th<\/sup> centuries \u2013 began with the fall of the Roman Empire and the cessation of the study of the Greek language. This period is characterized by a marked decline of learning in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, the two giants of Greek philosophy had been Plato and his pupil, Aristotle. Whereas the former would enjoy continued influence, at least in the spiritualized form of \u201cNeoplatonism,\u201d the latter went into almost total eclipse for over 500 years.<a href=\"#_ftn25\">[25]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the chief contributions of the Islamic civilization to the world is its preservation of Greek philosophy through this Western downturn.<a href=\"#_ftn26\">[26]<\/a> Therefore, it is unsurprising to find that alchemy next surfaces in an Arabic context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A principal figure, here, is sometimes designated <em>Al-Sufi<\/em>, but whose given name was <a>J<\/a>\u0101bir ibn \u1e24ayy\u0101n.<a href=\"#_ftn27\">[27]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">J\u0101bir expanded Aristotle\u2019s doctrine, taken up from \u201cpre-Socratic\u201d philosophers like Empedocles, that the cosmos is composed of various arrangements of four basic \u201celements\u201d \u2013 earth, air, water, and fire \u2013 along with two pairs of complementary \u201cqualities\u201d \u2013 dryness and moistness, along with coldness and hotness.<a href=\"#_ftn28\">[28]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This basic, Aristotelian theoretical framework served to underwrite the procedures of alchemy \u2013 not to mention Galenic medicine which centered on the closely related concept of the four \u201chumors.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn29\">[29]<\/a> The idea was that, if things (such as metals) are what they are in virtue of their peculiar ratios of elements and qualities, then knowledgeable artisans could change one thing into another by manipulating these (sometimes hidden) natures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">J\u0101bir is, however, somewhat critical of these explanations, and began to move toward an alternative theory. On this new view, which would be developed in terms of \u201cThree Principles\u201d (or <em>Tria Prima<\/em>): salt, sulfur (or sulphur), and mercury.<a href=\"#_ftn30\">[30]<\/a> At least <em>part<\/em> of the material description for reality would have to invoke this triplet. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Arabic adept professed that two transmutations into gold were possible: a temporary one, which only modified the superficial, or \u201caccidental properties\u201d of a base metal, and a permanent one, which \u2013 to borrow Catholic Eucharistic lingo \u2013 managed to <em>transubstantiate<\/em>, or permanently change, the underlying the essence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like many historical characters, J\u0101bir\u2019s identity was later assumed by at least one anonymous author, presumably in the hope that readers would take him more seriously. To this unknown writer, termed \u201cPseudo-Geber,\u201d is owed an alchemical treatise in Latin, the title of which is variously translated \u201cThe Height of Perfect Mastery,\u201d \u201cThe Sum of Perfection,\u201d or \u201cThe Perfect Magistery.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn31\">[31]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the Jabirian corpus is written usually a strategy known as the \u201cdispersion of knowledge\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn32\">[32]<\/a> technique, whereby passages are reproduced out of their proper order \u2013 like cooking directions that have been scrambled. Thus, possession of an alchemical text \u2013 by itself, without the proper key \u2013 does little good (even if a reader can decode individual symbols).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, our English word \u201cgibberish,\u201d which means \u201cunintelligible or meaningless speech or writing,\u201d literally comes from the Latinized spelling (\u201cGeber\u201d) of J\u0101bir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This paranoid secrecy \u2013 which resulted in impenetrable texts \u2013 was partly due to the fact that alchemical knowledge was frequently considered heterodox \u2013 even heretical<a href=\"#_ftn33\">[33]<\/a> \u2013 by mainstream adherents of the three major, monotheistic religions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, it was also because of the fear that the gold-making and life-extending potential of the Philosopher\u2019s Stone, were it to be too widely known, would undermine the proper order of society. We\u2019ll get back to this in a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; George Ripley<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fear of being labeled a heretic may have been off-putting for most would-be alchemists. But\u2026 not for everyone. Among those who sought this recondite information was the 15<sup>th<\/sup>-c. English Augustinian canon, George Ripley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ripley is one of a handful of people that allegedly achieved alchemical adeptness \u2013 at least, according to Freemasonic scholar Manly Palmer Hall. According to Hall, Ripley\u2019s wonderworking was confirmed by the fact that he \u201c\u2026contributed one hundred thousand pounds [of gold] to the Knights of Rhodes,\u201d who later became the Knights of Malta, \u201cso that they could continue their war against the Turks.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn34\">[34]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his important poetic volume <em>The Compound of Alchemy<\/em>, \u201cRipley adopted an allegorical approach to\u201d his titular subject. He compared an adept\u2019s completion of the <em>Magnum Opus<\/em> to passage through \u201cTwelve Gates.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn35\">[35]<\/a> This metaphor, which treats the Great Work as \u201ca kind of spiritual obstacle course,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn36\">[36]<\/a> became the basis for a division of the alchemical process into \u201ctwelve stages,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn37\">[37]<\/a> usually enumerated:<a href=\"#_ftn38\">[38]<\/a> 1. Calcination; 2. Solution (or Dissolution); 3. Separation; 4. Conjunction; 5. Putrefaction; 6. Congelation; 7. Cibation; 8. Sublimation; 9. Fermentation; 10. Exaltation; 11. Multiplication; and 12. Projection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fact that Ripley was an Augustinian hints at what you might call a \u201cCatholic connexion\u201d to alchemy that goes back at least to the 12<sup>th<\/sup> century.<a href=\"#_ftn39\">[39]<\/a> For example, scholastic theologian and Catholic bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, is sometimes named on rosters of alchemists \u2013 as was his most illustrious student, the 13<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Franciscan friar, and \u201cproto-empiricist,\u201d Roger Bacon.<a href=\"#_ftn40\">[40]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also from the 13<sup>th<\/sup> century, German-born Dominican St. Albert the Great<a href=\"#_ftn41\">[41]<\/a> was associated with the city of Cologne, where his system of thought, a blend of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism<a href=\"#_ftn42\">[42]<\/a> (sometimes called \u201cAlbertism\u201d)<a href=\"#_ftn43\">[43]<\/a> would influence the mystic Meister Eckhart as well as polymath and out-and-out occultist, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in the 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 16<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, respectively.<a href=\"#_ftn44\">[44]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is especially noteworthy since, according to 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. British historian Frances Amelia Yates, it \u201cis with Cornelius Agrippa\u201d that alchemy \u201c\u2026very decidedly \u2026enter[s]\u201d the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition<a href=\"#_ftn45\">[45]<\/a> as it came to expression during the Renaissance.<a href=\"#_ftn46\">[46]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Albert \u2013 or, according to the strictures of contemporary textual criticism, <em>Pseudo<\/em>&#8211;<em>Albert<a href=\"#_ftn47\"><strong>[47]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> \u2013 is said to have codified eight preconditions for would-be creators of the Philosopher\u2019s Stone \u2013 including the ability to, well\u2026 keep your mouth shut!<a href=\"#_ftn48\">[48]<\/a> (display <em>9<sup>th<\/sup> Gate<\/em> \u201csilence is golden\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, Albert the Great was rumored to have been in possession of the Philosopher\u2019s Stone. He is said to have passed its secrets to his best-known student, the precocious Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas, whose <em>Summa Theologi<\/em><em>\u00e6<\/em> (or \u201cComprehensive Summary of Theology\u201d) revolutionized Catholic philosophical instruction and became the foundation for later publications including the important <em>Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em>. An alchemical treatise called the <em>Aurora Consurgens<\/em> (\u201cRising Dawn\u201d) is sometimes attributed to St. Thomas,<a href=\"#_ftn49\">[49]<\/a> leading to <em>his<\/em> occasional classification as a hermetic initiate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Salomon Trismosin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not that Catholics corner the market on this sort of endeavor. As we have seen, there was no shortage of Arabic-Muslim influence, and it is arguable (for example, from the case of Maria the Jewess) that the whole enterprise was at least partially informed by Hebraic mystical currents as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this influence continued unabated until \u2013 or, was at least renewed during \u2013 the Renaissance. One of the principal figures credited with tuning Europe onto a Hermetic wavelength was the legendary Salomon Trismosin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trismosin, which name is suspected of being a pseudonym, is said to have had his alchemical curiosities piqued after a chance meeting with an otherwise unknown alchemist named \u201cFlocker.\u201d After witnessing the metamorphosis of lead into gold, but being unable to wrest the secret from Flocker, Trismosin threw himself into a lifelong investigation for the formula for the Philosopher\u2019s Stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His travels took him to Venice, Italy, where he apprenticed to an itinerate German master named \u201cTauler\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn50\">[50]<\/a> and finally learned the key to transmutation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an aside, Venice, home of the 15<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; 16<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Franciscan Cabalist Francesco Giorgi, formed the backdrop for some of the action in Dan Brown\u2019s 2013 mystery novel, Inferno,<a href=\"#_ftn51\">[51]<\/a> which was adapted into a film in 2016 by director Ron Howard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Franz Hartmann, the 19<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. German occultist and cofounder, with Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss, of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Trismosin also managed to discover the Elixir of Everlasting Life. At least, Hartmann makes use of this hypothesis to explain allegedly sightings of Trisomosin throughout the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Trismosin\u2019s lasting contributions was the gorgeous, illuminated manuscript titled <em>Splendor Solis<\/em> (\u201cThe Sun\u2019s Splendor\u201d), which was first printed around 1532. The illustrations are some of the most recognizable representations of alchemy extant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s worth remarking that such works \u2013 whether handwritten or typeset \u2013 left tremendous impressions, sometimes changing European history for good, \u2026or ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider the works of the (possibly fictional) alchemist Bernard of Treviso.<a href=\"#_ftn52\">[52]<\/a> They were rumored to have exerted a formative influence upon Joan of Arc\u2019s 15<sup>th<\/sup>-c. companion and later diabolist, Gilles de Rais. According to the 20<sup>th<\/sup>-c. English Catholic scholar and priest Montague Summers,<a href=\"#_ftn53\">[53]<\/a> the highly influential 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. French occultist \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi said \u201c\u2026that Gilles de Rais \u2018sought the Philosophical Stone in the blood of murdered children\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn54\">[54]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recall that the elusive Philosopher&#8217;s Stone is oftentimes described as a \u201c<em>red powder<\/em> that transmutes base metal into purest gold.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn55\">[55]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Summers then proceeds to quote L\u00e9vi\u2019s further assertion that Gilles de Rais \u201c\u2026had doubtless derived his [alchemical] recipe from \u2026old Hebrew Grimoires\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn56\">[56]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the book collector Victor Fargas puts it in Roman Polansky\u2019s 1999 film, <em>The Ninth Gate<\/em>, \u201cSome books are dangerous, not to be opened with impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Paracelsus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of Salomon Trismosin\u2019s proverbial \u201cclaims to fame\u201d was undoubtedly the power he exerted over that man who has been dubbed the \u201cMartin Luther of medicine.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn57\">[57]<\/a> In fact, \u201cthe scientific debates of the late sixteenth century were centered more frequently on \u2026[this man\u2019s] innovations \u2026than they were on the heliocentric astronomy of Copernicus.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn58\">[58]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m speaking now of the pioneering anti-Galenic physician born Theophrastus von <a>Hohenheim<\/a>, but better known as <em>Paracelsus<\/em>.<a href=\"#_ftn59\">[59]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the ancient world, \u201cWestern alchemy [was] based on the Hermetic tradition,\u201d and consisted of \u201ca syncretism of Egyptian metallurgy\u201d and magic, along with Greek Neoplatonism and Jewish-Christian Gnosticism.<a href=\"#_ftn60\">[60]<\/a> But, under Paracelsus\u2019s influence, European Renaissance alchemy started to assume the characteristics of (what we\u2019d today think of as) chemistry, homeopathy, pharmacology, and surgery.<a href=\"#_ftn61\">[61]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although he rejected medical explanations framed in terms of the \u201cfour humors,\u201d he was by no means anti-alchemical. On the contrary, according to Paracelsus, \u201c\u2026chemically prepared medicines \u2026would work only if the physician first understood the relationship between the patient, the cosmos, and God. An essential key to that understanding lay in the study of alchemy\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn62\">[62]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From a Hermetic perspective, alchemy is merely a set of procedures for speeding up natural processes of physical and spiritual evolution whereby \u201cmetals evolve toward gold \u2026[j]ust as all life evolves toward Divine Perfection.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn63\">[63]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hermetic philosopher holds that human beings are miniature versions \u2013 or \u201cmicrocosms\u201d \u2013 of the entire universe \u2013 or <em>macrocosm<\/em>. Consequently, there are meaning (albeit hidden) correspondences between lower-level and higher-level realities. This is the significance of the famous alchemical maxim \u201cas above, so below,\u201d which is expressed in the so-called <em>Emerald Tablet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For his part, \u201c\u2026Paracelsus \u2026claimed to have received the final secrets of the Great Work in Constantinople\u2026\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn64\">[64]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A famous drawing of Paracelsus shows him grasping an upside-down sword by its hilt, with the word \u201cAzoth\u201d (\/<strong>AZ<\/strong>-oth\/) engraved on the pommel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The well-known 19<sup>th<\/sup>-c. French occultist \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi likened the Azoth \u2013 also called the <em>panacea<\/em> or the \u201cuniversal medicine\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn65\">[65]<\/a> \u2013 to a mysterious, fabled \u201cfifth element\u201d called the quintessence. According to L\u00e9vi, the Azoth \u201cis a combination of gold and light.\u201d (onscreen quote: (<em>Ignis et Azoth tibi sufficiunt<\/em>. [\u201cFire and Azoth are enough for you.\u201d])<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enthusiasts have considered these dense and obscure claims worthy of reflection, since \u2013 according to Paracelsus \u2013 therein lies the \u201ckey to creating spiritual gold.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn66\">[66]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who can say whether Paracelsus cracked the ultimate code? But upon his alleged death in 1541, \u201c\u2026a few suggested that the alchemist \u2026had found the elixir of life and given himself a dose of immortality.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn67\">[67]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paracelsus had a number of intellectual successors, including G\u00e9rard Dorn (who exerted a powerful influence on Carl Jung), Oswald Croll (who had contact with John Dee\u2019s collaborator, Edward Kelley), Jan Baptiste van Helmont, and Valentin Weigel. They all, in one way or other, came to believe that the \u201cBook of Nature\u201d could be just as illuminating as the <em>Holy Bible<\/em> \u2013 and held just as many secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Basil Valentine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like Maria the Jewess, Salomon Trismosin, and several others on this list, Basil Valentine<a href=\"#_ftn68\">[68]<\/a> is the subject of many stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Depending upon the report, he is said to have lived anywhere between the 12<sup>th<\/sup> and 15<sup>th<\/sup> centuries \u2013 or even beyond. This either means that his precise origins are unknown, or else that he is suspected \u2013 similarly to Counts Cagliostro and St. Germain, as well as to the 16<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. English barrister, philosopher, and one-time Lord High Chancellor of England, Francis Bacon \u2013 of having unlocked the secret of eternal life.<a href=\"#_ftn69\">[69]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an aside, Cagliostro claimed affiliation with the same Catholic military order \u2013 though, under their new name, the Knights of Malta \u2013 that had been funded been George Ripley. \u201cThe famous and elusive Saint-Germain convinced many European aristocrats he could create gold.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn70\">[70]<\/a> And Francis Bacon included a \u201csection on the making of gold\u201d in his <em>Sylva Sylvarum, or a Naturall Historie in ten Centuries<\/em>,\u201d published posthumously in London in 1627, and which he had intended to form \u201cpart of \u2026[his] unfinished <em>Instauratio Magna<\/em>.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn71\">[71]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to one persistent legend, Basil Valentine was a Benedictine monk;<a href=\"#_ftn72\">[72]<\/a> though, revisionist biographers have begun identifying him with a German salt miner named Johann Th\u00f6lde.<a href=\"#_ftn73\">[73]<\/a> In any event, he cultivated a \u201creputation for obscure learning.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn74\">[74]<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like Paracelsus, Valentine was an early medical experimenter and critic of the establishment. Also like Paracelsus, he certainly picked up on the \u201cAzoth\u201d current. This is evident from one of the most recognizable alchemical diagrams that is owed to Basil Valentine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is a prominent illustration in the work titled \u201cAzoth of the Philosophers.\u201d According to writer Dennis William Hauck, \u201cAzoth\u201d is an alpha-omega symbol, and hints obliquely at \u201cthe chaotic First Matter at the beginning of the [alchemical] Work and the perfected Stone at its conclusion.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn75\">[75]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Azoth is believed to be the animating energy (<em>spiritus animatus<\/em>) of the body\u2026\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn76\">[76]<\/a> \u2013 and its crucial in the gold-making endeavor, as occultist Franz Hartmann explains. \u201cThis [spirit, the \u2018prime mover\u2019<a href=\"#_ftn77\">[77]<\/a>] is the great alchemical agent, and in it are contained all productive and generative powers. If this spirit is extracted from gold or silver and united with some other metal it transforms the latter into gold, respectively silver.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn78\">[78]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the symbolism of alchemy was subsequently imported into the 17<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Rosicrucianism movement. Special mention should be made of the possible authors of the \u201cmanifestos\u201d published between 1614 and 1617, namely, Johannes Valentinus Andre\u00e6, Christopher Besoldus, and Tobias Hess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, among the Rosicrucian apologists we must also count English Paracelsan doctor Robert Fludd, German Hermeticist Heinrich Khunrath, and Michael Maier<a href=\"#_ftn79\">[79]<\/a> whose alchemical epigrams were famously printed in the volume titled \u201cAtalanta Fleeing,\u201d alongside gorgeous illustrations by Matthias Merian.<a href=\"#_ftn80\">[80]<\/a> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not quite a relic of bygone eras, a handful of quirky personalities have also philaappeared to continue Basil Valentine\u2019s legacy. One of these was the French adept known only as \u201cFulcanelli.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn81\">[81]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The name \u2013 ostensibly a mashup of <em>Vulcan<\/em>, god of the forge in classical Roman mythology, and <em>El<\/em>, a semitic word for \u201cgod\u201d \u2013 appeared as the byline of a book titled \u201cThe Mystery of the Cathedrals,\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn82\">[82]<\/a> arguing that medieval stone masons preserved the formula for the <em>Magnum Opus<\/em> through decorations in the great churches of Europe.<a href=\"#_ftn83\">[83]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Fulcanelli\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Eug\u00e8ne L\u00e9on Canseliet, Fulcanelli\u2019s (theoretical) teacher \u2013 whether through books or via some miraculous attainment of old age \u2013 had been none other than\u2026 Basil Valentine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Alexander Seton<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alexander Seton<a href=\"#_ftn84\">[84]<\/a> stands near the top of a short list of those \u201c\u2026very few alchemists, reportedly, who succeeded in the great experiment of the transmutation of metals.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn85\">[85]<\/a> It is for this reason that Seton\u2019s story also serves as a cautionary tale for would-be gold makers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story begins in 1601 when a Dutch boat shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland. By chance, the ill-fated vessel had crashed near Seton\u2019s home. At personal risk, Seton rescued many of the sailors and&nbsp; nursed them back to health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the survivors, a pilot named James Haussen, was thankful to the point of offering to host Seton for a vacation in his native Holland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the trip, Seton disclosed to Haussen \u201cthat he was a master of alchemy \u2026and proved his words by performing several transmutations.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn86\">[86]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apparently, Seton continued to tour continental Europe \u2013 and he continued, also, injudiciously displaying his much-coveted talents along the way. Some of these alleged exhibitions \u2013 if the stories are true \u2013 are among the most remarkable accounts of their kinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike scores of seeming charlatans, such as the miserable 18<sup>th<\/sup>-c. British chemist James Price who, when challenged to repeat a carefully choreographed lead-into-gold demonstration in front of a scrutinous, scientific audience, opted instead to commit suicide, Alexander Seton invited crowd participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spectators brought their own lead. Chemical equipment was brought by disinterested third parties \u2013 such as town apothecaries and smithies. Seton himself purportedly touched nothing \u2013 he merely directed the action, as it were. And the results of the process were immediately available to contributors for close inspection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All this was most impressive to Seton\u2019s audiences. Unfortunately, word of these spectacular feats reached the avaricious Christian II, who held the title \u201cElector of Saxony\u201d from 1591 to 1611, until he died at the age of 27. But, while he drew breath, he summoned Seton to his court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After trying to evade the sham \u201cinvitation\u201d by sending an emissary<a href=\"#_ftn87\">[87]<\/a> in his stead, Seton was at last sufficiently pressured to appear personally. Satisfying that request was Seton\u2019s final and most grievous error \u2013 in a long sequence of mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, he ended up in Christian\u2019s prison tower. According to Manly Palmer Hall, Seton: \u201cwas pierced with pointed iron, scorched with molten lead, burned with fire, beaten with rods, and racked from head to foot; yet \u2026he refused to betray his God-given knowledge.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn88\">[88]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enter Michael Sendivogius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Michael Sendivogius (knew John Dee;<a href=\"#_ftn89\">[89]<\/a> went to Prague)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sendivogius was born into a family of means. The official account has it that he was moved by the plight of the hapless Seton and used his influence to gain access to the prisoner.<a href=\"#_ftn90\">[90]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During their t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate, Sendivogius supposedly proposed staging a jailbreak in exchange for the Seton\u2019s alchemical secret. This plan was then put into place with the help of strategic bribes and, after plying the guards with food and drink, Seton was freed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Seton refused to divulge his gold-making recipe and soon died from the trauma of abuse sustained during his imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before he expired, Seton entrusted to Sendivogius his stock of the so-called \u201cprojection\u201d catalyst, that scarce red powder which is also called the \u201cPhilosopher\u2019s Stone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is said that Sendivogius used his magic powder to effect numerous, genuine transmutations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, without the all-important formula, he was operating on borrowed time. Desperate to unearth the preparation instructions, he accosted Seton\u2019s widow \u2013 on the assumption that she knew something of her husband\u2019s techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Being unsuccessful at that interrogation, Sendivogius absconded with a manuscript in Seton\u2019s hand, bearing the title <em>The New Light of Alchemy<\/em>. \u201cIn its pages, he thought he saw a method for increasing the powder, but he only succeeded in lessening it.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn91\">[91]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doubtless bitter, and perhaps desperate for money, Sendivogius published <em>New Light<\/em> under his own name, and died among the ranks of pretenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least, such is the tale as \u201c[m]ost biographers have assumed\u201d.<a href=\"#_ftn92\">[92]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prague was the \u201cmetropolis of alchemy.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn93\">[93]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">10. George Starkey &amp; Thomas Vaughan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George Starkey has the distinction of being the only American on our list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like Paracelsus, Jan van Helmont,<a href=\"#_ftn94\">[94]<\/a> and numerous others, he was a physician by training. In fact, Starkey received his medical instruction at Harvard during the 1640s, just a few years after its founding in 1636.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He decamped from Boston to London to find an intellectually stimulating environment more congenial to his esoteric interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starkey associated with the great chemist Robert Boyle,<a href=\"#_ftn95\">[95]<\/a> from whom we know of the existence of the so-called \u201cInvisible College.\u201d That institution deserves its own treatment. Suffice it here to say that it was a precursor to the Royal Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a token of good will, and likely to impress his European collaborators, Starkey produced manuscripts bearing the name <em>Eiren<\/em><em>\u00e6us Philalethes<\/em>, which is Greek for \u201cPeaceful Lover of Truth.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn96\">[96]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe authorship of the Philalethes manuscripts has never been firmly established, but most scholars are of the opinion that George Starkey wrote the books himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starkey bankrupted himself and alienated his English colleagues. For a time, he was reduced to performing experiments in the cell of a debtor\u2019s prison.<a href=\"#_ftn97\">[97]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He managed to secure a release but died shortly after an \u201coutbreak of bubonic plague\u201d in London. In 1665, he and physician George Thomson offered to dissect a corpse to gain insight into the mechanisms behind the affliction. His proposal was scornfully rejected by the medical establishment. When Starkey passed following the attempt, which the pair proceeded with anyway, naysayers told exaggerated stories about how his death had come \u201cwithin minutes\u201d of the idiotic procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weirdly, Freemasonry also includes a ritual referred to by the same word \u2013 <em>autopsy<\/em> \u2013 which is in common use to designate the very operation Starkey had proposed.<a href=\"#_ftn98\">[98]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starkey has a generally poor reputation \u2013 even among esoteric writers. Freemasonic scholar Manly Palmer Hall described him as \u201cof unsound character.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn99\">[99]<\/a> Still, he is important for at least two reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Firstly, it was arguably the work of Boyle and Starkey that sparked the alchemical interests of the young Isaac Newton whose Hermetic library eventually grew to one of the largest in the world.<a href=\"#_ftn100\">[100]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secondly, he is of interest because of his possible connexion to the shadowy figure of Thomas Vaughan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the usual retelling, Thomas Vaughan<a href=\"#_ftn101\">[101]<\/a> was born in Wales in 1621. He studied to become a physician, but \u201cnever practiced\u201d that profession \u2013 preferring, instead, to devote himself to alchemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vaughan seems to have adopted \u201cthe pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes,\u201d under which he published several Hermetic treatises.<a href=\"#_ftn102\">[102]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Supposedly, Vaughan killed himself (accidentally, one presumes) while engaging in an obviously dangerous chemical experiment.<a href=\"#_ftn103\">[103]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky, the aforementioned Count Saint-Germain: \u201cbelonged to the Martinist-related Masonic Rite of the Philalethes, \u2018whose members made a special study of the Occult Sciences\u2019.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn104\">[104]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Freemasonic connexion crops up repeatedly. For one thing, Masonry has adopted numerous alchemical emblems. For another, some of the earliest English Freemasons had Hermetic interests. &nbsp;This includes Elias Ashmole who, in 1652 published a compilation of alchemical texts under the title <em>Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum<\/em>;<a href=\"#_ftn105\">[105]<\/a> as well as Sir Robert Moray, who was one of Vaughan\u2019s patrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It makes sense that states would have a mercenary interest in bottomless coffers. Regents like James IV of Scotland and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II were among the array of monarchs with more than passing interests in funding gold-making. And then there\u2019s the interest of private parties and corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, would you believe that alchemy also influenced\u2026 <em>modern<\/em> finance?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider, as a first pass, Hungarian-born American financier, George Soros.<a href=\"#_ftn106\">[106]<\/a> Provocatively, he titled his 1987 book, <em>The Alchemy of Finance<\/em>!<a href=\"#_ftn107\">[107]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soros became world famous in 1992 when he made one billion dollars by using an investment tactic called \u201cshort selling\u201d to profit off the Bank of England.<a href=\"#_ftn108\">[108]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bank of England is the British ancestor of the United States\u2019s Federal Reserve, and it \u201c\u2026was formed in 1694 to institutionalize\u201d a money-lending procedure called \u201cfractional-reserve banking.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn109\">[109]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without getting too technical, the \u201cfractional-reserve\u201d system allows money changers to lend out more than they actually have in their vaults. In other words, through the \u201cmagic\u201d of fractional reserves, bankers are literally authorized to create money out of thin air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If this were not a modern form of gold-making alchemy, then why did agents of the Invisible College, including Sir Robert Boyle,<a href=\"#_ftn110\">[110]<\/a> agitate for the passage of the <em>Mines Royal Act of 1688<\/em>?<a href=\"#_ftn111\">[111]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer is: The <em>Mines Royal Act<\/em> repealed the 1404 <em>Act Against Multipliers<\/em> in which then-King Henry IV \u201c\u2026had made it a felony to create gold and silver by means of alchemy.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn112\">[112]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the anti-alchemy law off the books and out of the way, private banking interests were free to charter the Bank of England, which they did around five years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With this in mind, consider the possible Hermetic interests of economist John Maynard Keynes. You see, Keynes was one of the principal purchasers (through the famed auction house, Sotheby\u2019s) of Sir Isaac Newton\u2019s treatises on alchemy.<a href=\"#_ftn113\">[113]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps all this is not so strange. After all, recall that alchemy was said to have descended from Hermes. And among Hermes\u2019 grandiose titles was \u2026the <em>god of commerce<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Onscreen quote: Thomas Norton: \u201cThis art must ever secret be. \/ The cause whereof is this, as ye may see: \/ If one evil man had thereof all his will, \/ All Christian peace he might easily spill, \/ And with his pride he might pull down \/ Rightful kings and princes of renown.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn114\">[114]<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFalse alchemists seek only to make gold; true philosophers desire only knowledge.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn115\">[115]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright 2023, TheSynchroMystic. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> It is sometimes rendered \u201cland of black earth.\u201d See Douglas Harper, \u201cAlchemy,\u201d <em>Online Etymology Dictionary<\/em>, Oct. 13, 2021, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/alchemy\">https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/alchemy<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> With only slight variations, the word was subsequently imported into Arabic, Greek, and Latin, from which it has come to us in English. As one source (\u201cEgypt, Chemi, Kham,\u201d Esoteric Philosopher: Study of the Endless Path of Wisdom, &lt;&gt;.) notes: \u201c\u2026\u2018The Land of Ham\u2019 or <em>chem<\/em>, Greek (<em>chemi<\/em>),\u201d is mentioned in \u201cPsalm cv. 23\u201d: \u201cThen Israel entered Egypt; Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.\u201d (Psalm 105:23, <em>New Intl. Vers<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> Or a \u201cchemistry of god.\u201d See, e.g., \u201cGnostic Chemistry or Alchemy,\u201d Gnostic Studies, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/gnosticstudies.org\/index.php\/alchemy\/\">https:\/\/gnosticstudies.org\/index.php\/alchemy\/<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> Sometimes, \u201cTubal-Cain, who lived before the Flood, was considered the father of alchemy since it was said of him that he was \u2018the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron\u2019 (Gen. 4:22),\u201d J. E. Grennen, \u201cAlchemy,\u201d <em>New Catholic Encyclopedia<\/em>, Jun. 11, 2018, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/philosophy-and-religion\/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms\/miscellaneous-religion\/alchemy\">https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/philosophy-and-religion\/other-religious-beliefs-and-general-terms\/miscellaneous-religion\/alchemy<\/a>&gt;. \u201cThe fire chemist is descended from the mighty smithy, Tubal-cain (<em>sic<\/em>), the iron worker\u2026\u201d, Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> In fact, the word \u201chermeneutics\u201d is still current in specialized circles that are engaged in the interpretation of literary works, such as the <em>Holy Bible<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> Also sometimes called \u201cTahuti.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a> Antoine Faivre, <em>Western Esotericism<\/em>, Christine Rhone, transl., New York: SUNY Press, 2010, p. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a> The \u201chard sciences\u201d include: <strong>astronomy<\/strong> (\u201cfather of modern astronomy\u201d was Nicolaus Copernicus, 1473-1543); <strong>chemistry<\/strong> (if it\u2019s not Boyle, then the \u201cfather\u201d was probably Antoine Lavoisier, 1743-1794); and <strong>physics<\/strong> (Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642). If one had to name a single \u201cfather\u201d for the entire enterprise of <strong>modern science<\/strong>, the honor could also go to Galileo. Though, Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, could be called the \u201cfather of <strong>modern empiricism<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a> Allied disciplines didn\u2019t surface until the 16<sup>th<\/sup> c. or later \u2013 at least, not in any form resembling what we think of as \u201cmodern science.\u201d For example, minerology was comparatively early; the \u201cFather of Mineralogy\u201d was the German humanist Georgius Agricola (born Georg Bauer; 1494-1555). On the other hand, geology proper came about later: the \u201cfather\u201d of that area of study usually being credited as the Scottish naturalist James Hutton (1726-1797). Especially up to a certain point in history, it\u2019s almost impossible to draw a sharp line between alchemy and other disciplines. For example, part of the \u201calchemy\u201d of 13<sup>th<\/sup>-c. Spanish thinker Ramon Llull was his project of reimagining Christian apologetics and theology along the lines of a grand synthesis that recognized similarities Christianity had with Islam and Judaism. In this way, he both combined opposing principles along alchemical lines, as well as anticipated the later \u201cChristian Cabala\u201d of people like Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. See Yates, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> The fascinating history is complicated and cannot be told without reference to the curious \u201cInvisible College.\u201d But, the proximate founders were notables from a group, operating out of London\u2019s Gresham College, known as the \u201cOxonian Society.\u201d In the year 1660, some of these met in what is called the \u201cCommittee of Twelve,\u201d and formed the Royal College as we know it. They were: William Ball, Robert Boyle, William Brouncker, Alexander Bruce, Jonathan Goddard, Abraham Hill, Sir Robert Moray, Paul Neile, William Petty, Lawrence Rooke, John Wilkins, and Christopher Wren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a> Originally known as \u201cThe Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a> But, see previous footnote on the \u201chard sciences.\u201d It is conceivable that once chemistry really \u201cgot going,\u201d there was a renewed interest in alchemy (in some circles) in virtue of the hope that newly discovered information, or recently developed technology, might equip practitioners to at last realize the fabled, ancient goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a> The \u201csoft sciences\u201d are, for the most part, even later still. They are frequently adumbrated as: <strong>anthropology<\/strong> (\u201cfather of physical anthropology\u201d was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, 1752-1840; the \u201cfather of cultural anthropology\u201d was Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, 1832-1917; while the \u201cfather of <em>American<\/em> cultural anthropology\u201d was Franz Boas, 1858-1942; the \u201cfather of <em>social<\/em> anthropology\u201d was Bronis\u0142aw Kasper Malinowski, 1884-1942; but precursors included Sir James George Frazer, 1854-1941, and Sir Edward Evan \u201cE. E.\u201d Evans-Pritchard, 1902-1973), <strong>economics<\/strong> (\u201cfather of economics\u201d should probably be credited to Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, 1723-1790), <strong>psychology<\/strong> (\u201cfather of modern experimental psychology\u201d was Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt, 1832-1920); and <strong>sociology<\/strong> (\u201cfather\u201d was Auguste Comte, 1798-1857; or, sometimes, it is given as David \u00c9mile Durkheim, 1858-1917; \u201cfather of sociology of religion\u201d could be thought of as Maximilian K. E. \u201cMax\u201d Weber, 1864-1920). Though, some incarnations of these were a bit earlier: <strong>economics<\/strong> (some of the earliest modern writers on economic theory were Jesuits \u2013 e.g., Luis de Molina, 1535-1600 \u2013 from the Spanish School of Salamanca); <strong>political science<\/strong> (\u201cfather of modern political science\u201d may have been Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli, 1469-1527; of course, political <em>philosophy<\/em> goes back to Aristotle); <strong>psychology<\/strong> (\u201cfather of modern psychology\u201d was arguably Juan Luis Vives, 1493-1540).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a> Zosimos of Panopolis, <em>The Book of Pictures<\/em>, Theodore Abt, ed., transl., Zurich, Switzerland: Living Human Heritage Publ., 2007, p. 33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a> Crowley availed himself of a then-recent translation produced by his erstwhile colleague Samuel Liddell \u201cMacGregor\u201d Mathers: <em>The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, As Delivered by Abraham the Jew Unto His Son Lamech, A.D. 1458<\/em>, London: J.M. Watkins, 1898.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a> Reportedly, some of these were conducted in conjunction with George Cecil Jones, Jr., who was a fellow member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and co-founder, with Crowley, of the magical order designated the \u201cA\u2234A\u2234\u201d \u2013 which is sometimes said to stand for <em>Argentium Astrum<\/em> (\u201cSilver Star\u201d), but may have any of a number of alternate interpretations (including <em>Arcanum Arcanorum<\/em>, or \u201cSecret of Secrets\u201d). See, \u201cA\u2234A\u2234,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Apr. 2, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aleister_Crowley\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aleister_Crowley<\/a>&gt;;&nbsp; \u201cAleister Crowley,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 22, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aleister_Crowley\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aleister_Crowley<\/a>&gt;; and \u201cGeorge Cecil Jones,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Mar. 30, 2021,&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Cecil_Jones\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Cecil_Jones<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a> See Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a> As well as with 13<sup>th<\/sup>-c. French poet Jean de Meung. See Albert Pike, <em>Morals and Dogma\u2026<\/em>, reprint ed., Richmond, Va.: 1946, L. H. Jenkins, p. 823.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref19\">[19]<\/a> New York: Scholastic, 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref20\">[20]<\/a> London: Bloomsbury, 1997. (Underlining added.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref21\">[21]<\/a> \u201cNicolas Flamel,\u201d <em>Harry Potter Wiki<\/em>, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/harrypotter.fandom.com\/wiki\/Nicolas_Flamel\">https:\/\/harrypotter.fandom.com\/wiki\/Nicolas_Flamel<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref22\">[22]<\/a> Another early \u2013 if not seminal \u2013 3<sup>rd<\/sup>-c. (B.C.) figure was Bolos (or Bolus) of Panopolis. The place name is also intriguing. Geopgraphically, Panopolis was an Egyptian city now called Akhmin. The principal deity worshipped at this location was supposed to have been Min, sometimes understood as an alter ego of Horus. In any event, Min is routinely depicted ithyphallically, and (presumably for this reason) was associated with the ever-amorous, rustic Greco-Roman deity Pan. Connexions abound. Fortean anomalist Jim Brandon formulated an entire study \u2013 his 1983 volume, <em>The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit<\/em> (Firebird Press, Dunlap, Ill.) \u2013 around the theme. For my part, I\u2019ve had opportunity to mention Pan in the past (for one example, see \u201cOmicron\u201d). A dedicated presentation may be forthcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref23\">[23]<\/a> According to some legends, she taught the late 5<sup>th<\/sup>-c. to early-4<sup>th<\/sup>-c. \u201cpre-Socratic\u201d philosopher Democritus, one of the earliest expositors of <em>atomism<\/em>, the idea that reality is explicable in virtue of the interplay of irreducible, microscopic pieces of matter (\u201ca-toms\u201d \u2013 which word literally means \u201cun-cuttable\u201d) and the in-between spaces (the \u201cvoid\u201d). To confuse matters, there is a secondary character, one Democritus of Alexandria, who enters the picture \u2013 though, frequently, he is said to have been a student of <em>another<\/em> alchemical master named Ostanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref24\">[24]<\/a> Janet Cave and Robert A. Doyle, <em>et al<\/em>., eds., <em>Mysteries of the Unknown: Secrets of the Alchemists<\/em>, Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1990, p. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref25\">[25]<\/a> From St. Augustine onward, Aristotle would only be known indirectly, through his quotation by previous generations of scholars, or through scattered translations, such as Boethius\u2019s version of the <em>Organon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref26\">[26]<\/a> Streams of ancient Greek tradition were also preserved in the Byzantine Empire. Alchemically speaking, the Neoplatonist Olympiodorus the Younger (or an unknown author that we may call \u201cPseudo-Olympiodorus\u201d) penned <em>\u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u03af \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u1fb6\u03c2 \u03c4\u03ad\u03c7\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03b9\u03ba\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03bb\u03af\u03b8\u03bf\u03c5<\/em> (\u201cOn the Divine and Sacred Art of the Philosophical Stone,\u201d in Latin: <em>De arte sacra lapidis philosophorum<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref27\">[27]<\/a> Or \u201cGeber.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref28\">[28]<\/a> These dovetail in a surprisingly compelling and intuitive way. As rehearsed on the relevant Wikipedia page: \u201c\u2026fire was both hot and dry, earth, cold and dry, water cold and moist, and air, hot and moist.\u201d \u201cJabir Ibn Hayyan,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 24, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jabir_ibn_Hayyan\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jabir_ibn_Hayyan<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref29\">[29]<\/a> The four are: blood (associated with a sanguine temperament), \u201cyellow bile\u201d (resulting in a choleric personality), black bile (melancholic), and phlegm (phlegmatic). This schema was assumed for centuries, but began to be challenged around the 10<sup>th<\/sup> century, e.g., by the Arabic physician Al-R\u0101z\u012b (<em>Rhazes<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref30\">[30]<\/a> On the usual picture, \u201call things\u201d are inherently \u201chermaphroditic,\u201d Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 9. (For more insight, see \u201cTop 10 \u2018Sex-Magic\u2019 Cults.\u201d) This is to say that they are, in some sense, mercurial-sulfurous composites. \u201cSulfur,\u201d here, is not an anachronistic gesture toward the periodic table of elements (where it has the symbol \u201cS\u201d and an atomic number of 16). Rather, it is an emblem of \u201csoul\u201d (<em>anima<\/em>), the fiery, masculine energy of thought, symbolized by the sun. \u201cMercury,\u201d on the other hand, is \u201cspirit\u201d (<em>spiritus<\/em>), the watery, feminine energy of emotion, represented by the moon. And salt \u2013 added later \u2013 is an oblique reference to sensations and the \u201cbody\u201d (<em>corpus<\/em>), in which the \u201cfiery water\u201d is incarnated. See, e.g., <em>ibid<\/em>. and Hauck, <em>loc. cit<\/em>. \u201cThe adept is the child of the sun and the moon,\u201d Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 29. But, on the subject of the periodic table, it&#8217;s worth noting that the search for foundational chemical \u201celements\u201d as the building blocks of matter was arguably given impetus by the hermetic philosophizing of people like Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (see his concept of \u201cmonads\u201d) and Robert Boyle (via his idea of \u201ccorpuscles\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref31\">[31]<\/a> <em>Summa perfectionis magisterii<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref32\">[32]<\/a> <em>Tabd\u012bd al-\u02bfilm<\/em>. See Noah Daedalus Gardiner, <em>Esotericism in a Manuscript Culture: Ahmad al-Buni and His Readers Through the Mamluk Period<\/em>, dissertation, Univ. of Mich., 2014, pp. 125-127; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/1library.net\/article\/tabd%C4%ABd-%CA%BFilm-esotericist-reading-communities-b%C5%ABn%C4%AB-tabd%C4%ABd-%CA%BFilm.yn9w3mjq\">https:\/\/1library.net\/article\/tabd%C4%ABd-%CA%BFilm-esotericist-reading-communities-b%C5%ABn%C4%AB-tabd%C4%ABd-%CA%BFilm.yn9w3mjq<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref33\">[33]<\/a> <em>Zandaqa<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref34\">[34]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref35\">[35]<\/a> Sir George Ripley, <em>Alchemical Works: The compound of Alchemy <\/em>&amp; al.; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.labirintoermetico.com\/01Alchimia\/Ripley_G_Compound_of_Alchemy_et_al.pdf\">https:\/\/www.labirintoermetico.com\/01Alchimia\/Ripley_G_Compound_of_Alchemy_et_al.pdf<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref36\">[36]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref37\">[37]<\/a> One thinks, also, of various \u201ctwelve-step\u201d programs \u2013 such as Alcoholics Anonymous (\u201cAA\u201d) \u2013 which fit into a broader tapestry of \u201cMind Cure,\u201d \u201cPositive Thinking,\u201d and \u201cself-help\u201d literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref38\">[38]<\/a> Helpfully summarized in: \u201cMagnum opus (alchemy),\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Apr. 17, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magnum_opus_(alchemy)\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magnum_opus_(alchemy)<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref39\">[39]<\/a> One obscure personality of the period is John Dastin (or John Daustin). He was a 14<sup>th<\/sup>-c. alchemist, living in England, who apparently achieved prominence enough to correspond with the Pope (then John XXII). According to his Wikipedia article, Dastin was known to Elias Ashmole, Hermannus Condeesyanus, and Arthur Dee. \u201cJohn Dastin,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 23, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Dastin\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Dastin<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref40\">[40]<\/a> In the midst of his treatment of Bacon, Manly Hall makes a point of criticizing medieval education. Growing frustration with \u201csterile scholasticism\u201d is a point of commonality amongst Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, Francis Bacon, the Rosicrucians, and other Renaissance figures. The usual summary has it that the <em>apriorism<\/em> of the Catholic Middle Ages was based on axioms that were uncritically assumed solely in virtue of appeals to authority: whether the Church\u2019s or that of antiquity (e.g., Aristotle was esteemed so highly that he was simply referred to as \u201cThe Philosopher\u201d). <em>Nothing<\/em> was subjected to experiential testing \u2013 which became a rallying cry for malcontents and hallmark of later empirical science. Leonardo Da Vinci, another product of the period, referred to himself as \u201ca disciple of experience,\u201d quoted by Bill Gates, \u201cWalter Isaacson\u2019s Terrific New Biography Sheds Light on Every Facet of the Artist\u2019s Life,\u201d <em>GatesNotes<\/em> (weblog), May 21, 2018, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/books\/leonardo-da-vinci\">https:\/\/www.gatesnotes.com\/books\/leonardo-da-vinci<\/a>&gt;. &nbsp;Practical disciplines, like medicine, weren\u2019t the only ones affected by the new patterns of thinking. The whole <em>ad fontes<\/em> (\u201cback to the sources\u201d) movement undergirding humanism, and priming the pump for theological change <em>vis-\u00e0-vis<\/em> the Protestant Reformation, must also be factored in. Moreover, intellectual discontent would engender political discontent, as the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century (and later centuries) of revolution would demonstrate. It\u2019s not for nothing that Manly Hall refers to part of the pertinent period (specifically, the years between 1590 and 1630) as the \u201cUniversal Reformation,\u201d <em>op. cit<\/em>., pp. 62-63. See, also, James H. Billington, <em>Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith<\/em>, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publ., 1999. Incidentally, Roger Bacon was called \u201cDoctor Mirabilis,\u201d meaning \u201cMiraculous Doctor,\u201d or one who is \u201camazing, wondrous, remarkable,\u201d see: \u201cRoger Bacon,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 14, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roger_Bacon\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roger_Bacon<\/a>&gt; and \u201cMirabilis,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Aug. 31, 2020, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mirabilis\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mirabilis<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref41\">[41]<\/a> A.k.a., \u201cDoctor Universalis,\u201d or \u201cUniversal Doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref42\">[42]<\/a> At the time, Neoplatonism had a respectable veneer among learned Catholics, since one of its key expositors, now referred to as <em>Pseudo-Dionysius<\/em> (late 5<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; to early-6<sup>th<\/sup>&#8211; c.), was believed to have been the genuine, 1<sup>st<\/sup>-c. Dionysius the Areopagite, an Athenian converted by St. Paul as told in the <em>Holy Bible<\/em> (the <em>Book of the Acts of the Apostles<\/em>, chapter 17, verse 34).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref43\">[43]<\/a> Albertism differed from competing systems, such as those of St. Thomas Aquinas (\u201cThomism\u201d), Duns Scotus (\u201cScotism\u201d), and William of Ockham (\u201cNominalism\u201d), as well as of the revived Augustinian Neoplatonism of St. Bonaventure and the Franciscans. It arguably faded into oblivion because: (1) Albertism wasn\u2019t as thoroughgoing a philosophical system as, say, Thomism or Augustinianism; (2) unless you count its inspiration of occultists or members of secret societies supposedly founded by Agrippa (see Frances A. Yates, <em>The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age<\/em>, London: Routledge &amp; K. Paul, 1979), Albertism was never (<em>per se<\/em>) embraced by any religious order (as Thomism had been by the Dominicans, Augustinianism by the Franciscans, etc.); and (3) Albertism was anti-nominalist (and nominalism became philosophical orthodoxy along with the rise of mechanistic science).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref44\">[44]<\/a> Other \u201cAlbertists\u201d included Heymericus de Campo, Johannes Hulshout of Mechelen, Gerardus de Harderwijck, Arnoldus Luyde de Tongeris, and others associated with the \u201cGymnasium Laurentianum.\u201d See Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen, \u201cAlbertism,\u201d Henrik Lagerlund, ed., <em>Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy Between 500 and 1500<\/em>, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, Jan., 2011, pp. 44-51; online at: &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/302883424_Albertism\">https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/302883424_Albertism<\/a>&gt;. Albert also influenced Dietrich of Freiberg, Berthold of Moosburg, and John of Freiburg, as well as Ulrich of Strasbourg. See: Irene Zavattero, \u201cUlrich of Strasbourg<em>,\u201d<\/em> Henrik Lagerlund, ed., <em>Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy Between 500 and 1500<\/em>, Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2020, pp. 1351-1353; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/referenceworkentry\/10.1007\/978-1-4020-9729-4_509\">https:\/\/link.springer.com\/referenceworkentry\/10.1007\/978-1-4020-9729-4_509<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref45\">[45]<\/a> Due primarily to difficulties transliterating Hebrew, the word \u201cKabbalah\u201d sometimes displays spelling variations. <em>Some<\/em> of these variations should be treated synonymously, <em>across certain contexts<\/em>. <em>However<\/em>, in my lexicon, \u201cCabala\u201d is reserved the sort of \u201cChristianized,\u201d Neoplatonized variety that flowed from Pico and Reuchlin. On the other hand, \u201cQabalah\u201d (not employed as such in this text) is the peculiar version that is often blended with Tarot (courtesy of \u00c9liphas L\u00e9vi) and was widely adopted by esotericists (such as Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn members) after the Nineteenth-Century \u201cOccult Revival.\u201d <em>Kabbalah<\/em> is reserved for specifically Jewish varieties; though, even here, we must allow for development. See \u201c10 Arcane Words\u201d for a <em>very<\/em> basic introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref46\">[46]<\/a> Yates, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 97.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref47\">[47]<\/a> \u201cAmong these works [that are now considered \u2018Pseudo-Albertine\u2019] are many treatises relating to chemistry. The titles of some of them will serve to show how explicit was Albert in his consideration of various chemical subjects. He has treatises concerning Metals and Minerals; concerning Alchemy; A Treatise on the Secret of Chemistry; A Concordance, that is a Collection of observations from many sources with regard to the Philosopher&#8217;s Stone; A brief Compend on the Origin of the Metals; A Treatse on Compounds; most of these are to be found in his works under the general heading &#8216;Theatrum Chemicum\u2019,\u201d James Joseph Walsh, <em>The Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries<\/em>, New York: Catholic Summer School Press, 1907, p. 46; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=_rofAAAAIAAJ&amp;pg=RA2-PA46\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=_rofAAAAIAAJ&amp;pg=RA2-PA46<\/a>&gt; and &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=kvQRAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA46\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=kvQRAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA46<\/a>&gt;. N.B.: The quoted author seems to have thought that the listed works were penned by the historical Albert the Great. It was only later, it seems, that they were relegated to the knockoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref48\">[48]<\/a> See, Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref49\">[49]<\/a> It is now more commonly ascribed to \u201cPseudo-Aquinas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref50\">[50]<\/a> One remembers that a main disciple of Meister Eckhart was Johannes Tauler. Tho, <em>this<\/em> Tauler likely died in Germany (Strasbourg) over 100 years (1361) before Trismosin\u2019s sojourn to Italy (ca. 1473).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref51\">[51]<\/a> New York: Doubleday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref52\">[52]<\/a> A.k.a. Bernard Tr\u00e9visan; see Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref53\">[53]<\/a> Scholars have begun questioning Montague Summers\u2019 priestly <em>bona fides<\/em>. As the relevant <em>Wikipedia<\/em> article states, Summers was apparently never connected to any parish or religious order. One possibility, mentioned (but not developed), would be that Summers was ordained by an irregular, or \u201cWandering\u201d bishop (or <em>episcopus vagans<\/em>) named Ulric Vernon Herford \u2013 which would be another story and, therefore, cannot be taken up, here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref54\">[54]<\/a> Montague Summers, <em>Witchcraft and Black Magic<\/em>, Detroit: Grand River Books, 1971 (orig. London &amp; New York: Rider, 1945\/6), p. 151.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref55\">[55]<\/a> Joseph Caezza, \u201cWho Were the Alchemists?\u201d <em>The Alchemy Website<\/em>, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.levity.com\/alchemy\/caezza4.html\">http:\/\/www.levity.com\/alchemy\/caezza4.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref56\">[56]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref57\">[57]<\/a> <em>Lutherus medicorum<\/em> (\u201cthe Luther of physicians\u201d), see Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 63. Other of Paracelsus\u2019s important instructors were Ulrich Poysel and \u2013 especially \u2013 the Abbot Trithemius, about whom (the latter) I hope to say more in a subsequent video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref58\">[58]<\/a> According to Allen G. Debus, \u201cParacelsus and the Medical Revolution of the Renaissance,\u201d <em>Paracelsus, Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits<\/em>, St. Louis, Mo.: Washington Univ. School of Medicine Library, 1994; blurb online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/paracelsus\/index.html\">https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/exhibition\/paracelsus\/index.html<\/a>&gt;. Whereas Copernicus overthrew Ptolemy, Paracelsus displaced Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna. Paracelsus\u2019s decision to favor the German language over academic Latin (which was also characteristic of Reformers like Martin Luther) was, at least in part, a declaration of war against received medical opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref59\">[59]<\/a> The name, para-Celsus is meant to signify that von Hohenheim was moving \u201c\u2026 \u2018beyond Celsus,\u2019 \u2026the celebrated first-century Roman physician\u2026,\u201d Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 63.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref60\">[60]<\/a> See, e.g., Rosemary Guiley, <em>The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy<\/em>, New York: Facts on File, 2006, p. 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref61\">[61]<\/a> \u201cParacelsus is credited with starting to build the science of chemistry on the footings of alchemy,\u201d simultaneously \u201c\u2026establish[ing the] \u2026basis \u2026of pharmacy,\u201d Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 63. He had received the standard university education for the time but was dissatisfied with state of medical knowledge. So, he took to interviewing \u201c\u2026wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws \u2026tak[ing] lessons from them,\u201d Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 63. Again, we see that Paracelsus anticipates the emergence of experimental science by simply going out and asking everyday people with experience one simple question: \u201cWhat works?\u201d This hearkens back to Roger Bacon who, as Manly Hall reports, \u201c[broke] with the rigid scholastic pattern\u201d not only by conducting his own \u201cexperiments\u201d which \u201ccontributed much to the profession of medicine,\u201d but also by gleaning \u201csome of his \u2026ideas from lesser-known contemporaries,\u201d <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 41. Although alchemical knowledge is a sort of \u201cgnosis,\u201d it is a \u201c\u2026religious gnosis [that] demands direct personal experience rather than pedestrian faith,\u201d Caezza, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref62\">[62]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 64.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref63\">[63]<\/a> Caezza, <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref64\">[64]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 33. Perennially, Constantinople has been the setting for various intrigues \u2013 both fictional and genuine. Examples of this include Graham Greene\u2019s 1932 novel, <em>Stamboul Train<\/em> (London: William Heinemann), and Agatha Christie\u2019s 1934 mystery, <em>Murder on the Orient Express<\/em> (Glasgow, Scotland: William Collins). Or consider Allen Welsh Dulles, who was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 by then-President Dwight Eisenhower, and who served in that capacity until being fired in 1961 by John F. Kennedy, after the botched \u201cBay of Pigs\u201d operation. Before his tenure as CIA chief \u2013 before, even, his involvement with William \u201cWild Bill\u201d Dononvan\u2019s Office of Strategic Services (OSS) \u2013 \u201c\u2026Dulles joined the U.S. Foreign Service\u201d in 1916 and \u201cwas assigned to Constantinople (later Istanbul) from October 1920 to April 1922.\u201d \u201cDulles, Allen Welsh,\u201d Encyclopedia.com, May 17, 2018, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/people\/history\/us-history-biographies\/allen-welsh-dulles\">https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/people\/history\/us-history-biographies\/allen-welsh-dulles<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref65\">[65]<\/a> At least, \u201cthe universal remedy\u201d is how Paracelsus used the term, \u201cAzoth,\u201d Dictionary.com, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/azoth\">https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/azoth<\/a>&gt;. For other alchemists, \u201cazoth\u201d designated \u201cquicksilver\u201d or \u201cmercury, \u2026the assumed first principle of all metals,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>. About this \u201cUniversal Medicine,\u201d Paracelsus remarked that it \u201cconsumed all diseases \u2026like an invisible fire,\u201d Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 245. The aim of the Paracelsian physician, like later practitioners such as Robert Fludd, was to restore a patient\u2019s place in the delicate cosmic balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref66\">[66]<\/a> Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 245.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref67\">[67]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 69.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref68\">[68]<\/a> Manly Hall speculates that his name \u2013 Basil Valentine \u2013 means (something like) \u201cthe strong or mighty king,\u201d <em>op. cit.<\/em>, p. 57. It may have been the <em>nom de plume<\/em> for \u201ca circle of Hermetic initiates,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>., pp. 57-58. This is an intriguing possibility. One thinks, also, of (one version of) the so-called \u201cBaconian hypothesis\u201d for Shakespearean authorship. Somewhat sophisticated Baconians frequently hold that Francis Bacon may have been the \u201cprincipal\u201d author or editor of a literary society (the \u201cKnights of the Helmet\u201d) in a way analogous to how \u201ca typical Renaissance studio\u201d painter may have had a whole \u201cstudio of pupils.\u201d According to Peter Dawkins, interviewed in Christian J. Pinto, <em>Secret Mysteries of America\u2019s Beginnings:&nbsp; Volume 1, The New Atlantis<\/em>, DVD, Los Angeles: Antiquities Research Films, 2005. Cf. Peter Dawkins, <em>The Shakespeare Enigma<\/em>, London: Polair, 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref69\">[69]<\/a> Saint-Germain is sometimes considered a part of H. P. Blavatsky\u2019s \u201cGreat White Brotherhood.\u201d Other times, Francis Bacon and Saint-Germain are said to have been one and the same person. To borrow a phrase from Manly Hall (though, he wrote it in a different context): \u201cIt is all very difficult\u2026\u201d! Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref70\">[70]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref71\">[71]<\/a> Marcus Williamson, trans., \u201cFrancis Bacon \u2013 The Making of Gold,\u201d <em>The Alchemy Website<\/em>, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.levity.com\/alchemy\/bacongld.html\">http:\/\/www.levity.com\/alchemy\/bacongld.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref72\">[72]<\/a> Hall admits: \u201cSubstantially, nothing is known of Brother Valentine except such stray and fugitive information as appear on the title page of various editions of his supposed writings or in the introductions affixed thereto by editors and translators equally obscure,\u201d <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 59.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref73\">[73]<\/a> John Maxson Stillman, \u201cBasil Valentine, a Seventeenth Century Hoax,\u201d <em>The Popular Science Monthly<\/em>, Dec., 1912, p. 591; online at &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=7SQDAAAAMBAJ\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=7SQDAAAAMBAJ<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref74\">[74]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 57.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref75\">[75]<\/a> Dennis William Hauck, \u201cAzoth of the Philosophers,\u201d <em>Alchemy Lab<\/em>, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alchemylab.com\/azoth.htm\">https:\/\/www.alchemylab.com\/azoth.htm<\/a>&gt;; excerpted from Dennis William Hauck, <em>The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation<\/em>, New York: Arkana (Penguin), 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref76\">[76]<\/a> \u201cAzoth,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jun. 25, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Azoth\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Azoth<\/a>&gt;. This recalls Parcelsus\u2019s claim that the fabled First Matter \u2013 or <em>prima materia<\/em> \u2013 out of which all actualized, particular substances were formed, \u201cis the essence of the world soul,\u201d or <em>anima mundi<\/em>. See Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 245.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref77\">[77]<\/a> <em>Primum mobile<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref78\">[78]<\/a> Franz Hartmann, <em>In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom<\/em>, London: Theosophical Publ. Society; Boston: Occult Publ. Co., 1890, p. 38.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref79\">[79]<\/a> There was a tendency in some writers \u2013 for example, Michael Maier and the previously mentioned psychoanalyst, Carl Jung \u2013 to interpret classical mythology as alchemy allegory. This would also include \u201cDom Pernety,\u201d Antoine-Joseph Pern\u00e8ty, an 18<sup>th<\/sup>-c. French-born supposed Benedictine monk who, with Polish Count Tadeusz Grabianka, created a Masonic society colloquially termed the \u201cIlluminati of Avignon\u201d (ca. 1760). The Avignon Illuminism entered around the so-called <em>Rite herm\u00e9tique<\/em>, which was informed by the (sometimes sexual) mysticism of Emanuel Swedenborg. For all three men, see: Nicholas Goodricke-Clark, <em>The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction<\/em>, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2008, pp. 121, 146, and 245<em>ff<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref80\">[80]<\/a> <em>Atalanta Fugiens<\/em>, Oppenheim: Johann Theodor de Bry, 1617. Another, lesser-known figure was the 18<sup>th<\/sup>-c., German-born illustrator and physician Sigismund Bacstrom who was a prolific translator of alchemical and Rosicrucian manuscripts. Contemporary alchemical writer Adam McLean relates that Bacstrom claimed to have been initiated into various <em>arcana<\/em> by one \u201cComte Louis du Chazal,\u201d on the Island of Mauritius. Chazal supposedly had attained unnaturally long life for the time, having reached ninety-six years. McLean supposes that \u201cChazal\u201d was none other than the Comte de St. Germain. See: Adam McLean, \u201cBacstrom\u2019s Rosicrucian Society,\u201d <em>Hermetic Journal<\/em>, no. 6, 1979; reproduced online at: &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alchemywebsite.com\/bacstrm1.html\">https:\/\/www.alchemywebsite.com\/bacstrm1.html<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref81\">[81]<\/a> Possible identity was Jules Louis Gabriel Violle. See \u201cJules Voille,\u201d <em>Wikipedia<\/em>, Jan. 24, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jules_Violle\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jules_Violle<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref82\">[82]<\/a> <em>Le Myst\u00e8re des Cath\u00e9drales<\/em>, Paris: Jean Schemit, 1926.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref83\">[83]<\/a> This line of thought inspired Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges\u2019s volume <em>The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye: Alchemy and the End of Time<\/em>, Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 2003, as well as Weidner\u2019s subsequent follow-up video, <em>Secrets of Alchemy: The Great Cross and the End of Time<\/em>, DVD, Seattle: Wash.: Sacred Mysteries Productions, 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref84\">[84]<\/a> Also spelled \u201cSethon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref85\">[85]<\/a> \u201cSeton (Or Sethon) Alexander (D. Ca. 1604),\u201d <em>Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology<\/em>; online at Encyclopedia.com, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/science\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/seton-or-sethon-alexander-d-ca-1604\">https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/science\/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps\/seton-or-sethon-alexander-d-ca-1604<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref86\">[86]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref87\">[87]<\/a> History records that Seton\u2019s friend William Hamilton initially went in his place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref88\">[88]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 82.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref89\">[89]<\/a> Another alchemist of the period, and John Dee\u2019s contemporary, was Thomas Charnock. He is mentioned by Elias Ashmole in the latter\u2019s <em>Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum<\/em> (\u201cChemical Theatre of Britain,\u201d Lond: Brooke, 1652).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref90\">[90]<\/a> Accounts that I have read do not seem to countenance that Sendivogius was part of a Mutt-and-Jeff routine where Christian\u2019s sentinels were \u201cbad cops\u201d and Sendivogius played the part of the savior \/ \u201cgood cop\u201d in order to learn Seton knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref91\">[91]<\/a> \u201cSeton (or Sethon)\u2026,\u201d <em>loc. cit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref92\">[92]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 82.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref93\">[93]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref94\">[94]<\/a> Starkey was an \u201cintellectual heir\u201d to van Helmont, Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 96.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref95\">[95]<\/a> He collaborated with Boyle on several projects \u2013 one of which, a medical treatment for some variety of fever, \u201cmet with extensive praise,\u201d <em>ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref96\">[96]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref97\">[97]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref98\">[98]<\/a> For the story, see Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 97.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref99\">[99]<\/a> Hall, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref100\">[100]<\/a> Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref101\">[101]<\/a> Or Vaughn, as in Guiley, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 329.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref102\">[102]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref103\">[103]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref104\">[104]<\/a> \u201cSaint-Germain, Comte De,\u201d <em>Theosophy World<\/em>, Manila: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d., &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/theosophy.world\/encyclopedia\/saint-germain-comte-de\">https:\/\/theosophy.world\/encyclopedia\/saint-germain-comte-de<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref105\">[105]<\/a> Among the alchemical writers represented are some that we have not had occasion here to mention, such as: D.D.W. Bedman, William Bloomefield, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Dastin, John Gower, John Lydgate, Thomas Norton, and Thomas Robinson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref106\">[106]<\/a> Born Gy\u00f6rgy Schwartz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref107\">[107]<\/a> Subtitled: <em>Reading the Mind of the Market<\/em>, New York: Simon &amp; Schuster, 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref108\">[108]<\/a> Soros\u2019s nickname is \u201cSoros is known as \u201cThe Man Who Broke the Bank of England.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref109\">[109]<\/a> \u201cHistory Of Fractional Reserve Banking Which Became Model For The Federal Reserve System, The Unbroken Record Of Fraud, Booms, Busts, Economic Chaos,\u201d <em>Seeking Alpha<\/em> (weblog), Nov. 16, 2015, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/instablog\/25783813-peter-palms\/4549696-history-of-fractional-reserve-banking-which-became-model-for-federal-reserve-system-unbroken\">https:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/instablog\/25783813-peter-palms\/4549696-history-of-fractional-reserve-banking-which-became-model-for-federal-reserve-system-unbroken<\/a>&gt;. According to <em>Investopedia<\/em>: \u201cIn 1668, Sweden&#8217;s Riksbank introduced the first instance of modern fractional reserve banking,\u201d Julia Kagan, \u201cFractional Reserve Banking,\u201d Somer Anderson, reviewer, Aug. 10, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/f\/fractionalreservebanking.asp\">https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/f\/fractionalreservebanking.asp<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref110\">[110]<\/a> Boyle was \u201cintellectual heir to Francis Bacon, \u2026the Rosicrucians\u201d, and alchemists like Jan Baptista van Helmont. See Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 95. On the Rosicrucians, see Christopher McIntosh, <em>The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order<\/em>, Newburyport, Mass.: Weiser, 1998. Van Helmont made numerous advances \u2013 such as articulating a model of digestion and identifying various gases. As <em>Time-Life Books<\/em> put it: \u201cThese contributions now belong to the realm of science, but they were made in the name of alchemy,\u201d Cave and Doyle, eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 92.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref111\">[111]<\/a> A.k.a. the Royal Mines Act, it was passed by parliament under the reign of William &amp; Mary. \u201cMines Royal Act 1688,\u201d Jun. 22, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mines_Royal_Act_1688\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mines_Royal_Act_1688<\/a>&gt;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref112\">[112]<\/a> <em>Ibid<\/em>. \u201cThe Act Against Multipliers was signed into law by King Henry IV of England on 13th January 1404. It ordered that \u2018None from hereafter shall use to multiply gold or silver, or use the craft of multiplication; and if any the same do, they incur the pain of felony\u2019,\u201d John Welford, \u201cThe Act Against Multipliers, 1404,\u201d <em>Medium<\/em>, Apr. 4, 2022, &lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@johnwelford15\/the-act-against-multipliers-1404-dd01d63ca86f\">https:\/\/medium.com\/@johnwelford15\/the-act-against-multipliers-1404-dd01d63ca86f<\/a>&gt;. This had followed a condemnation of alchemy (in the decree <em>Spondent quas non exhibent<\/em>; a.k.a. <em>Spondent partier<\/em>, 1317) by Pope John XXII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref113\">[113]<\/a> Possibly related is the fact that former Microsoft chieftain, Bill Gates, bid on and won one of the working notebooks (variously called <em>Codex Hammer<\/em> or <em>Codex Leicester<\/em>) from Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci. According to Gates: \u201c\u2026it doesn\u2019t contain codes protecting age-old secrets,\u201d Gates, <em>loc. cit<\/em>. On the other hand, what would you expect him to say if it did?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref114\">[114]<\/a> Qtd. Janet Cave and Robert A. Doyle, <em>et al<\/em>., eds., <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 45. See, also, \u201c10 Arcane Words\u201d and \u201cTop 10 \u2018Sex-Magic\u2019 Cults.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref115\">[115]<\/a> Quoted by Cave and Doyle, <em>op. cit<\/em>., p. 55.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teaser Is there a magical powder or \u201cstone\u201d with the power of turning lead into gold? Is there a potion capable of prolonging life indefinitely? In the wake of pandemics and rising prices, these questions are perhaps more pressing now than ever before. Surely the answer to both is\u2026 no. Right?!? But\u2026 dotting the timeline &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/08\/top-10-gold-making-alchemists-of-all-time\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Top 10 Gold-Making Alchemists of All Time&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,129,134,128,11,133,124,125,135,131,120,123,137,122,130,121,127,126,136,132],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alchemy","tag-alexander-seton","tag-bank-of-england","tag-basil-valentine","tag-carl-jung","tag-federal-reserve","tag-geber","tag-george-ripley","tag-george-soros","tag-george-starkey","tag-hermes-trismegistus","tag-jabir-ibn-hayyan","tag-john-maynard-keynes","tag-maria-the-jewess","tag-michael-sendivogius","tag-nicholas-flamel","tag-paracelsus","tag-salomon-trismosin","tag-sir-isaac-newton","tag-thomas-vaughan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thesynchromystic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}