Principles Of Alchemy

     Now that we’ve covered some of the basics on alchemy, we’re ready to really get our hands dirty and get to work.  This month, we’re going to examine the contents of an alchemist’s laboratory and also examine the various steps of the First Matter and how to transmutate common metals into gold.  So... let’s get started!

     Now that we have a better idea of what an alchemist does, it makes sense to explore the laboratory, its various instruments and ingredients a bit more carefully.  Most alchemists choose a dark, rather large, yet isolated room in which to do their experiments.  Since some of their work would consume them for days at a time, it was also important that their laboratory could meet their various needs, without drawing attention to itself.

    The walls of the laboratory would be covered with strange symbols and inscriptions, while animals skeletons and bunches of medicinal herbs might hang from the ceiling.  There would be several furnaces and a bellows to fan the flames.  Books and parchments would clutter the tables, while glass jars, crucibles, water-baths, beakers and stills would be found all over the room.

    A rather large number of  laboratory glassware used in modern science/chemistry laboratories were first invented by alchemists.  For example, the water-bath or "bain-marie" was first developed by Jewish alchemist Maria Prophetissa. This double-boiler like instrument was used to dissolve various substances, and since it allowed alchemists to heat substances at a gentle and constant heat, its use was widespread.   Of course, some alchemists went a step further in their mysticism, and believed that the outer boiler represented earthly water while the inner boiler signified heavenly water.  And true purification of substances could only be achieved when both were unified.

  The following image illustrates a typical medieval alchemist's laboratory.  For the curious, there are more images (HERE) from the insides of an alchemy museum in Switzerland.  You can clearly see all the different instruments there.

     Transmutation is the basis of all alchemical work.  It can be defined as being ‘the changing of one thing into another using alchemy’.  Alchemists believe that substances can be transmuted by undergoing various procedures such as heating, mixing with other substances, and distilling. 

     As far as alchemists are concerned, the First Matter (Materia Prima) is the key to all transmutations.  It is the primordial chaos that contains the seed of potential of all things that ever existed, and of all things that will ever exist in the future.  It is the universal soul (Anima Mundi) and the body of nature.  This First Matter is what is referred to in the Emerald Tablet (see lesson 1) and also the answer to that elusive riddle in last month’s extra credit assignment.  And since all possible forms are hidden within the depths of this First Matter, it is the beginning of all things, which in theory means that we can use it to transform one thing into another.

     Because the First Matter was said to be present all around us, alchemists would search for it everywhere.  Some tried to extract it from cisterns and manure heaps, while others found it in the night sweat of the elderly or in the dark soil of distant forests and mountains.  Wherever they found it, the First Matter was a crucial element in all alchemical experiments. 

     By manipulating the 4 elements of nature (fire, water, earth and air) using various steps, alchemists believe that they can change the properties of a given substance, and thus transform it into another.  There are 3 basic steps used in alchemy, they are:

    NIGREDO (blackening)

• This stage includes the burning of the matter until it is destroyed and then dissolving the substance in liquid.  This stage is very dangerous because the heating of substances can lead to poisonous vapours and the heating vessels can explode due to over-heating.  Three steps are included in this phase: calcination, dissolution and separation.

    ALBEDO (whitening)

• This stage includes the washing (and/or distillation) of the products of the first stage.  The products start to purify and it is the slow rebirth of the new matter.  Three steps are also included in this phase: conjunction, fermentation, distillation.

    RUBEDO (reddening)   

• This culminating phase of the process gives the product a red tint and is achieved by heating the substance and producing gold.  Only one step is included: coagulation.

     Long before alchemy came into practice, gold was already the most valuable metal.  It was a symbol of power and wealth and was prized for its beauty.  Gold has many of the most prized physical and chemical properties - it is malleable, it is ductile, It does not tarnish, it is not damaged by heat and it is considered to be imperishable.  Since it was considered to be the most perfect metal, alchemists would try to transmute common, ordinary metals (such a copper, tin, iron, lead) into gold.

    Since Nature always seeks perfection, every other metal was thought to be gold in the making.  Alchemists would test various other metals, and rank them according to how far or close they were to gold.  Based on these findings, they would use various metals, ranging from silver and mercury to lead and copper, and try to transform them into gold particles. 

   Unfortunately, there is no ONE way that all alchemists followed in order to create gold.  In fact, most alchemists never succeeded in creating gold at all!  As a general rule of thumb, they all believed that if they could change the properties of the metal, they could transform the metal itself.   Some of the properties they tried to modify were the lustre (shiny-ness), heaviness, metallic-ness, malleability (bendy-ness), solidness, and colour of the metals.  They would try to change the properties by combining different substances, heating and cooling them, and sometimes even by chanting and dancing around their experiments.  Yes... pretty much anything was tried at least once in the quest to produce the elusive gold!

  Many alchemists felt that mercury was the closest metal to gold.  Those who worked with mercury were the alchemists who more often than not, claimed to have successfully transmuted gold.  They may have been correct, since in the 1960's physicists were able to create gold atoms from mercury atoms.  These metals are next to each other in the periodic table of elements (gold has 79 protons, while mercury has 80).  By knocking out a proton from the nucleus of mercury atoms, these modern physicists were able to create very small quantities of gold, thus proving that creating gold from another metal -IS- possible!

     Zosimos (c. 250-300) is the earliest reliable author on alchemy, and is often referred to as being the founding father of the discipline.  This ancient Greek alchemist lived in Hellenistic Egypt and was a student of Maria Prophetissa, one of the greatest alchemists in recorded history.  Zosimos wrote over 22 alchemical texts over the course of his life, and worked extensively to transmute copper into gold.  Most of his ideas and recipes are said to have come to him in his dreams.  “The soul of copper must be purified until it receives the sheen of gold and turns into the royal metal of the Sun”, he wrote.  He believed that by mixing copper with seeds of gold, the gold would ‘eat’ the copper until only a bigger source of gold was left behind.