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Alchemical Traditions: From Antiquity to the Avant-Garde
2013
Spanning the world’s artistic, scientific and religious traditions, alchemy has embraced and continues to embrace the complete spectrum of existence. From metallurgy to metaphysics, alchemy engages the technical, fine and hieratic arts in order to provide a living phenomenology of the one, single, elusive process that acts through all things. Ultimately—in its guise as « ars transmutationis »—alchemy penetrates to the heart of the transfiguring spiritual intensity that underpins the perfection of life, from mineral to human. Despite this profoundly all-embracing purview, however, alchemy continues to be conceived as either proto-chemistry or proto-psychology. The present volume seeks to redress this false dichotomy by exploring alchemy as a quintessentially integral phenomenon. Opening wide the full spectrum of alchemy—from east to west, in history and practice, from antiquity to the avant garde—our aim is to penetrate as deeply as possible, within the limits of a single volume, into the rich practical and experiential traditions of the alchemical mysterium. Featuring both well-established scholars and emerging, cutting-edge researchers, this book synthesises a quintessentially high caliber of academic authorities on the vast and baroque heritage of the alchemical world. As a whole, the volume seeks to strike the perfect balance—the golden mean—between strict, historical objectivity and empathic, phenomenological insight. Drawn from international ranks (Europe, the Antipodes, the Americas) and cutting across disciplinary boundaries (Egyptology, Classics, Sinology, Indology, Tibetology, philosophy, religious studies, Renaissance studies, history of science, art history, critical theory, media studies), the contributors to this volume include some of the most gifted investigators into the world’s esoteric lineages." Featuring Aaron CHEAK ∙ Algis UŽDAVINYS ∙ Rodney BLACKHIRST ∙ David Gordon WHITE ∙ Kim LAI ∙ Sabrina DALLA VALLE ∙ Christopher A. PLAISANCE ∙ Hereward TILTON ∙ Angela VOSS ∙ Paul SCARPARI ∙ Leon MARVELL ∙ Mirco MANNUCCI ∙ Dan MELLAMPHY Egyptian alchemy ∙ Greek alchemy ∙ Hellenistic alchemy ∙ Taoist alchemy ∙ Hindu Tantric alchemy ∙ Tibetan Buddhist alchemy ∙ Islamicate alchemy ∙ European alchemy ∙ Surrealist alchemy ∙ Erotic alchemy ∙ Laboratory alchemy ∙ Alchemy of the word ∙ Alchemy of the body ∙ Alchemy of the spirit ∙ and more. CONTENTS Acknowledgements Peer Reviewers List of Illustrations PART I—CORNERSTONES: Ancient Alchemies, East and West Introduction to Part One: Circumambulating the Alchemical Mysterium —Aaron Cheak 1. The Perfect Black: Egypt and Alchemy —Aaron Cheak 2. Telestic Transformation and Philosophical Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism —Algis Uždavinys 3. Metallurgy and Demiurgy: The Roots of Greek Alchemy in the Mythology of Hephaestos (Discussions) —Rod Blackhirst 4. Taking from Water to Fill in Fire: The History and Dynamics of Taoist Alchemy —Aaron Cheak 5. Mercury and Immortality: The Hindu Alchemical Tradition —David Gordon White 6. Iatrochemistry, Metaphysiology, Gnōsis: Tibetan Alchemy in the Kālacakra Tantra —Kim Lai PART II: TRANSFORMATIONS: Alchemies of the Spirit, Body and Word Introduction to Part Two: Interzone: On the Origins and Nature of European Alchemy —Aaron Cheak 7. The Alchemical Khiasmos: Counter-Stretched Harmony and Divine Self-Perception —Aaron Cheak & Sabrina Dalla Valle 8. Altus’ Ominous Aphorism: Reading as Alchemical Process —Mirco Mannucci 9. Turris Philosophorum: On the Alchemical Iconography of the Tower —Christopher A. Plaisance 10. Of Ether, Entheogens and Colloidal Gold: Heinrich Khunrath and the Making of a Philosophers’ Stone —Hereward Tilton 11. Becoming an Angel: The Mundus Imaginalis of Henry Corbin and the Platonic Path of Self-Knowledge —Angela Voss 12. The Kiss of Death: Amor, Corpus Resurrectionis and the Alchemical Transfiguration of Eros —Paul Scarpari 13. Agent of All Mutations: Metallurgical, Biological and Spiritual Evolution in the Alchemy of René Schwaller de Lubicz —Aaron Cheak 14. Take Two Emerald Tablets in the Morning: Surrealism and the Alchemical Transubstantiation of the World —Leon Marvell 15. Incredible Lunatic of the Future: The Alchemical Horticulture of Alan Chadwick —Rod Blackhirst 16. Alchemical Endgame: ‘Checkmate’ in Beckett and Eliot —Dan Mellamphy End matter: Abbreviations Bibliography Author Biographies
Alchemy in the Ancient World: From Science to Magic
Illinois Classical Studies, 1990
"Alchemy" is the anglicised Byzantine name given to what its practitioners referred to as "the Art" (τἐχνη) or "Knowledge" (ἐπιστήμη), often characterised as divine (θεία), sacred (ἱερά) or mystic (μυστική). While this "techne" underwent many changes in the course of its life of over two thousand years (and there are traces of it even in modern times, as I will discuss), a recognisable common denominator in all the writings is the search for a method of transforming base metals (copper, iron, lead, tin) into noble (electrum, gold or silver). There is unfortunately no modern critical edition of any of these writings (the extant editions being old or uncritical or both), though the Budé has begun the process. In this essay I sketch the background and origins of the ancient alchemy, as well as its later transmutation into a mystical art of personal transformation. Finally I turn to the modern period and briefly examine the influence of this mystical tradition in our own world-picture.
Alchemy was never taught at any medieval or early modern university, yet there is evidence of interest in the art among students and professors throughout Europe. Studies of academic alchemy have generally focused on the interests of individuals rather than examining communities of university alchemists. At the turn of the fifteenth century, the University of Cracow hosted a larger community of practitioners than previously acknowledged. This article presents a discussion, edition, and translation of a text that came out of that community: the Fundamentum scienciae nobilissimae secretorum naturae, written by Adam of Bochyń in 1489 while a student at the University of Cracow. In Adam's day, the university was experiencing an exceptionally vibrant moment in the sciences, particularly astronomy. Editing Adam's text will lay the groundwork for further studies of Cracow's alchemical community, studies that will change our understanding of the university's scientific flourishing as well as of the geography of central European alchemy, which has been dominated in the scholarship by Rudolf II's Prague.