Alchemical Work Research Articles

Cruel Substances

In the paper, I examine the concept of “cruelty” (kaṭumai) of physical substances in the Tamil siddha alchemical literature, by taking as the starting point an analysis of the selected texts ascribed to Siddhar Yākōpu alias Rāmatēvar (ca. 17th–18th c.), a prominent author of the Tamil siddha alchemical tradition. The alchemical works of Yākōpu repeatedly describe certain alchemical operations, the names of which allude to acts of violence, such as “binding” (kaṭṭutal) and “killing” (kollutal). Such operations, according to the texts, should be mastered and performed by alchemists on various material substances. In the paper, I analyze passages that shed light on the purpose and character of such operations in the alchemical tradition of the Siddhars. I also address the issue of the non-human material agency related to the perspective of material ecocriticism as presented in the Tamil siddha texts.

Configurational Sampling of All-Atom Solvated Membranes Using Hybrid Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics Monte Carlo Simulations.

All-atom simulations are a powerful approach to study the structure and dynamics of biological membranes. However, sampling the atomic configurations of inhomogeneous membranes can be challenging due to the slow lateral diffusion of the various constituents. To address this issue, a hybrid nonequilibrium molecular dynamics Monte Carlo (neMD/MC) simulation method is proposed in which randomly chosen lipid molecules are swapped to generate configurations that are subsequently accepted or rejected according to a Metropolis criterion based on the alchemical work for the attempted swap calculated via a short trajectory. A dual-topology framework constraining the common atoms of the exchanging molecules yields a good acceptance probability using switching trajectories as short as 10 ps. The performance of the hybrid neMD/MC algorithm and its ability to sample the distribution of lipids near a transmembrane helix carrying a net charge are illustrated for a binary mixture of charged and zwitterionic lipids.

TRES CAMINOS Y TRES ETAPAS

The purpose of this paper is to study the parallels between the three paths of Christian mystical experience, namely purgation, illumination and union, with the three stages of the alchemical work: nigredo, albedo and rubedo. Thus we resort to the notion of archetype within the tradition of Jungian scholars and, in relation to Christian mysticism, to the scholars of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, which necessarily implies a deepening of the sources that directly or indirectly influenced his conception of spiritual exercises. We conclude that there is a direct relationship that is not about the influence of one current over another, but both share the same cultural environment that leads to this evident proximity between the three paths and the three stages: to purge, is equivalent to the nigredo; to enlighten, to the albedo, and to unite to the rubedo, as a rule symbolized by the "sacred marriage" between the king and the queen.

Chaucer the Mage: A Brief Exploration of Magic in the Squire’s Tale, the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, and the Franklin’s Tale

ABSTRACT For a writer so disparaging about magic, Chaucer’s understanding of occult practice seems to have been considerable. In the Squire’s Tale, magic objects drive the (truncated) plot. For the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, Chaucer consulted alchemical works to construct his story. And in the Franklin’s Tale, Chaucer’s vivid depictions of illusions reflect his broad knowledge of magical practice. These tales include learned references to alchemy, astral prayer, astrology (regarded, to some extent, as a science in Chaucer’s day), automata, and clerical magic, as are explored here.

Making gems in Indian Alchemical Literature

This article examines the practice of producing factitious gems as described in Nityanātha’s Jewel Mine of Mercury (Rasaratnākara), a thirteenth to fifteenth-century alchemical work written in Sanskrit. It queries how this practice fits within the Indian alchemical discipline and explores its possible connections with other artisinal crafts.

The Quest for the Philosophers’ Stone: Alois von Sonnenfels’ ‘אור נגה—Splendor Lucis’, Vienna 1745

Abstract This article examines אור נגה—Splendor Lucis, oder Glantz des Lichts, a bilingual German-Hebrew alchemical work written in 1745 by Alois von Sonnenfels (1705–1768), a scholar and translator at the Austrian imperial court, who converted from Judaism to Catholicism in 1735. Splendor Lucis embodies a quest for ‘vera philosophia’, a true and pure knowledge, which its author seeks via the practical alchemical pursuit of discovering how to transmute base substances into gold using the legendary ‘Philosophers’ Stone’. Ultimately, Sonnenfels locates the secret to divine wisdom in the biblical figure of Job, and concludes that ‘vera philosophia’ is with God alone and cannot be grasped by humankind. This article analyses how Sonnenfels’ unique eighteenth-century text combines Jewish and Christian concepts with alchemical, kabbalistic, and literary symbols. Christian alchemists and Christian Hebraists often tried to prove that Christianity was the anticipated Messianic fulfilment of Judaism. By contrast, Sonnenfels presents a veiled discourse which carefully makes the case for the validity of Jewish texts and thus also for Judaism—under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church.

A Stress Test for the HPTD-M Transdisciplinarity through Alchemical Psychology

Many authors tend to think of Alchemy, especially the European Alchemical Tradition that remained until the 17th century, as a predecessor to modern chemistry, but it is much more. Alchemy arose in a context where there was no separation between the natural sciences, philosophy, psychology, and cultural traditions. In this context of the 17th-century European Alchemical Tradition, the Modern Western Culture emerges, based on the 18th-century technoscience development, as per the Enlightenment or “Age of Reason”, Newton’s classic physics, and Descartes mechanism. Nowadays human sciences tend to replicate mechanical patterns of hard sciences. The human conscience is not inherent to biological systems, and human processes can´t be well predicted like mechanisms. This is the basis of the Holopraxis Transdisciplinary Management (HPTD‑M) theory and praxis. So, the aim of this paper, in this connection, is to show the universality of the HPTD-M models, when stress-tested through the Alchemical Tradition, especially considering Hillman´s view in Alchemical Psychology. Tradition, philosophy, art, and technoscience are the four epistemic ways according to HPTD-M, the four main disciplines in a transdisciplinary approach. The alchemical work or opus can be divided into four parts, which relate to earth, water, air, and fire. Edinger describes these main alchemical operations, among others that we will detail below based on this author: Coagulatio, Solutio, Sublimatio, and Calcinatio. Coagulation" has to do with solids, "solution" with liquids, "sublimation" with gases, and "calcination" with fire. Also in the alchemical tradition there are four stages of the opus alchemica, which is the alchemical process of transmuting cheaper metals into more precious ones. It had four stages: nigredo (black), albedo (white/silver), citrinitas (yellow), and rubbed (red/gold). Naturally, the alchemical process was more than chemical or physical. Besides that four-element framework, Alchemy has also many dualities or complementarities involved. This author has created an alchemical model of quaternary complementarities to be compared to the already existing HPTD-M Model. The Alchemical Tradition corroborates the HPTD-M framework, through the result of this stress test represented by the analytic and synthetic models for Alchemical Tradition (Table 1 and Figure 3, respectively), in the same quaternary complementarities pattern, which suggests the universality of HPTD-M as a theory and praxis.

Metals as Living Bodies. Founts of Mercury, Amalgams, and Chrysocolla

Ancient and medieval alchemical works include several comparisons between the generation and development of metals and those of plants, animals, and living beings. These comparisons could refer to adopt physiological models in the explanation of the natural formation of metals and their artificial transformation, to justify the place occupied by alchemy within the broader study of the natural world, and to stand as metaphorical descriptions of specific alchemical procedures. This article analyses these features by focusing on the relationship between mercury and gold, the latter being the “perfect” metal that constituted both an ambitious goal of alchemical practice and one of its key ingredients. The interrelationship between gold and mercury emerges in complex myths about metallic rivers, in the use of gold-mercury amalgams in ancient technology, and in the discussion that alchemists developed around the enigmatic chrysocolla (literally “gold solder”). These three foci are discussed in relation to a variety of ancient sources – from Aristotle and the Stoics to late antique, Byzantine, and Syriac alchemical texts – to explore the different forms of conceptualising metals as living bodies and the interactions of these models with ancient theories on the formation of metals and the alchemical practices aimed at their transformation.

Introducing Greek Alchemy to Christianity

One of the most noticeable features distinguishing Byzantine works on alchemy from the earlier Greco-Egyptian alchemical tradition is the widespread presence of Christian prayers and direct references to specifically Christian ideas and beliefs. By focusing on Stephanus’s Lessons (7th cent.), the first alchemical work including extensive references to Christianity, the paper will explore how alchemy was Christianised in the early Byzantine period. The first part of this study will analyse the strategies adopted by the author of the Lessons to frame alchemy as a Christianised discipline aiming at discovering the divine principle hidden in the natural world. In the second part, the limitations of this process of Christianisation of alchemy will be pointed out by examining if and to what extent specifically Christian ideas were included in Stephanus’ treatment of alchemy and its operations, and if the introduction of a Christianised framework into an alchemical work entailed the exclusion of previous non-Christian alchemical ideas. The results of this twofold analysis will show the complexity and inextricable tensions of the process of Christianisation undergone by the alchemical discipline when it started to be practiced in the socio-cultural context of the Byzantine world.

The Four Signs of the Art: Edition and Translation of an Alchemical Epistle Attributed to Ḫālid b. Yazīd and its Latin Translation

Abstract In the article, the authors present a study, a critical edition and an English translation of an Arabic alchemical epistle attributed to the Umayyad prince Ḫālid b. Yazīd, together with its Latin translation recently identified by the authors. Among the many alchemical works attributed to Ḫālid b. Yazīd, this untitled Risāla (inc.: ‮إني رأيت الناس طلبوا صنعة الحكمة‬‎) is the second most represented in the manuscript tradition, with no less than twelve witnesses containing it. Its partial Latin translation, available in six manuscripts, was also attributed to Calid, but the name of the translator remains unknown.

Spiritual and Material Conversion in the Alchemical Work of Zosimus of Panopolis

Zosimus of Panopolis was a Graeco-Egyptian alchemist of the 3rd century whose alchemy was imbued with both technical and Gnostic elements. In this way, the notion of conversion is met in the corpus of Zosimus in both its material and spiritual aspects. The aim of this paper is to present these two kinds of conversion by having a special focus on the role of the spirit (pneuma) in their procedures. Hence, in the first part of the study I present how pneuma is involved in the conversion of metals, while in the second I deal with the spiritual–Gnostic aspects of his alchemy, which pertain to the notion of the “divine spark.” In the last part of the study, I examine the relation between pneuma and divine water in the work of Zosimus, which serves in turn as an exegetical tool for the Coptic-Gnostic source which is found in the Gospel According to Philip (61, 12b–20a).

Alchemical dragons: Winnicott's reaching towards the objective psyche.

This paper was presented to the inaugural joint conference of The Society of Analytical Psychology and the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy in the autumn of 2020. It develops the author's interest (2011, 2015, 2016) in Winnicott's engagement with Jung by looking at the imagery of Michael Maier's alchemical work of 1617, Atalanta Fugiens, through the lens of Matte Blanco's bi-logic.

Le De anima alchimique du pseudo­-Avicenne by Sébastien Moureau

Adapted and expanded from Moureau’s doctoral thesis defended in 2010 at the Université Catholique de Louvain, this monograph extends over two substantial volumes for a total of more than 1,400 pages thoroughly annotated in more than 3,500 footnotes. Numbers apart, Moureau’s praiseworthy effort aims to contribute to the study of the alchemical works of pseudoAvicenna by presenting the first critical edition of an extensive, very complex, and deeply influential treatise, the De anima, and its first annotated French translation. Moureau’s book rigorously achieves this and offers much more. Reviewed by: Gabriele Ferrario, Published Online (2021-08-31)Copyright © 2021 by Gabriele FerrarioThis open access publication is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND) Article PDF Link: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/aestimatio/article/view/37733/28734 Corresponding Author: Gabriele Ferrario,University of BolognaE-Mail: gabriele.ferrario@unibo.it

The alchemical work of Khālid b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya (d. c. 85/704)

Abstract This article provides a study and a descriptive list of alchemical works attributed to Prince Khālid b. Yazīd b. Muʿāwiya, both in prose and poetry, which are found in Arabic manuscripts. This list is compared to medieval biographers’ accounts. A first appendix describes all the manuscripts containing works of Khālid that have been identified so far. A second appendix provides a catalogue of the first verses of all alchemical poems attributed to Khālid, as well as the manuscripts that transmit them.

Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"

Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"

“Fratris Basilii Valentini Benedicter Ordens V Letzte Bücher, welche sindt sein letztes Testament” – A hitherto unnoticed manuscript from the Leipzig University Library

At the Leipzig University Library a manuscript is stored with the title “Fratris Basilii Valentini Benedicter Ordens V Letzte Bucher, welche sindt sein letztes Testament” (“The Five Last Books by Brother Basilius Valentinus of the Order of St. Benedict which are his Last Will”), which was until now not noticed by the historiography of chemistry in the discussion about the authorship of the alchemical works of the Benedictine monk Basilius Valentinus. The first edition of the “Last Will” of Basilius Valentinus, printed in 1626 in Jena, included only two parts, although there were five parts announced in the preface. A new expanded edition was published in 1645 in Strasbourg containing the announced five parts. The Leipzig manuscript bears two owner’s marks dating from 1612 and 1620, which prove that this manuscript was written before the first print. In comparing these owner’s marks with the biographical data of the first editor of Basilius Valentinus’ works, Johann Tholde, and the supporter of these works, Joachim Tancke, it is possible, for the first time, to assume an influence of both people on the last published work of the Basilius Valentinus Alchemica Corpus based on historical evidence. In the manuscript written in 1612 or earlier the first three parts of the “Last Will” were already completed, but were not printed until the 1645 edition with two new chapters of unknown origin.

The Two Alchemists in Harry Potter: Voldemort, Harry, and Their Quests for Immortality

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series contains numerous references to alchemy. On a symbolic level, both Harry Potter and his archenemy Voldemort can be read as rival alchemists, one pursuing alchemy as a spiritual discipline and the other engaged in a purely material quest for physical immortality. Voldemort’s eventual defeat can be interpreted in light of his flawed understanding of the moral and spiritual side of the alchemical work.

O "Livro vermelho": a escolha de Jung em produzir sua obra alquímica como livro

Uma das vias para a compreensão do "Livro vermelho" é relacioná-lo ao processo da opus (obra) alquímica ou opus magna, o trabalho dos alquimistas para a obtenção da pedra filosofal. Carl Gustav Jung usa esse processo na formação do "Livro vermelho", fato que ele mesmo foi compreender somente a posteriori. Lembrando que seu primeiro contato com textos alquímicos se deu em 1910 e que as atividades em relação ao "Livro vermelho" ganharam força entre 1913 e 1930, podemos entender que esta publicação e a alquimia têm uma relação causal. A percepção de que a psique segue os mesmos passos dos símbolos alquímicos no processo da individuação influenciou a psicologia analítica de maneira determinante. Nas etapas de elaboração da obra alquímica é revelada uma sequência de símbolos alquímicos que compõem o processo. O presente trabalho pretende demonstrar que o "Livro vermelho" segue uma conduta alquímica e que é nesta obra que Jung encontra o seu caminho pessoal rumo à individuação.

The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: John Dee, Willem Silvius, and the Diagrammatic Alchemy of the Monas Hieroglyphica

John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica (1564) was a work which involved a close collaboration between its author and his “singular friend” the Antwerp printer Willem Silvius, in whose house Dee was living whilst he composed the work and saw it through the press. This article considers the reasons why Dee chose to collaborate with Silvius, and the importance of the intellectual culture – and the print trade – of the Low Countries to the development of Dee’s outlook. Dee’s Monas was probably the first alchemical work which focused exclusively on the diagrammatic representation of the alchemical process, combining diagrams, cosmological schemes, and various forms of tabular grid. It is argued that in the Monas the boundaries between typography and alchemy are blurred as the diagrams “anatomising” his hieroglyphic sign (the “Monad”) are seen as revealing truths about alchemical substances and processes.

Teleological and Aesthetic Perfection in the Aurora Consurgens

This paper examines the concept of perfection in relation to the celestial magic described within the alchemical work Aurora Consurgens. This fifteenthcentury illuminated manuscript has been erroneously attributed to Thomas Aquinas and was popularised by Carl Gustav Jung. It contains an entire section on ‘astronomy’, which is one of the keys to wisdom and perfection. Perfection, a multifaceted concept, proves useful in elucidating further philosophical understanding of the various traditions within Western esotericism. By identifying interpretations of this concept within Aurora Consurgens, I hope to demonstrate how this approach can aid in the understanding of both Aurora Consurgens and of alchemy and its relationship to celestial magic in general. This will then provide an opening to identifying concepts that are common to all Western esoteric traditions.