Language ALCHEM

Jones, T.H. Alchemical language of Paul Claudel s L annonce faite a Marie. Symposium 27, no. 1 (Spring 1973) 33-45. 

Giordano, Michael J. Reverse transformation Beroalde de Verville s parody of Paracelsus in LeMoyen de parvenir an alchemical language of skepticism in the French Baroque. Renaissance Q 56, no. 1 (Spring 2003) 88-137. 

Giordano, Michael. Reverse Transmutations Bdroalde de Verville s Parody of Paracelsus in Le Moyen de parvenir. An Alchemical Language of Skepticism in the French Baroque. Renaissance Quarterly 56 (2003) 88—137. 

If alchemists could speak of their own processes and materials as those authors spoke whom I have quoted, we must expect that the alchemical language would appear mere jargon to the uninitiated. In Ben Jonson s play The Alchemist, Surley, who is the sceptic of the piece, says to Subtle, who is the alchemist—... 

Agastyar was said to have understood the secret of language, in that he knew that a form and its name are somehow insolubly linked (a link denied by Western philosophy). Alchemical language is therefore a vital component of the work as much as the laboratory operations and physical disciplines. The language of an alchemical poem literally creates the world, or conditions, necessary for the work to take place. The alchemist, therefore, lives in a world of poetic possibility in which the ability of things to transform is only limited by his or her imagination and vocabulary. 

One problem with attempting to include too much detail is that there are limits to what can easily be expressed in the ALCHEM language, as discussed below. 

Aristeus Pater. "The words of Father Aristeus to his Son, done out of the Schythian character of language into Latin rhyme." In Alchemical poetry 1575-1700, ed. Robert M. Schuler, 472-476., 1995. 

Translated t-p. on page [2] reads "Rabbi Abraham Eleazar. A very ancient alchemical work, which was formerly written by the author, partly in Latin and Arabian, partly in Chaldee and the Syriac language and written afterwards by one who remains anonymous, translated in our German mother tongue, and with all the necessary copper plates, figures, vessels and ovens belonging... 

Karpenko, Vladimir. The oldest alchemical manuscript in the Czech language. Ambix 37, no. 2 (Jul 1990) 61-73. 

The Book of Alchemy teaches its readers how to penetrate the obscure symbolic language of the alchemists. . . understand how alchemical transformation can initiate a profound change of consciousness, claimed by practitioners to bring eventual union with the Divine. . . practice traditional meditations and exercises. . . prepare herbal alchemical elixirs to benefit the body. . . and discover how the alchemists search for purity can become a twenty-first- century model for spiritual development"... 

This is a chart showing the history of alchemical publication in all languages. Note the three main peaks the first in 1560-70 - the second 1610-1620 during the Rosicrucian period - and the third 1650-1685. There is a gradual dimishing in the number of alchemy books published through the 18th century with a small increase in publications around 1785... 

Attempts to distinguish between different methods of alchemical transmutation, to classify them, and to describe them in the language of modem chemistry... 

His name has become a synonym for clairvoyance Nostradamus, astrologer to the king of France, the most famous seer in Western history. But the real meaning of his prophecies has gone undetected, hidden in a secret alchemical code. Known as the Green Language, it was understood by only a handful of medieval occult scholars, and has been lost for centuries — until now... 

The universe in Paradise Lost was constructed by one deeply familiar not only with Biblical but also with alchemical thought. Milton s account of creation in PL 7 uses alchemical imagery as well as geometrical and agricultural. It is clear that such language is not used as mere decoration alchemical theory is central to the poet s view of cosmic, physiological and moral processes, and permeates his language and vision... 

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