Ancient Alchemy

The name Alchemy most likely derives from the Arabic al-kimia or the Egyptian chem or khem meaning the stars 7 In Greek, the root Chymia means to fuse or cast a metal. The most literal meaning in modem idiom is perhaps God s mineralogy, metallurgy and chemistry. 

Alchemy is the art of preparing the Philosophers Stone from gold. The chemical symbol of gold is the same as that of God . The professed uses of the Philosopher s Stone were to extend life and to convert base metals to gold. Both objectives remain controversial. 

Make gold potable, and you will have the universal medicine. There are two traditional ways of preparing the Philosophers Stone, the wet way and the dry way. The dry way takes only eight days using double philosophic mercury. Nicholas to Flamel says the practice begins as follows 

Take thou in the first place the eldest or first-born child of Saturn, not the vulgar, 9 parts of the sabre chalibs of the God of War [iron], 4 parts. Put this latter into a crucible, and when it comes to a melting redness, cast therein the 9 parts of Saturn, and immediately this will redden the other. Cleanse thou carefully the filth that arises on the surface of the saturnia, with saltpetre and tartar, four or five times. The operation will be rightly done when thou seest upon the matter an astral sign like a star [the Star RegulusJ. 

The ancient Egyptians reputedly used the dry method and called it the Saturn Regime 7 The black powder of Khemeia, derived from the chemistry of the stars, acted on kmt, or the black soil of Egypt/ To the priests of Egypt, Khemeia was the body of Osiris in the underworld and said to have marvelous powers/  

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Irwin, Keith Gordon. The romance of chemistry, from ancient alchemy to nuclear fission. Illustrated by Anthony Ravielli. New York Viking P, 1959. 148p. 

Jaffe, Bernard. Crucibles the story of chemistry from ancient alchemy to nuclear fission. Rev. ed. ed. New York Simon and Schuster, 1948. xii, 480 p. 

Superb full-color photography of original equipment, intricate scientific instruments, 3-D models, and revealing experiments offers a unique of the discoveries that have changed our way of life, from ancient alchemy to modern technology... 

In 1669 a German physician, Hennig Brand (1630—1692), a proponent of ancient alchemy, attempted to extract gold from urine. He collected a bucketful of urine that he allowed to evaporate. He soon expanded his experiment to 60 buckets of urine placed all around the laboratory until they evaporated. He then proceeded to boil down the urine, filter it, and... 

Jaffe, B. Crucibles The Story of Chemistry, From Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission. New York Dover, 1976. 

This work so well illustrates the twofold basis of the ancient alchemy, the Egyptian practical art, with the mystical obscurity of the secret cult, that it will be worth while to quote it in part. 

The Development of Modern Chemistry (1964), and Bernard Jaffe s Crucibles The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission (1976). There are paperback versions of all of these books. A newer work that includes the advances in chemistry of the past 30 years is Trevor Levere s Transforming Matter A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buekyball (2001). 

A Century of Chemistry, the Role of Chemists and the American Chemical Society, Kenneth M. Reese, ed. (American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. 1976). Bernard Jaffe, Crucibles The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission, 4th ed. (Dover, New York, 1976), p. 58. This same person, Jean-Francois... 

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