The Meaning of Alchemy

If we are ever to understand the meaning of Alchemy aright we must look at the subject from the alchemistic point of view. In modem times there has come about a divorce between Religion and Science in men s minds (though more recently a unifying... 

The Secret Stream Collects All of Steiner s Discussions of Rosicrucianism, Which Answer Questions Such As Who Were the Rosicrucians What Is Alchemy What Is the Rosicrucian Path What Is the Difference Between Rosicrucianism and Mysticism And What Does It Mean for Today Topics Include the Tao and the Rose Cross The History and Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz The Nature of Rosicrucian Practice and Experience The Meaning of The Chymical Wedding and Goethe s Rosicrucian Poem "The Mysteries," the Text of Which Is Included. Rosicrucian Meditation Is Also Discussed, Including How to Meditate on the Rose Cross Itself. 

Contents The Meaning of Individuation.--A Study in the Process of Individuation.--Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious —Dream Symbols of the Process of Individuation.—The Idea of Redemption in Alchemy —The Development of the Personality. Two of the Essays Expanded Into Psychology and Alchemy... 

However, the reviewer viewed most alchemy as sure fraud, and argued that theories in chemistry stand or fall by facts. The ancient alchemists certainly never proved their theories. Have the modern alchemists done any better (375), and went on to note that There is really no evidence that modern science is permeated by the spirit of alchemy, and, therefore, strictly speaking, there is no meaning in the phrase... 

He goes on to explain that the practical experimentalist will come to learn the meaning of the stages of alchemy, but if the process does not work Retrace your steps, learn the theory more perfectly, and enquire more accurately into the method of operation (19). 

Ambivalence, as we use this term in everyday speech, has no place in modern science. Even premodern science seems troubled by ambivalence. For if gold can be transmuted from base metals, this must mean that it can be transmuted back into base metals. The Renaissance philosopher-critic Benedetto Varchi cites Aristotle on the generation of species as an argument against the truth of alchemy " ... 

The definition goes on to explain magic as, the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces. 1 This would seem to fit most people s idea of magic, but this definition contains the disclaimer believed. This brings up the second essential problem. Modern science views magic as a superstition. This is in spite of the fact that magic, especially in the form of alchemy, is the ancestor of science and an accepted part of ancient Western culture. Also, many people in the West today and in other parts of the world continue to believe in and practice magic. 

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