Unity of matter

Alchemical thinking helped lead the Society to interpret the implications of modem atomic theory in a way that emphasized the unity of matter (and even of energy) that saw oneness, rather than disunity and distinctness, as a major substratum of atomic theory and that pushed to spiritualize this principle. This grasping for ever simpler and more basic unity is, of course, not so uncommon an impulse in twentieth-century physics. (Consider unified field theories, and even the Theory of Everything in more recent physics.) Alchemy allowed the scientists and Hermeticists of the Alchemical Society to re-enchant science by positing the origins of the modem scientific push for unity in ancient Hermetic spirituality. 

Anaximander appears to have accepted the same fundamental concept of the essential unity of matter, and of its eternal existence, as did Thales, but differs from his elder townsman in his views as to what that simple primal matter may be. Instead of water, he assumes a qualitatively undetermined primal matter, the apeiron. The apeiron is eternal and unlimited in extension. It is not any of the known elements it is possessed of eternal motion, in consequence of which worlds are developed from it in space. As this world has so originated from the apeiron, so in time it will again be absorbed into it. There is something suggestive here of the akasa or ether of certain ancient Hindu concepts.9... 

Empedocles of Agrigentum in Sicily (ca 490-430) is credited with the first announcement of the concept of the four elements, earth, air, water and fire, as by their combinations forming all other substances in the universe. Empedocles, like the Ionian thinkers, assumes that matter is eternal and indestructible, but abandons the idea of the unity of matter—the materia prima—he assumes for the elements the attributes of immortality and therefore that each of the four is through all changes unchangeable in quantity. All other substances may perish, but they are merely resolved into their constituent elements. The different properties of all substances which we perceive by our senses are dependent on the different proportions in which these elements are combined. As to the causes which produce these combinations and separations, Empedocles assumes specific attractions or repulsions which he typifies as love and hate. It does not appear that he considers these forces as intrinsic properties of the elements, but rather as eternal forces acting upon them. 

CHAOS. — Symbol of the Unity of Matter and sometimes of the black colour of putrefaction. 

The periodic law affords no more indication of the unity of matter or of the compound character of our elements than the law of Avagadro. (Mendeleev, 1905, vol. 2, p. 498)... 

Symbol oF unity oF Matter, and sometimes ihe color black (Firsl slage oF The Work), and pulreFaclion. 

Unity of Matter, that postulate from the earliest days of the Hermetic ists of former times, and which has been mocked so much over time, is now being proved a fortiori by modern nuclear physics Chemistry as well, in discovering materials and products hitherto completely unknown, is showing us that the ancient adage is right when it states ... 

Symbol of unity of Matter, and sometimes the color black (first stage of The Work), and putrefaction. 

There is a unity of matter from H2 to the DNA molecule, and chemists have achieved this amazing feat in the 300-350 years of chemistry. In this context, chemistry is a central pillar of human culture. Why not learn about this culture ... 

The discoveries discussed in this chapter effectively revived Prout s hypothesis as well as the related notion of the unity of matter, two philosophical ideas discussed in chapter 2. The other main theoretical notion discussed in chapter 2, that of triads, also received a form of rehabihtation. The discovery of triads had given the very first hint that groups of three elements were related to each other. These relationships were not just in chemical similarities but were ako numerical, in that the atomic weight of one of the three elements in a triad was shown to be approximately the arithmetic mean of the weights of the other two. 

As discussed in chapter 4, the Russian chemist Mendeleev held a similar view of the existence of distinct elements, whereas his leading competitor, Julius Lothar Meyer, believed in the essential unity of matter. 

Figure 2.1 Alchemical symbolism from a manuscript from St Mark s in Venice. This manuscript was transcribed in the tenth century from an earlier source, and is entitled The goldmaking of Cleopatra. The original author is believed to have written soon after the beginning of the Christian era, and is not to be confused with the famous Queen Cleopatra. The symbol at the bottom left is an Ouroboros, and at the bottom right is a distillation apparatus. Immediately above the Ouroboros are other representations of apparatus, and the circular design at the top left represents the unity of matter, and encloses the old symbols for mercury, silver and gold. The symbols at the top right may represent the transmutation of a base metal into a noble one...

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