ALCHEMY--PART I
What a weird yet strangely pleasing name the term Alchemy is.It is simple, yet so infilled and intermixed with the possible verities of exact science and the philosophical speculations on the infinite and the unknown, as to elude our mental grasp, as it were, by its own subtle essence, and defy the keenest analysis of our profoundest generalizers in science.And yet, in spite of this self-evident truth, how fascinating the sound of the word becomes to the mystic student's ear, and bow pregnant with awful and mysterious possibilities it becomes, to the immortal powers embodied within the complex human organism termed man.
Words, if we but knew it, have the same innate, magnetic influence, and possess the same power of affinity and antipathy, that the human family possesses; as well as all organic and inorganic forms and substances; and how sad, to a developed soul, to witness the inharmony existing in our midst, caused by the misapplication of names.
Most human beings are very conscious of personal, or human magnetism, and its effects.But they stop right there, and do not dream of the subtle, silent influences emanating from a name, a word, and the power existing in words, when properly used.The human mind is so absorbed in Nature's manifestations, which are only the husks, that they fail to see the true, hidden meaning and realities, concealed beneath the material shell.
We will first notice the meaning of the words which constitute our subject, viz., Alchemy, then give a brief review of its physical correspondence, chemistry, and its true relation to its spiritual counterpart, Alchemy.
"Al" and "Chemy" are Arabic-Egyptian words which have much more in them than appears upon the surface, and possess a far different meaning from the one which the terms usually convey to the average mind.Terms, and the ideas we associate with them, vary according to the age in which we live.So with those, from which the word Alchemy is derived.
Let us penetrate beneath the mere verbal husk with which linguistic usage and convenience have clothed them, and which, in the course of ages, has become nothing but the dross of decomposed verbiage, and see if we can excavate the living germ, that has become buried within.If we can do so, we shall, at the commencement of our study, have attained unto a realization of the ancient meaning and real significance of the terms employed.And this will be no small gain, and will form no unimportant part of the equipment in our present research.
The Arabians, who derived the whole of their Occult arcana from the Egyptians, are the most likely to render us the most truthful and direct significance of the word, and so we find them.Thus, "Al," meaning "the," and Kimia," which means the hidden, or secret, ergo THE OCCULT, from which are derived our modern term Alchemy, more properly Al Kimia.This is very different from the popular conception to-day, which supposes that the word relates to the art of artificially making gold by some chemical process, and viewing it only as some sort of magical chemistry, forgetting that, the science of chemistry itself is also derived from the Kimia of Arabian mystics, and was considered as one and the same thing by every writer of the Middle Ages.
At this time, the physical man was not so dense and grasping for husks; hence the soul and spiritual part had greater control, and could impart the real, the alchemical side, of Nature to him; hence the Law of Correspondences was understood, and guided the educated in their considerations, researches, and conclusions.
Do you ask why, if they were so enlightened, they have veiled their knowledge from the world at large?
The power of mind over matter was as potent in those days as now, and the masses were as correspondingly corrupt as they are today.Therefore, to put this knowledge into the hands of the multitude would have been generally disastrous.So they wrote it in mystical language, knowing that all educated students in Nature's laws, at that time, would understand; yet they little dreamed how much their language would be misunderstood in the centuries to follow, by those who look to their ancient ancestry for aid on subjects that have become at the present day solost in mystery.
Having ascertained, beyond question, that Alchemy was, and consequently is, the secret science of Occultism--not the philosophy, mind you, but the science; let us proceed, for, we shall find that these two aspects may often differ, or appear to differ, widely from each other, though they can never do so in reality, for the latter produces and establishes the facts, while the former occupies itself in their tabulation and deductions.The science constitutes the foundation, and the philosophy, the metaphysical speculations, which rest thereon.If these important distinctions are borne in mind, all the apparent confusion, contradiction, and other intellectual debris, will either disappear or resolve themselves into their own proper groups, so that we may easily classify them.
It is at this very point, that, so many students go astray amid the labyrinths of science and philosophy.They, unconsciously, so mix and intermingle the two terms, that nine-tenths of the students present only one side of the question--philosophy, which soon runs into theory, if not supported by the science, which they have lost in their volumes of philosophy.
You may say, one subject at a time.Yes, this may be true, if its twin brother is not absorbed and forgotten.
In this chapter, we shall deal especially with organic Alchemy.
