Alchemy

Initially magic was simply the special ability of someone to cure sickness and pain by the use of various ingredients, prepared and administered in a variety of ways, with a touch of theatrical, which usually helped. As we have seen, these magicians were known as witches, witchdoctors and shamans, they were mostly uneducated with their knowledge passed down from their ancestors. This knowledge was very much bound up in tribal or social circumstances relative to their particular time and place and, as such, their magical art was restricted, individualised, ritualised and quite invaluable. As a result, these people became very powerful within their communities. Groups of magicians, such as the Druids, were very much more learned and travelled, had access to ever expanding knowledge and had available to them much of the Earth's commodities; their healing was also more organised and effective. The Druids were the forerunners of the alchemists who, after the Romans, started to appear in secret societies such as the Cabbalists, the Rosicrucians and many others.

Alchemy, like most other things, can be traced back to the early Egyptians. Their statues, carvings and sacred papyrus show an abundance of magical symbols, ceremonies, spells and potions. These magical symbols or hieroglyphs were transformed by the Sumerians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and even the Hebrews and Indians, into most of the world’s written languages. It is because of them and their secret magical ideas, that we read and write like we do. Unfortunately, whereas at one time each written letter actually meant or symbolised a concept, single written letters now mean very little and it probably takes a whole sentence to explain just one ancient Hebrew letter. Consequently, it must be true to say, our present means of education and reading and writing, is somewhat lacking and it is only when pictograms and ideograms are used to convey ideas that our imagination will enhance and expand our education. (Our kids learn more from comics than text books.)

However, the written language of the alchemist didn't change that much from its origins, for they still used standard simple representations or marks to promote their ideas: the cross, the circle, the arc (or cup) and the line with its combinations, such as the triangle, the circle and the pentangle. Interestingly, we still use their magic glyphs in science and astrology today to depict the characteristics of metals, planets, animals, plants and people, some of which they thought of as being the same, for example, the symbol for iron is the same as for Mars and for man and the symbol for Venus is the same for copper, as it is for woman.

The aim of the alchemist was to find the secret to health, and so life, with the consequence of wealth and truth. Their belief was that everything was made up of smaller basic things, or elements, and that these elements are spiritually connected, which explains why some elements influence others. Therefore, not only must it be possible to rearrange the elements in a piece of matter into a pure form, such as obtaining gold from a base metal, but it also had to be possible to obtain health or youth from illness or old age, as well as connect with the spirit which combines everything together.

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