ALCHEMY

 

Alchemy, Algeny, transmutation, philosopher's stone, elixir of life

 

"Alchemy", can be called the "forth kind" of the Occult, practiced today by Rosicrucianism and the New Age umbrella. It is a European word derived from Arabic, and some believe it is an ancient science to have arisen in Egypt.

The "goals":

Alchemy aims at the great human "goods": Wealth, longevity, and immortality. It was believed that metals possessed magical powers in their alloy forms, specially "mercury", the liquid metal, and "sulfur", the stone that burns.

    1- The first goal, is to make gold from lesser base metals, with the "philosopher's stone". The word "transmutation" is essential in Alchemy.

    2- The second goal, is the prolongation of life, and even immorality with the "elixir of life"... the most potent elixir would be the "drinkable gold".

Both aims have been elusive utopias for centuries... some claim to have discovered in "alcohol" the "water of life"... and, by a devious path, the alchemist Paracelsian pharmacy was to lead to "modern chemistry".

- Alchemy had been used as a metaphor by New Agers to describe the old world order, which manipulated the environment with fire. The "New Age" is one in which a major paradigm shift from pyrotechnics to biotechnology occurs... a new paradigm movement from "Alchemy" to "Algeny".