A Druid's Handbook to the Spiritual Power of Plants: Spagyrics in Magical and Sexual Rituals - Jon G. Hughes 2014

A Brief History of Alchemy
Initial Research
Alchemy: Its Relationship to the Druidic Tradition

This section is by no means a definitive history of the development of alchemy. There are innumerable publications covering this subject in much more detail than I have room to do here. It is designed instead to give the reader insight into some of the most influential alchemists, their work, and the contribution they have made to the existing body of knowledge.

To explore the history of alchemy in greater detail—it is a fascinating and illuminating subject—I suggest you begin with the more contemporary commentaries before reading what copies of the original texts you may be able to obtain.

For me, the initial difficulty was knowing where to begin. The greatest difficulty was knowing when to stop. For the purpose of this book, we shall begin our account in ancient Egypt.

The majority of academics would agree that alchemy began its history in Alexandria as a synthesis of Egyptian sacred mysticism and ancient Greek philosophy. The origin of the very word alchemy was the ancient Arabic Al-kemia, meaning “the black land,” a common name for Egypt at the time.

The father of alchemy was said to be the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth, called Hermes in Greek. So strong is the influence of Hermes on the origins of alchemy that it is still referred to as the hermetic tradition, the way of Hermes, or the hermetic art.

Hermes Trismegistus (thrice great or thrice blessed) was reputedly an alchemist, sage, and philosopher. History tells us he was the bearer of secrets and knowledge. In his day his fame was so great and spread so far that he was simply known as “the Egyptian.” He is credited with writing the Hermetica, a collection of mystical, philosophical writing upon which all Middle Eastern and Western alchemy is based. He also wrote the Emerald Tablet, the most profound document of the hermetic tradition. These writings later became the cornerstone of medieval alchemy in Europe.

Many of these early writings tell us that alchemy was chiefly devoted to manufacturing or discovering an elusive substance that would not only transmute base metals into gold or silver but also provide the means to prolong human life indefinitely. The search for this elusive substance has preoccupied alchemists ever since. In an effort to understand the structure and meaning of nature and thereby use this understanding to transmute metals and prolong life, alchemists have made major contributions to today’s knowledge of science, medicine, chemistry, and philosophy.

Magic also played a dominant role in early alchemy, and every Egyptian alchemist would also have been a magician. The most famous of these was Imhotep, the renowned Egyptian high priest, physician, and magician who features in many accounts of ancient Egyptian history and remains a cult figure even today. The secrets of the ancient Egyptian practice of mummification may have been part of the developing Egyptian alchemical art as well.

Although alchemy may have seen its beginnings in Egypt, it undoubtedly took many of its ideas from what was then the “new” Greek philosophy. At the time, many of the Greek philosophers were developing what were to become the first established chemical theories, and by the fifth century BCE Empedocles had advanced the theory that all things are composed of air, earth, fire, and water. Aristotle was later to add ether as the fifth component.

This theory would profoundly influence the work of alchemists for the next two and a half millennia.

Aristotle made further contributions to the fundamental theories of alchemy by suggesting that “nature and God are working toward an end; striving for what is perfection” and that “[e]verything is striving to gain perfection, that ultimate union of the All in the One.”

Aristotle tells us that each of the four original elements has two characteristics:

He then explains that there are therefore really only two characteristics—namely, hot and moist. The remaining two are simply their opposites.

Hot is the product of fire and moist is the product of water. Therefore, the most important of the elements are fire and water. One opposes the other. One is combustible, the other is liquid. One is male, one female. Here we gain our first glimpse of the balance and harmony of opposites, a principle of profound significance, as we shall see later.

Alexandrian alchemy was also influenced by the melting pot of eclectic philosophical and religious movements that were burgeoning at the time. Neoplatonists, Gnostics, Egyptian priests, Jewish rabbis, Pythagoreanists, and the later Christian cults all had their effect on the alchemy of the day.

Women also played an important role in the developing art and science of Egyptian alchemy. Two women in particular had such a significant impact that their legacy remains with us today. The alchemist Cleopatra (not the queen of the Nile) created works on cosmetics and poisons, developed standard weights and measures, and became an experienced alchemist in the hermetic tradition.

The other woman was Maria the Jewess, also known as Maria Prophetissa, who worked to combine the Egyptian hermetic theories with her own tradition of Jewish alchemy. Also an inventor of apparatus and working equipment, Maria invented a bath containing water to gently heat the vessels immersed in it. Now known as the bain-marie (Marie’s bath), the same apparatus may be seen in almost every laboratory and commercial kitchen in the world. Through her inventiveness and skill as an alchemist, Maria made a major contribution to both alchemy and chemistry, not to mention the worldwide food industry.

The last significant writer of Egyptian alchemy was Stephanus of Alexandria. In the seventh century CE he wrote the final Egyptian Tracts on alchemy, which, by that time, had been undermined by the conquest of the Egyptians by the Greeks, then the Romans, and the eventual arrival of Christianity.

And so it was in the latter half of the seventh century CE, as Egypt was taken by the Muslims, that alchemy took up a new significance as it was introduced to Arab culture.

At the same time as Egyptian alchemy began its development in Alexandria, a process of alchemical development was happening in ancient China, alongside a curiously simultaneous appearance in India. Over the years there has been much speculation on this apparently unconnected development of alchemy at more or less the same moment in time in Egypt, China, and India.

Each of these traditions has a similar story of the introduction of an ancient knowledge of alchemy by a visiting race, giving rise to theories of alchemy being the science of Atlantis or having been introduced by some super-race that has since become extinct. Some even suggest the introduction of alchemy by travelers from another planet.

Whatever the truth may be—and it is beyond the scope of this book to explore the various theories, however intriguing they may be—the fact remains that around 2,500 years ago something stirred the interest of these diverse civilizations and inspired the simultaneous, yet independent, development of alchemy.

Chinese alchemy is said to have developed from Taoism, China’s oldest philosophy. The alchemy of the Chinese school is based entirely on this ancient Taoist philosophy and every Chinese alchemist is therefore a Taoist. Alchemy, however, is not an essential part of Taoism; rather it is an accepted part of this ancient and sophisticated belief system.

As with the Taoists, Chinese alchemists were in search of the secrets of longevity, immortality, and the processes of the transmutation of metals. Alchemists still refer to this epic pursuit as the Magnum Opus, the Great Work.

The first known practicing Chinese alchemist was Tsou-Yen, who, around 350—270 BCE, drew on the Taoist principle of duality, the yin and yang (the fire and water or male and female of the Egyptian tradition), and based the Chinese alchemical philosophy on the three fundamental principles of the cosmos as defined by Taoism. These fundamentals are:

· The chi. The universal energy that is apparent in all aspects of the cosmos as the life force.

· The Tao. The Tao, or the Way, is divided into two fundamentals, the yin and the yang. The harmony of the universe and of each individual’s existence depends on the harmonious balance of the yin and the yang.

· The concept that all matter and processes in the cosmos are made up of five principal elements. These are not the elements of early Western philosophy (fire, water, wind, and air), as contained within the Druidic tradition, but rather unique elements of the Taoist, and therefore alchemist, philosophy. They are defined as sense, essence, vitality (Ching), spirit (Shen), and energy (Chi).

At the heart of Chinese alchemy is the belief that this complex interaction and interdependency among all the aspects of the cosmos comes together to make up the whole, or the Tao. The pursuit of the Great Work is achieved through two traditions, the exoteric and the esoteric. Chinese alchemists called these two traditions Wai-tan (the outer elixir, or the exoteric) and Nei-tan (the inner elixir, or the esoteric).

Wai-tan looks for this outer elixir in the world of nature in an effort to use nature’s gifts of plants and minerals to prolong life. It is the practical tradition, involving experiment and workings within the physical substances of the cosmos. It has played an important and undeniable part in the history and development of science and was arguably the birthplace of modern chemistry. There is little doubt that this early experimentation and its subsequent development resulted in the discovery of many new substances and the invention of a wide range of scientific processes.

Nei-tan focuses on the inner elixir and sees the physical transformation of the Wai-tan as a metaphor for the transformation and refinement of the base human into an elevated spirit being. Taking much of its philosophy from Taoism, it has in turn made a major contribution to the understanding of the natural world and the human psyche.

Eastern alchemists had a name for the elusive agent that could bring about these transformations of both the inner elixir and the outer elixir and thereby aid longevity and produce immortality: They called it the pill of immortality. In the West it was to become known as the lapis philosophorum, the philosopher’s stone. The Alexandrians of ancient Egypt first called it the stone of light. Here the Egyptian alchemist Zosimus describes it: “This stone which is not a stone, this precious thing which has no value, this polymorphous thing which has no shape, this unknown thing which is known by all . . .”

The fabrication or discovery of this pill of immortality or philosopher’s stone became the prime goal of all alchemists, in the belief that this substance, the purest in the universe, is so perfect that it could instantly elevate base metal to gold. In the same way, this agent of ultimate purity and power could raise the base human to the spiritual being through the process of enlightenment and eventual immortality.

Alchemy has been defined in many ways: “the art and science of transformation,” “the raising of vibrations,” “the elevation of basic substances,” to name just a few. However it is described, alchemy has two major goals—to transmute base metals into gold and to produce or discover an elixir to prolong life. Although it has also frequently (and correctly) been described as the forerunner to modern chemistry, it was, and still is, much more than that.

In addition to its practical facets, it is an art and science concerned with the body, spirit, and mind and therefore reaches far beyond the ubiquitous images of furnace, reaction vessel, and the relentless pursuit of infinite wealth.

Meditation, purification by fasting, and ritual cleansing all play an important part in the preparation preceding any alchemical work, and the Chinese alchemists inherited their methods from the trance and ecstasy techniques of the early Taoist shamans. The Chinese alchemists also emphasized the importance of sex as a means to health and longevity. It is one of the most important aspects of the Nei-tan alchemy of the inner elixir as it mirrors the harmony of the cosmic yin and yang.

The Chinese tradition maintains that in order to prolong life, one must follow nature and, therefore, to have sex is to go with the flow of nature and increase the vitality of both partners. A similar tradition is maintained in the Indian alchemical tradition, and both these traditions have a strong resonance within the Druidic tradition.

As the Chinese alchemists were refining their science, a similar yet independent school of alchemy was developing in India. There, alchemy is a subsidiary of the cult of Tantrism, which in turn is one of the schools of Hinduism. Tantra emphasizes the female aspect of nature and employs many aspects of sexual symbolism within its workings.

Ancient Indian Hinduism is based on the spiritual powers of Shakti (female) and Shiva (male), which represent consciousness and energy. The Indian school of alchemy sought to recombine these forces to recover the original unity of the cosmos and thereby live forever. (The same philosophy may be observed in the Chinese school of alchemy, with its attempt to bring together the male and female principles of yin and yang into a unified harmony.) The Vedas, written between 1500 and 800 BCE, became the cornerstone of Hinduism. Their contents lead us to believe that Indian Hindus were searching for an elixir of immortality as far back as three thousand years ago. In India, this pill of immortality or philosopher’s stone was called the Sphadick stone.

Indian alchemy developed alongside ayurveda, the science of longevity, one of the oldest existing systems of medicine and “lifestyle” in the world. Ayurvedic medicine uses mainly products of the plant kingdom and maintains that all substances are made up of five original elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether (the same theory that Aristotle introduced to the Egyptian alchemists).

As the Indians traveled to China and introduced Buddhism, they brought back many of the Chinese alchemical beliefs. As a result, alchemy in India developed at a great speed. The father of Indian alchemy was a Buddhist by the name of Nagarjuna. He reputedly extended his own life to the age of one thousand by alchemical means. During this extended lifetime he wrote the first notable Indian book on alchemy, the Rasasatnakara, around 200 CE.

For the most part, Indian alchemists used the same techniques and methods as their Chinese counterparts but stressed the intuitive aspect of its development along with the use of yogic visions. However, in the south of India a second school of Indian alchemy was developing alongside the Siddha medicine tradition. Both Siddha and ayurvedic systems share beliefs, but Siddha concentrates on the use of minerals, salts, and metals as opposed to the ayurvedic emphasis on the use of herbs and plants.

Siddha and ayurveda represent the practical aspects of alchemy, the outer elixir, the exoteric, or the Wai-tan of the Chinese tradition. Tantra is concerned with spiritual alchemy, the inner elixir, the esoteric, or the Nei-tan of the Chinese tradition.

As the Chinese and Indian traditions of alchemy continued to advance, the doctrines of the Alexandrian hermetic tradition were being carried into the Islamic world through Iraq. Hermes was already known to the Muslims as the prophet Idris and was acknowledged by all three main branches of Islam: Shiite, Sunni, and Sufi.

Khalid ibn Yazid established himself as the first major Muslim alchemist, but by far the most noted was Jabir ibn Hayyan (720—815 CE), known in the West as Geber. As a Sufi, Jabir was an Islamic mystic, and his main influences appear to have been Hermes, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

He cultivated Aristotle’s theory that all minerals contain two characteristics, or exhalations—“moist” and “dry” vapors—and identified them in the form of mercury and sulfur. These are not the mercury and sulfur of modern-day chemistry but, rather, specifically alchemical definitions of the same words. This theory of vapors continues to be at the core of alchemical work.

Jabir maintained, as did Aristotle, that matter is composed of four elements—earth, fire, water, and air—with the qualities of dryness, heat, moisture, and cold, each in differing proportions. By altering these proportions, matter may be transmuted from one form to another. Jabir believed that this transmutation may be achieved by using a grand elixir, the philosopher’s stone. In his search for the grand elixir, Jabir devised his famous method of balances. He developed balances for minerals, vegetables, animals, and stars. These balances attempted to create an equilibrium between the external appearances (the exoteric) and the hidden inner reality (the esoteric).

Jabir also had a fascination for numbers and occult geometry, and his related theories became more and more complex and cryptic, making little sense to anyone but Jabir himself. This confusing and convoluted writing gave rise to the word gibberish, now applied to anything that seems impossible to understand.

Jabir played a major role in introducing Egyptian alchemy to the Arabs and in forming the foundation for European alchemy, which was to follow some time later. His interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of the four elements and his additional theory of mercury and sulfur were revised once more by the Persian alchemist Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna.

Agreeing with Aristotle’s four elements, Avicenna added a third substance—salt—to Jabir’s mercury and sulfur as the constituent parts of all matter. He believed, like Jabir, that substances might be transmuted by varying the amounts of these constituent parts through the employment of an “elixir.”

Another famous Islamic alchemist and physician who made a significant contribution to alchemy was the Persian Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya, or Al-Razi, known in Europe as Rhazes. Rhazes was a renowned healer of his day and wrote a famous treatise on smallpox and measles, which is still referred to in medical history texts. His main interest was in the practical work of the outer elixir, and he was responsible for defining the first classification of substances into animal, vegetable, and mineral. Through a combination of his medical and alchemical work, Rhazes made a huge contribution to both medical science and chemistry.

Following the Muslim conquest of Spain in the eighth century CE, Eastern alchemy was imported to Europe from Syria, Persia, and Iraq, and the new synthesis of European alchemy was born. With them the Muslims brought the new vocabulary of Eastern alchemy, all of which remains with us today. Just a few examples are

European alchemy began its history in Spain at the turn of the first millennium and more particularly in Córdoba, where the first prominent European alchemist, Abu’l Qasim Maslamah ibn Ahmad, known as Al-Majriti, was born (later he was called simply “the One from Madrid”). His work focused primarily on the outer elixir, and he wrote mainly on practical alchemy and laboratory techniques.

The alchemical tradition was maintained in Spain for centuries and included the works of such prominent practitioners as Muhammad ibn Umail, the Jewish philosopher Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), and the cabalist Moses of León.

By the thirteenth century CE, European alchemy was well established and Albertus Magnus, known as Dr. Universalis, was producing numerous alchemical manuscripts. His most famous pupil, Saint Thomas Aquinas, was also a believer in the transmutation of metals.

In Britain the intellectual and magician Roger Bacon began his works on alchemy. Later called Dr. Mirabilis, he emphasized the need for experience over argument and described alchemy as an experimental science. His practical alchemy produced many benefits, particularly in the area of medicine.

Ramon Lull, Dr. Illuminatus, was born in Majorca around 1230 CE and went on to develop his famous Lullian Art. Much used by later alchemists, the Lullian Art is based on geometric symbols and letters, which he alleged reflected the structure of the universe. Lull also maintained that in addition to the four elements or essences, there is a fifth essence—the quintessence—found in all matter, which is responsible for their generation, activity, and eventual corruption. Much of the work of the Lullian adepts involved the attempted manipulation of this quintessence in order to increase its activity in the material world.

Another medieval alchemist involved in the exploration of the quintessence theory was Arnald of Villanova, who was credited as the first to distill alcohol from wine and then use it to dissolve plants and herbs as a means to extract their quintessence. This is a direct parallel to the Druidic tradition.

He also used magic in his treatments for illnesses, just like the Egyptians and Muslims before him, another parallel with the Druids. Arnald agreed with Jabir and Rhazes that ill health is caused by the upset balance of the humors, which may be rebalanced by the use of magic and specific elixirs. This theory has also been carried forward and forms one of the fundamental principles of modern homeopathy and the famous Bach Flower Remedies (see here).

Arnald’s writings also give us a method of separating the elements of matter using a ferment and then recombining them to form the elixir. This too is fundamental to Druidic plant magic. His works have been revived time and time again, particularly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is in the practical work of Arnald of Villanova that we see the first major parallels between the hermetic art and the practical traditions of the Druids.

It is worth noting that although Arnald’s work began in the mid-thirteenth century, the Druidic tradition was well established by the time of the first written accounts of their activities by the Romans in the first century BCE and the even earlier account by the Greeks in the mid-fourth century BCE.

In Britain, Elias Ashmole (reputed to have written under the name Geoffrey Chaucer—the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, bears his name) further developed Bacon’s work, along with Sir George Ripley and the influential Thomas Charnock of Feversham.

In France, Nicolas Flamel and his wife, Perennelle, two of the most famous names in the history of alchemy, claimed to have made the great elixir, upon being initiated into the secret by an anonymous Jewish cabalistic master.

Almost a century after Flamel died, probably the most celebrated alchemist in history was born near Zurich, Switzerland, in 1493. Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim took the name Paracelsus, meaning “beyond or greater than Celsus,” the first-century Roman writer on medicine and healing. Paracelsus created his own school of alchemic practice, which he called Spagyric, from the Greek spao (to divide) and ageiro (to bind or combine), based on the ancient alchemical methodology of “dissolve and coagulate.”

Along with his fellow spagyrists, he pursued the universal solvent, which he called the alkahest. He also expanded the mercury, sulfur, and salt theory of matter to become the core of subsequent alchemical practice. Paracelsus believed that by using magic it was possible to influence the hidden forces of the cosmos and emphasized the role of “energies” in the healing process. Both of these principles may also be seen as fundamental in the Druid credo.

He proclaimed the Tria-Prima (fundamental Trinity) of salt, sulfur, and mercury, representing the body, the soul, and the spirit, respectively, and maintained that if these three fundamentals were not correctly balanced in the body, illness would result. His assertion that “like cures like” has not only been the foundation of contemporary alchemy but has also formed the basis of a wide range of alternative or complementary medicines.

Paracelsus revitalized alchemy and gave it a new direction. His research and experimentation also revolutionized traditional medicine. His followers include all the prominent alchemists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as the legendary alchemist Basil Valentine (Basilius Valentinus).

Many of Paracelsus’s followers met together in secret societies, and the Rosicrucians, or The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, developed primarily as an alchemical group. Members of the Rosicrucians included the English philosopher Robert Fludd, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton, who spent much of his life studying alchemy.

European alchemy is said to have reached its peak in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century when the city of Prague became the focal point of alchemical practice. At the time, Prague could boast more alchemists than any other city in Europe. Among these were Michael Maier, a notable figure in the Rosicrucian movement; Oswald Croll, a prominent cabalist; the physicist Johannes Kepler; the English cabalist John Dee; and the famous mystic Jacob Boehme. Each made a significant contribution to the developing ferment of European alchemy.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a major suppression of alchemy in general. Suffering from the ridicule of the emerging new sciences, alchemy became less popular and European alchemy in particular began to divide into two groups. One group was composed of alchemists who pursued a purely scientific approach to discovering new processes and compounds, and it may be argued that these “scientists” were the true ancestors of today’s chemists. The other group followed a more metaphysical approach and maintained the more mystical elements of the original alchemy. This group is part of the unbroken chain of alchemists who remain to this day.

It may not be surprising, then, that Marie and Pierre Curie, the discoverers of radium, were reputedly involved in alchemical practices at the time.

The advent of the twentieth century saw a revival in alchemical theory and practice, possibly as a result of the work of the New Zealand scientist Ernest Rutherford. Prior to Rutherford’s work it was generally held that elements could not be altered by transmutation. Through pioneering work in his laboratory in England, Rutherford transmuted nitrogen into oxygen and hydrogen. By doing so, he established the now accepted theory that transmutation is possible. In fact, it has now been identified as part of the natural process of decay. As a consequence of Rutherford’s work, a number of new elements, not found in the natural world, have been created in the laboratory using nuclear energy.

Rutherford’s work revitalized the interest in alchemy, as it suggested that the ancient alchemists might well have known more than they had previously been credited with. Indeed, Rutherford himself claimed that it was possible to produce gold by the transmutation of platinum.

This period saw the foundation of the Alchemy Society of France by F. Jollivet Castelot, the later establishment of the Paracelsus Research Society in the United States by the famous Frater Albertus in the early 1970s, and the Philosophers of Nature in France by Jean Dubuis.

It also created an atmosphere conducive to the work of such renowned alchemists as Fulcanelli and Archibald Cockren, the psychoanalyst Carl Jung, and Frenchman Armand Barbault, who worked primarily with plants to create his “liquor of gold.” Barbault applied alchemical techniques and methods to medical practice. His use of plants and particularly his use of dew may have been the starting point of Edward Bach’s work; it certainly has resonance in the Druidic tradition.

We must now consider the philosophical and practical achievements that have brought alchemy to its present-day sophistication before we begin our comparison of the alchemical art with the Druidic tradition.