The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to alchemy:

Alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

– A philosophical tradition recognized as protoscience, that includes the application of Hermetic principles, and practices related to mythology, religion, and spirituality.

Branches

* Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam *

Chinese Alchemy Chinese alchemy is an ancient Chinese scientific and technological approach to alchemy, a part of the larger tradition of Taoist / Daoist body-spirit cultivation developed from the traditional Chinese understanding of medicine and the body. Acc ...

Neidan Neidan, or internal alchemy (), is an array of esoteric doctrines and physical, mental, and spiritual practices that Taoist initiates use to prolong life and create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death. Also known as Jindan ...

** Processing (Chinese materia medica) *

Iatrochemistry Iatrochemistry (; also known as chemiatria or chemical medicine) is a branch of both chemistry and medicine. Having its roots in alchemy, iatrochemistry seeks to provide chemical solutions to diseases and medical ailments. This area of scien ...

** Spagyric *

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

*Psychoanalysis **

Analytical psychology Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science ...

***

Individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Gustav Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Sim ...

** Metacognition *

Rasayana ''Rasāyana'' (रसायन) is a Sanskrit word literally meaning ''path'' (''ayana'') ''of essence'' (''rasa''). It is an early ayurvedic medical term referring to techniques for lengthening lifespans and invigorating the body. It is one of ...

Influences

Influences upon alchemy – alchemy developed dependent on a number of influences and experienced regional and period-specific variations: *

Aristotelianism Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the so ...

Esotericism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

Western Esotericism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

***

Esoteric Christianity Esoteric Christianity is an approach to Christianity which features "secret traditions" that require an initiation to learn or understand.Guy G. Stroumsa (2005). Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism. Leiden: Br ...

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

Hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

Humorism Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers. Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...

* Metallurgy **

History of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent The history of metallurgy in the Indian subcontinent began prior to the 3rd millennium BCE and continued well into the British Raj. Metals and related concepts were mentioned in various early Vedic age texts. The Rigveda already uses the Sanskrit ...

Platonism Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary platonists do not necessarily accept all of the doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. Platonism at l ...

Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some i ...

Pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...

Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, ...

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

* Stoicism

Related fields

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Follower ...

Astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

Ayurveda Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...

* Homeopathy * Kayaku-Jutsu *

Magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

, magick *

Moxibustion Moxibustion () is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort ('' wikt:moxa'') on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietna ...

* Tay al-Ard * Yoga Nidra

Concepts

Fotothek df tg 0007129 Theosophie ^ Alchemie

* Alchemical elements – Primarily the four Classical elements of: ** Fire (classical element) **

Water (classical element) Water is one of the classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy along with air, earth and fire, in the Asian Indian system '' Panchamahabhuta'', and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system '' Wu Xing''. In contemporary esoteri ...

** Earth (classical element) **

Air (classical element) Air is one of the four classical elements along with water, earth and fire in ancient Greek philosophy and in Western alchemy. Greek and Roman tradition According to Plato, it is associated with the octahedron; air is considered to be both ho ...

** For variations see:

Wu Xing Wuxing may refer to: Places in China Counties and districts *Huzhou, formerly Wuxing County, Zhejiang, China *Wuxing District (吴兴区), central district of Huzhou Subdistricts (五星街道) *Wuxing Subdistrict, Mudanjiang, in Dong'an District ...

•

Mahābhūta ''Mahābhūta'' is Sanskrit and Pāli for "great element". However, very few scholars define the four mahābhūtas in a broader sense as the four fundamental aspects of physical reality. Hinduism In Hinduism's sacred literature, the "great" ...

•

Five elements (Japanese philosophy) Godai are the five elements in Japanese Buddhist thought of earth (''chi''), water (''sui''), fire (''ka''), wind (''fu''), and void (''ku''). The concept is related to Buddhist Mahābhūta and came over China from India. The Japanese Buddhi ...

* Alchemy in art and entertainment *

Alkahest In Renaissance alchemy, alkahest was the theorized "universal solvent". It was supposed to be capable of dissolving any other substance, including gold, without altering or destroying its fundamental components. Among its philosophical and sp ...

* Anima mundi * Chrysopoeia * Filius philosophorum *

Takwin Takwin ( ar, تكوين) was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, notably Jabir ibn Hayyan. In the alchemical context, takwin refers to the creation of synthetic life in the laboratory, up to and including human life. Whether Jabir meant this goa ...

Homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the ...

Philosopher's stone The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", ...

** Cintamani **

Elixir of life The elixir of life, also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the means ...

Panacea In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek ''Πανάκεια'', Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: * Panacea (the goddess of univers ...

* Prima materia ** Yliaster *Septenary of the seven metals and

Classical planets in Western alchemy In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets or seven luminaries are the seven moving astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The word ''planet'' comes from ...

Lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

•

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

•

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

•

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

• mercury •

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

•

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

** Saturn •

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

•

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

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Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

• Mercury •

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

•

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

*Tria Prima (three primes) **

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

• mercury • sulfur ** Body •

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

•

spirit Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

Unity of opposites The unity of opposites is the central category of dialectics, said to be related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense.

or ''coincidentia oppositorum'' **

Hieros Gamos ''Hieros gamos'', hieros (ἱερός) meaning "holy" or "sacred" and gamos (γάμος) meaning marriage, or Hierogamy (Greek , "holy marriage"), is a sacred marriage that plays out between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symb ...

** Rebis

Processes

Magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

– great work of alchemy consisting of: *

Nigredo In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform blac ...

Albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

Citrinitas Citrinitas, or sometimes xanthosis,Joseph Needham. ''Science & Civilisation in China: Chemistry and chemical technology. Spagyrical discovery and invention : magisteries of gold and immortality.'' Cambridge. 1974. p.23 is a term given by alchemists ...

(sometimes excluded) *

Rubedo Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in their magnum opus. Both gold and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signaled alchemical succ ...

Alchemists also engaged in practical and symbolic processes including: *

Calcination Calcination refers to thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting under restricted supply of ambient oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), gener ...

Ceration Ceration is a chemical process, a common practice in alchemy. It is performed by continuously adding a liquid by imbibition to a hard, dry substance while it is heated. Typically, this treatment makes the substance softer, more like molten wax ('' ...

* Cohobation *

Congelation Congelation (from Latin: , ) was a term used in medieval and early modern alchemy for the process known today as crystallization. In the ('The Secret of Alchemy') attributed to Khalid ibn Yazid (), it is one of "the four principal operations" ...

Digestion Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intest ...

Distillation Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...

* Fermentation * Filtration * Fixation * Multiplication * Projection * Solution * Sublimation

Symbolism

Fotothek df tg 0006104 Theosophie ^ Alchemie ^ Judentum ^ Kabbala

Alchemical symbol Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this pag ...

– 1.

Glyphs A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...

* AGLA * Monas Hieroglyphica 2.

Imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory im ...

* Suns in alchemy * Undine (alchemy) 3. Visual Symbolism * Porta Alchemica *

Serpent (symbolism) The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin ''serpens'', a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to mankind and represent ...

** Caduceus **

Ouroboros The ouroboros or uroboros () is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnost ...

Nehushtan In the biblical Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 18:4; written c. 550 BC), the Nehushtan (Hebrew: ''Nəḥuštān'' ) is the name given to the bronze image of a serpent on a pole. The image is described in the Book of Numbers, where Yahweh instructed M ...

Scientific connections

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* Biological transmutation * Chemistry *

Historicism Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely ...

* Nuclear transmutation *

Obsolete scientific theories This list catalogs well-accepted theories in science and pre-scientific natural philosophy and natural history which have since been superseded by scientific theories. Many discarded explanations were once supported by a scientific consensus, b ...

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

Scientific method The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific ...

* Synthesis of noble metals

Substances of the alchemists

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

• sulfur (sulphur) •

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

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antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...

vitriol Vitriol is the general chemical name encompassing a class of chemical compound comprising sulfates of certain metalsoriginally, iron or copper. Those mineral substances were distinguished by their color, such as green vitriol for hydrated iron( ...

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quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

•

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury and is the historic source for the bri ...

•

pyrites The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

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orpiment Orpiment is a deep-colored, orange-yellow arsenic sulfide mineral with formula . It is found in volcanic fumaroles, low-temperature hydrothermal veins, and hot springs and is formed both by sublimation and as a byproduct of the decay of anothe ...

• galena * magnesia •

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

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potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

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natron Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate ( Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. ...

•

saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitra ...

• kohl *

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous wa ...

• ammonium chloride • alcohol • camphor * sulfuric acid (sulphuric acid) •

hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid Acid strength is the tendency of an acid, symbol ...

•

nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

• acetic acid • formic acid •

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in ...

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tartaric acid Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes, but also in bananas, tamarinds, and citrus. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally ...

* aqua regia •

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

blue vitriol Copper(II) sulfate, also known as copper sulphate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' can range from 1 to 7. The pentahydrate (''n'' = 5), a bright blue crystal, is the most commonly encountered h ...

•

green vitriol Iron(II) sulfate (British English: iron(II) sulphate) or ferrous sulfate denotes a range of salts with the formula Fe SO4·''x''H2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the heptahydrate (''x'' = 7) but several values for x are know ...

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vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

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salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

more...

Apparatus

Stills * Alembic *

Retort In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The ...

Retort stand In chemistry, a retort stand, also called a clamp stand,Laboratory-Equipment.com (2020):Large Clamp Stand, for Q700. Online catalog item 5323-07. Accessed on 202-02-18. a ring stand, or a support stand,Fischer Scientific (2020):American Education ...

Vessels *

Aludel An aludel ( ar, ﺍﻟﻮﺛﻞ from Greek , 'smoky, sooty, burnt-colored') is a subliming pot used in alchemy. The term refers to a range of earthen tubes, or pots without bottoms, fitted one over another, and diminishing as they advance towa ...

Crucible A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles were historically usually made from clay, they can be made from any material that withstands te ...

Hessian crucible A Hessian crucible is a type of ceramic crucible that was manufactured in the Hesse region of Germany from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance period. They were renowned for their ability to withstand very high temperatures, rapid changes ...

* Cupels *

Mortar and pestle Mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used from the Stone Age to the present day to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The ''mortar'' ( ...

Heating devices *

Athanor In alchemy, an athanor ( ar, التنور, ''at-tannūr'') is a furnace used to provide a uniform and constant heat for alchemical digestion. Etymologically, it descends from a number of Arabic texts of the period of the Califate which use the ...

Bain-marie A bain-marie (; also known as a water bath or double boiler), a type of heated bath, is a piece of equipment used in science, industry, and cooking to heat materials gently or to keep materials warm over a period of time. A bain-marie is also ...

Sand bath A sand bath is a common piece of laboratory equipment made from a container filled with heated sand. It is used to evenly heat another container, most often during a chemical reaction. A sand bath is most commonly used in conjunction with a hot ...

Alchemy organizations

Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) or The Ritman Library is a private Dutch library founded by Joost Ritman located in the Huis met de Hoofden (House with the Heads) at Keizersgracht 123, in the center of Amsterdam. The Bibliotheca Philos ...

European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) is Europe's only scholarly society for the study of Western esotericism. Founded in 2002, the society promotes academic study of the various manifestations of Western esotericism f ...

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

* Rosicrucianism

Alchemical texts

* Axiom of Maria *'' Alchemical Studies'' (Carl Jung) *'' Aurora consurgens'' *'' Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit'' *'' Cantong qi'' *''

Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz The ''Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz'' (german: Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459) is a German book edited in 1616 in Strasbourg. Its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin Andreae. The ''Chymical Weddi ...

'' *''

Hermetica The ''Hermetica'' are texts attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. These texts may vary widely in content and purpose, but are usually subd ...

'' **'' Emerald Tablet'' ** ''Sirr al-khalīqa'' ("The Secret of Creation") *'' The Hermetical Triumph'' *''

Fasciculus Chemicus ''Fasciculus Chemicus'' or ''Chymical Collections. Expressing the Ingress, Progress, and Egress, of the Secret Hermetick Science out of the choicest and most famous authors'' is an anthology of alchemical writings compiled by Arthur Dee (1579– ...

'' *'' Musaeum Hermeticum'' *''

Mutus Liber The ''Mutus Liber'', or ''Mute Book'' (from la, Silent Book), is a Hermetic philosophical work published in La Rochelle in 1677. It ranks amongst the major books on alchemy in Early Modern literature, just as much as does '' Atalanta Fugiens'' ...

'' *'' Rosary of the Philosophers'' *'' Splendor Solis'' *'' Theatrum Chemicum'' *'' Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum'' *'' The Mirror of Alchimy'' *''

Turba Philosophorum The ''Turba Philosophorum'', also known as ''Assembly of the Philosophers'', is one of the oldest European alchemy texts, translated from the Arabic, like the Picatrix. It is considered to have been written c. 900 A.D. The text To quote Plessner, ...

Journals

*''

Ambix ''Ambix'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the history of alchemy and chemistry; it was founded in 1936 and has appeared continuously from 1937 to the present, other than from 1939 to 1945 during World War II. It is currently published by the ...

'' *'' Aries'' *'' Early Science and Medicine'' *''

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

Alchemists

The most influential names in the history of alchemy include: *

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of t ...

– by tradition, the founder of Western alchemy; many alchemical works were attributed to him. * Wei Boyang – authored the earliest known book on theoretical alchemy in China. *

Pseudo-Democritus Pseudo-Democritus is the name used by scholars for the anonymous authors of a number of Greek writings that were falsely attributed to the pre-Socratic philosopher Democritus ( 460–370 BC). Several of these writings, most notably the ...

– anonymous author of the oldest extant works of Greco-Egyptian alchemy. *

Zosimos of Panopolis Zosimos of Panopolis ( el, Ζώσιμος ὁ Πανοπολίτης; also known by the Latin name Zosimus Alchemista, i.e. "Zosimus the Alchemist") was a Greco-Egyptian alchemist and Gnostic mystic who lived at the end of the 3rd and beginning ...

– influential Greco-Egyptian alchemist. * Khālid ibn Yazīd – credited with introducing alchemy to the Islamic world. * Pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana – earliest known source of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals and the '' Emerald Tablet''. *

Jābir ibn Hayyān Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Arabic: , variously called al-Ṣūfī, al-Azdī, al-Kūfī, or al-Ṭūsī), died 806−816, is the purported author of an enormous number and variety of works in Arabic, often called the Jabirian corpus. The ...

– notable for the theory of the balance (''ʿilm al-mīzān''), the theory of artificial generation ( ''ʿilm al-takwīn''), and a general emphasis on experimental science. **

Pseudo-Geber Pseudo-Geber (or "Latin pseudo-Geber") is the presumed author or group of authors responsible for a corpus of pseudepigraphic alchemical writings dating to the late 13th and early 14th centuries. These writings were falsely attributed to Jabir ...

– later Latin alchemist who wrote the influential ''Summa perfectionis''. * Roger Bacon – staunch proponent of the use of alchemy. * Paracelsus – developer of iatrochemistry. *

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

– alchemist critical of Paracelsus, credited as the father of modern chemistry. * Mary Anne Atwood – key figure in the occult revival of alchemy. *

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

– merged alchemy and psychoanalytic thought.

External links

SHAC: Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

ESSWE: European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism

Association for the Study of Esotericism

The Alchemy Website.
– Adam McLean's online collections and academic discussion.
Inner Garden Alchemy Research Group: a non-profit foundation that aims to transmit the alchemical tradition.
*
''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'':
Alchemy

– A digital exhibition from th
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
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