DOCSLIB.ORG

THE DESCRIPTIVE and DECEPTIVE ROLES of SEXUALITY and GENDER in LATIN ALCHEMY Lawrence M. Principe Sexual An

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE DESCRIPTIVE and DECEPTIVE ROLES of SEXUALITY and GENDER in LATIN ALCHEMY Lawrence M. Principe Sexual An REVEALING ANALOGIES: THE DESCRIPTIVE AND DECEPTIVE ROLES OF SEXUALITY AND GENDER IN LATIN ALCHEMY Lawrence M. Principe Sexual and erotic language and imagery is extremely common in alchemy. Its most visible form occurs in oft-reproduced alchemical emblemata that routinely contain graphic depictions of gendered enti- ties and copulating couples. Alchemical texts regularly employ erotic language as well, often describing extended allegorical sequences that occasionally involve sexual intercourse of various kinds or at least employ highly gendered imagery. Even at the most basic level, alche- mists frequently speak of their substances as gendered—some as female, some as male, and some, rather famously, as hermaphroditic. Among modern commentators, the presence of such imagery has engendered a variety of explanations—of divergent plausibility and historical sen- sibility—for its origin, purpose, and meaning. This chapter addresses fundamental questions about such imagery: What do these erotic or gendered images really mean? What purposes do they serve in texts? How and why are they constructed by their authors? Why should gen- dered and sexual language and images be so widespread in alchemy? And how integral in fact is sexual language and thought to alchemical aims and practices? The wide diversity of writers, practices, aims, theories, and cultural contexts present in the long history of alchemy means that exhaustive answers to these questions would extend far beyond the bounds of this chapter. Nonetheless, if we limit ourselves to the epoch of alchemy for which suffi cient textual resources for broad scholarship currently exist—namely, the Latin West from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century—then an examination of some representative sources and their contexts should provide at least an outline of answers. A contextual- ized examination of these sources promises to correct various facile misconceptions that remain widespread. Indeed, while the subject of sexuality in alchemy has long been a subject of study, much of the writing on this topic—as is the case for alchemical imagery more gen- erally—gives unnecessarily contrived readings or attempts to explain 210 lawrence m. principe obscura per obscuriorem. In contrast, this chapter strives to present more historically contextualized and more plausible origins and roles for the gendered and sexual language of alchemy. It seems useful to begin with a short inventory of some of the sexual themes found in alchemical imagery and the various forms in which this imagery occurs. The most striking examples are those cast into pictorial form, whether printed engravings and woodcuts or manuscript drawings and illuminations. Such images fi rst appeared in the context of alchemy in the fourteenth century; by the seventeenth century, entire books of such illustrations were being produced.1 In some cases, as in the 1599 Von den grossen Stein der uhralten Weisen (better known as the Twelve Keys) of “Basil Valentine,” the emblems were clearly subordinate to the written text. This secondary status is witnessed by the much greater amount of space accorded to text, and by the fact that the emblems appeared for the fi rst time only in the 1602 second edition of the work.2 In others, like Lambspringk’s De lapide philosophorum, the emblems carry a much greater proportion of the message of the book, being accompanied only by short texts in verse. As an extreme case, the famous Mutus liber contains a long series of pictorial engravings and only a single line of text urging the reader to “pray, read, read, and reread the work and you will fi nd it.”3 There are also collections of emblems with the character of fl orilegia, where elements of the imagery—and in some cases, entire emblems—can be traced to multiple earlier sources. A well-known example is the 1617 Atalanta fugiens of Michael Maier with its fi fty beautiful copperplate emblems.4 But a more extreme example is the Chymisches Lustgärtlein and Johann Daniel Mylius’ Philosophia refor- mata, both of which amass and co-opt a wide miscellany of emblems from quite diverse (and often easily identifi able) sources.5 Thus there exists a range of deployments for alchemical emblems, placing greater or lesser reliance on pictorial representation, showing greater or lesser originality and coherence, and directed to a variety of purposes and audiences. 1 See in particular Obrist, Les débuts de l’imagerie alchimique. 2 Basil Valentine, Von den grossen Stein der uhralten Weisen. On Valentine see Priesner, “Johann Thoelde und die Schriften des Basilius Valentinus,” and on contemporane- ous interpretations of his emblems see Principe, “Apparatus and Reproducibility in Alchemy,” esp. 59–62. 3 Lambspringk, De lapide philosophorum; Mutus liber. 4 Maier, Atalanta fugiens; for an analysis of the origins of elements of the emblems, see de Jong, Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens. 5 Stoltzius von Stoltzenberg, Chymisches Lustgärtlein; Mylius, Philosophia reformata..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Alchemical Culture and Poetry in Early Modern England
    Alchemical culture and poetry in early modern England PHILIP BALL Nature, 4–6 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK There is a longstanding tradition of using alchemical imagery in poetry. It first flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, when the status of alchemy itself was revitalised in European society. Here I explain the reasons for this resurgence of the Hermetic arts, and explore how it was manifested in English culture and in particular in the literary and poetic works of the time. In 1652 the English scholar Elias Ashmole published a collection of alchemical texts called Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum, comprising ‘Several Poeticall Pieces of Our Most Famous English Philosophers’. Among the ‘chemical philosophers’ represented in the volume were the fifteenth-century alchemists Sir George Ripley and Thomas Norton – savants who, Ashmole complained, were renowned on the European continent but unduly neglected in their native country. Ashmole trained in law, but through his (second) marriage to a rich widow twenty years his senior he acquired the private means to indulge at his leisure a scholarly passion for alchemy and astrology. A Royalist by inclination, he had been forced to leave his London home during the English Civil War and had taken refuge in Oxford, the stronghold of Charles I’s forces. In 1677 he donated his impressive collection of antiquities to the University of Oxford, and the building constructed to house them became the Ashmolean, the first public museum in England. Ashmole returned to London after the civil war and began to compile the Theatrum, which was intended initially as a two-volume work.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemical Journey Into the Divine in Victorian Fairy Tales
    Studia Religiologica 51 (1) 2018, s. 33–45 doi:10.4467/20844077SR.18.003.9492 www.ejournals.eu/Studia-Religiologica Alchemical Journey into the Divine in Victorian Fairy Tales Emilia Wieliczko-Paprota https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8662-6490 Institute of Polish Language and Literature University of Gdańsk [email protected] Abstract This article demonstrates the importance of alchemical symbolism in Victorian fairy tales. Contrary to Jungian analysts who conceived alchemy as forgotten knowledge, this study shows the vivid tra- dition of alchemical symbolism in Victorian literature. This work takes the readers through the first stage of the alchemical opus reflected in fairy tale symbols, explains the psychological and spiritual purposes of alchemy and helps them to understand the Victorian visions of mystical transforma- tion. It emphasises the importance of spirituality in Victorian times and accounts for the similarity between Victorian and alchemical paths of transformation of the self. Keywords: fairy tales, mysticism, alchemy, subconsciousness, psyche Słowa kluczowe: bajki, mistyka, alchemia, podświadomość, psyche Victorian interest in alchemical science Nineteenth-century fantasy fiction derived its form from a different type of inspira- tion than modern fantasy fiction. As Michel Foucault accurately noted, regarding Flaubert’s imagination, nineteenth-century fantasy was more erudite than imagina- tive: “This domain of phantasms is no longer the night, the sleep of reason, or the uncertain void that stands before desire, but, on the contrary, wakefulness, untir- ing attention, zealous erudition, and constant vigilance.”1 Although, as we will see, Victorian fairy tales originate in the subconsciousness, the inspiration for symbolic 1 M. Foucault, Fantasia of the Library, [in:] Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, D.F.
    [Show full text]
  • Newton's Dark Secrets
    Original broadcast: November 15, 2005 BEFORE WATCHING Newton’s Dark Secrets 1 Ask students what they know about Sir Isaac Newton. List student answers on the board. Where and when did he live? What did he do? PROGRAM CONTENTS What is he most known for? NOVA presents the life and science of 2 Organize students into three Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), one of groups. As they watch, have each the greatest scientists who ever lived. group take notes on one of the following topics: Newton’s key scientific and mathematical discov- The program: eries, his religious journey, and his • chronicles Newton’s upbringing in the early part of the work in alchemy. Scientific Revolution. • recounts Newton’s attendance at Trinity College at Cambridge University in England, where he studied the latest scientific ideas, AFTER WATCHING and his return to his hometown of Woolsthorpe four years later when the plague struck Cambridge. 1 Have students who took notes on • reviews the advances Newton made in gravity, calculus, and the the same topic meet and present their notes. Ask the following composition of light while he was at Woolsthorpe. questions as different teams • relates Newton’s return to Cambridge, where he was appointed the share their notes: What were some Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair currently held by physicist of Newton’s mathematical and Stephen Hawking. scientific contributions? Which are • reports how Newton solved the problem of chromatic aberration in important in the world today? What role did religion play in his life? refracting telescopes by designing and building a reflecting telescope Why was he interested in alchemy? based on mirrors rather than lenses.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored
    ALCHEMY REDISCOVERED AND RESTORED BY ARCHIBALD COCKREN WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXTRACTION OF THE SEED OF METALS AND THE PREPARATION OF THE MEDICINAL ELIXIR ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE HERMETIC ART AND OF THE ALKAHEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER TO MRS. MEYER SASSOON PHILADELPHIA, DAVID MCKAY ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1941 Alchemy Rediscovered And Restored By Archibald Cockren. This web edition created and published by Global Grey 2013. GLOBAL GREY NOTHING BUT E-BOOKS TABLE OF CONTENTS THE SMARAGDINE TABLES OF HERMES TRISMEGISTUS FOREWORD PART I. HISTORICAL CHAPTER I. BEGINNINGS OF ALCHEMY CHAPTER II. EARLY EUROPEAN ALCHEMISTS CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF NICHOLAS FLAMEL CHAPTER IV. BASIL VALENTINE CHAPTER V. PARACELSUS CHAPTER VI. ALCHEMY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES CHAPTER VII. ENGLISH ALCHEMISTS CHAPTER VIII. THE COMTE DE ST. GERMAIN PART II. THEORETICAL CHAPTER I. THE SEED OF METALS CHAPTER II. THE SPIRIT OF MERCURY CHAPTER III. THE QUINTESSENCE (I) THE QUINTESSENCE. (II) CHAPTER IV. THE QUINTESSENCE IN DAILY LIFE PART III CHAPTER I. THE MEDICINE FROM METALS CHAPTER II. PRACTICAL CONCLUSION 'AUREUS,' OR THE GOLDEN TRACTATE SECTION I SECTION II SECTION III SECTION IV SECTION V SECTION VI SECTION VII THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION OF HERMES 1 Alchemy Rediscovered And Restored By Archibald Cockren THE SMARAGDINE TABLES OF HERMES TRISMEGISTUS said to be found in the Valley of Ebron, after the Flood. 1. I speak not fiction, but what is certain and most true. 2. What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below for performing the miracle of one thing.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sun Invincible Timothy J
    The Sun Invincible Timothy J. O’Neill, FRC In this article, Timothy J. O’Neill, a member of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC’s International Research Council, explores the esoteric meaning of the Sun in Alchemy and the Mystery Religions. he shaman, alchemist, and to be seen as the localization of the great blacksmith all share one surprising universal driving force of evolution and Tand outstanding characteristic: they life itself. are all masters of fire. And each of these fire As one of the great philosophical masters is expert in the art of transformation. and mystical traditions, alchemy can be From the awakening of human simply defined as the art of accelerating awareness, it was clear that fire and heat nature’s slow and gradual work of universal contain the mystery of change, death, and perfection as exemplified in the process of rebirth. That which is burned is often the biological evolution. In our context, it is grounds for new life, as anyone who has the solar fire of evolution which speeds watched the process of plant re-growth alchemy’s refined work of perfection. following a forest fire will understand. It As the alchemists quickly learned, was also apparent to earliest people that though, the unbridled heart of the solar the greatest source of fire—that embodied force burns too quickly and intensely in the Sun—was the origin or basis of all by itself. That is why, in the practice of life and being. The warmth of the flesh, alchemy, the Sun is rarely found apart from the heat of the internal organs, the passion, its natural companion, the moon, which excitement, and enthusiasm for life, all this is characterized by its moist, cooling, was likened to the gentle warmth of the vaporous currents.
    [Show full text]
  • PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance
    Graduate School ETD Form 9 (Revised 12/07) PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis/Dissertation Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis/dissertation prepared By Angela C. Ghionea Entitled RECURRING THOUGHT PATTERNS AND RESURFACING ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS IN EUROPEAN, HELLENISTIC, ARABIC, AND BYZANTINE ALCHEMY FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD Doctor of Philosophy For the degree of Is approved by the final examining committee: James R. Farr Chair Myrdene Anderson Anthony T. Grafton To the best of my knowledge and as understood by the student in the Research Integrity and Copyright Disclaimer (Graduate School Form 20), this thesis/dissertation adheres to the provisions of Purdue University’s “Policy on Integrity in Research” and the use of copyrighted material. Approved by Major Professor(s): ____________________________________James R. Farr ____________________________________ Approved by: Douglas R. Hurt 04/16/2013 Head of the Graduate Program Date RECURRING THOUGHT PATTERNS AND RESURFACING ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS IN EUROPEAN, HELLENISTIC, ARABIC, AND BYZANTINE ALCHEMY FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Angela Catalina Ghionea In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana UMI Number: 3591220 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3591220 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013).
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemylab Articles\374
    Alchemical Theory The One Thing (or the Subtle Ether) Space, whether interplanetary, inner matter, or inter-organic, is filled with a subtle presence emanating from the One Thing of the universe. Later alchemists called it, as did the ancients, the subtle Ether. This primordial fluid or fabric of space pervades everything and all matter. Metal, mineral, tree, plant, animal, man; each is charged with the Ether in varying degrees. All life on the planet is charged in like manner; a world is built up in this fluid and move through a sea of it. Alchemical Ether, which some Hermeticists call the Astral Light, determines the constitution of bodies. Hardness and softness, solidity and liquidity, all depend on the relative proportion of ethereal and ponderable matter of which they me composed. The arbitrary division and classification of physical science, the whole range of physical phenomena, proceeds from the primary Ether, for science has reduced matter as we know it to nothing but Ether, which, although not solid matter, is still matter, the First Matter of the alchemists. When most of us speak of matter, of course, we usually visualize solid substance, but it has been proved by that matter is not actually solid, but merely a stress, a strain in the etheric field of time and space. The atom and the electrons and protons of which it is composed, all move in a sea of Ether, so, that in accordance with this theory of alchemy, the very air we breathe, the very bodies we inhabit, all things most likewise be moving in this sea of Ether, the parent element from which all manifestation has come.
    [Show full text]
  • Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts, 1500-1825
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf838nb2kp Online items available Finding aid for the Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, 1500-1825 Finding aid prepared by Trevor Bond. Finding aid for the Manly Palmer 950053 1 Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, 1500-1825 ... Descriptive Summary Title: Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts Date (inclusive): 1500-1825 Number: 950053 Creator/Collector: Hall, Manly P. (Manly Palmer), 1901-1990 Physical Description: 7.5 linear feet(243 vols.) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688 (310) 440-7390 Abstract: A collection of 243 manuscripts detailing the arts of Alchemy, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and Masonry, gathered by Manly Palmer Hall, author and researcher in the realms of mysticism and the occult. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy. Language: Collection material is in Latin Biographical/Historical Note Manley Hall was born in 1901,in Peterborough, Canada, to William S. and Louise Palmer Hall. The Hall family moved to the United States in 1904 and lived for a time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Manly Hall settled in Los Angeles in 1919. As a young man he became interested in occult matters. He subsequently joined a number of societies, among them the Theosophical Society, the Freemasons, the Societas Rosecruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, and the American Federation of Astrologers. In 1922 Manly Hall wrote his first book on philosophy/religion, Initiates of the Flame. According to Hall, he began collecting works on mysticism and the esoteric sciences: "late in the fall of 1922, the plan for a comprehensive work on the symbolism of western mystical societies began to take shape in my mind.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra
    SYDNEY STUDIES Alchemical Reference in Antony and Cleopatra LYNDALL ABRAHAM Lepidus: Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun: so is your crocodile. (II.vii.26-7) The phrase "the operation of your sun" is a distinctly alchemical term. It refers to the opus alchymicum as a whole and is first known to occur in one of the oldest and most famous alchemical documents, the Emerald Table: "What I have said concerning the operation of the Sun is finished."1 The Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Table, ascribed to Hermes Tris­ megistus or the Egyptian Thoth, was not only one of the most important sources of medieval alchemy, but continued to be considered as the basis of alI alchemical law by alchemists right through to the seventeenth cen­ tury. The earliest known version was discovered by E. J. Holmyard in an eighth-century Arabic text, and it was translated into Latin around the time of the thirteenth century. The first English translation appears as a part of Roger Bacon's The Mirror of Alchimy (London 1597). The con­ tents of the influential Table occur repeatedly in both Renaissance and seventeenth-century alchemical treatises, including John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica (1564: reprinted in 1591 and included in the alchemical anthology Theatrum Chemicum in 1602), the De Alchemia (1541-Table included in full), George Ripley's The Compound of Alchymie (1591), William Bloomfield's Bloomfield's Blossoms, Thomas Norton's Ordinal of Alchemy (1477), and Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens (1617).2 In Euphrates or The Waters
    [Show full text]
  • Probatur Temporis
    Liber Probatur Temporis Vol I Edited by Brother AMB The Alchemist’s Guild © Page 2 Version Notice v5.1 - 15/5/2000 (first edition 1990) Alchemists Guild NZ © (The Black Book – First Standard edition) The Alchemist’s Guild © Page 3 Orientation This course of study in Hermeticism stretches over a set of ten volumes. Named below: Vol I Probatur Temporis (Temporary trial - Probation) Vol II Probatur totus (Completion of Probation) Vol III Ars Imperium Mens (The Art of Controlling the Mind) Vol IV Prima Alchemae ( Primer Lab manual) Vol V Discipulus Inceptor (Apprentice Papers) Vol VI Regula (Regulations and rules) Vol VII& VIII Miftach Aben (The Key to the Stone – Adept Papers) Vol IX Aspicio Mens (Advanced Trancework) Vol X Annexes The Alchemist’s Guild © Page 4 A Brief Overview Of This Introductory Discourse “I have found that in this Meditation there are five principle heads, which must be diligently considered, as much by all who are in possession of the wisdom of philosophy as by all who aspire after that wisdom which is attained by our art. The first is the invocation of God; the second, the contemplation of Nature; the third, true preparation; the fourth, the way of using; the fifth, the use and profit. He who does not carefully attend to these points will never be included amoung the real Alchemists, or be numbered amoung the perfect professors of the spagyric science.” (Basile Valentine – The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony - 1602) It is important right from the outset to understand exactly what this introductory discourse seeks to achieve, so that we might focus on what is important and avoid unnecessary distractions, thereby making the most of an intention to study productively.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical
    Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2014 The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life Stanton Marlan Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Marlan, S. (2014). The hiP losophers' Stone: Alchemical Imagination and the Soul's Logical Life (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/874 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Copyright by Stanton Marlan 2014 THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan Approved November 20, 2014 ________________________________ ________________________________ Tom Rockmore, Ph.D. James Swindal, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy Emeritus (Committee Member) (Committee Chair) ________________________________ Edward Casey, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal, Ph.D. Ronald Polansky, Ph.D. Dean, The McAnulty College and Chair, Department of Philosophy Graduate School of Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT THE PHILOSOPHERS’ STONE: ALCHEMICAL IMAGINATION AND THE SOUL’S LOGICAL LIFE By Stanton Marlan December 2014 Dissertation supervised by Tom Rockmore, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Thirteenth Plate
    Thirteenth Plate When examining this thirteenth plate the reader will imme- diately notice that it closely resembles the tenth plate with its partition between the practical and the symbolical parts of the image. We can conclude that there have been six consecutive plates that appear in pairs. Each pair at first glance seems identical but this is not quite the case, as we have pointed out earlier, and neither is it the case for this plate. Upon closer examination a number of suprising discrepancies will come to light. Let us have a closer look at the man who simultaneously pours out two flasks, each into one of the two plates of the scale. Now only two asterisks appear in the flask in his right hand whilst the one he is holding in his left hand shows no more than a tiny sun instead of the flosculus it was marked with previously. The two little signs which have disappeared and which have remained inside the recipient together constitute the famous re, in other words, two thirds of rer and half of the initial rere. It is not our intention here to try and complicate or obscure the earlier mentioned elucidation by Fulcanelli on this matter. Jacob Sulat’s teachings, to which we rigorously adhere, preceded the Mystery of the Cathedrals by two and a half centuries. The book of the Master refers to the compost and it is this same enigma to which the Lallemant hotel and the tenth and thirteenth engravings of the Mutus Liber refer. This compost is the term used in ancient treatises for the philosophic composite which is ready to raise itself and go through the progression that is ponderable both in terms of colour and sound and which is in perfect harmony with the progressive growth of the external or elementary fire.
    [Show full text]