DOCSLIB.ORG

A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More Information

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More Information Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information ADictionary of Alchemical Imagery This dictionary documents the rich store-house of alchemical symbolism from the early centuries ad to the late twentieth century, making it available for the use of historians of literary culture, philosophy,science and the visual arts,as well as for those readers with an interest in alchemy and hermeticism.The emphasis is on literary and intellectual references to alchemy in the Western tradition,written in or translated into English.The dictionary focuses most closely on works current in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when alchemy flourished,captivating the minds of some of the greatest figures of the day,from Sir Walter Raleigh to Isaac Newton.Each entry includes a definition of the symbol,giving the literal (physical) and figurative (spiritual) meanings,an example of the symbol used in alchemical writing,and a quotation from a literary source.Writers cited range from Shakespeare,Milton and Donne to Vladimir Nabokov and P.G. Wodehouse.Drawing from the unique holdings of the Ferguson Collection at the University of Glasgow,the dictionary offers a representative selection of fifty visual images (graphic woodcuts, copperplate engravings,or hand-painted emblems),some of which have not been reproduced since they first appeared. lyndy abraham is a Research Fellow in the School of English, University of New South Wales.Her books include Marvell andAlchemy, and a critical edition of Arthur Dee’s Fasciculus chemicus.She has published numerous journal articles on the subject of alchemy, specializing in Renaissance studies. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information Illustrations from the Ferguson Collection of alchemical books and manuscripts,University of Glasgow Library © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery LyndyAbraham © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press Th e Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521000000 © Lyndy Abraham 1998 Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1998 Reprinted 2000 First paperback edition 2001 Seventh printing 2010 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Abraham, Lyndy. A dictionary of alchemical imagery / Lyndy Abraham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0 521 63185 8 (hardback) isbn 0 521 00000 9 (paperback) 1. Alchemy in literature. 2. Symbolism in literature. 3. European literature–History and criticism. 4. Alchemy– Dictionaries. I. Title. pn56.a44a27 1998 809´.9337–dc21 98-4544 cip isbn 978-0-521-63185-3 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-00000-0 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of fi rst printing but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information ToMichaelWilding © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information Contents List of figures [ix] Acknowledgements [xii] Abbreviations [xiii] Introduction [xv] Adictionary of alchemical imagery [1] Bibliography [222] Index of alchemical and literary authors [236] © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information Figures 1 The ablution.From Rosarium philosophorum in Alchimia opuscula complura veterum philosophorum ...alchimiae de lapide philosophico vero modo praeparando,Cyriacus Iacobus,Frankfurt, 1550,38r [2] 2 The king and queen in their bath. From Johann Mylius, Philosophia reformata, Lucas Jennis,Frankfurt, 1622, emblem 4 (second series), 224 [17] 3 The bed as vessel. From‘Incipit tractulus de phenice sive de lapide philosophico’ (Sir George Ripley’s‘Cantilena’),British Library Additional ms 11,388 (Collection of Francis Thynne,Lancaster Herald 1564–1606), f.36r [19] 4 The beheading.From‘Buch von Vunderverken’(Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit) (seventeenth century), University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 4,f.5r [21] 5 Raining birds.From Johann Mylius, Philosophia reformata,emblem 9 (third series), 359 [23] 6 Amorous birds of prey.From Lambsprinck,De Lapide Philosophico,in Musaeum Hermeticum,Lucas Jennis,1625, 21 [24] 7 The Bird of Hermes eating her wings.From the‘Emblematicall Scrowle’, attributed to Sir George Ripley,Bodleian Library Ashm.Rolls 52 a.1535 [26] 8 The red man and white woman coupling in the mercurial sea. From Rosarium philosophorum,22v [36] 9 The chemical wedding of King Sol and Queen Luna.From Rosarium philosophorum,13r [37] 10 The lovers in the coffin, with Saturn, the scythe, and skeleton.From Johann Mylius,Philosophia reformata,emblem 6 (second series), 243 [38] 11 Cock and hen.From Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens hoc est Emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymica,Joh.Theodore de Bry,1618, emblem 30, 129 [43] 12 The alchemical dragon.From‘Auroraconsurgens’,University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 6 (sixteenth century), f.223r [59] 13 Philosophical egg.From University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 31 (eighteenth century), f.8r [67] 14 The Ethiopian.From‘Handbucht zu welchem ordentlich beschriben ist Neme von mir L.nebst Gottl.Kültte L.ausgemuchte Universal Tinctur’(seventeenth century), University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 64,f.29r [71] 15 The alchemical flowers.From‘Alchimistiche Manuskript’(1550), Basel, Universitätsbibliothek mliv1 [79] 16 The green lion swallowing the sun.From Rosarium philosophorum,86r [93] 17 The alchemical hermaphrodite with the tree of sun and moon.From Johann Mylius,Philosophia reformata,emblem 10 (second series), 262 [99] 18 The alchemical homunculus.From Aurora consurgens,University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 6 (sixteenth century), f.220v [102] 19 Incest: the king crawling under his mother’s skirt.From‘Incipit tractulus de phenice sive de lapide philosophico’(Sir George Ripley’s‘Cantilena’), British Library Additional ms 11,388 (Collection of Francis Thynne,Lancaster Herald 1564–1606) f.36r [107] ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-00000-0 - A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery Lyndy Abraham Frontmatter More information List of figures 20 Rex marinus.From Michael Maier,Atalanta fugiens,emblem 31, 133 [111] 21 The king rising from his coffin. From Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens,emblem 44, 185 [112] 22 The birth of the king as philosopher’s stone.From Johann Mylius,Philosophia reformata,emblem 19 (second series), 300 [113] 23 Luna.From‘Buch von Vunderverken’(‘Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit’) (seven- teenth century), University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 4,f.15v [119] 24 Mercurius.From University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 6, f.117 [125] 25 Pelican as symbol of the multiplication.From University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 31 (eighteenth century), f.16r [133] 26 The philosophical wheel. From‘Buch von Vunderverken’(‘Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit’) (seventeenth century), University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 4,f.5r [138] 27 Peacock’s tail.From‘Handbucht zu welchem ordentlich beschriben ist Neme von mir L.nebst Gottl.Kültte L.ausgemuchte Universal Tinctur’(seventeenth century), University of Glasgow Library Ferguson ms 64,f.26r [142] 28 The pelican vessel.From Giovanni Baptista della Porta,De distillatione Lib IX,Rev. Camera Apostolica, Rome, 1608,39 [143] 29 The birth of the philosophical child.From an untitled manuscript (eighteenth century,in French), University of Glasgow Ferguson ms 271, p.5 [149] 30 The alchemical
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction: the Nation and the Spectral Wandering Jew
    Notes Introduction: The Nation and the Spectral Wandering Jew 1. According to legend, Christ was driven from Ahasuerus's doorstep where he stopped to rest. In response to the jew's action of striking him while shouting, 'Walk faster!', Christ replied, 'I go, but you will walk until I come again!' (Anderson, Legend: 11). By way of this curse, Christ figuratively transferred his burdensome cross to the jew. 2. As Hyam Maccoby explains, 'One of the strongest beliefs of medieval Christians was that the Second Coming of Christ could not take place until the Jews were con­ verted to Christianity. (Marvell's "till the conversion of the jews" means simply "till the millennium".) The Jews, therefore, had to be preserved; otherwise the Second Coming could not take place' (239). According to Michael Ragussis, British conversionist societies justified their activities by claiming to 'aid in this divine plan, and with a kind of reverse logic their establishment was viewed as a sign of the proximity of the Second Coming' (Figures: 5). 3. Roger of Wendover's Flores historiarwn and Matthew Paris's Chrmzica majora from . the early thirteenth century provide all of the details of the legend, but the transgressor in their versions is Pilate's doorkeeper, a Roman named Cartaphilus, and not a Jew (Anderson, Legend 16-21). \Vhile in certain Italian versions of this tale the accursed wanderer is a Jew (19), he is not described as Jewish in the British legend until the early seventeenth century. The conjunction between the entry of this legend and Jews into England is in keeping with N.J.
    [Show full text]
  • Slater V. Baker and Stapleton (C.B. 1767): Unpublished Monographs by Robert D. Miller
    SLATER V. BAKER AND STAPLETON (C.B. 1767): UNPUBLISHED MONOGRAPHS BY ROBERT D. MILLER ROBERT D. MILLER, J.D., M.S. HYG. HONORARY FELLOW MEDICAL HISTORY AND BIOETHICS DEPARTMENT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON PRINTED BY AUTHOR MADISON, WISCONSIN 2019 © ROBERT DESLE MILLER 2019 BOUND BY GRIMM BOOK BINDERY, MONONA, WI AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION These unpublished monographs are being deposited in several libraries. They have their roots in my experience as a law student. I have been interested in the case of Slater v. Baker and Stapleton since I first learned of it in law school. I was privileged to be a member of the Yale School Class of 1974. I took an elective course with Dr. Jay Katz on the protection of human subjects and then served as a research assistant to Dr. Katz in the summers of 1973 and 1974. Dr. Katz’s course used his new book EXPERIMENTATION WITH HUMAN BEINGS (New York: Russell Sage Foundation 1972). On pages 526-527, there are excerpts from Slater v. Baker. I sought out and read Slater v. Baker. It seemed that there must be an interesting backstory to the case, but it was not accessible at that time. I then practiced health law for nearly forty years, representing hospitals and doctors, and writing six editions of a textbook on hospital law. I applied my interest in experimentation with human beings by serving on various Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) during that period. IRBs are federally required committees that review and approve experiments with humans at hospitals, universities and other institutions.
    [Show full text]
  • 260 Paul Kléber Monod This Is an Ambitious Book. Monod's
    260 book reviews Paul Kléber Monod Solomon’s Secret Arts: The Occult in the Age of Enlightenment, New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2013. x + 430 pp. isbn 978-0-300-12358-6. This is an ambitious book. Monod’s subject is the occult, by which he means ‘a type of thinking expressed either in writing or in action, that allowed the boundary between the natural and the supernatural to be crossed by the ac- tions of human beings’ (p. 5). Although he cites the work of Antoine Faivre, Wouter Hanegraaff and others, readers of Aries will doubtless be interested to learn Monod’s reasoning for using the term occult in preference to West- ern esotericism. In short, while acknowledging the important contribution of the ‘esoteric approach’ he also highlights its perceived ‘shortcomings’, namely a tendency to regard relevant texts as ‘comprising a discrete and largely self- referential intellectual tradition, hermetically sealed so as to ward off the taint of other forms of thought, not to mention social trends and popular practices’. Moreover, ‘scholars of esoteric religion’ apparently ‘have a tendency to inter- pret whatever they are studying with the greatest seriousness, so that hucksters and charlatans turn into philosophers, and minor references in obscure eso- teric works take on labyrinthine significances’ (p. 10). In practice, what Monod understands here as the occult is largely restricted to alchemy, astrology and rit- ual magic; a maelstrom which, among other things, pulled in readers of Hermes Trismegistus, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme and the Kabbalah, outwardly respectable scientists and anti-Trinitarians (sometimes one and the same); Philadelphians; French Prophets; Freemasons; students of Ancient Britain and the Druids; cunning folk; authors of popular Gothic novels; certain followers of Emmanuel Swedenborg; Neoplatonists; advocates of Ani- mal magnetism; and Judaized millenarians.
    [Show full text]
  • A Lexicon of Alchemy
    A Lexicon of Alchemy by Martin Rulandus the Elder Translated by Arthur E. Waite John M. Watkins London 1893 / 1964 (250 Copies) A Lexicon of Alchemy or Alchemical Dictionary Containing a full and plain explanation of all obscure words, Hermetic subjects, and arcane phrases of Paracelsus. by Martin Rulandus Philosopher, Doctor, and Private Physician to the August Person of the Emperor. [With the Privilege of His majesty the Emperor for the space of ten years] By the care and expense of Zachariah Palthenus, Bookseller, in the Free Republic of Frankfurt. 1612 PREFACE To the Most Reverend and Most Serene Prince and Lord, The Lord Henry JULIUS, Bishop of Halberstadt, Duke of Brunswick, and Burgrave of Luna; His Lordship’s mos devout and humble servant wishes Health and Peace. In the deep considerations of the Hermetic and Paracelsian writings, that has well-nigh come to pass which of old overtook the Sons of Shem at the building of the Tower of Babel. For these, carried away by vainglory, with audacious foolhardiness to rear up a vast pile into heaven, so to secure unto themselves an immortal name, but, disordered by a confusion and multiplicity of barbarous tongues, were ingloriously forced. In like manner, the searchers of Hermetic works, deterred by the obscurity of the terms which are met with in so many places, and by the difficulty of interpreting the hieroglyphs, hold the most noble art in contempt; while others, desiring to penetrate by main force into the mysteries of the terms and subjects, endeavour to tear away the concealed truth from the folds of its coverings, but bestow all their trouble in vain, and have only the reward of the children of Shem for their incredible pain and labour.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemy Ancient and Modern
    PLATE I. EFFIGIES HlPJ^SELCr JWEDlCI PORTRAIT OF PARACELSUS [Frontispiece ALCHEMY : ANCIENT AND MODERN BEING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ALCHEMISTIC DOC- TRINES, AND THEIR RELATIONS, TO MYSTICISM ON THE ONE HAND, AND TO RECENT DISCOVERIES IN HAND TOGETHER PHYSICAL SCIENCE ON THE OTHER ; WITH SOME PARTICULARS REGARDING THE LIVES AND TEACHINGS OF THE MOST NOTED ALCHEMISTS BY H. STANLEY REDGROVE, B.Sc. (Lond.), F.C.S. AUTHOR OF "ON THE CALCULATION OF THERMO-CHEMICAL CONSTANTS," " MATTER, SPIRIT AND THE COSMOS," ETC, WITH 16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND AND REVISED EDITION LONDON WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD. 8 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 4 1922 First published . IQH Second Edition . , . 1922 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION IT is exceedingly gratifying to me that a second edition of this book should be called for. But still more welcome is the change in the attitude of the educated world towards the old-time alchemists and their theories which has taken place during the past few years. The theory of the origin of Alchemy put forward in I has led to considerable discussion but Chapter ; whilst this theory has met with general acceptance, some of its earlier critics took it as implying far more than is actually the case* As a result of further research my conviction of its truth has become more fully confirmed, and in my recent work entitled " Bygone Beliefs (Rider, 1920), under the title of The Quest of the Philosophers Stone," I have found it possible to adduce further evidence in this connec tion. At the same time, whilst I became increasingly convinced that the main alchemistic hypotheses were drawn from the domain of mystical theology and applied to physics and chemistry by way of analogy, it also became evident to me that the crude physiology of bygone ages and remnants of the old phallic faith formed a further and subsidiary source of alchemistic theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Medicine, Astrology, and Written Records
    Casebooks in Early Modern England: Medicine, Astrology, and Written Records Lauren Kassell Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Volume 88, Number 4, Winter 2014, pp. 595-625 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.2014.0066 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/564670 [ Access provided at 5 Oct 2021 13:50 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] Casebooks in Early Modern England: Medicine, Astrology, and Written Records LAUREN KASSELL Summary: Casebooks are the richest sources that we have for encounters between early modern medical practitioners and their patients. This article compares astrological and medical records across two centuries, focused on England, and charts developments in the ways in which practitioners kept records and reflected on their practices. Astrologers had a long history of working from particular moments, stellar configurations, and events to general rules. These practices required systematic notation. Physicians increasingly modeled themselves on Hip- pocrates, recording details of cases as the basis for reasoned expositions of the histories of disease. Medical records, as other scholars have demonstrated, shaped the production of medical knowledge. Instead, this article focuses on the nature of casebooks as artifacts of the medical encounter. It establishes that casebooks were serial records of practice, akin to diaries, testimonials, and registers; identi- fies extant English casebooks and the practices that led to their production and preservation; and concludes that the processes of writing, ordering, and preserv- ing medical records are as important for understanding the medical encounter as the records themselves. Keywords: casebooks, medical records, astrology, paper technologies, cases, patients, Simon Forman, Richard Napier This research has been supported by the Wellcome Trust, through an Enhancement Award 2004–9 and a Strategic Award 2009–14 on “Generation to Reproduction” (grants 074298 and 088708).
    [Show full text]
  • Remarks Upon Alchemy and the Alchemists
    Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Research Library, The Getty Research Institute http://www.archive.org/details/remarksuponalcheOOhitc NEW THOUGTIT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION' No. REMARKS ALCHEMY AND THE ALCHEMISTS, INDICATIXG A METHOD OF DISCOVEKI^'G THE TEUE NATURE OF HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY; A^D SHOWING THAT THE SEARCH AFTER HAD NOT FOR ITS OBJECT THE DISCOVERY OF AN AGENT FOR THE TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. BEING ALSO AS ATTEMPT TO RESCUE FROM UNDESERVED OPPROBRIUM THE REPUTATION OF A CLASS OF EXTEAORDIXARY THINKEES IN PAST AGES. ' Man shall not live by bread alone." BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS, AND COMPANY, 111 Washington Street. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by Crosby, Nichols, and Company, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. cambsidge: metcalf and company, printers to the tjnrversitt. NE¥/ THOUGHT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION No. PEEFACE. ED.W. PARKER, L ittle Ruc k, Ark. It may seem superfluous in the author of the fol- lowing remarks to disclaim the purpose of re vivino- the study of Alchemy, or the method of teaching adopted by the Alchemists. Alchemical works stand related to moral and intellectual geography, some- what as the skeletons of ichthyosauri and plesio- sauri are related to geology. They are skeletons of thought in past ages. It is chiefly from this point of view that the writer of the following pages submits his opinions upon Alchemy to the public. He is convinced that the character of the Alchemists, and the object of their study, have been almost universally misconceived ; and as a matter of fact^ though of the past, he thinks it of sufficient importance to take a step in the right direction for developing the true nature of the studies of that extraordinary class of thinkers.
    [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]
  • What Painting Is “A Truly Original Book
    More praise for What Painting Is “A truly original book. It will make you look at paintings differently and think about paint differently.”—Boston Globe “ This is a novel way of considering paintings, and excitingly different from standard art criticism.”—Atlantic Monthly “The best books often introduce new worlds. What Painting Is exposes the reader to painting materials, brushstroke techniques, and alchemy of all things, in a book filled with rich descriptions and illuminating insight. Read this and you’ll never look at paintings in the same way again.”— Columbus Dispatch “ James Elkins, his academic laces untied, traces a mysterious, evocation and an utterly convincing parallel between two spirits grounded in the earth—alchemy and painting. The author is an alchemist of ideas, and a painter. His openness to the love of quicksilver and sulfur, to putrefying animal excretions, and his expertise in imprimaturas, his feeling for the mysteries of the brushstroke —all of these allow him to concoct a heady elixir.” —Roald Hoffmann, Winner of the Noble Prize in Chemistry, 1981 What Painting Is How to Think about Oil Painting, Using the Language of Alchemy James Elkins Routledge New York • London Published in 2000 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Copyright © 1999 by Routledge All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Alchemy, the Ancient Science
    Alchemy, the Ancient Science by Neil Powell For centuries a number of men of science and Alchemy, learning spent their lives in the practice of the Ancient alchemy, searching for a way to change ordinary metals into gold. Why did they try? Science Did any of them succeed? We know that alchemists today continue the old tradition and the age-old quest. Will they succeed? Contents 1 The Meaning of Alchemy The basic ideas and processes of the traditional alchemists. 2 The Principles of Alchemy 24 The theoretical background to the work that the alchemists carried out. 3 Two Mysterious Frenchmen 40 Flamel, a medieval alchemist, and Fulcanelli, a modern writer on alchemy. 4 The Medieval Masters 54 Mysterious figures, half-veiled in legend, of alchemy's great period. 5 The Wandering Alchemists 80 The masters who traveled from city to city contacting other adepts. 6 What Happened to Alchemy? 96 The changes that occurred in alchemy as the infant sciences developed. 7 Sex and Symbolism 118 The course of Eastern alchemy, and how it influenced alchemy in the West. 8 Alchemy Lives On 130 The practice of alchemy in the 20th century. The Meaning of Alchemy It is late at night. In a room hidden away Absorbed in the long labor of a dual search—for the secret that from prying eyes, an old man bends over a will enable him to transmute base flask of bubbling colored liquid. All around metal into gold and to achieve spiritual perfection—the alchemist is a clutter of jars, bottles, and apparatus pursued his involved experiments, laying the foundations for the that looks somewhat like the equipment in a science, then still unborn, that modern school chemistry laboratory.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Ix. the Spiritual Conferences (1581-1589)
    CHAPTER IX. THE SPIRITUAL CONFERENCES (1581-1589). I. The True and Faithful Relation and additional M.S. sources — Casaubon’s objects in publishing the T.F.R. in 1659 — to confute atheism and discredit enthusiasm — his view of Dee as deluded by devils. II. The conferences mark no abrupt discontinuity in Dee’s career — their conformity with his general interests and speculations — the Angelic realm a recognised topic in Natural Philosophy — Platonism and intermediate spiritual entities — sixteenth century pneumatology — belief in prevalence of spirits and their communion with men — Platonic hierarchy of spirits reflected even in conventional scale of demons — such a scale encourages view that the less malevolent and powerful may be safely dealt with or controlled — confusion of such demons with daemons and fairies — resemblance of Kelley’s “angels” to traditional fairies — Dee’s insistence that they can only be servants of God perhaps influenced by Platonic doctrines of negativity of evil — the usual orthodox condemnation of all dealings with spirits — but the doctrine that man may come consciously to associate with angels in this life a familiar feature in contemporary mystical Platonism — similarity of Kelley’s “angelic books” and the Cabalah — the frequency of crystal gazing — Dee’s own view of the conferences as the crown and seal of all his past intellectual endeavour — scrying as one of the chief parts of “experimental science” — the union of practical experience and speculative theology. III. Particular reasons for Dee’s so extensive concentration on the conferences at this date — his apocalyptic view of history — influence of the cyclical theories of Trithemius and progressive revelations through time of Joachim of Flora — Dee’s chronology — connection with astrological teachings — the doctrine of trigons governing historical and religious change — the conjunction of 1583 interpreted as indicating the birth of a new religion or the end of the world.
    [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]