on the history of alchemy
(for a yahoo elist) 
 

[note: the folloing discussion was not part of an academic discourse, but formed part of a casual discussion. So some concepts here may be approximations based on rough memory.]

The question was asked: "Tradition tells us that alchemy comes from ancient Egypt, but what in fact do we know about the earliest references to alchemical concepts or practices that have survived for archeological scrutiny?"

Consideration of the origins of alchemy are important for at least one good reason. When contemplating and attempting to figure out just what the actual (al)chemical boundaries are where the Great Work (confecting the Philosopher's Stone) is concerned, understanding the origins of alchemy, in comparison to modern views in the subject, help our search immensely.

The first thing we need to be aware of is that alchemy can be separated in to two primary disciplines: the lab tradition and the so-called inner tradition. Even for those who don't have any interest in the inner tradition, or don't believe it has any value (and there are lots of people studying alchemy who fit in to that slot), the reality is that it existed, was and is closely bound to the lab tradition.

Academics agree with the esoteric tradition, that aspects of the lab tradition were present in ancient Egypt. But the academic basis for this observation are a group of papyri that have survived until modern times, called the leyden papyri. But these Egyptian documents almost exclusively contain records of chemical operations that describe techniques for faking precious metals and stones. Therefore, they can not, from a learned point of view, be said to be evidence of the existence of a laboratory alchemical tradition. If we are to make an educated guess as to what they represent, we would have to say that they more readily belong to an industry that was focused on producing jewelry and artworks. Academia, though, tells us, based on these papyri, that alchemy (at least in the early historic ages) was entirely based on the art of faking precious metals and gems, and that the concept of the art of transmutation and extended longevity came as a later development. This line of reasoning canot be supported by anyone that has a proper understanding of alchemy in its broader sense, as we shall see in a moment.

These Leyden papyri date from the period of Egyptian history in the few centuries leading immediately up to the beginning of the Christian era. So they are part of the records of a time when 4000 years of Egyptian culture was seriously degenerating. 

So from an (esoterically) educated point of view there are in fact no surviving records which can definitely be said to represent an accurate laboratory alchemical tradition in ancient Egypt 'before the Greeks took over control' 300 years previous to the Christian era. So the question then arises, how do we know that the ancient Egyptians ever really did have an alchemical tradition, in its broader sense? The answer to that question is found in a knowledge of the inner tradition. To be able to understand the nature and relativity of the inner tradition in relation to the lab tradition, as that knowledge is necesary to answering these kinds of questions.

Laboratory alchemy is in itself a model of a mechanism that exists in nature. That is, the core formula that governs the laboratory procedure is found at the heart of natural evolution. Alchemists discovered this formula working in every department of nature, and they applied that formula to (al)chemistry simply as a means of teaching, learning and exploiting the mechanism - for higher purposes. So we can say that this formula is present in the plant, animal and mineral kingdoms. It is found governing over the growth of social systems, art, politics, relationships, etc, etc. The lab tradition exists as a model of this formula specifically applied to chemistry. This formula was that which Paracelsus called 'spagyria'. It is the birth, life, death and rebirth mechanism of all things, systems and conditions in nature. One of the things some alchemists knew about this formula is that it not only exists in the 'outer' world of physical phenomena, but it also exists as the core governing mechanism in the 'inner' (psychological) world. In other words, the birth, life, death and rebirth of our personal and collective psyche is governed by natural alchemical (spagyric) law. What this meant is that the same 'model' of reactions that see carried out in the lab, could also be carried out in the mind.v To understand just how that might be possible we need to possess the skill of analogically transposing the lab model on to the psychological model. Few people today possess uch a skill.

Specifically, just as the lab tradition ultimately is concerned with the production of quintessences, and of the effect of transmutation, rejuvenation, exaltation and longevity, so to was the inner tradition concerned with the production of a psycho-spiritual fifth Element, of the rejuvenation of the mind, the exaltation of its functions and the extension of its healthy activity.

Since we know that no living record of a lab tradition has survived to be discovered, in ancient Egypt, we might ask then, does any record of the inner tradition survive? And the answer to that question is - it most assuredly does.

One of the oldest known records of an alchemical story theme is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story originates in ancient Sumer, and has been dated at around 2500BCE. One of the key themes in the epic is Gilgamesh's search for immortality. He begins this search under the instruction of another human who was made immortal by 'the gods'. But Gilgamesh didn't manage to follow his teachers instruction effectively. So his teacher offered him a lesser substitute, extended longevity. He was to attain that state by harvesting a special plant from deep in the sea. But again Gilgamesh didn't deal with the process properly, and messed up his chances of success. Here we find one of the earliest concepts that a natural substance could be procured that possessed the power to extend human life and maintain good health. The story is presented, obviously, as an allegory (the sea plant is not supposed to be thought of as an actual plant, at least on the surface of the story), but it is also possible that the ancient Sumerians also knew of plants that had such properties. The story is designed, of course, to be a psychological allegory. So (considering the idea that the lab tradition and the inner tradition follow the same natural laws), we might suggest that whatever esoteric knowledge the epic was designed to preserve and teach, it was a species of alchemic knowledge, since the ability to rejuvenate and extend longevity comes under the depoatyment of the spagyric process, which is part of the alchemical action of nature.

The next historic occurance of significance can be found in the records inscribed on the walls of burial chambers in ancient Egypt. The so-called burial texts in the burial chamber of King Unas (for example) is one of the earliest Egyptian examples. But one of the most significant overtly 'alchemical' examples, best preserved, is found in the burial chamber of King Thutmosis III, dated at about 1500BCE. The chamber has a mural painted around its walls depicting a psycho-drama the purpose of which was to obtain a seriously powerful state of psycho-spiritual rejuvenation and exaltation. As I have said the theme is blatantly alchemical, the mural containing a number of symbols which have survived down to our own time in the artwork of the medieval and renaissiance Western alchemical tradition. (And it should be noted that the medieval and renaissance authors of those symbols could not have known about the origin of those symbols, which were still buried beneath the sands of the valley of the Kings. This points to a pure stream of unbroken oral tradition surviving over 3000 years, across several major cultures). Here, for the first time, in a historic context, we can clearly see a deeply psychological explanation of the spagyric mechanics of the mind, containing also hints of an (al)chemical interpretation of aspects of the drama. We see the only clear surviving teaching of a once highly secret esoteric system that understood the laws of (esoteric) physics and the laws of (esoteric) psychology - that the inner and outer realities are bound together by a single unified set of natural laws, and a core natural mechanism that governed the mechanics of both realms.

So if the Egyptians in fact never applied this kind of knowledge physically, as a form of esoteric chemistry, then they certainly knew the science in its first principles that gave access to the development of the lab tradition.

The last idea that we should look at when considering the origins of alchemy, especially the lab tradition, is - just how far back in history can we go and still find examples of physical technology that could have allowed occultists to apply spagyric law to (al)chemistry? The reality is that for such a practice to be possible we need two things: (1) a view of the most simple method of producing transmutation agents and rejuvenatives (that does not involve the use of chemicals that were unknown before the Christian and Moslem eras), and (2) crude lab equipment capable of being used to effect such preparations. I am not going to discuss that subject here because it deserves a specific talk on its own. Suffice it to say ... if we believe transmutation and rejuvenation had been discovered (or learned) in the remotest periods of known history, then we must consider under what experimental (lab) conditions such preparations could have been produced. Once we can learn these simple techniques and the nature of the equipment used in those early experiments, then we find ourselves looking at a condition of the lab tradition that is simple, uncluttered, and clean - requiring none of the heady intellectualisms or complicated chemical manipulations we are used to hearing about in our own age.

In the hope of finding an avenue through which we might begin such an investigation, could (we might ask, for example) the surviving documentary evidence in the burial chamber of Thutmosis III contain clues to a more simple and effective example of the route to laboratory success?