Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
Illinois Classical Studies
Alchemy in the Ancient World: From Science to Magic1990 •
"Alchemy" is the anglicised Byzantine name given to what its practitioners referred to as "the Art" (τἐχνη) or "Knowledge" (ἐπιστήμη), often characterised as divine (θεία), sacred (ἱερά) or mystic (μυστική). While this "techne" underwent many changes in the course of its life of over two thousand years (and there are traces of it even in modern times, as I will discuss), a recognisable common denominator in all the writings is the search for a method of transforming base metals (copper, iron, lead, tin) into noble (electrum, gold or silver). There is unfortunately no modern critical edition of any of these writings (the extant editions being old or uncritical or both), though the Budé has begun the process. In this essay I sketch the background and origins of the ancient alchemy, as well as its later transmutation into a mystical art of personal transformation. Finally I turn to the modern period and briefly examine the influence of this mystical tradition in our own world-picture.
Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU, VOL. 16, 2010, 166-190.
Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy2010 •
Initiation into hermeics by Franz, Bardon
Initiation into Hermetics Volume I Of The Holy Mysteries Copy of the 2001 Merkur Edition of Initiation into Hermetics byRenaissance Quarterly
Stanton J. Linden, ed., Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture (Brooklyn: AMS Press, Inc., 2007)2008 •
In Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture, Stanton J. Linden has collected together sixteen essays exploring the varied and reciprocal exchanges between alchemical thought and the wider culture of the Renaissance. He takes the fortieth anniversary, in ...
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.
2016 •
Depth Psychology and Mysticism
Divine Darkness and Divine Light: Alchemical Illumination and the Mystical Play Between Knowing and Unknowing2018 •
2016 •
La Rosa di Paracelso
Divine Images: Zosimos of Panopolis's Spiritual Approach to Alchemy2019 •
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
Art and Alchemy: The Mystery of Transformation2015 •