Alchemy was a whole secret science, striving for the transformational improvement of not only minerals, but also the person himself. Who knows - maybe she was the ancient progenitor of today's cyberneticists, geneticists and other sciences, who have changed human life over the past 100 years as magically as alchemists allegedly turned lead into gold?
What if after 20-30 years it turns out that the "charlatans with retorts" were right and really knew the secrets that were lost after the church and the enlightenment drove the alchemists into a hopeless underground?
The goal of alchemists is to implement qualitative changes within an animate or inanimate object, its "rebirth", the transition to a "new level". Alchemy, which deals with the production of gold, the discovery of a medicinal panacea, the elixir of life, the study of the occult essence of substances and chemical reactions, is called external alchemy.
She operates mainly with the Philosopher's Stone, which was also called the "Red Lion", "Great Elixir", "Philosophical Egg", "Red Tincture", "Panacea" and "Life Elixir".
The transmutation of the spirit, the achievement of absolute health or even immortality with the help of certain exercises, is called internal alchemy.
Alchemy was still practiced by the ancient Egyptians. In any case, its name is supposedly derived from the Egyptian word "chemi" (black). These unknown ancient Egyptian scientists allegedly already 4000 years ago seriously took up the study of ferrous metals in order to make them non-ferrous and very shiny. The research of alchemists was originally taken from experiments in the field of metallurgy.
It is highly likely that the first man to mine copper thought he had produced imperfect gold. But alchemy not only looked for a way to return the substance to the lost superiority, but was also an initiation into the sacrament. Passions were purified; not metals, but people passed through the crucible.
The ancient Greeks took over the baton of the ancient Egyptians, who deepened alchemical research in the era of late antiquity (II-VI centuries AD). The Greeks of Alexandria invented metal-planetary alchemical symbolism: silver is the Moon, mercury is Mercury, copper is Venus, gold is the Sun, iron is Mars, tin is Jupiter, and lead is Saturn.
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The heavenly patron of cunning science was the Egyptian god Thoth, whom the Greeks renamed Hermes (in honor of him, alchemy was also called hermetic).
The Alexandrian period left a legacy of many hermetic texts, which were an attempt at a philosophical and mystical explanation of the transformations of substances. The most famous of the books was The Emerald Tablet by Hermes Trismegistus.
In Central Europe, the Celtic Druids are considered the most ancient alchemists.
The ancient Romans, in the heat of building an empire, abandoned the case of alchemists, and after the fall of the Roman Empire, alchemical research moved to the Arab East.
Baghdad became the center of Arab alchemy, and then the Academy in Cordoba. At the end of the 8th century, the Persian hermeticist Jabir ibn Hayyan developed Aristotle's theory of the initial properties of substances (heat, cold, dryness, moisture), adding two more: flammability and "metallicity". He suggested that the inner essence of each metal is always revealed by two of the six properties.
For example, lead is cold and dry, gold is warm and moist. He associated flammability with sulfur, and "metallicity" with mercury, the "ideal metal." Gold - a perfect metal - is formed if completely pure sulfur and mercury are taken in the most favorable proportions.
Jabir ibn Hayyan also introduced the concept of the "philosopher's stone" (a substance that can turn any metal into gold, heal all diseases, give immortality) and homunculus.
In China, Taoist alchemy developed independently, which was aimed mainly at gaining immortality with the help of special medicines. For example, the Chinese alchemist Ge Hong in the 4th century argued that only mineral-based drugs can guarantee immortality; “Golden elixir” (gold plus cinnabar) is the best composition.
The use of arsenic, mercury, sulfur, lead makes these elixirs powerful poisons. Taking them in microscopic doses often has a beneficial effect on the body, accompanied by hallucinations and the acquisition of various miraculous abilities.
And what about Europe? Only after the capture of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs in the 8th century was European science able to enrich itself with the scientific achievements of the East.
The penetration of ancient Greek alchemical ideas into Europe was also facilitated by the study of ancient works by prominent Dominican monks - Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. One of the enthusiasts of Arab alchemy, by the way, was Pope Sylvester II (946-1003).
However, his followers fought desperately with astrology and alchemy, the main sciences of the Middle Ages. The church was not content to burn their books; astrologers and alchemists themselves often perished at the stake.
The first European alchemist was Franciscan Roger Bacon (1214-94), who laid the foundation for experimental chemistry in Europe. He studied the properties of saltpeter and many other substances, found a way to make black powder.
Among other European alchemists, as a rule, Arnaldo da Villanova (1235-1313), Raymond Llull (1235-1313) and Basilius Valentine are mentioned.
Already in the first half of the XIV century, Pope John XXII banned alchemy in Italy, thereby initiating a "witch hunt" directed against alchemists.
Nevertheless, many alchemists (real and imaginary) enjoyed the active support of the authorities. For example, many kings (English Henry VI (1421-71) or French Charles VII (1403-61)) kept court alchemists, expecting them to obtain a recipe for gold, and also urging them to research the "philosopher's stone".
Elector August of Saxony (1526-86) and his wife Anna Datskaya personally conducted experiments: the hubby - in his Dresden "Golden Palace", and his mistress - in the luxuriously equipped laboratory "Pheasant Garden" at her own dacha.
By the way, at the Saxon court, the alchemist Johann Böttger, who could not make gold, was the first in Europe to make porcelain. Dresden has long remained the capital of the sovereigns who patronized alchemy, especially at a time when the rivalry for the neighboring Polish crown demanded significant financial expenditures from the Saxons.
But the periods of favor of the powers that be were replaced by streaks of persecution and repression against the alchemists. However, gold remained the driving force here. On the conscience of the ignorant grandson of the patron saint of alchemists of the Saxon Elector Augustus, Christian II (1583-1611), is the life of the Scottish magician Alexander Setonius (? -1604), who, they say, could create gold with the help of a mysterious powder.
In the early 17th century, he toured the continent, demonstrating his skills in cities in Holland, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. The "independent expert" physician Zwinger (some sources, however, claim that he was a close friend of Setonius, supposedly just a wonderful illusionist) confirmed the regular transformation of lead into pure gold. Christian II invited Setonius to the court. Alexander refused to reveal the secret of transmutation; then the elector handed him over to the executioner.
From time immemorial, Prague was considered the center of occultism, the European analogue of Babylon, “the gate of God”. It was the alchemists who made a significant contribution to the creation of such a reputation for the city. During the era of the Czech kings of the Luxembourg dynasty, the Hermetic was able to influence even such prominent figures as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, the Archbishops of Prague Konrad from Vechta and Albik from Unicov. This science also influenced the wife of King Sigismund of Luxembourg, Barbara Celiska, who began (apparently out of grief for her deceased husband) to experiment successfully with the alchemist Jan from Laz.
At the end of the 15th century, several hermetic laboratories already existed in the Czech Republic. One of them, which belonged to Ginek of Münsterberk, the son of King Jiří Podebradski, has survived in Kutná Hora to this day. An outstanding alchemist who for some time lived at the court of the noble feudal lord Jan III of Lipa in Moravian Krumlov was the Swiss Paracelsus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), or simply Paracelsus, a specialist in alchemy and medicine, considered the founder of modern healing. His followers called him the prince of healers, the philosopher of fire, and the great monarch of chemical secrets.
His work was continued by Bavor Rodovsky of Gustirzany, who achieved very serious knowledge in the field of alchemy, and along the way published one of the first Czech cookbooks.
If his existence is an established fact, then the same cannot be said about the next character actively recorded by the Czechs among the local alchemists. We are talking about the legendary Johann Faust, ruined by Mephistopheles and the glorified Goethe. This sorcerer allegedly practiced black magic, realizing that witchcraft is a very profitable business.
Czech romantics invented a legend according to which Faust was a Bohemian named Shtastny (in Russian - Happy, in Latin - Faustus), who emigrated to Germany and registered there under the name of Faust von Kuttenberg - in honor of his native Kutnaya Gora.
However, the reign of the leader of the Holy Roman Empire and the Czech king Rudolf II (1552-1612) is considered to be the unconditional heyday of Czech alchemy. He was the patron saint of wandering alchemists, and his residence was the center of the alchemical and other mystical sciences of that time. The emperor was called "Germanic Hermes Trismegistus". The sovereign was personally involved in natural sciences, magic, astrology, and was eager to spend time among all kinds of test tubes, crucibles, armillary spheres and alembic stills.
The favorite pastime of the emperor was seances to revive the dead and summon the souls of the dead. Rudolph was an unsociable and mentally unstable person who often fell into depression. He preferred to pay attention not to the problems of the country, but to the crowd of charlatans whom he invited to Prague.
Some of them lived on Golden Lane.
In cramped houses, where you can reach the roof with your hand, alchemists worked on the search for the "philosopher's stone". This place was specially guarded by Kabbalists, because, in their opinion, “Satan could at any moment copulate with the Prague Castle and give birth to Armillos, a monster with two backs of the head and long arms up to the feet. If this happened, then the stone giants of Hradčany would descend, climb over the river and destroy the city."
The secrets of alchemy of Emperor Rudolph were dedicated by his personal physician Gayek of Gayek. It is said about the sovereign that he himself owned the “stone of the wise”. Proof of this was the approximately 15 tons of gold and silver found after his death. During his lifetime, Rudolph also possessed one of the most mysterious documents in the world - the Voynich Manuscript.
It was once acquired by him for 600 ducats, apparently from the English alchemist John Dee, who at the time of the alleged origin of the document (1586) lived at the court of the emperor. Dee apparently received the manuscript from his alchemist partner, Edward Kelly, who, in turn, found it in a Welsh monastery tomb. The manuscript is written in an unknown language; over 160 pages of the document are complemented by unusual drawings of unknown plants and naked women, as well as astrological drawings.
Rudolph II was afraid to death of the Jesuits, as well as representatives of any other order: according to the horoscope, a monk had to kill him. For this reason, he dodged all kinds of church ceremonies and fell into hysterics at the sight of the cross. On the Lion's Courtyard of the Prague Castle, he kept a natural African lion, whose life, according to legend, was allegedly connected by mystical threads with the life of the king.
Along with local scientists, Rudolf II invited foreigners to Prague, among whom there were also swindlers with adventurers. Their career at the imperial court was dizzying, but most often short-lived. If the emperor discovered deception, then in a fit of melancholy he could order the arrest or even execution of the alchemist.
Sorcerers who had come from all over Europe were then wiping cones with miraculous ointments and reagents in Prague smoky houses, behind which eternal youth loomed. A story about any hero of that time is like a fairy tale.
Consider, for example, the story of the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), who moved sick and tired to demonic Prague in 1599 together with astrolabes, hourglasses, sextants, a crowd of students, family and servants, left a deep astronomical and astrological-alchemical trace, and then died of a ruptured bladder during a feast with the participation of the emperor himself …
Under Emperor Rudolf II in Bohemia, alchemists experimented with making gold not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. For example, the West Bohemian Pilsen keeps very vivid memories of local achievements in this area. One of the Pilsen alchemists was a member of the Steglik family from Chenkow and Troystatt.
He was in close contact with the famous astrologer Tycho Brahe, and on Saxony Street he had an observatory and a "gold-mining kitchen", where he conducted it is clear what experiments. True, to no avail. Which, apparently, cannot be said about another alchemist who lived in the Rzhigovsky house, at the corner of Prešovska street and the main square in Pilsen. He made cheap medicines for the poor, but he was also allegedly involved in the creation of gold with the help of the devil.
Once his servant came to the town hall and said that the owner was strangled in the workshop: there was a strip around his neck, as if burnt by fire. The servant also said that the gentleman used to go to the basement at night with some parcels. Relatives carried out excavations in the basement and found a walled-up chest with pieces of pure gold in the wall.
After Rudolph's abdication from the throne in 1611 and his death from illness and insanity in 1612, the Bohemian alchemists gradually dispersed to other lands, and their fame gradually faded away, becoming only rich soil for legends and tales.
Was there gold?
Although modern science categorically denies the possibility of successful transformation of ferrous metals into noble ones, there is also evidence that, to put it mildly, makes one think about the justice of this harsh sentence of alchemy - "the corrupt girl of feudalism." In 1692, the catalog of the physician and mathematician Reicher "On various coins made of chemical metal" was published. It described in detail all the medals and coins known at that time, minted from gold or silver of alchemical origin. They were distinguished by their special symbols.
They are on the gold "nobels" of the English king Edward III (1327-77).
The symbols of sulfur and mercury are indicated on the coins of the 17th century of the city of Erfurt and the Mainz elector. Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt (1688-1739) was able to strike several hundred ducats from gold obtained by transforming tin.
Alchemist Johann Konrad von Richthausen in 1648 in Prague, in the presence of Emperor Ferdinand III, obtained 3 pounds (981 grams) of gold from mercury with the help of the “philosopher's stone”. He allegedly took the stone from his deceased friend La Bousardi in the house of Count Mansfeld.
The decline of alchemy, which began in the 16th century, continued steadily until modern times, despite the fact that in the 17th-18th centuries, some scientists remained adherents of alchemical ideas. For example, the secret order of the Rosicrucians claimed the rights to possess alchemical secrets.
The last "officially registered" alchemist was a certain Kellerman, who lived in England in the first half of the 19th century.
Without a doubt, even now there are people searching for the "philosopher's stone". Moreover, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung suggested that alchemical philosophy was a "protopsychology" aimed at an attempt at spiritual development. The search for the "philosopher's stone" was, in his opinion, the desire to learn how to handle death; Jung compared the process of making it with the stages of personality formation.
Perhaps someday someone will revive this “cinderella of science” and “the sleeping beauty of intuition,” and then humanity will understand how wrong it was, mocking the “ignorance and quackery” of the Hermeticians?
