The word alchemy was derived from the Arabian language, al – meaning ‘the’ and kimia – indicating ‘hidden or occult.’
To the Arabians it signified the science of hidden properties and essences and dealt with the occult attributes of things.
With the ancients we can sense a distinction here of two concepts: one of physical facts and laws of matter, and two, the spiritual origins and qualities of things and materials.
Indeed, if you read accounts of the alchemists of old you will find both kinds of experimenters: those whose work lay chiefly along material lines, endeavoring to turn base metals into gold by a method of transmutation and others who tried to demonstrate the unity of the universe by recognizing a divine essence permeating all existence, even to the gross expression called physical.
The former truly believed that metals other than gold could be turned into this most precious and pure substance by the discovery of the proper solvent, or catalyzer.
Some claimed to have actually performed this change, but for the most part the greater number did not succeed, and many frauds were perpetrated. However the idea so continuously pursued yielded much knowledge and guided the chemists of our modern day to conduct successfully that once very preposterous operation to actually produce gold in the laboratory.
Right here is a point you may well remember in your study of personal occult truths. You will ultimately profit by much experiment and careful checking as new knowledge and facts are perceived and established. You must proceed from what you know, and unafraid, build your conduct upon progressive experiment.
Alchemistic philosophers set themselves three problems.
They were concerned with the perfection of the human soul, which was base enough and needed to be transformed into a more spiritual nature; they believed in the possibility of transfiguring the psychological human into a perfect earthly being; and lastly, they put faith in the hope that metals could be turned into gold.
To them these three performances were but the same expression on different planes of existence. Their belief in the unity of the Cosmos postulated ‘as above, so below.’
They perceived a definite relation, a correspondence, between the spiritual and the physical, the heavenly and the earthly. They conceived a trinity of spirit, soul and body: spirit, the universal soul in all humans; soul, the inward individual spirit; and body, the outward manifestation.
Likewise, they conceived a trinity in the metals: spirit, the all-pervading essence of all metals; soul, the particular spirit of each substance, the ‘metalline soul’; and the body, or outward form and properties of the metal.
The ancient alchemist who was medically inclined sought for the Fountain of Youth. And you can prove for yourself the unity of the cosmos by virtue of the facts of astrology and the facts of extrasensory perception.
It is interesting to note that the modern scientist has proved that transmutation of metals into gold is possible.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
