Transmutation In Alchemy

The third facet of alchemical religiosity was also linked to the alchemist’s practice. A basic alchemical tenet stated that all substances could be derived through transmutation from primal matter. The technique of change consisted essentially in “coloring”: the Egyptian alchemists did not intend to “make” gold but to color (baptein) metals and textiles through tinctures and elixirs so that they would “appear” like gold (or silver or some other metal). A “changed” metal, then, was a “new” metal. The technique of coloring evolved, in the end, into a powerful symbol of alchemical doctrine; for just as the alchemist transformed lead into silver, and silver into gold, so too he posited for matter, in his anthropomorphic view of it, a similar change, from body to spirit to soul. And in the frame of his doctrine, he identified this escalation with the renewal of man, to which he assigned the same chain of transmutations to reach the goal of redemption.

Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):

Mira Ray - Minerals And Gems In Indian Alchemy
Barbara Obrist - Visualization In Medieval Alchemy
Arthur Edward Waite - What Is Alchemy