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23 ESOTERICA Another take on Alchemy

History of Alchemy

There is one YouTube channel which stands out for good alchemy discussion: ESOTERICA by Dr. Justi...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

22 Alchemy and Greek Medicine

History of Alchemy

The four-element theory combined with transmutation from Aristotle was adopted wholesale into med...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

21 Indian Alchemy

History of Alchemy

Alchemy on the India subcontinent was largely about health, medicine and longevity. It was tied i...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

20 Chinese Alchemy

History of Alchemy

Chinese alchemy is the first documented, but they always had their own version of alchemy. I don'...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

19 Roman Alchemy

History of Alchemy

What of Roman alchemy? Rome was the inheritor of Greek thinking, and Rome had a close interaction...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

18 My Alchemy Journal

History of Alchemy

I keep an Alchemy Journal. It's like a Grail Diary but more notes and less exploration. I use Liv...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

17 Can We Copy the Alchemists?

History of Alchemy

The question is always asked in discussions of alchemy with students: given what the alchemists d...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

16 Stephanos of Alexandria

History of Alchemy

Stephanos of Alexandria wasn't really from nor lived in Alexandria. He was from Constantinople, i...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

15 Hermes Trismegistus

History of Alchemy

No name is better known in alchemy than Hermes Trismegistus. His name is Hermes. Trismegistus is ...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

14 Gnosticism

History of Alchemy

Gnosticism was a religious way of life, originating in Israel and Egypt just after the time of Ch...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

13 Visions of Alchemy

History of Alchemy

There were many types of alchemy. The most entertaining are the wildly-descriptive allegories, an...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

12 The Earliest Chemistry

History of Alchemy

Two papyri were discovered in Thebes, in Egypt from about 300 A.D. They were part of a trove of p...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

11 Cleopatra and the Philosophers

History of Alchemy

There were three women alchemists early on, all famous. Mary Prophetess (or Maria the Jewess, amo...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

10 Translations from the Greek

History of Alchemy

After Alexander, all trade was done in Koine Greek ("common" or "shared" Greek, pronounced "coin-...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

09 Pseudo-Democritus

History of Alchemy

The first writings we have on Alchemy are recipes. A little obscure philosophy, mostly instructio...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

08 Democritus: What Might Have Been

History of Alchemy

Democritus around 350 B.C. had a nice theory of atoms. He said any bit of matter can be divided u...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

07 Astrology and Magic: Status Quo

History of Alchemy

Alchemy, astrology and Magic always seem to go together. They were combined in the early renaissa...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

06 Alexander: Spreading Ideas

History of Alchemy

Alexander III, son of Philip of Macedon, was at the age of 16 a pupil of Aristotle. As his pupil ...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

05 Diogenes: Challenging Philosophy

History of Alchemy

Diogenes tried hard to challenge the ideas underpinning alchemy. He was a troll, attending lectur...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce

04 Aristotle

History of Alchemy

Aristotle, the pupil of Plato, is considered one of the best minds the world has every produc...

Updated 6 months ago by bruce