ABSTRACT
Alchemy, like Gnosticism, has many roots which are often very obscure. It was the principal form of science before the Scientific Revolution in seventeenth-century England. It is often defined merely as the medieval forerunner of chemistry, yet it was much more than that. It was a central part not only of early science but of medicine and philosophy. Alchemy always combined mental and physical activity, work in the study as well as in the laboratory. In the Western tradition, a distinction was often made between the esoteric (inner work) and the exoteric (outer work) of alchemy, but the true alchemist was involved in both aspects. Indeed, the medieval practitioners called the work of the “sacred science” of alchemy the Magnum Opus, the Great Work. In the Hellenistic and European tradition, it was thought that the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone would enable the adept to transmute base metal into gold, cure all ills, prolong life, and even bring about immortality. In the last respect it links to the Taoist alchemical quest for the elixir of life in the Far East, but length demands require this piece to concentrate on Hellenistic, Arab, and Western developments (start with Sivin in Needham 1980 for Chinese materials). In what follows I concentrate on the issue of Gnosis, and many subtleties of esoteric method and terminology, and such matters as correspondence and union (coniunctio) have to be left in the shadows.
