The Central Quest of Alchemy: An Undefinable "Something" :A Summary of Alchemical Theory, Part 4of5
Channel: Snow Mountain
Date: 28/09/2020

The Central Quest of Alchemy: An Undefinable "Something" :A Summary of Alchemical Theory, Part 4of5

Link to Part 1 of 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw6jZKh4wA
Link to Part 2 of 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1gKk4gh4wE
Link to Part 3 of 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blnvt_3e8dQ
Link to Part 4 of 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ke5yqB6rtM
Link to Part 5 of 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNYcM8xuSHE

The central quest of alchemy was the quest of an undefined and undefinable something wherein was supposed to be contained all the powers and potencies of life, and whatever makes life worth living.

The names given to this mystical something were as many as the properties which were assigned to it. It was called the one thing, the essence, the philosopher's stone, the stone of wisdom, the heavenly balm, the divine water, the virgin water, the carbuncle of the sun, the old dragon, the lion, the basilisk, the phoenix; and many other names were given to it.

We may come near to expressing the alchemist's view of the essential character of the object of their search by naming it the soul of all things. "Alchemy," a modern writer says, "is the science of the soul of all things."

The essence was supposed to have a material form, an ethereal or middle nature, and an immaterial or spiritual life.

an excerpt from THE STORY OF ALCHEMY AND THE BEGINNINGS OF CHEMISTRY BY M. M. PATTISON MUIR, M.A.

Snow Mountain Arts
http://xue-lin.com/category/natural-sciences/chemistry

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