Alchemy

Introduction
Alchemy is inbetween magic and science.  This practice started in Kemet and gave birth to chemistry.  It has a long history and various people did it.  Alchemy became popular in Middle, East, Europe, China, and India.  Alchemy comes in different types.  2 major organizations still practice alchemy.  There were sum famous alchemists.  The symbols of this discipline is numerous.  It is still practiced today!!!!!   

Definition
Alchemy is transmutation.  Its's the turning of one substance into another.  Sum alchemists in the past wanted to turn lead into gold.  Lead is a represents the body.  Gold is the represents the soul.  Metaphorically turning lead into gold is turning animal-man into God-man.  Alchemists also looked 4 cures to diseases.         

History
Alchemy started in Kemet by Tehuti.  Tehuti knowledge was contained 2 pillars.  These pillars contained the Emerald Tablet of Tehuti.    Alchemists wrote various papyri dealt with making alloys, dyeing, metals, etc.  Different metals represent different planets.  Gold=Sun, tin=Mercury, copper=Venus, silver=Moon, iron=Mars, electrum=Jupiter, and lead is Saturn.  The Greeks and Romans learned alchemy from Kemetians.  They had tradition called Hermeticism that dealt a lot with alchemy.

Muslim alchemy started over a millennium ago.  They translated many Greek texts sum of which had alchemical information.  Syriac Christians helped Muslims with translations.  Islamic alchemist believed alchemy could bring them closer to Allah.  From alchemy they created chemistry.  The Moors transmitted this knowledge to Europe.

There were Chinese alchemists.  Alchemy played a big part in Taoism.  The body has 5 elements: fire, metal, earth, wood, water.  Each element had more/less Yin or Yang.  The focus of Chinese alchemy is obtaining immortally.  They told by ingesting fake gold they could become immortal.  Outer alchemy dealt with creating elixirs.  Inner alchemy deals with cultivating jing, chi, and shen.  You do this by meditating and breathing exercises.                         

Indian alchemy dealt a lot with Tantra (form of Hinduism).  Several alchemical books were written in medieval India.  Some of the alchemists came up with ways to cure diseases.  They came up with elixirs and therapy as a way to alleviate disorders.

Alchemical knowledge from China and India made its way to Tibet.  It became a part of Tibetan Buddhism.     Tibetan alchemists believed the philosopher stone turned poison into medicine.  They worked a lot with herbs.         

Types of Alchemy
Spiritual: This is about spiritual elevation.

Psychological: This is about turning emotions into reason.

Artistic: This is about making trans-formative art.

Social: This is about improving society by turning vices into virtues.

Practical:  This is about creating healing substance.   

Therapeutic: This is about using different healing modalities.

Organizations
The Rosicrucian Order and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn deals a lot with alchemy.  You can learn about spiritual alchemy from The Rosicrucian Order.  They also have their own symbols.  The Hermetic Order the Golden Dawn uses alchemy 4 higher states of consciousness.  Sex and love can assist in achieving those higher states. 

Famous Alchemists
Tehuti: He is the neter (god) of intelligence and writing in the Kemetic religion.  Some people believe he was a living person that came from Atlantis to Kemet.  He is the Father of Alchemy and several other sciences. 

Pseudo-Democritus: Famous writer of alchemy books.

Zosimus: He defined alchemy as the study water and spirit.  He was also a Gnostic.

Maria Prophetissa:  She may have discovered hydrochloric acid.

Kleopatra: She invented the alembic.

Ko Hung: Taoist that created first aid.

Khalid ibn Yazid: He had alchemical books translated to Arabic.

Zhang Guo: He was a Taoist with a interest in necromancy.  He was also a master of Qigong. 

Nargarjuna: He tried to find a formula 4 immortality.

Al-Razi: He wrote 20 alchemical books.  He knew how to distill alcohol.

Albertus Magnus: He was a magickian and wrote commentaries on Aristotle writing. 

Roger Bacon: He wrote alchemical text.

John Dee: He created Enochian Magick.  He was the original 007 and a polymath.

Isaac Newton:  He was an occultist and philosopher.

Rudolf Steiner: Great philosopher!!!

Symbols
Birds: ascending means evaporation and descending means condensation.  if they are doing both it is distillation.  A black bird means putrefaction.  White bird means purification.  Rooster means conjunction and peacock means fermentation.     

Basilisk: It means mercury and sulfur mixing together in cinnabar.  It also means blending the higher self with lower self.

Dragon: It represented mercury.  Black is decay, green is the kinetic energy, red is chaos.

Rose: Red-lust & love, white-purity, black-death, pink-appreciation, yellow-communication, orange-happiness, blue-spiritual retreat, and gold-self actualization. 

Ciphers: Glyphs used by alchemists for different ideas. 

The Greeks and Romans used the symbol of the serpent to represent wisdom and immorality.  The staff of Hermes is used in hospitals.

Becoming Chemistry
A Muslim alchemist created chemistry.  His name was Jabir Ibn Hayyan.  He is the "Father of Chemistry."  Did many experiments with chemicals.  He thought the chemist had to experiments to better understand chemistry.  He knew about molecules, discovered various acids, and created a periodic table.     
                                       
Conclusion
Alchemy is causing one substance into another.  It as many dimensions.  Such as practical, spiritual, mental, artistic, social, and therapeutic.  The Rosicrucian Order and the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn practice alchemy, but there are others.  There were many famous alchemists and a lot of symbols.  Finally alchemy led to chemistry.     
                                         
References
Kemetic Alchemy
https://prezi.com/ek6lrlosqgdp/the-history-of-greek-alchemy/
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/tubb/history.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alchemy
Idiots Guide to Alchemy
Indian Alchemy
Guide to Becoming an a Magician
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alchemists
https://mvslim.com/islam-and-science-jabir-ibn-hayyan-the-father-of-modern-chemistry/
https://www.golden-dawn.com/eu/displaycontent.aspx?pageid=102-true-nature-of-hermetic-alchemy
https://www.rosicrucian.org/rosicrucian-digest-alchemy