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    Átila
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    Alchemy had several purposes including turning base metals like lead into gold through experiments, gaining an understanding of nature and matter, and achieving spiritual perfection. This was to be achieved through laboratory experiments and processes using furnaces and chemicals while seeking the fabled Philosopher's Stone, which was believed to be able to transform any metal into pure gold or grant immortality. The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, laid out the basic principles of alchemy such as "as above, so below" and described the Philosopher's Stone as able to penetrate and transmute all matter.

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    Alchemy and Matter Theory (for Students)

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    Alchemy and Matter Theory (for Students)

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    Alchemy had several purposes including turning base metals like lead into gold through experiments, gaining an understanding of nature and matter, and achieving spiritual perfection. This was to be achieved through laboratory experiments and processes using furnaces and chemicals while seeking the fabled Philosopher's Stone, which was believed to be able to transform any metal into pure gold or grant immortality. The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, laid out the basic principles of alchemy such as "as above, so below" and described the Philosopher's Stone as able to penetrate and transmute all matter.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as pdf or txt
    17 views8 pages

    Alchemy and Matter Theory (For Students)

    Uploaded by

    Átila
    Alchemy had several purposes including turning base metals like lead into gold through experiments, gaining an understanding of nature and matter, and achieving spiritual perfection. This was to be achieved through laboratory experiments and processes using furnaces and chemicals while seeking the fabled Philosopher's Stone, which was believed to be able to transform any metal into pure gold or grant immortality. The Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, laid out the basic principles of alchemy such as "as above, so below" and described the Philosopher's Stone as able to penetrate and transmute all matter.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 8

    Alchemy and matter theory

    As you read through the following extracts, try to answer these questions:
    What are the purposes of alchemy?
    How were these purposes to be achieved?
    What is the Philosophers Stone?

    Extract 1: from pp. 118-119 of Michela Pereira (2000), Alchemy and Hermeticism: An Introduction to
    This Issue, Early Science and Medicine 5(2), pp. 115- 120.

    1
    The following illustrations and extracts are from Stanton J. Linden (2003), The Alchemy Reader, CUP.

    At the furnace: library and laboratory

    Extract 2: from Lindens Introduction.


    (At the end of the extract you will find the images referred to in this text.)

    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    Extract 3: The Emerald Tablet (Hermes Trismegistus)

    7
    Extract 4: Commentary on the Emerald Tablet

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