Outline of alchemy
Overview of and topical guide to alchemy
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to alchemy:
Alchemy – A philosophical tradition recognized as protoscience, that includes the application of Hermetic principles, and practices related to mythology, religion, and spirituality.
Branches
- Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
- Chinese Alchemy
- Neidan
- Processing (Chinese materia medica)
- Iatrochemistry
- Spagyric
- New Age
- Psychoanalysis
- Analytical psychology
- Individuation
- Metacognition
- Analytical psychology
- Rasayana
Influences
Influences upon alchemy – alchemy developed dependent on a number of influences and experienced regional and period-specific variations:
- Aristotelianism
- Esotericism
- Western Esotericism
- Esoteric Christianity
- Western Esotericism
- Gnosticism
- Hermeticism
- Humorism
- Metallurgy
- Platonism
- Pseudoscience
- Pythagoreanism
- Taoism
- Stoicism
Related fields
- Anthroposophy
- Astrology
- Ayurveda
- Homeopathy
- Kayaku-Jutsu
- Magic, magick
- Moxibustion
- Tay al-Ard
- Yoga Nidra
Concepts
- Alchemical elements – Primarily the four Classical elements of:
- Fire (classical element)
- Water (classical element)
- Earth (classical element)
- Air (classical element)
- For variations see: Wu Xing • Mahābhūta • Five elements (Japanese philosophy)
- Alchemy in art and entertainment
- Alkahest
- Anima mundi
- Chrysopoeia
- Filius philosophorum
- Takwin
- Philosopher's stone
- Cintamani
- Elixir of life
- Panacea
- Prima materia
- Septenary of the seven metals and Classical planets in Western alchemy
- Tria Prima (three primes)
- Unity of opposites or coincidentia oppositorum
Processes
Magnum opus – great work of alchemy consisting of:
- Nigredo
- Albedo
- Citrinitas (sometimes excluded)
- Rubedo
Alchemists also engaged in practical and symbolic processes including:
- Calcination
- Ceration
- Cohobation
- Congelation
- Digestion
- Distillation
- Fermentation
- Filtration
- Fixation
- Multiplication
- Projection
- Solution
- Sublimation
Symbolism
1. Glyphs
2. Imagery
- Suns in alchemy
- Undine (alchemy)
3. Visual Symbolism
- Porta Alchemica
- Serpent (symbolism)
Scientific connections
- Biological transmutation
- Chemistry
- Historicism
- Nuclear transmutation
- Obsolete scientific theories
- Physics
- Scientific method
- Synthesis of noble metals
Substances of the alchemists
- phosphorus • sulfur (sulphur) • arsenic • antimony
- vitriol • quartz • cinnabar • pyrites • orpiment • galena
- magnesia • lime • potash • natron • saltpetre • kohl
- ammonia • ammonium chloride • alcohol • camphor
- sulfuric acid (sulphuric acid) • hydrochloric acid • nitric acid • acetic acid • formic acid • citric acid • tartaric acid
- aqua regia • gunpowder
- blue vitriol • green vitriol • vinegar • salt
Apparatus
Stills
Vessels
Heating devices
Alchemy organizations
- Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica
- European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
- Freemasonry
- Rosicrucianism
Alchemical texts
- Axiom of Maria
- Alchemical Studies (Carl Jung)
- Aurora consurgens
- Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit
- Cantong qi
- Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
- Hermetica
- Emerald Tablet
- Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation")
- The Hermetical Triumph
- Fasciculus Chemicus
- Musaeum Hermeticum
- Mutus Liber
- Rosary of the Philosophers
- Splendor Solis
- Theatrum Chemicum
- Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
- The Mirror of Alchimy
- Turba Philosophorum
Journals
- Ambix
- Aries
- Early Science and Medicine
- Isis
Alchemists
The most influential names in the history of alchemy include:
- Hermes Trismegistus – by tradition, the founder of Western alchemy; many alchemical works were attributed to him.
- Wei Boyang – authored the earliest known book on theoretical alchemy in China.
- Pseudo-Democritus – anonymous author of the oldest extant works of Greco-Egyptian alchemy.
- Zosimos of Panopolis – influential Greco-Egyptian alchemist.
- Khālid ibn Yazīd – credited with introducing alchemy to the Islamic world.
- Pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana – earliest known source of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals and the Emerald Tablet.
- Jābir ibn Hayyān – notable for the theory of the balance (ʿilm al-mīzān), the theory of artificial generation (ʿilm al-takwīn), and a general emphasis on experimental science.
- Pseudo-Geber – later Latin alchemist who wrote the influential Summa perfectionis.
- Roger Bacon – staunch proponent of the use of alchemy.
- Paracelsus – developer of iatrochemistry.
- Robert Boyle – alchemist critical of Paracelsus, credited as the father of modern chemistry.
- Mary Anne Atwood – key figure in the occult revival of alchemy.
- Carl Jung – merged alchemy and psychoanalytic thought.
See also
External links
Alchemy at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- SHAC: Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
- ESSWE: European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
- Association for the Study of Esotericism
- The Alchemy Website. – Adam McLean's online collections and academic discussion.
- Inner Garden Alchemy Research Group: a non-profit foundation that aims to transmit the alchemical tradition.
- Alchemy on In Our Time at the BBC
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Alchemy
- Book of Secrets: Alchemy and the European Imagination, 1500-2000 – A digital exhibition from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
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