Analyzing Esoteric Alchemy And The Alchemist - 2489 Words

Alchemy began in Hellenistic Egypt particularly in Alexandria. Alexandria was founded in 332 B.C, and quickly became the heartbeat of Hellenistic cosmopolitanism. The Art itself had both exoteric and esoteric purposes, which were centered on the transmutation of base metals into silver and gold. Exoterically speaking it took the form of crafting matter into items of value. However, as a natural development the material means and ends of the Art were often intermixed with the immaterial world. Both were interdependent and intermixed with each other in various ways. Historical analyses of exoteric and esoteric Alchemy suggest that it is impossible to fully separate the two because they are sympathetic to each other. Simply put, whether or not the Alchemist understands esoteric immaterial factors of the practice still have an impact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze esoteric Alchemy and to discuss what the immaterial means and ends of the Work could have meant to the Alchem ist, and concludes that the Art was a work of crafting the soul. The approach used in this paper will first examine Hellenistic cosmopolitanism through the idea of the supernatural, the soul, and virtue, and then I will discuss Alchemy as understood by from and close to the Hermetic tradition. Many Alchemists had an understanding of the natural and supernatural that parallels antique thought as a whole. Common in the culture was a desire to understand, communicate, and develop virtue. There was