how to study alchemy?

Question

I would love to study alchemy and see what kind of things I can find out.

Answer 1

The path of magick I follow could be called energetic alchemy if one were so inclined. I use the four types of energy (creative, destructive, inductive, and reductive) in concert to affect changes in a persons life.

Answer 2

First, understand that alchemy is NOT primarily about turning lead into gold. In fact, my own suspicion is that this was a common swindle to make money to support the real work of alchemists.

The real work is to turn material humans into pure spirits. That is often described by those who believe in reincarnation as getting off the wheel of karma, but there are some differences. I won't recommend any particular books, because the good ones are hard to read, and must be understood to be written in metaphor, not to be taken literally. And it would not be appropriate to tell you how to translate the metaphors right out in public like this.

I would recommend you contact the various on-line magickal sites, which you might start with something as simple as putting "alchemy" in the Yahoo search and see what you get. Also check out Wikipedia as a starting point, and follow their external links which they list at the bottom of the article.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Alchemy was abandoned because it didn't work. Some of the things that did work became chemistry. No one successfully turned lead into gold. Nor did anyone successfully create the philosopher's stone. Alchemy was basically chemistry with a lot of magic thrown into it. The alchemists were sorcerer want to be's. They attempted to conjure spirits, and use spells on chemicals that they believed contained magical properties, all in a vain attempt to convert base metals into something of greater value. Even Isaac Newton, probably the greatest scientific mind of the last 500 years, accomplished nothing in alchemy, even though he experimented with it for decades.

Answer 4

Google this guy.

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced /'krəʊ.li/ i.e. with the first syllable sounding like "crow" in English) was a British occultist, writer, philosopher and mystic.[1]

He is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. Crowley was also an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the Argenteum Astrum, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.).[2]

Other interests and accomplishments were wide-ranging—he was a chess player, mountain climber, poet, painter, astrologer, hedonist, drug experimenter, and social critic.

Crowley had claimed to be a Freemason, but the regularity of his initiations with the United Grand Lodge of England has been disputed.[3]

Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World."[4]

The read about this:

Ordo Templi Orientis--This is modern Alchemy.

Answer 5

Which form of alchemy? Inner alchemy is the transformation of one's self. Outer alchemy is the study to change base metals (chemistry/physics/etc). Hope this helps.

Answer 6

If you mean the history of Alchemy, that is one thing. If you actually mean study alchemy itself to practice it, what was Alchemy evolved into the real science of chemistry today.

Answer 7

Well, alchemy is no longer studied. However, it did spawn something you can study. Chemistry. Chemistry came about from the knowledge that people discovered trying to make alchemy work. Today, we know that the goal of the alchemist is impossible with the means that the alchemist had at hand.

Answer 8

there is a reason alchemy is called an ancient art

try chemistry