Alchemists

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//-->Alchemists, the Rosicrucians and AsiaticBrethrensBy Charles William HeckethornThe following article is an extract from the first volume of the author's "The SecretSocieties of All Ages and Countries" (revised edition of the 1875 edition) firstpublished in 1896. Written in the quaint biased style of an outsider. It should beread with discernment, as the subject, veiled as it is, is often distorted by hearsay,and open to abuse by charlatans. The period spelling of such words as Alchymistshave not been altered. Our copy of the book, a reprint, was printed by UniversityBooks, New York, 1965. A new reprint can be obtained from Kessinger Publishing.ALCMYMISTS“In our day men are only tort much disposed to regard the views of the disciples and followers of the Arabianschool, and of the late Alchymists, respecting transmutation of metals, as a mere hallucination of the human mind,and, strangely enough, to lament it. But the idea of the variable and changeable corresponds with universalexperience, and always precedes that of the unchangeable.”—LIEBIGThe alchymist he had his gorgeous visionOf boundless wealth and everlasting youth;He strove untiringly, with firm decision,To turn his fancies into glorious truth,Undaunted by the rabble’s loud derisionCondemning without reason, without ruth,And though he never found the pearl he sought,Yet many a secret gem to light be brought.238.Astrology perhaps Secret Heresy.—Themystic astronomy of ancient nations produced judicialastrology, which, considered from this point of view, will appear less absurd. It was the principal study ofthe Middle Ages; and Rome was so violently opposed to it because, perhaps, it was not only heresy, buta wide-spread reaction against the Church of Rome. It was chiefly cultivated by the Jews, and protectedby princes opposed to the papal supremacy. The Church was not satisfied with burning the books, butburned the writers; and the poor astrologers, who spent their lives in the contemplation of the heavens,mostly perished at the stake.239.Process by which Astrology degenerated.—As it often happens that the latest disciples attachthemselves to the letter, understanding literally what in the first instance was only a fiction, taking themask for a real face, so we may suppose astrology to have degenerated and become false and puerile.Hermes, the legislator of Egypt, who was revealed in the Samothracian mysteries, and often representedwith a ram by his side—a constellation initiating the new course of the equinoctial sun, the conqueror ofdarkness—was revived in astrological practice; and a great number of astrological works, the writings ofChristian Gnostics and Neo-Platonists, were attributed to him, and he was considered the father of the artfrom him calledhermetic,and embracing astrology and alchymy, the rudimentary efforts of two sciences,which at first overawed ignorance by imposture, but, after labouring for centuries in the dark, conqueredfor themselves glorious thrones in human knowledge.240.Scientific Value of Alchymy.—Though Alchymy is no longer believed in as a true science, in spiteof the prophecy of Dr. Girtanner, of Göttingen, that in the nineteenth century the transmutation of metalswill be generally known and practised, it will never lose its power of awakening curiosity and seducing theimagination. The aspect of the marvellous which its doctrines assume, the strange renown attaching tothe memory of the adepts, and the mixture of reality and illusion, of truths and chimeras which it presents,will always exercise a powerful fascination upon many minds. And we ought also to remember that everydelusion that has had a wide and enduring influence must have been founded, not on falsehood, but onmisapprehended truth. This aphorism is especially applicable to Alchymy, which, in its origin, and even inits name, is identical with chemistry, the syllablealbeing merely the definite article of the Arabs. Theresearches of the Alchymists for the discovery of the means by which transmutation might be effectedwere naturally suggested by the simplest experiments in metallurgy and the amalgamation of metals it isvery probable that the first man who made brass thought that he had produced imperfect gold.241.The Tincture.—The transmutation of the base metal was to be effected by means of thetransmuting tincture, which, however, was never found. But it exists for all that; it is the power that turns agreen stalk into a golden ear of corn, that fills the sour unripe apple with sweetness and aroma, that hasturned the lump of charcoal into a diamond. All these are natural processes, which, being allowed to goon, produce the above results. Now, all base metals may be said to be imperfect metals, whose progresstowards perfection has been arrested, the active power of the tincture being shut up in them in the firstproperty of nature. If a man could take hold of the tincture universally diffused in nature, and by its helpassist the imprisoned tincture in the metal to stir and become active, then the transmutation into gold, orrather the manifestation of the hidden life, could be effected. But this power or tincture is so subtle that itcannot possibly be apprehended; yet the Alchymists did not seek the non-existing, but only theunattainable.242.Aims of Alchymy.—Thethree great ends pursued by Alchymy were the transmutation of basemetals into gold by means of the philosopher’s stone; the discovery of the panacea, or universalmedicine, the elixir of life; and the universal solvent, which, being applied to any seed, should increase itsfecundity. All these three objects are attainable by means of the tincture—a vital force, whose body iselectricity, by which the two latter aims have to some extent been reached, for electricity will both curedisease and promote the growth of plants. Alchymy was then in the beginning the search after means toraise matter up to its first state, whence it was supposed to have fallen. Gold was considered, as tomatter, what the ether of the eighth heaven was as to souls; and the seven metals, each called by thename of one of the seven planets, the knowledge of the seven properties really implied being lost—the(1)Sun, gold; Moon, silver; Saturn, lead; Venus, tin ; Mercury, iron; Mars, mixed metal Jupiter, copper, —formed the ascending scale of purification, corresponding with the trials of the seven caverns or steps.Alchymy was thus either a bodily initiation, or an initiation into the mysteries, a spiritual Alchymy; the oneformed a veil of the other, wherefore it often happened that in workshops where the vulgar thought theadepts occupied with handicraft operations, and nothing sought but the metals of the golden age, inreality, no other philosopher s stone was searched for than the cubical stone of the temple of philosophy;in fine, nothing was purified but the passions, men, and not metals, being passed through the crucible.Böhme, the greatest of mystics, has written largely on the perfect analogy between the philosophical workand spiritual regeneration.243.History of Alchymy.—Alchymyflourished in Egypt at a very early age, and Solomon was said tohave practised it. Its golden age began with the conquest of the Arabs in Asia and Africa, about the timeof the destruction, of the Alexandrian Library. The Saracens, credulous, and intimate with the fables oftalismans and celestial influences, eagerly admitted the wonders of Alchymy. In the splendid courts ofAlmansor and Haroun al Raschid, the professors of the hermetic art found patronage, disciples, andemolument. Nevertheless, from the above period until the eleventh century the only alchymist of note isthe Arabian Geber, whose proper name was Abu Mussah Djafar al Sofi. His attempts to transmute thebase metals into gold led him to several discoveries in chemistry and medicine. He was also a famousastronomer, but—sictransit gloria rnundi!—he has descended to our times as the founder of that jargonknown by the name of gibberish! The Crusaders brought the art to Europe; and about the thirteenthcentury Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and Raymond Lully appeared as its revivers. Edward III.engaged John le Rouse and Master William de Dalby, alchemists, to make experiments before him; andHenry VI. of England encouraged lords, nobles, doctors, professors, and priests to pursue the searchafter the philosopher’s stone; especially the priests, who, says the king— (ironically?) —having the powerto convert bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, may well convert an impure into a perfectmetal. The next man of note that pretended to the possession of thelapis philosophorurnwasParacelsus, whose proper name was Philip Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus, ofHohenheim, and whom his followers called “Prince of Physicians, Philosopher of Fire, the Trismegistus ofSwitzerland, Reformer of Alchymistical Philosophy, Nature’s faithful Secretary, Master of the Elixir of Lifeand Philosopher’s Stone, Great Monarch of Cbymical Secrets.” He introduced the termalcahest(probablya corruption of the German words“all geist,” -“all spirit“), to express the universal solvent. TheRosicrucians, of whom Dr. Dee was the herald, next laid claim to alchymistical secrets, and were, in fact,the descendants of the Alchymists; and it is for this reason chiefly that these latter have been introducedinto this work, though they cannot strictly be said to have formed a secret society.244.Still, Alchymists formed Secret Societies.—Still,in the dedication to the Emperor Rudolph II.,prefixed to the work entitledThesaurinella Chyrnica—aurea tripartita,we read “Given in the Imperial Cityof Hagenau, in the year 1607 of our salvation, and in the reign of the true governor of Olympus, AngelusHagith, anno cxcvii.” The author calls himself Benedictus Figulus. The dedication further mentions aCount Bernhard, evidently one of the heads of the order, as having been introduced to a society ofAlchymists, numbering fourteen or fifteen members, in Italy. Further, Paracelsus is named as themonarchaof this order; that is, the monarch, a local head, subject to the governor of Olympus, the chiefof the Italian society. The author also, beside the usual chronology, gives a separate sectarian date; if wededuct cxcvii. (197) from 1607, we obtain the date 1410 as that of the foundation of the society. Figulussays it was merged in the Rosicrucian order about the year 1607. Whether it was the same as thatmentioned by Raymond Lully in his “Theatrum Chymicum,” whose chief was calledRex Physicoram,andwhich existed before 1400, is uncertain.245.Decay of Alchymy.—Alchymylost all credit in this country by the failure, and consequent suicide, ofDr. James Price, a member of the Royal Society, to produce gold, according to promise, the experimentsto be performed in the presence of the Society. This occurred in 1783. But in 1796 rumours spreadthroughout Germany of the existence of a great union of adepts, under the name of the Hermetic Society,which, however, consisted really of two members only, the well-known Karl Arnold Kortum, the author oftheJobsiade,and one Bährens, though there were many “honorary” members. The public, seeing noresults, though the “ Society” promised much, at last took no further notice of the Hermetics, and thewars, which soon after devastated Europe, caused Alchymy to be forgotten; though up to the year 1812the higher society of Carlsruhe amused itself, in secret cliques, with playing at the transmutation ofmetals. The last of the English Alchymists seems to have been a gentleman of the name of Kellerman,who as lately as 1828 was living at Lilley, a village between Luton and Hitchin. There are, no doubt, at thepresent moment men engaged in the search after the philosopher’s stone; we patiently wait for theirdiscoveries.246.Specimens of Alchymistic Language.—AfterParacelsus the Alchymists divided into two classes:those that pursued useful studies, and those that took up the visionary fantastical side of Alchymy, writingbooks of mystical trash, which they fathered on Hermes, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus, and others. Theirlanguage is now unintelligible. One brief specimen may suffice. The power of transmutation, called theGreen Lion, was to be obtained in the following manner :—“ In the Green Lion’s bed the sun and moonare born; they are married and beget a king; the king feeds on the lion’s blood, which is the king’s fatherand mother, who are at the same time his brother and sister. I fear I betray the secret, which I promisedmy master to conceal in dark speech from every one who does not know how to rule the philosopher’sfire.” Our ancestors must have had a great talent for finding out enigmas if they were able to elicit ameaning from these mysterious directions; still, the language was understood by the adepts, and wasonly intended for them. Many statements of mathematical formulæ must always appear pure gibberish tothe uninitiated into the higher science of numbers; still, these statements enunciate truths well understoodby the mathematician. Thus, to give but one instance, when Hermes Trismegistus, in one of the treatisesattributed to him, directs the adept to catch the flying bird and to drown it, so that it fly no more, thefixation of quicksilver by a combination with gold is meant.247.Personal Fate of the Alchymists.—TheAlchymists, though chemistry is greatly indebted to them,and in their researches they stumbled on many a valuable discovery, as a rule led but sad and chequeredlives, arid most of them died in the utmost poverty, if no worse fate befell them. Thus one of the mostfamous Alchymists, Bragadino, who lived in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, who obtained largesums of money for his pretended secret from the Emperor of Germany, the Doge of Venice, and otherpotentates, who boasted that Satan was his slave—two ferocious black dogs that always accompaniedhim being demons—was at last hanged at Munich, the cheat with which he performed the pretendedtransmutation having been discovered. The two dogs were shot under the gallows. But even the honestAlchymists were doomed—-"To lose good days that might be better spent,To waste long nights in pensive discontent;To speedto-day,to be put back to-morrow,To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrowTo fret their souls with crosses and with cares,To eat their hearts through comfortless despairs.Unhappy wights, born to disastrous end,That do their lives in tedious tendance spend!"THE ROSICRUCIANS268.Merits of the Rosicrucians.—A halo of poetic splendour surrounds the order of the Rosicrucians;the magic lights of fancy play around their graceful daydreams, while the mystery in which they shroudedthemselves lends an additional charm to their history. But their brilliancy was that of a meteor. It justflashed across the realms of imagination and intellect, and vanished forever; not, however, withoutleaving behind some permanent and lovely traces of its hasty passage, just as the momentary ray of thesun, caught on the artist’s lens, leaves a lasting image on the sensitive paper. Poetry and romance aredeeply indebted to the Rosicrucians for many a fascinating creation. The literature of every Europeancountry contains hundreds of pleasing fictions, whose machinery has been borrowed from their system ofphilosophy, though that itself has passed away; and it must be admitted that many of their ideas arehighly ingenious, and attain to such heights of intellectual speculation as we find to have been reached bythe Sophists of India. Before their time, alchymy had sunk down, as a rule, to a grovelling delusion,seeking but temporal advantages, and occupying itself with earthly dross only: the Rosicruciansspiritualised and refined it by giving the chimerical search after the philosopher’s stone a nobler aim thanthe attainment of wealth, namely, the opening of the spiritual eyes, whereby man should be able to seethe supernal world, and be filled with an inward light to illumine his mind with true knowledge. Thephysical process of the transmutation of metals was by them considered as analogical with man’srestoration to his unfallen state, as set forth in Böhme’sSignatura Rerum,chapters vii., x.—xii. The trueRosicrucians, therefore, may be defined as spiritual alchymists, or Theosophists.269.Origin of the Society doubtful.—Thesociety is of very uncertain origin. It is affirmed by somewriters that from the fourteenth century there existed a society of physicists and alchymists who labouredin the search after the philosopher’s stone; and a certain Nicolo Barnaud undertook journeys throughGermany and France for the purpose of establishing a Hermetic society. From the preface of the work,“Echo of the Society of the Rosy Cross,” it moreover follows that in 1597 meetings were held to institute asecret society for the promotion of alchymy. Another indication of the actual existence of such a society isfound in a book published in 1605, and entitled, “Restoration of the Decayed Temple of Pallas,” whichgives a constitution of Rosicrucians. Again, in 1610, the notary Haselmeyer pretended to have read in aMS. theFama Fraternitatis,comprising all the laws of the Order. Four years afterwards appeared a smallwork, entitled “General Reformation of the World,” which in fact contains theFama Fraternitatis,where itis related that a German, Christian Rosenkreuz, founded such a society in the fourteenth century, afterhaving learned the sublime science in the East. Of him it is related, that when, in 1378, he was travellingin Arabia, he was called by name and greeted by some philosophers, who had never before seen him;from them he learned many secrets, among others that of prolonging life. On his return he made manydisciples, and died at the age of 150 years, not because his strength failed him, but because he was tiredof life. In 1604 one of his disciples had his tomb opened, and there found strange inscriptions, and a MS.in letters of gold. The grotto in which this tomb was found, by the description given of it, strongly remindsus of the Mithraic Cave. Another work, published in 1615, theConfessio Fraternitatis Rosicrucian RosæsCrucis,contains an account of the object and spirit of the Order.270.Rosicrucian Literature.—TheThesamarinella Chymicaaurea,already referred to (sect. 244) mayhave been a. Rosicrucian work, as alsoRaymundii Lullii Theoria.In 1615, Michael Meyer published atCologne hisThemis Aurea, hoc est, de legibus Fraternitatis Roseæ Crucis,which purported to contain allthe laws and ordinances of the brotherhood. Another work, entitled “The Chymical Marriage of ChristianRosenkreuz,” and published in 1616, in the shape of a comic romance, is really a satire on thealchymistical delusions of the author’s time. Both works were written, as we learn from his autobiography,by Valentine Andrea, a Lutheran clergyman of Herrenberg, near Tübingen. But instead of being taken forwhat the author intended them-—satires on the follies of Paracelsus, Weigel, and the alchymists—thepublic swallowed his fictions as facts: printed letters and pamphlets appeared everywhere, addressed tothe imaginary brotherhood, whilst others denounced and condemned it. One Christopher Nigrinus wrote abook to prove the Rosicrucians were Calvinists, but a passage taken from one of their writings showedthem to be zealous Lutherans. Andrea himself, in his “Turns Babel” and “ Mythologia Christiana,”publishedcirca1619, condemns Rosicrucianism. Impostors, indeed, pretended to belong to the fraternity,and to possess its secrets, and found plenty of dupes. Numerous works also continued to appear. Hereare the titles of a few of them“Epistola ad patres de Rosea Cruce.” Frankfurt, 1617.“Quick Message to the Philosophical Society of the Rosy Cross.” By Valentine Ischirnessus. Danzig,1617.“The Whole Art and Science of the God-Illuminated Fraternity of Christian Rosenkreuz.” By TheophilusSchweighart. I617.“Discovery of the Colleges and Axioms of the Illuminated Fraternity of Christian Rosenkreuz.” ByTheophilus Schweighart. 1618.‘‘De naturæ secretis quibusdam at Vulcaniam artem chymicæ ante omnia necessariis,addressed to theMasters of the Philosophic Fraternity of the Rosy Cross.” 1618. N. P.“Sisters of the Rosy Cross; or, Short Discovery of these Ladies, and what Religion, Knowledge of Divineand Natural Things, Trades and Arts, Medicines, &c., may be found therein.” Parthenopolis, 1620.“The Most Secret and Hitherto Unknown Mysteries of All Nature.” By the Collegium Rosianum. Leyden,1630.Of course the scientific value of all these writings wasnil,the literary scarcely more.271.Real Objects and Results of Andrea’s Writings.—Theaccount given in the preceding paragraphof the literary performances of John Valentine Andrea is the popular one. But certain explanations arenecessary. Andrea’s Rosicrucian writings concealed political objects, the chief of which was the supportof the Lutheran religion, which the Rosicrucians themselves followed. Andrea made two journeys toAustria— the first in 1612, when the Emperor Mathias ascended the throne; and the second in 1619, afew months after the Emperor’s death. At Linz he had private interviews with several Austrian noblemen,all of them Lutherans. Rosicrucian lodges, to further the objects of the Reformation, were established, butnumerous Catholics obtained admission to them, and gradually turned their tendencies in the veryopposite direction. Andrea perceiving this withdrew from Rosicrucianism, and endeavoured by thesubsequent writings, mentioned above, to disavow his former connection with it. With the same objectalso he, during his second residence in Austria, founded the “Fraternitas Christi,” to which many membersof the Protestant Austrian nobility sought admission. Three years after the society was prohibited by theGovernment, and its final suppression hastened by an opposition society, founded by the Catholics, withthe sanction of the Pope, first at Olmütz and then at Vienna, the leaders being the Counts Althan,Gonzaga, and Sforza; the order was called that of the “Blue Cross.” The Rosicrucians, being no longerunder the influence of Andrea, broke up into a number of independent lodges, which quickly degeneratedinto mere traps to catch credulous dupes and their money; hence the duration of most was short. But onthe accession of Joseph II., whose liberal principles were known, the Rosicrucians, as well as othersecret societies, sprang into life again. Freemasonry became the fashion of the day. Masonic implementswere worn as “charms;” the ladies carried muffs of white silk edged with blue, to represent the Mason’saprons, and so on. The Emperor found it necessary to regulate the conduct of these secret societies. Hesuppressed all except that of the Freemasons, to whom in 1785 he granted a patent, which began thus:“Since nothing is to exist in a well-regulated state without proper supervision, We deem it necessary thusto declare our will: The so-called Masonic Societies, whose secrets are unknown to us, since we neverwere curious enough to inquire into their juggleries(gauckeleien),”&c. This edict, which abolished the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]