The First Mythology Gnostic - Websites By Cook.Alchemy in the Renaissance and Modern Age.These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships.
This section will show that the Gnostic Gospels had alchemy throughout the material. Also, I will show that Jesus was familiar with this material. Possibly it is an answer as to how Jesus did accomplish some of his work. The material is from the Nag Hammadi Library, and other texts that will be noted. also as this is about alchemy and religion, I want first to put information down as to what was thought to be concerning these subjects. This information is from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be largely independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy, centered in China and its zone of cultural influence; Indian alchemy, centred around the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center has shifted over the millennia from ancient Egypt, to the Greco-Roman world, to the Islamic world, and finally medieval Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths, whereas Western alchemy developed its own philosophical system that was largely independent of, but influenced by, various Western religions. It is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other.
Authors Note. ancient Egypt is hardly mentioned. But, from G. Masseys work it is evident that in the ancient past there was a One World Religion. It is my opinion that all our present day religions stem from this ancient understanding of how Nature worked to produce perfection. The Great Secret was always maintained by what we would call "Holy Men" of the past. Alchemists in our near time. Jesus being one of them. I can't say where the science originated, only that it is ancient. I have shown in my work that the defining of the Constellations by word definitions is from this science as the word definitions define the steps of the process and so means the constellations or times overhead during the year, were defined by what was physically happening to the matter in the below. The origin of western alchemy may generally be traced to Hellenistic Egypt. It is claimed by Zosimos of Panopolis that alchemy dated back to ancient Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class; there is little or no evidence for such a claim though.[1]Egyptian alchemy is known mostly through the writings of (Hellenic) Greek philosophers, some surviving only in Syriac and Arabic translations. Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X, though even these are from the Christian period. Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books[2] after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (292), which had been a center of Egyptian alchemy.
Legend has it[who?] that the founder of Egyptian alchemy was the god Thoth, called Hermes-Thoth or Thrice-Great Hermes (Hermes Trismegistus) by the Greeks. According to legend, he wrote what were called the forty-two Books of Knowledge, covering all fields of knowledge—including alchemy. Hermes's symbol was the caduceus or serpent-staff, which became one of many of alchemy's principal symbols. The "Emerald Tablet" or Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes, which is known only through Greek and Arabic translations, is generally understood[who?] to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners.
The first point of the "Emerald Tablet" tells the purpose of hermetic science: "in truth certainly and without doubt, whatever is below is like that which is above, and whatever is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing."[3] This is the macrocosm-microcosm belief central to the hermetic philosophy. In other words, the human body (the microcosm) is affected by the exterior world (the macrocosm), which includes the heavens through astrology, and the earth through the elements. Though when one gains mastery over their inner world, they begin to be able to control the exterior world in unconventional ways.Authors Note. basically alchemy is about how to use everything outside with a glass pyramid oven to perfect matter. The Emerald Tablet is a Creation Epic, ancient and understood as the same as Genesis. I will discuss and explain it later. Now above it discusses the human body! alchemy is about perfecting matter! It is done by controlling the forces of Nature throughout the year. The steps or times of the stone are found during the 16 month process. What happened at those time became our religious holidays and created our belief system. It was a way of life to the ancients and for them gave the First Organized Religion of Osiris. That is the most ancient I have found concerning this material. That religion and this process is the basis for all religions today.The Hellenistic city of Alexandria in Egypt was a center of Greek alchemical knowledge, and retained its preeminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. The Greeks appropriated the hermetical beliefs of the Egyptians and melded with them the philosophies of Pythagoreanism, ionianism, and gnosticism. Pythagorean philosophy is, essentially, the belief that numbers rule the universe, originating from the observations of sound, stars, and geometric shapes like triangles, or anything from which a ratio could be derived. Ionian thought was based on the belief that the universe could be explained through concentration on natural phenomena; this philosophy is believed to have originated with Thales and his pupil Anaximander, and later developed by Plato and Aristotle, whose works came to be an integral part of alchemy. According to this belief, the universe can be described by a few unified natural laws that can be determined only through careful, thorough, and exacting philosophical explorations. The third component introduced to hermetical philosophy by the Greeks was gnosticism, a belief prevalent in the Christian and early post-Christian Roman empire, that the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner, and that learning about the nature of spiritual matter would lead to salvation. They further believed that God did not "create" the universe in the classic sense, but that the universe was created "from" him, but was corrupted in the process (rather than becoming corrupted by the transgressions of Adam and Eve, that is, original sin). Many Gnostic sects further held the Biblical deity to be evil and viewed him as a fallen emanation of the High God whom they sought to worship and unite with; however, the aspect of the Abrahamic god as being evil really played no role in alchemy but the aspect of ascending to the high god probably had a great deal of influence. Platonic and neo-Platonic theories about universals and the omnipotence of God were also absorbed (their main beliefs see the physical aspect of the world as being imperfect and think of God as a transcendent cosmic mind).One very important concept introduced at this time, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed.The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are. "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form."Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept.Authors Note. This section is here because I will be quoting material from each person that is mentioned. Many have names familiar to you. as the alchemists I listed. In the past, everyone that was anyone knew of this information and described it correctly. also please note above about the "Evil" that came into being with the Gnosticism mentioned. That is also from this process and how it was understood by Philosophers of Holy men of that time period. It was not a part of the past. Also note above the mention of Adam and Eve, and consider the whole story of the creation of man (androgynous) That understanding is "also from" this process. We make androgynous material, and as it became a religion, that belief was carried over to later generations, peoples, who may not have truly understood the past religion that was ancient at the time of early Christianity. The four, "earth, air, fore and water," actually do make everything when you understand this process. Like all this information, we as a society never knew that as we never knew any of this explanation!\BACK TO TOP Stacks Image 408 Gnostic Page 2 Alchemy in the Renaissance and Modern Age..Because of its strong connections to the Greek and Roman cultures, alchemy was rather easily accepted into Christian philosophy, and Medieval European alchemists extensively absorbed Islamic alchemical knowledge. Gerbert of Aurillac, who was later to become Pope Silvester II, (d. 1003) was among the first to bring Islamic science to Europe from Spain. Later men such as Adelard of Bath, who lived in the 12th century, brought additional learning. But until the 13th century the moves were mainly assimilative. In this period there appeared some deviations from the Augustinian principles of earlier Christian thinkers. Saint Anselm (1033–1109) was a Benedictine who believed faith must precede rationalism, as Augustine and most theologians prior to Anselm had believed, but Anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. His views set the stage for the philosophical explosion to occur. Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian thought before the first works of Aristotle reached the West. His major influence on alchemy was his belief that Platonic universals did not have a separate existence outside of man's consciousness. Abelard also systematized the analysis of philosophical contradictions.Robert Grosseteste (1170–1253) was a pioneer of the scientific theory that would later be used and refined by the alchemists. He took Abelard's methods of analysis and added the use of observations, experimentation, and conclusions in making scientific evaluations. Grosseteste also did much work to bridge Platonic and Aristotelian thinking. Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) were both Dominicans who studied Aristotle and worked at reconciling the differences between philosophy and Christianity. Aquinas also did a great deal of work in developing the scientific method. He even went as far as claiming that universals could be discovered only through logical reasoning, and, since reason could not run in opposition to God, reason must be compatible with theology.[26] This ran contrary to the commonly held Platonic belief that universals were found through divine illumination alone. Magnus and Aquinas were among the first to take up the examination of alchemical theory, and could be considered to be alchemists themselves, except that these two did little in the way of experimentation.The first true alchemist in Medieval Europe was Roger Bacon. His work did as much for alchemy as Robert Boyle's was to do for chemistry and Galileo's for astronomy and physics. Bacon (1214–1294) was an Oxford Franciscan who explored optics and languages in addition to alchemy. The Franciscan ideals of taking on the world rather than rejecting the world led to his conviction that experimentation was more important than reasoning: "Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire knowledge of things: authority, reasoning, and experience; only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." (Bacon p. 367) "Experimental Science controls the conclusions of all other sciences. It reveals truths which reasoning from general principles would never have discovered."[25] Roger Bacon has also been attributed with originating the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life: "That medicine which will remove all impurities and corruptibilities from the lesser metals will also, in the opinion of the wise, take off so much of the corruptibility of the body that human life may be prolonged for many centuries." The idea of immortality was replaced with the notion of long life; after all, man's time on Earth was simply to wait and prepare for immortality in the world of God. Immortality on Earth did not mesh with Christian theology.Bacon was not the only alchemist of the high Middle Ages, but he was the most significant. His works were used by countless alchemists of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. Other alchemists of Bacon's time shared several traits. First, and most obviously, nearly all were members of the clergy. This was simply because few people outside the parochial schools had the education to examine the Arabic-derived works. Also, alchemy at this time was sanctioned by the church as a good method of exploring and developing theology. Alchemy was interesting to the wide variety of churchmen because it offered a rationalistic view of the universe when men were just beginning to learn about rationalism.So by the end of the thirteenth century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use the technique to purify the human soul). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practiced their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul was divided within himself after the fall of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God.In the fourteenth century, these views underwent a major change. William of Ockham, an Oxford Franciscan who died in 1349, attacked the Thomist view of compatibility between faith and reason. His view, widely accepted today, was that God must be accepted on faith alone; He could not be limited by human reason. Of course this view was not incorrect if one accepted the postulate of a limitless God versus limited human reasoning capability, but it virtually erased alchemy from practice in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[30] Pope John XXII in the early 1300s issued an edict against alchemy, which effectively removed all church personnel from the practice of the Art. [31] The climate changes, Black plague, and increase in warfare and famine that characterized this century no doubt also served to hamper philosophical pursuits in general.Stacks Image 4159Nicolas Flamel had these mysterious alchemical symbols carved on his tomb in the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris.Alchemy was kept alive by men such as Nicolas Flamel, who was noteworthy only because he was one of the few alchemists writing in those troubled times. Flamel lived from 1330 to 1417 and would serve as the archetype for the next phase of alchemy. He was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's stone, which he is reputed to have found; his work spends a great deal of time describing the processes and reactions, but never actually gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations. Most of his work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him, especially as regarded the philosophers' stone..Through the late Middle Ages (1300–1500) alchemists were much like Flamel: they concentrated on looking for the philosophers' stone and the elixir of youth, now believed to be separate things. Their cryptic allusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art. For example, many alchemists during this period interpreted the purification of the soul to mean the transmutation of lead into gold (in which they believed elemental mercury, or 'quicksilver', played a crucial role). These men were viewed as magicians and sorcerers by many, and were often persecuted for their practices.One of these men who emerged at the beginning of the sixteenth century was the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535). This alchemist believed himself to be a wizard capable of summoning spirits. His influence was negligible, but like Flamel, he produced writings which were referred to by alchemists of later years. Again like Flamel, he did much to change alchemy from a mystical philosophy to an occultist magic. He did keep alive the philosophies of the earlier alchemists, including experimental science, numerology, etc., but he added magic theory, which reinforced the idea of alchemy as an occultist belief. In spite of all this, Agrippa still considered himself a Christian, though his views often came into conflict with the church.Authors Note. By reading this material at the start of this section one should develop an understanding of what it was thought that alchemy was and what about. Note long life or a medicine. Note Gold and Silver and precious stones. many things are attributed to the stone. But note also what the stone really was, was kept Secret. Again recognize the names. Along with these persons, the Secret Societies , the (Masons) founding fathers of America, the list is long and always filled with noteworthy men. What was the "Great Secret" they always knew but hide from you? Was Jesus one of them? You decide from what is written.
The First Mythology Gnostic - Websites By Cook.Alchemy in the Renaissance and Modern Age.These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships.
This section will show that the Gnostic Gospels had alchemy throughout the material. Also, I will show that Jesus was familiar with this material. Possibly it is an answer as to how Jesus did accomplish some of his work. The material is from the Nag Hammadi Library, and other texts that will be noted. also as this is about alchemy and religion, I want first to put information down as to what was thought to be concerning these subjects. This information is from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...Alchemy covers several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be largely independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy, centered in China and its zone of cultural influence; Indian alchemy, centred around the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center has shifted over the millennia from ancient Egypt, to the Greco-Roman world, to the Islamic world, and finally medieval Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths, whereas Western alchemy developed its own philosophical system that was largely independent of, but influenced by, various Western religions. It is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other.
Authors Note. ancient Egypt is hardly mentioned. But, from G. Masseys work it is evident that in the ancient past there was a One World Religion. It is my opinion that all our present day religions stem from this ancient understanding of how Nature worked to produce perfection. The Great Secret was always maintained by what we would call "Holy Men" of the past. Alchemists in our near time. Jesus being one of them. I can't say where the science originated, only that it is ancient. I have shown in my work that the defining of the Constellations by word definitions is from this science as the word definitions define the steps of the process and so means the constellations or times overhead during the year, were defined by what was physically happening to the matter in the below. The origin of western alchemy may generally be traced to Hellenistic Egypt. It is claimed by Zosimos of Panopolis that alchemy dated back to ancient Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class; there is little or no evidence for such a claim though.[1]Egyptian alchemy is known mostly through the writings of (Hellenic) Greek philosophers, some surviving only in Syriac and Arabic translations. Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X, though even these are from the Christian period. Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books[2] after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (292), which had been a center of Egyptian alchemy.
Legend has it[who?] that the founder of Egyptian alchemy was the god Thoth, called Hermes-Thoth or Thrice-Great Hermes (Hermes Trismegistus) by the Greeks. According to legend, he wrote what were called the forty-two Books of Knowledge, covering all fields of knowledge—including alchemy. Hermes's symbol was the caduceus or serpent-staff, which became one of many of alchemy's principal symbols. The "Emerald Tablet" or Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes, which is known only through Greek and Arabic translations, is generally understood[who?] to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners.
The first point of the "Emerald Tablet" tells the purpose of hermetic science: "in truth certainly and without doubt, whatever is below is like that which is above, and whatever is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing."[3] This is the macrocosm-microcosm belief central to the hermetic philosophy. In other words, the human body (the microcosm) is affected by the exterior world (the macrocosm), which includes the heavens through astrology, and the earth through the elements. Though when one gains mastery over their inner world, they begin to be able to control the exterior world in unconventional ways.Authors Note. basically alchemy is about how to use everything outside with a glass pyramid oven to perfect matter. The Emerald Tablet is a Creation Epic, ancient and understood as the same as Genesis. I will discuss and explain it later. Now above it discusses the human body! alchemy is about perfecting matter! It is done by controlling the forces of Nature throughout the year. The steps or times of the stone are found during the 16 month process. What happened at those time became our religious holidays and created our belief system. It was a way of life to the ancients and for them gave the First Organized Religion of Osiris. That is the most ancient I have found concerning this material. That religion and this process is the basis for all religions today.The Hellenistic city of Alexandria in Egypt was a center of Greek alchemical knowledge, and retained its preeminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. The Greeks appropriated the hermetical beliefs of the Egyptians and melded with them the philosophies of Pythagoreanism, ionianism, and gnosticism. Pythagorean philosophy is, essentially, the belief that numbers rule the universe, originating from the observations of sound, stars, and geometric shapes like triangles, or anything from which a ratio could be derived. Ionian thought was based on the belief that the universe could be explained through concentration on natural phenomena; this philosophy is believed to have originated with Thales and his pupil Anaximander, and later developed by Plato and Aristotle, whose works came to be an integral part of alchemy. According to this belief, the universe can be described by a few unified natural laws that can be determined only through careful, thorough, and exacting philosophical explorations. The third component introduced to hermetical philosophy by the Greeks was gnosticism, a belief prevalent in the Christian and early post-Christian Roman empire, that the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed manner, and that learning about the nature of spiritual matter would lead to salvation. They further believed that God did not "create" the universe in the classic sense, but that the universe was created "from" him, but was corrupted in the process (rather than becoming corrupted by the transgressions of Adam and Eve, that is, original sin). Many Gnostic sects further held the Biblical deity to be evil and viewed him as a fallen emanation of the High God whom they sought to worship and unite with; however, the aspect of the Abrahamic god as being evil really played no role in alchemy but the aspect of ascending to the high god probably had a great deal of influence. Platonic and neo-Platonic theories about universals and the omnipotence of God were also absorbed (their main beliefs see the physical aspect of the world as being imperfect and think of God as a transcendent cosmic mind).One very important concept introduced at this time, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed.The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are. "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form."Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept.Authors Note. This section is here because I will be quoting material from each person that is mentioned. Many have names familiar to you. as the alchemists I listed. In the past, everyone that was anyone knew of this information and described it correctly. also please note above about the "Evil" that came into being with the Gnosticism mentioned. That is also from this process and how it was understood by Philosophers of Holy men of that time period. It was not a part of the past. Also note above the mention of Adam and Eve, and consider the whole story of the creation of man (androgynous) That understanding is "also from" this process. We make androgynous material, and as it became a religion, that belief was carried over to later generations, peoples, who may not have truly understood the past religion that was ancient at the time of early Christianity. The four, "earth, air, fore and water," actually do make everything when you understand this process. Like all this information, we as a society never knew that as we never knew any of this explanation!\BACK TO TOP Stacks Image 408 Gnostic Page 2 Alchemy in the Renaissance and Modern Age..Because of its strong connections to the Greek and Roman cultures, alchemy was rather easily accepted into Christian philosophy, and Medieval European alchemists extensively absorbed Islamic alchemical knowledge. Gerbert of Aurillac, who was later to become Pope Silvester II, (d. 1003) was among the first to bring Islamic science to Europe from Spain. Later men such as Adelard of Bath, who lived in the 12th century, brought additional learning. But until the 13th century the moves were mainly assimilative. In this period there appeared some deviations from the Augustinian principles of earlier Christian thinkers. Saint Anselm (1033–1109) was a Benedictine who believed faith must precede rationalism, as Augustine and most theologians prior to Anselm had believed, but Anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. His views set the stage for the philosophical explosion to occur. Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian thought before the first works of Aristotle reached the West. His major influence on alchemy was his belief that Platonic universals did not have a separate existence outside of man's consciousness. Abelard also systematized the analysis of philosophical contradictions.Robert Grosseteste (1170–1253) was a pioneer of the scientific theory that would later be used and refined by the alchemists. He took Abelard's methods of analysis and added the use of observations, experimentation, and conclusions in making scientific evaluations. Grosseteste also did much work to bridge Platonic and Aristotelian thinking. Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) were both Dominicans who studied Aristotle and worked at reconciling the differences between philosophy and Christianity. Aquinas also did a great deal of work in developing the scientific method. He even went as far as claiming that universals could be discovered only through logical reasoning, and, since reason could not run in opposition to God, reason must be compatible with theology.[26] This ran contrary to the commonly held Platonic belief that universals were found through divine illumination alone. Magnus and Aquinas were among the first to take up the examination of alchemical theory, and could be considered to be alchemists themselves, except that these two did little in the way of experimentation.The first true alchemist in Medieval Europe was Roger Bacon. His work did as much for alchemy as Robert Boyle's was to do for chemistry and Galileo's for astronomy and physics. Bacon (1214–1294) was an Oxford Franciscan who explored optics and languages in addition to alchemy. The Franciscan ideals of taking on the world rather than rejecting the world led to his conviction that experimentation was more important than reasoning: "Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire knowledge of things: authority, reasoning, and experience; only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." (Bacon p. 367) "Experimental Science controls the conclusions of all other sciences. It reveals truths which reasoning from general principles would never have discovered."[25] Roger Bacon has also been attributed with originating the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life: "That medicine which will remove all impurities and corruptibilities from the lesser metals will also, in the opinion of the wise, take off so much of the corruptibility of the body that human life may be prolonged for many centuries." The idea of immortality was replaced with the notion of long life; after all, man's time on Earth was simply to wait and prepare for immortality in the world of God. Immortality on Earth did not mesh with Christian theology.Bacon was not the only alchemist of the high Middle Ages, but he was the most significant. His works were used by countless alchemists of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. Other alchemists of Bacon's time shared several traits. First, and most obviously, nearly all were members of the clergy. This was simply because few people outside the parochial schools had the education to examine the Arabic-derived works. Also, alchemy at this time was sanctioned by the church as a good method of exploring and developing theology. Alchemy was interesting to the wide variety of churchmen because it offered a rationalistic view of the universe when men were just beginning to learn about rationalism.So by the end of the thirteenth century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use the technique to purify the human soul). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practiced their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul was divided within himself after the fall of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God.In the fourteenth century, these views underwent a major change. William of Ockham, an Oxford Franciscan who died in 1349, attacked the Thomist view of compatibility between faith and reason. His view, widely accepted today, was that God must be accepted on faith alone; He could not be limited by human reason. Of course this view was not incorrect if one accepted the postulate of a limitless God versus limited human reasoning capability, but it virtually erased alchemy from practice in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[30] Pope John XXII in the early 1300s issued an edict against alchemy, which effectively removed all church personnel from the practice of the Art. [31] The climate changes, Black plague, and increase in warfare and famine that characterized this century no doubt also served to hamper philosophical pursuits in general.Stacks Image 4159Nicolas Flamel had these mysterious alchemical symbols carved on his tomb in the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris.Alchemy was kept alive by men such as Nicolas Flamel, who was noteworthy only because he was one of the few alchemists writing in those troubled times. Flamel lived from 1330 to 1417 and would serve as the archetype for the next phase of alchemy. He was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's stone, which he is reputed to have found; his work spends a great deal of time describing the processes and reactions, but never actually gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations. Most of his work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him, especially as regarded the philosophers' stone..Through the late Middle Ages (1300–1500) alchemists were much like Flamel: they concentrated on looking for the philosophers' stone and the elixir of youth, now believed to be separate things. Their cryptic allusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art. For example, many alchemists during this period interpreted the purification of the soul to mean the transmutation of lead into gold (in which they believed elemental mercury, or 'quicksilver', played a crucial role). These men were viewed as magicians and sorcerers by many, and were often persecuted for their practices.One of these men who emerged at the beginning of the sixteenth century was the German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535). This alchemist believed himself to be a wizard capable of summoning spirits. His influence was negligible, but like Flamel, he produced writings which were referred to by alchemists of later years. Again like Flamel, he did much to change alchemy from a mystical philosophy to an occultist magic. He did keep alive the philosophies of the earlier alchemists, including experimental science, numerology, etc., but he added magic theory, which reinforced the idea of alchemy as an occultist belief. In spite of all this, Agrippa still considered himself a Christian, though his views often came into conflict with the church.Authors Note. By reading this material at the start of this section one should develop an understanding of what it was thought that alchemy was and what about. Note long life or a medicine. Note Gold and Silver and precious stones. many things are attributed to the stone. But note also what the stone really was, was kept Secret. Again recognize the names. Along with these persons, the Secret Societies , the (Masons) founding fathers of America, the list is long and always filled with noteworthy men. What was the "Great Secret" they always knew but hide from you? Was Jesus one of them? You decide from what is written.