Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Acknowledgements
Peer Reviewers
List of Illustrations
part i. cornerstones
Ancient Alchemies, East & West
Introduction to Part One: 18
Circumambulating the Alchemical Mysterium
Aaron Cheak
1. Te Perfect Black: 44
Egypt and Alchemy
Aaron Cheak
2. Telestic Transformation and Philosophical Rebirth: 92
From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism
Algis Udavinys
3. Metallurgy and Demiurgy: 150
Te Roots of Greek Alchemy in the
Mythology of Hephaestos (Discussions)
Rod Blackhirst
4. Taking from Water to Fill in Fire: 167
Te History and Dynamics of Taoist Alchemy
Aaron Cheak
5. Mercury and Immortality: 207
Te Hindu Alchemical Tradition
David Gordon White
6. Iatrochemistry, Metaphysiology, Gnsis: 229
Tibetan Alchemy in the Klacakra Tantra
Kim Lai
part ii. transformations
Alchemies of the Spirit, Body & Word
Introduction to Part Two: 292
Interzone: On the Origins and Nature of European Alchemy
Aaron Cheak
7. Te Alchemical Khiasmos: 310
Counter-Stretched Harmony and Divine Self-Perception
Aaron Cheak & Sabrina Dalla Valle
8. Altus Ominous Aphorism: 320
Reading as Alchemical Process
Mirco Mannucci
9. Turris Philosophorum: 325
On the Alchemical Iconography of the Tower
Christopher A. Plaisance
10. Of Ether, Entheogens and Colloidal Gold: 355
Heinrich Khunrath and the Making of a Philosophers Stone
Hereward Tilton
11. Becoming an Angel: 421
Te Mundus Imaginalis of Henry Corbin
and the Platonic Path of Self-Knowledge
Angela Voss
12. Te Kiss of Death: 434
Amor, Corpus Resurrectionis and the
Alchemical Transfguration of Eros
Paul Scarpari
13. Agent of All Mutations: 458
Metallurgical, Biological and Spiritual
Evolution in the Alchemy of Ren Schwaller de Lubicz
Aaron Cheak
14. Take Two Emerald Tablets in the Morning: 518
Surrealism and the Alchemical Transubstantiation of the World
Leon Marvell
15. Incredible Lunatic of the Future: 536
Te Alchemical Horticulture of Alan Chadwick
Rod Blackhirst
16. Alchemical Endgame: 548
Checkmate in Beckett and Eliot
Dan Mellamphy
end matter
Abbreviations 639
Bibliography 641
Author Biographies 677
list of illustrations
1. Stylised ouroboros from pseudo-Cleopatras Chrysopoeia (Auri-
faction, Gold-making). Manuscript of Saint-Marc, in Ms. 2325,
Bibliothque nationale, fol. 188, verso, thirteenth century.
2. Jade ouroboric dragon coloured with cinnabar. Shang-Zhou Dy-
nasty, c. 1150-950 bce. Victoria and Albert Museum, London
(Photo, Cheak, 2005).
3. Self-Manifestation of the Tao and its Reversal
4. Elemental and Spatio-Temporal Orientations.
5. Taking from Water to Fill in Fire.
6. Wheel of emanation (the emanation cakra).
7. Te Ptolemaic cosmograph shared by most Renaissance alche-
mists. From Peter Apians Cosmographia, siue Descripto universi
Orbis (1584).
8. Frontispiece to the Musum Hermeticum (1678): What are in the
superiors, are also in the inferiors: that which points to heaven, is
frequently held by the earth.
9. Athanor as castle in Lambsprincks De lapide philosophico in the
Musum Hermeticum (1678).
10. Te athanor as a tower in Gebers Liber fornacum.
11. Athanors with removable rooves in the Mutus liber or Silent Book
(1677, plate 10).
12-14. Te torre philosophica (philosophical tower) shown both in as-
sembled and disassembled states. It is described as both forno
(furnace) and torre (tower). Te second and third images depict
it with the instruments for making the magistry of the Aqua Vit
(water of life). From Donato DEremits DellElixir Vit (On the
Elixir of Life, 1624).
15. Paracelsus, Anatomia corporum adhuc viventium (Te Anatomy of
Still Living Bodies, 1577), comparing the proportions of the fur-
nace to the proportions of the human anatomy.
16. Tower identifed as homo sanus (a healthy human); four archan-
gels repel the four diferent kinds of illness (depicted as demons).
Robert Fludd, Medicina catholica, 1629.
17. Te tower of man, infltrated by demonic attacks, succumbs to the
four types of illness. Robert Fludd, Integrvm morborvm mysterivm,
1631.
18-19. Correspondences between the human body and the seven planets
(lef); and between the human body and the signs of the Zodiac
(right). Robert Fludd, Utriusque cosmi, 1617.
20. Edward Kelleys vision of the cosmos as a castle comprised of four
towers. John Dee and Edward Kelly, A True & Faithful Relation
(1659).
21-22 Two cosmic athanors representing the physical and spiritual struc-
ture of the universe. Annibal Barlets fourneau cosmique (cosmic
furnace) which comprehends the Zodiac and celestial sphere
(1653); and Tomas Nortons stylized athanor representing the ar-
chetypal, angelic, elemental and infernal spheres (1678).
23. Conjunction of Lady Alchimia and the Athanor King in the tow-
er/castle, representing the conjunction of philosophical mercury
and sulphur in the philosophers furnace. Cod. Pal. Lat. 1066 (ff-
teenth century).
24. Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa Margarita novella (sixteenth century),
where the union of king and queen gives rise to the philosophical
tree and the maturation of the philosophers stone.
25. Ripley Scroll (ffeenth century).
26. An eighteenth century rendition of the authors portrait from Khu-
nraths Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae (1609 edition). ULB
Darmstadt, Ms. 3263 (with permission of the Universitts-und
Landesbibliothek Darmstadt).
27. Te dissolution of the subject represented by dismemberment,
from Splendor Solis oder Sonnenglantz (Berliner Staatsbibliothek
Codex Germ. fol. 42, late 16th century, from the 1972 facsimile edi-
tion of Inge Veifues).
28. Rosenburg castle near Krumau, Bohemia the family estate of
Wilhelm von Rosenberg (1535-1592), who employed Khunrath as
his physician in 1591.
29. Te alchemical Green Lion, from Michael Maiers Atalanta fu-
giens (1618). With permission of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Mnchen.
30. Te coniunctio oppositorum, from the Aurora consurgens. Zrich,
Zentralbibliothek, Ms. Rh. 172: Aurora consurgens. With permis-
sion of the Zentralbibliothek, Zrich.
31. Te distillation of aqua regia, from Lazarus Erckers Aula subter-
ranea (1580). With permission of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
Munich.
32. Te purifcation of gold with antimony, from Count Michael
Maiers Atalanta fugiens (1618). With permission of the Bayeri-
sche Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
33. Te furnace and recipient, from the Consilium philosophicum
practicum (Halle UB, Ms. 14 A 12 (1)), f. 16 verso (Khunraths
autograph).
34. Visiting the interior of the earth, from the Aurora consurgens.
Zrich, Zentralbibliothek. Ms. Rh. 172: Aurora consurgens. With
permission of the Zentralbibliothek, Zrich.
35. Te cosmos of Heinrich Khunrath, from an eighteenth centu-
ry manuscript copy of the Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae
(1609). ULB Darmstadt, Ms. 3263 (with permission of the Univer-
sitts-und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt).
36. Te stag (soul) and the unicorn (spirit) in the forest (body), from
Lambsprinck, De lapide philosophico (1625): But happy shall that
man be called, who shall snare and capture them. With permis-
sion of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
37. Te alchemical Farbenlehre of Ren Schwaller de Lubicz.
38. Bas Reliefs from the Botanical Garden of Tutmose III showing
proliferous Nymphaea lotuses (Detail, west wall, Karnak).
39. Instance of teratological proliferation recorded in the Museum of
Paris Bulletin.
40. Arms of Isia (ze-sur-mer), Cte dAzure, France. (Photo, Cheak,
2005).
Part One
cornerstones
Ancient Alchemies,
East & West
How one should turn to stone.
Slowly, slowly become hard, like a precious stone
until at last one remains still, lying in the bliss of eternity.
Ni e t z s c h e , Mo r g e n r t e , 5 4 1
I nt r o du c t i o n
CI RCUMAMBULATI NG
THE ALCHEMI CAL MYSTERI UM
Aa r o n Ch e a k