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Alkahest. Image of Alchimia, the embodiment of alchemy. Woodcut published by Leonhard Thurneysser in 1574. Thurneysser was a student of Paracelsus. In Renaissance alchemy, alkahest was the theorized "universal solvent ". [ nb 1] It was supposed to be capable of dissolving any composite substance, including gold (then not considered an element ...
Philosopher's stone. The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher's Stone by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1771. The philosopher's stone[ a] is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver [ b]; it was also known as "the tincture" and "the powder". Alchemists additionally believed that it could be ...
In alchemy and philosophy, prima materia, materia prima or first matter (for a philosophical exposition refer to: Prime Matter ), is the ubiquitous starting material required for the alchemical magnum opus and the creation of the philosopher's stone. It is the primitive formless base of all matter similar to chaos, the quintessence or aether.
Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier. Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. Lüdy-Tenger [ 1] published an inventory of 3,695 symbols and variants, and ...
Alchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, khumeía) [1] is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. [2] In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts ...
This is the recipe: take equal amounts of sulphur, rock salt, ashes, thunder stone, and pyrite and pound fine in a black mortar at midday sun. Also in equal amounts of each ingredient mix together black mulberry resin and Zakynthian asphalt, the latter in a liquid form and free-flowing, resulting in a product that is sooty colored.
Chinese alchemy specifically was consistent in its practice from the beginning, and there was relatively little controversy among its practitioners [citation needed]. Definition amongst alchemists varied only in their medical prescription for the elixir of immortality, or perhaps only over their names for it, of which sinology has counted about ...
Septenary of the seven metals and Classical planets in Western alchemy. Lead • tin • copper • iron • mercury • silver • gold. Saturn • Jupiter • Venus • Mars • Mercury • Moon • Sun. Tria Prima (three primes) Salt • mercury • sulfur. Body • soul • spirit. Unity of opposites or coincidentia oppositorum. Hieros Gamos.