A is for Alchemy!!

    I am participating in the Pagan Blog Project.  Every week a large group of pagans from around the world will post to their blogs a topic of their choice starting with a letter.  This week is an A week.  I am amazed about all I did not know, and probably never will know about alchemy.  I decided on the name of my blog after  several days of thinking and meditating on the subject.  The name Of Eskies and Alchemy just "came to me" after meditating, and communicating briefly with a newly discovered spirit guide.  I will write more on spirit guides, and how they help me later.  I could not get the name out of my head, kept coming back to it, even though it is rather unusual.  I also kept thinking of integration in relation to my spiritual path.  Before I researched alchemy, I thought it was only to make something mundane special or different.  I was attracted to this because of my natural whimsy.   I was of course, aware of the esoteric nature of the study of alchemy, and also imagined ancient bearded men boiling substances in flasks.  So, in researching my first topic for the project, I am overwhelmed, excited, and prickling with psychic energy about alchemy.  This brief post will be only the beginning of my posts on alchemy.  I promise not to bore you.  Where to start??
      Alchemy is defined in Websters as, "Medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve transmutation of the base metals into gold; the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means to indefinitely prolong life.  A power or process of transforming something common into something special."  
The first known alchemists were Egyptian, however there is record of the study of alchemy all over the world.  Probably the best known, were the European alchemists searching for the Philosopher's Stone in the 17th century.   This stone, once created, could remove impurities from anything, including people.  To discover it, would be like finding the fountain of youth.  Even Issac Newton was an alchemist.  According to his journals, he was fascinated with having power over nature, and studied alchemy, although it became illegal at that time.  Authorities were worried about counterfeit of lesser metals, being sold as gold or silver.  I have to wonder though, if they were not also concerned about the spirituality of alchemical  pursuits not aligning with church doctrine.  
       Alchemy was not just scientific experiments performed in test tubes.  The scientists meditated on the results of an experiment, focusing on colors, and mundane and mystical animals to represent the steps.  A discovery that did not include changes to the very soul of a scientist could not be proven.  The inner awakenings  were as important as the physical results. The steps built on each other, and were documented in a lustrous code of symbols and pictures. 
     Alchemy was, and still is, a way for humans to seek their place in the universe.  Through attention to our spiritual hunger we can be forged, as if anew, in the great cauldron of life.  The great alchemists never found the secret to the Philosopher's Stone, but they gave themselves time and space to search into the blackness for a spark of light.  They integrated the spiritual and the physical worlds with a sense of wonder and awe.  They understood the connections, and the grandeur of infinite possibilities within change. 
       "Alchemy is truly the art of becoming allied to the full spectrum of life-forms, from mineral to spirit worlds", as defined by the Celtic Philosopher Caitlin Matthews in, Singing the Soul Back Home.  What a WOW moment when I read this.  My blog name is exactly what I needed and wanted, and I did not even realize it.  Life just works that way sometimes.  I got an answer, and I did not even know the full breadth of the question.  
With humility, and a wish for many more moments like this, I am again - in awe.

Please visit http://www.alchemywebsite.com for an unbelievable amount of information on alchemy.

From Museum Hermeticum, Frankfurt, 1625