[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
51
gold fever, lost everything they owned in their blind passion to pursue alchemy. Thus this
comment on poverty and vain labor strikes a chord with the common association of alchemy
with literal and very much material investments.
While some may argue for a mystical and theoretical interpretation of alchemical
processes, it is hard to miss Paracelsus admonitions that appear to reference very literal and
concrete procedures:
First of all, then, there must be learnt digestions, distillations, sublimations,
reverberations, extractions, solutions, coagulations, fermentations, fixations, and every
instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, such as glass
vessels, cucurbiters, circulators, vessels of Hermes, earthen vessels, baths, blast-furnaces,
reverberatories, and instruments of like kind, also marble, coals, and tongs.95
This extensive list of laboratory equipment and alchemical procedures is significant because it is
straightforward, and leaves little room for metaphorizing. Likewise his comment that every
instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, indicates that he
expected his disciples to be thoroughly familiar with such practical operations. This passage
immediately conjures within our mind an image of a grungy laboratory, filled with oddly-shaped
alembics and blackened tools. It is known that, as a boy, Paracelsus accumulated much
knowledge of metallurgical and chemical arts because he spent some time working at the ore
mines in Bleiberg. Getting dirty and covered in soot was not alien to him, and we can hear him
affirming the manual labor of the alchemists, who,
& devote themselves diligently to their labours, sweating whole nights and days over
fiery furnaces. These do not kill the time with empty talk, but find their delight in their
laboratory. They are clad in leathern garments, and wear a girdle to wipe their hands
upon. They put their fingers to the coals, the lute, and the dung, not into gold rings. Like
blacksmiths and coal merchants, they are sooty and dirty& They perceive the work
should glorify the workman, not the workman the work& they rejoice to be occupied at
the fire and to learn the steps of alchemical knowledge.96
95
Paracelsus, The Tincture of the Philosophers, trans. & ed. E.A. Waite, The Hermetic Writings Vol. 1, 22
96
Paracelsus, On the Nature of Things, trans. & ed. E.A. Waite, The Hermetic Writings Vol. 1, 167
52
It is with passages such as these that it becomes more difficult to explain away such references to
laboratory labors as codified veilings for metaphysical practices. Indeed, Andrew Cunningham
expresses his frustration at many modern day spiritual seekers who fail to acknowledge the many
technical surgical treatises Paracelsus had written, and for whom even practical chemical
remedies were not to be taken literally. 97
In terms of these concrete uses of chemistry in the alchemical laboratories, some scholars
have understood Paracelsus alchemy to be practical.98 Yet the confusion persists due to frequent
obscure passages in Paracelsus works in which deliberately coded and veiled language prevent
any clear interpretation. But some scholars have concluded that far from having any intention of
making himself clear, he sought protection against spying and plagiary by deliberately omitting
key factors from his formulas and prescriptions. 99 Henry Pachter offers this interpretation, and
suggests that mystifying language as well as the claim to know the Philosopher s Stone were
sure to help attract the attention and respect of potential wealthy patrons.100
Pachter is also of the opinion that Paracelsus is more of a naturalist than a spiritualist in
this sense, because his vitalism the reactionary philosophy arising in the face of 19th century
mechanical materialism was itself a reaction to the medieval mechanical spiritualism. He
therefore sees Paracelsus cosmology as founded upon a much more materialistic vitalism, in
which his metaphysical speculation was more a result of the standard vernacular prevalent during
97
Cunningham, Fat and Thin Paracelsus, ed. Peter Grell, Paracelsus, the Man and his Reputation, his Ideas and
Their Transformation, 68
98
Stillman, 98 The interest of Paracelsus in chemistry was on the whole practical, though his adopted philosophy
and the need he felt to replace the Galenic and Aristotelian theories by new ones leads him often into
theorizing& Thus in the preparation and purification of his arcana or simple extracts or principles of plants and
minerals, he seems to have followed as a working hypothesis, his neo-Platonic concept of the spiritual sympathetic
relations of all things in the universe toward man and his health. Thus if he could free the real active spirit or
principle of the plant from grosser admixtures, it should be more efficacious. So he rejected the extremely complex
decoctions of herbs of the customary pharmacopoeia for his simpler arcana.
99
Pachter, 112
100
Ibid, 118
53
his time than as the foundational basis for his chemistry. A final distinction he makes is that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl chiara76.opx.pl
51
gold fever, lost everything they owned in their blind passion to pursue alchemy. Thus this
comment on poverty and vain labor strikes a chord with the common association of alchemy
with literal and very much material investments.
While some may argue for a mystical and theoretical interpretation of alchemical
processes, it is hard to miss Paracelsus admonitions that appear to reference very literal and
concrete procedures:
First of all, then, there must be learnt digestions, distillations, sublimations,
reverberations, extractions, solutions, coagulations, fermentations, fixations, and every
instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, such as glass
vessels, cucurbiters, circulators, vessels of Hermes, earthen vessels, baths, blast-furnaces,
reverberatories, and instruments of like kind, also marble, coals, and tongs.95
This extensive list of laboratory equipment and alchemical procedures is significant because it is
straightforward, and leaves little room for metaphorizing. Likewise his comment that every
instrument which is requisite for this work must be mastered by experience, indicates that he
expected his disciples to be thoroughly familiar with such practical operations. This passage
immediately conjures within our mind an image of a grungy laboratory, filled with oddly-shaped
alembics and blackened tools. It is known that, as a boy, Paracelsus accumulated much
knowledge of metallurgical and chemical arts because he spent some time working at the ore
mines in Bleiberg. Getting dirty and covered in soot was not alien to him, and we can hear him
affirming the manual labor of the alchemists, who,
& devote themselves diligently to their labours, sweating whole nights and days over
fiery furnaces. These do not kill the time with empty talk, but find their delight in their
laboratory. They are clad in leathern garments, and wear a girdle to wipe their hands
upon. They put their fingers to the coals, the lute, and the dung, not into gold rings. Like
blacksmiths and coal merchants, they are sooty and dirty& They perceive the work
should glorify the workman, not the workman the work& they rejoice to be occupied at
the fire and to learn the steps of alchemical knowledge.96
95
Paracelsus, The Tincture of the Philosophers, trans. & ed. E.A. Waite, The Hermetic Writings Vol. 1, 22
96
Paracelsus, On the Nature of Things, trans. & ed. E.A. Waite, The Hermetic Writings Vol. 1, 167
52
It is with passages such as these that it becomes more difficult to explain away such references to
laboratory labors as codified veilings for metaphysical practices. Indeed, Andrew Cunningham
expresses his frustration at many modern day spiritual seekers who fail to acknowledge the many
technical surgical treatises Paracelsus had written, and for whom even practical chemical
remedies were not to be taken literally. 97
In terms of these concrete uses of chemistry in the alchemical laboratories, some scholars
have understood Paracelsus alchemy to be practical.98 Yet the confusion persists due to frequent
obscure passages in Paracelsus works in which deliberately coded and veiled language prevent
any clear interpretation. But some scholars have concluded that far from having any intention of
making himself clear, he sought protection against spying and plagiary by deliberately omitting
key factors from his formulas and prescriptions. 99 Henry Pachter offers this interpretation, and
suggests that mystifying language as well as the claim to know the Philosopher s Stone were
sure to help attract the attention and respect of potential wealthy patrons.100
Pachter is also of the opinion that Paracelsus is more of a naturalist than a spiritualist in
this sense, because his vitalism the reactionary philosophy arising in the face of 19th century
mechanical materialism was itself a reaction to the medieval mechanical spiritualism. He
therefore sees Paracelsus cosmology as founded upon a much more materialistic vitalism, in
which his metaphysical speculation was more a result of the standard vernacular prevalent during
97
Cunningham, Fat and Thin Paracelsus, ed. Peter Grell, Paracelsus, the Man and his Reputation, his Ideas and
Their Transformation, 68
98
Stillman, 98 The interest of Paracelsus in chemistry was on the whole practical, though his adopted philosophy
and the need he felt to replace the Galenic and Aristotelian theories by new ones leads him often into
theorizing& Thus in the preparation and purification of his arcana or simple extracts or principles of plants and
minerals, he seems to have followed as a working hypothesis, his neo-Platonic concept of the spiritual sympathetic
relations of all things in the universe toward man and his health. Thus if he could free the real active spirit or
principle of the plant from grosser admixtures, it should be more efficacious. So he rejected the extremely complex
decoctions of herbs of the customary pharmacopoeia for his simpler arcana.
99
Pachter, 112
100
Ibid, 118
53
his time than as the foundational basis for his chemistry. A final distinction he makes is that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]