OTHER BOOKS BY EVAN S. CONNELL
The Anatomy Lesson and Other Stories
At the Crossroads
The Aztec Treasure House
The Collected Stories of Evan S. Connell
The Connoisseur
Deus lo Volt!
The Diary of a Rapist
Double Honeymoon
Francisco Goya
A Long Desire
Mesa Verde
Mr. Bridge
Mrs. Bridge
Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel
The Patriot
Points for a Compass Rose
Saint Augustine’s Pigeon
Son of the Morning Star
The White Lantern
Copyright © 1991, 2005 by Evan S. Connell
Previously published under the title The Alchymist’s Journal
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Sources for Editor’s Note and Glossary
The Alchemical Tradition in the Late Twentieth Century, edited by Richard Grossinger.
Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 1983.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., vols. I, 25. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago, 1987.
Paracelsus: Selected Writings, edited by Jolande Jacobi; translated by Norbert Guterman. Bollingen Series 28, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973.
Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance, by Walter Pagel. New York: S. Karger, 1958.
Paracelsus: Magic into Science, by Henry M. Pachter. New York: Henry Schuman, 1951.
Prelude to Chemistry: An Outline of Alchemy, Its Literature and Relationships, by John Read. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Connell, Evan S., 1924-
Alchymic journals/by Evan S. Connell.—An expanded ed.
p. cm.
1. Paracelsus, 1493-1541—Fiction. 2. Alchemists—Fiction. 3. Europe—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.O5 A79 2006
813.’54—dc22
2005042599
Text design by David Bullen Photo Credit : Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY “Ex. 4-Trinity’s Trine, 1964” Jess (1923-2004)
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e-book ISBN 978-1-61902-690-2
To William D. Turnbull
Contents
Editor’s Note
Alchymic Journals
Glossary
Heaven has become empty space for us, a fair memory of things that were.
But our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being.
JUNG
Editor’s Note
ALCHEMY IS THE PURSUIT of the artificial production of gold and the search for immortality via a mysterious substance called the philosopher’s stone. The pursuit has been regarded throughout history as either flimflammery or the honest attempt to release value from the prison of rude matter, knowledge from ignorance, good from evil. Principal to alchemy is the belief in the gradual evolution and transformation of substance and the faith that one’s inner being can be changed by participating in external chemical experiments. Generally, alchemy relies on a system of synchronistic correspondences between planets, herbs, minerals, species of animals, signs and symbols, and parts of the body. Fundamentally, it involves mystery.
At one point or another, alchemy has appeared in nearly every major early civilization, in Greece, China, India, Egypt, and early Europe. The ideas of alchemy are universal and have influenced numerous other disciplines. The noble quest to free the very soul and spirit of things—less the secrecy, spells, religious procedures, and hermetic formulations—eventually gave rise to modern chemistry.
GREEK ALCHEMY
Pre-Socratic philosophers wanted to know what elements composed matter, how the invisible generated the visible, why motion was sustained, and where the mind lay in the formulation of things. Aristotle and Plato’s theories of nature as derived from four elements, fire, water, earth, and air, and their properties, hot, wet, dry, and cold, helped form the basis of alchemical thought. The system was often symbolized in alchemical writings as a square. By altering the proportions of the elements present, alchemists believed one body could be changed, or transmuted. For example, when heat is introduced, water, which is wet and cold, changes to an invisible vapor, which is wet and hot. Greek thought held a powerful influence over medieval alchemy.
EUROPEAN ALCHEMY
The word alchemy is European, derived from Arabic, though the origin of the root word chem is uncertain. By 1300, the subject of alchemy was being discussed by the leading philosophers, scientists, and theologians of the day. Many alchemists were artisans, and in an effort to preserve their trade secrets and the esoteric nature of their practices, they devised concealing, symbolic names for the materials with which they worked. As alchemy progressed through the Middle Ages, its practice eventually led to the emergence of medical chemistry, or pharmacology, under the influence of Paracelsus in the sixteenth century. Alchemical discoveries of the period include mineral acids and alcohol.
Renaissance chemists and physicists began to discount the possibility of transmutation, because of a renewed interest in Greek atomism. Chemical data collected by alchemists were reinterpreted and used as the foundation for modern chemistry. Not until the nineteenth century was the possibility of chemical gold-making conclusively contradicted by scientific evidence.
PARACELSUS
The major European alchemists of their times—Flamel, Seton, Helvetius, Paykull (even Sir Isaac Newton believed in and practiced alchemy)—were figures of enormous controversy. No alchemist, however, was as radical yet ultimately modern as Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (1493–1541), who called himself Paracelsus. Paracelsus, whose pseudonym means “above or beyond Celsus,” regarded himself as even greater than Celsus, the renowned Roman physician of the first century.
The famous alchemist was born in a village near Einsiedeln, now in Switzerland, the only son of a poor German doctor and chemist. His mother died when he was a child, and his father wanted his only son to follow him in the “art of medicine.” Young Paracelsus attended Bergschule, where young people were trained as overseers and analysts for mining operations in gold, tin, and mercury, as well as iron, alum, and copper-sulfate ores. From miners he learned that metals “grow” in the earth; he watched the seething transformations in the smelting vats. His early insights into metallurgy and chemistry fostered his imagination and laid the foundation for his remarkable discoveries in the field of chemotherapy.
He eventually grew discontent with school. “The universities do not teach all things,” he wrote, “so a doctor must seek out old wives, gipsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be
