Alchemical Medicine for the 21st Century

2010-06-08

... proposed that alchemy must play a role in the reform of medicine—for how else could an elixir of life be discovered? ... when it became a center for Paracelsian alchemical medicine.34 Laboratories, with equipment developed from Arab ...

Author: Clare Goodrick-Clarke

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 9781594779138

Category: Health & Fitness

Page: 192

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Using the ancient art of spagyrics for treatment of today’s health problems • Contains detailed indications for using alchemical preparations therapeutically • Shows how the essences work holistically to heal the mind, body, and spirit with the energetic qualities of the plant • Provides effective therapy for a wide range of physical and mental disorders Spagyrics is a branch of medicinal alchemy that enhances the healing properties already existing in plants. Developed by Paracelsus, the magus and alchemist of the early 16th century, spagyrics is a holistic therapy that promotes healing at all levels of the human being--body, soul, and spirit. Spagyric essences harness the dynamic life force in plants that triggers recovery from the energetic imbalance of illness. The harmonizing and balancing qualities of spagyric essences differ from other plant remedies and aromatherapy oils because they not only include the plant’s energetic information but also incorporate the salt of the plant, from which all toxic matter has been purged. The preparation of this alchemical medicine makes it possible to capture the full therapeutic spectrum of plants, including the cosmic energies they have absorbed. Alchemical Medicine for the 21st Century contains detailed indications for using these alchemical preparations to treat both physical and mental disorders. The author shows, for example, that the tincture made from dandelion is especially potent on liver-related ailments and also raises the spirit and frees the patient from anger and bitterness. The immune system is also boosted by this essence, providing tonic effects for allergy sufferers. The author, a homeopath since 2000, also shows how these spagyric essences can be potentized homeopathically.
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An Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge

2016-04-20

The worst of their sins is the rejection of alchemy, which stands at the root of medicine. 37 'De lithiasi', ch. 7, §7, 692. Here he criticises those that think the 'powers of divine Wisdom are exhausted'. According to Van Helmont's ...

Author: Georgiana D. Hedesan

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317182139

Category: History

Page: 305

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History of science credits the Flemish physician, alchemist and philosopher Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1579-1644) for his contributions to the development of chemistry and medicine. Yet, as this book makes clear, focussing on Van Helmont's impact on modern science does not do justice to the complexity of his thought or to his influence on successive generations of intellectuals like Robert Boyle or Gottfried Leibniz. Revealing Van Helmont as an original thinker who sought to produce a post-Scholastic synthesis of religion and natural philosophy, Georgiana Hedesan reconstructs his ambitious quest for universal knowledge as it emerges from the text of the Ortus medicinae (1648). Published after Van Helmont's death by his son, the work can best be understood as a compilation of finished and unfinished treatises, the historical product of a life unsettled by religious persecution and personal misfortune. The present book provides a coherent account of Van Helmont's philosophy by analysing its main tenets. Divided into two parts, the study opens with a background to Van Helmont's concept of an alchemical Christian philosophy, demonstrating that his outlook was deeply grounded in the tradition of medical alchemy as reformed by Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493-1541). It then reconstitutes Van Helmont's biography, while giving a historical dimension to his intellectual output. The second part reconstructs Van Helmont's Christian philosophy, investigating his views on God, nature and man, as well as his applied philosophy. Hedesan also provides an account of the development of Van Helmont's thought throughout his life. The conclusion sums up Van Helmont's intellectual achievement and highlights avenues of future research.
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Faith Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy

2018-08-13

An appreciation of this overarching analogical ideal is essential to any understanding of the context of early modem medicine, particularly alchemical medicine. 13 This study charts what can be established of Moriaen's personal history, ...

Author: John T. Young

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9780429862144

Category: History

Page: 278

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Published in 1998, this is a fundamental re-assessment of the world-view of the alchemists, natural philosophers and intelligencers of the mid 17th century. Based almost entirely upon the extensive and hitherto little-researched manuscript archive of Samuel Hartlib, it charts and contextualises the personal and intellectual history of Johann Moriaen (c.1592-1668), a Dutch-German alchemist and natural philosopher. Moriaen was closely acquainted with many of the leading thinkers and experimenters of his time, including René Descartes, J.A. Comenius, J.R. Glauber and J.S. Küffler. His detailed reports of relations with these figures and his response to their work provide a uniquely informed insight into the world of alchemy and natural philosophy. This study also illuminates the nature and mechanisms of intellectual and technological exchanges between Germany, The Netherlands and England.
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The Literati Path to Immortality The Alchemical Teachings of Lu Xixing

2020

Alchemical scriptures often hold it back and do not reveal it, so practitioners can only grasp it intuitively.28 (ZWDS 5:272.1a) The key of self-cultivation is to find the perfect yang—the alchemical medicine—in the trigram Kan and ...

Author: Ilia Mozias

Publisher: Lulu.com

ISBN: 9781931483421

Category: Taoism

Page: 248

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"The Literati Path explores the life and teachings of the Ming author and alchemist Lu Xixing (1520-1601). It begins by examining his biography, religious community, alchemical doctrine, and methods of practice. Lu was special in that he embodied the literati tradition of self-cultivation, engaging in the alchemical arts without ever leaving his habitual life. He did not abandon his family, was never ordained, and had no connection to Daoist or other institutions. He learned internal alchemy from books and through spirit-writing seances where he met Lü Dongbin and other immortals. Next, the work expounds the cosmological doctrines at the foundation of internal alchemy, including those found in the Yijing and the Cantong qi, and outlines the universal ebb and flow of yin and yang as the basis of the immortal elixir. It moves on to describe just how the practice serves to overcome destiny, modeling techniques on biological gestation and creating a new being deep within. It explains major alchemical concepts as applied by Lu Xixing and systematically describes his path to immortality, all the while questioning the validity of his reputation as a sexual alchemist. Shedding fascinating new light on the religious life of Ming literati and providing a first access to a unique take on internal alchemy in late imperial China, The Literati Path to Immortality is a must for anyone interested in traditional Chinese religion and culture!"--
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Alchemy and Chemistry in the 16th and 17th Centuries

2013-03-07

Thisbodyis called medicina, medicina laxativa or elixir.26 Itisno mere metaphorical remedy: a fundamental link binds natural philosophy, alchemy and medicine, sothat besides the expositionof alchemical riddles lie “cause prolongationis ...

Author: P. Rattansi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 9789401107785

Category: History

Page: 215

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The present volume owes its ongm to a Colloquium on "Alchemy and Chemistry in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", held at the Warburg Institute on 26th and 27th July 1989. The Colloquium focused on a number of selected themes during a closely defined chronological interval: on the relation of alchemy and chemistry to medicine, philosophy, religion, and to the corpuscular philosophy, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The relations between Medicina and alchemy in the Lullian treatises were examined in the opening paper by Michela Pereira, based on researches on unpublished manuscript sources in the period between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is several decades since the researches of R.F. Multhauf gave a prominent role to Johannes de Rupescissa in linking medicine and alchemy through the concept of a quinta essentia. Michela Pereira explores the significance of the Lullian tradition in this development and draws attention to the fact that the early Paracelsians had themselves recognized a family resemblance between the works of Paracelsus and Roger Bacon's scientia experimentalis and, indeed, a continuity with the Lullian tradition.
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Practical Alchemy

2021-07-01

alchemy, not just from a theoretical and philosophic viewpoint but from its practical applications as well. ... come across an alchemical formula that says, “This medicine excites the Animal Spirit,” I will know that it is not a super ...

Author: Brian Cotnoir

Publisher: Weiser Books

ISBN: 9781633412255

Category: Body, Mind & Spirit

Page: 160

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A concise guide to the history, theory, and practice of alchemy (the “great work”)—the art of working with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. Alchemy is a means of understanding and working in concert with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. In this book, Brian Cotnoir offers a step-by-step introduction that explores alchemy’s mysteries while illustrating its use as a modern spiritual system of attainment. He provides an overview of the history of alchemy, from the first meldings of Egyptian technology to the Middle Ages—the golden age of alchemy—to contemporary techniques. He demystifies the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, and provides evidence that alchemy is much more than a medieval form of psychotherapy. The guide also includes practical laboratory experiments that safely and intelligently lead readers to an understanding of this ancient art and spiritual practice. Provides step-by-step instruction for beginning a practice in alchemy Explains the theory underlying the art and science of alchemy and how it works Demystifies the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, while going well beyond the “psychological interpretation” advanced by nonscientists Introduces the practice of alchemy to students of the Western magical arts This book was previously published as The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy. This new edition includes a foreword by Robert Allen Bartlett, author of Real Alchemy.
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Alchemy Paracelsianism and Shakespeare s The Winter s Tale

2022-10-05

of treason between 1603 and 1616, Ralegh devoted himself to the practice of alchemy in the hen-house that he turned into a well- ... See also Nicholl, The Chemical Theatre, 17, and Webster, “Alchemical and Paracelsian medicine”, 307.

Author: Martina Zamparo

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783031051678

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 388

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This book explores the role of alchemy, Paracelsianism, and Hermetic philosophy in one of Shakespeare’s last plays, The Winter’s Tale. A perusal of the vast literary and iconographic repertory of Renaissance alchemy reveals that this late play is imbued with several topoi, myths, and emblematic symbols coming from coeval alchemical, Paracelsian, and Hermetic sources. It also discusses the alchemical significance of water and time in the play’s circular and regenerative pattern and the healing role of women. All the major symbols of alchemy are present in Shakespeare’s play: the intertwined serpents of the caduceus, the chemical wedding, the filius philosophorum, and the so-called rex chymicus. This book also provides an in-depth survey of late Renaissance alchemy, Paracelsian medicine, and Hermetic culture in the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. Importantly, it contends that The Winter’s Tale, in symbolically retracing the healing pattern of the rota alchemica and in emphasising the Hermetic principles of unity and concord, glorifies King James’s conciliatory attitude.
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Prophecy Alchemy and the End of Time

2013-12-01

As early as the twelfth century, latin intel- lectuals considered alchemy and medicine to be generally connected. The two disciplines resembled each other: the alchemical balance of sulfur and mercury in metals, which was thought to ...

Author: Leah DeVun

Publisher: Columbia University Press

ISBN: 9780231145398

Category: History

Page: 274

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In the middle of the fourteenth century, the Franciscan friar John of Rupescissa sent a dramatic warning to his followers: the end times were coming; the apocalypse was near. Rupescissa's teachings were unique in his era. He claimed that knowledge of the natural world, and alchemy in particular, could act as a defense against the calamity of the last days. He treated alchemy as medicine (his work was the conceptual forerunner of pharmacology), and reflected emerging technologies and views that sought to combat famine, plague, religious persecution, and war. In order to understand scientific knowledge as it is today, Leah DeVun asks that we revisit the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the Avignon Papacy through Rupescissa's eyes. The advances he pioneered, along with the exciting strides made by his contemporaries, shed critical light on future developments in medicine, pharmacology, and chemistry.
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The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth Century England

2012-03-08

also at the siege of Algeciras in Granada in 1343 with the English physician, John Ardene, who used alchemical ... of the Secreta secretorum;24 his alchemical interests are revealed in his Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines where he displays ...

Author: Jonathan Hughes

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ISBN: 9781441142788

Category: History

Page: 296

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Alchemists did more than try to transmute base metals into gold: they studied planetary influences on metals and people, refined plants and minerals in the search for medicines and advocated the regeneration of matter and spirit. This book illustrates how this new branch of thought became increasingly popular as the practical and theoretical knowledge of alchemists spread throughout England.Adopted by those in court and the circles of nobility for their own physical and spiritual needs, it was adapted for the diagnosis and therapeutic treatment of the illnesses of the body politic and its head, the king. This is the first work to synthesize all aspects of alchemy and show its contribution to intellectual, social and political life in the fourteenth century. Hughes explores a rich body of manuscripts to reveal the daily routines of the alchemist and his imaginative mindscape, and considers the contribution of alchemy to the vernacular culture and political debate, leading to a reassessment of the intellectual life of the middle ages.
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The Alchemical Virgin Mary in the Religious and Political Context of the Renaissance

2017-05-11

Despite this connection with the medical establishment the foundation for Fludd's medical practice, as well as for his religious and philosophical ideas, continued to be the alchemical medicine and theosophy of the Paracelsians.

Author: Urszula Szulakowska

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

ISBN: 9781443893565

Category: Religion

Page: 225

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This study explores the survival of Roman Catholic doctrine and visual imagery in the alchemical treatises composed by members of the Lutheran and Anglican confessions during the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. It discusses the reasons for such unexpected confessional survivals in a time of extreme Protestant iconoclasm and religious reform. The book presents an analysis of the manner in which Catholic doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity and the Eucharist were an essential factor in the development of alchemical theory and illustration from the medieval period to the seventeenth century. The role of the Joachimites, radical members of the Franciscan Order, in the history of alchemy is an important issue. The Apocalypse of St. John (the Book of Revelation) and other scriptural texts and specifically Roman Catholic Marian devotions are also considered regarding their influences on late medieval alchemy and on the sixteenth and seventeenth century alchemical literature composed by Protestants. Additional issues explored here include the role played by alchemy in strengthening the leaders of the European defence against the invading Ottoman Turks, as well as the importance of the figure of the Virgin Mary as the Apocalyptic Woman in the same cause. Special consideration is given to the role played by the apocalyptic Mary within alchemical texts and pictures as an emblem of the mercurial quintessence and also in her form as the Bride of the scriptural Wisdom books which also entered alchemical discourse. Additional issues discussed in this book include the little-regarded problem of “confessional” alchemy, namely, whether there were distinct “Protestant” and “Roman Catholic” types of alchemy. The treatises under consideration include the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit (1419; 1433), the Rosarium Philosophorum (1550), Reusner’s Pandora (1582; 1588) and the Pandora of Faustius (1706), as well as the work of Michael Maier, Robert Fludd, Johann Daniel Mylius, Jacob Boehme and pseudo-Nicolas Flamel, among many others. Their works are contextualised within the religious reforms instigated by Martin Luther, as well as within the unorthodox radical theology devised by Paracelsus and his alchemical followers. The Marian theology of Paracelsus is also of particular interest here.
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