As a discipline that worked on many levels of existence, an all encompassing definition of alchemy is often difficult to agree upon. A popular misconception holds that alchemy was primarily a proto-science dedicated in search of a method which would allow the practitioners to transmute base metals into gold. We know, however, that it was not only a precursor to metallurgy and chemistry, but also that of analytic psychology and the medical sciences.

What’s more, while many alchemists experimented with the transmutation of metals, it is transmutation itself which is the universal concern of the alchemical investigations, theories and procedures. Therefore it’s an endeavour as much concerned with consciousness and spirituality as it is with physicality; the testimony and accounts of the early alchemist’s lives on this point are unanimous. In light of this, it is most appropriate to define alchemy as the experimental philosophy of transmutation.

The primary goal of this endeavour has been referred to in a myriad of ways, all of which are symbolic representations of pure substance and state of being; a harmony within oneself and with one’s surrounding. It has also been described as a marriage between the spirit and body, which is achieved by cleansing oneself of impurities so that one’s higher potential may be fully actualized. The different ways in which this process has been described and taught, however, is as varied as the number of alchemists who practiced it.

The alchemist is encouraged to focus on core principles and correspondences derived from nature, thereafter creating her own models and understandings of life. As a traditional view held that everything within man has it’s analogue outside of him, alchemists understood the substances with which they worked as being related to them. This relationship amounted to a correspondence; as they learned through the process of experimentation how to purify various forms of substance, it was believed that they gained insight into how they could purify themselves. And so the transmutation of base metals into gold can be allegorically understood as the transmutation of man from his base state into his higher potential.

Various thinkers, throughout the ages, have thought about these very same possibilities, while also realizing the veils of mental misunderstandings and emotional disturbances that must be surmounted before this potential can be realized. Alchemy was a unique approach to these great problems of daily life: a fusion of philosophical, scientific, and metaphysical art forms. Any individual can become an alchemist, a worker with all the wonderful chemistries of living and existence. However, everyone has their own specific characteristics or outlook on life. It is here that none can be replaced, nor can a life be repeated, as everyone’s task is their own specific opportunity in life.