The First Alchemists by Tobias Churton

I have read The First Alchemists – The Spiritual & Practical Origins of the Noble and Holy Art by Tobias Churton. A while back, I read and reviewed The Hermetic Tradition by Julius Evola. I got intrigued by the subject and thus thought this book would make for good further reading. As the title of the book suggests, the author discusses the first alchemists – and the time and place of their origin story is Egypt during the first centuries AD.

What Did the Early Alchemists Do?

Evola’s book The Hermetic Tradition focuses on the spiritual aspect of alchemy – the purification of oneself (i.e. one’s soul or spirit). And it is true that there was a spiritual component involved in the early days of alchemy as well – however, it was also a very practical art. Simply put, many of the processes and techniques had to do with making beautiful things – making dye for clothes, refining stones, or making glass (to name but a few applications). The word alchemy is often associated with the quest to transform base materials into gold. Successful alchemical operations did indeed generate gold – but in the form of wealth and money. The author shares the following valuable insight:

‘Alchemists were not lunatics. As we have seen, much of the misunderstanding may have come from a lack of knowledge of what the first alchemists were actually doing, leading to their work being fundamentally misinterpreted centuries later. What they were doing was applied science capable of repeated demonstration under controlled conditions. To say that their science was rudimentary is like accusing Wilbur and Orville Wright of not having fashioned Concorde in 1903.’

Tobias Churton – The First Alchemists. Pages 176-177.

Thus, to respond to the question of what the early alchemists were actually doing, one could say that they engaged in the manufacture and refinement of precious items in late antique Egypt – and, for some, the manufacturing process had a spiritual aspect. An interesting note is that Emperor Diocletian (infamous among Christians for his persecutions) ordered the destruction of chemical books as he believed that the profits obtained from the alchemical art could fund rebelliousness in Egypt. So, again, the early alchemists created wealth by their methods, albeit not in the way (i.e. turning base materials into gold) legend has it.

Zosimos – The Father of Religious Alchemy

Central to the story of early alchemy is a Graeco-Egyptian mystic named Zosimos. The author introduces him thus:

‘Zosimos is perhaps the best known early devotee of the spiritual vision of the philosophical tractates attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and known generally as the Corpus Hermeticum. Zosimos understands them intimately; his thought is wedded to them, and he sees them as inseparable from his chemical practice. As Hermetic studies pioneer A. J. Festugiére noted, Zosimos was “father of religious alchemy,” the first alchemist to portray alchemy in terms of salvation, as a technique of dual purpose: purifying metals and purifying human souls.”

Tobias Churton – The First Alchemists. Page 91.

Hermes Trismegistus, a name that may be familiar to many of my esteemed readers, was the result of Graeco-Egyptian syncretism (combing Hermes with Thoth). The saying (and teaching) ‘As above, so below’ is attributed to this mythical individual. The author continues the passage and says the following about Zosimos‘s views on the divine and its connection to the alchemical process:

‘For Zosimos, the universe is a tangible mirror image of incorporeal being, the image coalescing, even coagulating on the physical plane. It was, he believed, fashioned by and sustained by two emanations of the unknowable Father: two “sons” of God: the cosmic fashioner (demiurge) and the holy spirit-mind (Logos and nous). In the chemical process, Zosimos felt privileged to see – once mind (nous) was purified – revelation of God’s creative and redemptive processes. For Zosimos, alchemy is divine analogy, and more than that, it is a means both to initiate and prefigure divine redemption and ultimate salvation through sacrifice, purification, and ascent to the One.’

Tobias Churton – The First Alchemists. Page 91.

The author goes on to note that according to some scholars, Zosimos’s conception of alchemy was a form of theurgy (i.e. God-working). For more information about theurgy, see my review of The Practical Art of Divine Magic by Patrick Dunn. The One in the quote above refers to the Neoplatonic One (i.e. God). Speaking of Neoplatonism, Zosimos and Iamblichus (one of the most famous Neoplatonists) were contemporaries. Iamblichus’s views of theurgy can be found in his De Mysteriis. The author also notes that despite the proximity to magic/theurgy, Zosimos was adamant that the pure art (i.e. alchemy) is not magic and requires no ritual impedimenta – only a pure intention to practice with propriety:

‘For Zosimos, the art relies solely on natural processes. Only the earth/body-bound involve magical practices and supplication of daimons. Zosimos’s alchemy is a natural, divine path to God, in which pious practitioners are called to identify with all elements and transformations, so as to experience harmonious union, or “gold”: the most divine dye that raises soul and is the soul raised to its goal. The “metal” (body) must be willing to suffer the process.’

Tobias Churton – The First Alchemists. Pages 91-92.

The Stockholm Papyrus

I was excited to learn that there is a papyrus named the Stockholm Papyrus – which can be found at Kungliga Biblioteket (the Royal Library) in Stockholm. We have a Greek gentleman named Ioannias Anastasiou (1765–1860) to thank for this. The author notes that the Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway (Svensk-norska unionen – the Swedish-Norwegian Union) appointed Anastasiou as their consul general in Egypt in 1828. Anastasiou, a man of culture as well as a hero, also helped free hundreds of Greek rebels from slavery – who ended up in captivity following the Ottoman attack on the Peloponnese (1824–1828).

The papyrus itself (pictured above) contains 111 recipes that concern dyeing, colouring gemstones, and making copper appear like gold (amongst other things). Seven of the recipes are for making greatly valued purple dyes. The Stockholm Papyrus can be viewed in digital format here. Pictured below, an aspiring Enlightened Despot who appreciates purple clothing!

Syncretism in Late Antique Egypt

The author notes that late antique Egypt was a place of remarkable religious syncretism. The culture was a Graeco-Egyptian one with a dose of Roman realism and home to metaphysical speculations galore:

‘The spiritual-physical universe in which late antique alchemists in Egypt operated was already a syncretic amalgam of Egyptian divine immanentism competing with Jewish spirituality, Platonist idealism, Stoic pneumaticism, pre-Socratic nous speculation, gnosis (Christian and otherwise), Aristotelian praise for logical mathematics, Euclidean physics, and a hierarchical, crystalline, and spherical cosmology that would find definitive, mathematical form in Claudius Ptolemy’s works amid the fervid atmosphere of second-century Alexandria.’

Tobias Churton – The First Alchemists. Page 200.

Conclusion

The First Alchemists has 276 pages and details the early days of alchemy well. The book is full of interesting insights – I enjoyed reading it and can definitely recommend it to others interested in the subject. The book may be a bit specific and technical for those who are unfamiliar with the topic.

Onwards and upwards!