Like the explorers of the 16th century the alchemists too sought a formula for eternal life as well as the cure for all sorts of disease and the formula to turn other metals into gold - the King's metal.
The word derives from many sources, but one is "kmhi" the Egyptian hieroglyph for black earth and the Greek word for mixture "chymeia."
It was practiced in all cultures around the globe, but most well documented in early European history. It has in it the origins of much of modern scientific practice and combined mythology, technology and philosophy. I have had interest in alchemy because of Carl Jung whose experiments with mandalas and whose psychological concepts, such the collective unconscious, draw on alchemical ideas. I think of alchemy in terms of the transformations ,which occur in the therapy relationship which are often mysterious and transformative. I also think of it in the artistic process, which can be equally mysterious and transformative.
The conference at Columbia University this past weekend had elements of alchemy and synchronicity for me. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Science and Culture as well as The Learning and Knowing Project. Both were founded by historian, Pamela Smith who chaired this conference and brought the various participants into a fascinating weaving of many disciplines and interests. Not only did I meet many persons with whom it turned out I had various shared interests from weaving to violins to neuroscience and alternative medicines, but I realize Pamela Smith is actively using a medieval scientific text to recreate alchemical experiments at the Learning and Knowing Project. This is compounded by the fact that my father Professor Andre J. de Bethune received his PhD in Chemistry from Columbia in the forties. The medieval text (BnF Ms. Fr. 640) used by the Learning and Knowing post-doc researchers to recreate everything from pigments to fake coral to making molds for plaster is a sort of "how to" recipe book for the 16th century. Its author is unknown, but appeared to be a master of all trades and kept this hand written notebook with detailed illustrations like Da Vinci. Here's where it gets really weird. This manuscript which is the focus of the activity at Learning and Knowing Project was the property of a Phillip de Bethune who was a member of the French aristocracy - no doubt a relative no matter how distant.
From Making and Knowing Project website:
http://www.makingandknowing.org/?page_id=23
BnF Ms. Fr. 640 resembles most closely “books of secrets” that began circulating in the Middle Ages and then were printed in large numbers from the last decades of the fifteenth century. Lacking a clear title, the manuscript text was bound in the seventeenth century with the title of Choses Diverses, and then as Recueil de recettes et secrets concernant l’art du mouleur, de l’artificier et du peintre by the BnF. Although “books of secrets” sound esoteric, they are, in effect, books of techniques, which, while practical and useful, also hint at the tacit dimension and initiation process of much craft knowledge.
The word derives from many sources, but one is "kmhi" the Egyptian hieroglyph for black earth and the Greek word for mixture "chymeia."
It was practiced in all cultures around the globe, but most well documented in early European history. It has in it the origins of much of modern scientific practice and combined mythology, technology and philosophy. I have had interest in alchemy because of Carl Jung whose experiments with mandalas and whose psychological concepts, such the collective unconscious, draw on alchemical ideas. I think of alchemy in terms of the transformations ,which occur in the therapy relationship which are often mysterious and transformative. I also think of it in the artistic process, which can be equally mysterious and transformative.
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| An Alchemist in his Study by Egbert van Heemskerk 17th century |
The conference at Columbia University this past weekend had elements of alchemy and synchronicity for me. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Science and Culture as well as The Learning and Knowing Project. Both were founded by historian, Pamela Smith who chaired this conference and brought the various participants into a fascinating weaving of many disciplines and interests. Not only did I meet many persons with whom it turned out I had various shared interests from weaving to violins to neuroscience and alternative medicines, but I realize Pamela Smith is actively using a medieval scientific text to recreate alchemical experiments at the Learning and Knowing Project. This is compounded by the fact that my father Professor Andre J. de Bethune received his PhD in Chemistry from Columbia in the forties. The medieval text (BnF Ms. Fr. 640) used by the Learning and Knowing post-doc researchers to recreate everything from pigments to fake coral to making molds for plaster is a sort of "how to" recipe book for the 16th century. Its author is unknown, but appeared to be a master of all trades and kept this hand written notebook with detailed illustrations like Da Vinci. Here's where it gets really weird. This manuscript which is the focus of the activity at Learning and Knowing Project was the property of a Phillip de Bethune who was a member of the French aristocracy - no doubt a relative no matter how distant.
From Making and Knowing Project website:
http://www.makingandknowing.org/?page_id=23
BnF Ms. Fr. 640 resembles most closely “books of secrets” that began circulating in the Middle Ages and then were printed in large numbers from the last decades of the fifteenth century. Lacking a clear title, the manuscript text was bound in the seventeenth century with the title of Choses Diverses, and then as Recueil de recettes et secrets concernant l’art du mouleur, de l’artificier et du peintre by the BnF. Although “books of secrets” sound esoteric, they are, in effect, books of techniques, which, while practical and useful, also hint at the tacit dimension and initiation process of much craft knowledge.
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