What is Spiritual Alchemy - The Historical Unification of Mysticism, the Philosophers Stone & Heresy

Did I understand correctly that Islamic alchemy was philosophical and about changing oneself initially, but Europeans were just about the gold? I recall you saying in another video I saw two days ago that it was about gold always until the 19th century.

Is the philosopher’s stone a product of the imagination?

I'd really love to hear you talk at least in some capacity about Foucault and his analysis of how knowledge changes so dramatically overtime, as reading his epistemological work really makes me appreciate videos like this one so much more. Fantastic work, professor Sledge.

Alchemy = the transformation of raw materials into finished products.

We transform our temporal caterpillar psyche (lead), into an Eternal Butterfly Soul (gold), by alchemically integrating our Heart (sulphur), Mind (mercury) and Will (salt).

'Salt of the Earth' Will employs 'quicksilver' Mind to get to the 'sulphuric first matter' Heart of any 'prima materia' issue.

When the Heart aspires, the Mind inquires and the Will conspires (combines).

God = Life

The Rhythm of Life is a movement and a rest. The optimum (Heaven) is always found somewhere between the extremes of too much and too little (hell).

Pleasantness is the Rose found at the Heart of the Optimum. Just so.

Narrow is the Way and straight the path, and few there are that find it.

Jesus = Humane Humanity

Christ = at One with Life

Empty of ego (separateness) = Full of Life

Holy Spirit = Eternally actualizing Infinite potential

Mind = Inspiration
Heart = Aspiration
Will = Volition

Integration = Integrity = Soul

Philosopher's Stone = Go to sleep with a compelling question, wake up with a compelling answer.

Elixir of Life/Fountain of Youth = Tantra

Divine = Creative

The abstract (Heaven) can be expressed concretely (Earth) as a smile, hug, etc, thereby uniting Heaven and Earth.

Dream it, feel it, do it.

If you read the introduction by Isreal Regardie to Frater Albertus's book "The Alchemist's Handbook," you'll find Regardie totally changing his mind about the subject. Most of Regardie's Writings before then were about Atwood's Mesmeric Alchemy, but after meeting Albertus, he accepted that in the main, it was a chemical system & although the text only deals with the lesser circulation, using herbs, it still remains one of the most influential books on modern alchemy.

I have to add excellent presentation, it made me think that this could have been one of the influences on Gurdjieff's crystallization of the Higher-Being-Bodies, apart from Andrew Jackson Davies's Buffalo doctrine of conditional immortality, Daoism's inner cultivation, Pythagorean ensoulment or making a soul, Vajrayana's diamond body, Christianity's doctrine of conditionality etc.

I like to view Alchemy not so much as the transmutation of elements as the concept of chemical elements didn't exist until the 17th century. So the Alchemists were in the process of transmuting properties, i.e., Chemistry, which regarding Gold was done to a degree by the creation of jewellers gold or Pinchbeck, there's also an allotrope of Silver that's gold in colour. Whether the transmutation of the Alchemist themselves was the result of a metaphoric ritualised process, or some quantum observer effect that required the change in them to produce the chemical change, or a misguided delusional waste of time exacerbated by fumes of Mercury, they did discover a number of chemical processes & substances, so at least it was a proto-chemistry.

Could someone direct me to the video that follows up to this video? Thanks

Thank you for the thoughts!

I'm not wanting to burden the fees of Nebraska's greed , AGAIN. I was never asked to do that the other time , either.

Rev. James S. David
(former "P.K.", too, BTW)

Pregnancy seems more about "inner transformation" than anything else I have ever encountered.

Its important regarding the historiography even of European alchemy, to note the fact that Needham, Lu, and their colleagues were doing what the new historiographers were doing in their research into Chinese alchemy, even being from the same generation as Jung and Eliade --- I'm not sure about direct influence, but it deserves to be noted, that the history of science and civilization in china occurs in many bibliographies of European alchemy. On that note, having recently taught Needham et. al. alongside Principe, I find them especially refreshing, if not sometimes dense, in not falling into positivist traps as much as I think Principe does, despite his best intentions. Needham and Lu both were the last sort of polymaths from an age before the academy became so hostile to curiosity, and while they don't always arrive at the right conclusions (from what I understand --- my expertise is in India), they find a great balance between discuss the scientific, spiritual, philosophical, meditative, and every other element of alchemy. Also there's a Marxist undercurrent to their work, so that's always a plus.

🧟‍♂️👌🏽

I started with orpheus then moved my way up

Okay, but... none of this helps me to materialize a spear from the earth just by clapping my hands together.

Kidding, of course. This was a fantastic video.

I could use some advice on that spear thing, though!

Your approach to trash talk is god tier

Thanks!

It took me some minutes to realise who that jungian guru is :)))

Does anyone if there are any books in English on Valentin Weigel's theology? I never heard of him before and would love learn more about him.

I never heard of spiritual alchemy until I looked further into alchemy on my own, my impression from pop culture is that alchemy is the pseudoscientific precursor to chemistry where they tried to transmute lead into gold

Have you covered the relationship between masonry and the a-historian Yung/Manly P Hall spiritual perspective? If there are occult societies and they have been occulting certain bits of information for centuries would it validate their interpretations? There seems to be correlation between the spiritual arm of alchemy and occult societies. I guess what I'm proposing is if there have been occultists wouldn't they have controlled access to their interpretation?

So what youre saying is Jung's misgivings in spiritual alchemy has served an entire trend of Jungian bros peddling equally misguided information to a demographic of viewers that'll likely also be watching a certain public figure defined by his ptsd on the ideological level from his Jungian worldview dependent on an anti-Marxist rhetoric inherited from antisemitic roots?

Last bit is a stretch to force in, however the cultural Marxist narrative is classic Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy. Thank the one we have you and your philosophers beard to help those of us who've found themselves caught up in the misinformation

So edifying. I remember my college course in alchemy that was a gentlly insistent teaching that alchemists were early chemists ONLY. I gently rejected that scholarship but your lecture encourages me to go back and reconsider the history. So relieved we don't have to throw out the baby with the - uh - bathwater! Again, a hearty thanks for a lecture in the spirit of the late, great Hans Jonas. A respectful, penetrating, look at belief and practice. ( I don't know the Jung and Eliade theories well enough to accept wholeheartedly your reading - more work to do). Glad to see Mary Anne Atwood mentioned. There's Netflix series in her story, for sure...

Thanks!

I am just wondering if... and only if... there was a sort of experiment also with the resurrection of Lazarus, and the miracles (water into wine, etc). Just thinking!

Do we even have a clue as to where Keith Richards keeps his phylactery?

Thanks!

How many languages do you speak and read?
And how did you learn all of this? What was your college career? I am curious because all of this is fascinating.

This was excellent. Looking forward to the series. Thank you.

10 minutes in and my previous conceptions and understandings are shattered. This is a good one

I am very new to this subject and found it fascinating.

What struck me was the photo of Jesus holding the orb with the cross on top.

His face looked feminine despite the beard, and his finger position confirmed that I should quit smoking as one of the next steps to a greater understanding.

I would add that I enjoy your interpretation and style, and that it is very difficult to quit smoking. I have been using a vape, but I think it may be turning me into a machine.

Peace and Love.

Water in to wine. It's water. He made us up after water. Water washes and cleans. Good conductivity. The sea cover the land. Born again.

Water system it a great conductor

Christian believes they are born again true

What a connection

❤

thank you for this video! I've been hanging out in Rosicrucian online spaces and feeling like I'm going koo-koo as they keep saying that alchemy was ALWAYS about spiritual transformation. It's interesting that the shift in interpretation comes after chemistry becomes a science. I have a theory about how this plays into how we write science fiction now vs how it was written 50 years ago, and the difference is sometimes about scientific and technological advancement.

Jungian Guru: "So anyway, let me tell you in depth about the Big Five personality types..."
*Proceeds to liberally sprinkle references to "God the Father" through the rest of his career.*

"Put up or shut up." - Transitional Alchemists.

How possible is it that spiritual alchemy was influenced by Chinese Doaist writings? Because the whole spiritus within man and nature and needing to achieve inward spiritus regeneration in order to affect the external world sounds SO MUCH like Doaist philosophy, especially once internal alchemy had been developed. It might just be a superficial resemblence, but given that Jesuit priests were in China by the late 1500s and were recording and sending back Chinese thought to Europe, how possible is it that it influenced these more pantheistic spiritual alchemy ideas?

The game of Noita is full of alchemical references I’d love to see your analysis of its lore.

There was a guy who claimed he had a machine that makes gold. He had a bread oven and recipe

The best things to come out of the superficial, greedy, and foolish pursuit of turning lead into gold is definitely what resulted from it`s misinterpretation. An accidental byproduct of the alchemical process. And of course, the advancement in science.

I’m a huge fan of Jung. His ideas have impacted my fiction and my spirituality, and The Red Book is one of the most amazing mystical texts I’ve ever read, because it validated a lot of my own mystical experiences. Videos like this are so important, so I can get my facts straight before I attempt any formal academic study of these topics. I need my scholarship to inform my mysticism and not the other way around. Thank you Dr. Sledge!

One of the most important videos on alchemy I've ever seen. Your work really helps our research into Alchemy. Thanks!☀

The idea of the "inner Christ" as the spiritus which exists even in nature reminds me of the concept of "Buddha-nature" in Buddhism. Could be one of the reasons why ideas of Spiritual Alchemy appear in things like Anime, Manga, and JRPGs.