Principia Wrote:
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> Hi Rick,
>
> Interesting concern. I don't know if you remember
> or not, but this was briefly discussed at Andrew's
> quite a few years ago. I recall going over the
> signs used to reference the planets being relative
> to certain hieroglyphs with Joanne Conman.
> Although the glyphs are remarkably the same, the
> original use by the AEs did not share the meaning
> of being connected to the planets or astrological
> signs. This suggests they were later borrowed by
> non-Egyptians and not directly descended in
> context from AE. (Eg. The sign for Aries and F45).
> A good exercise would be to peruse Gardiner's sign
> list and see if you or others can find others.
>
> As for alchemy, it is long established that the
> term itself refers to AE (al-kem; arabic: 'of
> Egypt').

E. Partridge, Origins. A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (NY: Arlington House, 1983). p. 93. Alchemy. Gr. khumos- juice of a plant, has a derivative khumeia, an infusion often in Late Greek in form khemeia, the extracting of medicinal juices (and later their mixing). Whence the Arabic al-kimiya (where al is the article "the") whence Medieval latin alchimia.

Bernard

It's internal study consisted of spritual
> ideas mixed in with the early 'science' of seeing
> what happens when one or more compounds or
> elements are combined. In most instances the
> results could be volatile or 'interesting' enough
> that it befuddled the observer to the point of
> suggesting the activity and results were based in
> the 'ethereal' plane, so to speak. In other words,
> what they didn't understand about the concoctions
> they relegated to the fantastica. Now, if
> rudimentary experiments had indeed occured in AE,
> it becomes reasonable to say there is a basis for
> a connection to the later practice of alchemy,
> however, on more specific connection (like similar
> ritual, use of glyhps, etc) nothing much of
> anything can be seen.
>
> On that note, Anthony's assessment is fair and
> balanced. There may have been a root in AE for
> alchemy and astrology (with limited glyph
> 'connections') but the later versions are merely
> drastically 'evolved' to the point of no longer
> being true to the original.