Hi Principia

Although I see alchemy as ritualistic and spiritual study,

I agree there is a constant exhortation to God and Jesus in many of the texts. But there were definitely many different approaches to alchemy. The alchemists knew that they had charlatans in their own midsts and those clowns are the ones that we associate with the field to this day and have continued to poison any study of this field.

Why did they choose Lead? Why not another solid element or compound? Perhaps that of all substabces there known to them lead had the closest weight.

Yep you're right on the money there! However from what I'm reading they also thought that mercury and sulfur were the magic ingredients to transmuting lead into gold too.

We know elements can be frazzled to the point they lose or gain electrons, neutrons and/or protons (particle bombardment), and knowing Mercury is one up in Gold you'd think if we smashed particles into Mercury and disloged the right combo we'd have Gold. Now, alchemists of the time did not know of the chemical properties to this extent, but the general idea of 'doing something' to one substance to come out as another is the same premise. Can we imagine if this really was possible? Finding a way to alter matter?

From what I'm reading they definitely thought they could transmute elements and with damn good reason. They were making and breaking some rather complicated compounds. They knew the y could make mercury appear and "disapear" i.e. it was transformed into something else. Sulfur is a very active element and they zeroed in on that element with the accuracy of a cruise missile. The knew that by combining lesser "metals" copper, tin, etc. you could make stronger metals brass, bronze. Theoretically there was nothing wrong with what they were trying to achieve. It was just that there theory was still weak....