Ritva Kurittu Wrote:
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> Just like Hermeticism or New Age ideas, actually.
> If you know about AE you can still see the basic
> thought behind the changed version. It's the same
> with the alchemists: some understood it as being
> about the change in one's soul, where others
> thought it was magic that could be used to change
> lead into gold.
>
Technically speaking, that particular perspective... psychoalchemy... is a relatively new invention, only appearing in the Middle Ages (roughly 15th-16th centuries) in Western Europe. Ergo, finding a parallel between it and anything older is really just an exercise in finding coincidences. It doesn't make a connection in any way.
Perhaps the first example of this clearly prohibits it from being linked in any way to Dynastic Egyptian beliefs or sciences in the years "Before Christ":
Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, published in 1415. This particular manuscript draws a parallel between the Philosopher's Stone and Jesus as personal saviour. Obviously this is something of which the ancient Egyptians could have never conceived.
Can you think of any earlier example of this kind of alchemical treatise?
Anthony
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.