Principia Alchemica: part one

Part one of a two-part investigation of the nature, principles and usages of Alchemy

Guest article by Paul G. Vaughan

Proem by Occult Mysteries

In this new investigation in two parts the author discusses the principles of Alchemy, what it really is, how it is used, and the ways in which it can be applied for the healing and edification of all mankind. In doing so, he considerably extends and expands upon the information in our occult studies course article on Alchemy published over ten years ago. We feel sure that the penetrating light he brings to bear upon a subject about which there are so many misconceptions will find favour with old and new readers alike, regardless of their prior knowledge or interests.

However, we feel compelled to point out that his is emphatically not a treatise on the practise or methodology of Alchemy. Readers who wish to pursue the art and science of Alchemy from a practical perspective are referred to our occult studies course article mentioned above which contains a number of suggestions for study and practise and links to the best classic works on Alchemy. In his Afterword Paul G. Vaughan relates the main features of the life and teachings of Paracelsus in his own words.

Introduction

The knowledge of the basic forces of Nature and their forms of expression is the foundation of Alchemy. Another term often associated with this Royal Art is 'Spagyrics', a word derived from ancient Greek roots meaning to draw, pull or separate and to assemble and unite. Although its use can be traced back to ancient philosophers such as Plato, it was popularised in the West in the 16th century by the famous Swiss alchemist and occultist Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus (1493-1541). This peer among philosophers is widely regarded as the father of modern Medicine whose life and teachings I discuss in my Afterword. It was Paracelsus who applied the term "spagyric" to emphasise the artful preparation of medicinal remedies derived from natural things, such as plants, minerals and metals. The ancient adepts of the healing arts believed that everything in Nature contains medicinal properties, which can be drawn upon by appropriate means. When the preparation consists of separation, purification and re-union, or Solve et Coagula, as it is termed by alchemists, it is considered to be spagyric.

Common misconceptions

Few subjects have been steeped in so much superstition, confusion and subterfuge as Alchemy. "Who can be an enemy of Alchemy, since it bears no guilt? Guilty is he who does not know it properly and who does not apply it properly," exclaims Paracelsus. Accordingly, it will be prudent to begin our survey by addressing some of the most popular misconceptions concerning this sacred Art. The first principle of Alchemy is Patience, for Patience is the Root of all the Occult Sciences. This, combined with a pure heart and unselfish disposition, is the sine qua non for any aspirant who wishes to enter the sacred precincts of Nature. We can jettison the fanciful notions that it is impossible to perform alchemical operations without sophisticated apparatus or fantastically shaped furnaces and the other disjecta of fanciful mediaeval imagination. More often than not, going slower and using simple tools will yield much better results than forcing Nature to surrender her treasure by employing more expedient and technologically advanced means. Real Alchemy consists for the most part in watching and waiting.

Joan Galle after Stradanus — Alchemical Laboratory — Copper engraving, 1570.

We can likewise discard the wrongful assumptions that Alchemy is expensive and that we must first amass considerable resources in order to pursue it with any hope of success. The supreme resource is the ever-abundant Nature, aided by Art, or human invention. Almost everything that the enterprising alchemist requires for his work can be obtained inexpensively, if not completely free. Gold, for instance, is nothing else than metallic light, or 'the sun in the body of the earth'. As such, it is present everywhere, if we know how to look for it, and how to extract its seed. Various freely occurring minerals and ores contain some of the most important and valuable ingredients required for alchemical work, and there is not a pebble in the river or a rock in the mountains which does not enclose some treasure. Similarly, morning dew or thunderstorm rainwater can be put to a most astonishing use, and no expense is required to collect it or process it thereafter. A flowering meadow in Spring is a veritable trove of riches to the wise, and even egg shells, sea shells, sand and corals can be transformed into the most efficacious spagyric remedies. Verily, "the Lord hath created medicines out of the Earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them" (Ecclesiasticus 38:4).

I feel compelled to add here that there is no such thing as 'black alchemy'. The preparation of poisons is emphatically not Alchemy; the use of dead vipers, spiders, scorpions or anything else is nothing but black magic of the vilest sort. Poisonous plants can be prepared in a medicinal way, but creating poisons out of putrefying matter is not the Art of Alchemy, but sorcery. The only products of animal origin the alchemist will ever need are such as I have mentioned above, to which we may add honey, butter, cow urine and chicken eggs. Horns and deer antlers can also be used in certain preparations, but it is strictly forbidden to ever harm a living animal to obtain its horn. Deer shed their antlers seasonally, usually from December through to April, just as peacocks lose their feathers every Summer; both can be procured freely at the appropriate time. No alchemist worthy of his art would ever put animal flesh, skin, grist, blood or anything of the sort into a retort. There are better, far more noble and powerful organic ingredients available to him. Paracelsus summed this up in his customary succinct way: "Sorcery has been called Magic: but Magic is Wisdom, and there is no Wisdom in sorcery."

Finally, we must disabuse ourselves of the common misconception that Alchemy was nothing but a precursor of modern Chemistry. Another wrong notion is that Alchemy was shrouded in such secrecy, obscurity and incomprehensible jargon, that it is no longer accessible or even viable today, and hence it is no longer practised by any sensible folk. I assure my readers that Alchemy is alive and well today. It is perfectly possible to learn, nay — even to master its arcane jargon, strange symbols and myriad operations; to reveal the simplicity, order and beauty which underlies it. Furthermore, the Royal Art is as far removed from modern Chemistry as true Philosophy is removed from the gross scientific materialism of our age. The one concerns itself with primary causes, which manifest as distinct essences, active powers and energetic forms; the other is concerned solely with the external modifications of gross matter.

Alchemy is, in the most fundamental sense, the ultimate Science of Creation. From the greatest star to the most minute atom, from the ineffable First Principle to the last dregs of matter it encompasses the uninterrupted revelation of Divine Essence throughout all Creation, both in the Macrocosm of the celestial vault as well as in the microcosm of Man who reflects it. It is not impious to call God — however we may regard that Divine Source of All — the Master Alchemist. Plato called Him the "Divine Geometer." Other philosophers have called him the "Divine Mathematician." All these and similar honorifics attest to the occult truth that the well-spring of all the arts and sciences is God. The alchemist who denies this truth or worse, chooses to disbelieve it will never succeed in the Great Work. The laws of Nature are impulses of creative Intelligence, for all is Mind, as the Hermetic science teaches us. "All things are the progeny of one fire," proclaim the Chaldean Oracles. To which Proclus, the Platonic philosopher, adds: "So that all things are full of divine natures; terrestrial natures receiving the plenitude of such as are celestial, but celestial of supercelestial essences; while every order of things proceeds gradually in a beautiful descent from the highest to the lowest. For whatever is collected into one above the order of things, is afterwards dilated in descending, various souls being distributed under their various ruling divinities." Consequently every mineral, metal, plant or animal, bears the signature of its parent star, revealing through its outward characteristics its innermost virtue. The Theory of Signatures, which I will discuss in part two of this investigation, is based upon this observable fact. In this way it is possible to discover each manifested symbol of this primordial Intelligence throughout the Universe, and trace it back to its original causes, connecting it through an intricate Web of sympathies with all other natural works, which are nothing but the thoughts of the Creators, crystallised in material form.

This is the proper province of Alchemy, and the laboratory is that sacred space in which the alchemist, in his experiments and operations, observes the thoughts of the Creators and the various transformations of Mind and matter facilitated by Nature, and applies his Art in the preparation of remedies. In Astronomia Magna Paracelsus tells us that the perfection of every natural thing consists in its purification as a Medicine, for the use of all living organisms, but Man especially. In another work, this peer among alchemists adds: "All things on Earth have been given into the hands of Man. And they are given into his hands in order that he may bring them to the highest development, just as the Earth does with all that it brings forth. But this highest should be for Man the lowest — a beginning; it is a seed which he is beholden to shape into something greater." Such are the true principles and premises of Alchemy: the perfection of the seed, or the Spark of Life, in all living things; including Man himself.

The Medicine of Man

The Art of Healing is as old as mankind. True Medicine in so-called 'primitive' cultures was always understood as universal rescue, bringing succour to the human soul, afflicted by suffering in its descent into "bodies, and generation, and bitter matter" (to paraphrase Proclus). The exhibitions of the ancient Mysteries, be it those of Osiris and Isis in ancient Egypt, or the Eleusinian and Bacchic rites of ancient Greece, were designed as remedies for the passions of the soul, which fell from its pristine state into the tumultuous realms of generation, forgetful of its true nature. By 'soul' the Neoplatonists meant that principle in Man which the authors of this website call the Higher Mind or Self. Hence, we find the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus in his fragmentary work On Nature, referring to the mystic ceremonies as medicines. It was common to style the sacred rites of the Mysteries as purifications, instituted in order to heal the anguished soul and restore its spiritual vision, obscured by its association with matter. Clement of Alexandria testified to this when he wrote about the existence of more than 30,000 volumes of the Books of Thoth, placed in the library of the tomb of Osymandias, over the entrance of which were inscribed the words: "a cure for the Soul."

Robert A. Thom — Days Of The Papyrus Ebers — oil on canvas, 1951

As such, these medicines and purifications were considered to be of Divine origin. In the Osirian cult of Abydos in ancient Egypt, we find Horus, the son of Osiris as the mythical messiah, restoring sight to the souls in Amenta (the Egyptian Heaven). In the Theban phase of the mythos, the messiah as the son of Amen-Ra assumes the character of Khonsu, the Divine Healer, "great God, the driver away of possession, the supreme one amongst all the other healers and saviours." He was worshipped in Thebes as Khonsu-Nefer-Hetep, the "beautiful one of Peace," who was later transmogrified in the New Testament into Jesus, the bringer of Peace, and the expeller of possessing spirits. Similarly in ancient Greece we find the hero Asclepius who was deified as the inventor of Medicine. In this character he proceeded, according to the ancient mythology, from the God Asclepius, who subsists in Apollo, just as the hero Bacchus proceeded from the God Bacchus, the son of Jupiter. Here we find an echo of Khonsu, the son of Amen-Ra, and a confirmation of the enduring archetype of the Supreme Healer in whom the Medicine of Man is founded. Since time immemorial, the great Art of Healing has been understood as an initiatic tradition. The study of Nature, Alchemy, Astrology and various allied sciences constituted an initiatic process at the heart of which was Medicine in the most profound sense of the word: the Medicine of Man, the divine being which in his lapse into a long pilgrimage of incarnations on Earth, seeks to return to the centre, and restore the harmony he possessed in the beginning.

In his work on the Life of Pythagoras, Iamblichus delivers to us one of the "divine dogmas" taught by the Sage of Crotona: "What is the wisest of the things that are with us, [i.e. which pertain to human concerns]?" The answer was: "Medicine." It is said that the three sciences which the Pythagoreans most honoured were Music, Medicine and Divination. In their article on Initiates and Initiation, Occult Mysteries have shown that Pythagoras acquired much of his learning in the temples of ancient Egypt. He is said to have spent over twenty years in the land of the Pharaohs, studying with the Egyptian priests who initiated him into the science of Numbers, for which he was justly renowned. He devised medicines which could expel the diseases of body and soul alike, and in particular certain mixtures of diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic melodies, which could assuage the attacks of any irrational moods, desires or emotions, and purify them by appropriate harmonies. Music, rooted in the understanding of the harmony of the soul, the rational as well as the irrational, or the Higher and lower minds of Man, was his famous salutary medicine. This is, indeed, a type of Alchemy, which operates through separation, purification and re-union, harmonising the entire organism and all its parts.

From the writings of the Egyptian Priest and alchemist, Zosimos of Panopolis (flourished ca. 300 A.D.), we learn that even in the Greco-Roman period, some 800 years after the time of Pythagoras, Medicine and Alchemy were among the priestly sciences taught in the Egyptian temples, such as the Temple of Min in Khen-Mit (modern day Panopolis). Sadly, little remains of it today, as it was pulled down sometime in the 14th century. But not before mediaeval Arab scholars, impressed by the medical, astronomical and alchemical symbolism depicted on its walls, turned it into a centre of alchemical learning, known in the Arab world as Akhmim. Many large Egyptian temples, the Temple of Min among them, housed libraries of sacred Egyptian texts, such as the famous Books of Hermes. These library annexes were called the Houses of Life, and far from being mere repositories of priestly knowledge, they served as centres of learning, where a variety of disciplines was taught, and in which ancient papyri were carefully restored, preserved and interpreted. The patron deity of these shrines of Wisdom was Thoth, the god of speech and writing who, in the late period, became assimilated to the Greek god Hermes as you can read in Spiritus Hermeticum, a monumental investigation of the origins of Hermeticism and the true teachings of Hermes Trismegistus.

David Roberts — Grand Portico of the Temple of Philae — Gouache on paper, ca. 1850s.

Zosimos, who may well have been one of the last scholar-scribes or teachers in the Houses of Life, describes that access to alchemical books was restricted, and that the ancient papyri could only be consulted in the sanctuary of the temple. In his time, there were few even among the initiated priesthood who could still decipher the hieroglyphic language and symbols of the sacred texts. Those who were capable of interpreting them and recreating some of the alchemical processes which they described were held in very high esteem. Zosimos writes: "the diverse symbols of the priests were explicated by the former masters and various prophets, whose names became celebrated, and who prevailed with all the power of science." Even so, we find Zosimos expressing his frustration at the frequent mistranslations and misinterpretations of the ancient recipes. This serves to demonstrate two things: firstly, that Medicine was taught and practised in ancient Egypt together with Alchemy and Astrology since very ancient times, under the guardianship of the Adepts of the Sacred Science. Secondly, that even in the time of Zosimos, nearly two thousand years ago, when the scribes still had access to what remained of the sacred books, the ability to read and interpret alchemical formulas was rapidly declining, and they were prone to frequent mistranslations. It shouldn’t surprise us that, with the gradual loss of the ancient Egyptian centres of learning and its repositories of sacred writ, the Art of Medicine in the West also fell into decline.

But what of the Eastern traditions? The Vedic culture of India has developed its own approach to Medicine, known today as Ayurveda. This is rooted in the same understanding of the primeval healing arts as that developed in the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece. The Vedic 'Science of Life' was said to have originated with Atreya, a name indicating 'disciple' or 'son' of the sage Atri, which was the original root of the term artist or doctor; he in turn is said to have acquired his knowledge from the god Indra. This lineage stretches all the way back to Prajapati, the forefather of mankind, and beyond him — to the creator god Brahma himself. The arts and sciences of this prehistoric culture, including Medicine and Alchemy, have been passed down in the form of the Upavedas for thousands of years, mainly through oral transmission. A summary of the knowledge of healing and the confection of medicinal remedies was given in the Caraka Samhita over three thousand years ago, a work that is still regarded as authoritative today. It describes the use and effects of diverse products of plant, animal, mineral and metallic origin, including precious and semi-precious stones, various salts, gold, silver, copper, antimony, and so forth. The Vedic text Artha Shastra contains the earliest written account of the transmutation of lower metals into gold, and also dates back some three thousand years before the present era. The Taoist tradition of China traces its origin back to the ancient shaman Fuxi, a figure which Confucianism later associated with that of the first Emperor of China, Fo-hi (2852-2737 B.C.), whose sublime spiritual teachings have been so beautifully described by E.V. Kenealy in his book Fo: The Third Messenger of God. Taoism incorporates in its canon some of the most refined and profound conceptions concerning the energetic constitution of Man, the Art of Healing and Alchemy.

From this we see that Alchemy, in its extensive knowledge of the virtues of natural substances and their application in the Art of Healing, occupied a hallowed place in the history of Medicine, both East and West. At its core it reveals the unity of all natural sciences, which is why Paracelsus attempted to thoroughly reform the orthodox Medicine of his day, and once again erect its noble edifice upon the four pillars of Philosophy, Astrology, Alchemy and Ethics. His reform was nothing else than a purification and a restoration of the deteriorated arts of the ancients. "The supreme reason for Medicine is love," he famously writes in the Preface to his Book of Hospitals. To him, the Art of Medicine must be rooted in the heart, for a false heart can only produce a false physician, as there are two sorts in the world: those who work for love, and those who work solely for their own profit. No wonder he earned himself so many detractors then, as he doubtless would today. The physician must be supreme in the study of Nature and her light, and Alchemy was for Paracelsus an indispensable component of Medicine. In Der großen Wundartzney (The Greater Surgery), he writes: "I praise the art of Alchemy because it reveals the mysteries of Medicine and because it is helpful in all desperate illnesses. But what shall I praise in those who have no idea of the seven mysteries of Nature that are placed in their hands? I also praise the art of Medicine; but how can I praise those who are physicians and not alchemists at the same time?...Thus I can only praise him who knows how to induce Nature to be helpful, that is to say, is able to recognise what lies hidden in Nature. For never must knowledge and preparation, that is to say, Medicine and Alchemy be separated from each other."

Augustin Hirschvogel — Portrait of Paracelsus — Coloured woodcut print, 1538.

Paracelsus' reforms, despite the initial pushback from the medical establishment of his day, eventually succeeded in revolutionising the pharmacopeia of the 16th and 17th centuries, introducing a series of spagyric preparations into the canon. The Pharmacopoeia Londoniensis, first published by the Royal College of Physicians in 1618, listed among its officially sanctioned remedies entire divisions of alchemical, or 'chymical' preparations, such as Sales, Metallica, Mineralia, Olea Chymica, and the Praeparationes Chymicae Magis Usuales. It was the first national pharmacopoeia of England, and it retained the alchemical medicines in later editions until the 18th century, referring to them sometimes as 'iatrochemical' — a confirmation of the enduring influence of Paracelsus' ideas. The term iatrochemists was used from the 16th century onwards to refer to the Paracelsian alchemists and healers who prepared their remedies according to spagyric methods. Like their Master before them, they consciously drew on those same primeval traditions of the Art of Healing, as the term itself indicates. In Ancient Greece Iatros meant a healer instructed in Philosophy, Astrology and Alchemy, who was knowledgeable in the preparation of his own remedies; the striking resemblance between the Greek words Iatros or Iatri, and the Sanskrit Atri or Atreya, is most significant, and shows a common root and confluence between the most ancient healing modalities of the East and the West. Such is the true Medicine of Man. It has never been more vital that good men and women should once again pursue it, understand it and practise it. Only then can we heal ourselves and purify body and mind from the maladies induced by mankind’s rapid descent into the dark age of scientific materialism, which threatens to uproot us from our divine inheritance.

Sulphur, Mercury and Salt

The production of spagyric remedies requires that the alchemist separates and purifies three philosophical principles, known in Alchemy as Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. In order to understand the nature and significance of these Three Essential Principles, we must first consider the beginning: what the alchemists call the first Separation. Alchemy as the Science of Creation mirrors the process of Genesis in all of its phases, beginning with the awareness of the First Principle of all things: the Hermetic One. The unity of all being is the primordial ground and starting point of all the Laws of Nature. This unity, terminating in the One, remains exempt from all Creation. As such, it is prior to essence, prior to being itself, but ever-present, in an ineffable manner, to everything that is. All of Nature, the physical and the subtle Cosmos, comes into being through the separation from the One. This 'first Separation' is exemplified by the appearance of the Great Polarity: the duad, or one becoming two by division, as you may read in the excellent summary of the occult science of numbers on this website. The Duad or Dyad is the Father-Mother of the ancient Egyptians, the Aether-Chaos of the Orphics; the Light and Darkness of the Bible; the Bound and Infinity of Plato, and the Sun and Moon of the hermetic philosophers, or the primordial expression of the male and female polarity; the one active and the other passive. In China this polarity is expressed as the Yin and Yang. Every thing and being, from the eternal natures down to the most transient forms, subsists by virtue of what is known as the Hermetic Law of Polarity. It is the mixture of these two primordial principles that provides the foundation for the very being of the Universe. From it the number three arises, the first procreative state.

Here we have the trinity of Father, Mother and Son. The Son, which has a double nature (of both Heaven and Earth, or Father and Mother), is alchemically represented by the principle of Salt, being fire incarnate. Accordingly we have the active principle, the passive or receiving principle, and their mixture, or mutual love — expressed as attraction and repulsion in all generated things — which is the Salt. This is the stone of the philosophers, which signifies the most enduring, perfect 'form', esoterically speaking. All being is primarily characterised by number three, because trinity is always present in being. Every compound is three in one, and one in three, testifying to its Divine Author. We find this triplicity reflected everywhere in the Universe, in the Great Nature of the Macrocosm and in the tiniest microcosmic mote. Why did the ancient alchemists choose such expressions as Sulphur, Mercury and Salt? Because they typify the trinity in the natural world. Sulphur is the product of the fire of the earth, of yellow, or solar hue, combustible, active. On burning it leaves no residue but vaporises entirely, and therefore it was considered to be a spirit. Mercury, as the water of the metals, of silvery or Moon-like hue, was thought to be the first terrestrial body, and like Sulphur, upon burning it leaves no residue behind, being entirely 'spiritualised'. Salt, as the principle of crystallisation, signifies the embodiment, the idea incarnate, or the Earth principle; it represents the stable state, and form par excellence. In Nature, we find those three actual substances combined in the form of Cinnabar, or mercury sulfide (HgS): it is mercury coagulated by sulphur in the form of red or black salt. A perfect natural symbol of the Tria Prima — the 'three primes' or three philosophic principles.

So what are Sulphur, Mercury and Salt of the alchemists, as far their expression in the natural world is concerned? In a most fundamental way, they correspond to the essence, power and energy of any living thing. In Alchemy, not only animals and plants, but minerals and metals are all considered to be living beings, occupying their appropriate place in the grand scheme of Cosmic evolution of consciousness. Each therefore is characterised by their essential being and individuality, which is their Sulphur principle; their virtue or life-power, which is their Mercury principle; and their form or body, represented by the Salt principle, the ‘guardian of form’. In the writings of the ancient authors, these sometimes appear under the appellations of Sun, Moon and Earth. Although these terms can be used interchangeably in some instances, the analogy does not always hold good; the discerning reader will do well to keep this in mind. Once the three philosophic principles have been separated and purified, there are a number of ways in which the alchemist may proceed further, depending on what he wishes to produce.

There is another important consideration we need to make, and that is the part the five Occult Elements of Ether, Fire, Air, Water and Earth play in Alchemy. I will discuss these in my next article, alongside the Theory of Signatures and the true meaning of the Great Work. This latter subject has been much misunderstood, especially in the West where the Philosopher's Stone has all too often been sought for as a mere means of gold-making, spawning hordes of greedy puffers, swindlers and cheats, who gave Alchemy a bad name. What is the Philosopher's Stone, and what does the Great Work really entail? We will endeavour to separate the truth from the falsehoods and distil it into pure conceptions in part two of Principia Alchemica to be published in two month's time.

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Paracelsus

In the Afterword to my article I discuss the eventful Life and Teachings of the great physician, philosopher and alchemist, Paracelsus

It is well nigh impossible to discuss Alchemy and the Art of Healing in the West without mentioning the titanic contribution made to both by the Swiss alchemist, Paracelsus. H. P. Blavatsky referred to him as the greatest Occultist and physician of the Middle Ages. His writings contain a concise summary of the fundamentals of Spagyric tradition, emphasising the importance of experience and the correct attitude of the healer, and tracing out the intricate web of correspondences between Man, Nature and the Universe.

"The physician comes through God and through Nature alone," was his famous adage. Paracelsus' greatest gift to the Western world was perhaps his indomitable effort to preserve the authentic healing modalities at a time when Europe was mired in superficial learning, and sacrificed the empirical method on the altar of scholastic rectitude. Concerned almost exclusively with humoral medicine, the physicians of his day strayed from the ways of Nature. Paracelsus' attempted reform culminated in a broader acceptance of various sympathetic and alchemical cures, the preparation and application of which he described in great detail in his books. This in turn gave rise to the Iatrochemistry of the 16th and 17th centuries, which I have briefly discussed in my article.

His methods of diagnosis and his careful and systematic description of various diseases and their aetiology contributed greatly to the development of medical studies in the West. For that reason Paracelsus was often dubbed the father of modern Medicine. Nothing can be further from the truth. We only need consider the state in which we find orthodox medicine today, and how widely its principles and practices differ from those promulgated and taught by the Master. For indeed, he entered the temple of knowledge "through the door of Nature: her light, and not the lamp of an apothecary's shop, has illuminated [his] way;" but this doorway to the temple has been all but forgotten, and the false lights of the apothecaries' shops once again prevent our passage. We must discover it anew.

With this in view, I shall now briefly consider Paracelsus' teachings, set against the backdrop of his life and times. Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known to posterity as Paracelsus, was born in the village of Einsiedeln in the Canon of Schwyz in Switzerland, in 1493. His father, Wilhelm von Hohenheim, was the illegitimate son of a knight-errant of the noble house of the Bombasts. His mother, Els Ochsner, was a bondswoman of the great abbey of Einsiedeln. Following her premature death, father and son relocated in 1502 to Villach in Carinthia (modern day Austria). Paracelsus would later refer to this place as his "second fatherland."

He obtained his first instruction in the rudiments of Alchemy, Surgery and Medicine from his father, who was a practising physician. He continued his studies in the monastery schools of St Paul and St Andrae, before learning the secrets of metallurgy in the mines near Villach. His early interest in Spagyrics led him to enter the laboratory of Sigismund Füger at Schwaz in Tyrol, a wealthy mine owner and celebrated alchemist in his own right. It was probably there that Paracelsus was first introduced into the greater arcana of mineral and metallic Alchemy. His tuition was soon enlarged by the study of Magic and Cabala under the famous abbot of Spanheim, Johannes Trithemius, who counted among his pupils the illustrious magus Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.

Paracelsus received his bachelor's degree at the University of Vienna in 1512, and probably attended a number of universities in Italy before attaining his doctor's hat in Ferrara in 1516. As a doctor of Medicine, he acquired a thorough professional training in medical science, scholastic theories and the doctrines of the 'ancients', such as Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna. Following his doctorate, Paracelsus embarked on his famous travels around the world. Their full scope has ever been shrouded in mystery and myth.

Imbued with a desire for universal knowledge, and increasingly rebellious against scholasticism and the 'school medicine' of his day, he wandered across Europe in search of true learning and experience. "He who would read and understand the Book of Nature must walk its pages with his feet," he would later write. He visited many of the renowned universities in Germany, France, Spain and England, including Oxford, before travelling further to Scandinavia, Hungary, Croatia, Poland and Russia. An enduring legend claims that he was taken prisoner by the Tartars and brought before the Khan, whose favour he soon won and whom he accompanied in his travels even as far as to India.

After reaching Rhodes, stopping over in Crete and alighting in Sicily, Paracelsus eventually arrived in Egypt, sojourning for some time in Alexandria. But it was not until he set foot in Constantinople, possibly around 1521, that he met a true Adept and received instruction in the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone. The Adept who initiated Paracelsus into this 'Secret of Secrets' was alleged to be none other than Solomon Trismosin, the author of the famous alchemical treatise Splendor Solis.

In his wanderings, Paracelsus was often retained as army surgeon, notably in 1522 when he took part in the wars of Venetia. He served as surgeon in the military campaigns in the Netherlands, Denmark and Tartary, gathering a rich harvest of first-hand medical experience. During his seemingly endless voyages, he was inflamed with a quest for immortal Wisdom, writing in one of his earliest known works: "I am resolved to pursue the noblest and highest Philosophy and to let nothing divert me from it...I shall not be concerned with the mortal part of Man, and I shall meditate only upon that within him which does not die, for that is what we hold to be the highest Philosophy." In another place he adds defiantly: "I went in search of my Art, often incurring danger of life. I have not been ashamed to learn that which seemed useful to me even from vagabonds, executioners, and barbers. We know that a lover will go a long way to meet the woman he adores: how much more will the lover of Wisdom be tempted to go in search of his divine Mistress!"

He gathered knowledge wherever he journeyed and from all he encountered on his way, for none was to him too humble in rank or too lofty in station to learn something from. In his celebrated medical masterpiece, Der großen Wundartzney, he passionately expounds his credo thus:

"For many years I studied at the universities of Germany, Italy, and France, seeking to discover the foundations of Medicine. However, I did not content myself with their teachings and writings and books, but continued my travels...and wherever I went I eagerly and diligently investigated and sought after the tested and reliable arts of Medicine. I went not only to the doctors, but also to barbers, bath-keepers, learned physicians, women, and magicians who pursue the Art of Healing; I went to alchemists, to monasteries, to nobles and common folk, to the experts and the simple...I have oftentimes reflected that Medicine is an uncertain and haphazard Art scarcely honourable to practise, curing one, and killing ten...Many times I abandoned Medicine and followed other pursuits, but then again I was driven back to it. Then I remembered Christ's saying: The healthy need not a physician, but only the sick. And so I made a new resolve, interpreting Christ's words to mean that the Art of Medicine is true, just, certain, perfect, and whole, and there is nothing in it that should be attributed to the deception of spirits or chance, but that it is an Art tested in need, useful to all the sick and beneficial in restoring their health."

He vowed: "To perfect my Medical Art and never to swerve from it so long as God grants me my office, and to oppose all false medicine and teachings. Then, to love the sick, each and all of them, more than if my own body were at stake. Not to judge anything superficially, but by symptoms, nor to administer any medicine without understanding, nor to collect any money without earning it. Not to trust any apothecary, nor to do violence to any child. Not to guess, but to know." This is surely one of the most noble expressions of the very essence of the Art of Healing ever conceived of in the West. It is scarcely necessary to mention how desperately we need to re-align our own distorted view of Medicine, and with it the purpose and responsibility of the physician, to once again bring it closer to this virtuous ideal.

High-minded and lofty as Paracelsus' aspirations may sound to us today, his vow was in perfect accord with the Wisdom of the ancients. It is best summarised in passages such as this: “There is nothing in me except the will to discover the best that Medicine can do, the best there is in Nature, the best that the Nature of the earth truly intends for the sick. Thus I say, nothing comes from me; everything comes from Nature of which I too am part.” What is this if not true Philosophy, the Medicine of Man enshrined in the knowledge and understanding of the universal Laws and Principles? Seen in this light, Paracelsus appears to us much less like a revolutionary, a bold inventor or eccentric quack, and much more like a Sage, a torch-bearer bent on a mission to re-kindle the flame of the Healing Arts. These Arts had always been steeped in the Wisdom of Nature, and as such, they are as old as Man.

The zeal of the torch-bearer did not abate one jot even after a decade of roaming the world. To the contrary. His was a turbulent age, full of promise and woe; an age of discovery, unrest and sweeping changes. Just a year before Paracelsus' birth, Christopher Columbus had discovered the New World, initiating an era of exploration and colonisation which would forever change the balance of power in Europe. It was the time of the resurgence of Platonic Philosophy and Hermetic thought, owing to the translations of the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. The time when the established traditions, dogmas and faith of the Middle Ages had been challenged by the innovation and fresh spiritual currents of the High Renaissance. It was the Age of Reformation.

In 1517, when Paracelsus was twenty-six years old, the Augustinian friar Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in Germany. This was a pivotal event which sparked the Protestant Reformation, challenging the corruption and moral laxity of the Catholic Church and questioning its doctrines and practises. In the words of Franz Hartmann, "the world awoke again from its long sleep in mental torpitude during the Middle Ages, and shaking off the incubus of Papal suppression, it breathed freely once more." In place of the blind credulity and stark dogmatism of Rome, free thought and free inquiry rose swiftly on the wings of the recently discovered printing presses, spreading far and wide the spirit of free investigation, no longer fettered by the clerical monopoly on truth. The great commotion and struggle for liberty sent shockwaves across Europe.

By the time Paracelsus returned from his travels, Cortés had conquered Mexico, Magellan's expedition had completed the first circumnavigation of the globe, Luther had burned the Papal Bull, breaking off with Rome, and the Great Peasant War had erupted in Germany. The world had been in the throes of great transformation. Around the year 1524 Paracelsus was back in Carinthia, visiting his father in Villach. Shortly thereafter, he settled down in Salzburg with the view to establishing his own medical practice. It was there that he completed his first medical writings, which laid out the foundations of his early medical philosophy. Among them was Volumen medicinae Paramirum, an influential work in which he introduced his theory of the Five Entia, or causes of disease: astral, poisonous, natural, spiritual and divine.

Soon thereafter, he narrowly escaped the death penalty for supporting the cause of rebellious peasants, and we find him next studying the thermal waters of Swabia and Baden, and settling in Strasburg, where he performed many successful cures which earned him the popularity and respect of the leading lights of the city. With his reputation on the ascendant, he travelled to Basel in January 1527, where he effected a successful cure of his host, the famous publisher Johannes Froben. The grateful convalescent in turn introduced him to his no less illustrious humanist friends, amongst them the Dutch theologian and philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam.

It wasn't long before he received an appointment as city physician in March 1527, initiating one of the most pivotal periods in his life. The appointment carried with it the post of professor at the University of Basel with a commission to lecture, a perfect ground for the promotion of Paracelsus' philosophic ideals and his novel medical theories. The announcement of his lectures proclaimed boldly: "It seems imperative to bring Medicine back to its original laudable state, and, aside from striving to cleanse it of the dregs left by the barbarians, to purify it of the most serious errors." Alas, how little has changed since his day!

Paracelsus defied tradition by lecturing to his students in German instead of Latin, causing a scandal. He denounced and publicly burned the works of Galen and Avicenna, challenging the accepted authorities and deriding scholastic 'book learning' in favour of the empirical approach. This aroused the ire of his fellow professors and city physicians alike. He taught Medicine according to his highest principles, drawing on his vast personal experience and the direct knowledge acquired during his travels, an approach which many of his contemporaries considered anathema. At the same time, he effected numberless cures, and even his fiercest enemies had to begrudgingly admit his supremacy in the Art of Healing. Perhaps his greatest 'sin' was his war against the apothecaries and their treacherous drugs, whose method of preparation he had openly challenged and vowed to publicly examine. This drew upon him their hatred, which, added to the jealousy of professors and physicians, and an open conflict with the City Council, resulted in his eventual persecution and expulsion from Basel, which he was forced to flee under the cover of night in February 1528.

This was in all likelihood the greatest crisis of Paracelsus' life. The injustice and ingratitude which he suffered at the hands of his peers greatly embittered him. Deeply wounded, he embarked once again on his wanderings, travelling through Switzerland, Germany and Austria. During his short tenure in Basel he wrote Nine Books of Archidoxus, De renovatione et restauratione and De vita longa. The former was one of his most important alchemical works, in which he expounded his views concerning the Quintessence, longevity, the occult causes of diseases, the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life, supplying numerous recipes for alchemical tinctures and medicines. The latter two works belong to the initiatic current of Hermetic tradition, weaving together Alchemy, Medicine and the science of spiritual Regeneration. In De vita longa, he distinguished between the worldly and the heavenly Medicine – the former subject to the order of Nature, the latter founded solely on the active virtues derived from the Word of God. Wrought by an Adept, this divine power was capable of accomplishing miracles far greater than any natural force, without recourse to herbs and stars.

It is impossible to retrace every step of Paracelsus' subsequent travels within the limited confines of this Afterword. Suffice it to say that he lived a life of a wanderer, rarely stopping in one place for more than two nights, and always quick to attend to those in need. In part two of my Afterword, I will consider some of the most important works which he wrote during the last decade of his life. I will also discuss his teachings concerning Man, Nature, Astrology and Medicine, and reflect on his enduring legacy.

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