So, I have taken a serious interest in Alchemy. Just incase you are ignorant, as I was, about what alchemy is, I'll briefly explain it. Alchemy is not the quest to turn lead into gold lol. Infact the lead to gold thing was only practiced for a short time some where around the middle of it's life. The lead to gold bit shows you how effective advertising can be since many of us still think about this when we hear the word alchemy. Like many other forms of science and religious expression alchemy has had a long history of highs and lows. Times when information was shared freely and times when you dare not utter the word alchemy. After it's first long battle with opression alchemy reemerged and enjoyed a sort of popular chic-like status where anybody who was fashionable dabbled in alchemy. It became very common among common folk who wanted the same thing common folk today want, money. This is the part of it's history where the quest for gold made it's mark on history. And still today this is what most people think about when they think of alchemy. This is just wrong. Also the tendency to associate alchemy with chemistry is wrong. Alchemical practice may resemble chemistry, especially in those days when chemistry was not it's own science, but the resemblance is very shallow. Some of the fathers of modern chemistry may have even gotten their start, their spark to further study the phenomenon  of chemistry from practicing alchemy, but still, they are not same.

Alchemy is but a piece of a greater whole of mystical practice. You could say that alchemy is related to astrology and witchcarft, but that would be like saying that your head is related to your hand. They are really multiple pieces of a whole, not two separate things that are somehow related, dig? I have no been studying for long, so I can't wax poetic for you and give you this great outline of what alchemy is all about, but I will try.

Chemistry is about the manipulation of physical entities. Building structures from tiny building blocks that look like other structures of known properties and creating new structures that aren't found in any natural scenario. Alchemy is about assisting the evolution of matter. The alchemist sees the physical structure as only one piece of a greater manifestation of a primal all encompassing energy they often call The One (yes they capitalize it that way). The One is the only thing that is complete and whole, everything else but a fragment of The One that has been manifest in a way that we can experience it. The alchemist does not see just a clump of atoms that arranged in a certain way, but also an energy, without which this collection of atoms could not manifest. Just like our understanding of ionic behavior and bonding is dependent  on an understanding of electrical charge the alchemical understanding of matter is dependent on understanding the influence that all energy has on everything else. The source of this knowledge is still unknown as is the extent of it's accuracy. But, key to the alchemical practice is the influence of the stars and planets on the subject of your work. Consider this; We can detect the radio waves of dead stars millions of light years from here. That energy is touching us right now. How can we say that that energy affects nothing? Imagine a few thousand years ago when they did not have man-made sources of this radiation soaking them daily. I tend to believe that this fostered a more intimate relationship with the universe as a whole. We can't zero in on that energy anymore, like trying to pick out the milky way while standing in Time's square with all the lights glaring. If you could see the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that wireless router in the bedroom would be blindingly bright. A look across the horizon would show cellphone towers like lighthouses in every direction. We simply do not have it that way anymore, where the cosmos and it's energy is directly involved in our energy.

Alchemy appeals to me on many levels. Mainly the alchemical treatment of the most basic of energy, what they call The One. Religion's attempt to define and talk about this just doesn't work for me. I was raised southern baptist and have spent my life, on some level, seeking God. I was married to a woman who held a library's worth of degrees in theology and had also spent many years seeking God. So, I've thought about this a lot, and this is where I am right now. I plan to start some classes next month on it. Just so happens that I have a herbal magic store in my neighborhood, two of them actually. I went in yesterday to talk to the guy who makes all the potions about how I could start learning, he recommended some books and I was on my way. When I went to the next store is when shit got real. The energy in that place was way better and immediately noticeable. After talking to the very attractive girl who worked there for a few minutes she told me they were starting classes next month on alchemy and that I should come. Needless to say, I will be there.

I'm excited about this, go ahead and laugh, I don't care. I love chemistry and I'm not gonna be able to stop doing it. Now I have a way to do my chemistry and possibly throw some spiritual growth in there too. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't think that alchemy is an alternative to chemistry. I do believe that two need each other, though. Admittedly I would not want the company making my medication practicing alchemy, science is just fine there, but for me that's a different story. Chemistry is a hobby for me, I don't make any money at it or punch a clock to do it for someone else, so why not? This would be even funnier to you guys if you knew me. I have never believed in astrology or black magic or witchcraft of any of that. I have never even entertained the idea that it may be real. But now after doing a little chemistry and spending the last year of my life studying I do see that there is something going on that traditional science is ignoring. I think there is some energetic influence within matter that we turn a blind eye towards when we pick up our beakers and get ready to work in the lab. I have no reason to not explore this try to understand it.

Will I still be allowed here, as an alchemist? I'd hate to pull the religious discrimination card, but I will :p


Edit: I know this needs some edits but it keeps screwing up and I keep having to rewrite shit

I don't know to what extent alchemical practice actually produces the results that are claimed. I do know that science had to distance itself from anything that was not tangibly prove-able, so to speak, to get away from religion. This is where the almost militant attitude comes from that just out right says it aint possible. But we are at a new time where in order to advance we need to accept that some things are just beyond our capability to understand at this point. I think to deny that all the stray energy from space has no effect whatsoever reeks of arrogance and ignorance. I can see trying to convince some bullheaded know it all a thousand years ago that today I can pick up a device smaller than a deck of cards and talk to someone on the other side of the planet. I can see this person dismissing that out of hand, telling me that not only is physical separation impossible to over come but there is not even a line of sight, therefore I must be either lying or using the devil's power to do the impossible (I will assume that he accepts that the earth is round). I can't help but think that's what people today will look like a thousand years from now the way they just laugh and say nope not possible, I cant believe that, my mind just can't accept anything outside of my understanding, we already know all there is to know about energy, has to be another explanation. It's funny how things change. Even 20-30 years ago that attitude would be considered sane and properly inline with scientific reason, these days if wanna even discuss cutting edge physics you have to let go of most of your earthly understanding and believe some really incredible shit.

I dunno, man. My mind is open though. I don't yet know the answer, therefore any answer is just as plausible as the next and the way theory works is it stays on top until it's proven to be wrong. Alchemy was practiced for a very long time (still is) and these people never observed anything that contradicted the theories they had in place. The only way to know is to do it, and that journey has already started for me.