A Magickal Herball Compleat.pdf - Magicka School

Footnotes
[1] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry_(etymology).
[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy.
[3] The earliest verifiable date is around 800CE although some sources may derive
from two centuries earlier, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet.
[4] See Aaron John Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry, Dover, 1966, p.11,
footnote at end of page.
[5] The Chinese appear to have developed alchemical ideas independently of the
West and may have developed them first. One of their most significant ideas
concerned itself with the attainment of immortality, which was to be achieved by
rigorous ascetic and contemplative regimes designed to bring about an inner
process that transformed the body. Like China and Egypt, India developed
alchemy independently. They had beliefs similar to the Chinese, in that they used
external and internal methods to purify the body and prolong life. An 11th century
Persian alchemist named al-Biruni reported that they "have a science similar to
alchemy which is quite peculiar to them, which is called Rasav�tam. It means
the art which is restricted to certain operations, drugs, compounds, and medicines,
most of which are taken from plants. Its principles restored the health of those
who were ill beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age." The texts of
Ayurvedic Medicine and Science have aspects related to alchemy, such as having
cures for all known diseases. Both had methods used to treat people by putting
oils over them deriving from plants.
[6] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon.
[7] In the early C14th, Pope John XXII issued an edict against Alchemy, which
effectively removed all church personnel from the practice of the Art. Along with
climate changes, Plague, war and famine prevalent in that time there would have
been little time for those preoccupied with philosophical or scientific pursuits.
Neither was hostility just confined to the Church, for example in Dante's Inferno,
alchemists were seen as the falsifiers of metals and were to be riddled with disease
in the tenth circle of Hell.
[8] Interest in Flamel has recently surged thanks to a reference to his name in J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
[9] Available today as Mary Anne Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic
Mystery with a Dissertation on the More Celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers, Being an
Attempt Towards the Recovery of the Ancient Experiment of Nature, Kessinger Publishing,
1942.
[10] Quoted in Archibald Cockren, Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored, available for
free at http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/arr/arr00.htm the relevant page is here:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/arr/arr15.htm
[11] Ibid.
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