My Response to Paracelsus - The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Previously in class, I expressed my confusion in what category of book is The Hermetic. Is it struggling bibliography of Paracelsus with philosophy of other alchemists? An alchemy and hermetic text book left behind for those you are able to understand the teaching, or a documentary of Paracelsus work? Yes there was a short story “The rose of Paracelsus”, about Paracelsus and three ‘want to be’ apprentices, but it had a little relationship with the main book, except for the fact they share vague and strict expression of Paracelsus and his teachings.
Normally a 400 page book is my form of kryptonite so I was try to avoid it, but since I couldn’t I decided to read …show more content…
In the book I came across lots of times of transforming metals to silver or gold, but no description on how to do so, the book as lot of recipes and description (albeit the accuracy of some can be called into questions), but none how to make gold or silver, but on page 151, I did find a recipe on how to make gold grow as it if was a tree. This calls the question the credibility of the book, even the history of the famous Paracelsus and his death, have been hinted not to be accurate. Plus, in that time period, when aces to information and resources were very limited, one could lie and exaggerate for fame, money and even for protection. Before I have you think am discrediting the accuracy of the book, let me mention that anyone who reads the book must be careful, because it seems that the book is written to have some parts not to be taken so literally, such as the gradation of metals. In that sections the process of transmuting metals to another by oil, strong water and liquids. It says turning metal to another but in some of the process its actually extracting and purifying the metals from their impure state, I could give an example but who read the book pages 53 to 64. On page 38, there is an understanding the Hermetics believe that the metals Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Luna, Sol and others are bits of stars that fell from the sky, thus their named after that their celestial bodies (the planets in the solar system), Sol and Luna are believed to come from moons rather than planets and can be considered to be mixture of others. Considering that modern science believes that gold is not from earth originally but from a meteor that crashed many years ago, who knows? Out of the 7 canons listed, Mercury is the only one that is easily known today. The
Previously in class, I expressed my confusion in what category of book is The Hermetic. Is it struggling bibliography of Paracelsus with philosophy of other alchemists? An alchemy and hermetic text book left behind for those you are able to understand the teaching, or a documentary of Paracelsus work? Yes there was a short story “The rose of Paracelsus”, about Paracelsus and three ‘want to be’ apprentices, but it had a little relationship with the main book, except for the fact they share vague and strict expression of Paracelsus and his teachings.
Normally a 400 page book is my form of kryptonite so I was try to avoid it, but since I couldn’t I decided to read …show more content…
In the book I came across lots of times of transforming metals to silver or gold, but no description on how to do so, the book as lot of recipes and description (albeit the accuracy of some can be called into questions), but none how to make gold or silver, but on page 151, I did find a recipe on how to make gold grow as it if was a tree. This calls the question the credibility of the book, even the history of the famous Paracelsus and his death, have been hinted not to be accurate. Plus, in that time period, when aces to information and resources were very limited, one could lie and exaggerate for fame, money and even for protection. Before I have you think am discrediting the accuracy of the book, let me mention that anyone who reads the book must be careful, because it seems that the book is written to have some parts not to be taken so literally, such as the gradation of metals. In that sections the process of transmuting metals to another by oil, strong water and liquids. It says turning metal to another but in some of the process its actually extracting and purifying the metals from their impure state, I could give an example but who read the book pages 53 to 64. On page 38, there is an understanding the Hermetics believe that the metals Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Luna, Sol and others are bits of stars that fell from the sky, thus their named after that their celestial bodies (the planets in the solar system), Sol and Luna are believed to come from moons rather than planets and can be considered to be mixture of others. Considering that modern science believes that gold is not from earth originally but from a meteor that crashed many years ago, who knows? Out of the 7 canons listed, Mercury is the only one that is easily known today. The