Ty Falk wrote:
>I am aware of some of the
>work being done in practical alchemy, such as the work with whitegold
>in reversing cellular decay (still not sure what I think about that)
>but I call it a pseudoscience only as it has evolved into chemistry
>and physics.
>
I guess you prove my point that you are seeing alchemy as a purely
spiritual endeavor, since you say that practical alchemy "evolved" into
science. The term "pseudoscience" privileges science as somehow more
valid, yet alchemy not only came before science historically but
continues to exist and be practiced to this day by practical alchemists
who combine the physical and spiritual aspects of alchemy rather than
exiling them from one another as many contemporary spiritual alchemists
do. I am talking about lab work uniting the spiritual and the physical
as is described in old alchemical texts, not stuff like ORMUS, or
practice that at least works with the fundamentals of alchemy, like
Armand Barbault did in his spagyrical medicines.
I would not use the prefix "pseudo" unless I were setting out to be
inflammatory. But if that prefix can be applied to anything, it is to
science as a pseudoalchemy, no? Some alchemists even make such an
argument. Fulcanelli argues that the alchemical operations that science
adopted were part of what he calls "archemy," which is using alchemical
means without any alchemical knowledge, spirit, attention to time of
year, etc. Fulcanelli was a physicist writing in the 1920s, so I would
think that if anyone would identify alchemy as a pseudoscience or even
as some nice old toothless granny of science, it would be him.
I think if you decide to discuss alchemy only as a spiritual
undertaking, that is one thing. I think it would be an honest endeavor
to say that outright, although to me that is a limited, truncated
version of alchemy, regardless of whether you are focusing on
symbolism. Practical alchemists make much use of the symbolism of
alchemy and draw connections between symbols that will be missed by
someone who interprets them merely spiritually. To say that alchemy has
been superseded by science is like arguing that the everyday practice of
rabbinic law has been superseded by the mere belief in Jesus Christ as
one's personal savior. I would argue that they are two completely
different things that are related only superficially.
Harry Roth
|