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VOL. 03:3 |
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$12.50
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Parabola's Fall 1978 issue: Inner Alchemy Until recently, alchemy was regarded either as proto-chemistry, i.e., an embryonic, naive, or prescientific discipline, or conversely as a mass of superstitious rubbish that was culturally irrelevant. The first historians of science investigated alchemical texts for the possible chemical observations and discoveries they might have contained. But such an evaluation was tantamount to judging--and classifying--great poetic creations on the basis of their historical accuracy, their moral teachings, or their philosophical implications. That the alchemists did contribute to the progress of the natural sciences is certainly true. But they did this indirectly and only as a consequence of their concern with mineral substances and living matter. For they were "experimenters"--not abstract thinkers or erudite scholastics.... The alchemists' experiments with mineral or vegetal substances pursued a more ambitious goal: namely, to change the alchemist's own mode of being. --from "The Myth of Alchemy" by Mircea Eliade Cover: The Green Lion in an alchemical landscape Drawing by Ted Enik In this issue:
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