Alchemy is, perhaps, best known for it’s elaborate symbolism but just how far back into history can we trace these allegories, secret codes, and hidden meanings? In this episode of Esoterica we investigate what is likely one of the earliest encoded alchemical texts: “the Formula of the Crab” or “the Formula of the Scorpion.” Found in a 10th century Greek manuscript, this formula contain a Greco-Egyptian alchemical process for producing a gold-like alloy of copper, silver, and lead. As we explore the formula we will also discuss how Greco-Egyptian alchemy differed from later theories under the influence of the mercury-sulfur theory of the metals. What will discover is an emphasis on the ability to control the color of metals as opposed to metallic transmutation reflecting the religious vocation of the earliest Egyptian metallurgists.
Recommended Reading:
M. Berthelot – Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs – https://archive.org/details/collectiondesanc23bert/mode/2up
S. Linden – The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton – 978-0521796620
S. Grimes – Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt – 978-0473407759
#alchemy #egypt #hermeticism
