Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new contribution and hope you had a day that brought some interesting experiences into your life! In this post I would like to take a closer look at alchemy and hope you are able to expand your knowledge a bit.
Musaeum Hermeticum is an old writing from the 17th century full of illustrations and texts which are rich in symbolism are one of the most important when it comes to alchemy and it is a collection of different works which is divided into different chapters. The works were originally written in Latin and a few decades after the first publication the works were expanded and the complete work was published in 1678 and the difference to the first version is that in the extended version inspirations from more alchemists have flowed and in comparison has more chapters and first published was the work at that time in the German city of Frankfurt and it quickly became more and more popular among alchemists. It would take a few more centuries until it was translated into English and later into other languages and various topics were incorporated into the works and so there are also influences from Greek mythology which have been used as a metaphor and so there are illustration, for example, how the well-known phoenix once goes up in flames and then resurrected again and this is also a metaphor within alchemy for the transformation of base metals into gold or the philosopher's stone. Other gods can also be seen in these works and the sun and moon were also associated with the gods Luna or Sol and these two are also considered important personifications for different principles of duality such as the female or male and the works are generally considered very mystical and are full of different metaphors which are expressed by gods or mythical creatures and the illustrations are also full of cryptic messages which have been expressed by animals other other natural things.
The god of the art of blacksmithing as well as fire Vulcan also has an important meaning and he is generally considered the creator of alchemy and according to some views, he comes in the last step of every alchemistic work to complete the work and no work can be completed without him and in an illustration, you can see him standing at the burning furnace and putting his tools in there and in the same room other well-known alchemists can also be seen and that is a strength of this work that the author has mentioned many well-known alchemists from this time like Michael Maier, Basilius Valentinus and many more. The work is also characterised by hermetic teachings and so one of the basic pillars of hermetics and alchemy is also mentioned, which are also known as the emerald tabelts of Hermes Trismegistos or Tabula Smaragdina and the various chapters are rich diverse in symbolism. In addition to the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, one also finds some things that revolve around spiritual development which, according to the alchemists, were of the utmost importance and if one has not awakened the higher spiritual side, it is also not possible to understand and carry out the practical side and the works are generally accompanied by various philosophical texts and Musaeum Hermeticum are definitely one of the most important writings of alchemy.
Thank you very much for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about alchemy! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.
