Most modern dictionaries dismiss alchemy as an immature, empirical, and speculative precursor of chemistry, having had as its object the transmutation of base metals into gold. While chemistry did evolve from alchemy, the two schools of thought never really had much in common. Chemistry deals with scientifically verifiable and objective phenomena, the mysterious doctrine of alchemy pertains to a hidden, subjective, abstract, and higher order of reality...Perceiving and realizing this reality is and was the goal of all alchemists. They called this goal the Magnum Opus or Great Work - Absolute Realization.
As smart as we think we are in the modern world, we apparently can never pass behind the veil which divides the seen from the unseen, except by engaging ourselves in the way appointed by the ancients - The Mysteries.! Substantial amounts of entheogenic substances can give one a glimpse but this is merely temporary. To truly pierce the veil, one must study the Mysteries.
