How Alchemy Entered the Modern World - Capitalism, the State, Industrial Mining and Heavy Industry
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2022
- Alchemy is usually considered to be the medieval occult science par excellence. The marginal and lonely alchemist on the quest to transform and perfect nature surrounded with obscure volumes, noxious fumes, vessels of glass and ancient secrets dominates our imagination. But, with the social and economic changes that occurred in the centuries following the Black Death, the alchemists of Central Europe became increasing professionalized even contracted experts in the fields of medicine and mining. These "Entrepreneurial Alchemists" stood at the crossroads of the medieval world and modern capitalism, the state, industrial mining and heavy industry.
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#alchemy #occult #hermeticism
Smith - The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman - 978-0691173238
Nummedal - Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire - 978-0226608563
Linden, Stanton J. (ed.) The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. 978-0521796620. Nicely edited collection of alchemical primary texts.
Principe, Lawrence. The Secrets of Alchemy. 978-0226103792. An up-to-date history of alchemy.
Roob, Alexander(ed.) Alchemy & Mysticism. 978-3836549363. A collection of alchemical imagery and symbolism, also a nice coffee table book!
Make Sure to Subscribe & Consider supporting Esoterica by
becoming a monthly Patron - www.patreon.com/esotericachannel
a one time donation - www.paypal.me/esotericachannel
or the Super Thanks - Your support is profoundly appreciated!
Excellent video sir you are gentlemen and a scholar
@Esoterica Hey Justin. Have you ever seen the movie from the 70s called holy Mountain? Deals with alchemy of the character and one of the main characters is an alchemist. It’s very psychedelic and trippy, but a beautiful movie. You would love the final scene as well. I don’t want to give it away if you haven’t seen the movie. Cheers from Midtown Memphis!
I'm pretty sure I'm not particularly interested in alchemy but I'm just as sure I don't really understand what it is, what it's about, and how it's different from just early chemistry which means I'm very interested in learning about it
Same reason I bought a palmistry book today.
So, I’m a demon of science; watch this space.
It would be really huge (and brave) if you make a full episode critizising Jung’s apparent misinterpretation of alchemy
“Can you blame a brother?” That’s hilarious Dr Sledge. 😂😂
Socio-Economics of alchemy during the emergence of capitalism. Love your content Dr. Sledge.
Great to see another alchemy video coming from the scholarly furnaces of your channel! The care you put into every video - taking often times confusing or misinterpreted topics, scraping away the dross from the surface and turning these rich topics into gold with the honest scholarship they have always needed makes you, in a way, an alchemist in your own right. Inspiring yet absolutely enjoyable to watch, I hope I can continue to extend to you my most profound gratitude. Thank you.
$50 and no reply ouch smh
I never considered how alchemists would have been considered in economic terms rather than purely scientific or metaphysical ones. Thanks again for another fascinating video.
I love these videos on alchemy and this is my favorite yet. As a chemist by training, and as a professional engineer, I find your explanation and research to be incredibly insightful. That insight inspires me to examine my own methods of reasoning, to uncover the chain of knowledge back to my ancestors that shows how my mind came to be. There are the beginnings of techniques that I learned as a student which have their roots in these alchemical texts. And I feel that your channel does such a wonderful job of showing us that people in the past had minds that are as vibrant as any modern person. It brings so much humanity to the past.
This, I feel like historians like to make the people in the past look stupid.
”ALCHEMICAL theory and practice at the origins of CAPITALISM” Say no more I’m hooked!!!! This was a banger 🙌🏻
Alchemy is way older than that, it basically started at the dawn of humankind, China, India, Mesopotamia, etc...
Me too especially in the context of overthrowing it 😁
@@buckleyrue3836 I mean ofc😌🛠
@@buckleyrue3836 seize the means of alchemical production
@@alkemystica Egypt was the first to practice it .
Fascinating and thought-provoking, as always! The alchemists managed to bridge three worlds, the ancient world from whence their Hermetic ideas came, the medieval world in which they worked, and the modern world they helped give birth to.
“I’m an alchemical weirdo”- *remembers the diagram of the alchemical furnace you built as a child*… yup. Absolutely.
Yep, 16.....that was a bad idea for lots of reason, tbh
@@TheEsotericaChannel did it ever go awry? Or did you abandon the project before any such accidents could happen
My favorite capitalist alchemist is Johann Friedrich Böttger.
The Elector of Saxony: Have you made the Gold already?!
JFB: No, I was only able to make some porcelain...
The Elector of Saxony: That works too!
Excellent episode and I love the quip about necromancy," can you blame a brother?" 😂 That was awesome and no I can't blame a brother as I dabble in it myself.
Who doesn't, am I right? After a hard day at work, an hour or so of the dark arts really helps me unwind.
@@diverguy3556 damn right brother!
Blame a frater? 😀
@@SCx4 I could never blame a Brother Magician for dabbling in anything magic(with or without the k).
@@ninetales6485 what exactly is the distinction between magic and magick? I had always assumed one to be a variation of the name of the other, as standardisation of spelling (in English, at the very least) was only achieved post-printing press
This is the video I hoped you would make, thanks doc I loved every minute. I have been an alchemy geek a long time and have to so agree with the way this is framed. Zero woo woo, is so refreshing.
This is particularly interesting to me, as a chemist by degree and a spectroscopist in work (although I'm really looking to go into education after my PhD). There is a mural at the University of Washington's Bagley Hall that you would really like, Dr. Sledge! It mirrors the modern chemist and his practices on the right side to an Egyptian alchemist to the left side.
I've likened capitalism to alchemy before, but only as an analogy.
It really is alchemy and the transubstantiation of wealth.
Superb social and economic history of science -galloping, but never jumping too far or stumbling. Many thanks for your work. M.
Who could foresee chemistry coming from alchemy. All the amazing advancements in science that owe their birth to magic makes me grin and giggle. That human need to understand and control the world around us is one thing I think we all share😁
Super thanks, Dr. Sledge! I tune in weekly.❤️
wow! fantastic video!
Also, dropping some cheeky Hegel references, nice. Are you implying that Hegels dialectical movement of history is analogous to alchemical transmutation? I've had that thought too many times, crazy
I believe you are spot on there. We are watching it continue every day.
@@zerotwo7319 true, and while I don't believe that Hegel was ever consciously or otherwise imitating the transmutation or other practices or goals of alchemists, allegory and metaphor are not in and of themselves to be scorned and shunned.
I write a lot more interesting D&D characters thanks to this channel. Gave my mage a guild membership and now she is a legally recognized hermeticist.
Might not be entirely appropriate but I mixed apothecarial knowledge into the guild. It seemed fitting with the Rod of Asclepius as a guild symbol.
Of course, that gets a lot weirder when you take old school European corpse medicine into account.
I too am inspired by dr. Sledge and other online educators in making my fantasy characters and worlds (I DM, and am in the process of making my own setting with large influences from real world history and mythology)
Interesting approach.
One may remember e.g. Adam Curtis' BBC archive clip with the national economy and monetary policy, 'modelled' as a cross section of intricate plumbing.
And the problem is that actual *esoteric tradition is more accurate in describing psychological and spiritual pocesses than social sciences, grappling next years weather or 'markets'* ...
@@sneakybeaver8866
"Would you link something that expounds on that?"
You mean in regard to the clip by Curtis ?
I would - if I had photographic memory and could remember the exact program, Curtis used that particular archive material in his many series of archive montage...
My best guess - without going through all of it - would be *'The Trap'* (2007) - but the scene would fit arguably everywhere as it is iconic for Curtis' _social commentary on bureaucracy, rationalization_ - and obscured to him - 'radical enlightenment'.
If the BBC were _a public service_ , indeed - according to it's fees - than searching their archives simply online would be an option as well...
@@sneakybeaver8866
"I am skeptical of anything BBC puts out (...)"
Rightly so.
To rewatch their 'objective documentation of the state of world affairs' in a montage of their historical _misconceptions_ makes sense, though.
Like REUTERS, the *British Broadcasting Company* agitates for the normative Westernization by the Westminster model - Curtis shows what subjective associations he _experiences_ while browsing their archive, leading to concepts of cultural history that aren't as 'orthodox' about 'progress'.
And the latter isn't much different from a Jewish prophet looking down the line of failing kings of Israel, arranging their self-proclaimed 'glorious' rule toward *a narrative of **_apostasy_** and **_idolatry_* .
@@sneakybeaver8866
"(...) we might be too late in realizing what's happening and the system of control too developed already."
There are good reasons to believe so, from total digital sureveillance, to robotic and biological warfare, targeting specific genomes.
But if one completes the reference to biblical and apocalyptic scripture: men strive and _fail_ - it is a living God who has created man in a divine image and thereby had set up the historical process.
We can _trust_ into the downfall of Western social engineering as we already know the fate of the Assyrians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans and everyone else.
It is the one's who have reduced man to a set of mechanical drives and think their plans more elaborate than the entire cosmos who are obsessed by delusion.
We may loose our lives in the struggles ahead, but we shall never be lost.
I've been a student of things occult and esoteric for 30-plus years and I just stumbled upon this channel! I'm about 3 videos in and interested to watch more. Thank you!
Esoterica is one of my favorite sites. Dr. Sledge is so knowledgeable! I am amazed of how closely the post pandemic economy of today mirror the post "back death" economy of the 17th century. Alchemist like the venerable Edward Kelly were the bridge to modern chemistry. Just a wonderful episode, thank you for all you do, Dr. Sledge
I can’t wait for you to cover Joseph Smiths Mormon ties to Occult Magic, Freemasonry etc! I hope it’s on deck soon. Love your stuff!
Yes Dr sledge, thank you for this. I have been a huge fan of your work. The fact that these are on UA-cam makes you such a great resource for ppl Interested just for pleasure but also for ppl in the great work.
I will be find my way to your Patreon where I can support your wonderful skill. Thank you for all your videos. I look forward to seeing more about alchemy.
If I could ask for a topic of discussion. What are the differences from gnosticism and hermetism.
From my limited understanding; I believe gnosticism is a (possibly fictional, created by paranoid early church fathers as a heresy to drive out from the nascent Christian movement) movement within Christianity that emphasised hidden, esoteric knowledge of god (the Abrahamic god YHWH) and the universe, whereas Hermeticism is a broader sect of magical knowledge and instruction that had its roots in the syncretism of Egyptian paganism (I forget which deity specifically) and devotion to the Greek god Hermes. Practitioners of Hermeticism claimed the origins of their art to be in the teachings of the legendary, likely mythical, Hermes Trismagistis.
This episode was so great! No one puts out content like this thank you so much sir!
This is what I needed to hear. Thanks.
This video (and your others) on alchemy have cleared up, and helped me understand better, the universe of alchemy. I will be checking out those two books for sure. Thank you!
Excellent, can't wait to hear more
Another excellent episode! Thank you!
This channel is so amazing. Thank you for making this information accessible and sharing your knowledge.
WHOAHHHhhh this one was AWESOME! I'd almost think it may be worth a firt-time watch for anyone who only knows "Alchemy? Like.. Lead into Gold?" - and then your other videos.
This all makes sense and it's so nice to hear something about this, wowza.
Your channel is so special-dare I say magical?! You are a gifted teacher.
I was very thrilled to see this Esoterica vid in my UA-cam suggestions!
To apply sociological imagination to esoteric practices such as Alchemy, is so vital to our collective understanding of how we've arrived at this point of historic time, where our ignorance of our past, appears to threaten our collective future as a global civilization, let alone species, leading the way into a 6/7th major Global extinction event.
The co-opting or adoption of alchemy in early theosophical literature would be a hell of a video.
Love the last bit :)
Thank You Prof. Sledge Love
your videos have been so stimulating and reaffirming to the many things I am being shown in present time. You are one person I would LOVE to sit down and have coffee with
Amazing channel!
Great video again.
What a fascinating topic
Love it!
Incredibly fascinating. Thanks for another one my good man & already looking forward to the next.
I wonder do you have an opinion on Robert Bartlett’s book ‘Real Alchemy’?
When I saw the title, I immediately thought of Jonathan Hickman’s “The Black Monday Murders”
Awesom video. Sledge slays again.
Truly valuable scholarship.
Some interesting articles on your website thanks you
Thank You ESOTERICA for another Steller video ❤️🔥🤘🏽
Brilliant stuff
Fantastic video
I love your humour
Please more
Thank you
Alchemical weirdo! Ha ha. I love your channel Dr. Sledge, it’s really fun and you deliver great substance for curious minds. I guess we (your viewers) are also weirdos in some sense. What a great company to have! 🤩
Really liked this one :-)
Hi from "Over There", Pinchbeck or jewellers gold, a compound of Copper & Zinc was invented in the early 18th century, but maybe even earlier.
Nice!!! I love it!!! Keep up the great work!!!⚗️👁👍🏻
Would love to see an episode on your view of 'Jung's misreading' of alchemy. You rock.
All your work is excellent, but this video is particularly good
when you said "could you blame a brother?" for the alchemists getting into necromancy, I lost it. lol great videos!
Thank you.
excellent
unique episode!! loved the weird / unexpected intersection of the arcane and the secular.
I was excited to see this. I'm attending an alchemy fair tomorrow!
🤙Dr Sledge loved this! Looking forward to more of Esoterica's high calibur content. In the name of my past necRomantic (read Isaac N. etc here) Attachments, my self begotten happy sunny transformations & in the Spirit of finding pure gold treasure I say aloha, adieu, ciao until your next upload You are awesome
Whose Dr sledge
Awesome vids
Best channel!🙌🏆👑🎉
Thanks!
Thank you
haven't commented in a while, so here i go, think i once tried to explain to someone how science evolved from some of the pseudo-science stuff, got lots of hate, about the processes in alchemy being responsible for some of the tools and whatnot, sigh, people just love to hate first and think never anymore, rock on dr sledge
hey there, it's always good to see another alchemy video! especially with how much misinformation about alchemy goes around, especially in education. my textbook states that "modern chemistry developed literally out of thin air... when chemists began to view chemistry not as a source of religious and mystical metaphors, but rather as an abstract science of matter"
it's really sad how education is willing to perpetuate myths about the past
Thanks
Excellent
If only the pursuit of gold didn't consume our future along with it. Guess it was a test of the universe and we failed idk.
Loved this content and I'm eager for more like it. Love all your stuff, watch it everyday.
Alchemy, Coin Clipping, the Royal Mint, Isaac Newton (freemason) , and modern day crypto currency is the same thing
"I'm an alchemical weirdo ". You and me both brother. Keep the videos coming.
Modern Alchemy! I hope dr.sledge talks about frater albertus and his weird school
First: Thank you, your videos are wonderful.
2nd: Please produce a video on Set of Ancient Egypt, and any connection with Hebrew Canon's, Seth. Thanks.
I think these names are most likely entirely unrelated. We often make connections between two etymologically unrelated terms or names, as a result of the brains hardwiring to seek patterns and commonalities in information. In linguistics this is known as False Friends.
that feedback is brutal lol. had me looking all over until i realized it was in the video
great info tho. love it
"On that chrysopeia hustle" is exactly the kind of educated yet stupid humor I come here for!
Very interesting. This aspect of alchemy was not covered in the 2 semesters of 'The History of Science' I took in the mid-1980s. Nor was the 'Kantian' aspects, IIRC. You videos are resulting in a paradigm shift in the views of alchemy for me, a (retired) chemical engineer.
(or is that a pair-of-dimes 🪙🪙shift? 😁)
I was wondering if you ever thought of doing an episode on Thomas Vaughan. I became interested in him because of his influence on Arthur Machen, which is kind of a whole other bag of worms, but a fair amount of information about him on the internet seems pretty bogus to me. Would be interested in your thoughts about him.
You are 100% better than the Brazilian UA-camrs about the subject
Yeah he's sort of the fucking man round these parts bud.
Would like to see a video on Jacob Bohme
In response to the rejection of alchemy as an inner path, along with other crafts like brick laying: what about freemasonry? There were masons and there were masons. There has always been this dual aspect of ANY art, from tea to war to gardening.
Still enjoying your work and learning 😌
When do we have verified historical accounts of free-masonry coming into existence?
With the world's current economic woes its time to bring alchemy back.
Dude please do a follow up episode about Herbert Hoover's (yes, POTUS Herbert Hoover) obsession with and academic scholarship on this precise topic.
I would be very interested in a video where you elaborate on Jungs "misreading" of alchemical texts. You have alluded to it a few times now but have never really expanded on it (as far as I know). So I am very eager to understand your criticism.
He has a video on the fact that alchemy wasn't psychological or spiritual until after its heyday, you can search his videos for it. He talks about Jung a good deal, but most focuses on what alchemy is, and only brings up these alternatives to explain what it was not.
I live near Cambridge in the uk. I've heard it said Newton was the last magician, as opposed to the first scientist, who studied there. If he hadn't clocked that falling apple during a plague lockdown who knows what we'd be studying today.
I have to add that Jung was also heavily (maybe even mostly) influenced by Eastern (Chinese) Alchemy which had a more internal aspect since inception. Wether calling this type of practice "alchemy" is right or not, I don't know, but it has nonetheless led to people sometimes conflating, sometimes syncretising these very different practices.
That'd make it more sloppy and irresponsible on his part
@@TheEsotericaChannel Absolutely, I wasn't trying to defend him in any way. And I also don't want to say that only Eastern Alchemy had a subjective element. But it seems even the first book Jung read on alchemy was a Chinese one, so his whole interpretation was more esoteric. I appreciate the fact that here in a channel about Esoteric matters of all places I can find a video focusing more on the exoteric aspects. Not that I think the esoteric elements aren't valuable, but that we need to have a more holistic look at things. I appreciate what you do here Dr. Sledge, it is truly amazing work, and will look forward to your next video.
Have a good day!
Thank you!!! I have not watched all your alchemy videos so you may note this - the roots of alchemy may lie in the practice of depletion gilding in Sumeria, which by the mid-late 3rd mill BCE was used to remove copper and silver from the surface of metal objects to leave a purer gold surface on things with a matrix of gold+silver+copper (or electrum, which is the naturally occurring form of most gold). This process was better known by the time Croesus minted the first gold coins in Lydia (hence “rich as Croesus”), which used metal purified to about 75% and more of gold.
I found evidence for this process in jewelry made by early pastoralists in the area of modern Russia around 2800 BCE. These people preceded the Scythians by about 1000 years, who had a huge appetite for gold that adorned dead rulers from head to toe - controlling gold and becoming a “golden man” or woman head to toe has some alchemical implications. As you know, like Herodotus tells us, being a Scythian ruler required control of gold as part of their origin myth.
It was widely used later in South and Central America before Europeans were here, and certainly independently invented.
Again, I loved it. Keep making more, I’m becoming a donor.
That may be true but alchemy is a distinct tradition from metallurgy though they overlap
Such a great video as always!! I love when the contexts and larger gears turning in history are laid out so understandably... I always feel like "wow, regular humans have really just been living their lives pushed around by larger political and economic forces beyond their control for ages huh". I find it oddly comforting sometimes. That our current age is not special in that regard haha And yet people have always lived lives anyway!
Well in terms of this sort of order being the dominant force in human society, it's rather new, people used to live all sorts of ways and still do. I like to think that we might be able to get outside of all this, and that more is possible.
@@IvanRevi These aren't mutually exclusive ideas! I don't mean to imply that social change is some lost cause and isn't important to fight for, wherever you are and whatever the pressing injustices are. But there is also a point where individuals must create their own meaning for their own life, and it's comforting to me to know that human beings have always done that regardless of the context happening around them. It's like that James Baldwin quote that's like "I thought my pain and heartbreak were unprecedented in history but then I read books." Weird feeling to get about the alchemy video I know, but history gets me mushy and feeling a connection to People sometimes.
There ought to be a nü metal band called Alchemical Nummedal.
Hey Justin loved the video! Huge fan of your channel. I have had a hard time finding a copy of the Talmud I was hoping maybe you could help me out with that thank you!
Sefaria
@@TheEsotericaChannel Thank you.
"Nuclear bombardment" is a fascinating phrase when discussing Alchemy Scientists successfully synthesized gold and we decided it wasn't worth it.
It certainly isn't. The energy required for the 'transmutation' costs much more than the gold produced is worth by far and it decomposes rapidly back into a highly radioactive state of bismuth or whathaveyou.
I had a friend many years ago who was an analytical chemist. You have to understand that the atomic version of chemistry dates from the early 19th century. But reading their works very carefully, you can see that they were using many of the same chemical refining techniques a modern chemist would use, just they had a different pre-atomic theory way of expressing themselves. So they thought of transforming base metal into gold rather than separating the gold from a lead or other "base metal" ore. There is a lot of discussion of whether the "spiritual alchemists" of the 16th through 18th centuries were different from the practicing chemists of later days, Waite strongly said they were simply looking for a way of transforming base metal ores into gold, having lost the ability to translate the older manuscripts into practical current practices, looking for a basically free source of wealth. So the ancient alchemists were basically ordinary refiners to use a modern term, just they had a very different pre atomic theory way of expressing themselves, so it looks like they were practicing magic to a modern who does not understand what their words meant. No fraud, etc. involved, ordinary chemistry in terms of today's atomic theory understanding of the processes involved. There was a lot fo technology in making the needed ingredients of course, so things get long and involved.
There was also some geological info in the literature, e.g., the upper portions of a gold deposit tended to be richer in precious metal. They said explicitly that such portions of a deposit were "more esteemed" for transforming base metal into gold, i.e., they were just able to extract more gold from the weathered part of the deposit which we understand today as having gone through concentrating processes due to weathering.
This and the one about witch hunt's being tied to capitalism are both amazing by you. I'm putting your work into my work HEAVILY right now. Please hit me up if you want to talk about Elden Ring and how it exceedingly well researched in alchemy! (I donated to you a long time ago but never got a hold of you)
19:55 this also happened to the girl in Rumpelstiltkin
The Joint European Torus (JET) is my vote for the current "Alchemy" project~! Nuclear Fusion::::all of that power---- " unlimited power ": it could replace all fossil fuels, they like to repeat when they speak of their work! That is a lot of power-
and then there's the private fusion industry... kind of like the individual, start up alchemists
All I could think of when watching this was parallels to the broad cryptocurrency scene and all the problems and scams and even new styles of code-enforced contracts swimming around in that ecosystem, but also innovations in processing that have come from it.
history really does kind of rhyme, huh (tho I think alchemy will have a much better legacy overall)
Can you tell me about those innovations (or at least ones that have uses beyond minting flash in the pan coins)?
Greetings!
Thumbs up. Alchemy and Capitalism. Who'da ever have thunken that?
Hey, could you make a video on how Jung may have misunderstood or misrepresented alchemy?
Yep, coming eventually
Did he say Kraftwerk, I didn't know Florian Schneider et al were alchemists. Oh wait, my mistake.
Dear master, can you introduce the figurine stones and other materials on the shelves behind you, thank you