Overview

The introduction outlines competing views on how to interpret alchemy, presents the book's definition of spiritual alchemy, and provides an outline of the work. Throughout the past three centuries, alchemy has often been viewed as fraudulent superstition, introspective religion, or practical science. Bringing together the latter two in a way that challenges our habit of distinguishing sharply between science and religion, spiritual alchemy was based on early-modern concepts of spiritus, a subtle matter pervading the universe. As a concept, spiritus transitioned freely between laboratory alchemy, medicine, cosmology, and even theology. In the process, it could give rise to heterodox implications, something that also affected spiritual alchemy. The period of transmutation in alchemy involves a violent battering of the metal to release its soul, and this directly relates to the physical abuse often accompanying the human death. Distillation, which is a process of purification, follows transmutation, parallels the decomposition of the human body in the grave, and leads to the final stage in which the noble tincture (philosopher's stone) manifests itself.

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