alchemical

Alchemical refers to alchemy, a tradition spanning ancient to early modern periods, blending chemistry, metallurgy, medicine, astrology, and spirituality. Alchemy sought to understand nature’s hidden principles and transform substances as well as the self.

Historical roots in Hellenistic Egypt and the Islamic world; in medieval Europe; core aims: transmutation of base metals into noble metals like gold; discovery of the philosopher's stone; creation of the elixir of life; underlying belief in a universal harmony and correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm.

Practices included laboratory procedures such as calcination, distillation, dissolution, sublimation, as well as symbolic work, coded texts, and allegorical diagrams; practitioners often combined empirical work with philosophical and spiritual aims; notable figures Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, Bernard of Treviso, Roger Bacon; later reformers like Robert Boyle sometimes described alchemical ideas in mechanistic terms.

Impact and legacy: contributed to experimental techniques and equipment; influenced early modern chemistry; symbolic and literary influence persists; psychological interpretation by Carl Jung; in modern times term alchemical is used metaphorically to describe transformative processes.