Inner Alchemy

Alchemy as a worldview and philosophy is holistic and universal; however, this is not an inherent quality of the modern mind. Texts of the early European tradition do not contain any explicit instructions of how to achieve liberation or survival from physical death by alchemical means; they are limited to obtaining Medicina Universalis able to transmute metals and support the physical health of the operator extending his life to some degree. They only implicitly suggest that “spiritual” (or, to be precise, more subtle) goals can also be achieved by similar means on the grounds of the holistic character of the doctrine. However, in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period, the increasing use of Christian symbolism in the alchemical context paved the way to further interpretations of the teaching in moralistic, theosophical, and theological keys. Mary Anne Atwood’s work “A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery” (1850) became an important milestone in this direction. After the birth of psychoanalysis, alchemy was interpreted in a different way: its symbolism was taken for a representation of the inner content of the psyche, and the final goals were replaced with those of the newly invented therapy. Austrian psychoanalyst Herbert Silberer (1882-1923) pioneered in this field, and his modest legacy soon was re-casted and expanded to the size of a full-blown theory by the much more successful Carl Jung. None of the above-mentioned interpretations are related to the authentic Hermetic tradition though. Traces of the traditional European alchemical schools that would consider the goal of immortality in a gross or subtle body as a crucial part of their agenda can be found in Italy, from where they spread to other European countries. A very comprehensive compendium of related ideas is presented in publications of Gruppo di Ur and Julius Evola’s highly praised work “Tradizione Ermetica” (1931).

Analysis of the actual Italian sources, including restricted and unpublished, shows that they can be generally split into two major trends – one which can be conditionally called “magical” (rooted in what is known as “Magia Napoletana”), and “meditational” based on mindfulness and contemplation. There’s very little doubt that both have deep roots in Tantric traditions of medieval India and can be considered their European counterparts if not direct heirs. Exactly like in the case of Nath Siddha a huge variety of practices is accepted by different schools, including meditation, theurgy, consumption of alchemical substances, kundalini-yoga, sexual practices, and magical rituals in various combinations. However, since all of those procedures in fact do have a very ancient initiatic background, no outsider can rightfully criticize them and doubt their validity on the ground of moralistic, religious, or cultural prejudices.

There are many scientific theories about the provenance of alchemy in general. Since modern science takes only written sources for “solid proof”, China as a depository of the oldest manuscripts of waidan tradition was the winner for quite a while. Of course, Egyptian origin was initially rejected as “mythical” and “improbable”, for no one ever saw Egyptian alchemical text (notwithstanding the fact that René Schwaller presented the whole body of hermetic philosophy based on some Egyptian monuments and rituals). This approach somewhat changed lately, and now at least European alchemy is given a chance to be recognized as the heir of Egyptian tradition. In the case of Indian alchemical schools, there are two general trends based on evidence of cultural exchange between the Middle East and India in the period of their formation – some researchers obviously hold that alchemy is an Indian invention that then traveled in the Western direction, others believe that the actual dissemination of the tradition was from the West to the East (this latter finds more and more factual proof, by the way). Speaking of inner alchemy, we are in an even more difficult position, since India and China can boast of the documents related to such inner practices that date back to the period not too distant from the one when mineral alchemy (rasashastra and waidan) flourished there; in the case of European alchemy, this part of the teaching was implicit and never openly discussed until at least XVII c. Nevertheless, European inner alchemy is not today’s invention, and obvious parallels with medieval Indian tantric schools may be proof of its derivative character or maybe not – I would prefer to leave this to academic research since this question does not affect our work. From the operator’s perspective comparison of Western practices to medieval tantric tradition would help us to clarify some inner alchemy arcana and explain their meaning, but we must remember that slavish imitation does not imply the “true tradition”.