a rough draft i am working on

1. Alchemy: Science or Religion? Only in Silence, the Word; Only in Darkness, Light; Only in Dying, Life; Bright the hawk’s flight upon the empty sky.

2. History/background In the third century A.D., the Roman Emperor Diocletian denounced “the old writings of the Egyptians which treat of the transmutation of gold and silver”.. Transmutation in Greek is “chemia”, derived from the Egyptian word “khem”, meaning “black”, refering to the black soil of Egypt. In fact the word Khem was used to indicate the “land of Egypt” and is the origin of the word Copt.

3. Science It is a well known fact that Alchemy is the predecessor of modern Science of Chemistry. In Chemistry, chemical reaction is the result of the attraction of opposites: one atom is in need of electrons and another has a surplus of electrons thus they come together to form one molecule.

4. Science Material is at first differentiated by a set of characteristics such as color, odor, hardness, etc. Also in life we identify objects at first by their external properties.

5. Religion Practitioner of Alchemy, called an Alchemist, is required to be pure, as if performing a holy act. As a philosophy, Alchemy is unique in that it is able to and even encourages “الجمع بين الاضداد”

6. Religion Carl Jung interpreted Alchemical Symbols as processes in “ علم النفس “

7. Poetry/Literature Paolo Coehlo’s Alchemist In life there is no such thing as complete darkness nor complete emptiness. Those are only theories on paper, like drama in literature, like absolute freezing point in Science. Emptiness is relative and there are shades of darkness. So in Life all is relative. Poetry makes use of conceptual opposites to drive home a point or create a mood. (ref. edgarallanpoe the raven)