For a long time, alchemy wassynonymous of quackery and dubious credibility. The main reason for this has always been the lack of serious publications, as most of the available material consisted of crude imitations of the ancient treatises, authored by "blowers" - pretence alchemists - where the absurd comes together with the lack of knowledge.

At the present time, due to the publication of translations of the most important classical works of the Great Masters, most people have revised their opinion.

The word alchemy, deriving from the arabic "al-kimia", has the same meaning as chemistry. Nevertheless this chemistry - known as spagyric in the ancient times - is not the same as the actual chemistry, but a different one, of a transcendental and spiritual nature.

The arabic "al" is known to mean the Supreme Being - the All-Mighty - like in
Al-lah. Alchemy has always been known as the science of God, the chemistry of Al.

Alchemy is the art of perfecting the bodies with the help of nature. In a way, being a technical science, alchemy can be seen as a practical art. As such, it develops on a certain number of theories relative to the constitution of matter, the generation of inanimate and living substances, etc.

The alchemical view of matter defines it as having three fundamental principles, sulphur, mercury and salt. These, when combined in different proportions, give birth to new bodies.

In Roger Bacon’s The Mirror of Alchemy we find that «...alchemy is the science that teaches how to prepare a certain medicine or elixir, which, when projected on the imperfect metals, communicate its perfection.»

The operative alchemy - a direct application of alchemical theories - is the search for the Philosopher’s Stone. It comprises two principal aspects: the universal medicine and the transmutation of metals, where one is the real proof of the other’s validity.

Most of the times, alchemists were also doctors in medicine, philosophers and astrologers, like Paracelsus, Albertus Magnum, Saint Augustine, Brother Basil Valentine and so many of other masters, nowadays known for their undoubtedly genuine works.

Each master had a set of disciples that he would initiate in the art, and transmit his knowledge. Moreover, intending to preserve their knowledge from the passage of time, they would frequently write it down, more often than not under a pseudonym, concealing their precious formulas by mean of allegories, symbols and images.

The lack of a common and static set of symbols is the main difficulty presented to those who strive to understand this art. Everything was - and still is - dependent of the imagination and will of the author.

An alchemist, unlike what most people think, is not a gold maker. As we said before, the transmutation will occur only as a means to prove the veracity of the universal medicine or philosopher’s stone.

Nowadays, like in the past, alchemy has its followers. They can be found amongst every social stratus, as Cyliani teaches in is Hermes Devoilé: «...Kings of the Earth, if you knew the large number of people that at the present surrender in secret to the quest for the philosopher’s stone, you’d be surprised.»

Thousands of books have been written about this art, because, as it seems, since the middle ages to the 19th century, alchemy was very popular. It was practiced not only by gentlemen, nobles and knights, religious people and clericals, but even by kings and popes, who frequently wrote some treatises on the art of Hermes.

This has obviously led to the publication of countless books of little value, poorly related to alchemy.

Nowadays, these books on the hermetic art are in great demand. Unfortunately, one will find many books that seem to be serious, but are in fact mere speculation. Even so, they are most frequently acquired by those desiring to extract some new information, or just for plain curiosity.