Many ancient alchemists had lived at a time when it was forbidden by law to practice alchemy. A law that was punishable by excommunication, torture, and/or death. Since it was so dangerous to think, live and practice this ancient science, many alchemists encoded their teachings into words, symbols and images that were meant to show the hidden mysteries of their art to initiates. Other alchemists were members of various secret societies controlled by the church and kings, where they had agreed under oath to not reveal these mysteries. An oath that was also often punishable by death.

The pictures below represent some of these famous alchemists and their secret art that speaks to us today without any words. See if you can decode them, and make sense of what they were trying to convey in these complex images that are silent, but say so much. Hence, a picture is worth a thousand words…

Alchemy - Philosophers stone image

 

alchemy 8

 

Alchemy 4

Alchemy 3

 

alchemy 9 Alchemy 10

 

Alchemy 2

Alchemy 6

alchemy 7

alchemy cosmos

Alchemy Mylius_Philosophia_Reformata

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