Egyptian Alchemy

[Awani]

We need a thread on this stuff... there isn't much stuff out there, but perhaps some of you have some killer links.

One great Egyptian alchemist is Zozimos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimos_of_Panopolis) (c. 3rd - 4th century C.E.):


…a Greek alchemist and Gnostic Mystic from the end of the 3rd century, beginning of the 4th A.D., who was born in Panopolis, present day Akhmim in the South of Egypt, ca. 300. He wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, of which only quotations in the original Greek language or translations into Syriac or Arabic are known.

In general, his understanding of alchemy reflects the influence of Hermetic and Sethian-Gnostic spiritualities. The external processes of metallic transmutation - the transformations of lead and copper into silver and gold - mirror an inner purification and redemption. - source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zosimos_of_Panopolis)

A Translation of a Zosimos' Text in an Arabic Alchemy Book (http://www.washacadsci.org/Journal/Journalarticles/ZosimosText.H.S.ElKhadem.pdf) (pdf)


Some resources:
Ancient Egyptian Alchemy and Science (http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptscience.html)
Egyptian Alchemy (http://www.alchemylab.com/history_of_alchemy.htm#Egyptian%20Alchemy)
Egyptian High Alchemy (http://www.thecenteroflight.net/EgyptianAlchemy1.html)

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[Awani]

http://forum.alchemyforums.com/picture.php?albumid=13&pictureid=45

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[Awani]

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/deviadah/forum/egygoldwashing.jpg


The Egyptian word for gold is nub, which survives in the name Nubia, a country that provided a great deal of the precious metal in ancient days. French Scientist Champollion regarded it as a kind of crucible, while Rossellini and Lepsius preferred to see in it a bag or cloth, with hanging ends, in which the grains of gold were washed - the radiating lines representing the streams of water that ran through. - source (http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptscience.html)


Gold has been known and highly valued since prehistoric times. It may have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for ornamentation and rituals. Egyptian hieroglyphs from as early as 2600 BC describe gold, which king Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was "more plentiful than dirt" in Egypt. Egypt and especially Nubia had the resources to make them major gold-producing areas for much of history. The earliest known map is known as the Turin papyrus and shows the plan of a gold mine in Nubia together with indications of the local geology. The primitive working methods are described by Strabo and included fire-setting. Large mines also occurred across the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia. - source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#History)
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[Awani]

The Egyptian Mystical Rites (http://www.spirit-alembic.com/egyptian.html)

Nice read...

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[III]

I have come across several indirect indicators about Egyptian Alchemy. One was PBS show, possibly Secrets of the Dead or maybe Nova. It involved the art showing priests and priestesses, I think it was, in ritual with a lotus on their heads indicating the "enlotused" condition. The lotus invloved was identified was a blue water lily still sold as an ornimental today. It contains drugs similar to Viagra as did the dried lotus in a tomb that was identical to the modern flower. What kind of rituals might involve a viagra type drug plus a few other psychoactive components? As a number of alchemical systems carefully identify a variety of specific forms of orgasm (energy flows), I came across a site that speaks of the Egyptian Orgasm of which the Ankh is symbolic. It starts out the same by having the orgasm ascend the chakras but at the heart it is directed out the back of the heart chakra and loops around and enters through the front creating quite a fractal feedback system (my interpretation) with one's partner.

http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/apr1/ankhing.htm