The Alchemist by Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822 - 1891)
Alchemy
When I tell people I am a Corporate Alchemist, I get some interesting responses, and none of them are neutral. People are either incredulous, excited or curious. Most Americans I talk to don’t know what alchemy is, and Canadians often reference “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.
So what is Alchemy?
The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word الكيمياء al-kimiya, and from the Greek khēmeia, the ‘art of transmuting metals.’ Alchemists are best known for their attempts to transmute lead into gold. Paracelsus believed the purpose of alchemy was not to transmute metals, but to cure disease. He influenced the development of pharmacology, which gave rise to modern chemistry.
Lead into Gold
“Alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons he had left the gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they by digging found no gold, but by turning up the mould, about the roots of their vines, procured a plentiful vintage. So the search and endeavors to make gold have brought many useful inventions and instructive experiments to light.”
— Francis Bacon
Alchemists gave Europe some of its key discoveries, such as zinc, phosphorus and metallic arsenic. Johann Bottger, an alchemist working for the Dresden court, discovered a European version of porcelain and helped break China’s monopoly on one of the world’s most lucrative industries.
Isaac Newton was obsessed with alchemy, and wrote about it extensively, although the Royal Society refused to print it. Alchemy inspired Newton’s work on light and gravity.
Alchemists developed techniques essential to modern-day science: They learned to codify and hand down experimental knowledge through intricate note-taking and diagrams. They also mastered techniques such as distillation and sublimation, and in the process, laid the groundwork for lab work today.
As Stephen Heuser writes in The Boston Globe:
That might seem impossibly distant from the idea of modern science, a world of hard data about discrete physical problems, ruled by observable and reproducible fact. But as scholars reexamine the roots of chemistry, they are now seeing less of a clean break than a subtle evolution from one craft to another. Alchemists tried and discarded theories, like scientists did; despite their occult reputation, they often saw themselves less as conduits to the supernatural than as analytical thinkers trying to accelerate and manipulate real physical processes.
Read Heuser’s article Good as gold: What alchemists got right
Stellar Alchemy
The University of Bristol School of Chemistry has published an extensive resource about alchemy on its website, and has some intriguing examples of alchemy: “Of all the alchemists known, the greatest are not human. It is, in fact the stars, which have mastered elemental transmutations – capable of producing all the elements in the universe from hydrogen and a little helium.”
Remember the line from Joni Mitchell’s classic Woodstock anthem?
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Would this not mean alchemy is part of our DNA?
Dr Carol Mase, biologist, veterinarian, and coach-consultant, says our brains are alchemists.
The tree that we see, the rose that we smell, and the wind chimes we hear all exist as networks of cells that are interacting with each other to capture and record our world. There is no “theater of the mind” where these senses play out for our mental viewing, there is only the complex cross-talk between cells as they go about their work with chemical messengers and electrical potentials. Their “gold” is our world revealed in living color, Dolby sound, and the smell of rain in the air.
Alchemy in Art
Art is inherently alchemic, involving the transformation of the ordinary (paints, oil, water, words, actions) into the extraordinary. As I wrote in Orchestrating Collaboration at Work: “Art-making has an alchemical effect on the imagination. Art takes people out of the realm of analytical thinking and into the realm of silence, reverie, and heightened awareness.” Art at its most powerful is numinous, luminous, and soul-nourishing.
Eudaemonia: Finding Your Golden Self
Alchemy is the art of transforming leaden thinking into the gold of wisdom. While Alchemy manuals describe the “Philosopher’s Stone” as an Elixir through which impure metals can be transmuted into gold, it was also believed it could immediately perfect any substance or situation. When applied to the human body, the Elixir could cure diseases and restore youth.
The quest for the “Philosopher’s Stone” is referred to as the Great Work or Magnum Opus. A Magnum Opus also refers to a great work of literature, music, or art, etc., especially the finest work of an individual.
We are alchemists when we transform into our golden selves. Aristotle said the noblest goal in life is eudaemonia: Striving toward excellence based on one’s unique talents and potential, and experiencing wellbeing. For many, this means finding your calling, reinventing your career and making the shift from success to significance.
My interest in alchemy is in the ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary through consulting, training and coaching — to ask, as Matthew Fox did in The Reinvention of Work, “What is the Great Work of our time?” If you could sculpt your career, design your future and compose your life, what would your Magnum Opus be?
You are an alchemist; make gold of that.
—William Shakespeare, from The Life of Timon of Athens
References:
Alchemy: The Art of Knowing, by C.J. McKnight. Chronicle Books, 1994.
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time, by Matthew Fox. HarperCollins NYC 1994.
Related Reading
An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain by Diane Ackerman
Reading list for upcoming courses at RRU on Creativity, Leadership and Innovation
Announcing
Idriart lives at Borl August 28-30, 2009
The Arts and Business Conference founded by Miha Pogacnik will take place once again at the Castle Borl, in Slovenia. Details
New Posts on my blog
Taking Responsibility for the Whole
Hear the Music From Your Brain
Life Inc.: A movie + book about how the world became a corporation and how to take it back
Happy Creating,
Linda Naiman
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Hi Linda!
Great timing with the alchemy piece – I just finished a 5 day dream workshop on Whidbey island with the Animas Valley Institute (Bill Plotkin and another brilliant animas guide, Sabina Wyse) and there is was reminded of the gold that lies in shadow and in our dreams — the rest of who we are. Bill posits that when we discover our uniqueness and our gift for the world and devise a delivery system for it, then we belong more fully to the world and it is more full as a result (this fits with the Buddhist notion of co-dependence rising)…interdependence and living systems ecological view as well.
My grandfather (and my friend Duncan Taylor from UVic) used to say there were two days that are most important in your life – the day you were born and the day you figure out why! I just taught in Duncan’s fourth year undergrad environmental class last week lecturing on callings as in authentic vocation (root from ‘voce’ or as in the voice I hear not the thing I tell myself I ought to do) and how (to further Bill’s thoughts), that if we don’t express our uniqueness, it runs the risk of dying with us when we die –BUT if we do uncover the gold, re/member who we are and what our gift is and “hold to the shape of who we are at the centre of our own truth” (David Whyte) then as much as we are unique, when we share our gifts as a giveaway, we become part of the entire livign earth, the whole, at-one-ment with all sentient beings…THIS is the real work.
This is what part of my doctoral studies will be focusing on – your timing is excellent also as our intro to our Continuing Studies calendar at Royal Roads University will speak directly to this for 2009-10. I am writing it now, I may quote you! Thanks again – always an inspiration – can’t wait to see you here when you teach for us again!
Hilary
Thanks Hilary for sharing your beautifully expressed thoughts. I’m starting to realise part of our purpose in life is to BE alchemical. Part of our Great Work is as you put it, to find the gold in our shadow.
BTW I love the quote you included at the end of your email:
“Learning need not be a betrayal of liveliness. To bring about true learning through perennial teachings embodying soul, we have thought to drink deep of the wine of Divine Imagination; the same wine that made the secret societies of the Italian Renaissance drunk with visions of supreme beauty, eloquent with new language and inspired with the reawakening of lost connections of nature and myth.” – Noel Cobb.
I look forward to seeing you at Royal Roads University when I deliver my workshops. (I’ve posted them on my blog under Events: http://www.creativityatwork.com/blog/category/events/
Happy creating,
Linda
An evocative essay; thank you!
Thanks for the thought-provoking post on alchemy.
Chasing something with passion — as the alchemists did — can produce positive results, even if the original objective never gets realized. As you know, here in the land down under (aka the USA), people tend to focus on the end result alone, missing the learning/insight/opportunities that arise along the way. Success can often be found inside failure, if one takes the time to stop, look and listen.
Linda – this is such a wonderful expose about alchemy and its modern application as you and I both bring it into our spheres. I look forward to connecting with you to discuss our similarities and differences! The content here is rich and I learned more about my own connection with and affinity to alchemy by reading your quotes. Thank you for sharing this with the world so more readers will better understand conscious transformation and the work of Corporate Alchemists!
Hi Anne,
Thanks for introducing yourself. How do people respond when you tell them you are an alchemist? Let’s chat by phone in the next week or so, and compare notes.
[...] her Creativity at Work blog post “Alchemy” (an issue of her newsletter), Linda Naiman writes: “We are alchemists when we transform into [...]