I enjoyed a seminar presented today by Van Leavenworth a doctoral collegue in Modern Langauges, English Lit. Part of his work discussed the imagery of alchemy:
Although the alchemists' fundamental goal of elemental transmutation was flawed, on a deeper level the work of alchemy (cloaked in allegorical images) also represented the transformation of the soul. Modern science has accomplished the transmutation of elements using means that the alchemists never dreamed of. And there is still a small group of occult researchers who persist in trying to continue the work. The documents of alchemy make fascinating reading for historians of science and the esoteric.
Internet Sacred Texts Archive
I did some googling when I got home and there is a treasury of alchemical texts and images on the web. This is probably due to the fact that they were published long before there was copyright. Thinking about this, and about Van's interesting research, I thought when will the medieval alchemical texts begin to be uses for computer game storyboards? A rich and vast body of works lies waiting for creative exploitation! Here are a few hundred and here are over 2000 images and over 200 complete. alchemical texts. Here are some more.
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