Tin purification is important to various alchemical practices, and a fundamental step in many recipes and formulas. In alchemy purified...

Asem is a stock metal mix in alchemy , usually prepared in quantity ahead of time and added to alchemical recipes as needed. Asem is...

Astrology and astronomy give insights into seasonal changes and human nature. In Western tradition, astronomy is based on observance of...

Glass production is known before the Bronze Age. Early glassmakers in Egypt and the ancient Near East produce colored beads and later...

Alexandria is on the Mediterranean coast at the Egyptian settlement Rhacotis, later the Egyptian quarter of the city. Due to its vast...

Making a proper theriac takes months. The recipe calls for plants collected in season, and the distillation or fermentation of herbs,...

Calcination is a crucial process in sciences such as metallurgy and chemistry. A process of ancient alchemists, it's used allegorically...

Galena (PbS) is the primary lead ore for centuries. Lead can be smelted from galena in a regular wood fire. Some galena deposits contain...

Cupellation is an ancient alchemy process used in metal separation. Alchemy comes from metallurgy and early medicine. The processes of...

Stephanus of Alexandria (c. 580 - 640 AD) is a Christian philosopher bringing Alexandrian thought to Byzantine society. Despite moving to...

Olympiodorus the Younger, a prominent figure in late antiquity, is known as the last of the Neoplatonist pagans in Alexandria, Egypt. On...

The Great Library of Alexandria on the balmy shores of the Mediterranean and the Nile delta is a center of intellectual activity by c....

"Lead is the ancestor of all metals. For gold is not a metal, gold is light. Lead requires only four periods of two hundred years each,...

Hermeticism and alchemy fall in love in ancient Alexandria , Egypt. Their relationship begins almost 2000 years ago and still prevails...

In alchemy, triads, threes, triangles, trinities and trios have strong spiritual significance, often associated with mystical number...

The perception of the four elements defines the way a person sees the natural world and one's place within it. These fundamentals are...

The Four Elements of nature magic and philosophy, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, arise from ancient Greek thinkers around the 6th century...

Four color stages are required to reach the Magnum Opus, the Great Work or the Philosopher's Stone of the alchemist. These are nigredo...

The parabalani (parabolini) range throughout Alexandria from the plague times of the 3rd century AD to the 6th century of Justinian....

Hypatia is a Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician c. 350 - 415 AD in Alexandria. She's both a scholar and teacher. Daughter of a...