Alchemy and Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem, translated by Klaus Ottmann (Spring Publications) A groundbreaking text on alchemy by the leading scholar of Jewish mysticism is presented here for the first time in English translation. Scholem looks critically at the connections between alchemy, the Jewish Kabbalah; its christianized varieties, such as the gold- and rosicrucian mysticisms, and the myth-based psychology of C.G. Jung, and uncovers forgotten alchemical roots embedded in the Kabbalah.
Ever since the end of the Middle Ages, when the European world became acquainted with Jewish mysticism and theosophy, the Kabbalah has been thought of as a com­plex intertwining of a multitude of concepts. The name of this arcane discipline became a popular catchword in Re­naissance and Baroque theosophical and occult circles, having been declared and revered as the guardian of the oldest and highest mystical wisdom of mankind by its first Christian mediators, among them, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Johannes Reuchlin. Since there was nothing to be feared from the very few who were knowledgeable about the real Kabbalah, it became a kind of banner under which the public could be offered just about anything — from the authentically Jewish or weakly Judaic meditations of deeply Christian mystics to the carnival attractions of geomancy and tarot-card fortune telling. The word Kabbalah stirred up reverential shudders and enveloped all. Even the most alien elements of occidental folklore became "Kabbalah"; even the natural sciences of the time, such as astrology, alchemy, and natural magic, were in some sense leaning toward occultism. Kabbalah continues to bear this heavy burden, one that at times obscures its true content — in the communis opinio, with lay and theosophical adepts, and in the language of many European writers and even scholars. In this century, with charlatans such as Aleister Crowley and his followers in England, and especially in the 19th cen­tury, with Eliphas Levi, Papus (Gerard Encausse), and other French theosophists of the Martinist school, everything humanly possible has been done to confound all occult disciplines with the "sacred" Kabbalah. Many books that flaunt the word Kabbalah on their title pages have nothing or practically nothing to do with it.  Scholem maintains a purist approach that emphasizes the autochthonic origins of Kabbalah within Judaism .

It is important to separate those elements that historically belong or relate to the Kabbalah from those that have become confused with it by developments that run their course outside Judaism. To this latter group belongs the relation between alchemy and Kabbalah. For more than four hundred years, the terms alchemy and Kabbalah have been synonymous among the Christian theosophists and alchemists of Europe, so much so that one might suspect that there are strong internal connections. Scholem's  purpose here is to explore this subject critically.

In the scientific discussion of the systematic relation between mysticism and alchemy (seemingly aimed at the purely scientific goal of the transmutation of metals into gold), there are two very different perspectives at work. One view, as expressed in the great works of E. von Lippmann and Lynn Thorndike, regards these relations from purely external, historical points of view. Another view, asserted with growing insis­tence and influence, describes vast provinces of alchemy as de facto internal human processes. Since 1850 there have been comprehensive undertakings in this direction, based on an al­most consistently symbolic interpretation of alchemical pro­cesses and the actions of its adepts toward an understanding of the internal "spiritual" life of mankind. Hence the object of alchemy is not the transformation of metals but that of man­kind itself. The "philosophical gold" that is to be produced is the perfection of the soul — mankind in the mystical stage of rebirth or redemption. First developed with extraordinary erudition in Ireland and America in the works of M.A. Atwood and E.A. Hitchcock, respectively, this view was adopted by H. Silberer, a pupil of Freud's, who gave it a psychoanalytic foundation. Inspired by Silberer, C.G. Jung interpreted this concept of alchemy in terms of his archetype-based analytical psychology, advancing it in books that would become widely known and influential.

To this day, it is a matter of debate as to when this psychological aspect of alchemy first arose, and Scholem does not render an opinion about it. It is undeniable, however, that some prophetic biblical passages, such as Jesaia 1:25, which compares the catharsis of Israel with the refining of met­als, could suggest such trains of thought. The comparison of God with pure gold in Hiob 22:24-25 also played a major role among the later alchemists. In his book The Secret Tradition of Alchemy, published several years prior to C.G. Jung's writings, A.E. Waite deals in detail with the question of dating the mystical reinterpretation of alchemy. He dates the first such reinterpretation to the end of the Middle Ages. In any case, Scholem would concede that, in all probability, a not insignificant share of famous alchemical texts, especially after Paracelsus's time, do not pursue chemical goals but rather are meant as instructions for the mystical work of mankind. With some authors one may also presume that they consciously had in mind a coincidence of chemical and mystical processes, which Scholem takes to be the case, above all, for the alchemists associated with the Rosicrucians. Here we are without a doubt dealing essentially with a mystical movement whose scientific tendencies are byproducts of their symbolism and symbolic practices. It is precisely in these circles that the identification of Kabbalah with alchemy has asserted itself most emphatically.

Before we can follow the crossovers that lead from the Kabbalah in Christian disguise to alchemy, we must answer the following questions: What is the Kabbalah's relation to alchemy in its original sources, as a more or less uniform system of mystical symbolism in its classical evolution from no later than the 12th century to about 1600? Was alchemy widespread enough among the Jews prior to or concurrent with the development of Kabbalah to influence the formation of kabbalist symbolism? How little was known with certainty is evident from a remark by as eminent an authority as M. Steinschneider, who as late as 1878 wrote: "To my knowledge, the Kabbalah teaches nothing about alchemy, even though it joined other superstitious disciplines."' Even as late as 1894, the same author wrote of a "lack of alchemical texts among Jews, which should be regarded as a virtue."

At the same time, Steinschneider observed that "the Hebrew literature offers curiously little about the magna ars."

In the older alchemical literature written in Greek — in the writings of Olympidor and Zosimos, for instance — Maria the Jewess (Maria Hebraea, Moses's sister) and other Jews are indeed mentioned; however, these are pseudepigraphic, like most of the sources cited in this literature. The speculation advanced by some scholars that Zosimos, probably the most famous Greek alchemist of the 4th century, was a Jew is, as far as I can judge, not likely to be true. However, in the 11th century the Spanish Jew Moises (Mosé) Sefardi, who became known as Petrus Alfonsi after his baptism, wrote a book whose content was revealed to Seth, the son of Adam, by the Angel Raziel, which describes, among other things, the transmuta­tion of elements and metals. Indeed, the classical Jewish philosophers mention alchemy only in passing and often deprecatorily. Judah Halevi dismissed the theories of "alchemists and pneumatists," who, in fact, often appear side by side in Arabic literature. Their experiments had misled them when they "believed to be able to measure off the elemental fire on their weighing scales to bring about arbitrary creations and mutate matter." Similarly, Joseph Albo did not think much of false silver (melekheth ha-alkimia) produced by alchemy, which, when smelted, is revealed as fake. The famous nth-century moralist Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda expresses a more fa­vorable opinion in the fourth chapter of his Hovot ha-Levavot, where he compares the tranquility of the soul with the efforts of the alchemists:

“Another advantage for him who relies on God is that he can free his mind from the affairs of the world and pu­rify his soul for works of worship, so that in the peace of his mind and the tranquility of his soul, in his little concern with the affairs of this world, he is very like the master of alchemy who is well-versed in both its theory and its practice. If his reliance on God is indeed strong, he is even better off than he . . .

“The master of alchemy needs certain conditions, in whose absence he can accomplish nothing, conditions not to be found in every time and place, but the man who relies on God is assured of his livelihood in any circum­stance in this world, as it is said (Deut. 8:3): "Man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live:

“The master of alchemy never divulges his secret to another, fearing for himself, while the man who trusts in God does not fear anybody. Rather he boasts of his reliance, as said the sage (Ps. 56:12): "In God do I trust, I will not be afraid; what can man do unto me?"

Paquda goes on to compare the alchemists' hardships and sorrows with the balanced peace of mind of those who trust in God. The author knows nothing about any damnability of the alchemical enterprise. 

THE DWELLINGS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS by Fulcanelli, edited by  Jeffrey Miller, translated by Lionel Perrin  ($49.99, hardcover, 549 pages, Archive Press & Communications, P. O. Box 11218, Boulder, CO 80301 phone 303-530-4179; ISBN: 0963521160)

THE DWELLINGS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS is perhaps the most important alchemical work of the past two centuries. This first translation into English brings us a wealth of alchemical philosophy that has hitherto been unavailable. Fulcanelli's sentinel masterpiece takes the attentive reader through the alchemical labyrinth, decoding the monuments and architectural decoration built by those who have actively engaged in the Great Work. Fulcanelli instructs us by showing that history must be interpreted by the monuments that have been left and not by the historians who construct a world view exclusively through documents, which method gives us an often jaded and unrepresentative view of what transpired.

Not only does Fulcanelli decode and interpret the various alchemical symbols of the houses of the alchemist and philosophers, he goes to great lengths to lay bare and explicate the alchemical world view of past centuries. Fulcanelli presents us with the deep mysteries of the Great Work.

A spate of books have appeared in France speculating on the identity of the master alchemist who published Les Demeures Philosophales (1930) under the pseudonym of Fulcanelli. They have not revealed Fulcanelli's identity; whomever Fulcanelli may have been, or be, he has succeeded in the alchemist's oath, to keep silent and to disappear after accomplishing the Great Work. There are tales, possibly apocryphal, of the OSS unsuccessfully searching for him in Paris after the war. Fulcanelli is also alleged to have met with one of France's atomic physicists in the late 30s and warned him about the dangers of unlocking atomic energy, suggesting it had been done before. Fulcanelli disappeared, leaving no traces, almost as if he had never existed. His pseudonym, Fulcanelli, is derived from Vulcan, classical god of fire, smithing, the working of metals, and artifice. Legend intimates that Fulcanelli is still alive, but what is not legend is his work, magisterial exposition of the alchemical secrets encoded in medieval architecture and literature.

ALCHEMY OF THE WORD Cabala of the Renaissance by Philip Beitchman ($21.95, paperback, 364 pages, SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions, State University of New York Press; ISBN: 0791437388) HARDCOVER

ALCHEMY OF THE WORD is a study of the literary, philosophical, and cultural ramifications of Cabala during the Renaissance. Important intellectual figures from 1490 to 1690 are considered, including Agrippa, Dee, Spenser, Shakespeare, Browne, and Milton; Cabala's more recent impact is also discussed. Cabala, a hermeneutic style of Biblical commentary of Jewish origin, is based on the notion that along with an inscribed Decalogue, Moses received a secret, oral supplement that provides a symbolic, allegorical, and moral qualification of the literal law of religion.

Building on the work of Gershom Scholem, Joseph Blau, Harold Bloom, Francois Secret, Michel de Certeau, and Arthur Waite, Beitchman takes a fresh look at the "mystical" text through the lens of postmodernist theory. In a model developed from Deleuze-Guattarl's "nomadology" to explore issues related to the Zohar, he shows that Cabala was a deconstruction of Renaissance authority. Like deconstruction, Cabala presents familiar material from novel and sometimes provocative perspectives. It allows space for modifiability, tolerance and humanity, by widening the margins between the letter of the law and the demands of an existence whose rules were so rapidly changing.

An exercise in the literary analysis of "sacred texts" and an examination of the mystical element in literary works, ALCHEMY OF THE WORD is also an experiment in new historicism. It shows how the reincarnation theories of F. M. Van Helmont, which impacted heavily on the seventeenth century English cabalistic circle of Henry More and Ann Conway, demonstrate at once the originality and boldness of Cabala, but also its desperation, constituting a theoretical parallel to the continental "acting out" of the Sabbatian heresy. Because of the debacle of the Sabbatian apostasy (conversion to Islam), Cabala subsequently declined in importance as a religious devotion, becoming either a matter of cults and heterodoxies or being sublimated into literary theory and practice.

This is a work revealing great erudition, and takes us into many hidden byways. It is, as the author suggests, a 'rhizome' of a book. Full of unexpected connections and information, Alchemy of the Word is a solid contribution to the still all-too-neglected field. - Arthur Versluis, Michigan State University.

Philip Beitchman, author of I Am a Process With No Subject, has also translated books by Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio from French to English.