Three Ways to View Alchemy – The Hermetic Tradition
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Summary
Julius Evola's book, The Hermetic Tradition: A Guide to Alchemy, is a fascinating book about the Hermetic tradition and the teachings of the alchemists. In this episode I discuss the similarities between alchemy and Hindu metaphysics and how they are similar in many ways.
Transcript
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Greetings, Laddingtons! This is a follow-up video to the book review I wrote on the Hermetic
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Tradition. Now, if you don't read all my book reviews, no worries, I don't judge you at all,
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it's fine. Well, okay, I judge you a little bit, but it's all good. Now, anyway, I thought to mention
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something when we're talking about the Hermetic Tradition. So this is a book about alchemy, by the
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way, and I wanted to point something out, and that is that you can view alchemy in a few different
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ways. So this book, when he's talking about alchemy, when Julius Evola, as an esoteric master,
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he's talking about alchemy, what he means is a metaphysics and spiritual teachings. So this is
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not about the pseudoscience of, you know, turning a certain metal into gold, that there were some,
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you know, charlatans back in the day, during the Middle Ages, they claimed to be able to do this,
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but yeah, we now know that they couldn't. Then, of course, you have alchemy as the humble origins
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of chemistry, so the modern science of chemistry. So you have basically three different things that
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you can view alchemy as. The charlatan pseudoscience, a spiritual, a collection of
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spiritual teachings, or the humble origins of modern chemistry. What this book is, and what is
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interesting to us, what is interesting to me in my journey for, in my quest for esoteric knowledge,
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that is, of course, the spiritual teaching within. So perhaps you read my book reviews on
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Introduction to Magic. It's quite... many teachings are similar. You will recognize some teachings in
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here, if you have read Introduction to Magic, because, of course, they draw quite heavily upon the
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teachings of older mystics and alchemists. So basically, something to keep in mind here as well,
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that, which I mentioned in the book review. By the way, first link in the description box below.
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In the cast of characters, I name a few different alchemists that Evola, he draws upon their
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teachings to explain alchemy. Now, these individuals, they were also quite accomplished in other areas,
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in terms of philosophy or medicine and stuff like that. So you had, of course, many charlatans,
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pseudoscience, but you also had many, many men who were interested in alchemy as a spiritual teaching,
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and that is what I found interesting as well. Now, when you see certain alchemical symbols,
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you see a symbol for gold or salt or mercury, sulfur, whatever it might be, the formulas,
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they aren't to transform actual material things, such as sulfur or salt. It's metaphors for what's
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going on here. So you can say that it's not about finding gold or creating gold, it's about finding
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god within you or finding the animating life force or whatever we shall call it. So that is what alchemy is
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about. And when they're talking about, you know, separating, separate these substances, it can be to
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separate soul, body, spirit, and then joining them again, liberating something. So it's quite similar as
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to certain teachings you find in Hindu metaphysics, in Hindu spirituality, which also brings me to my
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second point. This will be the book review, the next book review I write. And I've read some of it
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already. And yeah, I can see that the Hindu spirituality and the teachings of the alchemists,
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yeah, they are similar in many ways. And as you all know, I meditate every day, I do breathing
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exercises. So getting a bit more deeper into it is highly interesting. So anyway, I just wanted to
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point that out, that you can view it in three different ways, alchemy, as the origins of modern
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chemistry, as pseudoscience for charlatans, and then most importantly for us, a set of spiritual
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teachings. So anyway, if that all sounds interesting, check out the book review. And thank you for
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watching. I will see you in the next video. XOXO, BOOM!