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Alchemy and Astrology
August 24, 2020
Science is the quest for
knowledge; in fact, the
word, "science," is derived from the
Latin word,
scientia, which means "knowledge." Some science is driven by
curiosity, while most is driven by the need to solve particular problems (e.g., a
coronavirus vaccine) or generate new
products like the next best
cellphone. Such was also true in the past, when science was a collection of primitive
natural philosophies, such as
alchemy and
astrology.
Modern
chemistry is considered to have had its start in the work of
Robert Boyle (1627-1691), known for the
eponymous Boyle's law that relates the
pressure P and
volume V of a
gas at a fixed
temperature (
PV = constant). His
scientific legacy includes many
communications to the
Royal Society and his 1661
Sceptical Chymist. The Sceptical Chymist presented Boyle's
corpusclular theory of matter, as evidenced by his gas law, and the idea that
chemical elements were "perfectly unmingled bodies."
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Portrait of Irish natural philosopher, Robert Boyle (1627-1691).
Aside from his pressure-volume law, Boyle did experiments in acoustics, the force caused by the expansion of freezing water, specific gravities, crystal refraction, electricity, and hydrostatics.
(Wellcome Trust photo no. M0002557, via Wikimedia Commons.)
While honored as the first
chemist, Boyle was an alchemist who believed that
metals could be
transmuted, a process usually expressed as the
idea that the
base metal,
lead, could be turned to
gold. Boyle performed experiments with the object of doing this, and his
belief that it was possible caused him to
lobby for the successful
repeal of a
statute of
Henry IV against such creation of gold and
silver. Such an alchemical transmutation is called
chrysopoeia from the
Greek, χρυσός (khrusos, gold), and ποιεῖν (poiein, to make).
Chrysopoeia would happen through action of a
substance called the
philosopher's stone, which also was thought to confer
health and
immortality. Obviously, such a substance was widely sought, and the quest to create this philosopher's stone from a
conjectured prima materia (Latin for "first matter") was the
Magnum Opus (Latin for "Great Work") of the Alchemists.
While alchemical transmutation was never achieved, modern
physicists can now routinely (in a "
Big Science" sense) change
atoms of one
element into another using
nuclear transmutation in which
protons are either added or removed from a
nucleus. While changing lead into gold is possible using nuclear transmutation, it's much easier to change gold into lead, since adding three protons is an easier process than removing three protons.
Row 6 elements of the Periodic Table in the gold (Au) and lead (Pb) region. Just three protons separate these two elements. (Created using Inkscape.)
As evidence that a base metal can be turned into gold, physicists at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley, California) changed
bismuth into gold in 1981.[1] Bismuth is an easier base metal for this nuclear transformation, since it has a single long-lived
isotope 209B, while lead has four (
204Pb,
206Pb,
207Pb, and
208Pb). This makes it easier to
isotopically separate gold from bismuth than gold from lead. This transformation was accomplished by
accelerating carbon and
neon nuclei and
impacting them on a bismuth
foil. This cleaved protons from the bismuth nucleus, and some of these transmuted atoms had four protons removed to produce gold.[1]
Early
astronomical observations were motivated by astrology, the idea that events on Earth are influenced by what was happening in the
heavens. Astrology was the motivation for celestial observations that evolved into the modern science of
astronomy, just as alchemical observations became the basis for modern chemistry. However, just as alchemy had its unscientific elements, such was also true of astrology.
According to astrology,a person was marked for life by the
positions of the planets at the exact time of his
birth. A
natal horoscope, as illustrated in the figure, could be constructed for a person to show the
planetary positions at birth. The first natal horoscope is in a
cuneiform tablet dating from 405
BC.[3] The information in a natal horoscope enabled
astrologers to "predict" what might happen to a person on a particular day when the planets had shifted position, and this idea is still perpetuated in
newspaper horoscopes.
astrological birth chart for Emperor Nero and planetary symbols. (Left, a Wellcome Trust image, via Wikimedia Commons. Right image created using Inkscape. Click for larger image.)
The
invention of the
printing press in the
15th century fueled
popular interest in horoscopes, as noted in a 2017 paper by
Andreas Schrimpf of the
Department of Physics of the
University of Marburg (Marburg, Germany) posted on
arXiv.[2] Schrimpf writes that astrometrical observations, previously
published in Latin, were then published in the
vernacular languages, and they were used to "foretell
weather, growth of
fruit,
diseases, war and
misfortune."[2] In
Germany,
Victorinus Schönfeldt (1525-1592),
professor of
mathematics at Marburg University, used the
Copernican system to make position calculations of the planets as a scientific
adviser to
Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel (Wilhelm IV),
Landgrave of
Hesse-Kassel. Schönfeldt published the
Prognosticon Astrologicum, an
annual compendium of planetary positions.[2]
Albertus Magnus (c.1200-1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, a German
Catholic Dominican friar,
bishop, and one of the 36
Doctors of the Church, was an important figure in both alchemy and astrology. It's claimed that Albert discovered the philosopher's stone, and he wrote that he had
witnessed the creation of gold by "transmutation." He mentioned the power of
stones in his
commentary, De mineralibus, but he did not name the powers.[4] Albert's alchemical legacy has been inflated by many texts falsely attributed to him, and it appears that Albert did not personally do any alchemical experiments.
Albertus Magnus (c.1200-1280).
(A 1352 fresco of Albertus Magnus by Tommaso da Modena (1326–1379) at the Seminario di Treviso, via Wikimedia Commons.)
Albert's astronomical and astrological legacy is greater than his alchemy. In Albert's time, the
Middle Ages, astrology was embraced by
scholars, who believed that all
creation was connected, and that it was a reasonable assumption that life on
Earth was influenced by activities in the heavens above. Albert thought that horoscopes would be useful as a means of understanding each person's specific
temptations. He wrote about astrology in his 1260
Speculum Astronomiae, written largely as a defense of its practice in
Christendom. Astrology was on a
list of condemned practices of
Bishop Stephen Tempier, but Albert viewed astrology as a means of understanding the intentions of
God, who controlled the planets and the Earth.
References:
- K. Aleklett, D. J. Morrissey, W. Loveland, P. L. McGaughey, and G. T. Seaborg, "Energy dependence of 209Bi fragmentation in relativistic nuclear collisions," Phys. Rev. C, vol. 23, no. 3 (March 1, 1981), pp. 1044ff., DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.23.1044.
- Andreas Schrimpf, "Victorinus Schönfeldt (1533 - 1591) und sein Prognosticon Astrologicum," arXiv, December 30, 2017. Also appears in Nuncius Hamburgensis, Popularisierung der Astronomie, Proceedings der Tagung des Arbeitskreises Astronomiegeschichte in der Astronomischen Gesellschaft in Bochum 2016, vol 41 (2017), pp. 162-185.
- A. Losev, "Astronomy" or "astrology": a brief history of an apparent confusion, arXiv, December 29, 2010.
- Albertus Magnus, "Book Of Minerals", Dorothy Wyckoff, Trans., (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1967), via archive.org.
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