Die Basis der europäisch-arabischen Alchemie bildet die Tabula Smaragdina, die auch in der Hermetik Anwendung findet. Grob wiedergegeben beinhaltet sie, dass Stoffe per Transmutation in andere Stoffe umgewandelt werden kann.

Alchemie ist eine sehr alte Naturwissenschaft, die erst im 17./18. Jahrhundert, durch die moderne Chemie und Pharmakologie, in der Wissenschaft abgelöst wurde.

Es geht in der Alchemie nicht nur um die Erschaffung von Gold oder dem Stein der Weisen wie fälschlicherweise oft behauptet, sondern auch um Heilmittel, Lösemittel und neue Werkstoffe. Ausserdem ist der Philosophische Aspekt der Menschlichen Transmutation zu berücksichtigen.

In der Alchemie besteht Materie aus Eigenschaften und Prinzipien (Aristotelischer Hylemorphismus). Diese können entfernt und/oder zugefügt werden, wodurch ein Stoff in einen anderen umgewandelt wird.

Alchemisten haben unter anderem das Porzellan und das Schwarzpulver entdeckt. Auch der erste Phosphoreszenz Farbstoff ist der Alchemie zuzuschreiben.

Opus Magnum, das große Werk befasst sich mit der vollständigen Transmutation. Dabei ist die Umwandlung von Blei in Gold oder die Schaffung des Steins der Weisen Metaphorisch für die Umwandlung des Unwissenden Menschen in den Wissenden zu sehen. Abgebildet wird der Prozess in der Hermetik.

Der Prozess der Transmutation folgte zuerst der Element Lehre, später wird aus den vier Stufen eine Trinität, als Nachbildung der göttlichen Teilung in Vater Sohn und Heiliger Geist. Im Laufe der Zeit wurde die Philosophie komplexer und Verband Elemente und Trinität zu einem sieben stufigen Prozess.

Paracelsus plädierte für die Herstellung von Arzneimitteln anstelle der Suche nach Gold. Er nennt diesen Bereich der Alchemie Spagyrik und begründet damit die Anfänge der Arzeneimil

Die chinesische Alchemie befasst sich, im Gegensatz zur europäisch-arabischen, in erster Linie mit der Suche nach der Unsterblichkeit. Das Alchemische Experiment und Ritual ist dabei ein Teil des Ganzen, unterstützt wird sie durch asketische Übungen, Körperbeherrschung und Meditation.

Die Bedeutung der Alchemie für uns liegt zum einen in der Vorläuferrolle moderner Naturwissenschaften aber der Philosophie. Besonders Deutlich wird das im Bereich der Chinesischen Medizin, in der wir heute noch Ideen und Verfahren der Spagyrik finden.

Heute wird die Alchemie nur noch in Form der Hermetik in diversen esoterischen und Okkulten Kreisen hoch gehalten. Wobei auch immer wieder Einflüsse der Tabula Smaragdina in Lebenshilfe und Psychologie zu finden sind.

If I stayed in this game for individual achievements, I don't think I'd still be playing.

I remember being at school during morning meeting and looking around at everybody, 350 kids, saying a prayer. We're all very young and no one knows what it means, and I remember feeling strange that people were just repeating words that they didn't understand. I refused to participate. For some reason I always rejected it, but respectfully.

I rejected the armed struggle because, as a Christian, I am committed to a nonviolent and peaceful struggle. But people take their own initiatives, because it is a Lebanon type of situation here.

People keep saying how amazing it is having a female lead, and I just sort of feel, 'Well, of course!'

If you believe a black cat is bad luck, people think you're crazy, but plenty of times, if I see a black cat down my street, I turn around and go the other way. Even if I'm late. I'll be late for the airport and be in a limo, and if I see a black cat, I'll be like, 'Sir, you have to turn around and go down the next street.'

Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.

One days delay is another days lack of progress.

Sometimes I wish I would just disappear into thin air leave the pain and the misery of this cold hearted worldI wonder who would miss me if anyone would even show a little sympathy to my family probably no one I was just a little no one anyways.

At 60, the mind was sharp but the body complained. The legs were willing to make all the right moves but the muscles gave out too early.

Charm is the ability to make someone else think that both of you are pretty wonderful.

Don't watch a lot of television, don't listen to a lot of music. God. What have I been doing with all my time? I'm a bore.

It is impossible to fully express how much I respect the people of 'NBC News.'

When you are writing a song for something else, if you are doing something for money, I always think that's bad luck.

The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-establishing of these illusions or delusions requires a big effort to keep them from being seen through. But a very old idea is at work behind our current state of affairs: enantiodromia, or the Greek notion of things turning into their opposite.

I barely ever watch TV, but when I do, I usually only watch MTV shows, like 'The Real World Sydney.'

The people I really do dislike are the morally unimaginative kind of evolutionary reductionists who, in the name of science, think they can explain everything in terms of our early hominid ancestors or our genes, with their combination of high-handed tone and disregard for history. Such reductive speculation encourages a really empty scientism.

Whether or not you believe that after three days of being dead and entombed, Jesus got up and walked out of his own accord, what you cannot argue about is the fervent belief of the followers that this happened.

When I first had a child, I really had a hard time trying to figure out how it was all going to fit together. Because I felt like, when I was with him, I wanted to be writing and I should be writing. And when I was writing, I felt like I should be with him, and wanted to be with him. So I was unhappy a lot.

You are being hit with tabloid-journalism bi-lines of what you are doing because you have suddenly become a star.

My experience has been that actors always want to be directed.

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

The problem was Le Corbusier was a genius and an enormous artist, but he tried to resolve problems to which there is no solution. So the idea to demolish the centre of Paris in order to adapt it to the car - he drew it! - is something not even the most bloody dictators conceived.

My extensive career, with its victories and defeats, championships, etc., has been well documented. My entire life has been focused on being the best race car driver I can be.

I still go to Disneyland as much as I can. The Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride.