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Reexamining Alchemical Motives - Paul Ferguson - 07-16-2026

ALCHEMY, FROM THE CAPTURE OF A SOUL BY THE EGYPTIAN GNOSTICS TO THE SEARCH OF A PANACEA IN EUROPE: FIFTEEN CENTURIES OF RESEARCH ON HUMAN FERTILIZATION

By Didier Maintenant

The diversity of treatises grouped in the "alchemical" corpus has caused a misleading amalgam, still prevalent today: alchemy would be a practice based on the belief of being able to transform a vile metal into gold. The objective of this publication is to demonstrate that such motivation could not be attributed to Egyptian craftsmen so renowned for their ancestral know-how. Its conclusion will then make the link with the probable alchemical practice of the Gnostics (or followers of Hermes).

https://www.academia.edu/115863816/ALCHEMY_FROM_THE_CAPTURE_OF_A_SOUL_BY_THE_EGYPTIAN_GNOSTICS_TO_THE_SEARCH_OF_A_PANACEA_IN_EUROPE_FIFTEEN_CENTURIES_OF_RESEARCH_ON_HUMAN_FERTILIZATION