text: Alchemy is an influential tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity, claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers. As described by Paul-Jacques Malouin in The Encyclopedia of Diderot it is the chemistry of the subtlest kind which allows one to observe extraordinary chemical operations at a more rapid pace-ones that require a long time for nature to produce.[1] Definitions of the objectives of alchemy are varied but historically have typically included one or more of the following goals: the creation of the fabled philosopher’s stone; the ability to transmute base metals into the noble metals (gold or silver); and development of an elixir of life, which would confer youth and longevity.
  Though alchemy played a significant role in the development of early modern science,[2] it differs significantly from modern science in its inclusion of Hermetic principles and practices related to mythology, magic, religion, and spirituality. It is recognized as a protoscience that contributed to the development of modern chemistry and medicine. Alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. However, alchemists predated modern foundations of chemistry, such as scientific skepticism, atomic theory, the modern understanding of a chemical element and a chemical substance, the periodic table and conservation of mass and stoichiometry. Instead, they believed in four elements, and cryptic symbolism and mysticism was an integral part of alchemical work.
  The ostensible goals of alchemy are often given as the transmutation of common metals into gold (known as chrysopoeia), the creation of a panacea, and the discovery of a universal solvent.[3] However, these only highlight certain aspects of alchemy. Alchemists have historically rewritten and evolved their explanation of alchemy, so it is difficult to define it simply.[4] H.J. Sheppard gives the following as a comprehensive summary:
  Alchemy is the art of liberating parts of the Cosmos from temporal existence and achieving perfection which, for metals is gold, and for man, longevity, then immortality and, finally, redemption. Material perfection was sought through the action of a preparation (Philosopher’s Stone for metals; Elixir of Life for humans), while spiritual ennoblement resulted from some form of inner revelation or other enlightenment (Gnosis, for example, in Hellenistic and western practices).[5]
  Aaron the alchemist
  In the absence of apparent leadership, a people will revert to their last perceived place of origin.
  It was spoken by the prophet Zechariah in chapter 13 of his book:
  “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive: But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
  The true Exodus is the resurrection. The journey is one of faith. In the example and shadow of things to come, the Lord, by the hand of Moses, brought the children of Jacob up out of the bondage of Egypt, leading them to a land of promise. A land where each could sit on his/her own inherited land, each under his/her own fig and vine, which is a picture painted before, of Christ leading each individual into a place of fellowship in the Father and the Son. In the shadow of things, as long as Moses was visible, the people moved on, sometimes murmuring and complaining, sometimes near revolt, but moving on nonetheless. There were cases where the people wanted to choose leaders to take them back to Egypt and it’s flesh pots…subsistence level rations for slave laborers who took the vain imaginations of the Egyptian man-god Pharaohs, and built the monuments to the living, racing to complete them before their inevitable demise. I one episode, Aaron himself was lead away with this foolishness.
  At the base of mount Horeb, Moses was called up into the mount to receive commandments and ordinances. After a time of invisibility, the people came to Aaron and expressed their ties to Egypt in a subtle way: “… for this Moses, we do not know what has become of him. Up, make us our gods which lead us out of Egypt”.
  Aaron responded by taking up a collection of gold from all the people. He cast a golden calf, which he himself added the finishing touches to, with an engraver’s tool. He presented it to the people, who “rose up to play” before the idol and ceremoniously defiled themselves among themselves, all with Aaron’s knowledge and all under his watchful eye. When Moses was again in plain sight, Moses demanded to know from Aaron, exactly what was going on. Aaron told Moses, “I cast the gold into the fire, and this calf came out”. A blatant lie. A lie that Aaron was cornered into telling, because the only other way out of the question was to confess his sin and folly. But of course, Moses didn’t buy it. Moses did not need someone to mystically reveal to him, which from among the pantheon of Egyptian gods, was the one who was leading the people out. The Lord who appeared to Moses, revealed in the burning bush, had no origin or place in Egypt. Moses asked the Lord by what name should Moses say that the Lord had sent him? The Lord said , “I AM WHAT I AM. Tell the I AM has sent you”. Moses, in a figure of Christ to come, came from the Father, was sent, and undertook to deliver a people up to the Father: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24). So, Aaron, caught in a vile situation hat he created with a lie, attempted to perpetuate the lie, which he did because the story he told Moses had to be the same thing he had told the people when he presented them their calf, that their was some hand of mystery, some unexplainable, unseen power, involved in the making of the calf, when in fact there was none, The calf was entirely of Aaron’s making, funded entirely at the expense of the duped people, who the moment they could not see Moses with the natural eye, quickly went to the next perceived authority figure, and started their religious begging. That calf was no more a transmutation from dust to deity, than a piece of bread mambo jumbo-ed over by a clergyman, is somehow turned into Jesus. The bread of heaven does not enter the mouth and exit from the other end. It enters the ear and exits the mouth, via a journey through the mind. Just as Jesus told his bewildered disciples struggling with the analogy of eating His flesh and drinking His blood…. “The words that I speak are spirit and life”. I can not go to a grocery store and buy a loaf of spirit. Aaron’s calf was a lie, from start to finish. And all who participated in it, bore the consequences.
  Zechariah 13 tells of the resurrection. It tells of a people who will not love and make a lie. On the cross, the great Shepherd was smitten, and the sheep scattered. In the resurrection, the sheep who know the Shepherd’s voice follow Him.
  Alchemy is a practice by which the practitioners endeavor to attain unto three principle accomplishments. The ability to substantiate matter from one thing to another. The quest for a universal elixir ; one cup that will heal all human ills, and the attainment of panacea. A mystical transforming of Adam’s fallen race and it’s attendant “achievements” , into the garden of Eden.
  Alchemy is a golden calf. If there are people that believe these things are even remotely possible, there are sheep for the shearing. The alchemist will continue to ply his trade at the expense of the duped.
  Jesus may be invisible to the human eye, but He has not left, nor forsaken His own. On the day of Pentecost, the Promise of the Father, the Spirit of Truth came. The same, who is Christ in you, will lead and guide you to all truth, just as Moses, in a figure, lead the children of Jacob.
  Christ, as he told in Zechariah, has a people of His resurrection. A people in exodus…spiritual exodus…being partakers of His resurrection. These He does try and purify, as silver and gold are brought through the fire, does He purify them.
  Unto the seventh assembly of churches, in the Book of Revelation, does the Lord say, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.
  If you read Zechariah 13, and Revelation 3, you will find they are speaking of the same things.
  The Kingdom of Heaven is within you…accept no substitute.
  The hidden manna is in you…accept no substitute.
  If we know that we are the temple of the Lord, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us…accept no substitute.
  If both the Father and the Son dwell with you, make their abode with you, and share their table with you; make no place for another Jesus, Another spirit, another gospel, nor another father. Accept no substitute.
  2 JOHN 1:9
  “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.”
  The Father’s house, built in resurrection, is a house of many houses, much as a Father with many sons, has his genetics written in each of them….many sons lead unto glory.