Document Type : .

Author

• Amin Motevallian

Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, ,History and Philisophy of Science Faculty, History of Science Department

Abstract

Some historians of science believe that alchemy is a part of religious practice and rituals, and as a result, its history is cited under the history of religions. Along with this belief, the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung believes that alchemy is part of the history of psychology, which aims to discovery the complex and deep structure of the human psyche. Critics of these two approaches claim that religious and psychological concepts have not been used as much as material and experimental (laboratory) actions and practices have been used in alchemy, so it cannot be considered as a part of history of religions or psychology. In these historiographical approaches, there are many indications and references to the alchemical theories of the Greco-Egyptian period, one of the most important and perhaps the most documented of them is the theoretical framework of Zosimus, which is called "spiritual alchemy". Reviewing this framework shows that Zosimus' alchemical theories can be somewhat controversial for all three approaches. In this article, while looking at the basic concepts in this alchemical framework, the relationship between nature (matter) and supernatural powers and the interactions of matter-human-divinity have been studied.

Keywords

• Spiritual Alchemy
• Zosimus
• Cosmic Sympathy
• Nature
• Divinity
• Epoptics