Origins and Future of Alchemy and Herbalism

The traditional vision, or the dominant scientific paradigm, claims that knowledge has evolved from scratch, that is to say, that we humans did know anything about our environment and little by little we were learning things, and developing science and technology, which has allowed us to evolve linearly, until now.   

However, archaeological discoveries such as Göbleki Tepe challenge this paradigm, because it is known with certainty that this megalithic construction dates back to between 9600 and 8200 BC, which is long before the civilizations we thought were the first: the ancient Mesopotamia empires, now part of Iraq, from between 4500 and 1900 BC.  

Furthermore, paradigms such as "Clovis First", which is the scientific consensus that the Clovis people represented the first settlers of the Americas (approximately 11,200 years ago), fell apart with a series of archaeological discoveries, beginning with Monte Verde in Chile and, recently, with the discovery of human footprints from 23,000 years ago in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.   

Little by little, the evidence that proves the hypothesis of Graham Hancock and many others is being reinforced. History and culture are not linear, but cyclical, derived from recurrent catastrophes that occur in certain parts of the Great Year (that is, the apparent route, derived from the precession of the Equinoxes, of the Earth through the firmament, or the Zodiac, with a duration of about 25,000 years); this theory claims that mankind has survived from those catastrophes, and therefore also something of the previous culture.  

What is relevant to Alchemy and Herbalism here is that there were traces of beer in the vessels found at Göbleki Tepe, which demonstrates an herbal use prior to what we thought and, apparently, a knowledge of metallurgy and transmutation in the oldest ancient civilizations. Also, the most contemporary alchemist, Fulcanelli, has written about the symbolism of the Cross of Hendaye, as part of the mysteries of alchemy; that symbolism speaks to us of the cyclical double catastrophe, among other things.  

Now, under the paradigm of linear history, what matters are the new discoveries, based on the modern scientific method, which allows us to access new knowledge from hypotheses, as well as repeatable and audited experimental verifications. This creates an evolution of knowledge and is what the great technological advances of our current civilization are based on.   

On the other hand, from the perspective of cyclical history, what matters is keeping the tradition alive and unaltered. This means that before writing there was an oral tradition, based on myths, which used several mnemonic techniques (art), and whose origin is uncertain, but probably comes from civilizations prior to the catastrophes; or at least that is what the traditions themselves tell us with their myths.  

In these traditions useful knowledge is transmitted to us from many disciplines, such as agriculture, language, architecture, astrology (including astronomy), alchemy (including chemistry and spirituality), herbalism (as part of medicine and cooking), magic (and mathematics), the art of politics, etc.  

There is something else about the cycles: the idea of a further evolution to the material one, that is, a spiritual or consciousness evolution. Tradition tells us about the gradual perfection of matter, which can be achieved in an accelerated way through alchemy as a human way of intervention; and also tells us that in these cycles of every 25,000 years (of the great year) there are ages when man's consciousness is subjected to acceleration and evolution (perhaps due to the proximity of the sun's companion star); an age like this is precisely our age.  

This is where alchemy and its spiritual component fit in perfectly with the traditions that speak of the evolution of consciousness in this age of Aquarius. It is not only the double catastrophe that the Cross of Hendaye tells us about, not even the end of the world, but the possibility of "ascending", of integrating more and more into the unity of consciousness and evolving individually and collectively. That is the future of alchemy.