Alchemy in Africa

Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a day that was full of positive experiences! Anyone who follows my contributions knows that I like to go into alchemy and also in this post, I would like to devote myself to this topic again and hope you can expand your knowledge.

Here you can see some pictures of works of art that should express the African culture something as well as minerals and the country of Egypt, which is mostly located on the African continent and a small part belongs to Asia, together with Greece, belongs to one of the origins of alchemy. An important basis for alchemy is the figure Hermes trismegistos which is also considered a mixture of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian Thot and he is considered the author of the well-known emerald tablets which are also known as Tabula Smaragdina and these tablets are considered the origins of the hermetics from which alchemy has also developed. While the focus is often on European or Asian culture and Africa often moves into the background, some traces of this occult science can also be found there, but the topic there is much more unknown and some of the traditions come from Arabic writings which had become more and more popular and often some magical or production processes were carried out under other names, although these were alchemical steps. It can be said that you can find numerous parallels in African culture and similar to Europe, alchemy was not welcome by everyone and some people were afraid of it and probably and it was even more linked to magical or occult practices. While some were afraid of it, alchemy has aroused great interest among some and it did not take long until numerous well-known supporters were found and it was dealt with more openly while in other regions the topic was more pursued and the people who carried out the experiments had to hide more. In some tribes, people were so afraid of this topic because they thought that there could be backlash and much of it can also be attributed to the strict belief of some tribes who lived closely according to religious regulations and distanced themselves from it. Similar to other cultures, alchemy in Africa focuses on spiritual development and one of the most important goals was the development of mental forces as well as enlightenment and this path is closely linked to different levels of knowledge and it also includes to acquire knowledge in different areas.

The understanding of the cosmic principles or the general relationships of processes were of great importance and also, as on other continents, alchemy is closely linked to mythology and spiritual knowledge was an important part of understanding the practical steps when it comes to the production of remedies. It was also important to know the principle of the elements and it roughly can be said that it is about developing oneself into a higher being and for the magical practices the production of elixirs was of great importance. In Africa, people also dealt with the effect of medicinal plants and knew chemical reactions, but as in Europe or Asia, it was not specifically about researching these reactions more and specifically some of them happened rather by chance and the production of potions was more associated with daily life. Unlike other cultures, people were not so strongly convinced in Africa to produce substances with which it should be possible to artificially produce metals such as gold and the focus was more on healing people or prolonging life and they also had no main goal such as creating the philosopher's stone from European culture or the golden elixir from Asian alchemy and the creation of artificial metals was rather secondary. However, there are some views that some had dealt very well with the topic and especially the blacksmiths who know a lot about the processing of metals, had dealt more with this topic, but no such big hype has arisen about it and here you can see fewer parallels than when it comes to the spiritual side of alchemy. Even if it often were alchemical practice, it was more called magic and stands more out from the scientific side and you will find many similarities, but have to look for it specifically and the whole topic can be considered much more unknown in Africa.

Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about alchemy! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.