I will enumerate some of the true Sages (besides those named in Holy Scripture) who really knew this Art, in the

natural order of their succession. They are Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras, Alexander the Great, Plato,

Theophrastus, Avicenna, Galen, Hippocrates, Lucian, Longanus, Rasis, Archelaus, Rupescissa, the Author of the Great

Rosary, Mary the Prophetess, Dionysius, Zachaire, Haly, Morienus, Calid, Constantius, Serapion, Albertus Magnus,

Estrod, Arnold de Villa Nova, Geber, Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, Alan, Thomas Aquinas, Marcellus Palingenius;

and, among moderns, Bernard of Trevisa, Frater Basil. Valentinus, Phillip Theophrastus (i.e., Paracelsus), and many

others. Nor is there any doubt that, among our own contemporaries, there might be found some, who, through the

grace of God, daily enjoy this arcanum, though they keep it a close secret from the world.

The Sophic Hydrolith, Or, Water Stone of the Wise, by Anonymous, 17th Cen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If, therefore, thou shalt rightly consider those things which I shall say unto thee, as also the testimonies of the

ancients, well and fully shalt thou know that we agree in all things, and so all of us reveal the same truths. This was

the deliberate conviction of Hermes, in his Secreta, who is styled the father and prophet of the Sages, of Pythagorus,

Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Aristotle, Zeno, Heraclitus, Diogenes, Lucas, Hippocrates, Hamec, Thebit,

Geber, Rhasis, Haly, Morienus, Theophilus, Parmenides, Mellisus, Empedocles, Abohaly, Abinceni, Homer, Ptolomeus,

Virgil, Ovid, and many other philosophers and lovers of truth, whose names would be too tedious to record. Of most of

these we have seen and studied the works, and can testify that they were, without a single exception, adepts, and

brothers of this most glorious order, and that they knew what they were speaking about. [...] To the initiated it is clear

that Moses, Daniel, Solomon, several of the prophets, and the evangelist St John, possessed the knowledge of this Art

The New Pearl of Great Price, by Peter Bonus, 1338 AD

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, the Old Testament of the Bible is full of people living hundreds of years, which was due to the

Stone. The Ancient Egyptian pharaohs lived hundreds of years too. That was all still in the Bronze Age of

course, when the Stone was still common, but not for everyone. Noah saved it from the flood and it is Noah

who is credited as being the father of alchemy (in this age) under the name of Hermes. It was probably

Noah who started that whole thing about the vow, so we can't praise him too much.

Asia has its own alchemical history, which is less traceable. In the West, alchemy came out of Egypt to the

Middle East and Ancient Greece, then Rome, from which it spread across Europe. Germany, in the heart of

Western Europe, was the center of alchemy for the last thousand years.

The invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century was the beginning of a wave of alchemy,

which lasted until the 18th century. With the printing press books could now be mass-produced, instead of

being copied by hand (a tedious process) and so allowed alchemical books to be more easily acquired.

Paracelsus was a German alchemist of the 16th century, who was credited as the first (at least in this age) to

use only urine, instead of the slower process of urine and gold.

After Paracelsus the number of alchemists increased dramatically. In the early 17th century we have

Francis Bacon, who was the true author of Shakespeare, and an interesting character who I will cover in a

later chapter. Bacon was a Rosicrucian, a society which existed since the 16th century, but announced its

existence in 1607 AD. The Rosicrucians were a secret society of alchemists. The Rosicrucians will get their

own chapter too.