Introductory Alchemy (Hermetic Philosophy)
		Alchemy and Astrology are sciences which are at the present time very little understood because, they deal with supersensual things which cannot be known to persons who are not in the possession of really strong senses of perception to begin with. Gaining a strong internal sense of perception to external things (like nature or people) only comes through practice and a very few people actually are willing to practice something nowadays. Everyone wants someone else to teach them the stuff they want to know. Of course I could point you in the right direction, but ultimately you have to travel alone in the learning of knowledge. Here is more to help you understand;
		Chemistry deals with physical matter; Alchemy deals with the astral principles of that matter. The life force or spirit of the plant, mineral or metal one is trying to learning about. Astronomy deals with the physical aspect of the planets and stars; Astrology deals with the psychic influences which their souls exert upon each other and upon the microcosm of man. Chemistry is a science that may be learned by any one who has ordinary intellectual capacities, and a certain amount of skill. Astronomy many be studied by any one who is able to comprehend mathematics and possesses logic and physical sight. Alchemy is an art which cannot be understood without spiritual knowledge or until someone reaches a specific "level" of spiritual awareness. I am here to help people advance spiritually but (as one of my teachers use to say to me) "The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding" This is the current problem. The more the human intellect is sharpened for the perception of the exterior world and the superficial appearances of things, the more easily that intellect (or person) will lose his or her power to see interior spiritual realities, and the advancement of modern science in the knowledge of exterior things is the reason that the majority of our modern scientists have lost the power to realize spiritual truths, and there are many who even deny spirit existence totally... In my opinion we are a race losing touch with who we are. The lowest aspect of alchemy is the preparation, purification and combination of physical substances. From this science has grown the science of modern chemistry, which in its present state has a little advancement over the lower aspect of old chemistry, but which has lost sight entirely of the higher aspects of the latter. Basically, chemistry decomposes and recomposes material substances in certain proportions; it may purify simple substances of all foreign elements, but it will always leave the primitive elements unchanged; but what I change or rather what alchemy changes is the character of simple bodies, and raises them up into higher states of existence. To exercise this power, not merely mechanical labor, but artistic skill is required. A person who composes a chemical preparation by manual labor and according to certain rules is a chemist; the weaver who makes a coat, may be called alchemists, because neither clothes nor coats are grown by nature. The chemist imitates Nature, the artist surpasses her; the laborer lends his (or her) hands to nature so that she may accomplish something through him; the artist makes use of the material with which nature provides him, and produces something that exists only in his mind.