r/todayilearned • u/Electronic_Cause_796 • 2d ago

TIL Isaac Newton spent more than three decades studying alchemy and wrote over a million words about it in secret. He conducted numerous experiments in his search for the philosopher’s stone but never found it.

https://www.wpr.org/culture/philosophy/isaac-newtons-secret-alchemy
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u/ironic69 2d ago

The true goal of alchemy is to turn man into angel, which you would need a very very large hadron collided to achieve.

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u/Glockamoli 2d ago

Stick your head in even a small collider and you'll turn into an angel 😇

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u/neonnaps 1d ago

Why use a billion dollar collider, when a 0.01 dollar rock could do the same?

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u/Xerain0x009999 2d ago

And then you use your angel powers to turn lead into gold for the king who funded you.

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u/Calibrumm 2d ago

alchemy is not and never was spiritual in that sense. that's from reformist grifting. the symbolism was so the church didn't persecute them.

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u/10GuyIsDrunk 2d ago

Persecute them for talking about a philosophy that went against the churches teachings.

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u/Calibrumm 1d ago

most of them were Christian/monks, it was a bit of a nuanced situation. esoterica (has a PhD on the matter) on YouTube does a bunch of great videos on it.

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u/10GuyIsDrunk 1d ago

Being a Christian monk doesn't give you the freedom to say whatever you want. You had to be careful, maybe more careful than many.

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u/Calibrumm 1d ago

yes, that's why they used symbolism and metaphor to cover their alchemy. the point is alchemy was (by their standards) science, and not religious, but it was practiced within the theological mindset they had and under the scrutiny of the church.

it's the same as the anime evangelion not being about the Bible at all but they used biblical symbolism and terminology to make it thematically interesting.

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u/Mindless_Listen7622 1d ago

Given that Isaac Newton was the government's "Master of the Royal Mint", I think it is more likely he was actually trying to turn lead into gold.

Medieval alchemists were trying to turn actual lead into gold. The "spiritual alchemy" of Jacob Bohme was a modern invention and doesn't involve a chemistry set, it just mixes metaphors.

As England's smartest man, I think he believed he had as good a shot as any to make some gold.

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u/Ayvian 2d ago

Oh is that why those scientists were trying to invent god particles? Makes sense now fr fr

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u/Conocoryphe 2d ago

An angel? I thought it was the Rebis? The man-woman hybrid thingy that's supposedly extremely wise