Arthur Edward Waite on Alchemy

BY: Mark

This method of interpreting the Hermetic allegories is calculated to exalt the alchemists indefinitely in the estimation of all thinking minds. From possibly avaricious investigators of a by-way of physical science, they are transfigured into dreamers of the sublimest imaginable dream, while if that which they conceived was accomplished, they are divine and illuminated monarchs who are throned on the pinnacles of eternity, having dominion over their infinite souls.

     — Arthur Edward Waite.

Part of his argument that alchemy wasn’t about transforming dross into gold. Of course, he couldn’t say as much in plain language because part of the charm of the alchemical process was having the initiate reduce materials down to their most primal expression. That applies to the instructions as well.