First Alchemists

Tobias Churton scholar, lecturer, composer, and religious TV director, is author of 27 published books, including biographies of William Blake, Aleister Crowley, G. I. Gurdjieff, and Elias Ashmole. A theology graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford, he was appointed Honorary Fellow in 2005 to lecture in Western Esotericism at Exeter University and is Britain’s leading scholar in the field, specializing in Gnostic, Hermetic, Rosicrucian, biblical, and Masonic studies. Invited to join Professor Boccaccini’s Enoch Seminar in 2019, his most recent books include Aleister Crowley in Paris and The Lost Pillars of Enoch.

• FOREWORDby Frank van Lamoen Introduction ONE Ancient Recipes for Gold— and Other Things Discoveries at ThebesA Theban Magical Library? The Leiden Papyrus Papyrus V Papyrus W Papyrus X The Stockholm Papyrus Pseudo-Democritus TWOThe Origins of Alchemy in Roman Egypt Akkadian Origin of Chēmeu? Heat and Glass THREE The Pioneers of Graeco-Egyptian- Jewish Alchemy Cleopatra Jewish Chemistry Mary the “Prophetess” FOUR Zosimos I Clearing the Decks Was Zosimos an Egyptian Priest? FIVE Zosimos II Alchemical Yoga Practical Dreaming SIXZosimos III From Omega to the Final Quittance On Destiny, Fate, Worldly Thought, and Noetic Understanding The First Book of Zosimos the Theban’s Final Account SEVEN What Did the First Alchemists Do? Making Talismans? EIGHT How Did They Do It? Sulfur Water; Divine Water Apparatus Putting the First Alchemists to the Test NINE Where Did They Do It? A Hermetic “Lodge”? A Guild for Theosebeia? Laboratories? TEN The Myth of Transmutation Philosophical Background The Stone The Tome of Images Myth and Reality ELEVEN Forbidden Knowledge TWELVE A Strange RelationAlchemy and Gnosis Mercury and Christ THIRTEEN Legacy Arabic Alchemy The Inheritance “Good Health!” Notes Bibliography Index

“In this remarkable and necessary work on early alchemy, Churton outlines a program of research and experimentation into this rich but mostly unexplored area of Greco-Egyptian alchemical philosophies and practices. The depth and range of the material are breathtaking, and it is very satisfying to see the topic of glass addressed so thoroughly. I strongly recommend studying and working with The First Alchemists and going deeper, letting Tobias Churton light the way.”