Apprentice's Alchemy (22) Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644): Paracelsian scientist and experimental alchemist.

 

Apprentice's Alchemy (21)

Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644): Paracelsian scientist and experimental alchemist.

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes.

''While it is possible to picture van Helmont as a typical chemical philosopher of the early seventeenth century, his views go far beyond those of his predecessor in terms of both experimental method and theory. ''

(Allen G. Debus)

Joan Baptista van Helmont the Flemish Doctor was born in Belgica, Brussels on January 12, 1579.

Undoubtedly, his work is a source of inspiration and direct influences on medicine, alchemy and chemical theories as well as his religious and philosophical concepts.

His father, who died the same year he was born, left him a sustainable and comfortable economic legacy.

''His father, Christian van Helmont, who died that same year (1579), was state counselor of Brabant who had married into the Stassart family of Brussels. Through marriage to Marguerite van Ranst in 1609, Jean Baptiste became the manorial lord of Merode, Royenborch, Oorschot, and Pellines.'' (1)

From an early age he was inclined to be a voracious reader of the classics and philosophy.

(University of Louvain, 1594)

His youthful character is fiery and temperamental, which pushes him to be constantly disillusioned with the subjects studied and educational processes.

He reads everything and especially the Stoics, Seneca and Epictetus.

But he is also disillusioned and, according to him, all this is: ''An empty and swollen Bubble, between the bottomless pit of Hell, and the neccesity of imminent death.''

(Van Helmont)

Its transcendental and practical ideas are directed towards the mysterious and occult, the causes of which must be explained by science and experimentation within a reasonable framework of cautious skepticism.

Highly spiritual and devout, always seeking Christian perfection as God's grace.

''God alone is all-powerful; but the human Soul has in All ages asserted iys claim to be considered as part of the Divine.''

''The purity of the spirit,'' says Van Helmont, ''is shown through energy and efficaciousness of will. God, by the agency of an infinite will, created the Universe, and the same sort of power in an inferior degree, limited more or less by external hindrances, exist in All Spiritual Beings''. (2)

In his productive medium of medical studies, he studies the virtues of medicinal plants, reading the maxims and rules of medicine; He recognizes from experience that neither Galen nor Avicenna have the key he needs.

In this way, he states that when he studied the works of Galen (twice) or Avicenna he felt just as disappointed as with the readings of Greeks and Arabs.

He travels extensively to Switzerland, Italy and France.

Curiously, in England he has a direct audience with Queen Elizabeth I.

It is also known that he receives petitions, which he does not accept, from the Courts of Emperor Rudolf II and others. It is noteworthy that his work is generally directed towards rigorous research with a high degree of pessimism and doses of healthy skepticism.

In the same vein, it is necessary for the researcher to be able to obtain scientific knowledge by "knocking on the doors of nature"; observe, measure, and experiment.

For Van Helmont, the alchemical wisdom of the laboratory was a true "Divine Favor" and grace from God.

Van Helmont follows Thomas à Kempis.

"And if God in His Goodness bestows and is gracious." (3)

Annoyed by the general teachings he learned, he decided to study astronomy, algebra, logic, Copernicus, and Euclid.

He does not believe in Ptolemy's system, but he does believe in the Copernican system, calling Ptolemy's system "eccentricities" and understanding the "collapse" of the cosmological-astrological system when Copernicus' powerful ideas come in.

He found in the study of herbs – he knew the virtues of 200 of them – their quality and gradation when used.

At the age of 17 he was called to become a surgeon at the Medical College of Louvain. He faithfully believes in the alchemical transmutation that he performs several times, as confirmed by his writings.

According to him, alchemical transmutation is a "trait of chemical reaction along".

"Among the long list of famous alchemists who have made important contributions to science are Paracelsus, who is often considered the father of the modern pharmacopoeia; Joan Baptista van Helmont, who will demonstrate the existence of the gas. (4)

On the other hand, he retired for 7 years to his residence in Vilvord, devoted entirely to the in-depth study of the work of the master Paracelsus.

''I went about to search for full seven years''-''Clearly it was during those seven years of study and research that van Helmont became deeply influenced by the works of Paracelsus and the chemical philosophers who followed him''. (5)

Crucially, he declares himself a disciple of Paracelsus: "... concerned himself and me his follower.'' (6)

To be sure, Van Helmont is not a firm believer in the ancient concept of the 4 elements.

But yes, he is a faithful supporter of Thales of Miletus {628-548} [astronomer-merchant of Phoenician origin], who considered in his theory of nature Water as = Arké = principle of All things, and attributes to the transformation of water the capacity to transform into stone through the alchemical process of evaporation.

''I searched into the Books of Paracelsus, filled in parts with a mocking obscurity or difficulty, and I admired that man, and too much honored him: till at length, understanding was given, of his Works, and Errors.'' (7)

Consequently, the earth is the "matrix", the receptacle is more than matter, it is the womb for the "semin".

Moreover, the world, according to Paracelsus, was born from the "matrix" and so were human beings, from which men grow and subsist. There is a matrix in the human body and in all things.

Van Helmont – following the Bible in Genesis – from the waters of heaven and earth comes the matrix.

''Important functions were attributed to earth by Van Helmont, but he denied that it was an element. Earth is a ''sand'' that was made from the primigenial element, that is water and can be wholly converted into water.'' (#8)

In many respects, Paracelsus presents this creative process as one "separation" of one element after another from matter. (9)

The term ''matrix'' is a concept of the ancient elements of Paracelsus. (10)

Water is the primary element that encompasses everything.

Van Helmont follows Paracelsus and is not original in denying Fire as one of the elements.

''... Paracelsus had regarded fire not as an element, but as a celestial agent superior to the common elements of the ancients.'' (11)

These elements are designated as ultimate entities that constitute reality, and in particular 'material reality'.

Let us remember that many pre-Socratics considered and spoke of a single element = Water = ''the indefinite''.

To Empedocles of Agrigento {c.495-c.435 B.C.} we owe the doctrine of the "four elements"= (On Nature), which he calls the "roots" of things; integrating the water of Thales, the air of Anaximenes, the earth of Xenophanes and the fire of Heraclitus.

Subsequently, Aristotle adds the ''ether''=Fifth element=Quintessence.

For Van Helmont, Fire is not an Element: water is the fundamental and essential element of All Things.

It is in the water that the components of the Tria prima = Salt-Sulphur-Mercury of the master Paracelsus are found.

The spiritual essence or principle of life is the Archeus, a non-material but spiritual substance present everywhere. It is the energy imposed by the finger of God.

''The outstanding position of water in alchemy was endorsed by Paracelsus. He regarded it as the Matrix in which there were created heaven and earth.'' ''Water is the receptacle of the seed from which man grows; elementum aquae is seed-bed.'' (12)

Van Helmont on this point denies Paracelsus' Tria prima.

''Van Helmont not only denied the real existence of the three principles (''Tria prima''), but also (and wrongly) accused Paracelsus of plagiarism.''

(Pagel, p.59)

These three essential components, when heating water, form a ''special vapour'', which Van Helmont recognized as='Gas'=[Khaos].

''In the sixteenth century the Swiss medicine man, Theophrastus Paracelsus, had noticed bubbles of air rising from sulfuric acid when pieces of iron were thrown into it. He had also discovered that this gas could burn, but that was the limit of his investigation. Later Jan Van Helmont, a Flemish physician, made a similar observation, but he, too, neglected to the study of this gas.'' (13)

That ''gas'' = {chaos, geesen, gest} as vital energy or vital gas is found in the blood and is called =Archeus or 'unity of the vital force''.

(W, Pagel, p.64)

Paracelsus regarded the Arcanum as the "chaos" and is led by the astra, "like a feather in the wind".

It is charged with life force or archei insitu which is the vital principle that resides in the organs of the body and is responsible for certain specific sexual functions.

''God endowed every individual being with an object-and species- specific plan of ''life'', of form, function, nutrition, reproduction, and perfection at its destined end. This specific plan is an idea of the creator and as such is enshrined in the semen of each being.'' (14)

Van Helmont is remembered in the history of chemistry and science as the discoverer of these gases. ''

''Gas developing from heated coal was called ''wild Spirit'' (spiritus sylvestris) by Van Helmont because of its expansive and explosive nature.''

(Pagel, 66)

The Arcana has practical effectiveness through its volatility and connection with the astral forces and can be effective medicine thanks to its "specific expression".

We can say that the Arcana is virtue and power, it is volatility and has no body; Chaos, but it is clear and transparent and is subject to the 'Star''. (15)

The Arcanum of man is the real inner man, he is invisible, and, like Archeus, he is an essential part of life.

The potential for life is in that sulphurous and watery substance = Liquor Vitae and contains the nature, quality, character and essence of the Self.

"Sulphurous substances are dominated by sulphurous substances, and liquid substances by corresponding liquid substances; because sulphurous substances are aided by sulphurous substances.'' (Zosimus) (16)

Van Helmont was a ''Philosophus per ignem''= Philosopher by fire, which is ferment and ''seminal principle'' that through 'water' as a material element the aqueous and sulphurous ferment adapts itself in matter producing the universal semina = ''causae et initia naturalium.''

That Archeus and universal semen is the unifying matter where the aqueous-effulgent ferment, the image and the "smell" are lost and reunited with matter.

''Thus, Van Helmont attributed to the odours a universal creative and generative role. He regarded them as the active principle in ferments, and the latter as the driving force in the SEMINA of all natural objects.''

(Pagel, p.74)

In Van Helmont, as a good alchemist, ''smell'', ferment and putrefaction are associated with ''gas''=chaos.

Important to note: A true alchemist knows the proper and serious work of the athanor and the furnace by their smells.

For van Helmont, the "things in themselves" is the interest of his studies rather than the relationships between two things. Study the specific differences and properties of things.

The Monad, or individual unity, is not "pure spirit" since matter plays an essential-fundamental part in the revival of the Individual Unity.

It is noteworthy that Van Helmont's world is not fragmented: Truth and reality find their genuine expression in things as they were created from the Source of Truth.

Van Helmont goes in search of the ''philosopher's stone'', the true elixir, the one that, according to Van Helmont, has the ability to appear as a ''red or white powder''= [projection powder], which by its intrinsic 'transformative power'' transmutes metals.

''Van Helmont, in 1618, described it 'of colour, such as in Saffron in its powdwe, yet weighty, and shining like unto powdered Glass''. (17)

Of course, the soul of the Philosopher's Stone is the incombustible oil = (oleum lapidis) which is at the same time "the ointment of the Philosophers", shines without fuel and is not subject to any combustion.

It is immersed in the purest and most refined form of the Archeus, which is concentrated in the ''semin''=material of the breath of life. It is Mercury transformed.

The Archeus forms that essential union between the material of the gross semen and the seminal image and idea.

Alchemy is born from that universal principle that exists in a spiritual dimension or first principle that is image and idea.

But it is not only that, it claims its existence and hegemony by means of semen and pushes the seminal substance towards germination and generation.

''There is, then a tripartite stratification in the semina: the material husk, the seminal breath of life(aura) or Archeus, and the operative idea or image.'' (18)

As we have seen, the archeus is an intermediary, forming the gross material union between image and seminal idea.

It should be clarified: Alchemy plants the solar sperm seed in the heart, the lunar seed in the brain, and Jupiter that dwells in the liver.

''There is little doubt that van Helmont had a sincere belief in alchemy. He confessed that he had transmuted mercury to gold on more than one occasion, and in a circumstantial account he wrote that...''(Debus, p.p.325-326)

Apprentice's Alchemy (22)

Joan Baptista Van Helmont (1579-1644): Paracelsian scientist and experimental alchemist.

Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes.

Bibliography:

1. Allen G. Debus, The Chemical Philosophy, p. 297.

2. Van Helmont, in: Albert Pike, Morals and Dogmas, p.684.

3. Thomas Norton, The Ordinall of Alchimy, p.3.

4. Peter Marshall, The Philosopher's Stone, p.27.

5. Allen Debus, p.302.

6. ''De magnetica'' (sect. 3). Ortus, p.749 in: Debus, p.303.

7. Van Helmont, Ortus, p.12.

8. Walter Pagel, Van Helmont, p.56.

9. Paracelsus, Philosophia de generationibus et fructibus quatuor elementorum, 6, ed. Sudhoff: in Pagel, 58.

10. Paracelsus, Opus Paramirum 10, = (from matrix).

11. W. Pagel, Van Helmont, p.58.

12. Walter Pagel, Joan Baptista Van Helmont, p. 53: Paracelsus, Opus Paramirum, Book IV.

13. Bernard Jaffe, Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry, p.56.

14. Walter Pagel, Van Helmont, p.61.

15. Paracelsus, Arcanum: Das Buch Paragranum, III, ''von der alchimia,'' ed. Sudhoff, VII, 185 in Walter Pagel, Van Helmont, p.65.

16. Matteo Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus, pp. s14-s15.

17. John Read, Prelude to Chemistry an Outline of Alchemy, p. 13.

18. Walter Pagel, Van Helmont, p.97.