"Yes, the base metals into noble metals, the panacea," She had elaborated a bit on those already but... ah yay! "The universal solvent. Right you are." That was something she'd been looking for. "The universal solvent, or the Alkahest as Paracelsus called it, is a substance which is reputed to have the power to dissolve all other substances, or more correctly, it dissolves composed material into their elemental parts."

OOC: Will continue the class in around 12 hours. Remember if your charrie doesn't know an answer that is just fine, just RP them taking notes and reflecting on the given information - you won't be penalised for that. Questions are welcome TOO. You're all doing so awesome so far! If I've missed you while I was writing this, I'll edit you in soon! edited

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Marilyn

Then their answers and questions were being addressed. The Slytherin listened carefully to the Professor's words, hardly taking his eyes from her face. This was why Dylan enjoyed the female teachers more.

They commanded his attention better...and were able to keep it, at that.

Musing his hair a bit, Dylan moved to bring his notebook closer, copying down everything on the blackboard. It was interesting stuff, that much he could say. All this talk about living forever and turning things to gold...It reminded him of something.

*hand-raising in progress* "You know, Professor...I'm oddly reminded of the Hand of Midas." It was basically like this Sorcerer's Stone everyone was talking about. You touched something with it and it immediately turned it to solid gold...

...And Dylan vaguely remembered something about Cardinal Principles... UGH, why couldn't he piece it together? Yet, the Slytherin raised his hand anyway..."When you say Cardinal principles, it makes me think of the Zodiac...and how each sign is classified under one of the four main elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air...Although, that probably has nothing to do with what we're talking about." He gave her an apologetic look for his rambling and coughed, attempting to clear his throat. "If I had to guess, I'd say the Principles just define how certain...erm...raw materials? go together when broken down..."

Was he making any sense?

Feeling a tad...embarrassed, dare he think it, Dylan leaned his head down, continuing his notes.

"You know," He added, remembering something else. "Fermentation...distillation...It sounds like the process of wine-making."

Okay, Dylan...just shut up, now.

More sense than he realised perhaps. Althea nodded encouragingly and even smiled as he continued. Yes.

"The Midas touch is also an example of chrysopoeia." Althea answered. "And many believe that in fact Midas was an Alchemist and the story of his golden touch is a metaphor for the Alchemical pursuit of chrysopoeia and that the moral lesson in his story was directed at those who were consumed with the lure of Gold, and with the desire to create it."

She responded to the rest of what the young Slytherin had said, deviating a little from the lesson plan in order to do so.

"Actually Astrology and Alchemy are interrelated in many ways. Each of the planets has an Alchemical sign, and is associated with a different metal. The Sun rules Gold, The Moon rules Silver, Mercury rules Mercury Venus rules Copper, Mars rules Iron, Jupiter rules Tin and Saturn rules Lead. Additionally, the zodiac signs are divided into something called Quadruplicities, which are Fixed, Mutable and Cardinal: which in turn reflects the Cardinal principles by nature, as I hope you'll see as we go on. Likewise the four elements which the zodiac signs fall under, are very relevant to Alchemy and symbols exist for those too, and each is related to an Alchemical process, which we'll talk about shortly."

She should probably add this to the board. Hmm. Or come back to it and address it for the whole class to consider. Yes, she'd do that.

"And as for the wine-making, that's good. Hopefully you'll see some more similarities and concepts which you can associate with more mundane pursuits." Though Althea would hardly call a good glass of wine mundane.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Minerva had no clue what the first answer was so she listened and took as many notes as she possibly be could. This seminar seemed to be harder then last terms, at least more confusing. As she listened she felt more and more confused and as much as she loved her old charms professor wasn't sure if she should have come.

Then the second question came up, but would the answer she was thinking even be close to what she was looking for. This was the wizard world, what she knew about these items didn't go with that world, right? Well that was how it was in many of her other classes at least. She placed her hand up "Well those three items are science terms that are on the periodic table and are all solids." She shrugged not sure if that's what she wanted, but her mom was a high school teacher and had that chart hanging in her room.

Nod.

"Yes, they are Miss Wheatborn. With Salt as Sodium. Its useful to know their chemical properties."

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

However, Kurumi was back to furrowing her brow a little bit with the salt, sulfur, and mercury elements...the cardinals as Professor Schirmer had put them. What did she know about them? Erm...she knew their chemical properties, but what else was there? Kurumi was suddenly reminded of her Ancient Runes assignment where she had used salt to represent the element of Earth. Did that also tie into alchemy? Did salt represent the element of Earth here too? Which would probably mean mercury was....water? Sulfur could be...

Venturing a guess, Kurumi raised her hand. "Sometimes salt can represent the earth element, and mercury the water element, and sulfur the fire element," she said in a rather unconvincing tone. No telling if this had any correlation to alchemy or not. But they were asked to say what they knew...so...points for trying?

The professor listened to Kurumi and nodded. "That's right, Miss Hollingberry."

Quote:

Originally Posted by natethegreat

Nate heard the class begin so if he needed to talk with the people at his table he had to whisper. "No I don't have a ghost in my room. It's normally just the fact that their might be something strange in the basement." He whispered to Ella. Then he copied down notes.

"Mr Jones, do not trial my patience. 5 points from Hufflepuff for talking in class and distracting others. You will not talk in this lesson unless it is to discuss the topic at hand or to ask me questions about the topic of Alchemy." Althea said sternly. Really. It was bad enough when people had done so in her Charms lesson. She was busier now and hadn't just come along for fun.

Much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Ella had been taking notes feverishly, trying to follow along with what her classmates were saying. This was quite a complicated subject so the more notes she took, the better. As she listened to the professor's next question, a lightbulb went off in her head. She had read something about sulfur and alchemy though she couldn't quite think of what it was...Something involving the sun? Was that right? Well, even if it wasn't exactlly correct, it was something to add. "Professor, does sulfur have any connection to the sun? I think I read that somewhere." Shrug.

"That's right, it does. Its the connection to the fire element." Professor Schirmer answered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

Nigel jotted down all the definitions on the piece of paper in front of him because it looked important and who knows when Nigel will need these definitions again. Nigel was happy that he got the first question correct and the professor even elaborated on his answer.

He thought about the cardinal principles and basically knew nothing about them. But he did know something about mercury. "Professor, isn't Mercury poisonous?" Yes that is all he knew and now he waited with a quill in his hand to take notes when the professor answered the question.

"Yes, very." The professor nodded at the Ravenclaw boy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Vickers started to fill his parchment with the Professor's response, to his own answer and to others. As he copied down the lecture on the board, he couldnt help but grin-- this lesson, as complicated as it appeared, was AWESOME!

He pondered the next question. Professor Schirmer kinda mentioned the three main things he remembered about the Principles of Alchemy. He racked his brain on what else he remembered from his readings. Some of these kinda overlapped with certain elements of Divination. Up goes the tentative hand. "Uhm Professor, Sulfur represents the fire element-- the inflammable quality of the plant or item to be extracted, whereas Salt represents the earth element-- which is the opposite of Sulfur in that it represents the non-combustible nature, while Mercury represents the water element-- which is the fusibility...or the changeable nature of the item, sometimes even referred to as the life essence of a plant." if they were extracting stuff from a plant.

There was one other thing he remembered tht resonated with him "An ancient alchemist..." he was forgetting the name as for the moment "...who strongly believed that Alchemy was for the finding of medicinal cures, that nature was for the most part raw and unfinished, and that we have the responsibility to improve things, make something the best it can be. He believed that when a plant is broken down, or purified of things thats not necessary, we will be left with those three basic elements-- the "sulfur" part, the "mercury" part and the "salt" part, then we will be able to recombine them into medicine." Incredibly enough, the guy wasnt far off given what they were now doing with potions in present day.

"Right, Mr.Vickers. Perhaps you can see the connection between Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt, and the Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable Quadruplicities found in Astrology? Those and the elemental representations of course. And yes, they are broken down and recombined as required, that is the essence of the Alchemical process." Just to confirm. Clearly this was a Ravenclaw who had done a bit of reading.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverDragon

Wow, Silvia hadn't expected alchemy to be an easy subject, but it sounded even more complex than she had thought at first. A lot of big words to learn too. She copied the notes from the board, as well as wrote down some of the stuff the professor said. It may be a difficult subject, but Silvia was determined to do her best. So she raised her hand, even though she didn't really know the answer. "Are the cardinal principles some of the materials used to make the medicines?" she guessed.

"Simplified but correct. Everything can be reduced to those three alchemical principles, all else is considered waste. The salt, the mercury, and the sulphur of any one substance is what the Alchemists use." Althea said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

It wasn’t his first time invading a class. More like the third time, or perhaps the fourth. Scabior pulled open the door quietly and slipped inside. The class had already started, but he had expected that, that would be the case. Students were so preoccupied with answering questions from the previous Charms Professor that he wondered if they would even notice he had entered.

Like an abnormally good Slytherin, he walked beside the walls, making his way to the back of the class (at least the back according to how it was set up at the moment, as it was strange to say that the round room actually had a back) where he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.

Locking eyes with Althea, Scabior produced a small greeting nod, and possibly a smile.

Alchemy. It couldn’t hurt to learn about it.

Before she kicked him out of course.

Teaching at Hogwarts wouldn't be complete without Dash Scabior invading her lesson at least once a term. And since this was the only lesson she was to teach this year, it wasn't such a surprise. And too she'd made sure he'd known about it, since after all much of what would be discussed was a particular portion of magical history. So that made sense and all. And she'd expected him to come.

But still... he should have come on time. At least he had the sense to be quiet when he came in. He wasn't going to sit down? Well he could suit himself, as long as he kept his mouth shut and didn't interrupt student learning.

Possibly, she returned his smile and continued on with addressing the student responses, without missing a beat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpfan18

After Annabelle copied it all down, she noticed the Professor asking another question. She heard the term Cardinal Principles used. "Huh? I never heard of them." Belle thought to herself. She just took more notes and made an indent in her notebook for the Cardinal Principles. After all she was in the class to learn. But then again she did remember reading about Sulfur. "Professor, i know that Sulfur came from the fire elements representing the oil essence of the plant." Belle said. She only knew one Principle. She didn't know the rest.

"Yes that's right." Althea assured the girl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DH Vixen

Thinking for a few moments, she raised her hand again. "Aren't those three cardinal principles considered the working units of the system. The holy trinity of the universe? Mercury, salt and sulphur. They all have primal alchemical properties and represent certain thing when talking about spagyric remedies. Mercury would be a water element, representing the life essence of a plant; the very alcohol extract of the plant-the carrier of life essence. Salt is the earth element, the vegetable salt from the plants body. Sulphur the fire element, the virtue of plant. The volatile oil essence of a plant." Lowering her hand, she bit her lip again. After speaking, she thought back about what she had said and frowned before raising her hand again. "When you think about each principle in relation to their alchemical properties, they really aren't just one element. Some think of them more of a harmony of two elements. Mercury is more a harmony of water and air. It's like a mediator of sorts and compared to being the spirit, an animating life force. Sulphur is harmony of the air and fire element. It's moveable and diffusive. Like the soul. And Salt, it's the harmony of water and earth. The body and the most dense and very complex." Lowering her hand, she blinked and looked back down slightly.

She had just rambled off what she could remember and only part of it made sense to her, but there really wasn't a completely wrong answer; right? She just hoped that she picked up on a glimpse of what was asked. This all was a bit confusing, but it was interesting all the same.

Althea nodded. "You're right and that is some good thinking. It sounds as if you have a strong understanding of this aspect of Alchemy already. Maybe you can help some of your classmates review afterward, if they are still having trouble grasping it."

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

Then she sat back and tried to figure out what the cardinal principles were and what they meant. Her eyes basically crossed just thinking what they actually meant. Cardinal? 'It can't have anything to do with the Catholic Pope...or maybe it did...' Alyssa thought to herself.

So she opened up her textbook to see what she could find out about it. When she found what she was looking for she raised her hand and answered.

"Professor basically salt, mercury and sulfur are considered the alchemical trinity. Salt is the principle for fixity and in-combustibility, mercury is the principle of fusibility which is the ability to melt and flow, and volatility; and sulfur is the principle of inflammability."

"Salt is the earth element, representing the vegetable salts extracted from the ashes of a plant body, Mercury the water elements, representing the life essence of the plant, and Sulphur is the fire element, and virtue of plant. It represents the volatile oil essence of the plant."

Alyssa blinked. She actually understood what she was talking about.

That was good thinking, turning to a textbook. Althea nodded. "Yes thank you Miss Potter."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Eh? Emmanuelle hadn't understood any of that. Maybe a good rereading of her notes later would make something click? She pondered this while scribbling down the writing that appeared on the board.

And then they moved on to topics that she did understand. Salt, sulphur, and mercury. "Well, salt is
mineral that is a result of a chemical reaction, sulphur is a result of fire, and mercury is a metal that is liquid at room temperature." One problem. She didn't know how to tie all that into alchemy. So, blushing a little, she left it at that.

"A good start." Althea answered. Knowing those things helped understand the more difficult concepts after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermione Lily Potter

But thinking about the question...Salt..Sulfur..and Mercury. What did she know about all three. Raising her hand, Lily decided to take a wild guess. After all, it was a new topic... "Well, aren't sulfur and mercury elements on the periodic table... and salt... isn't that a compound made of two elements on the periodic table?" You know...like back from chemistry classes...

"You know a bit about chemistry I see." Althea nodded encouragingly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Errr, ....WHAT?!

Schirmer had been such an easy professor. Well, maybe not easy, just definitely easy to follow. Since she'd gone and come back again, she'd gotten...well, a lot more detailed, one could say. Sierra found herself just staring and giving the occasional nod as she tried to decipher what the woman was saying.

...nope. She couldn't decipher, but she could guess. "Professor? Are those the components? Maybe, things that are prepared separately and then added together to get the...errr, desired result?" she asked. "Or...something." Pause. "I don't know," she finally said.

"In a way yes. Actually if you took.... say some sprigs of rosemary, you'd separate out the three components that represent the mercury, the sulfur and the salt, and then, having acquired the pure form of each of these, they are recombined as needed so that you have the the essential value of the rosemary sprigs, the most magical and medicinal part of the whole." So she wasn't wrong, and hopefully she'd leave with a more thorough understanding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna_Midnight

Nerida was right, yay her extra reading had done something for her, but the oddest thing was she couldnt remember what she was doing, or where she was or even what time of day it was actually she didnt even know what month it was... Odd maybe she should go talk to someone about that, later though, right now it was Alchemy time! She wrote down the notes, all of them... She thought cardinal principles, salt,sulfur and mecury.. Erm doesnt sulfur give flammability or combustion, um mercury gives volatility and stability, and salt gives solidity? And arent they part of the eight elements thing of Alchemy I think it used to be seven but it got changed somewhere...

Althea listened and nodding. "Yes they are, but the expansion to seven and then eight is related to Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān, a Persian Alchemist often referred to as Geber. We'll touch on some famous historical Alchemists soon."

More sense than he realised perhaps. Althea nodded encouragingly and even smiled as he continued. Yes.

"The Midas touch is also an example of chrysopoeia." Althea answered. "And many believe that in fact Midas was an Alchemist and the story of his golden touch is a metaphor for the Alchemical pursuit of chrysopoeia and that the moral lesson in his story was directed at those who were consumed with the lure of Gold, and with the desire to create it."

She responded to the rest of what the young Slytherin had said, deviating a little from the lesson plan in order to do so.

"Actually Astrology and Alchemy are interrelated in many ways. Each of the planets has an Alchemical sign, and is associated with a different metal. The Sun rules Gold, The Moon rules Silver, Mercury rules Mercury Venus rules Copper, Mars rules Iron, Jupiter rules Tin and Saturn rules Lead. Additionally, the zodiac signs are divided into something called Quadruplicities, which are Fixed, Mutable and Cardinal: which in turn reflects the Cardinal principles by nature, as I hope you'll see as we go on. Likewise the four elements which the zodiac signs fall under, are very relevant to Alchemy and symbols exist for those too, and each is related to an Alchemical process, which we'll talk about shortly."

She should probably add this to the board. Hmm. Or come back to it and address it for the whole class to consider. Yes, she'd do that.

"And as for the wine-making, that's good. Hopefully you'll see some more similarities and concepts which you can associate with more mundane pursuits." Though Althea would hardly call a good glass of wine mundane.

Althea addressed the class as a whole again, though she hoped they'd been paying some attention to what their classmates had been saying, and what she'd said in response too.

"In alchemical terms, all things are composed of three parts- Sulphur , Mercury, and Salt. The alchemist separates and recombines these three cardinal principles as often as necessary until they are in perfect proportion and harmony, and the raw material has been reduced to its purest essence."

The words appeared on the board as she spoke.

"Mercury is the principle of fusibility and volatility. It represents water element and the life force of the raw material." This went up on the board too.

Salt is the principle of fixity and incombustibility, it represents earth element and the physical body. Sulphur is the principle of flammability, it represents fire element and represents the soul or individualized essence of being."

She waited some to give a chance to copy the notes.

"Working with plants, or Spagyrics, is known as the Lesser Circulation, while pursuing Alchemical mastery of metals and minerals is called the Greater Circulation. The word 'Spagyrics' itself, comes from the Greek spao 'to tear open', and ageiro 'to collect'. It basically means 'separate and recombine'. Paracelsus first coined the term." Well and they were used to hearing about words that came from Greek, from incantations. Greek and...

"Another term is 'Solve et Coagula', which is Latin for 'dissolve and coagulate'. The meanings are clearly related." And they weren't stupid. No. They weren't.

It went up on the board.

"Mr. Montmorency brought up some good points and we'll touch on that now. There is a relationship between Alchemy and Astrology.The classical planets, those visible to the naked eye, provide a link between Alchemy and Astrology. These seven planets are linked to particular metals used in Alchemy. The Sun rules Gold, The Moon rules Silver, Mercury rules Mercury Venus rules Copper, Mars rules Iron, Jupiter rules Tin and Saturn rules Lead."

She'd add that to the board soon.

"The symbols for each of those planets appear in Alchemy too. I need a volunteer to hand out some worksheets please." Althea requested.

"Given what we've already discussed, and what you personally know, what other connections can you think of between Astrology and Alchemy? And, if anyone has any questions on the information presented so far, now is the time to ask."

--find the panacea
--find the alkahest
--turning things into gold (chrysopoeia) and other noble metals

"I think you can all see already that there is much within the pursuit of Alchemy, that even simplified it is complex field. Aside from the detailed symbolic meanings, which must be studied in order to gain an understanding of the processes involved in Alchemy, there are a lot of new words and terms that you'll come across too which have meanings specific to Alchemy. For instance we've already mentioned The Panacea, The Alkahest, and chrysopoeia, the Philosophers Stone and the Elixir of Life, and that is just in response to the simple question of the purpose of Alchemy."
-- Professor Althea Schirmer

Alkahest - Believed by Paracelsus to be the Philosophers Stone, or an element of its creation. This is a hypothetical universal solvent, having the power to dissolve every other substance, including gold.

Azoth - This serves as the essential agent of alchemical transformation, and embodies the concept of the main goals in Alchemy it is a possible universal medicine, universal solvent, or Elixir of Life. It is a name for Mercury as cardinal principle of Alchemy.

Chrysopoeia - A symbolic representation of the Philosophers Stone, chrysopoeia means transmutation into gold, from the Greek khrusōn, 'gold', and poiēin, 'to make'.

Panacea - also called the pancrest, or Panakeia in Greek, is named for the Greek Goddess of universal remedy, she supposedly had a magical medicinal substance which could cure all ills. It is a remedy that is supposed to cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely.

Spagyrics -the production of herbal medicines using alchemical techniques such as fermentation, distillation and the extraction of mineral components from the ash of a plant.

"In alchemical terms, all things are composed of three parts- Sulphur , Mercury, and Salt. The alchemist separates and recombines these three cardinal principles as often as necessary until they are in perfect proportion and harmony, and the raw material has been reduced to its purest essence."
-- Professor Althea Schirmer

Mercury
- principle of fusibility and volatility
- represents water element
- represents the life force

Salt
- principle of fixity and in-combustibility
- represents earth element
- represents the physical body

Sulphur
- principle of flammability
- represents fire element
- represents the soul or individualized essence of being

Sun - Gold
Moon - Silver
Mercury - Mercury
Venus - Copper
Mars - Iron
Jupiter - Tin
Saturn - Lead