Alchemy is spiritual
I will quote Hermes the "father" of alchemy, from various books from the divine pymander.
"That which is immortal, partakes not of that which is mortal.
That which is mortal cometh not into a Body immortal; but that which is immortal cometh into that which is mortal.
Operation or Workings are not carried upwards, but descend downwards.
Things upon Earth, do nothing advantage those in Heaven; but all things in Heaven do profit and advantage all things upon Earth.
Heaven is capable, and a fit receptacle of everlasting Bodies; the Earth of corruptible Bodies.
The Earth is brutish; the Heaven is reasonable or rational.
Fortune is the carriage or effect of that which is without order; the Idol of operation, a lying Fantasie or opinion.
What is God? The immutable or unalterable good.
What is man? An unchangeable evil.
If thou perfectly remember these Heads, thou canst not forget those things which in more words I have largely expounded unto thee; for these are the contents or Abridgment of them.
Avoid all conversation with the multitude or common people; for I would not have thee subject to Envy, much less to be ridiculous unto the many.
For the like always takes to itself that which is like, but the unlike never agrees with the unlike. Such discourses as these have very few Auditors, and peradventure very few will have, but they have something peculiar unto themselves.
They do rather sharpen and whet evil men to their maliciousness; therefore, it behoveth to avoid the multitude, and take heed of them as not understanding the virtue and power of the things that are said.
How does thou mean, O Father?
This O Son: the whole nature and Composition of those living things called Men, is very prone to Maliciousness, and is very familiar, and as it were nourished with it, and therefore is delighted with it; now this wight, if it shall come to learn or know that the world was once made, and all things are done according to Providence or Necessity, Destiny or Fate, bearing rule over all, will he not be much worse than himself, despising the whole, because it was made? And if he may lay the cause of Evil upon Fate or Destiny, he will never abstain from any evil work.
Wherefore we must look warily to such kind of people, that being in ignorance they may be less evil for fear of that which is hidden and kept secret."
"Why, O Men of the Offspring of Earth, why have you delivered yourselves over unto Death, having power to partake of Immortality? Repent and change your minds, you that have together walked in Error, and have been darkened in ignorance."
"But the Soul entering into the body of a Man, if it continue evil, shall neither taste of immortality, nor is partaker of the Good."
"The disposition of these clothings or Covers is done in an Earthly Body; for it is impossible that the Mind should establish or rest itself, naked, and of itself in an Earthly Body; neither is the Earthly Body able to bear such immortality: and therefore, that it might suffer so great virtue, the Mind compacted, as it were, and took to itself the passable Body of the Soul, as a covering or clothing. And the Soul being also in some sort Divine, useth the Spirit as her Minister or Servant; and the Spirit governeth the living things.
When therefore the Mind is separated, and departeth from the Earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do, having to dwell in an Earthly Body.
For the Earth cannot suffer fire, for it is all burned of a small spark; therefore is the water poured round about the Earth, as a wall or defence, to withstand the flame of fire.
But the Mind being the most sharp or swift of all the Divine Cogitations, and more swift than all the Elements, hath the fire for its Body."
"Yet is it so as I say, O Son, He that looketh only upon that which is carried upward as Fire, that which is carried downward as Earth, that which is moist as Water, and that which bloweth, or is subject to blast, as Air; how can he sensibly understand that which is neither hard nor moist, nor tangible, nor perspicuous, seeing it is only understood in power and operation? But I beseech and pray to the Mind, which alone can understand the Generation which is in God.
Tat. Then am I, O Father, utterly unable to do it.
God forbid, Son, rather draw or pull him unto thee (or study to know him) and he will come, be but willing and it shall be done; quite (or make idle) the senses of the Body, purging thyself from the unreasonable brutish torments of matter.
Tat. Have I any (revengers or) tormentors in myself, Father?
Herm. Yea, and those not a few, but many, and fearful ones.
Tat. I do not know them, Father.
One Torment, Son, is Ignorance: a second, Sorrow; a third, Intemperance; a fourth, Concupiscence; a fifth, Injustice; a sixth, Covetousness; a seventh, Deceit; an eighth, Envy; a ninth, Fraud or Guile; a tenth, Wrath; an eleventh, Rashness; a twelfth, Maliciousness.
They are in number twelve, and under these many more; some which through the prison of the Body do force the inwardly placed man to suffer sensibly.
And they do not suddenly or easily depart from him that hath obtained mercy of God; and herein consists both the manner and the reason of Regeneration."
"Tell me, O Father, This body that consists of Powers, shall it ever admit of Dissolution?
Good words, Son, and speak not things impossible; for so thou shalt sin, and the eye of thy mind grow wicked.
The sensible body of Nature is far from the Essential Generation, for that is subject to dissolution, but this is not; and that is mortal, but this immortal. Dost thou not know that thou art born a God, and the Son of the One, as I am?"
" But the Operation of God, is Mind and Soul, Of Eternity, Permanence, or Long-lasting, and Immortality, Of the World, Restitution, and Decay, or Destruction."
"As a good Physician grieveth the Body, prepossessed of a disease, by burning or lancing it for health's sake; After the same manner also the Mind grieveth the Soul, by drawing it out of Pleasure, from whence every disease of the Soul proceedeth."
"For the things that are, being two Bodies, and things incorporeal, wherein is the Mortal and the Divine, the Election or Choice of either is left to him that will choose: For no man can choose both"
There are many more as well, it seems Hermes himself was into "new age alchemy" as you guys call it. Yes physical alchemy may be a thing, however to state that alchemy originated in a purely material way is ignorant. It evolved into such a thing as Hermes predicted it would. I found the part about the fiery coat interesting, as this is the baptism by fire that the spirit must go through for its transformation, the same as the parable of the phoenix. Yeshua (christ) having been raised in Egypt surely was knowledgeable about hermetics.
