How is alchemy considered an occult practice / esoteric?

[WindAdvisory]

From what I've seen, alchemy is trying to transform base materials into silver and gold.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Philosophical alchemy on the historiographic record starts popping up around the 3rd and 4th century. The oldest philosophical alchemist with extant writings is Zosimos of Panopolis, an egyptian hermeticist, who's works greatly influenced hermetic practice and alchemy as a spiritual discipline.

It is important to recognize that in this time period and for the following centuries philosophers were scientists, astronomers were priests, and the line between religion and science was incredibly blurred. The forces of Natural Physics could be approached through ontology by metaphysicians, and a successful lab experiment for a proto-scientist was physical proof for a loving and miraculous God.

We can see in the Golden Tractate (4th Century) of Hermes Trismegistus outlining very clearly a hermetic ascent ritual and magical operations using chemistry as the symbol set for the description of the procedure interspersed with mythic symbolism. This sets the tone for philosophical alchemy moving forward. The Zosimos tradition was pushed even further by the Arabs/Muslims during the Abassayid Caliphate where we see Muslim and Sufi mystics using the hermetic alchemical symbols to describe the dissolution and mystical conjunction with Allah (see Ibn Umayil). During this same time period alchemy is trickling into mideval Europe through Byzantium and Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) and this is where the puffers (those obsessed with physical gold) take it to an extreme by interpreting the philosophical alchemy the same way as laboratory alchemy.

After the fall of Constantinople and the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Muslim/Arabic literature flooded into Europe and became a part of the Rennaissance. The Muslim literature preserved much of the Hermetic and Zosimos tradition of Arabic alchemy and this is when European alchemists began getting really familiar with the spiritual branch. You can see this pop up with the alchemist Ripley (15th century) where we see an extremely Christianized version of alchemical symbolism that is encouraging the alchemist to practice this same type of spiritual transformation and engraved and emblemized in monuments such as the Porto Alchemica (there is an astrological and hermetic tinge to this) and most famously the front porch of Notre Dame (where there were symbols of Mithraic initiatory rites).

During the late Rennaissance this got consolidated into its own European flavored Philosophical alchemy through the Rosicrucian project in which the performance of the work promised immortality, or something like it with the perfectly preserved body of Christian Rosenkreuz (this echos Alchemy's egyptian roots as we can see here the beliefs of the Egyptian funerary rites clearly embedded in this goal). The influence of the Rosicrucians further embedded into the the Freemasons during the 18th century during the reconstruction of their esoteric symbol sets and made its way into the many magical lodges of the 18th and 19th centuries.

So philosophical/spiritual alchemy has always been there, atleast, hard evidence for it goes back to the 3rd century. Its evolved over time from its hermetic roots, appearing in formats used by muslim and christian mystics. There is confusion though, as there is alchemical literature that is purely laboratory alchemy and then there is alchemical literature that is obviously philosophical/spiritual alchemy. The puffers got caught in the middle confusing the two with each other, which is where we get the radical stories of black magicians chasing a philosophers stone that could turn lead into gold.

 

[Roa Genesis]

The core reason alchemy is deeply esoteric lies in the concept of Hermeticism and the maxim "as above, so below." While the external laboratory work dealt with purifying metals, the true "occult" practice was entirely internal—using physical processes as a hidden, coded metaphor for refining human consciousness, transmuting lower animal instincts into spiritual gold, and unlocking the mysteries of the soul

 

[Firetree]

From what I've seen, alchemy is trying to transform base materials into silver and gold.

It is a subject full of alliteration, obfuscation , 'clouding' , complex symbolism and metaphorical comparisons . Its process was not entirely understood and it attempts to imbue materials with 'spiritual substance ' . . . which cannot be measured by empirical scientific equipment .

Now look up the meaning of 'occult' .

 

[Rynnshng]

From what I've seen, alchemy is trying to transform base materials into silver and gold.

Yes. Because Silver and Gold are valuable, alchemy was an economic practice trying to cheat nature to gain easy wealth - a get rich quick scheme for the ages. A practice that many attempted over centuries if not thousands of years to achieve. But, such art, is premised on an understanding that objects can change - and the idea that they have an external appearance, and an interior essence - and an association of those principles in the world back to us, who also have an external appearance, and an interior essence and who can also change, under the right processes. The idea then, is that we are the base material, and through effort and struggle, understanding and philosophy, can transform ourselves into better beings, even transcendent ones, from lead into gold. The methods for such are a matter of debate - but one such way is that of the Septenary Tradition of which I have deep personal experience. Others, fill a hundred thousand books or more, with no-one to really judge of the methods success.

 

[Keldan]

Alchemy was the attempt to transform base metals into metals like silver or gold. That is the part most people hear about first, because it is the most literal and material interpretation. But in magick, alchemy is fundamentally about transformation.

When we speak of alchemy in a magickal sense, we are talking about inner transformation. For example: transforming fear, anxiety, pessimism, and more. The “lead” is not literal lead, and the “gold” is not literal gold. Lead represents the undeveloped, or burdened parts of yourself. Gold represents the awakened, or transformed self.

Alchemy is not just chemistry, it is also a spiritual science of change. The physical process of turning base metals into gold became a metaphor for a much deeper meaning: the refinement of the human being. A true magick alchemist can not only change themselves, but they can also change others.