BY COINCIDENCE, I FOUND THIS BOOK WASHED UP ON THE SAND AT wHAREAKEAKE (MURDERING BAY) NEAR DUNEDIN. IHAD ALREADY USED ALCHEMIC SYMBOLS IN  A PREVIOUS SET OF HAND MADE EMULSION  WORKS ( Aporian Emulsions) AS A REFERENCE TO THE MIXING OF CHEMICALS AND THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS AND AS IT REFERENCED UNCERTAIN CHANGES OF MATERIAL STATES, AND I CONTINUED TO USE THESE SYMBOLS IN THE PHOTOSYNTHISES WORKS.
 

Alchemy suggests secret knowledge, suggests the the prospect of transmuting base metals into silver and gold, suggests an inexact science -  for a more select group, the fascination of secret knowledge
and the concept of finding a key to the universe held even more appeal than the lure of a gold and silver wealth. It held the lure of a spiritual transformation. like the transmutation of lead and copper into pure gold and silver, it offered the opportunity of the pure transcendent being.

The roots of Alchemy are old, it is likely to date back to the second millenium before Christ and the process of smelting iron and hoped to produce rarer substances like sliver and gold. It became a subjeect for the reasoned classification of the elements by Aristotle and other Greek philosophers under the four headings of fire, air, earth and water. It believed that all substances were combinations of these elements and by combining these in the right proportions it would be possible to create any substance.
 
Alchemic symbols

Hermetic Acranum 1623 Full text

  Hermetic Acranum 1623 Full text