Testing the Blue: Ancient Egyptian Alchemy

Pic: Adventures
Unlimited Press (C)

Testing the Blue: Ancient Egyptian Alchemy
Jan 19, 2014 | Disinfo.com

Stephen S. Mehler, M.A.

Assisted by George T. Bayer, Ph.D.

I have often stated in the last few years that the definitive book on alchemy has yet to be written. This is primarily because the actual practices, procedures and true origin of the system have also not been correctly delineated. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word alchemy in two ways:  “the medieval chemical science, the great objects of which were to transmute base metals into gold,” and “the power to transform, or act of transforming, something common into something precious.” I consider the first definition to be superfluous, which I will address, but the second definition will be paramount to the meaning of this article as to the true ancient practice.

I have been fortunate to work with, be a student of, Egyptian-born Egyptologist and indigenous wisdom keeper Abd’El Hakim Awyan (see Figure 1)—a collaboration which has resulted in my two books, The Land of Osiris (Adventures Unlimited Press) and From Light Into Darkness (Adventures Unlimited Press). Hakim and I have created a new discipline, Khemitology, as opposed to the outdated and incorrect term “Egyptology.” The ancients called their civilization KMT, which I have rendered as Khemit (thus the discipline of Khemitology), which meant “The Black Land” to describe the rich, dark alluvial soil full of silt from the river Nile when she floods, the basis of the civilization. Egypt is based on the Greek term Aegyptos and only referred to the early dynastic site of Memphis (Men-Nefer), not the whole civilization. The term “Aegyptos” only came into being around 200 BC, while the term KMT is thousands of years older.

Since one of the Arabic terms for modern Egypt is Al-Khem, it is obvious to me that this is where the word “alchemy” comes from. I would, therefore, define alchemy as:  “The arts and sciences of ancient Khemit, the knowledge of which was handed down to the Greeks and Romans, and became the basis of medieval alchemy and chemistry.” The idea that alchemy was simply to transform base metals into gold is a limited understanding, but the second definition offered by Webster’s, that of transforming something common to something precious, is very pertinent to this study. I would also add that the “act of transforming” involves processes that can be termed as “magic” or “magical,” in that the resulting “precious” material is not understood by the normal paradigms of chemistry.  

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