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The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy
Primitive man's discovery of the ability to change matter from one state to another brought about a profound change in spiritual behavior. In The Forge and the Crucible, Mircea Eliade follows the ritualistic adventures of these ancient societies, adventures rooted in the people's awareness of an awesome new power.
The new edition of The Forge and the Crucible contains an updated appendix, in which Eliade lists works on Chinese alchemy published in the past few years. He also discusses the importance of alchemy in Newton's scientific evolution.
The new edition of The Forge and the Crucible contains an updated appendix, in which Eliade lists works on Chinese alchemy published in the past few years. He also discusses the importance of alchemy in Newton's scientific evolution.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Mircea Eliade
448 books2,432 followersRomanian-born historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion in the last century. Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years. He earned international fame with LE MYTHE DE L'ÉTERNAL RETOUR (1949, The Myth of the Eternal Return), an interpretation of religious symbols and imagery. Eliade was much interested in the world of the unconscious. The central theme in his novels was erotic love.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
January 9, 2014
Is it too much to ask for a book to be properly named? Gah.
Sure, this book treats alchemy, for around 40% of its length, but in its totality it's concerned with the religious consciousness of what Eliade precociously calls "Homo faber," or man qua tool user.
So, for the first hundred pages of this 170-page book, we take a survey of various mythological traditions from around the world associated with metals, metallurgy, mining, and forging, and unearth (no pun intended) a variety of interesting parallel motifs, particularly with respect to the belief that metals and minerals grow and ripen in the womb of the earth.
I'm often troubled by Eliade's lack of theoretical reflectiveness in his comparative approach. His typical modus operandi is to simply compare traditions without much concern for how parallels might be accounted for, whether by diffusion, collective unconscious, or coincidence. He tends to imply that parallel symbolic constructions point to universals, not in the Jungian sense, but perhaps some kind of a priori ontology that is known and expressed in religious forms around the world. There may be a case for that, but I'm uncomfortable with the degree that Eliade typically implies this is going on, but does not make it the subject of scrutiny or reflection.
But I digress. After this long intro, Eliade spends precious little time surveying the alchemical traditions of China, India, the Arab world, and Europe. He scarcely pauses to raise, let alone answer, any of the deep problems associated by this most difficult of subjects in religious history. Where did alchemy come from? How do we account for the striking parallels between the various forms of alchemy that developed in remote civilizations?
Eliade principally interprets alchemy as a sub-species of the religious concerns of Homo faber. That is, it is part of the general mythology of man's catalyzation of the material of the world, with the elements of inward transformation expressed in symbolic parallel to the energies of outward transformation of the material world. It is an expression of man's function of world-transformer in the religious idiom.
I was not won over by his approach, which strikes me as too broad, and too dependent on tenuous connections that he doesn't sufficiently establish. The links between African rites of initiation for miners and Renaissance experiments in transmutation are to my mind extremely tenuous, and doesn't establish a structural relationship.
He concludes with a theory about the continued existence of the essential character of alchemy in the form of materialist utopianism that I can hardly take seriously.
He spent so much time arguing for this unconvincing position that he scarcely dwelt upon the extremely compelling core problems of alchemy, with its intense and uncanny imagery and its strangely cagey relationship to itself. Alchemists seem to operate from a schizoid consciousness, in which their operations are somehow simultaneously held as symbolic, yet are also tied rigidly to a specious language of chemical manipulations. It is as if the alchemist intentionally drives the creation of a turbulent contradiction as part of his art.
I don't know what to make of the whole thing, really. It is a deeply bizarre and confusing area of study, and Eliade has only marginally illuminated it for me. He is generally much too quick to apply his ready-made structures of initiation and the axis mundi and the hieros gamos and all that, and doesn't have the patience to excavate the material right in front of his eyes.
Another minor criticism - the alchemical texts themselves are so deeply expressive and so compact, it's odd that he provided so little in the way of direct quotation.
Sure, this book treats alchemy, for around 40% of its length, but in its totality it's concerned with the religious consciousness of what Eliade precociously calls "Homo faber," or man qua tool user.
So, for the first hundred pages of this 170-page book, we take a survey of various mythological traditions from around the world associated with metals, metallurgy, mining, and forging, and unearth (no pun intended) a variety of interesting parallel motifs, particularly with respect to the belief that metals and minerals grow and ripen in the womb of the earth.
I'm often troubled by Eliade's lack of theoretical reflectiveness in his comparative approach. His typical modus operandi is to simply compare traditions without much concern for how parallels might be accounted for, whether by diffusion, collective unconscious, or coincidence. He tends to imply that parallel symbolic constructions point to universals, not in the Jungian sense, but perhaps some kind of a priori ontology that is known and expressed in religious forms around the world. There may be a case for that, but I'm uncomfortable with the degree that Eliade typically implies this is going on, but does not make it the subject of scrutiny or reflection.
But I digress. After this long intro, Eliade spends precious little time surveying the alchemical traditions of China, India, the Arab world, and Europe. He scarcely pauses to raise, let alone answer, any of the deep problems associated by this most difficult of subjects in religious history. Where did alchemy come from? How do we account for the striking parallels between the various forms of alchemy that developed in remote civilizations?
Eliade principally interprets alchemy as a sub-species of the religious concerns of Homo faber. That is, it is part of the general mythology of man's catalyzation of the material of the world, with the elements of inward transformation expressed in symbolic parallel to the energies of outward transformation of the material world. It is an expression of man's function of world-transformer in the religious idiom.
I was not won over by his approach, which strikes me as too broad, and too dependent on tenuous connections that he doesn't sufficiently establish. The links between African rites of initiation for miners and Renaissance experiments in transmutation are to my mind extremely tenuous, and doesn't establish a structural relationship.
He concludes with a theory about the continued existence of the essential character of alchemy in the form of materialist utopianism that I can hardly take seriously.
He spent so much time arguing for this unconvincing position that he scarcely dwelt upon the extremely compelling core problems of alchemy, with its intense and uncanny imagery and its strangely cagey relationship to itself. Alchemists seem to operate from a schizoid consciousness, in which their operations are somehow simultaneously held as symbolic, yet are also tied rigidly to a specious language of chemical manipulations. It is as if the alchemist intentionally drives the creation of a turbulent contradiction as part of his art.
I don't know what to make of the whole thing, really. It is a deeply bizarre and confusing area of study, and Eliade has only marginally illuminated it for me. He is generally much too quick to apply his ready-made structures of initiation and the axis mundi and the hieros gamos and all that, and doesn't have the patience to excavate the material right in front of his eyes.
Another minor criticism - the alchemical texts themselves are so deeply expressive and so compact, it's odd that he provided so little in the way of direct quotation.
December 31, 2016
İnsan ateşi kontrol altına almayı başardığında çok önemli bir şey oldu; doğayı değiştirebildiğini gördü. Bu da onun zihninde yepyeni bir pencere açtı. İşte Eliade kitabında bu yepyeni pencereyi aralayıp bize içeriyi gösteriyor.
Kitap; şamanların, yogilerin, demircilerin ve simyacıların ritüellerinin ve hikayelerinin nasıl birbirine bağlandığını gözler önüne seriyor. Bu eserden öğrendiğime göre ilk insanlar yeryüzünü, toprağı bir tür "ana" olarak gördükleri için toprağın altındaki metalleri rahimdeki embriyona benzetmişlerdi. Metallerin toprağın altında "zaman içinde" olgunlaşıp altına, yani kusursuz maddeye dönüşeceğini düşünüyorlardı. Burada kritik kavram zaman. Demiri ve diğer metalleri işleyen, fırında pişiren, biçimlendiren demirciler ve simyacılar aslında bir nevi kendilerini zamanın yerine koyma çabasındaydılar. Doğumu hızlandıran bir tür ebe olmak niyetleri vardı.
Bu anlayışta, maddenin kusursuz hale varabilmesi için önce ölmesi gerekir. "Ölüm biçimsizliğe geri dönmeyi, kaosa yeniden katılmayı temsil eder." Sonra bu ilksel halde yeniden doğum ile ölümsüz ya da tanrısal duruma geçiş yapılır. Felsefe taşı ya da yaşam iksiri zamanın yıpratıcı etkisini yok edip kusursuzluğa götürür. Kısaca Eliade'nin sözleriyle simyacının felsefesi şöyle özetlenebilir: "Maddenin olgunlaştırılmasına katkıda bulunma, bu arada kendi kusursuzluğunu sağlama düşü."
Eliade kitabın başındaki ön sözünde simyayı sadece kimyanın bir öncülü olarak ilkel birtakım deneyler bütünü gören anlayışı eleştiriyor. Çünkü olaya bu şekilde baktığımızda resmin bütününü kaçırmış oluyoruz. Simyacı için deneyin kendisi, nasıl yapıldığı çok önemli değildir, o daha ziyade simgesel bir olaydır. Gnostik bakış açısının bir ürünü olan maddenin ötesindeki anlam vardır burada, mistik bir durum söz konusudur. Her şeyin tanrısal görüldüğü bir çağın ürünüdür. Bu insanların düşünce yapılarını kavrayabilmek için bu çerçeveden meseleyi incelemek şart. İşte bu kitap da bunu yapıyor.
Bugün kendimizi tanımak istiyorsak eğer; dün zihnimizin yapısı nasıldı, anlattığımız hikayeler aslında neleri ifade ediyordu, bunları bilmemiz gerek. Demirciler ve Simyacılar'ın bu anlamda önemli bir eser olduğunu düşünüyorum.
Bu arada herkese iyi seneler dilerim. Hoş geldin 2017!
Kitap; şamanların, yogilerin, demircilerin ve simyacıların ritüellerinin ve hikayelerinin nasıl birbirine bağlandığını gözler önüne seriyor. Bu eserden öğrendiğime göre ilk insanlar yeryüzünü, toprağı bir tür "ana" olarak gördükleri için toprağın altındaki metalleri rahimdeki embriyona benzetmişlerdi. Metallerin toprağın altında "zaman içinde" olgunlaşıp altına, yani kusursuz maddeye dönüşeceğini düşünüyorlardı. Burada kritik kavram zaman. Demiri ve diğer metalleri işleyen, fırında pişiren, biçimlendiren demirciler ve simyacılar aslında bir nevi kendilerini zamanın yerine koyma çabasındaydılar. Doğumu hızlandıran bir tür ebe olmak niyetleri vardı.
Bu anlayışta, maddenin kusursuz hale varabilmesi için önce ölmesi gerekir. "Ölüm biçimsizliğe geri dönmeyi, kaosa yeniden katılmayı temsil eder." Sonra bu ilksel halde yeniden doğum ile ölümsüz ya da tanrısal duruma geçiş yapılır. Felsefe taşı ya da yaşam iksiri zamanın yıpratıcı etkisini yok edip kusursuzluğa götürür. Kısaca Eliade'nin sözleriyle simyacının felsefesi şöyle özetlenebilir: "Maddenin olgunlaştırılmasına katkıda bulunma, bu arada kendi kusursuzluğunu sağlama düşü."
Eliade kitabın başındaki ön sözünde simyayı sadece kimyanın bir öncülü olarak ilkel birtakım deneyler bütünü gören anlayışı eleştiriyor. Çünkü olaya bu şekilde baktığımızda resmin bütününü kaçırmış oluyoruz. Simyacı için deneyin kendisi, nasıl yapıldığı çok önemli değildir, o daha ziyade simgesel bir olaydır. Gnostik bakış açısının bir ürünü olan maddenin ötesindeki anlam vardır burada, mistik bir durum söz konusudur. Her şeyin tanrısal görüldüğü bir çağın ürünüdür. Bu insanların düşünce yapılarını kavrayabilmek için bu çerçeveden meseleyi incelemek şart. İşte bu kitap da bunu yapıyor.
Bugün kendimizi tanımak istiyorsak eğer; dün zihnimizin yapısı nasıldı, anlattığımız hikayeler aslında neleri ifade ediyordu, bunları bilmemiz gerek. Demirciler ve Simyacılar'ın bu anlamda önemli bir eser olduğunu düşünüyorum.
Bu arada herkese iyi seneler dilerim. Hoş geldin 2017!
Read
April 3, 2015“Alchemy cannot be reduced to a protochemistry,” states Eliade. He writes as a historian of religion, which means he writes about the human quest to influence and control and shape the physical world of matter. People are also matter. The quest embraces the renewal and the reshaping of the physical person. The great mystery and power generated by this process becomes that which is spiritual.
“The ‘conquest of matter’ began very early, perhaps in the palaeolithic age, that is, as soon as man had succeeded in making tools from silex and using fire to change the states of matter. In any case certain techniques - mainly agriculture and pottery - were fully developed during the neolithic age. Now these techniques were at the same time mysteries, for, on the one hand, they implied the sacredness of the cosmos and, on the other, were transmitted by initiation (the ‘craft-secrets’). Tilling, or the firing of clay, like, somewhat later, mining and metallurgy, put primitive man into a universe steeped in sacredness. It would be vain to wish to reconstitute his experiences; too much time has elapsed since the cosmos has been desanctified as a result of the triumph of the experimental sciences. Modern man is incapable of experiencing the sacred in his dealings with matter; at most he can achieve an aesthetic experience. He is capable of knowing matter as a ‘natural phenomenon’. But we have only to imagine a communion, no longer limited to the eucharistic elements of bread or wine, but extending to every kind of ‘substance’, in order to measure the distance separating a primitive religious experience from the modern experience of ‘natural phenomena’.
“Not that man in primitive society was still ‘buried in Nature’, powerless to free himself from the innumerable ‘mystic’ participations in Nature, totally incapable of logical thought or utilitarian labour in the modern sense of the word. Everything we know of our contemporary ‘primitives’ shows up the weakness of these arbitrary judgements. But it is clear that a thinking dominated by cosmological symbolism created an experience of the world vastly different from that accessible to modern man. To symbolic thinking the world is not only ‘alive’ but also ‘open’: an object is never simply itself (as is the case with modern consciousness), it is also a sign of, or a repository for, something else.” pp. 143-144
“Alchemy cannot be reduced to a protochemistry. In fact, when it became an elementary chemistry, the alchemical world of meaning was on the verge of disappearing. Everywhere we find alchemy, it is always intimately related to a ‘mystical’ tradition: in China with Taoism, in India with Yoga and Tantrism, in Hellenistic Egypt with gnosis, in Islamic countries with hermetic and esoteric mystical schools, in the Western Middle Ages and Renaissance with Hermetism, Christian and sectarian mysticism, and Cabala. Consequently, to understand the meaning and function of alchemy, we must not judge the alchemical texts by the possible chemical insights which they may contain. Such an evaluation would be tantamount to judging - and classifying - great poetical creations by their scientific data or their historical accuracy.
“That the alchemists DID contribute also to the progress of the natural sciences is certainly true. But they did this indirectly and only as a consequence of their concern with mineral substance and living matter. For they were ‘experimenters,’ not abstract thinkers or erudite scholastics. Their inclination to ‘experiment,’ however, was not limited to the natural realm…. the experiments with mineral or vegetal substances pursued a more ambitious goal: to change the alchemist’s own mode of being.” pp. 182-183
“The ‘conquest of matter’ began very early, perhaps in the palaeolithic age, that is, as soon as man had succeeded in making tools from silex and using fire to change the states of matter. In any case certain techniques - mainly agriculture and pottery - were fully developed during the neolithic age. Now these techniques were at the same time mysteries, for, on the one hand, they implied the sacredness of the cosmos and, on the other, were transmitted by initiation (the ‘craft-secrets’). Tilling, or the firing of clay, like, somewhat later, mining and metallurgy, put primitive man into a universe steeped in sacredness. It would be vain to wish to reconstitute his experiences; too much time has elapsed since the cosmos has been desanctified as a result of the triumph of the experimental sciences. Modern man is incapable of experiencing the sacred in his dealings with matter; at most he can achieve an aesthetic experience. He is capable of knowing matter as a ‘natural phenomenon’. But we have only to imagine a communion, no longer limited to the eucharistic elements of bread or wine, but extending to every kind of ‘substance’, in order to measure the distance separating a primitive religious experience from the modern experience of ‘natural phenomena’.
“Not that man in primitive society was still ‘buried in Nature’, powerless to free himself from the innumerable ‘mystic’ participations in Nature, totally incapable of logical thought or utilitarian labour in the modern sense of the word. Everything we know of our contemporary ‘primitives’ shows up the weakness of these arbitrary judgements. But it is clear that a thinking dominated by cosmological symbolism created an experience of the world vastly different from that accessible to modern man. To symbolic thinking the world is not only ‘alive’ but also ‘open’: an object is never simply itself (as is the case with modern consciousness), it is also a sign of, or a repository for, something else.” pp. 143-144
“Alchemy cannot be reduced to a protochemistry. In fact, when it became an elementary chemistry, the alchemical world of meaning was on the verge of disappearing. Everywhere we find alchemy, it is always intimately related to a ‘mystical’ tradition: in China with Taoism, in India with Yoga and Tantrism, in Hellenistic Egypt with gnosis, in Islamic countries with hermetic and esoteric mystical schools, in the Western Middle Ages and Renaissance with Hermetism, Christian and sectarian mysticism, and Cabala. Consequently, to understand the meaning and function of alchemy, we must not judge the alchemical texts by the possible chemical insights which they may contain. Such an evaluation would be tantamount to judging - and classifying - great poetical creations by their scientific data or their historical accuracy.
“That the alchemists DID contribute also to the progress of the natural sciences is certainly true. But they did this indirectly and only as a consequence of their concern with mineral substance and living matter. For they were ‘experimenters,’ not abstract thinkers or erudite scholastics. Their inclination to ‘experiment,’ however, was not limited to the natural realm…. the experiments with mineral or vegetal substances pursued a more ambitious goal: to change the alchemist’s own mode of being.” pp. 182-183
April 2, 2008
Admittedly, Eliade is kind of strange to read because the book reads like a mosaic of random facts. Each chapter often seems like a series of vaguely related ideas, but after some thought, the book coheres decently well. The knowledge available on alchemy is worth its weight in gold (forgive the joke), and it seems to provide good possible answers to "little kid" questions that I had about the mechanics of religions, particularly to do with sacrificial rites/themes and so forth.
The book is good for anyone interested in comparative religion or anyone interested in why certain metaphors in our language may have come about -- it provides a basis for why "up" is assumed to be better, why gods are often from the skies, phallic symbols, and so forth. It also gives some insight into why metals are holy or sacred, and why groups like the freemasons might have the nature they do.
This text really is a treasure chest of great ideas and has given me a lot of tools to theorize about the world -- and the way we think and theorize about the world -- with.
The book is good for anyone interested in comparative religion or anyone interested in why certain metaphors in our language may have come about -- it provides a basis for why "up" is assumed to be better, why gods are often from the skies, phallic symbols, and so forth. It also gives some insight into why metals are holy or sacred, and why groups like the freemasons might have the nature they do.
This text really is a treasure chest of great ideas and has given me a lot of tools to theorize about the world -- and the way we think and theorize about the world -- with.
May 31, 2016
The age of this text is startling—text, not book, feels correct for The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy; its most common format is likely assigned-reading photocopies—as it presupposes concepts over which I felt a sense of individual proprietariness. Those ideas took their time in uncovering themselves to my mind: the false equivalence of progress to the inevitable, of civilizing advancement as a linear and undiluted positive. These were clearly common assumptions, stated without fanfare, over a half century ago. Currently, the ideas they push against are so ingrained within me, and my peers, as children of the post-computer industrial information economy that simply recognizing their truth feels wildly subversive. But they are not new nor are they to be relinquished to the disaffected anticonformists:
To get there, though, some background is required. A line needs to be drawn around chemistry: “Chemistry was born from the disintegration of the ideology of alchemy.” Moreso the contrast needs to be stark, because alchemy in the modern dialectic is nothing more than chemistry with newt eyes and a fanciful goal. Chemistry is observation and replication. Alchemy is ritual, a desire to not observe but to guide: “Alchemy has bequeathed much more to the modern worlds than a rudimentary chemistry; it has left us its faith in the transmutation of Nature and its ambition to control time.” That, not the laboratory or experimental structure, is the legacy of the alchemical tradition.
Let us not forget the titular forge, which ties in as follows; we are in the throws of socio-cultural upheaval:
That break—between finding and creating—is where we are now, or at least the now of seventy years ago, with synthetics and biochemical engineering: we can now forge a sword rather than search for sharp stones; build a home rather than find a cave; grow crops rather than gather berries. But we cannot—yet—build the genetic analogue of the blacksmith’s hammer:
Finding that in capital-H History is not enough for Forge/Crucible. Hereafter it shows a theory, rather than startlingly modern, that is built from a lineage imperial vanity:
Non-Western societies aren’t a temporal portal into what life was like for Europeans in the past; these ideas are insidious and toxic. When a text, so heavy with interesting ideas, turns out to be inseparable from unfounded, presupposed racism, its place in a global humanities curriculum is lost. However useful Forge/Crucible is in building a grandiose perspective for the illusory inevitability of global modernism, it is destroyed by contradiction. It becomes a work of tepid racism masquerading as cultural foundationalism, a golden lock on the cage of Western cultural supremacy.
We must not believe that the triumph of experimental science reduced to nought the dreams and ideals of alchemy. On the contrary, the ideology of the new epoch, crystallized around the myth of infinite progress and boosted by the experimental sciences and progress of industrialization which dominated and inspired the whole of the nineteenth century, takes up and carries forward—despite its radical secularization—the millennary dream of the alchemist.The Myth of Infinite Progress is such a more fitting post-colon than The Origins and Structures of Alchemy for this text, a signifier that needn’t be signified when it was originally published but now would fill a crucial niche.
To get there, though, some background is required. A line needs to be drawn around chemistry: “Chemistry was born from the disintegration of the ideology of alchemy.” Moreso the contrast needs to be stark, because alchemy in the modern dialectic is nothing more than chemistry with newt eyes and a fanciful goal. Chemistry is observation and replication. Alchemy is ritual, a desire to not observe but to guide: “Alchemy has bequeathed much more to the modern worlds than a rudimentary chemistry; it has left us its faith in the transmutation of Nature and its ambition to control time.” That, not the laboratory or experimental structure, is the legacy of the alchemical tradition.
Let us not forget the titular forge, which ties in as follows; we are in the throws of socio-cultural upheaval:
It is in the specific dogma of the nineteenth century, according to which man’s true mission is to transform and improve upon Nature and become her master, that we must look for the authentic continuation of the alchemist’s dream. The visionary’s myth of the perfection, or more accurately, of the redemption of Nature, survives, in camouflaged form, in the pathetic programme of the industrial societies whose aim is the total transmutation of Nature, its transformation into ‘energy’.Why the forge? Humanity’s new—new for the mid-twentieth century—our new ability to manufacture whatever we can imagine is new. But not completely beyond the pattern of history; it can still be analogized. Imagine what humanity felt when straddling the line between being able to create, to make, to forge permanent objects, and the life left behind. This is the birth of pottery, or metallurgy, of agriculture itself. Things before either were or they weren’t; what you had was unchangeable except through fate, hope, kismet, destiny. Metal fell from the sky, was used like rock, shined or glinted or rusted or held an edge—but it wasn’t created.
That break—between finding and creating—is where we are now, or at least the now of seventy years ago, with synthetics and biochemical engineering: we can now forge a sword rather than search for sharp stones; build a home rather than find a cave; grow crops rather than gather berries. But we cannot—yet—build the genetic analogue of the blacksmith’s hammer:
It is in this nineteenth century, dominated by the physico-chemical sciences and the upsurge of industry, that man succeeds in supplanting Time. His desire to accelerate the natural tempo of things by an ever more rapid and efficient exploitation of mines, coal-fields and petrol deposits, begins to come true. Organic chemistry, fully mobilized to wrest the secrets of the mineral basis of life, now opens the way to innumerable ‘synthetic’ products. And one cannot help noticing that these synthetic products demonstrate for the first time the possibility of eliminating Time and preparing, in factory and laboratory, substances which it would have taken Nature thousands and thousands of years to produce.Modernity is the fruition of the alchemist’s goal. To understand the scope—to be able to see now from the outside—we have to look to the past, look to cultures that saw their destinies change on the backs’ of their smiths and metallurgists, likened to creator-gods, mythical heroes, allegorical worldmakers.
Finding that in capital-H History is not enough for Forge/Crucible. Hereafter it shows a theory, rather than startlingly modern, that is built from a lineage imperial vanity:
We have come across examples of initiatory transmission rites among miners, smelters and smiths; in the West, they preserved, right up to the Middle Ages (and in other parts of the world, up to the present time), their primitive attitude vis-à-vis minerals and metals.Did you catch it, elision of alchemical assumptions and cultural theory? One is decried as superstitious myth while the other is unironically posited as truth. It happens many more times than I can excerpt, but it is important to see for yourself:
Metals ‘grow’ in the belly of the earth. And, as the peasants of Tonkin still hold today, if bronze were to remain buried for the required time, it would become gold. To sum up: in the symbols and rites accompanying metallurgical operations there comes into being the idea of an active collaboration of man and nature, perhaps even the belief that man, by his own work, is capable of superseding the process of nature.The citations draw on an unspoken assumption that the West is a more advanced version of society that has grown past “primitive attitudes.” Again:
Belief in the natural metamorphosis of metals is of very ancient origin in China and it is also found in Annam, in India and the Indian archipelago. The peasants of Tonkin have a saying: ‘Black bronze is the mother of gold.’ Gold is engendered naturally by bronze. But this transmutation can materialize only if the bronze has lain a sufficiently long period in the bosom of earth.To state that the Tonkin or other “primitive” civilizations can be directly contrasted to Western societies in medieval times; that they are somehow foundational—unfinished—versions or advanced society, the black bronze to white Westernism's gold. To assume that, given more time, they would “advance” to the perfection of gold. This, more than belief in the forms and formats of the metals of the earth, more than the physico-chemical advances that make modernity run—accepting this belief that all roads lead to Rome—is to uncritically accept the very illusion of infinite, linear progress. It was precisely the denial of this inevitability that made the text feel relevant when it was stated with such aplomb.
Non-Western societies aren’t a temporal portal into what life was like for Europeans in the past; these ideas are insidious and toxic. When a text, so heavy with interesting ideas, turns out to be inseparable from unfounded, presupposed racism, its place in a global humanities curriculum is lost. However useful Forge/Crucible is in building a grandiose perspective for the illusory inevitability of global modernism, it is destroyed by contradiction. It becomes a work of tepid racism masquerading as cultural foundationalism, a golden lock on the cage of Western cultural supremacy.
December 30, 2013
Though Eliade can't claim any primary fieldwork, The Forge and the Crucible offers an impressive laundry list of ethnographic profiles on practices of mining and metallurgy, contrasting established alchemical traditions and European folk beliefs, uncovering striking parallels and profound undercurrents as to the sacred nature of work, the task of healing the world and perfecting the self, and the archetypal human striving to intercede in and improve on time itself.
December 30, 2020
((خلقت خود یک قربانی هست))
کلا بیشتر مبحث کتاب در مورد آهنگری و تا حدودی کیمیاگری (که هنرهای اسرار آمیز) و بن مایه های اساطیری دارن میپردازد .
البته طبق معمول با ذکر منابع فراروان و تقریبا شصت صحفه فقط منابع این کتاب هستش.
کلا بیشتر مبحث کتاب در مورد آهنگری و تا حدودی کیمیاگری (که هنرهای اسرار آمیز) و بن مایه های اساطیری دارن میپردازد .
البته طبق معمول با ذکر منابع فراروان و تقریبا شصت صحفه فقط منابع این کتاب هستش.
June 25, 2012
A thoughtful and insightful study of alchemy and metallurgy. Eliade breaks the book into two sections: 1. the structure of various myths and rituals of metallurgy and 2. the foundational structure of alchemy in the Western, Chinese, and Indian traditions. What at first seems merely like a hodgepodge collection of myths and short essays comes together when Eliade finally gets to the meaning behind alchemical structures/tenets.
Well-written and deeply thought, Eliade does away with the popular belief that alchemy is merely an antecedent to modern chemistry--merely a secularization of a sacred science.
Well-written and deeply thought, Eliade does away with the popular belief that alchemy is merely an antecedent to modern chemistry--merely a secularization of a sacred science.
September 6, 2014
İnsanlığın geçmişten bugüne kadar doğaya karşı galebe çalma, onun yerine geçme tutkusunu, düşünü anlatıyor Eliade kitabında. Ancak dil ve içerdiği detaylar olarak ağır bir kitap. Okurken notlar almak, üzerine düşünmek, hazmetmek gerekiyor. Aslında içeriği ve konuyu ele alış biçimi açısından çok önemli bir eser. Akademik çalışmalar için daha uygun. Notlar, kaynaklar, önerilen eserler muazzam. İnsanlığın doğanın ve zamanın yerine geçmesi için ilk yöntemlerden biri olan madencilik, demircilikten Rönesansa ve tabi ki tarih boyunca simyacılığa kadar pek çok konuyu anlatıyor, yorumluyor, özetliyor.
November 4, 2015
Un saggio di Mircea Eliade stupisce sempre per la profondità dei temi affrontati unitamente alla chiarezza della loro presentazione. Non fa eccezione questo splendido affresco antropologico e storico nel quale all'Arte Reale, o Alchimia, viene resa la sua vera connessione con le professioni metallurgiche e minerarie della storia antica, assieme ai miti, i simboli e le leggende che sono stati associati ad esse. Un percorso attraverso le culture occidentali, la Cina e l'India e l'immancabile prospettiva psicanalitica elaborata da Jung.
September 9, 2016
This a very anthropological account of alchemy as discourse and its evolution from tribal manifestations to present yoga traditions of all paths and cultures. Eliade is a beautiful yet factual writer. The book can get repetitive with certain motifs, but such is alchemy. I enjoyed the read like I enjoy a good PBS special.
February 5, 2014
Simyacılık ile ilgili bilgisi olmayanlar için biraz ağır bir kaynak.Ancak Eliade yararlandığı kaynaklardan da bahsederek okuyucuları araştırmaya sevkediyor. Yazarın dinler tarihine giriş kitabını da okumak istiyorum.
September 21, 2013
The best Eliade so far. It shows how many realistic aspects one can find researching old metaphysics, ideology and mysticism, namely alchemical and metallurgic teachings. Power is in secret of steel. Conan, anyone?
September 19, 2017
Like all books of Eliade, this is again rich in content. The book is an ideal introduction to the studie of the backgrounds of alchemie, its evolution and historie.
October 8, 2018
Estamos ante una de las obras fundamentales de Eliade. Como un auténtico maestro del mito, analiza el concepto de alquimia desde la perspectiva de Gea-dadora de vida. Las creencias pre-científicas acerca de los metales, entendidos como el fruto de la gestación de la madre tierra, preñada de dones, es la base de todo el libro. El herrero es entonces más que una profesión, es el privilegio de dar forma a un material sagrado que sale del vientre de la diosa tierra, el oro.
October 15, 2020
Un recorrido breve pero eficaz en los orígenes, por lo general místicos o mitológicos, de la relación entre el hombre y los metales en varias culturas ancestrales (greco-romanas, prehispánicas, chinas, hinduistas, etc.), y de cómo la transformación de la materia a través del fuego adquirió una significación simbólica proyectada hacia la ancestral profesión del herrero como una suerte de padre primordial en el saber tecnológico.
April 21, 2021
Meteoriţii nu puteau trece fără să lase o puternică impresie: veniţi "de sus", din Cer, aceştia participau la sacralitatea celestă. La un moment dat, în anumite culturi, cerul a fost imaginat ca fiind de piatră. În zilele noastre încă, australienii cred că bolta e făcută din cristal de stîncă sau că tronul zeului uranian e construit din cuarţ. Considerate fragmente desprinse din tronul celest, cristalele de stîncă jucau un rol esenţial în iniţierile şamanice, la negritoşii din Malacca, în America de Nord etc. Aceste "pietre de lumină", cum le considerau daiakii, oameni ai mării din Sarawak, reflectau tot ceea ce se întîmpla pe pămînt; ele revelau şamanului tot ceea ce făcea sufletul bolnavului şi locul unde acesta se ascundea. Mai trebuie să amintim că şamanul era cel care "vedea" pentru că el dispunea de o vedere supranaturală: el "vedea" departe la fel de bine în spaţiu ca şi în timp; percepea ceea ce rămînea invizibil profanilor ("sufletul", spiritele, zeii). În timpul iniţierii, viitorul şaman era îndopat cu cristale de cuarţ.
December 31, 2015
The author Eliade is a recognized authority on myth. He explains the primitive pre-scientific beliefs about metals, such as that metals like babies matured in the womb of Mother Earth until they reached maturity--gold. Such ridiculous ideas as the ancients held are truly frightening when one realizes that infant sacrifice was used in early smithying worldwide. The mind of the pagan is not one of clarity and goodness, but one of muddled facts and muddled worldview. Thank goodness for the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement of the late 17th century through the 18th century emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.
November 14, 2023
I am an Eliade fan and will never stop being one. A book that I randomly selected from the library in the absence of another masterpiece of his, turned out into a splendid surprise. If you never thought of the intersection between sexuality and smithery, or the myths that go back to Han dynasty, then this is a book to open minds. I loved how the author once again travels through time, history, tribal knowledge and culture with precise examples from each, to strengthen the main argument - that smithery is a Gods given art with healing and creation powers that transcend time and existence as we know it.
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August 5, 2011Eliade was one of the pioneering scholars in the study of religion. This book looks at the development of alchemy from the point of view of the history of religions. It is quite a good little book that makes clear a defunct but still influential esoteric tradition. This also contains a brief discussion of Carl Jung's psychological understanding of alchemy and this book is probably a good place to start before moving on to Jung's more dense work.
May 21, 2021
An interesting look at a mindset alleged prevalent in past centuries regarding the material world and its manipulation, written by an infamous fascist sympathizer and hornyman. Those two qualities aren't in strong expression, here, so you'll only have to worry about dodging incredibly broad cross-globe-and-millennia generalities, the usual Kinda Sketch connections drawn by the terrible children of James George Frazer.
November 6, 2012
I couldn't finish this. Maybe because I'm not that interested in alchemy. I am a bit interested, but I think I need a basics book. I read all through the "forge" part though. A couple of interesting ideas there, some connections I never would have made myself.
March 16, 2013
I like the idea of mysticism tied to things I can do with my hands like smithing or alchemy. (Moreso with smithing and metal work than alchemy.) Perhaps this is why I never could get into mass, haha.
May 1, 2009
Excellent study with particular attention to Indian and Chinese alchemy.
August 10, 2012
Excellent.
December 22, 2014
Brilliant and informative study of the religious aspects of alchemy, both in Europe and in Asia.
September 17, 2017
Read this on my Kindle.
Eliade's Cosmos and History excellent.
This too.
Eliade's Cosmos and History excellent.
This too.
February 7, 2020
كتاب مهم للغاية وترجمة ممتازة. قليلة هي الكتب التي ناقشت أساطير النار والحديد باللغة العربية. فهذا الكتاب إضافة قيمة للمكتبة العربية واستفدت منه كثيراً
August 13, 2021
Çok güdük kalmış. Okunmağa değmez.
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