Hey Iset, I still think of you as Angels :)

What got me interested in the Emerald tablet was a book I read recently, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I saw you mention on another thread interest in the Philosophers stone. I really like some of his ideas on the thing.

[link to www.shmoop.com]

No surprises here: not only does alchemy show up over and over as Santiago tries to reach his treasure, it's in the title and everything. (That would be The Alchemist, if you're just joining us.) Of course, this isn't just a literal novel about alchemy, although that would be pretty cool, too. In Coelho's novel, Alchemy stands in for something else: personal evolution.

We first learn about alchemy when Santiago meets the Englishman, who's reading about it while they wait for the caravan to head out. The narrator tells us, "All his life and all his studies were aimed at finding the one true language of the universe. First he had studied Esperanto, then the world's religions, and now it was alchemy" (2.90).

Lumping alchemy in with a universal language and world religion shows us that alchemy is another way of understanding the language of the universe in this novel. And later, the alchemist tells us why:

The alchemists spent years in their laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to a purification of themselves. (2.184)

Get it? Alchemy is really not so much about being greedy and trying to turn everything you see into gold, like King Midas or Beyoncé, but rather about purifying yourself and your soul. While the alchemists of legends, and the one in the novel, are able to turn any metal into gold, Santiago's lesson is about becoming better in-tune with his heart and the universe. It's like the universe is an alchemist, purifying Santiago until he's a precious metal.