So the word Alchemy is related to our modern day ‘Chemistry’ and asking any college student what they think about Organic Chemistry or Bio-Chem is equivalent to watching them have flashbacks to brute force memorization days.
Jokes aside, the Word ‘Chemistry’ comes from Alchemy. ‘Alchemistry’, if you will. -And the word ‘Alchemy’ has some interesting roots.
The origins of words matter, and it’s not like Alchemy is a dying art nor is it dead. It’s merely ‘transmuted’ in today’s time.
The word ‘Alchemy’ may come from Ancient Middle East.
The Prefix ‘Al-‘ could stem from Arabic or Indo-Iranian origins meaning ‘The’ or ‘Beyond’.
The Suffix ‘-Khemia’ can either mean ‘mixing’ or be a reference to ‘Khemet’. Khemet is what the inhabitants of the Ancient Egyptians called themselves, the name ‘Khemet’ comes from the word ‘Khemia’ meaning both ‘black soil’ and ‘transmutation of earth’ because Ancient Egypt was known for having their soil turn black from Nile inundation.
“The name derived from the colour of the rich and fertile black soil which was due to the annually occurring Nile inundation.”
–Universty of Oxford
Here is another theory;
Looking back to the Greeks around 800 BC suggests that the origins of Khemia likely came from the literary Egyptians 1,000 years prior. The etymology is not certain, however one theory is that Greek alchemists adopted the word from Egyptian terminology. Assuming an Egyptian origin, the ancient Egyptian word khēmia means the transmutation of earth, thereby the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale. According to some etymologists, khēmia or “preparation of black powder” ultimately derived the name from Khem or Kēme, Egypt, the land of black earth. This quite possibly led to Persian word kimiya meaning gold. After Islam, Persian words converted to Arabic, thereby adding “al” to names, hence creating al-kimiya (alchemy in more modern, English spellings).
-Khemia Software
If you think about it, it could suggest that the practice of mixing chemicals together to make salves and all sorts of things could have borrowed influence from Ancient Egyptians. From Khemet.
Or perhaps the Ancient Hellenic people, the Greeks, borrowed such practice and fused it to go ‘beyond’ traditional mixing;
Greek views of how matter is made up of the four elements of nature – Fire, Earth, Air and Water, were merged with the
–University of Bristol
Egyptian sacred science. The result was Khemia, the Greek word for Egypt.
Additionally, there is a lot of ancient texts and work to suggest that the Far East, or Ancient China, has a long history of Alchemy. In their words, there are internal and external alchemy and they go deep into the elements as well in their own practices that have been adopted all throughout Asia and remixed.
This is no way a competition of ‘who said it first’ or ‘who said it better’, no, I’m just merely sharing some thoughts about some origins of some esoteric stuff and this isn’t necessarily the truth nor the whole truth. There’s a lot behind Alchemy itself seeing as Alchemy isn’t solely physical nor is it solely material, it can be spiritual as well, but that’s a topic for another day.
I thought this was worth sharing,
Because, you know,
Words Mean Things
As a side note,
I had a commission of ‘Words Mean Things’ into Sacred Geometrical Art by Lynn Busch Arts, and it looks absolutely lovely and dazzling. In person it has a lot of gold sheen for the gold paint that dances in a scintillating glow when given the rays of light. I plan on using this art for all sorts of content related to Words Mean Things.
I’ll definitely have to make a post about the art itself later.
Words Mean Things 
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