Nicolas Flamel and Alchemy
You must learn to question everything.
Welcome back, dear reader, I hope this last week has found you well. Our discourse this week will continue the series on famous alchemists and their contributions to Hermetics and alchemy with Nicolas Flamel. Flamel is one of the “rockstars” of alchemy in our day and age, he has been given life and fame again through pop culture books such as Harry Potter and the series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (The Alchemyst). These stories are fiction of course but they draw on a very interesting history of the alchemist and a mystery that has still never been solved.
Nicolas is assumed to be born in 1330 in Paris, France and was known to have been a scribe and a book seller. It is recorded that he obtained a certain amount of money and gave that money to hospitals and schools around Paris before his death in 1418[4][18]. These are the things that we know for sure that have not been added to in the 1700s when several writings that are attributed to Flamel begin to call him an alchemist[4][19]. From the 1700s on Nicolas has been known as a very famous alchemist, his life becomes one of the best documented of medieval alchemists[19]. It is said that Flamel discovered the Philosopher’s stone and used it to gain large amounts of wealth that he used to build schools and hospitals, but also that it gave him eternal life. This is how he was able to write so many works 300 years after he was supposed to have been dead. Many years after his death it is said that his tomb was opened and the places for him and his wife were found empty. I felt it was needed to have both of these histories given because there are two distinct groups of people, one who believe Flamel died in 1418 and while he may have done some alchemy he never created the stone, and one group that believes he did create the stone and that the later works attributed to him are truly his[18]. I do not take a stand on either side of this argument, but I still find the works attributed to him to be some of the most amazing alchemical texts I have ever seen.
As we stated before Nicolas is said to have created the Philosopher’s stone after learning the secrets of alchemy from a book given to him by Abraham the Jew (Abramelin the Mage)[1][4][7][8][9][10]. In his book explaining the hieroglyphic book he had published; the introduction gives his account of how he translated the text and thus finding the secret for creating the Stone[11]. It is said that he first used the text to create silver then, after perfecting the process, creating gold. Upon creating gold, he gave much of it to create some of the oldest hospitals and schools in Paris, becoming a very well-known philanthropist in the city. He had become so famous in the city that his home is one of the oldest buildings left standing in Paris and is protected by the De Leur Foundation Charitable La Ville De Paris. There are also streets in Paris known as the Rue Nicolas Flamel and the Rue Pernelle, named for his wife. Whether the alchemical stories attributed to him are correct or not it is clear that someone using the name of Nicolas Flamel did give a large amount of wealth to the city of Paris and left behind a great legacy of charity that is still visible today.
The Book of Hieroglyphic Figures was published in 1612 and was attributed to Flamel, it is filled with images that Nicolas said he had bought in 1378. He traveled seeking someone who could help him translate and understand the images, when he found someone that told him the symbols were from a book known as The Book of Abraham the Jew. This book is one of mythical proportions, similar to The Emerald Tablet, as there are several texts that have been attributed to an ancient Semitic Mage that is said to have been a great alchemist from the middle east. Whether it was actually Nicolas that translated the book or not doesn’t really matter in the study of alchemy, what matters is that the images do seem to contain many alchemical secrets and those who have dedicated their time to the study of these images have made great steps in creating the Stone. I recommend anyone who has a desire to find the Stone, study the images in this book and Flamel’s explanation of the images as well, as it can only help your understanding of the process grow.
The stories attributed to Nicolas Flamel have captivated the minds and hearts of alchemists for centuries, but I think his greatest contribution to the Great Work has been much more in recent years. Using the name Nicolas Flamel in such popular children’s stories as Harry Potter and The Alchemyst has put his name back into the mind of the average person. Yes, his writings are invaluable to those of us who study the Great Work as a profession, but how do we keep the desire for that knowledge growing? By getting young people involved in the study of alchemy. In the first book of Harry Potter, Nicolas Flamel is named as the creator of the Philosopher’s Stone and the children have to study his life story in order to try to find it. In The Alchemyst series Nicolas is the main character who has to use the power of alchemy to help save the world. Both of these stories give “historically recorded” events from the life of Nicolas, Michael Scott is even a historian in addition to writing, in order to get people interested in the concepts that alchemy purports. The almost magical tales of Flamel are incredibly interesting to read but when people take a look at the historical writings and they see that these stories were believed to be true, that kind of magic does help bring new students to the Great Work that we are involved in.
When I was first beginning my study in alchemy it was very difficult, there are thousands of books on the subject and many of them contradict each other. Many others give you all the information you need to do alchemical processes yet the person who wrote the book has not provided evidence that the processes actually work. I decided that I would take my time with many old manuscripts instead of modern texts but, as anyone who has studied old alchemy manuscripts knows, that is very draining and mentally exhausting. I found The Alchemyst series after reading several works attributed to Nicolas and the fictional tales lit a whole new light inside me. Now when I travel to do research for my studies I listen to that series to keep that child-like wonder alive inside me. I can not think of a better contribution to alchemy than, over 700 years after his death, bringing more young alchemists into the Great Work.
I hope this short discourse on Nicolas Flamel’s life and contributions to alchemy helps light a fire inside your soul for the Great Work of alchemy. If you already have that fire burning inside you then I hope the mythical details of his life help rekindle that fire into an all-encompassing blaze. Next week we will be covering another alchemist that was prevalent in the Alchemyst series, a scientist we have mentioned before during the discourse on scrying, John Dee.
May you see a reinvigoration of the mystical aspects of your life over the next week.
Reference:
[1] Hauck, Dennis William. The complete idiot's guide to alchemy. Penguin, 2008.
[2] Bartlett, Robert Allen. Real alchemy: A primer of practical alchemy. Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 2009.
[3] Albertus, Frater. The Alchemists Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy. Weiser Books, 1987.
[4] Flamel, Nicholas. Nicholas Flammel, his exposition of the hieroglyphicall figures which he caused to be painted upon an arch in St. Innocents church-yard, in Paris. Together with The secret booke of Artephius, and The epistle of I. Pontanus: concerning... the philosophers stone. Faithfully done into Engl. by Eirenæus Orandus. 1889.
[5] Cockren, Archibald. Alchemy rediscovered and restored. Book Tree, 1999.
[6] Sibbes, Richard. "Alchemy, Allegory, and Eschatology in the Seventeenth Century." Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (2014): 193.
[7] The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. Courier Corporation, 2012.
[8] Mathers, Samuel Liddell MacGregor. The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage: As Delivred by Abraham the Jew Unto His Son Lamech, AD 1458. Watkins, 1900.
[9] Mathers, SL MacGregor. Sacred Magic Of Abramelin The Mage. FilRougeViceversa, 2021.
[10] Clelland, Stewart, and Paul Ferguson. "Book II of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage: An English Translation Based on a Newly Discovered Manuscript." Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 18, no. 3 (2023): 401-453.
[11] Flamel, Nicolas. Le livre des figures hièroglyphiques: Le sommaire philosophique. Vol. 1. SGPP, Denoël, 1970.
[12] Flamel, Nicolas. Le sommaire philosophique. LES EDITIONS VIVAT, 1741.
[13] Cobb, Cathy, and Harold Goldwhite. Creations of fire: Chemistry's lively history from alchemy to the atomic age. Basic Books, 2009.
[14] Marshall, Peter H. "The philosopher's stone: a quest for the secrets of alchemy." (No Title) (2001).
[15] Le Livre des laveures (The Book of washing), manuscript BnF MS. Français 19978
[16] Le Bréviaire de Flamel (Flamel's breviary), manuscript BnF MS. Français 14765
[17] Flamel, Nicolas. A Short Tract or Philosophical Summary. 1400.
[18] Cohen, Kathleen, and Kathleen Rogers Cohen. Metamorphosis of a death symbol: the transi tomb in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Vol. 15. Univ of California Press, 1973.4
[19] Dixon, Laurinda. Nicolas Flamel: His Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures (1624). Routledge, 2019.
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