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“The matter of Egypt,” mused Calandrino, apparently untroubled by her discovery of the forbidden text.
“What does Egypt have to do with it?”
“That’s what alchemy means in Arabic.” Santina listened impatiently as the young man spoke of the Egyptians and the origins of the ancient science. Walking beside Calandrino, she waited for him to finish his story. He told her about Osiris, a beloved pharaoh of Egypt, who was killed by his evil brother, chopped into fourteen parts and thrown into the Nile River.
From Alchemy’s Daughter
Ancient Egypt is the land of mummies and all things mystical. The legendary Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus, is considered to be the father of alchemy.
Sometimes Hermes (not the same as Hermes, the Greek god wearing the winged hat, who is also associated with alchemy) is depicted as the weird looking, beak-nosed, Ibis god, Thoth.
Even older than Plato and Moses, Thoth is the mysterious author behind The Corpus Hermeticum. (Passages of this text are contained in A Manual to the Science of Alchemy—the ancient book passed down from generation to generation in Nonna's Book of Mysteries and Alchemy’s Daughter.)
The Corpus Hermeticum forms the basis of what is known as the Hermetic Philosophy, which aims to lead to a direct experience of God.
The Corpus Hermeticum is still studied by those who seek spiritual wisdom.
Click on the Egyptian Symbols tab to print some Egyptian-inspired symbols.