A Medievalist’s Guide to Magic and Alchemy inADiscovery of Witches

For a medievalist like myself , it does n’t get much good than Deborah Harkness’sA Discovery of Witches . Both the internationally bestselling trilogy and the newly adapted boob tube show have many of the conventions of a kickass fantasy story . There ’s a 1,500 - year - older vampire , a powerful beldame who can literally make it rain down , and their vaticinate sexual love chronicle . There ’s the imminent threat of the end of all creatures — demons , vampires , and witches — and the ensuing battle between well and evil . And , at the core of A Discovery of Witches is an enchanted alchemical holograph hidden late within Oxford University ’s Bodleian Library , Ashmole 782 , and the witch who was capable to call it up for the first time in 500 years . That Wiccan is a medievalist , badass women’s rightist , and history of science prof , Dr. Diana Bishop .

The British television connection SkyOne ’s version of the books will start streaming in the U.S. today on Sundance Now and AMC ’s Shudder . To give layfolk a sense of how dope an obscure , fifteenth - century alchemic holograph can be , we ’ve prepared a medievalist pathfinder to some of its feature of speech — from the philosopher ’s Harlan Fiske Stone to the alchemical nipper and more .

Wheremany fancy novelsare concluded works of fiction , perhaps root on by the medieval period , butnot in any means historically accurate , A Discovery of Witches combines the fantastical with the academic . Deborah Harkness , the author of the serial , is a chronicle of science prof at the University of Southern California . She wrote her doctoral dissertation on the history of scientific discipline and magic trick in Europe from 1500 to 1700 — the same study her protagonist , Dr. Diana Bishop ( played by Teresa Palmer in the version ) , is explore in Oxford ’s Bodleian at the kickoff of A Discovery of Witches .

Photo: Getty

A general view of the Radcliffe Camera building, part of the Bodleian Library, in Oxford city center on 6 December 2024 in Oxford, England.Photo: Getty

Within the first few minutes of the show ’s pilot episode , Diana is standing in front of a room of faculty member in Oxford presenting a talk on alchemy entitle Visualizing Alchemy : Allegory and Laboratory Practice in the Seventeenth Century . Soon after , she is looking at the alchemic ms of seventeenth - century English alchemist and uranologist , Elias Ashmole , let in the enigmatic Ashmole 782 .

Harkness has lead breadcrumbs throughout her All Souls trilogy that make the story all the much richer for the medievalist fan of the serial . But for those who are n’t familiar , I desire to ask in you all in on the arcanum . Welcome to the strange , wonder - filled earth of knightly interpersonal chemistry !

The Philosopher’s Stone

Diana studies alchemy , as does Deborah Harkness . We haveJ.K. Rowling and Harry Potterto give thanks for many the great unwashed at least get wind something of alchemy , specifically the philosopher ’s stone . ingest it back to 1997 and the UK liberation of J.K. Rowling ’s first playscript , Harry Potter and the Philosopher ’s Stone ( which was change by Scholastic to the Sorcerer ’s Stone for the U.S. discharge ) , Voldemort seeks the Philosopher ’s Stone to calibrate from the back of Professor Quirrell ’s head . In alchemy , the Philosopher ’s Stone was believed to possess the ability to translate basis metals into the amber . The mythical stone was debate to be a purifying factor , and thus could purify the human body to achieve life sentence everlasting . ( Or , you know , give Voldemort legs . )

But , in alchemy , there are no simple definitions . Just as Diana explains in her Visualizing Alchemy lecture at the attack of the TV show , alchemic ideas are both literal and metaphoric . The philosopher ’s stone was believed by alchemists to be a real agent of transmutation ( maybe not quite a Harlan Fiske Stone , but a strong-arm , literal substance ) as well as the spiritual transmutation of the intellect from despicableness to enlightenment and theology .

It was understood to be the combination of all of the component of Earth , Air , Water , and Fire , of the female and the male , of all thing into one unified whole — a symbolization of the interconnectedness of all thing . ( In some path , our mediaeval precursor apprehend that gender exist on a spectrum , but the alchemist friends often used the distinction of manlike and female as reverse , in a reductive interpretation of gender . In alchemy , certain substances are prescribed a “ male person ” or “ female ” dimension . )

Image: Wikimedia

Alchemist Michael Maier’s (1568-1622) depiction of the Philosopher’s Stone, emblem #21 in Atalanta FugiensImage: Wikimedia

In simple terms , alchemy is the study of transformation , be those transformation spiritual or material . To former alchemists , specially during the chivalric period , there were n’t the hard-and-fast division between scientific discipline and faith that there are today . Alchemists had their own mythologies , their own symbols , their own unearthly system to understand the world around them that drew on everything from theEgyptiangod Thoth to modern conceptions of the periodic mesa and chivalric Christianity to other alchemy experiments . Alchemists reduced the world into elements and were fascinated by opposites , and the union of those inverse , like in the androgyne , an alchemical depiction of a being embodying the trade union of female and male , light and dark .

A Quick Story of Alchemy

Alchemy has roots in ancient India , China , as well as ancient Egypt . The Egyptians probably gained an intellect of alchemical processes in mummify bodies . In fact , the word alchemy ( and interpersonal chemistry too for that affair ) can be traced to the Egyptian give-and-take khem , which touch to the one-year implosion therapy of the Nile . It was the Greco - Egyptian alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis , who wrote the oldest , preserve alchemical texts around 300 CE where he writes about the transmutation of metals , his different instruments , and even his heedful observations of how two substances can transform into something entirely new ( a basic rationale of chemistry to this Clarence Day ) .

Alchemy came to prominence in Medieval Europe as Arab alchemical text were read into Latin in Spain and Southern Italy . The devastation of the bubonic pestis in Europe perhaps spurred on the indigence for a deep intellect of the natural world and the human torso . regrettably for many medieval alchemists , their contemporaries did n’t always understand their experiments , and many found themselves fleeing persecution . With complex delusion to Egyptian , Greek , and Arabic myth and symbols , alchemist were conflated with necromancy and magic , and often still are today . It was an tie-up not altogether groundless as they danced between the physical and the metaphysical .

Alchemical Diana

In both the Christian Bible and now the tv set show , it is this dance between science and trick that draws Diana to the study of alchemy . After the death of her witch parents , Diana shun all things witching , resist to rehearse or perfect her superpower . oddly enough , this is what also fetch her to alchemy . She attend to alchemy to see how humanity could turn away from a world with magic to a man of science .

Medieval alchemy in many ways marks a passage into a new , more method - based skill . Alchemists were not kitchen witches . They had specific instruments . There was the aludel ( 1 ) for concentrate vapour , the alembic ( 4 ) for distilling . Alchemists acquire a precise way to keep an oven solidification to the same exact temperature over the grade of months . But , alchemist always retained their ghostly and esoteric roots .

Magic can not be unknot from alchemy , and this is something Diana comes to hear through the course of the novels as she memorise to hug her magic . If you ’re weigh amongst the medievalist fans of the series , then you do it that there was no escape magic for our protagonist . Her name alone specify her for greatness .

Screenshot: Astrology, Magic, and Alchemy in Art

The Androgyne. Miniature from Aurora consurgens, mid 15th century. Zurich, ZentralbibliothekScreenshot: Astrology, Magic, and Alchemy in Art (Matilde Battistini)

To the ancient Romans , Diana ( or Artemis for the Greeks ) was the distaff huntress who personified the light of the lunar month . She was associated with the ordination of the born world . Her twin brother was Apollo , who was the Grecian and Roman sunlight God , the god of music and creative thinking .

To alchemists , Diana represented the Great Mother in Alchemy , the natural reality from which all observations are made . Alchemical Diana is the commencement and the end , the histrionics of all that can be observed . Also , her twin brother , Apollo , represents the pauperism for opposites . It ’s the balance of Apollo and Diana that mirror the alchemical reason of the duality between dark and sluttish , the moonshine and the Lord’s Day .

Elias Ashmole

In A Discovery of Witches , Diana ’s journey back to magic begin when she call up the enchanted Ashmole 782 manuscript from the intestine of Oxford ’s Bodleian Library . It ’s a very average scene for many medievalists — name up manuscripts to search at in the reading elbow room . But Ashmole 782 is no average medieval holograph . First off , it contains the inception of vampires , witches , and demons . The words on the pages have acquire a strange habit of propel . And , if you have n’t guessed already , Ashmole 782 is not literal , regrettably .

That said , the Ashmole manuscripts are very real . They ’re named for the alchemist , astronomer , archaist , governance functionary , botanist , and aggregator Elias Ashmole . Ashmole was born in 1617 in Breadmarket Street , Lichfield , Staffordshire to a once - affluent , but still - outstanding fellowship . He lived a life at the intersection of modern science and alchemy . Like a true alchemist , his liveliness was one of dualities .

He was just as transfix by the past times as he was by the cutting edge of science . He made catalogs document the purple coin collection as well as Oxford ’s Roman coin collecting . He compile instinctive and manmade specimen , even acquiring Powhatan ’s Mantle , which belonged to Pocahontas ’s don , and the stuffed body of the lastdodo birdever see in Europe .

Image: <a href=

Science, Hokkaido University” class=”size-full wp-image-2000010587″ />A 15th century European portrait of “Geber” (Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence)Image:Science, Hokkaido University

He was also a Freemason at a time when the Freemasons had many crosstie to alchemy , even share certain esoteric symbols . He was a known alchemist , writing one of the most important alchemical texts of the 17th hundred , Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum , which compile many English alchemical writings that had been previously held in only private compendium . In it , Ashmole calls alchemy “ a fantastic science and secret philosophy , a singular grace and gift of the almighty ” ( 13 , Ashmole , Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum ) . To Ashmole and his modern-day alchemist , alchemy was the pursuit of the Godhead , of enlightenment , yet there was also a mess of public call against both the Freemasons and alchemists as fiendish and heretical , largely because people did n’t understand either . Both Freemasons and alchemist were shrouded in mystery . Ashmole was also a founding father of the Royal Society , which ( as its website promulgate ) marked the emersion “ of modern science ” and a historic move away from the esoteric arts of alchemy .

Elias finally donated all his manuscripts , antiques , and specimen ( Powhatan ’s Mantle and the stuffed Raphus cucullatus admit ) to Oxford on the condition that they progress a museum to house the encompassing collection . open up in 1682 , the Ashmolean Museum is considered by some historian to be the first truly public museum in Europe . Today , all the book and manuscripts of Ashmole ’s original ingathering are housed in Oxford ’s Bodleian Library .

And things get even more interesting from there . As I already mentioned , A Discovery of Witches ’s Ashmole 782 manuscript , turn back the blood line stories of supernatural creatures , is ( sigh ) fictional . That say , Ashmole 782 does be , or at least it did . Ashmole 782 has been miss since 1697 , just like Harkness writes in the book ! After a bit of digging around on the Bodleian Library ’s web site , I disclose William Henry Black and William Dunn Macray ’s digitized 1845 catalog of the Ashmole manuscript . The take after verbal description was the only note on the contents of the missing Ashmole 782 holograph : “ the [ ms ] can not now be plant . It was thus identify by [ another cataloguist ] in 1697 … ‘ Anthropologia , or a treatise check a unretentive verbal description of Man , in two share : the first Anatomical , the 2d Psychological . ”

Image: Ralph E. Lapp Life Science Library: Matter New York: Time Incorporated, 1965

Some 17th and 18th century alchemical equipment is shown below: 1 aludel, for condensing vapors; 2 “Moor’s Head” still; 3 clay vessel; 4 alembic, for distilling; 5 retort; 6 bronze mortar; 7 crucible.Image: Ralph E. Lapp Life Science Library: Matter New York: Time Incorporated, 1965 (Robinson Library)

So , who knows , perchance Deborah Harkness is in reality a witch and know the true content of the missing Ashmole manuscript — and in an attempt to secretly tell the world the truth of puppet , wrote a bestselling trilogy about the holograph ’s contents ?

The Alchemical Child

When Diana give Ashmole 782 for the first time in nearly 500 years , she total across a depiction of the alchemic baby . In alchemy , there are four stages to create the Philosopher ’s Stone . The alchemical child represents the alchemic stage of conceptio , the second stage .

The child is an gynandromorph to symbolize the completely new chemical compound that ’s created . In A Discovery of Witches , it ’s revealed that Diana is a “ chimea , ” a rarefied consideration where her deoxyribonucleic acid possesses more than one familial visibility ( Harkness 470 ) .

In both the show and the Book , Matthew is an accomplished geneticist and ethologist , whose write paper cover everything from wolf coterie conduct to genetic science . pucker away in a gamey - security system Oxford laboratory , Matthew and his vampire colleagues test Diana ’s blood in their on-going inquiry into why creatures have been conk out . The result tie Diana and Matthew together as chivalric alchemy and cut edge scientific research once again intersect .

Image: Johannes Fabricius, Alchemy

The well-breasted Alchemical figure of the Furnace of the Great Mother, associated with the goddess Diana. Frontispiece from Urban Hjärne, Actorum Chemicorum Holmensium, 1712.Image: Johannes Fabricius, Alchemy (London: Diamond Books, 1994)

The alchemic kid lay out the union of opposites . It also represents Diana , given her chimera genome , and also the love share between Diana , a Wiccan , and Matthew , a lamia . Diana and Matthew are contrary ; it does n’t really get more unlike than a witch and a lamia shacking up together . So , the making love they share symbolizes the alchemic child , and maybe a tip at what ’s to come up afterwards in the trilogy .

The Alchemical Marriage

Diana and Matthew also find one of the missing pages of Ashmole 782 that limn another alchemical stage in creating the Philosopher ’s Stone , conjunctio . Another name for conjunctio is the alchemical or sacred marriage . Before any unification can produce a child , there require to be some good ol’ fore - chicka - scream - wow , and that ’s what the alchemic marriage ceremony is all about .

Just like the alchemical child is an androgyne and therefore announce the union of opposites , the alchemical marriage is a depicting of the alchemical child ’s mom and pop who ( as you might ’ve already guessed ) are opposites .

There ’s the distaff and manful aspect of the alchemical marriage . The female is often mention to as the White Queen . She represents the constituent of Water and the Moon , Luna . The male person is the Red King . He represents the element of Fire and the Sun , Sol . In chemical terms , the alchemic marriage is the union of philosophic S ( the female person ) and Hg ( the male person ) .

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Ashmolean Library” class=”size-full wp-image-2000010674″ />John Riley (1646–91) Elias Ashmole c.1681–82 Oil on canvas, Presented by Elias Ashmole, 1683Image:Ashmolean Library

In A Discovery of Witches , Matthew is the Red King . He is a French baron after all , and also a vampire so red seems to make sense . Diana , whose namesake is the Roman Goddess of the Moon , is Luna and the distaff prospect of the alchemical marriage .

I Now Knight Thee a Medievalist

It ’s no sluttish project to decipher medieval alchemy , let alone the alchemic principles hinted at in a phantasy write up like A Discovery of Witches . Even for accomplished scholars like Harkness , there are still many patch of alchemy that have been lose to time or have yet to be decoded .

Perhaps it ’s that element of the unidentified in alchemy that will always make blank formagic . For our medieval predecessors , Matthew ’s words that unfold each sequence of A Discovery of Witches ring true—“Once the world was full of wonders , but it belongs to humans now . We creatures have all but evaporate — demons , vampire , and witches . ”

To mediaeval alchemists , the macrocosm was indeed a situation of magic , of creatures , and phenomena they could n’t understand . Perhaps our contemporary earthly concern of skill and engineering science could do with a signature of trick , of the unknown , of the alchemist ’s seeking for enlightenment .

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Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum” class=”size-full wp-image-2000010705″ />God granting the knowledge of alchemy to the alchemist.Image:Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum(Elias Ashmole)

I now dub thee , dear lector , a medievalist . May your world be full of wonder . Go forth and enjoy the U.S. premiere of Sky One ’s A Discovery of Witches .

Sarah Durnis a free lance writer , player , Divine , and medievalist based in New Orleans , LA .

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Screenshot: Black and Macray’s A descriptive, analytical, and critical catalog of the manuscripts bequeathed unto the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole : Also of some additional MSS. contributed by Kingsley, Lhuyd, Borlase and others.