Alchemy is the science, both physical and spiritual, of transforming base materials into superior forms. Chemical alchemy was based on the belief that naturally occuring gold and other precious substances were formed within the earth from lesser substances, and could be reconstituted through alchemical operations..

The operations of alchemy were based on the hermetic principle, that the everything on earth had a heavenly counterpart, and that thnrough the principle if vibration, heavenly things could affect earthly things, and vice-versa. Thus, each mineral, plant, and metal corresponded to a planet, etc., and contained the properties of that heavenly body.

Through this idea, alchemical formulas for medicines were created, and the concept of spiritual development through alchemical work unfolded. The "Great Work" became not simply the transmutation of base metals into precious, but the perfection of the divine in man.