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ALCHEMY OF THE RENAISSANCE TODAY: TRADITIONAL APPROACH FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF TOPOLOGY
Abstract
Alchemy is oriented towards tradition, and the latter can be understood very widely, including myths, superstitions, legends, parables. Any tradition at a certain level of development, in order to take the next step, turns to the study of itself, realizing the reflection of its sources, bases, concepts and methods. This approach is denoted by the word traditional. For the present study this group of materials, on the one hand, acts as sources, on the other hand, as research, that is, the study of esoteric teachings is undertaken in them with the aim of continuing the tradition, often through interpretation and reinterpretation of their concepts and principles. The research side, of course, is not present in all works, yet it already occurs with ancient and medieval thinkers. The scientific and educational approach cut alchemy, separating the chemical component from it, discarding the rest. Quite unexpectedly, Jung conducted a different section of alchemy, singling out the deep-psychological content of the phenomenon, discarding the chemical content. From the point of view of topology, the phenomenon of alchemy has a very strange configuration, which involves two closed curves to obtain a section of its surface. The most important symbol of the elixir of immortality Uroboros (a snake biting its tail) is a graphic illustration of the geometric figure of the torus.
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