You know, my son, that this art (alchemy) is not about that which is stable or ethereal in itself, but that it is both ethereal and stable, masculine and feminine, hot and cold, wet and dry. - Jafar al-As-Sadiq (rightful heir of the Prophet Muhammad and Ali)

Over the next few days, Di Zi'an repeated the monotonous but fulfilling life of copying books, listening to Inos's lectures, and reviewing alchemy.

Materially, these apprentices ate the cheapest pasta, and occasionally received a piece of cottage cheese, although they did not taste anything, but at least they could barely satisfy their stomachs, and to the surprise of Di Zi'an, beer was relatively popular at this time, and it was popular among the common people, and the upper class generally drank red wine and other fruit wines. As for meat, well, the meat recipes of ordinary people include pigeons, quails, and fish, while ducks, geese, and pigs are high-class recipes that can only be enjoyed by the illustrious nobles, and as for apprentices like them, some of them are good to eat, and some of them are still thinking about some of them here.

In the alchemy knowledge of nearly a week, Di Zi'an also probably has a general understanding of this magical art, no longer as before belongs to a complete white, in alchemy has been almost lost today, the systematic alchemy teaching system is difficult to be so perfect as thousands of years ago, and it is impossible for ordinary people to get such a systematic teaching, from the transformation of metal substances to sublimation distillation, each step often has a corresponding astronomical star and human body system, alchemists imagine the human body as a condensed universe, the universe as an expanded human body, alchemy is through the exploration of the mysteries between the universe, extended from the human body。 Alchemists believed that when they comprehended the mysteries of the universe between matter and matter, they could draw an analogy to the human body—by combining the three major beings of the human body, the body, the spirit, and the soul, which acts as a link between the body and spirit, into "one and only substance".

This is the ultimate pursuit of all alchemists, and the so-called Philosopher's Stone is their stepping stone to the Starlight Plains of the upper space.

Yes, this is also the conclusion that Di Zi'an drew from the study of alchemy through literature and Xiang Inos's side knock - the path of the traveler's promotion must have some connection with the ultimate mystery pursued by the alchemist, and the application of alchemy acting on the material to the human body, so that the spirit and body and the deeper soul can be unified to a higher upper level, and the miracle of the Philosopher's Stone will be the true way for the traveler to be promoted?

Alchemy was once rudely classified as pure chemistry, a statement that became mainstream in medieval Europe, which largely led to the loss and decline of true alchemy. Newton referred to pure chemistry as "vulgar chemistry", but in fact alchemy is an extremely important branch of the occult, which ultimately points to the forbidden alchemy of the human body.

However, in the transcription of Di Zi'an these days, he also had the privilege of transcribing several widely circulated alchemical manuscripts, which even contained equations for metal pickling solutions and dyes, but it is very interesting that although some mysterious prayers can be seen on the edge of the original manuscript or in some places, some pray to the old Egyptian nine-pillar original god The experiment is going well, and there are also sentences to pray to the new gods imported from Greece and Rome, but none of the manuscripts contain any content related to mysticism or religion, including magic, religious rituals, and all kinds of strange incantations。

But it's a spiritual world. Di Zi'an, who is already a trainee traveler, is very sure of this, there must be another side of this world that no one knows, a side that is shrouded in mystery and does not belong to the mundane.

It can be inferred that this aspect has been deliberately concealed by certain beings, and that alchemists are also essentially magicians, and there is no single mention of mysticism in their circulating manuscripts, which is undoubtedly worth pondering. In fact, it is not only the manuscripts found by Di Zi'an in the past few days that have this characteristic, but also the original manuscripts of alchemists found in tombs or for various reasons on papyrus have not found any mystic or religious content, and history seems to have been wiped by something, and only what it wants the world to see.

"The Seven Metals, the Celestial Bodies, the Gods, and the Holy Spirit", Dizi'an emphatically marked on the papyrus, the traveler, the spirituality, the connection between the human body and the universe, has he found that cycle? That perfect natural cycle, which corresponds to both the universe and the human body, if someone really does this, then he will deserve the name of the sage......

Di Zi'an suddenly realized that the so-called sage has a "god-like man" Susimus in this era! Has he mastered the ultimate alchemy array, which can be used in the matrix of human body refining?

"Hey nerd, what do you want?" the active and energetic voice interrupted Di Zi'an's cranky thoughts, it was Inos, who was also a teacher and friend, in the past four or five days, Di Zi'an showed an extraordinary enthusiasm for learning that made Inoss very surprised, the lazy Norma seemed to have suddenly opened his mind, showing an unparalleled enthusiasm for alchemy knowledge, and even in the past few days, he didn't see him lying on the manuscript lazy sleeping, and always pestered himself to teach the content of the teacher's speech after the transcription work was completed.

Well, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that people can really change sex? Noticing Inos's suspicious gaze, Di Zi'an could only scratch his hair. It was inevitable that his hair was a little itchy, and in the days he had been in Alexandria, he had only washed in the public baths outside the temple once on the night after his arrival, and that experience still gave Dizi a little chill to this day...... Inos looked him up and down a few times, covered his nose, and said disgustedly, "Why don't you hurry up and take a bath, tomorrow will be the grace of the underworld, do you want to be cured of unclean sins!"

By the way, tomorrow is the day when the temple is open, and it is also the day when their apprentices can freely borrow peripheral books, and more importantly, the sage Susimus will also hold a demonstration of alchemy at the temple, and it is said that half of Alexandria's dignitaries will attend his demonstration, and these apprentices are lucky enough to be qualified to audit with their hard copying of books these days. Dee Zi'an was no exception, and this may be the only chance he had to see the true face of the sage on this trip.

And the reason for all this is the festival of the dead sun. The Egyptians are a people who value the afterlife, and for them the Great Sacrifice of the Dead Sun is the equivalent of our Spring Festival, and interestingly, it is not the legendary Egyptian god Osiris, but a god named Pruto.

Yes, Pluto, the king of Hades in Roman mythology, is better known in Greek mythology, Hades.

Hades, the lord of the underworld, the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto, was transformed into the Egyptian god Serrapio, the god of the temple where Dizian was located. For no other reason, at that time, Egypt was under the rule of the Roman Empire, and it could even be said that Egypt was just a province of the Roman Empire. As early as after Egypt was ruled by Greece, in order to achieve the cultural unity of the two, the famous Ptolemy I Sotel, as the pharaoh of Egypt, introduced Pruto, the king of Hades, into Egypt, and said that Pruto passed a dream to him - Ptolemy dreamed that Pruto, the god of the underworld, ordered him to move the temple he worshiped from Sinope, Greece, to Egypt, because he, the god of Hades himself, originally came from Egypt. Such a dream illustrates that Egyptian culture and Greek culture have intrinsic commonalities, whether true or not, but arguably politically significant.

So the god of the underworld Pruto transformed into a new god with the characteristics of the gods, in his body both the main god Zeus, the god of medicine Asclepios, but also the Egyptian god of reproduction Osiris and the creation god of Ptah, as the god of Osiris, this new god enjoys the Egyptian religion of the high sacred cow ceremony, as the creation god of Ptah, his person was elevated to the master of creation and innovation, with the new title of the god Serrapio, this Greek god of the underworld appeared in front of people as a new god with the characteristics of all gods, dominated the harvest of the five grains, multiplied, and thus became the national god of Egypt in one fell swoop。

The festival of the dead is a festival dedicated to the new national god and is the most important ritual in Egypt.

Dizian has always suspected that if the world is really dominated by mystery, then it is likely that these recited gods are also not just imagined, and if so, then this new god, who combines the characteristics of different gods by name, may be the biggest beneficiary behind the series of events of the unification of Greece and Egypt. Its impact was far more profound than just to facilitate the reign of Ptolemy I, but to the deeper realm of mythology.

"But tomorrow is the Hades Festival, and now the bathhouse outside must be overcrowded," Di Zi'an felt a little cold when he thought of the public bathing room, and the impact of that place on the perception of modern people was really a bit huge, and suddenly Di Zi'an's eyes lit up, "Dear Inos, why don't you let me go to your house to wash!"

"Huh?" Enos's eyes widened, not knowing what to say.