Alchemy and Kabbalah Quotes

“Why is gold called זהב (zahab)? Because there are three principles contained in it: the masculine, zakhar, and the ז (zayin) points to that; the soul, and the ה (he), points to that [obviously the feminine, since the consonant he in the mysticism of the alphabet has always been interpreted as such]; … and ב (bet) avouches its duration, as is written [in the Torah, which starts with this letter]: “in the beginning.”
― Gershom Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah

“All those strange parables, where the philosophers talked mystically about a stone, a moon, an oven, a vessel – all that is Saturn [i.e., all talk about humans]; because you must not add anything extraneous, except for what emanates from itself. None in the world is too poor to undertake and execute the Work. The seven grades of alchemical”
― Gershom Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah

“When Nicholas Flamel – one of the few who, according to the mystics and alchemists, was supposed to have discovered the Philosopher’s Stone – bought a papyrus [19] book in Paris, reputedly “at a small price,” it was a baptized Jewish physician, not a kabbalist, who in 1378, in the pilgrimage town of Santiago de Compostela, disclosed to him the meaning of the writing and therewith the secret of alchemy.”
― Gershom Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah