“Without us, the harvest would not ripen in the fields; without our millstones the corn would not turn to flour; nor the flour to bread by stirring and baking. Let us then cooperate with nature in its mineral as well as in its agricultural labours, and treasures will be opened to all.

Alchemy, we shall see, takes its place in the same spiritual category: the Alchemist takes up and perfects the work of Nature, while at the same time working to ‘make’ himself.”

Mircea Eliade, ”The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy”