Multiplication (alchemy)

Multiplication is the process in Western alchemy used to increase the potency of the philosopher's stone, elixir or projection powder. It occurs near the end of the magnum opus in order to increase the gains in the subsequent projection. George Ripley gives the following definition of multiplication:^[1]

Augmentation it is of the Elixer indeede,

In goodnes and quantitie both for white and red

Multiplication is therefore as they doe write,

That thing that doth augment medicines in each degree,

In colour, in odour, in vertue and also in quantitee.

Multiplication was also used to describe the facet of alchemy chiefly concerned with the reproduction of physical gold and silver. Such is the case in Henry IV's 1404 statute against the craft of multiplication (5 Hen. 4. c. 4).^[2] Henry VI began to issue patents for the practice of alchemy, but the act of Parliament against multipliers was not repealed until 1689.

^ Stanton J. Linden. The Alchemy Reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press 2003. p. 18.
^ Sir Edward Coke.The third part of the Institutes of the laws of England: concerning high treason, and other pleas of the crown, and criminal causes. 1797.

[1] Stanton J. Linden. The Alchemy Reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge University Press 2003. p. 18.

[2] Sir Edward Coke.The third part of the Institutes of the laws of England: concerning high treason, and other pleas of the crown, and criminal causes. 1797.

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