Business Is the New Alchemy

Once upon a time, before the advent of the scientific method and instant coffee, there was alchemy. This archaic model for experimentation and transmutation laid the groundwork for the practical magic we all experience in our everyday lives. And though it seems modern economic structures serve to enslave folks today, for which a revival of these ideas from "simpler times" aims to correct, we may find even greater value in the way they complement each other. What if this capitalist wasteland is no wasteland at all, but in fact the promised land dreamed of by the alchemists of old? And what if the elusive "philosopher's stone"—a metaphorical substance which could turn shit into gold, or create value from nothing, already existed in our pockets today? As we'll see, the alchemist's paradise isn't too far off.

You just put the 'neur' in entrepreneurialism

Just as shamanism transformed into the modern fields of medicine, priesthood, and performance art, it seems alchemy has evolved into something which is generally considered to be void of any organic heartbeat. I am speaking of course about business, or perhaps more accurately, entrepreneurialism. Its level is by means of understanding these elements, as any good alchemist would, that one might construct a variety of machines whose sole purpose is to generate value by converting something from low to high yield. It's a lot like engineering, but instead of pumping out kinetic energy, it pumps out... Well, money.

Money as the stone

In modern esoteric circles, talk of alchemy and modern business practice don't really seem to click. On the contrary. The ultimate goal of any alchemist was to transmute, either within the laboratory of their own body, or within their external environment, an instrument of high magic. They wanted to build something which would provide for them an abundance of fruits for their labors, and if possible, receive a tenfold return. This is no different from modern businesses. However, it is classically a major challenge attempting to parse through all the mechanisms of enterprise and invest work into one with low risk and high reward. For this reason, man's logos invented currency. Is by means of currency that we may rely on a single, stable manifold through which our returns would be guaranteed, and our freedom would be essentially limitless. It is by currency that the stone has evolved, from a once elusive and ambiguous metaphor capable of producing gold or the like, to a concrete and material conduit through which one could produce gold, uranium, metamaterials, space ships, particle accelerators, supervolcano defusers, and even the conditions for a family, and its fruits of love. It is by this reduction of the essence, a classic alchemical trope, that we have offered an unprecedented reveling with a level of freedom which has never before it been seen.

Create a Startup; Shit Gold

In case you haven't gotten the message, the promised land is here, and now you just need to learn how to speak its language. Perhaps a global utopia will never be feasible—but despite that pessimistic assumption, what can be certain is that perfected environments for the enhancement of life are very real in the here and now. Few humans on this planet have lived without falling witness to the beneficiaries of wealth; to their lavish (and often garish) lifestyles of abundance, and their resemblance to divine creatures of myth. Surely, without worry, without hunger, and without disease, suffering too can be expected to fall, and in its absence, ecstasy may prevail. And so, take it upon yourself, measly human, to follow in the footsteps of your greatest ancestors. To rise above, to integrate these ancient wisdoms into modern circumstance, and if you wish for your works to outlive your fickle physicality, invite us along. Heaven is right around the corner—we've just gotta build it first.