Ivor W. Hartmann

Dear Readers

2009-07-02T21:00:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my cyberhome! Here you will find four main links above that will give you access to my autobiography - About, online fiction works - Fiction, online non-fiction works - Non-Fiction, and Visual Artistry - Visual Art. You can can follow my progress and be updated though the Follow Widget or by subscribing to my Feeds. There are also several links that head towards various external sites where I am present. Below this you will see short posts of my recent works, news and updates, and I have also listed in the sidebar selected sites/blogs I follow.

I hope altogether this will give you some idea about me and my written works, and a bit of reading leisure and pleasure.

Thank you for your sojourn,

Ivor W. Hartmann.

The Chrome Rain Series

2009-07-02T15:52:00.004+02:00

I have been working on a story called Chrome Rain (amongst many other things:) and started releasing it in serial form at my Facebook Fan Page, so four episodes down and I reckoned it was time to share the series (well the link to the series) here as well. The fan page is open to all the web so you don't need to be a member of facebook to see the page, or read the story. I am releasing weekly episodes of Chrome Rain there and hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.

Convention Of Those Wounded In Love From Paulo Coelho's blog

2009-06-17T03:00:00.002+02:00

I was looking to have something (legal:) from Mr. Coelho up on my blog here in honour of the honour he has given me. And this is just perfect!

The Last Wave featured at Quasar Dragon

2009-06-10T20:55:00.006+02:00

The Last Wave featured at QuasarDragon, (which is) Finding great free, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, other cool items, with occasional comments and reviews by your semi-humble webmaster (Dave Tackett).

Thanks Dave!

Paulo Coelho publishes Chrome Rain extract on his Blog

2009-06-08T16:23:00.005+02:00

A short while back Mr. Paulo Coelho started a new section in his blog called Your Story in my Blog. He invited anyone to submit a story as long as it had a max 250 word count. At the time (and still) I was working on a new story called Chrome Rain. The debut scene of one of my main characters struck me as perhaps eligible (in word count and content). So I made a few tweaks and sent it in.

Today, I received a congratulatory email from Paula Braconnot, who works with Mr. Coelho on his blog and "...He really liked your story and therefore we shall be publishing it in his blog today." And so it has come to pass that an extract of Chrome Rain has been published at Mr. Coelho's Blog. (read it here: Your Story in my Blog : Chrome Rain by Ivor W. Hartmann) I am so very honoured that a writer I admire and respect as much as Mr. Coelho, has taken me into his virtual home and let me leave a presence. Thank You Mr. Coelho!

I just previous to this also started releasing a bit of Chrome Rain at my Facebook Fan page, so if you would like to read more, I'll see you there.

Mr. Goop well recieved

2009-05-02T20:10:00.002+02:00

Well, so far Mr. Goop seems to have been well received in general, and even sparked some blog-ranging discussions:

A post by Lauri Kubuitsile (one of my fellow Baobab Prize winners) at Thoughts From Botswana about African Fiction and Mr. Goop. Thanks Lauri!

Zimbabwean Science Fiction

I am one of the people who shouts the most about the heavy burden African writers have had to carry. They are only expected to put pen to paper if the result is literary, political and serious. So African Sue Townsends had to move on and become accountants or garbage collectors. African Barbara Cartlands became doctors or house maids. Popular fiction just wasn't for Africa- they said. Writers here needed to address African conditions and to the international world Africans don't laugh... Full Post

A post by Emmanuel Sigauke at Wealth of Ideas, which starts where Lauri Kubuitsile left off (in a way) about African Genre Fiction. I say bring on the Horror Emmanuel :) and thanks for the mention.

What's My Slice of African Genre Fiction?

In July, 2008, I blogged about the importance of genre expansion in African Fiction, branching off into sci-fi/fantasy, romance, horror, and other neglected genres. Around the same time I discovered there were African writers doing this already,from the detective fiction guru Alexander McCall Smith of the now popularised The Number 1 Lady Detective series on HBO... Full Post

Also had my first Official press release as a writer from The Zimbabwean, which is a great article by Beaven Tapureta, despite the title, about The Baoabab Prize, Mr. Goop and I. Thanks Beaven!

The Zimbabwean

Like many other Zimbabwean writers living abroad, economically exiled despite the love of their home country, Ivor W. Hartmann made Zimbabwe proud when he won the prestigious, inaugural 2008 Baobab Prize. In his acceptance letter, writer Hartmann said, “It is with profound sense of great honour that I accept The Baobab Prize and my proud privilege as a Zimbabwean writer to have entered and participated in this much needed stimulus to African writing.”... Full Post

The Award winning Mr. Goop Published in African Writing #7

2009-04-28T18:14:00.006+02:00

I am happy to announce that Mr. Goop, which won The Baobaob Prize in March 2009, has been published in the prestigious literary magazine, African Writing, issue seven. It is now available to read for the first time at the AW Magazine Online home... Full Story

The Last Wave by Ivor W. Hartmann

2009-04-22T03:30:00.000+02:00

'My name is Hamadziripi, the last of Homo sapiens sapiens, the last of the modern human species, as once we called ourselves. Even as I speak the Delphi are coming, they have my trail, and it won’t be long now. But perhaps in between postponing the inevitable I can broadcast this record, of the final days of man. To you who hear these words no matter how or who, I congratulate you. You have succeeded thus far, where we failed. To you I give this message of warning. Recognise the whole survives because of each part. Life, and that’s all biological life as we humans knew it, for we never managed to physically reach further, than our planets single moon. Life has long term plans. To late did we learn... Full Story

Review of The Night Watch at SWI

2009-03-30T23:52:00.008+02:00

“Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy.”-Sergei Lukyanenko.

Like a gust of fresh cold winter’s air on a midsummer’s day Russian author Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko steps up and revitalises a favourite fantasy world; presenting an eternal struggle between good and evil in a new and blinding light. With not a damn cape, count or coffin to be seen in a modern vivid urban Russia, replete with echoes of communism and the impact of free trade and the Mafia. Lukyanenko pulls no punches and drags you mercilessly into a world of gritty realism where there is a price to be paid for every thought, word and deed. With no fanfare or velvet build up, the unseen world of Twilight, inhabited by dark ones and light ones or known collectively as “others” is revealed. Full Review

African Roar Anthology: Details, Guidelines and Voting

2009-03-25T02:00:00.000+02:00

African Roar is ST's first book anthology, in what is going to become an annual publication. For the debut, all works currently at ST and those published by the 20th of July, (which fit the anthology guidelines), are up for selection in the anthology. But as the sub-title says, this is an eclectic anthology and will only feature the absolute best of all the works at ST. In the next anthology it will be the best of that year.

African Roar will be edited by Emmanuel Sigauke and Ivor W. Hartmann, and published by The Lion Press.

Voting for the ST Stories

All stories listed in the poll above are eligible stories currently at ST. Please vote for stories you think should be included in African Roar. Whilst this will not be a final definitive poll, its results will be included as part of the selection process. You may select multiple entries. The poll will be updated with new entries as they occur... Read More

Mr. Goop Awarded The Baobab Prize!

2009-03-17T07:50:00.008+02:00

I am ecstatic to announce that my entry Mr. Goop, into The Baobab Prize in category B (works written for children aged 12-15) has won the award!

It was with profound sense of great honour that I accepted The Baobab Prize, and my proud privilege as a Zimbabwean writer to have entered and participated, in this much needed stimulus to African writing. It has long been a dream of mine to see African fiction in all genres become much more readily available. So when I came across TBP I saw friends who shared a similar dream for teenage fiction.

Mr. Goop is a speculative science-fiction teenage tale of the future. Set in Harare, Zimbabwe, it tells the story of a young boy called Tamuka Zimudzi living in an apocalyptic post-climate change world. A world that has lost a significant portion of its land mass to rising sea levels, where laboratory created humanoid life-forms are now slaves to humans, where people live in enormous sealed arcologies by necessity. Yet in this hard new world Tamuka lives with the same hopes, fears and dreams of any twelve year-old boy, and takes his first steps towards becoming an adult.

My esteemed thanks go out to all those involved in The Baobab Prize, from Deborah Ahenkorah the founder of the prize, to the judges and all those who submitted an entry. Awards like this specifically for African writers are few and far between, and do provide an extra and needed impetus towards seeing more published African authors in all genres.

I will do what I can to see that everyone gets to read Mr. Goop as soon as possible, hopefully offline and on.

Here is the complete list:

WINNERS THE BAOBAB PRIZE 2008

The Baobab Prize for a work of fiction aimed at readers aged 8-11 years : Lauri Kubuitsile, Botswana. Story: Lorato and her Wire Car

Shortlist for Stories for readers aged 8-11 years:

- Good in the World by Marion Drew, South Africa
- The Story of my Life by Fiona Moolla, South Africa
- Abena and the Corn Seed by Vivian Amanor, Ghana
- Live and Let Live by Jenny Robson, South Africa

The Baobab Prize for a work of fiction aimed at readers aged 12-15 years: Ivor W. Hartmann, Zimbabwe. Story: Mr. Goop.

Shortlist for Stories for readers aged 12-15 years:
- Birthday Wishes by Lauri Kubuitsile, Botswana
- This Ubuntu Thing by Jayne Bauling, South Africa
- Courage like a Lion by Jenny Robson, South Africa
- Whips, Tears and Blood by Mercy Adhiambo, Kenya

The Baobab Prize for a rising writer aged 18 years or younger: Aisha Kibwana, Kenya. Story: Strange Visitors that took her life away.

Shortlist for Rising writer Prize:
- Tortoise and the Thief by Michael Anim, Ghana.

Earth Rise nominated for UMA Award!

2009-03-15T09:10:00.001+02:00

I am happy to announce that Earth Rise has been nominated for The UMA Award in the Best Short Fiction category.

More formally known as the Annual Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Award, the Ursa Major Award is presented annually for excellence in the furry arts. It is intended as Anthropomorphic Fandom's equivalent of the Hugo Award ® presented by the World Science Fiction Society, mystery fandom's Anthony Award, horror fandom's Bram Stoker Award, and so forth. Anyone may nominate and vote for candidates for the Awards. The UMA is a global public award and decided by the fans, not by a committee. You can Cast your Vote here.

Wish me luck for the finals :).

Interview at CwW about StoryTime

2009-03-01T05:40:00.003+02:00

Ivor W. Hartmann is a Zimbabwean writer, visual artist and literary activist. He is also editor-in-chief of StoryTime, an ezine that seeks to showcase new African writing. In this email interview, Hartmann talks about the ezine and about how it is being received by emerging African writers. What is StoryTime all about? To quote the StoryTime About page mission statement if I may, since I put the effort into re-writing it recently: "The StoryTime African New Fiction FreEzine is all about new African fiction reading and writing. For our readers we provide a free weekly ezine showcasing the works of some of the hottest new African fiction writers. For our writers we endeavour to find them, and then encourage free online fiction publication at ST, as a multi-purpose means to improve writing ability and their exposure."... Full Article

Fiction

2009-02-14T19:00:00.004+02:00

Mr. Goop by Ivor W. Hartmann

Mr. Goop, published in African Writing, issue seven. Now available to read for the first time at the AW Magazine Online home.

"Tamuka hated Mr. Goop; it wasn't as if it was really his anyway. He had the unfortunate distinction of being one of those kids. The ones with poor parents, who could not afford to buy their children Geneforms of their own. Just this morning before class, in the translucent, dome-sealed playground, Tamuka had yet again been a victim. Well, at least he had not been alone this time: two younger kids and their inherited family Geneforms had also endured the playground circle of laughter and cruel taunts..." Full Story

The Last Wave by Ivor W. Hartmann

Lost Love by Ivor W. Hartmann

It's that day of year again, when he always remembers, it was her, it was always her, since he was sixteen it was her. But life conspired to keep them always apart, and even the close friendship they once had faded away, driven into nothing by time, distance, and her other men's arms. She was a glorious butterfly whose wings unfolded too soon, for his inexperienced fumbling hands to behold and protect. No, her wings took her into hands that tried to crush in their haste to capture her virginal soul, and make it their slave. But he knew, he knew who she was, he saw, he saw who she was, that bright and blinding inner core, which no force on this earth could ever touch. Full Story

The Lottery by Ivor W. Hartmann #01

'What are we now? Can we really call ourselves human any more? What of our souls, heaven, and hell?' -Emergency Online Transference FAQ's. Israel Sabula was a newly transferred and he did not like it. He had awoken from death in this white chair, to this white room and its barren smooth lines. A far cry from the bubbling and whirring room of machines wired into his dying body, which saw his lonely departure from that mortal coil. There was an utter silence in the room and even though he continued breathing from habit, there was no breath, no air, no sound, not even a deafening silence from real world ear feedback. He snapped his fingers and heard the click and then that weird silence. Full Story

The Devil's Advocates by Ivor W. Hartmann

The contents (sealed after these words of introduction), have been painstakingly pieced together from ancient data records. These records handed down the ages as inert sacred relics of another era, were preserved somewhat unwittingly, yet propitiously, by our order. After recognising that the relics were, in fact, ancient data storage devices, it has taken us fifty long years to reconstruct the technology, necessary to access them. Whilst the records are severely damaged, I do believe there is enough surviving, coherent content, to discern the nature of the events described.' Full Story

The Land of Darkly: Act Five

Harabladi was woken by the gentle massaging motion of his new bed; it hummed and vibrated in delicious ripples up and down his body. Before he even opened his eyes, he smiled and thought this is the life, and went on to wonder when was the last time, before the gold coin, that he had actually been happy when he had first woken up. Perhaps it had been the first morning of his second marriage; which he remembered being just like the feeling he had now, barely awake with his eyes still closed. Excepting that last time, the feeling lasted only as long as he kept his eyes closed. Full Story

The Land of Darkly: Act Four

When Harabladi disembarked from the gondola that evening, well staggered whilst Hacktar kept him upright by holding the scruff of his jacket, he felt nothing. Well not nothing, his body screamed at him all manner of abuse and his brain felt like a large bowl of pulsing cold porridge, but he felt not the beady red eyes of Grom, not even the merest twinge. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps that last heavy blow his skull endured from Hacktar was the one that finally shook something loose, permanently. Then he felt that familiar twinge, not like Grom, no that had its own unique suicidal butterflys kind of twinge, but definitely someone with ill intent towards him. Unable to deal, as he could barely see blearily, with any one or thing right now he chose the safest course of action. Hacktar barely paused as he felt Harabladi go limp and quickly whipped him up onto his giant-tortoise large shoulder. Full Story

The Land of Darkly: Act Three

Mrs Perkins, and her husband, Mr Perkins-Fiddle, were lying, snoring, in the shade of a large oak tree. They were halfway between the city of Darkly, and the village of Krep, which lay nearly three leagues south of the south gate of the city. They were thus at the four-mile marker, which itself lay in the shade of the large oak tree, a fact that made giving directions a hit-and-miss affair, since four-mile-markers were all there were, and the marker itself was nearly invisible in the shade. Full Story

The Land of Darkly: Act Two

The prince, in the meantime, went to his chambers for a lie down to recover from his meeting with his mother. Gelmernia, his manservant and best friend, awaited him with a cup of tea, and a cup of something else that glowed blue and occasionally released a bubble into the air of the expansive suite, where it would drift until encountering something solid like a wall or a window. After etching away part of the wall or the window, the bubble would pop and release an extremely noxious smell into the air. Full Story

The Land of Darkly: Act One

The king was in his counting-house, counting out his money - well, he was watching Fittle, his oldest and most trusted servant, count out his money. And, to make things even clearer, they were only counting out the NEW money. The rest of the money had already been counted and stored on the shelves around them, which stretched into the darkness surrounding the King and Fittle where they sat at the counting table. They had encircled the counting tables with candles, lamps, and few roaring torches - ostensibly to see better, but really because, of all the rooms in the Royal Castle, this was the one the King liked the least. Full Story

The Blue Flower Mountain by Ivor W. Hartmann

The waning sunlight glimmered softly through tall ethereal gum trees that waved in zephyrs, crisp from snow capped mountains. A narrow red earth dirt strip road sliced languidly ahead into Fynbos foothills. A small blue sign fat nail hammered onto a termite mud encrusted crumbling pole, jutted out from the wild grasses roadside. Neatly painted in elegant white script it spelt out the name, 'Bloublommitijies Kloof', or Blue Flower Mountain. Full Story

Earth Rise by Ivor W. Hartmann

No matter how many times he prayed, pleaded, begged and screamed, Thomas Church could not die. Desperate scrabbling fingers and toes early measured his kingdom of darkness - a coffin of rough pine that needled deep before it wore smooth. He rubbed the silky wood, tracing the grain, and almost missed the agony of a sliver pierced between fingernail and flesh. Thomas had no awareness of time. Instead, he nurtured memories of light. A time before the six-walled kingdom that laid his body flat beneath the earth. Sometimes he laughed until the laughter took control and battered him against the silent boards. Full Story

About Ivor W. Hartmann

2009-02-10T04:30:00.004+02:00

Ivor W. Hartmann was born in the 70's the youngest of three siblings in the Sunshine City of Harare, Zimbabwe. Which of course meant he was a teen in the 80's and did indeed at some point, (during holidays home from the tragedy of boarding school) wear a pastel, sleeve-rolled jacket, when seriously getting down to Duran Duran. But when not being acutely embarrassed or embarrassing, he found some relief in the world of literature and penned his first short story at the age of fourteen.

The story was a rather gruesome, blood soaked tale about werewolves that scared the hell out of his demure English Literature teacher. So much so, that an immediate, rather gruelling, parent conference was called, to discuss the disturbing level of graphic detail. It was at that point he realised he might be on to something with this writing lark.

Four years later upon leaving high school, he was faced with a choice between becoming a fine artist or a writer. Though he showed promise in both fields (as a finalist in some national school competitions), ultimately financial restraints, youthful impetuousness, and the idea that one needed to live life before writing about it led him to fine art.

Fourteen years later, now armed with a broad range of experience stretching from Literature and Fine Art to Permaculture, Organic Farming, Computer Animation, Special Effects and Music Videos. In the dead of one cold winter's night, Ivor was struck by the realisation that it had been a long, long time since he had last written any prose, and surely, those years had been well lived. Well enough to reconsider what had always remained a deep urge just below the surface. Therefore, in that night, he sat down to tap out the dust, shake off the camping gear, and set out once more down the newly written road to the wilds of imagination country.

When he returned three days later he counted himself as wholly addicted to prose again, and all else seemed to pale by comparison into insignificance. With the Muses firmly camped-out and partying in his ear, he returned to writing. Beginning a journey that has led to:

Published Fiction and Non-Fiction works with various print magazines such as African Writing, Something Wicked and Future Guide, and numerous online magazines.

The StoryTime African New Fiction FreEzine which showcases weekly, some of the hottest new African fiction writers.

Behind the glare of print and screen, Ivor always has a novel on the go, and several short stories nosing around the world.

Awards and Nominations:

Earth Rise, a short story, was nominated in March 2009 for The Ursa Major Award.

Mr. Goop, a short story, was awarded The Baobab Prize in March 2009.

Non-Fiction

2009-02-09T23:00:00.012+02:00

Recent Non-Fiction

Sergei Lukyanenko: The Night Watch

Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy.”- Sergei Lukyanenko

Like a gust of fresh cold winter’s air on a midsummer’s day Russian author Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko steps up and revitalises a favourite fantasy world; presenting an eternal struggle between good and evil in a new and blinding light. With not a damn cape, count or coffin to be seen in a modern vivid urban Russia, replete with echoes of communism and the impact of free trade and the Mafia. Lukyanenko pulls no punches and drags you mercilessly into a world of gritty realism where there is a price to be paid for every thought, word and deed. With no fanfare or velvet build up, the unseen world of Twilight, inhabited by dark ones and light ones or known collectively as “others” is revealed. Read More

Yvonne Vera: The Fearless Taboo Queen

"I am against silence, the books I write try to undo the silent posture African women have endured over so many decades.” -Yvonne Vera.

Yvonne was born in 1964 and raised in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo during British colonial and then Rhodesian minority oppression. Though Yvonne was somewhat graced by her families prominent status, her father was a prosperous well connected businessman and her uncle a former local football star and manager of a top hotel. Together they were both politically involved and friends of Joshua Nkomo who would become a pivotal figure in the 2^nd Chimurenga or Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle. Her mother was a school teacher and early on extended her love of books over to her daughter to take up the mantle. Read More

The King of Sci-Fi Frank Herbert

"The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” -Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert Jr. was born 1920 in Tacoma, Washington, USA, only son to Frank Herbert Sr. an auto-bus line operator between Tacoma and Aberdeen. When Frank was eight his family moved to a small farm in Burley, this grounded him in a rural childhood freedom that would birth his passion for the environment and societies, their politics, and their relationships to their environment. Frank was drawn to writing like a moth to the flame and began his writing career as a journalist for the Glendale Star at nineteen, fresh out of high school, determined and impatient to get started. Read More

How Alchemy changed the World #3

Part Three: Al-kimia transformed into Alchemie. As one star of Alchemy was fading another rose to the sky during Europe’s High Middle Ages. Fuelled by incoming Greek texts not seen since Roman times, and astounded by advanced Islamic texts, the Renaissance of the 12th century had begun. Kick started at the end of the Early Middle Ages by a Frenchman called Gerbert d'Aurillac, who under Roman Catholic monastic orders went to study mathematics in Spain. Once there, he was introduced to not only to the new Arabic mathematics but a far larger tree of knowledge of which mathematics was but a single branch, that of Alchemy itself. Read More

How Alchemy changed the World #2

Part Two: The Spagyric Arts reborn as Al-kimia. 130 years after the fall of Roman Alexandria in 772CE, with Europe deep into the Dark Ages, one Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān, more commonly known as Geber or Jabir, was born in Tus, Khorasan (present day Iran). As Hermes was the father of Alchemy, Jabir would become known as the Father of Chemistry, and this is where we can find the root of the word Alchemy, in the Arabic, al-kimia - the art of transformation, which up until then had been called the Spagyric Arts, to separate and to join together, by the Greeks. Read More

How Alchemy changed the World #1

Part One: The Ancients. Back in the millennia between 5000BCE - 400BCE there arose in Ancient Egypt spearheaded by their living gods and presided over by the priestly orders, a new way of looking at and understanding the world. It was the first known catalogued studies focusing not only on the composition of the world around us, but also how that knowledge could be both, utilised and preserved. Shrouded in mystery, allegoric encryption, and ritual, held forth as decrees from the gods, Alchemy was born. Read More

Self-assembled Nano-circuit boards with DNA Origami and Carbon Nanotubes

Just when Moore’s Law seemed to be hitting a sponge wall of 45nm, IBM inconjunction with Paul Rothemund have paved the way right down to a possible 2nm or 2 billionths of a meter. Now if that wasn’t enough to have even the mildest of technophile’s wonder at the possible increase in processing speed and power that could ensue. There’s something for the SF enthusiast too, because this avenue of research could lead to the first commercial organically self-assembled nano circuit boards. Read More

Cloud Computing: A storm gathers

There is a perfect storm gathering in the computing world, a storm that is set to scour present day computing into a strange and foreign landscape. One that could potentially see everyday home and business computing become a virtually inescapable cloud utility service like electricity or water. Except this utility service would be global and ultimately run by giants like Google, Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, Amazon etc. Read More

Dr Valter Longo Vs Death

The Tree of Life, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Holy Grail; throughout human history the myth and legend of immortality and extended life has been a common cross cultural theme. Yet one that has always stayed obscured mysterious and decidedly out of reach, that is until now and the advent of genetic Biogerontology. At the University of Southern California, Dr Valter Longo not only looks Death in the eyes daily but they play high stakes poker together. And on the line is nothing else but the extension of human life itself and the good doctor is beginning to win. Read More

Organic Crop Rotation

The concept and practise of crop rotation is not a new one there are ancient Roman, African and Asian archaeological references to its practice and theory. But it was not until 8 - 13 CE during the global Muslim Agricultural Revolution (MAR), that it became well known and widely introduced into global farming practises. It is only with the fairly new advent of inorganic pesticides and fertilisers that crop rotation lost favour and was mistakenly replaced. There is however a return to or innovation of these old practices through the systems of sustainable farming as seen in organic farming, permaculture, polyculture etc. It is becoming undeniably self-evident that modern petro-chemical reliant commercial farming is not only un-sustainable but increasingly damaging to the environment. Read More

Evolution in Action

The general theory that humans have essentially stopped evolving has never sat well with me. For why should that be the case, what could have told our DNA to stop adapting to its situation, like it has been doing since the first strand of DNA ever evolved in the first place? From the University of Utah comes a study which not only suggests that humans are indeed still evolving, but have actually been doing so at an accelerated rate since the advent of farming and the end of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Read More

Human Biogas: A solution whose time has arrived

The average human body produces .696 kilograms of solid waste every day, that’s 248 kilograms a year and 18,626 kilograms a lifetime (75). The city of Johannesburg in South Africa was home to 3,225,812 people in 2001, which would mean Joburgers on average produce over 2,245,165 kilograms of solid human waste every day. Waste being the operative word here because that’s what we do with it, we waste what is potentially a huge amount of energy and add to global warming at the same time by doing so. To understand how much potential energy is being wasted we must go to prison in Rwanda. Read More

Visual Art

2009-02-09T22:00:00.008+02:00

This section features some of my visual artistry. Though unfortunately I can't display any work really from around 1992-2000. These were mostly my fine art years and seven of those were as an exhibiting fine artist. During this period I primarily worked with oil paints on canvas and had very little of it photographed, as I should have. So now practically all but two works and a few aged photo's, are dispersed around the world along with the Zimbabwean Diaspora.

Book Covers

These are some of my recent book cover designs, the ones marked with my logo are still in production or remain at concept level, but I thought they looked good enough to display.

Music Video

"Nessun Dorma" is from Puccini's opera "Turandot" performed here by AfroTenor-Given Nabele, Lucky Sibande and Agos Moahi. The Music video was directed by Ivor Hartmann and won Best Music Video at the KORA Awards 2005.

Booom

Animated shorts for a South African dance CD, TVC campaign.

Various FX

How Alchemy changed the World #3

2008-11-03T05:54:00.015+02:00

Part Three: Al-kimia transformed into Alchemie.

As one star of Alchemy was fading another rose to the sky during Europe's High Middle Ages. Fuelled by incoming Greek texts not seen since Roman times, and astounded by advanced Islamic texts, the Renaissance of the 12th century had begun. Kick started at the end of the Early Middle Ages by a Frenchman called Gerbert d'Aurillac, who under Roman Catholic monastic orders went to study mathematics in Spain. Once there, he was introduced to not only to the new Arabic mathematics but a far larger tree of knowledge of which mathematics was but a single branch, that of Alchemy itself.

When Gerbert arrived in 967CE, Spain was well into its Reconquista or Christian re-conquest of Islamic territories that would eventually become the Spanish Empire. Under the tutelage of Atto the Bishop of Vich, just north of Barcelona, Gerbert began his studies. Shortly afterwards Atto became embroiled in a political assignment that would take him away and return him a changed man. Sent by Borrell II of Barcelona, to negotiate a critical Andalusian ceasefire, Atto travelled to Cordoba one of the largest cities in the world for a time and a center for the Islamic world and Mediterranean Basin. Once there he met the Caliph of Cordoba, Al-Hakam II. In whom Atto found a learned scholar-prince, who talked more competently about a vast range of subjects from astronomy to mathematics, than most of Atto's Spanish intellectual peers. Al-Hakam II also summed up all these subjects in an overall discipline called al-kimia. When Atto returned and told Gerbert of this new and yet very old science of Alchemy, they both vowed to learn more and soon became Alchemy initiates, learning under numerous respected Arab teachers, imported into Spain with the help of Al-Hakam II. Gerbert once started could not get enough, at only 21 years old he was learning new ideas, concepts and methodologies everyday, which the rest of Medieval Europe had never even heard about.

Certainly, Gerbert was not the first European to study and assimilate the new Islamic/Greek/Egyptian Alchemy. What makes Gerbert unique in the formation and rise of European Alchemy, is that he went on to extensively tutor Emperor Otto II & III, and at the cathedral school of Rheims. Never hesitating to teach his newfound knowledge and relay his respect for Islamic Alchemists. Gerbert became a huge proponent in the integration of I.G.E. Alchemy into the Roman Catholic Church's body of knowledge. Much like it had absorbed knowledge of amongst others, medicine, astronomy, and metallurgy from Pagan priests, rites, and rituals. Nevertheless, what truly cemented Alchemy into the books was the day Gerbert became head of the Roman Catholic Church, as Pope Sylvester II in 1003CE. It also serves to mention that although he became Pope, since his exposure to and experimentation with Alchemy as a young lad, he was dogged by the title of Sorcerer. During and after his life several legends arose around him, the most persistent being that he and the Devil had long chats. And more interestingly a kickback all the way to Jabir and his quest to create artificial life. The prophetic Brazen Head with which it was legend, Gerbert questioned, and the bronze/brass cast head always responded accurately, no mater the question. Giving rise to perhaps the first European science fiction story, the artificial robot, an idea that would sound across the ages.

Although absorbed, assimilated and even added to by the likes of Adelard of Bath (1122CE) and especially the extensive translation of the original Greek and Arabic texts into Latin of Robert Grosseteste (1230CE), and his resulting important commentaries and treatises like the astronomic, De sphere. Alchemy was to remain mostly unstudied until the Bavarian born, Albertus Magnus and his student Thomas Aquinas a fellow Dominican Monk, brought it into prominence. Inextricably linked from the time Thomas went to his first lecture in the Cologne Dominican School by Albertus on philosophy, which incorporated strong Aristotelian concepts in 1244CE. Thomas became an avid student and Albertus, who was already well beyond just studying Aristotle, began to share his knowledge of Alchemy. A year later, they both went to the famed University of Paris, Albertus for a Doctorate and Thomas a Bachelors in Theology. (It was in Paris that the word al-kimia was to become the French Alkemie, and later the English Alchemy, in Latin it was named Solve et Coagula-Separate and Join Together.) They remained in Paris for three years and achieved both their academic goals and much more. However, there was another important character lecturing at the University of Paris at the same time, though not directly linked to Albertus and Thomas, he too would have a profound effect on Alchemy, a 31 year-old, soon to be Franciscan Friar, Roger Bacon.

After Paris, Albertus and Thomas in 1248CE moved back to Cologne and continued their studies and both lectured for another four years. It was during this period that Albertus began producing numerous treatises like Alchemy: Metals and Materials, all collected in a volume entitled, Theatrum Chemicum. This also included many references to The Philosophers Stone and Albertus did believe in the mystical side of alchemy. Moreover, whilst Albertus preferred the philosophic side of alchemy, he was not above getting dirty and was the first European alchemist to isolate Arsenic. It was because of Albertus's abundant lifetime treatise output on a vast range of subjects, some thirty-eight volumes in total. All of which up held as their base, empiric Aristotelian concepts of logic and observation, pillar stones of alchemy. Which was fine until these concepts and a hoard more, promoted by Albertus amongst others, began cause the questioning of current church doctrine. Chief among the questioners was Thomas Aquinas, who so near to that ancient flame relit, would become a reagent for cataclysmic change, and forever alter the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, that was still to come and in the meantime, while Thomas went back to Paris to attain his Masters in Theology and two years later Albertus joined him as the newly elected Dominican Provincial Superior. This began a mutual leap into church politics that would for Thomas, only end in condemnation and death.

Meanwhile by 1256CE Roger Bacon had taken his Franciscan vows and thrown off the mantle of a teaching professor. Perhaps to devote more his time to the study and understanding of alchemy, with especial reference to Aristotle and the new (to him) influx of translated (into Latin) Arabic Alchemical texts. Now although the Franciscan order was one of the strictest, it was only in 1260CE that they forbade their friars from publically publishing their own manuscripts without specific approval. However Roger had a good friend, one who was rather well connected.

Cardinal Guy le Gros de Foulques and Roger Bacon became friends previous to this new edict, and though he could not help Roger at that time. Just five years later when he became Pope Clement IV, he was in a position to do so. So in 1265CE Roger Bacon was issued a papal mandate, ordering him to write to the Pope on the place of Philosophy within Theology. Three years later Roger sent the Pope his Opus Majus-the great work, which was a massive treatise for the time containing 840 pages and divided into seven sections. But it was parts four, five and six, that would echo down the ages and help transform alchemy, and indeed the world, forever.

These three parts of the Opus Majus, titled respectively under Mathematics, Optics and Experimental Science, covered a vast range of subjects from alchemy to celestial bodies. Included among them was; a gunpowder recipe, a detailed study of the anatomy of the eye, understanding eyesight, properties of light, and in particular the use of refraction/reflection in mirrors and lenses. Many of the studies foreshadowed or rather laid the ground work for, the invention of telescopes, microscopes, steam ships, flying machines, spectacles and hydraulics. Now, as marvellous as Opus Majus was, it would only be mass printed and become available outside the Vatican, some 630 years later. Why? Well just one year after the Pope received the Opus Majus, he died. The death of Pope Clement IV marked a downward spiral not only for Roger Bacon, but for Thomas Aquinas, Albert Magus, the whole of Alchemy and Europe itself.

For three years the Papal throne remained vacant while its Cardinals argued about who should attain succession. During this time the Bishop of Paris (perhaps taking advantage of the Papal vacuum, in order to support the French Cardinals in some way) started a campaign against the influx of new ideas he stated were threatening the foundations of the church and university. Chief to this campaign was the outlawing of the enormously popular teachings of the new (to Europe) fandangled philosophers, Aristotle and his Arabic counterparts. For Thomas Aquinas it spelled the beginning of the end, Aristotle and Co. being central and indispensable to his life, work, lectures and treatises. The Dominican order quickly rushed him away from Paris to Florence, Italy where he was commissioned to build a Stadium Generale-a type of medieval university. The sudden change in the direction of European church politics took Thomas by surprise, and he was thoroughly undermined. The vision of a future he glimpsed through the teachings of his ancient and modern peers, a vision that he had tirelessly promoted his entire adult life, had been crushed in the jaws of European church dogma and indecision. Thomas died just four years after the Paris edict, and his long time friend and confidant Albertus Magnus would follow him eight years later.

In 1277CE the Bishop of Paris issued a new revised edict, even harsher than the first, it became known as The Condemnations, and through it Thomas's Aquinas would be posthumously excommunicated and all his works banned. It was this edict that also saw Roger Bacon placed under house arrest, and all his works published books and treatises banned. He was eventually sent to prison for the last fourteen years of his life, where he died around 1294CE. After Roger Bacon, Alchemy goes below the radar for obvious reasons, related to imprisonment and death. And in so doing it begins to reaffirm and backward slide into one of it oldest aspects, that of being an occult practice. But there is one who name stands out in these dark years, that of the 14th Century Pseudo Geber, who taking the name of the original Geber started to light a path in the darkness.

Previously... Part Two: The Spagyric Arts reborn as Al-kimia.

Next...?

How Alchemy changed the World was written by Ivor W. Hartmann.

How Alchemy changed the World #2

2008-10-15T05:00:00.034+02:00

Part Two: The Spagyric Arts reborn as Al-kimia

130 years after the fall of Roman Alexandria in 772CE, with Europe deep into the Dark Ages, one Abu Musa Jābir ibn Hayyān, more commonly known as Geber or Jabir, was born in Tus, Khorasan (present day Iran). As Hermes was the father of Alchemy, Jabir would become known as the Father of Chemistry, and this is where we can find the root of the word Alchemy in the Arabic, al-kimia - the art of transformation, which up until then had been called the Spagyric Arts, to separate and to join together, by the Greeks. Among the many discoveries attributed to Jabir from his well-documented and preserved texts. Perhaps one of the most important was not what he discovered, but how. Building on Aristotle’s idea of systematic thought, Jabir laid out a new technique of methodical and systematic experimentation, that would in time form the foundation of the standard mode of modern scientific experimentation.

"The first essential in chemistry, is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery." -Jabir

Historians on the subject of alchemy have noted that compared to Jabir’s texts, the surviving Ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian alchemical texts seemed to be unintelligible allegoric fantasies that defied interpretation. This was not to say Jabir, just as paranoid as all the alchemists before him, did not encode his texts, he did in fact write them in an esoteric code that could only be read by the initiated. However, once decoded his very method of methodical experimentation lent itself to highly detailed notes and explanations. It was Jabir’s approach to alchemy that would one day see it rise from the ranks of superstition. He is also credited with the discovery of Sulphuric, Nitric, Hydrochloric, Citric, Acetic, and Tartaric Acid. The discovery and isolation of Arsenic, Antimony, and Bismuth. The first isolation and purification of Sulphur and Mercury. And invented and/or perfected numerous chemical processes such as pure distillation and filtration, and theorised about various chemical substances such as distilled alcohol.

Another of Jabir’s creations was Aqua regia, the first known reagent that could dissolve gold and thereby form part of a purification process. The resulting acid liquid mixture could then be precipitated into solid gold. Sound familiar, it should as this could also be described as an external transmutation of base metals into gold. One of the prime goals of alchemists since Hermes Trismegistus. Jabir was also very interested and theorised about an al-iksir, the elusive elixir, However, Jabir’s al-iksir contrary to the immortality elixir Waidan mentioned in Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and then The Kinship of the Three by Wei Boyang in 142CE. Was a substance, which according to its method of use could re-arrange the basic properties of any one metal so another metal could be formed. However, when taken within the mystic context, Jabir’s al-iksir, somehow became a more than a thousand-year search, for a substance that could not only change base metals, but also grant the alchemist immortality. This being the decidedly elusive Philosophers Stone, which would in the end, turn out to be a very dead Albatross for Alchemy.

The importance of Middle Eastern Alchemy did not end with Jabir; fourteen years old when Jabir died, al-Kindi whose life marked the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age took up the mantle just a few years later. Although Al-Kindi was indeed the first to actually decry certain Alchemic practices, specifically the quest to transmute any base metals into precious metals with the still elusive al-iksir. He was a huge proponent of Jabir’s new scientific methodology and added his own ideas on quantification extrapolated from the still rather mysticism obscured Aristotelian logic. Al-Kindi was greatly influenced by the Ancient Greeks and was in fact charged by the Abbasid Caliph’s as supervisor, for the translation of scientific and philosophic Greek texts into Arabic. With his own genius, and Jabir and the Greeks as his shoulders to stand on, al-Kindi achieved several landmarks for alchemy, and what it was to become.

“We must not hesitate to recognize the truth and to accept it no matter what is its origin, no matter if it comes to us from the ancients or from foreign people... My purpose is first to write down all that the ancients have left us on a given topic and then, using the Arabic tongue and taking into account the customs of our time and our capacities, to complete what they have not fully expressed.”- Al-Kindi, A Precursor of the Scientific Revolution.

Al-Kindi is considered one of the first true chemists, but he also collected another title along the way. Although well respected as a philosopher in his own right, when it came to his widespread research and experimentation with plants and other ingredients, he created that most intangible of qualities in the 800’s, the ability to smell good, with perfume. For this, he is known as the Father of Perfume for inventing a vast array of perfume and scent base products and then elaborating with a huge number of specific recipes. This also led to his invention of numerous pharmaceuticals, including how to substitute certain costly ingredients with others. Moreover, in doing so perhaps initiated the idea of generic pharmaceuticals, in terms of medications being not only secret formulas but also tied to resource locations.

In difference, to al-Kindi, Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī, or Razi a man of his own contrasts who was eight when al-Kindi died, later championed the al-iksir and even publically refuted al-Kindi’s improbability statement of such a substance. Yet when questioned by his peers, who believed he had succeeded in transmuting iron and copper into gold, because he was willing to treat patients for free, he replied:

"I understand alchemy and I have been working on the characteristic properties of metals for an extended time. However, it still has not turned out to be evident to me, how one can transmute gold from copper. Despite the research from the ancient scientists done over the past centuries, there has been no answer. I very much doubt if it is possible..."-Razi, in Mohammad Zakaria Razi by Khosro Moetazed.

Therefore, if Razi did succeed, well he kept it to himself. There were however many other groundbreaking studies he did share, but perhaps more importantly was the way he chose to share them. For the first time ever in the history of Alchemy, an alchemist refused to wholly adhere to the ludicrously complex esoteric and allegorical encoding systems that had plagued oral, written, and depicted Alchemic texts for the last 2800 years. A system that up until Razi, had quite successfully prevented all non-initiate access to alchemical knowledge. Instead, Razi wrote in clearly understandable Arabic, countless books on Alchemy, medicine, philosophy and religion. Including the first known description and diagnosis of the smallpox with symptoms and visual identity, accompanied by the understanding that it was contagious. Nevertheless, perhaps his greatest contribution to Alchemy was the cementing of truly empiric observation and experimentation combined with detailed and clearly written documentation, into Alchemical thought, development and research. Amongst his many claims to fame Razi was the first to distil petroleum and with it invent kerosene and kerosene lamps, soap bars and modern recipes for soap, so perhaps Razi could be called the Father of the Petro-Chemical industry. He also produced reliable antiseptic ointments and invented copious chemical processes and instruments such as sublimation and glass phials. Middle Eastern Alchemy and its growing diversity would continue to flourish for the next 259 years after Razi. However, this abruptly ended in 1218CE, with the invasion and massacre of nearly half of Iran’s population by Genghis Khan. But not before one on-the-run surviving alchemist would amongst other accomplishments prepare the ground along with Epicurus before him, for the birth of modern chemistry like a phoenix from the ashes of Alchemy.

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī or just Tusi was born in Tus, Iran just like Jabir but 386 years later. Tusi may have been only 17 when Genghis Khan invaded but he was already a gifted scholar having studied far and wide with some of the great Alchemists of the time, which included mathematicians, astronomers, and philosophers at the height of the Islamic Golden Age. It would take more than an invasion to deter Tusi from his own studies, which he doggedly pursued even as he sought refuge with the Ismaili, and their fortified strongholds. It was during this time that Tusi re-identified and clarified Epicurus’s statement that:

"The sum total of things was always such as it is now, and such it will ever remain,"-Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus.

With:

"A body of matter cannot disappear completely. It only changes its form, condition, composition, colour and other properties and turns into a different complex or elementary matter.” -Tusi.

Two statements that would ring down the ages until they were transformed into the Law of conservation of mass/matter. A law that would prove to be a keystone to the survival and transformation of Alchemy itself. But getting back to Tusi, who whilst still on the run from Ismaili stronghold to stronghold, which were gradually but surely falling to the Mongols. He managed to also be the first to class trigonometry as its own mathematical discipline and greatly advanced it with spherical trigonometry. This also gave rise to Tusi being the first to empirically observe the earth’s rotation and present these observations as evidence. Perhaps inspired by Ibn al-Shatir’s extensive astronomic studies and invention of the first astrolabe and compendium. Tusi provided proof based on the detailed empirical observation in the location of comets being relative to the Earth’s own rotations. These details would be strongly echoed some 296 years later by a Prussian fellow called Copernicus.

Though stalled by Tusi, he marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age as the last Ismaili stronghold, Alamut Castle, fell to Hulagu Khan, Genghis’s grandson in 1256CE. Even then, Tusi remained undeterred and he convinced Hulagu Khan himself, to build an observatory that soon established very accurate Astronomic tables. Though primarily made for predicting astrological events they also mapped out the movement of major planetary bodies, and formed an astronomic standard that would remain almost unchanged until Copernicus. After Tusi, Alchemy would only come back to prominence in the Middle East when it had been altogether changed, renamed, and returned to the purity of a true modern science it had just started to become.

"The Greeks (so far as we know) were confined to industrial experience and vague hypothesis, the Saracens introduced precise observation, controlled experiment, and careful records. They invented and named the alembic (al-anbiq), chemically analyzed innumerable substances, composed lapidaries, distinguished alkalis and acids, investigated their affinities, studied and manufactured hundreds of drugs. Alchemy…inherited from Egypt, contributed to chemistry by a thousand incidental discoveries, and by its method, which was the most scientific of all medieval operations.” - Will Durant, The Story of Civilization IV: The Age of Faith.

Next... Al-kimia transformed to Alchemie.

Previously... The Ancients.

How Alchemy changed the World was written By Ivor W. Hartmann.

How Alchemy changed the World #1

2008-10-13T03:50:00.027+02:00

Part One: The Ancients

Back in the millennia between 5000BCE - 400BCE there arose in Ancient Egypt spearheaded by their living gods and presided over by the priestly orders, a new way of looking at and understanding the world. It was the first known catalogued studies focusing not only on the composition of the world around us, but also how that knowledge could be both, utilised and preserved. Shrouded in mystery, allegoric encryption, and ritual, held forth as decrees from the gods, Alchemy was born.

If one person could be said to be the Father of Alchemy it would have to be Hermes Trismegistus aka: Thoth, Hermanubis, or Hermes amongst many other names. Although his/her true name and identity was lost to the deification common for significant persons in Ancient Egypt. It is estimated that he lived around 1900BCE, and what he left behind or what was attributed to him, were the collective writings known as the Corpus Hermeticum and legendary Emerald Tablet, also called The Secret of Hermes. Together these scripts would form Hermeticism, the base for the Ancient Greek alchemists.

“The god Hermes Trismegistus received this book from the angels as god's greatest gift and passed it on to all individuals fit to receive secrets.” -Book one: Kuranides from the Corpus Hermeticum.

The world of alchemy as laid out by Hermes Trismegistus, contained many disciplines and sub-disciplines covering everything from metallurgy to medicine and philosophy. However, the main driving force seemed to be the external transmutation of base metals, with gold as the ultimate goal. In contrast, Eastern Alchemy originating in China first formalised in the, Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, during the Xia Dynasty (2070BCE - 1600BCE), concentrated primarily on internal medicine, health and specifically longevity. The two main branches for achieving longevity with immortality as the ultimate goal were Waidan, the external elixir method and Neidan, the internal elixir method. Both were based around the idea of five major elements Earth, Air, Water, Metal, and Wood, which it was believed composed all matter, and their subsequent measurement and manipulation. Therefore, while Ancient Egypt mainly pursued external riches or gold the Ancient Chinese mainly pursued internal riches or immortality.

“Observe. Whether the five depots have a surplus or an insufficiency, whether the six palaces are strong or weak, and whether the physical appearance is marked by abundance or decays. All this is brought together to reach a conclusion to differentiate
between death and survival.” - Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic) Paul Unschuld.

Now in between Egypt and China lay India, where you find the rise of alchemy in Rasayana or The Path of Elixir first entered into the Vedic scriptures (1500-500BCE) from Ancient India. Then sometime later Rasavātam, or The Way of Mercury mentioned in the Arthashastr (350-283BCE) around the same time it came to prominence as Alchemy in Ancient Greece. This makes sense given the Greek connection to India established by Alexander the Great and sustained long after his reign. In addition, between 322-185BCE Indian metallurgy made great advances including the creation of high quality steel and true Wootz Steel which later became known as Damascus Steel (the still lost true Wootz steel technique is now credited with the being first though perhaps unwitting use of nanotechnology).

"They have a science similar to alchemy which is quite peculiar to them, which in Sanskrit is called Rasayāna and in Persian Rasavātam. It means the art of obtaining/manipulating Rasa, nectar, mercury, juice. This art was restricted to certain operations, metals, drugs, compounds, and medicines, many of which have mercury as their core element. Its principles restored the health of those who were ill beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age.” - Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī (11th century Persian chemist and physician).

Which brings us back to Egypt but a new Egypt that had wholly been devoured by Alexander the Great, and a small town called Rhakotis, became Alexandria, Capital City of Hellenic Egypt in 331BCE. Where the scripts of Hermes Trismegistus were added to Greek philosophies and existing knowledge and then transmuted into a new Hermeticism. If Hermes was the father of Alchemy then this new Hermeticism was his lasting legacy, and it was his ideas that very well may have been the impetus, which led to the construction of the famed Ancient Library of Alexandria. Ironically, because of the shroud of mysticism and secrecy that still veiled Alchemy, most of the knowledge retained by the various schools of mystery in Alexandria, was verbal. Alexandria soon became the prime western center for Alchemy and remained so throughout 332BCE - 642CE. During this time it would seem that the philosophic or thinking side of Alchemy became more developed, beefed up by the likes of Agathodaimon, Pythagoras, and Socrates, Empedocles, Aristotle and Plato.

“There are four senses in which one thing can be said to be 'prior' to another…In the third place, the term 'prior' is used with reference to any order, as in the case of science and of oratory. For in sciences which use demonstration there is that which is prior and that which is posterior in order; in geometry, the elements are prior to the propositions; in reading and writing, the letters of the alphabet are prior to the syllables. Similarly, in the case of speeches, the exordium is prior in order to the narrative… Such, then, are the different senses in which the term 'prior' is used.” -Aristotle, The Categories.

Together they initiated the clarification categorisation of four major elements Earth, Air, Water, and Fire as the basis for all matter. However, these elements were still seen as some greater aspect of matter not as definitive chemical elements. Another major Greek change to Alchemy was the input of Aristotle towards using a systematic thought process and a resulting documented explanation. With the fall of the Roman Empire and subsequent 641BCE Muslim conquest of Egypt, Alexandria was swept into Islamic control and the practices of Alchemy with it. This led to perhaps the most profound advances in alchemy since Hermes Trismegistus initiated it.

Next... The Spagyric Arts reborn as Al-kimia

How Alchemy changed the World was written by Ivor W. Hartmann.