When alchemists talk about the "element earth" I don't think they mean a physical substance. For example alchemists associate cold, the planet Saturn, and feminine with earth. From https://www.learnreligions.com/elemental-symbols-4122788
Interesting that Gilbert claims magnetism as a cause of the earth's rotation. Gilbert writes that lodestones spin until their north pole points to the earth's south pole. Why does the earth as a giant lodestone rotate instead of align its pole in a certain direction?
With respect to Gilbert's claim that magnetism is the cause of the earth's diurnal rotation, the details will come in Book VI, the last book of his De Magnete.
The term "alchemists" covers a lot of people, ranging from the precursors of today's chemists to the precursors of today's various New Age cults. At the time of Gilbert, those working as scientists were clearly working with the idea of the four elements as physical substances, as articulated by Aristotle in his De Caelo (On the Heavens), and taking it apart, piece by piece. Here, for example, here is a passage of Gilbert, Book I, Chapter VII, p.36, in which he completely ridicules the idea that one can associate specific metals with specific planets:
But why nature should be so grudging in the number of metals, or why there should be even so many metals as are recognized by man, were not easy to explain, though simpletons and raving astrologers refer to the several planets their respective metals. But neither do the planets agree with the metals nor the metals with the planets, either in number or in properties. For what is common between Mars and iron, save that, like many other implements, swords and artillery are made of iron? What has copper to do with Venus? Or how does tin, or zinc, relate to Jupiter? These were better dedicated to Venus. But a truce to old wives' talk.
My thinking here is not very advanced, but I'm sure alchemy is not old wives' talk.
Alchemists do not associate physical iron with the physical planet Mars, but the "idea of iron" with the "idea of Mars". They may use physical iron, or the position of Mars in the sky, to represent these concepts. Even today the sight of iron, for example in knives, calls to mind the idea of strife and war.
It is the state of the mind that concerns alchemists. So when they look for gold, they are not looking for physical gold, but for a balanced and excellent state of mind.
When alchemists talk about the "element earth" I don't think they mean a physical substance. For example alchemists associate cold, the planet Saturn, and feminine with earth. From https://www.learnreligions.com/elemental-symbols-4122788
Interesting that Gilbert claims magnetism as a cause of the earth's rotation. Gilbert writes that lodestones spin until their north pole points to the earth's south pole. Why does the earth as a giant lodestone rotate instead of align its pole in a certain direction?
With respect to Gilbert's claim that magnetism is the cause of the earth's diurnal rotation, the details will come in Book VI, the last book of his De Magnete.
The term "alchemists" covers a lot of people, ranging from the precursors of today's chemists to the precursors of today's various New Age cults. At the time of Gilbert, those working as scientists were clearly working with the idea of the four elements as physical substances, as articulated by Aristotle in his De Caelo (On the Heavens), and taking it apart, piece by piece. Here, for example, here is a passage of Gilbert, Book I, Chapter VII, p.36, in which he completely ridicules the idea that one can associate specific metals with specific planets:
But why nature should be so grudging in the number of metals, or why there should be even so many metals as are recognized by man, were not easy to explain, though simpletons and raving astrologers refer to the several planets their respective metals. But neither do the planets agree with the metals nor the metals with the planets, either in number or in properties. For what is common between Mars and iron, save that, like many other implements, swords and artillery are made of iron? What has copper to do with Venus? Or how does tin, or zinc, relate to Jupiter? These were better dedicated to Venus. But a truce to old wives' talk.
My thinking here is not very advanced, but I'm sure alchemy is not old wives' talk.
Alchemists do not associate physical iron with the physical planet Mars, but the "idea of iron" with the "idea of Mars". They may use physical iron, or the position of Mars in the sky, to represent these concepts. Even today the sight of iron, for example in knives, calls to mind the idea of strife and war.
It is the state of the mind that concerns alchemists. So when they look for gold, they are not looking for physical gold, but for a balanced and excellent state of mind.