Rosa Alchemica-- L'Hyperchimie.
Revue Mensuelle d'Hermetisme Scientifique.
La Matiere est une; elle vit, elle evolue. Il n'y a pas de corps simples
Other titles: Hyperchinie, L: Rosa Alchemica
1902—1904
Douai, France. Language: French.
Editor: François Jollivet Castelot, Docteur en Hermetisme et Doctor en Kabbale.
Publisher: Lucien Bodin.
Succeeds: L'Hyperchimie
Succeeded by: Les Nouveaux Horizons—>Rose+Croix (Douai/Clairac)
7/1, January 1902-8/12, March 1904.
Volume numbering contines that of its predecessor.

This was primarily an alchemical journal even though it claims as its fields of interest: "Alchimie, astrologie, magie, sciences psychiques, physiognomie, chirologie, graphologie, therapeutique, mystique, theurgie, esthetique." Jollivet Castelot (1874-1937) was fully involved in the fin de siecle occult world around Papus (Gerard Encausse) in Paris and had become a Martinist and a Docteur en hermetisme et docteur en kabbale in l'ecole superieure libre des sciences hermetiques de Paris organized by Papus and had become the head of its Alchemical Section. Unlike Papus, however, he concentrated his efforts on one subject primarily—alchemy—which he envisioned as the midpoint between metaphysics and chemistry. The journal was the organ of the Societe Alchimique de France that Jollivet Castelot had started in 1897, which had as its purpose "de grouper toutes les personnes qui s'occupent theoriquement ou pratiquement d'Alchimie, qui s'interessent a l'etude, au developpement et a la vulgarisation des doctrines de l'Unite de la Matiere, de l'evolution, de la transmutation des metaux, de la synthese des corps dits ‘simples ‘, et de l'Hylozoisme." It proudly proclaimed that it was a "scientific" endeavor: "This is a scientific review. We don't believe in prodigies. We believe that everything is the object of science and that there are not two sciences but only one because there is only one scientific method." Although the journal carried disquisitions on Boehme and the figure of the androgyne and the line, behind the theorizing was laboratory experimentation, illustrated by a photograph of "a corner of the laboratory of the Alchemical Society of France," with four earnest young men surrounded by test tubes, a Bunsen burner, and calcifying ovens. In later life Jollivet Castelot claimed success in making gold in his laboratory from silver. The collaborators in the review included F.-Ch. Barlet (Albert Faucheux), Stanislas de Guaita, "Marc Haven" (Dr. Emmanuel Lalande, 1868-1926), et al. In the 1920s Jollivet Castelot expanded his interests to communism and wrote several books on Jesus et le Communisme (1926) and Le Communisme Spiritualiste (1925), and founded the Union Communiste Spiritualiste (1925) -- which led to his being expelled from the party. BNF; Bibliotheque interuniversitaire Sainte-Genivieve.

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