Natural Philosophy
alchemists, including hermeticists and magicians, were "Natural Philosophers," directly studying nature’s principles through observation and experimentation. Their philosophy and knowledge was always rooted in nature, in a very close observation and working with the reality of the natural world…
The designation of alchemy as an "ancient branch of natural philosophy" is crucial for understanding the alchemist's intellectual identity. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, "natural philosophy" was a broad intellectual discipline encompassing what is now categorized as science, specifically the pursuit of understanding the natural world through reason and observation. The term "occult sciences," which emerged in the 16th century, explicitly included astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. This classification indicates that alchemy was considered a legitimate, albeit specialized, field of inquiry that dealt with "hidden" or "secret" agencies and properties of nature. The classification of alchemy as "natural philosophy" and its inclusion within the "occult sciences" reveals a pre-modern understanding of knowledge that did not impose rigid disciplinary boundaries between science, philosophy, and magic. The "natural philosopher" aimed to understand the entirety of the natural world, including its hidden or "occult" qualities
"How can man know Nature as she is so long as he is himself unnatural and imagines her to be otherwise than she is? How can he understand Nature so long as he does not let her light enter his heart, but looks merely at his own unnatural misconceptioos regarding her and which he has himself created in his mind? Before man can develop any spiritual powers he must first reestablish harmonious relations between himself and universal Nature; only when he has become natural can he expect to grow spiritual and to be able to obtain command over the divine powers of his mother. True natural science is therefore the basis of all true religion; but to obtain a true knowledge of Nature we must study her as she is, not as she has been represented by those who are continually misrepresenting her, and who know nothing about her except some of her external forms. To know Nature as she is, and not as she is supposed to be by others, we must free our mind of all the prejudices and misconceptions which have become established therein by a merely superficial science and by a dogmatic theology based upon an entire misconception of the true nature of man. We must free our mind from the noxious influences arising from the animal element; existing within our own soul, so that our understanding will become clear and the light of truth may shine through the pure atmosphere of our own internal heaven without any clouds obstructing its way. We must become One with Nature and One with the Truth, and by the knowledge of Self we will then know the Truth and have the powers or Nature at our command. It is one of the fundamental truths of occult science that individual man is an image of Nature. His constitution is based upon the same laws upon which Nature as a whole is constructed, and as, a child resembles its mother; likewise man’s organism resembles universal nature in everything but the external form. He is a Microcosm of the Macrocosm of nature; containing within himself, either germinally, potentially, or actively, all the powers and principles, substances and forces contained within the great organism of nature, and moreover the great and the little world continually act and react upon each other; the elementary forces of nature act upon man, and the forces emanating from man—even his thoughts—react again upon nature; and the more harmony there exists between man and the laws of universal nature, the more intimate will be the connection between the two: for the two are actually only one, the fact of their appearing to be two being merely an illusion which has been caused by man’s contravention of the laws of Nature, and by his consequent falling into an unnatural state. Let man again become a true child of Nature, and of one mind with his mother, and he will know all nature by knowing himself." -Cosmology or Universal Science (Secret Symbolism of the Rosicrucians) c. 1888, by Franz Hartmann