I: INTRO: THE CALL OF ADVENTURE Alchemy is the forerunner of modern chemistry, certainly, but also science and research into spiritualism. Sometimes it enters the realm of magic. To be an alchemist required a wide range of knowledge in subjects such as theology, ancient literature and exotic languages from Arabic and Greek to Latin and Hebraic. Possessing these types of knowledge was quite often looked on as sorcery. When word was passed that someone was a sorcerer religious authorities would search for the suspected wizard. They would pursue them as heretics because they did not understand their purposes and methods. Alchemy was a dangerous practice, for the boundary between science and sorcery was much less clear than it is in the third millenium, making science as well as sorcery a risky undertaking. To be an alchemist was a great adventure, but a hazardous one. The man we are speaking of was one of these. The legend says that a mysterious alchemist moved to Spain in a time before the kingdom was consolidated, with an intellectual symbiosis existing between varying members of the academic community. Ferdinand de Aragone and Isabella de Castille made a decision to place the interests of common people rather than favoring an intellectual elite. Elitists, they knew, were prone to causing instability in governments. A master inquisitor of the Spanish territories was appointed shortly afterward. He was their Father Confessor, Tomas de Torquemada, prior of the Santa Cruz monastery. They assigned to him the task of giving Spain one people, one language and one religion. The Pope himself granted to Torquemada the title of Grand Inquisitor, a role he fulfilled with great fervor. History stands witness to the results of his work. Before the departure of Columbus on his journey to discover the New World his realized his aims. In less than 20 years Spain had been completely changed. No one can say where the alchemist came from or who he was. Some said he had come from Turin; others, erroneously, thought him to be Nostradamus. Unfortunately the documents written during the Holy Inquisition reveal only that an interrogation was conducted. The name and fate of the alchemist were omitted and lost. But we have the legend, which has much to add to the story. And where history takes us no further the legend, passed down through the centuries from father to son will help us to see through the mists that cloud the event. Of course a veil of uncertainty will always remain and we have no desire to lay claim to pulling that aside. We can only carry you on an imaginary journey, helping you to taste the flavor of this alchemist's great adventure. Imagine his face, in the light of a candle, surrounded by boiling chemicals in a strange, dark room...