there’s plenty of art that predates jung or hellmut, by one or more centuries, depicting alchemy as a spiritual process (opus magnum). much of its depiction is influenced by abrahamic religions (but not exclusively). i think its safe to assume colonialism played the same problematic role in both of our understandings around its origin. nonetheless, the framework seems to have existed long before the victorian era by my understanding, though i’d agree there are old and new interpretations alike that uphold purity culture/white supremacy.

i treat the metaphorical alchemy much like 12-tet music as we know it: the church propagated it, but influences internal and external to the church can still grow into something else (e.g. music that would protest/defy/have nothing to do with the church). alchemy as an understanding of death/rebirth cycles through heat/pressure/blood/sweat/tears is sensible to anyone observing the natural world (e.g. pagans and ancient greeks saw this), and (for example) the notion of “burning away impurities” in alchemy doesn’t have to be intertwined with white supremacy purification but instead transforming perpetually. finding old information can be difficult/frustrating when so much of it gets sucked into a new-age bs vortex.

with all of that said, i’m really interested in what you said regarding eastern texts that circumvent aforementioned problematic translation/appropriation about internal and chemical alchemy alike, and medieval and renaissance magic, and would love to learn more if you have any links/book titles to share!