That Time Isaac Newton Turned England Into Gold

Most people know Isaac Newton as the "discoverer" of gravity, and "father of modern science".

Those who know that he spent way more time learning alchemy tend to be embarrassed.

Like his side hustle was foolishly boiling lead thinking it would become gold.

Boy are they wrong.

Many people have the misguided notion that alchemists were hucksters peddling snake oil as immortality elixirs and coating beakers with gold dust to make rubes think they were making gold from nothing.

In reality, alchemists were deeply invested in understanding what we can't see.

Much of alchemy is meant to be taken as allegory, and it's in more things than we might think. The ancient myths, for example, were richly symbolic stories about one's personal and psychological development.

For this reason, alchemy is sometimes called a "spiritual science."

So Newton was obsessed with self-improvement?

Well, yes. But also, these books going as far back as ancient Egypt contained practices that could transform a person on a physiological level.

Less "The Secret" and more like meditation, yoga, or lifting heavy.

Still think he was wasting his time? I don't blame you. Many people have wondered how much better off humanity would be had Newton spent his time more wisely. I used to be one of them.

But what if I told you all that time spent studying the immaterial nature of gold actually paid off?

Maybe he didn't literally "turn lead into gold" as the materialists like to joke, but he did turn a lot of sh*t into wealth.

In 1696, he was made "Master of the Mint" a job most got through nepotism that was largely about collecting a paycheck for doing little.

Not Newton.

During his time as Master of the Mint, Newton reformed the currency and went undercover to catch counterfeiters.

Then in 1717, a report Newton wrote led Britain to adopt the gold standard.

Economic prosperity ensued.

How many scientists you know also brought about a GOLDEN AGE?

In 1936, John Maynard Keynes, the economist whose theories are widely credited with helping to end The Great Depression, purchased a large number of Newton's unpublished notes on alchemy at auction.

He was revealed to be a lifelong collector of Newton's alchemical works.

8. So were these two geniuses both just really gullible suckers for ancient get-rich-quick schemes?

Or maybe they know something about the nature of reality that today's "reasonable" materialist science fans don't?

Thanks for reading as always. By the way, this was the actual coat of arms Newton used after being knighted. Aside from being pretty badass, do you think it could have a deeper alchemical meaning?