It Began in Egypt: A History of Western Alchemy traces the Western Hermetic art back to its first crucible: Egypt—where temple craft, sacred metallurgy, and the figure of Thoth & later Hermes Trismegistus first shaped the imagination of transmutation. From the Hellenistic laboratories of Alexandria to the Arabic masters who preserved and refined the Art, onward into medieval and Renaissance Europe this program follows alchemy’s transmission as a living lineage rather than a curiosity of “proto-chemistry.” Across the course, students will meet the key texts, symbols, and historical turning points that formed Western alchemy’s distinctive character: its marriage of prayer and practice, its insistence on disciplined experiment, and its conviction that Nature is intelligible to the prepared mind. We will examine how the Hermetic current moved through monasteries and courts, how it flowered in the hands of figures such as Jabir, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, and how it became the hidden grammar behind later esoteric and scientific revolutions. This is a program for earnest seekers who want historical clarity without losing the sacred seriousness of the Art. By the end, you will be able to place major alchemical authors and schools in context, recognize the core themes that persist across centuries, and understand why the Western tradition repeatedly returns to Egypt—not as a romantic origin myth, but as the first language in which the Work learned to speak. This course is a mixture of video lectures, written content and a final assessment for completion.