[varvar]

Alchemy means "the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form" which in reality doesn't deal with concrete materials, but it is about something akin to psychological transformation.

Practitioners of alchemy would uphold deceptive ideas about it, in order to protect themselves.

I highly doubt that Newton was as silly and foolish as misunderstanding what alchemy is fundamentally about. However supposedly he was found to have mercury in his hair upon being found dead, which certainly discredits the occult and esoteric part of his studies.

The public image of Newton is heavily shaped by the British Government, the whole thing about the Enlightement scientist that society is supposed to emulate and so on. It's quite the rabbit hole to investigate.

[JesseMReeves]

Why is this being downvoted? These are facts. Seemingly nobody knows the psychological / spiritual ideas behind alchemy and only has comical images of long-bearded men trying to turn metal into gold in their minds?

There is a whole rabbit hole to explore here: William Newman: “Newton the Alchemist”.