I want to understand it but everything I read about it oscillates impossibly between vulgar metals -> gold and some kind of spiritual transformation metaphysical stuff
What is it and what can be legit gleaned from it in an empirical or useful sense?
Does it have utility outside of use as a metaphor or allegory or whatever?
Technologically anyways. Someone wanting to do alchemy can always give birth (though the resulting baby is always more precious than the amount of gold in their body).
… You know women aren’t spontaneously creating gold atoms, right? That’s trace gold that gets into our systems from food, water, meds.
That was kinda my point. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only modified. Everything in the body was originally something else.
Again, you don’t seem to be familiar with the difference between an element and a compound and how that relates to alchemy. Best wishes on your journey of learning, I think I’m done now. If you want to learn more, I suggest you find some YouTube videos on chemistry or books or whatever your preferred learning medium is.