>>17857855
The first scientists were the engineers and mathematicians who had to figure out how to make all the different aspects of large projects work. Mysticism doesn't get anywhere with that stuff.

Alchemy and the occult were born out of the fact that the chemical and the psychological worlds are highly complex and unpredictable (and remain so to this day). It wasn't possible to apply a scientific approach and so the mystical was employed for whatever leverage it could muster.