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?
Anything of merit in terms of materials that was discovered by alchemy has long since been subsumed by chemistry. Study chemistry, the truth is way more interesting and weird.
There was a Dara O’Brien bit from a while ago where he said about herbal medicine “We tested it, and we called the stuff that worked ‘medicine’. Everything else is a nice herbal tea and some potpourri.” Same basic idea.