Presumably it started as chemistry done badly, and did come up with some discoveries, but as the scientific method got refined and principles were uncovered that didn’t correlate to celestial bodies or folklore, it diverged from the practical and became metaphorical. A bit like Freemasonry starting with stonemasons’ guilds and then gentrifying.

So this seems to be a meme format, which is a shame, because I would really have liked to love her even more.