Alchemy is a good example. Alchemists dabbled in chemisty but they also took for granted that chemistry has deep symbolic and semantic meaning. Figure it out and chemistry will crack.

It turned out to not be the case, time after time.

There's no inherent meaning in how substances interact. There are laws, they're consistent but devoid of any meaning, on human level.

That's why I'm deeply scetical towards any New Age-style ideas.