Alchemy: what science has to say about this philosophy
With special thanks to Prof. Wouter Hanegraaff; Prof. Joscelyn Godwin; Prof. Nicolas Goodrick-Clarke; Dr. Richard Smoley & Govert Schuller for creating the list in 2009. (Their full qualifications are at the bottom of this lens)
The books on this list are ordered from 'must read' to 'very informative'.
The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century
De Rola and Stanislas Klossowski
The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century
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The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and the First Freemasons
Tobias Churton about the Hermetic current
- Part 1 presents a broad survey of Hermetic ideas and their transmission from Hellenistic Alexandria to the time of Paracelsus.
- Part 2 focuses on the Rosicrucian movement as a vehicle of these Hermetic ideas.
- Part 3 concentrates mainly on Elias Ashmole: the English polymath, antiquarian, collector, alchemist, astrologer, and early Freemason. He's the one after whom the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is named, and one of many Renaissance figures who carried the Hermetic current forward.
A recommended reading list
Alchemy is a notoriously difficult subject to crack. All those symbols... and text written to hide the real meaning from the uninitiated (and the inquisition).
So expect to be bewildered... though of course most of these books were written to help us understand, not hide the truth.
The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton
Stanton Linden
The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton
Amazon Price: $26.93 (as of 11/23/2009)
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Quest for the Phoenix
Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier
Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622) (Arbeiten Zur Kirchengeschichte)
Amazon Price: $123.00 (as of 11/23/2009)
List Price: $123.00
Used Price: $155.88
Editors at Amazon say:
Tilton Hereward presents an intellectual biography of the Lutheran alchemist Count Michael Maier, along with an academic study of western esotericism in general and of alchemy and rosicrucianism in particular. Hereward charts the development of Maier's Hermetic worldview in the context of his service at the courts of Emperor Rudolf II and Moritz of Hessen-Kassel. The problem of the nature of early Rosicrucianism is addressed in detail, with reference to Maier's role in the promotion of this "serious jest" in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. The work is set in the context of ongoing debates concerning the nature of early modern alchemy and its role in the history of Western esotericism.
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The Magus of Freemasonry: The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmole
Scientist, Alchemist, and Founder of the Royal Society
The Magus of Freemasonry: The Mysterious Life of Elias Ashmole--Scientist, Alchemist, and Founder of the Royal Society
Amazon Price: $13.22 (as of 11/23/2009)
List Price: $16.95
Elias Ashmole is the only known link between operative freemasonry and symbolic freemasonry. That is: he links the freemasons who were actual stone workers with the freemasons of the secret society who busy themselves with symbolic rituals.
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Cotnoir, Brian Alchemy
Brian Cotnoir's contribution to The Weiser Concise Guide Series
Brian Cotnoir offers a detailed, step-by-step introduction of Alchemy that explores its mysteries while illustrating its use as a modern spiritual system of attainment. He provides an overview of the history of Alchemy, from the first meldings of Egyptian technology, through the Middle Ages--the golden age of alchemy--right up to contemporary techniques. He demystifies the relationship between Alchemy and chemistry, and he provides evidence to detractors that Alchemy is much more than a medieval form of psychotherapy.
The guide includes practical laboratory experiments that safely, and intelligently, lead readers to an understanding of this ancient art and spiritual practice.
Alchemy (The Weiser Concise Guide Series)
Amazon Price: $11.01 (as of 11/23/2009)
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Alchemy & Chemistry - about strange beginnings
What's even less known than this, is that alchemy was practiced by most scientists of the day. Newton was, aside from discovering the law of gravity, a deeply religious man and into alchemy.
The Chemical Philosophy
Allen G. Debus
The chemical philosophy: Paracelsian science and medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
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Used Price: $34.99
The Chemical Promise
Experiment and Mysticism in the Chemical Philosophy, 1550-1800
The Chemical Promise: Experiment and Mysticism in the Chemical Philosophy, 1550-1800 - Selected Essays of Allen G. Debus
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Yeats and Alchemy
William T. Gorski
In this book the specifically alchemical symbolism of William Butler Yeats are traced from his first essays and Golden Dawn transcripts.
Yeats and Alchemy (S U N Y Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)
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Stairway to Heaven
Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation
Stairway to Heaven: Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation
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Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry
Debus, Allen G.
Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix
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The Path of Alchemy
Energetic Healing & the World of Natural Magic
The Path of Alchemy: Energetic Healing & the World of Natural Magic (Pathways to Enlightenment)
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 11/23/2009)
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The Sacrificial Body And the Day of Doom
Alchemy And Apocalyptic Discourse in the Protestant Reformation
The Sacrificial Body And the Day of Doom: Alchemy And Apocalyptic Discourse in the Protestant Reformation (Aries Book Series)
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The Theosophical Library at Wheaton Ill. would like to buy these books
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Learn more about Alchemy as a spiritual practice
- Alchemy - Theosophical History
- Especially in its early history, alchemy is difficult to distinguish from its more legitimate cousin, chemistry. Only in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries does the modern science definitively part ways with the ancient pseudo-science.
- Alchemy in the Nineteenth Century- H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 11
- Before Alchemy existed as a science, its quintessence alone acted in nature's correlations (as indeed it still does) and on all its planes. When there appeared on earth men endowed with a superior intelligence, they allowed it to act, and from it they learned their first lessons.
- Cornelius Agrippa - Theosophical History
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, 1486-1535, German mystic and alchemist. Agrippa of Nettesheim was born of a once-noble family near Cologne, and studied both medicine and law there, apparently without taking a degree.
- Harry Potter and the Perennial Quest By Helene Vachet
- The title of the first Potter book, as originally published in Great Britain, was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. To a student of the Kabbalah, Jungian psychology, or alchemy, the significance is obvious. The philosopher's stone was understood by the uninitiated as merely a device to turn base metals into gold and to make an elixir that gave everlasting life. However, to a student of alchemy, the philosopher's stone is a metaphor for turning our base, physical natures into our more spiritual selves. In other words, it is a tool for self-actualization, union with the Higher Self, the beatific vision.
Books about alchemy on eBay
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For easier books about Alchemy see the below
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Elizabeth Clare Prophet Books
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Spiritual teachers are often controversial. Elizabeth Clare Prophet is accused of the usual: not being very scientific, not being clear about her sources (which are after all 'channeled') and ultimately: quarreling in her own circles. None of that m...
What did you think of all this?
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Reply
- 0ctavias0fferings 0ctavias0fferings May 18, 2009 @ 5:34 am
- Alchemy is an interesting subject 5*
The gentlemen who recommended these books
Director, Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO)
University of Exeter, UK
Professor Joscelyn Godwin
Professor of Music and Medieval & Renaissance Studies
Colgate University, New York State, USA
Professor Wouter Hanegraaff
Director, Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dr. Richard Smoley
Editor Quest Magazine (former editor of Gnosis)
Wheaton, Illinois, USA
Govert Schuller
Editor Alpheus web site
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