Alchemy & Hermeticism
The stages of the Work, the Emerald Tablet, alchemical symbols and inner alchemy.
The alchemical bestiary: raven, swan, peacock, pelican, phoenix
The birds of alchemy as signals of the stages of the Work: raven, swan, peacock's tail, pelican and phoenix explained through their images and meanings.
The glyphs of alchemy: how to read elements and metals
Triangles, circles, crosses and crescents: a guide to the glyphs of alchemy for elements, metals and principles, with the geometric logic they share.
Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens: emblems, verses and fugues
Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens, 1617: fifty alchemical emblems with epigrams and three-voice fugues, and the Atalanta myth read Hermetically.
The athanor and the Hermetic vessel: the alchemist's furnace
The athanor, the furnace of steady fire, and the Hermetic vessel, the sealed philosophical egg: how they were built, what they symbolise, what they teach.
The coniunctio: the wedding of King and Queen in alchemy
The alchemical coniunctio, the wedding of Sun and Moon, King and Queen: what it unites, how texts depict it and Gerhard Dorn's three degrees of union.
The Emerald Tablet: text, history and Hermetic meaning
The Emerald Tablet read line by line: its Arabic origins, the Latin translations, the sense of «as above, so below» and its central role in alchemy.
The green lion devouring the sun: an alchemical enigma
The green lion devouring the sun is one of alchemy's most famous images: what it represents, why it is green and how to read its meaning for inner work.
Jung and alchemy: the rediscovery of the symbol in the 1900s
How Jung rediscovered alchemy: The Secret of the Golden Flower, Psychology and Alchemy, the theory of projection and the limits of his reading.
The Kybalion and the seven Hermetic principles: a critical guide
The Kybalion, published in 1908 by «Three Initiates»: the seven Hermetic principles one by one, their link to ancient Hermeticism, how to read them.
Laboratory and oratory: Khunrath and the union of prayer and work
Heinrich Khunrath's famous engraving of laboratory and oratory: who the author was, what the image shows and why alchemy unites prayer and work.
The Mercury of the philosophers: the shifting spirit of the Work
The Mercury of the philosophers is not common mercury: who Mercurius is in alchemical texts, why he is twofold and what he means for inner work.
The Mutus Liber: the silent book of alchemy from 1677
The Mutus Liber, the «silent book» printed in La Rochelle in 1677: fifteen plates without text, the working couple, the dew and wordless teaching.
Nicolas Flamel: the Paris scrivener between history and legend
Nicolas Flamel, a Paris scrivener who died in 1418: what we really know, how his legend as an alchemist arose and the book of Abraham the Jew.
The philosophers' stone: what it stands for in tradition
The philosophers' stone beyond the legend of gold: its names, its attributed qualities, the paradox of the «stone that is no stone» and its inner sense.
The Rebis: the Hermetic androgyne and the union of opposites
The Rebis, the «double thing» of alchemy: the two-headed androgyne, its meaning in the Work, the attributes that accompany it and how to read it today.
The Rosarium Philosophorum: twenty woodcuts of the Work
The Rosarium Philosophorum, printed in Frankfurt in 1550: how the book is made and how to read its twenty woodcuts as one continuous story in images.
The secret fire and the degrees of fire in alchemy
The regimen of fire in alchemy: the four degrees of heat, the sand and water baths, the mysterious «secret fire» and what they teach about inner measure.
The secret language of alchemists: why they wrote obscurely
Cover names, the dispersion of knowledge, allegories and the language of the birds: how alchemists encoded their texts and how to read them.
The seven metals and the planets: alchemical correspondences
Lead, tin, iron, copper, quicksilver, silver and gold: why alchemy linked each metal to a planet and how the ladder of metals becomes an inner path.
Solve et coagula: the rhythm of dissolving and binding
Solve et coagula, the alchemical motto of dissolution and coagulation: its origin, images, link with the stages of the Work and its use in inner work.
Splendor Solis: the splendour of the sun in alchemical art
Splendor Solis, the illuminated alchemical manuscript of the sixteenth century: its twenty-two plates, the planetary flasks, the Ethiop and the rising sun.
The stages of the alchemical Work: nigredo to rubedo
The four stages of the alchemical Work explained one by one: colours, symbols, animals and the inner meaning of nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo.
Taoist inner alchemy: neidan, the three treasures, the crucible
Neidan, Taoist inner alchemy: how it differs from external alchemy, the three treasures jing, qi and shen, the cinnabar fields and Hermetic parallels.
George Ripley's twelve gates: the operations of the Work
The twelve gates of George Ripley's Compound of Alchymy: calcination, solution, separation and the other operations, with their symbolic and inner meaning.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L.: the alchemical acronym and the inner descent
What V.I.T.R.I.O.L. means, the acronym urging you to visit the interior of the earth: its origin, the chemical, the symbol and a reflective practice.