In The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy, Brian Cotnoir offers a detailed, stepbystep 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 alchemyright 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.)
The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy is replete with actual exercises of the alchemical art such as:
- distillation and further processes to extract aqua vitae and the 'spirit of wine'
- the purification of salts through calcination, crystallization, and sublimation
- advanced processes for obtaining such alchemical precursors as Archaeus of Water, Oil of Tartar, and the Spirit of Wine of the Sages
- herbal work for obtaining spagyric tinctures, magistries, ens, and stones
- mineral work for obtaining the salts and oils of metals.
The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy makes Alchemy a viable and valuable modality that can be used for understanding and working in concert with the energies of Nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation.