"According to Carl Jung, the bridge between ancient Gnosticism and modern culture can be found in alchemy, and that’s where [Jordan] Stratford’s latest book, A Dictionary of Western Alchemy, comes in. Published by Quest Books, the publishing house of the Theosophical Society in America, the dictionary has its roots in a long study of primary sources Stratford explored: medieval manuscripts written in Latin and pseudo-Latin with liberal sprinklings of Greek and Arabic terms, that even in translation offer a text in code. While conducting his research he started recording the meanings of words and symbols for his own use, and after 20 years discovered he had some 500 terms."