The baffling imagery and riddling writings of European alchemy present a formidable challenge to the rational mind. The fact that it commanded the attention of many of the most brilliant minds may reassure us that there are true treasures to be found within its dragon-guarded precincts. When subjected to its own processes – reduced to ashes and tried in the fire of our closest attention – we are able to distil from its purified prima materia the very principles upon which Creation itself is founded, according to Tradition. Learning to understand how union can be achieved through separation, and purity through degradation sets us on the path that leads to the sacred event referred to as the Chemical Wedding, the union of the material and the spiritual, whose offspring is the Sovereign Good. 

About the lecturer: Guy Ogilvy has been a student of alchemy since stumbling across it as a living tradition focused on medicine while living in Mexico in the mid-nineties. He returned to Europe and studied under the illustrious German alchemist Manfred Junius until the latter’s death in 2004. He has written several books on alchemy and related subjects, sometimes under the pen name Francis Melville. His recent books include 'The Alchemist’s Kitchen' (Wooden Books, 2006) and 'The Great Wizards of Antiquity' (Llewellyn, 2019).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPj82YCgSwc

Dozens of useful links to alchemical texts online:

https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/we...lchemy&c=x

Guide to esoteric libraries and other resources in Amsterdam.

https://www.amsterdamhermetica.nl/hermetic-amsterdam/

"Knowledge regarding the chakras, the principal human energy centres, is found mainly in Indian teachings. Substantial knowledge about them also existed in the West, however. The ancient alchemists called the chakras „seals of the planets“ and described several phases of energetic transformation they can undergo. Apart from healing, the result of that process of „Durchlichtung“ („lightening“) is nothing else but, in today’s language, a fundamental cultivation of one’s personality and consciousness."

By Ulrich Arndt


https://www.horusmedia.de/2002-planeten/planeten-en.php

Translated by Arthur Versluis.

"Johann Georg Gichtel (1638-1710) is one of the greatest mystics in the school of Jacob Boehme, and this is his introduction to mystical practice based on devotion to Sophia, or Divine Wisdom. Includes full color illustrations from the original publication that show the inner transmutation of the body through spiritual practice. First and only English translation. Translated by Arthur Versluis."

Apparently rights-free.

https://archive.org/details/awakening-to...drm_202202

Jan Stryz, Michigan State University

"No physical experimentation with metals or stones is involved in the alchemy that I will examine here. But under the direction of their founder and "Father," Conrad Beissel, the choral group at Ephrata cloister did engage in work that can be defined as alchemical. The principles that governed the composition of the tunes mirrored alchemical relations; the dietary regulations imposed on choral group members aimed at the spiritualization of the voice; and the relations between Beissel and the group members were tinctured with the drama of the alchemical love and war that played out within him. In the wilderness of Pennsylvania, during the mid-eighteenth century, Beissel invented his own idiosyncratic version of alchemy from those pieces of Boehmean theosophy he absorbed as a young man in Germany."

http://esoteric.msu.edu/printable/Alchemyprintable.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Beissel

Antonia Laurence-Allen

"Nasmyth’s painting ‘The Alchemist’ tells a tale of an old man and a youthful student, whose knowledge and energy combine to overcome the Spanish Inquisition."

https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/james-nas...hers-stone

Attached Files

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https://is.muni.cz/th/i7lnx/?vysl=38943;lang=en

June Paradise Maul

Full text:

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/50291

Results of the European Research Council project:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/724914/results