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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Alchemy

Author Dennis William Hauck
Release Date: 2008/04/01
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Book Description

More than magic...

Where else can one combine chemistry and philosophy to turn base metal into gold while discovering a magical elixir to prolong life? Here's a simple and straightforward guide to alchemy that explains its basic principles. Written by one of the world's few practicing alchemists, it's a concise reference guide that provides easy-to-follow information so that anybody can be a wizard-in-training.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents at a Glance
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword by Dennis William Hauck
  7. Introduction
  8. Part 1: Introduction to Alchemy
    1. 1 Your Apprenticeship in Alchemy
      1. Why Study Alchemy?
      2. The Kinds of Alchemy
        1. Spiritual Alchemy
        2. Psychological Alchemy
        3. Artistic Alchemy
        4. Social Alchemy
        5. Practical Alchemy
        6. Therapeutic Alchemy
      3. The Perennial Philosophy
      4. Becoming an Alchemist
    2. 2 The First Alchemists
      1. Lost Gems of Knowledge
      2. The Gods of Alchemy
      3. Thoth: The Father of Alchemy
      4. The Pillars of Hermes
      5. The Emerald Tablet
        1. The Treasures of Alexander
        2. The Fate of the Emerald Tablet
      6. The Legend of Thoth/Hermes
        1. The Staff of Hermes
        2. Hermetic Philosophy
    3. 3 The Land of Khem
      1. Secrets of Priests and Craftsmen
      2. Alexandria: Center of Ancient Alchemy
        1. Greek Philosophy and Alchemy
        2. The Concept of Transmutation
      3. Destruction of the Alexandrian Texts
      4. The Growth of Alchemy in Asia
      5. How the Arabs Saved Alchemy
        1. Arabian Alchemy
        2. The Gibberish of Jabir
    4. 4 Medieval Alchemy and the Quest for Gold
      1. The Beginning of European Alchemy
      2. The Wizardry of Roger Bacon
      3. Alchemy and the Church
      4. Medieval and Renaissance Alchemy
        1. Nicolas Flamel’s Powder of Projection
        2. Isaac Newton and the Black Dragon
      5. The Puffers
      6. The Rise of Chemistry
  9. Part 2: The Principles of Alchemy
    1. 5 The Secret Language of Alchemists
      1. The Language of the Birds
      2. The Birds of Alchemy
      3. Animal Symbolism in Alchemy
      4. The Lions of Alchemy
      5. The Dragons of Alchemy
      6. Silent Secrets of the Rose
      7. Ciphers of the Alchemists
        1. Ciphers for the Elements
        2. Ciphers for the Three Essentials
    2. 6 The Elusive First Matter
      1. What Is the First Matter?
      2. Properties of the First Matter
        1. The First Matter Is Eternal
        2. The First Matter Is Everywhere to Be Found
        3. The First Matter Is Cyclic
        4. The First Matter Contains All the Elements
        5. The First Matter Is the Source of the Philosopher’s Stone
      3. Working with the First Matter
    3. 7 The Four Elements
      1. The Concept of the Elements
      2. The Four Humors
      3. Balancing the Elements
      4. The Quintessence
      5. Philosophers of Fire
        1. Elementary Fire
        2. Celestial Fire
        3. Central Fire
        4. Secret Fire
    4. 8 The Three Essentials
      1. Three Children of the First Matter
      2. The Two Contraries
      3. Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt
      4. The Dance of Sulfur and Mercury
      5. The Three Essentials in People
      6. The Three Treasures of Taoist Alchemy
    5. 9 The Philosopher’s Stone
      1. The Magical Touchstone
      2. What the Philosopher’s Stone Looked Like
      3. Preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone
      4. The Mysterious Dr. Dee
      5. The Hieroglyphic Monad
        1. The Cipher of the Stone
        2. The Lost Key to the Monad
  10. Part 3: The Operations of Alchemy
    1. 10 The Ladder of the Planets
      1. Correspondences of the Planets
      2. The Dark Powers of Saturn
      3. The Exuberant Powers of Jupiter
      4. The Masculine Powers of Mars
      5. The Feminine Powers of Venus
      6. The Transformative Powers of Mercury
      7. The Soulful Powers of the Moon
      8. The Spiritual Powers of the Sun
      9. The Music of the Spheres
    2. 11 The Black Phase
      1. The Blackening
      2. The Calcination Process
      3. Personal Calcination
      4. The Process of Dissolution
      5. Personal Dissolution
    3. 12 The White Phase
      1. The Whitening
      2. The Separation Process
      3. Personal Separation
      4. The Conjunction Process
      5. Personal Conjunction
    4. 13 The Red Phase
      1. The Peacock’s Tail
      2. The Reddening
      3. The Fermentation Process
      4. Personal Fermentation
      5. The Distillation Process
      6. Personal Distillation
      7. The Coagulation Process
      8. Personal Coagulation
  11. Part 4: Practical Alchemy
    1. 14 Inside an Alchemist’s Laboratory
      1. A Tour of a Medieval Laboratory
      2. The Athanor
      3. Alchemical Glassware
      4. The Chemicals Used by Alchemists
        1. Vitriol
        2. Natron
        3. Liquor Hepatis
        4. Pulvis Solaris
      5. Hidden Energies in the Lab
      6. The Oratorium
      7. Alchemists and Chemists
      8. Women in Alchemy
    2. 15 The Spagyric Process
      1. The Doctrine of Signatures
      2. Types of Medicines
        1. Allopathic Medicine
        2. Homeopathic Medicine
        3. Spagyric Medicine
      3. The Planetary Signatures
      4. The Star in Plants
      5. The Three Essentials in Plants
      6. Planetary Influences in Spagyrics
      7. Planetary Hours
      8. Paracelsus the Great
    3. 16 The Kitchen Alchemist
      1. Setting Up Your Kitchen Lab
      2. Making Alchemical Compounds
      3. Making Tinctures
      4. Making Elixirs
    4. 17 Working with the Planetary Metals
      1. Saturn’s Metal: Lead
        1. Lead and Silver
        2. Saturn Signatures in Lead
        3. Lead Poisoning
        4. The Hidden Promise of Lead
      2. Jupiter’s Metal: Tin
        1. Jupiter Signatures in Tin
        2. The Tin Plague
      3. Mars’s Metal: Iron
        1. Iron’s Love for Carbon
        2. Mars Signatures in Iron
      4. Venus’s Metal: Copper
        1. Venus Signatures in Copper
        2. The Love Affairs of Copper
      5. Mercury’s Metal: Quicksilver
        1. Mercury Signatures in Quicksilver
        2. The Dual Nature of Mercury
      6. The Moon’s Metal: Silver
        1. Lunar Signatures in Silver
        2. The Moon’s Influence Over Silver
      7. The Sun’s Metal: Gold
        1. Solar Signatures in Gold
        2. The Sun’s Influence Over Gold
  12. Part 5: Spiritual Alchemy
    1. 18 Mental Alchemy
      1. The Salted Personality
      2. The First Matter in People
      3. The Four Elements in People
      4. The Planets in People
      5. Jung and Alchemy
      6. The Black Phase of Mental Alchemy
      7. The White Phase of Mental Alchemy
      8. The Red Phase of Mental Alchemy
    2. 19 Alchemy of the Soul
      1. The Dragons of Spiritual Alchemy
      2. The True Imagination
      3. Alchemical Meditation
      4. The Azoth of the Philosophers
      5. The Operations of the Azoth
        1. The Ray of Saturn
        2. The Ray of Jupiter
        3. The Ray of Mars
        4. The Ray of the Sun
        5. The Ray of Venus
        6. The Ray of Mercury
        7. The Ray of the Moon
    3. 20 The Sacred Marriage
      1. The Sacred Marriage in You
      2. The Inner Marriage
      3. Birth of the Philosopher’s Stone
      4. The Sacred Marriage in Christian Alchemy
      5. The Three Marriages in Alchemy
      6. The Sacred Marriage in Psychology
  13. Part 6: Modern Alchemy
    1. 21 Alchemy and Medicine
      1. The Life Force
      2. Paracelsian Medicine
      3. Healing with the Metals
        1. Healing with Lead
        2. Healing with Tin
        3. Healing with Iron
        4. Healing with Copper
        5. Healing with Mercury
        6. Healing with Silver
        7. Healing with Gold
    2. 22 Social Alchemy
      1. The Alchemy of Relationships
        1. Calcination in Relationships
        2. Dissolution in Relationships
        3. Fermentation in Relationships
        4. Distillation in Relationships
        5. Coagulation in Relationships
        6. The Relationship Laboratory
      2. Alchemy in the Workplace
        1. Calcination in the Workplace
        2. Dissolution in the Workplace
        3. Separation in the Workplace
        4. Conjunction in the Workplace
        5. Fermentation in the Workplace
        6. Distillation in the Workplace
        7. Coagulation in the Workplace
        8. Transforming the Workplace
      3. Wealth: The First Matter in Society
    3. 23 The Science of Magic
      1. The Science of the Future
      2. The Mystical Nature of Light
        1. Early Theories of Light
        2. The Alchemical Rebis
      3. Quantum Alchemy
      4. Twentieth-Century Alchemists of Science
        1. Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
        2. Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976)
        3. Barbara McLintock (1902–1992)
        4. David Bohm (1917–1992)
        5. Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958)
      5. The Philosopher’s Stone of Physics
      6. The Projection of Consciousness
      7. The Alchemy of Evolution
  14. Appendixes
    1. A Resources
    2. B Glossary
  15. About the Author
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