Sorcerer's Stone: A Beginner's Guide to Alchemy

Rating:
Summary: Book Review from the Alchemy Journal (Fall 2004)
Review: The author of this book, Dennis William Hauck, is a practicing alchemist versed in both Eastern and Western techniques of alchemy and widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on the ancient art and the benefits it offers contemporary practitioners. Now, in Sorcerer's Stone, the first basic primer on the subject, he makes alchemy's secrets and powers accessible to everyone with the desire to experience physical, mental, and spiritual transformation. By providing clear explanations, moving meditations, and hands-on experiments making tinctures and elixirs, this beautifully illustrated guide passes on the knowledge and creative energy of alchemy's magnificent discipline-sending a golden arc of learning from thousands of years in the past into your life today.

Hauck present a fascinating history of alchemy - from the ancient Emerald Tablet to modern quantum chemistry - and elaborates on its arcane principles in an intimate, conversational way that anyone can understand. His portrayals of individual alchemists (like Flamel, Fulcanelli, and Isaac Newton) bring them alive and show how they built on each other's work through an "Underground River" of secret knowledge passed down through the ages.

Moreover, Hauck makes clear that alchemy is a means of personal transformation that enables you to meet your highest potential as a human being. Although the alchemists spoke in terms of vessels, furnaces, and chemicals, they were really talking about changes taking place in their own inner nature. They worked with the archetypal energies of metals to change their own "temperament" from lead to gold - to rejuvenate their bodies, integrate their personalities, and perfect the very essence of their souls. The bizarre drawings and cryptic writings of the alchemists refer to specific operations that work on all levels of body, mind, and spirit. Today, enlightened physicians and healers are demonstrating that alchemical methods can protect and rejuvenate the body and even heal brain and spinal cord injuries.

Complete with alchemical engravings from the Middle Ages as well as insightful charts and diagrams, this illuminating handbook will teach aspiring alchemists the true art of transformation. Chapters: What Is Alchemy? | The Golden Thread That Runs Through Time | The Principles of Alchemy | The Kitchen Alchemist: Making Tinctures and Elixirs | The Ladder of the Planets | Saturn's Child: The Base Metal Lead | Jupiter's Rule: The Courtly Metal Tin | Mars' Challenge: The Angry Metal Iron | Venus' Embrace: The Loving Metal Copper | Mercury's Magic: The Living Metal Mercury | The Moon's Reflection: The Lunar Metal Silver | The Sun's Brilliance: The Solar Metal Gold | The Operations of Alchemy | Personal Purification | Becoming an Alchemist. The book includes an extensive glossary and resource guide.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I wa svery happy with the author's style of writing in this book. He presents a down to earth format which can be easily understood and utalized by anyone looking for information on alchemy. I deffinently reccomend this book if you want to discover alchemy for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: The real Harry Potter world
Review: There is no one better suited to brew a beginners guide together than Dennis. His background, research, travels, lectures and other books are all proof of his knowledge in alchemy. What makes him perfect for such subject matter is that Dennis is an alchemists first and an author second.

Rating:
Summary: The real Harry Potter world
Review: There is no one better suited to brew a beginners guide together than Dennis. His background, research, travels, lectures and other books are all proof of his knowledge in alchemy. What makes him perfect for such subject matter is that Dennis is an alchemists first and an author second.