Alchemy: Books & Primary Texts
The Great Work — spiritual and operative alchemy from antiquity to the Renaissance.
Alchemy is the art of transformation — of base metals into gold, and, on its deeper register, of the human soul into an incorruptible state. Far more than proto-chemistry, it is a symbolic language of purification, dissolution and rebirth that flourished in Hellenistic Egypt, the medieval Islamic world, and Renaissance Europe.
Its literature is famously veiled, using emblem, allegory and cryptic imagery to guard its secrets. The tradition ranges from operative laboratory treatises to purely contemplative and spiritual works, and it fed directly into modern chemistry as well as into depth psychology through the writings of Carl Jung.
Essential Texts
Splendor Solis: Alchemical Treatises of Solomon Trismosin
Salomon Trismosin
Der Thüringische Theophrastus Paracelsus, Wunder- und Kräuterdoctor, oder der curieuse und vernünftige Zauber-Arzt: welcher lehret, wie man nicht allein aus den drei Reichen der Natur curieuse Artzeneyen verfertigen, sondern auch durch Sympathie und Antipathie, Verpflanzungen, Amulette, geringe Mittel, und durch die Magie die Krankheiten des menschlichen Leibes glücklich curiren könne
Christoph von Hellwig
Der Thüringische Theophrastus Paracelsus, Wunder- und Kräuterdoctor, oder der curieuse und vernünftige Zauber-Arzt: welcher lehret, wie man nicht allein aus den drei Reichen der Natur curieuse Artzeneyen verfertigen, sondern auch durch Sympathie und Antipathie, Verpflanzungen, Amulette, geringe Mittel, und durch die Magie die Krankheiten des menschlichen Leibes glücklich curiren könne
Christoph von Hellwig
German · Occult Philosophy
Start Here
Start with the Emerald Tablet, the foundational maxim of the whole art. Then explore illustrated classics like the Splendor Solis and the treatises of Paracelsus. Read alchemical texts slowly and symbolically rather than literally.
From the Collection
Alchemiae Gebri Arabis philosophi solertissimi Libri
Rogerus Bacon; Hermes Trismegistus; Geber Latinus; Kalid Ben-Jazichi; Richardus Anglicus; Hortulanus
Alchemiae Gebri Arabis philosophi solertissimi Libri
Rogerus Bacon; Hermes Trismegistus; Geber Latinus; Kalid Ben-Jazichi; Richardus Anglicus; Hortulanus
Latin · Alchemy
Alchemy and the Alchemists: Giving the Secret of the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Youth, and the Universal Solvent. Also Showing That the True Alchemists Did Not Seek to Transmute Base Metals into Gold, but Sought the Highest Initiation or the Development of the Spiritual Nature in Man
R. Swinburne Clymer
Alchemy and the Alchemists: Giving the Secret of the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Youth, and the Universal Solvent. Also Showing That the True Alchemists Did Not Seek to Transmute Base Metals into Gold, but Sought the Highest Initiation or the Development of the Spiritual Nature in Man
R. Swinburne Clymer
English · Alchemy
Alchimie du Verbe tome I, le genie du judaisme
Olivier Pierre Thebault