Real Alchemy

A Primer of Practical Alchemy

• Written by Robert Allen Bartlett
• Published by Red Wheel / Weiser
• Softcover, 178 pages
• ISBN: 978-0-89254-150-8

As I am learning with this book, true alchemy is not a subject for casual reading. It's a serious and pretty complicated discipline that blends chemistry with esoteric spirituality.

This book provides a very nice introduction to the topic, though I found many sections were too detailed for casual reading. It reminded me of reading a chemistry textbook. Here is a quick excerpt:

"After isolation and purification, the metal acetate is subjected to dry distillation. That is, the crystals themselves are distilled slowly at first, then gradually increasing to about 400 to 700C."

This was in the section on creating Philosophical Mercury. For a book that intended to be a primer on the subject, much of the text was very detailed like what I just quoted. Not an easy read, and not really all that helpful unless you have a sizable laboratory of equipment at hand.

Though the subtitle does say that it's a primer of practical alchemy, I don't think that a reader would realize this doesn't mean an introduction to the overall subject.

I did enjoy the book, but mostly found that the text was intended to walk you through actual experimentation. From the first few chapters, I did learn quite a bit about alchemy though. It would be a good book for someone already familiar with the topic and ready to start working with their knowledge.

• Read more from the publisher
• Buy "Real Alchemy" at Amazon.com