An initiatory and practical guide to creative alchemy • Shares hermetic and alchemical techniques for liberating creative expression and looks at the zodiacal and planetary timing of creative operations • Explains how to work with and transmute alchemical energies for increased levels of insight, intuition, and imaginative expression • Explores the connections between Surrealism and alchemy, as well as the rich and complicated symbolism of alchemical art In this initiatory guide to the Hermetic art of alchemy, artist Marlene Seven Bremner reveals how the alchemical opus, the Great Work, offers a practical means for liberating the authentic creator within and attaining gnosis, or true self-knowledge. Exploring the connections between Surrealism and alchemy, as well as the rich and complicated symbolism of alchemical art, Bremner elucidates how both Surrealism and alchemy seek to unfetter the imagination and dissolve the boundaries between dream and reality, thus reconciling the conscious and unconscious minds. She details how the three principles (salt, sulfur, and mercury), the four elements, and the seven planets interact together and within the self in creative alchemy, and she explains how to work with and transmute these energies for increased levels of insight, intuition, and imaginative expression. The author shares practical Hermetic and alchemical techniques for liberating creative expression and clearing energetic obstructions that prevent us from reaching our higher potential. She also looks at the zodiacal and planetary timing of creative operations. Revealing how the stages of alchemical transmutation are relevant to the creative process, the author shows how the initiate comes to experience for themselves the relationship between consciousness and matter, which is the essence of alchemical teachings. By creating, one transmutes spiritual energies through matter for greater self-knowledge and awakening. Allowing you to truly realize your own creative power, this in-depth guide to creative alchemy shows how the alchemical path attunes the Self to the rhythms of the spheres so that one is naturally creating in time with the seasons and zodiac signs and in harmony with elemental forces and planetary influences

• Examines the foundational texts and principles of Hermeticism and alchemy, showing how they offer a foundation for a psycho-spiritual creative practice • Takes the reader on a Hermetic journey through each of the seven traditional planets, offering meditative discourses that speak directly to the intuitive soul • Provides examples from traditional alchemical art and the author’s own intricate esoteric paintings Drawing on ancient Egyptian and Greek cosmogonies and essential Hermetic texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet (Tabula Smaragdina), and the Nag Hammadi codices, Marlene Seven Bremner offers a detailed understanding of Hermetic philosophy and the art of alchemy as a foundation for a psycho-spiritual creative practice. Offering examples from traditional alchemical art and her own intricate esoteric paintings, Bremner examines the foundational principles of Hermeticism and alchemy and shows how these traditions are a direct means for accessing higher consciousness and true self-knowledge, or gnosis, as well as a way to extract the essence of one’s own creative gifts. The author takes the reader on a Hermetic journey through each of the seven traditional planets--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon--exploring their mythological, philosophical, alchemical, Qabalistic, magical, astrological, and energetic natures and offering meditative discourses that reach past the rational mind to speak directly to the intuitive soul. She relates the seven planets to the esoteric anatomy of the human body, specifically the seven chakras, and shows how the planets can offer understanding and experience of archetypal energies and patterns in the body, in one’s life, and in the creative process. A profound synthesis of magical and occult teachings as well as an initiation into the alchemical opus, this book reveals how to integrate and apply Hermetic and alchemical principles to awaken inner knowing, liberate the imagination, and live a mystical, creative, and truly inspired life.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1919 Edition.

A classic, prize-winning novel about an epic migration and a lone woman haunted by the past in frontier Waipu. In the 1850s, a group of settlers established a community at Waipu in the northern part of New Zealand. They were led there by a stern preacher, Norman McLeod. The community had followed him from Scotland in 1817 to found a settlement in Nova Scotia, then subsequently to New Zealand via Australia. Their incredible journeys actually happened, and in this winner of the New Zealand Book Awards, Fiona Kidman breathes life and contemporary relevance into the facts by creating a remarkable fictional story of three women entangled in the migrations - Isabella, her daughter Annie and granddaughter Maria. McLeod's harsh leadership meant that anyone who ran counter to him had to live a life of secrets. The 'secrets' encapsulated the spirit of these women in their varied reactions to McLeod's strict edicts and connect the past to the present and future.

Surrealist artist Max Ernst defined collage as the "alchemy of the visual image." Students of his work have often dismissed this comment as simply a metaphor for the transformative power of using found images in a new context. Taking a wholly different perspective on Ernst and alchemy, however, M. E. Warlick persuasively demonstrates that the artist had a profound and abiding interest in alchemical philosophy and often used alchemical symbolism in works created throughout his career. A revival of interest in alchemy swept the artistic, psychoanalytic, historical, and scientific circles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Warlick sets Ernst's work squarely within this movement. Looking at both his art (many of the works she discusses are reproduced in the book) and his writings, she reveals how thoroughly alchemical philosophy and symbolism pervade his early Dadaist experiments, his foundational work in surrealism, and his many collages and paintings of women and landscapes, whose images exemplify the alchemical fusing of opposites. This pioneering research adds an essential key to understanding the multilayered complexity of Ernst's works, as it affirms his standing as one of Germany's most significant artists of the twentieth century.

Alchemy, the ancient art of transmutation, has long fascinated and perplexed scholars and laypeople alike. In this masterful introduction, Albert Sidney Raleigh explores the history, symbolism, and practical applications of alchemy, providing readers with a deep understanding of this arcane craft. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book is one of the best and most comprehensive about Hermetic philosophy and a perfect textbook for your first steps into alchemy. A real suggestive inquiry into the Hermetic mystery. Contents: Part I An Exoteric View of the Progress and Theory of Alchemy Chapter I A Preliminary Account of the Hermetic Philosophy, with the more Salient Points of its Public History Chapter II Of the Theory of Transmutation in General, and of the First Matter Chapter III The Golden Treatise of Hermes Trismegistus, Concerning the Physical Secret of the Philosopher's Stone. Part II A More Esoteric Consideration of the Hermetic Art & Its Mysteries Chapter I Of the True Subject of the Hermetic Art, & its Concealed Root Chapter II Of the Mysteries Chapter III The Mysteries Continued Chapter IV The Mysteries (Concluded) Part III Concerning the Laws and Vital Conditions of the Hermetic Experiment Chapter I Of the Experimental Method and Fermentation of the Philosophic Subject, According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and some Others Chapter II A Further Analysis of the Initial Principle, and its Eduction into Light Chapter III Of the Manifestation of the First Matter, and its Information by Light. Chapter IV Of the Mental Requisites and Impediments Incidental to Individuals Either as Masters or Students in the Hermetic Art Part IV The Hermetic Practice Chapter I Of the Vital Purification, Commonly Called the Gross Work Chapter II Of the Philosophic or Subtle Work Chapter III The Six Keys of Eudoxus, Opening Into the Most Secret Philosophy Chapter IV The Conclusion