The Riddle of Alchemy

The Riddle of Alchemy

Author: Paul Kiritsis

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2024-12-10

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1803416882

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This book deals with alchemy's rich, multifaceted tradition from three perspectives - history, psychology, and nomothetic science - something rarely seen in other books on the same subject. Part I - Alchemy: Histories concerns the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural intercourse that occasioned the rich tapestry of alchemical tropes, themes, narratives, and pursuits, addressing the harmonious fusion of Hellenistic nature philosophy, Gnostic mythology, and Egyptian crafts and metallurgical practices in late antiquity - and much more, including the alchemy's role during the Renaissance, its influence on Jacob Boehme’s theosophy, and its medieval imagery's integral role in Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious. Part 2 - Alchemy: Processes of the Mind looks at the alchemical opus and its stages in the context of analytical, developmental, and clinical psychology, offering psychological interpretations of the Splendor Solis plates and integrated alchemical interpretations of personality, personal growth, and the human condition. Part 3 - Alchemy: The Noetic Science examines the empirical validity of alchemical theory and pursuit, addressing the viability of metallic transmutation, the theory of esoteric correspondences - the planet-metal connections - and how its animistic paradigm and principles of transformation might connect to more innovative, radical ideas emergent within the nomothetic disciplines.


Forrest Bess

Forrest Bess

Author: Chuck Smith

Publisher: powerHouse Books

Published: 2013-06-11

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 1576876756

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Painter, fisherman, pseudo-hermaphrodite—Forrest Bess lived his life in obscurity at an isolated bait camp off the east coast of Texas. From 1949 through 1967, Bess showed at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City, alongside superstar artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Rediscovered after his death in 1977, Bess's small visionary paintings are now prized by museums and collectors for their primal beauty, and can fetch over $200,000 apiece. Bess's treasured canvases were only part of a grander theory—based on alchemy, Jungian philosophy, and aboriginal rituals—that proposed that hermaphrodism was the key to immortality. As an artist, Bess could never equivocate, and in 1960 he underwent an operation to become a pseudo-hermaphrodite. For the first time ever in print, Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle combines the beauty of Bess's art with the drama and tragedy of his personal life. Using Bess's own hauntingly sincere words (in letters to Betty Parsons, Meyer Schapiro, and others) the book traces the life and logic of this forgotten artist and explains how a love of beauty and a desire for wholeness lead Bess to self-surgery and, ultimately, a mental hospital. Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle is a fascinating look at one of America's most notorious cult visionaries—a man who truly believed that art could save his life.


'The Riddle of the Sophia' and Other Essays

'The Riddle of the Sophia' and Other Essays

Author: John O'Meara

Publisher: HcP Ottawa

Published: 2020-11-02

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0992097142

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The following collection of essays could have had as a subtitleTowards a New Sophiology. Apart from the final essay, “Valentin Tomberg and Dostoevski,” all the other essays appeared (in this same order) as articles in the Starlight Journal of the Sophia Foundation of North America over the years 2014-2019. The production of these articles took place during the period that immediately followed the publication of O’Meara’s book, The Way of Novalis, and should be seen as an outgrowth from the Sophianic direction of that book. In these essays, slightly expanded from the articles, O’Meara elaborates on the Sophianic mission of the Foundation with reference to the main Master-Individualities to whom the Foundation has linked itself, notably Rudolf Steiner, Valentin Tomberg, Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), as well as the Master Peter Deunov. However, other well-known individuals are also considered in some depth, including Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, Fyodor Dostoevski, Carl Jung, as well as some of the Master-artists of the Renaissance, most notably Michelangelo and da Vinci. Estelle Isaacson and Ita Wegman also assume a significant role in this collection.


Newton the Alchemist

Newton the Alchemist

Author: William R. Newman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-12-11

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 0691185034

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A book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.


Alchemy and Finnegans Wake

Alchemy and Finnegans Wake

Author: Barbara DiBernard

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1980-01-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9780873953887

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In the first full-length study of Joyce's direct and indirect use of alchemical allusions, DiBernard shows how an awareness of the alchemical metaphor guides a reader through the richness of Finnegans Wake. For example, the alchemical transmutation of lead into gold parallels the transmutation of the dross and commotion of ordinary life into a work of art. This study shows how the themes of Joyce's novel--death and rebirth, the conflict between physical and spiritual, incest, colors, forgery, and the reconciliation of opposites--relate to the alchemical process. The author then presents a theory, based on alchemical metaphor, on the much debated subject of Joyce's view of the artist.


Science and the Riddle of Consciousness

Science and the Riddle of Consciousness

Author: Jeffrey E. Foss

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1475764782

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Consciousness has become a major topic of scientific interest, and dozens of books have been written in recent years to explain it, yet it still remains a mystery. Science and the Riddle of Consciousness explains why consciousness is a riddle for science, and demonstrates how this riddle can be solved. The questions examined in the book speak directly to neuroscientists, computer scientists, psychologists, and philosophers.


Riddle of the Seven Realms

Riddle of the Seven Realms

Author: Lyndon Hardy

Publisher: Lyndon Hardy

Published: 2016-11-04

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0997150157

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The worst of the mess they were in, Kestrel knew, was that it was all his own fault. It all began when he had tried to cheat the lady wizard Phoebe with a load of worthless wood. When she insisted on testing his sample, the demon Astron had burst through the flame.


The Philosopher's Stone

The Philosopher's Stone

Author: Peter Marshall

Publisher: Pan Publishing

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 9780330489102

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Alchemy is an ancient, but still practised, science. Peter Marshall investigates the realities behind the mythology of alchemy and searches for evidence of the element which can make it a reality, the legendary Philosopher's Stone.


The Alchemist of Riddle and Ruin

The Alchemist of Riddle and Ruin

Author: Gigi Pandian

Publisher: Gargoyle Girl Productions

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 193821319X

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A riddle, a game, and a clue in the garden. Don’t miss the page-turning sixth book in the award-winning Accidental Alchemist Mystery Series, perfect for fans of cozy mysteries and urban fantasy. When Zoe Faust sees the ghost of a murdered young woman, is it really a spirit—or a flesh and blood woman who stopped aging because she’s a fellow alchemist? Sixteen years ago, high school student Ridley Price discovered a secret she planned to reveal through a party game—but someone killed her first. The baffling crime was never solved. Zoe’s friend Heather has always wondered: which of the seven guests at the party killed Ridley? When the newly-appeared ghost turns dangerous, threatening people they love, Zoe teams up with her gargoyle roommate Dorian to unmask the supposed specter.


The Alchemical Detective

The Alchemical Detective

Author: Kirsten Weiss

Publisher: misterio press

Published: 2020-07-24

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0985510315

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This metaphysical detective has a murder to solve. But will a devilishly handsome casino owner get in the way? Someone’s killing psychics in Lake Tahoe, and the police think Riga may be connected to the murders. The best way to prove her innocence? Catch the killer herself… if she can escape the monster-hunting “reality” show she’s committed to for long enough. And as the killer circles closer, she may become his next target… If you love talking gargoyles, smart mysteries, and heroines with complicated lives, you’ll love this series. Pick up this page-turning supernatural mystery today! The Alchemical Detective is the first book in the Riga Hayworth mystery series. It’s a complete, full-length mystery that can be read as a standalone. If you’re a fan of Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris or Deborah Harkness, don’t miss this twisty paranormal mystery.