Practical Alchemy: A Guide to the Great Work

by Brian Cotnoir, Robert Allen Bartlett (Foreword), James Wasserman (Introduction)

A concise guide to the history, theory, and practice of alchemy (the “great work”)—the art of working with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. Alchemy is a means of understanding and working in concert with the energies of nature for spiritual development, healing, and transformation. In this book, Brian Cotnoir offers a step-by-step introduction that explores alchemy’s mysteries while illustrating its use as a modern spiritual system of attainment. He provides an overview of the history of alchemy, from the first meldings of Egyptian technology to the Middle Ages—the golden age of alchemy—to contemporary techniques. He demystifies the relationship between alchemy and chemistry, and provides evidence that alchemy is much more than a medieval form of psychotherapy. The guide also includes practical laboratory experiments that safely and intelligently lead readers to an understanding of this ancient art and spiritual practice. This book was previously published as The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy . This new edition includes a foreword by Robert Allen Bartlett, author of Real Alchemy .

Genres: Alchemy, Occult, Spirituality, Religion, Nonfiction, Witchcraft

160 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2021

Reviews

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic primer on traditional alchemy. We read this for my book club and people really enjoyed it. This practical guide discusses real physical alchemy that the reader can attempt themselves. This book does not go into modern spiritual alchemy or Jungian mental alchemy - so if that is what you're looking for, you might not enjoy this book. For traditional alchemy specifically, this is a great place for a beginner to start.

[Krys · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have always been curious like me about Alchemy but didn’t know much about it, Practical Alquemy is the perfect book for any beginner interested in this materia. It’s an easy, short, and helpful read where touches all the bases you need to gain entrance to the alchemical mysteries.⁣
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The book is divided into four parts: theory, practice, equipment, and bibliography (I always find this so helpful because it always leads you to more books!).⁣
Also, the illustrations of symbols and elements throughout the book make it very helpful and interesting combined with the theory. ⁣
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Overall, if you are new to the study of Alchemy, or even if you’ve been around it for a while and need some additional guidance or inspiration, this is a book for you! Very enjoyable, inspiring, and a quick read.

[jazz · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda impressive that the author managed to be incredibly brief in the complex topics raised yet so easy to follow. i've always wanted to dive more into alchemy but was always intimidated by the texts available to me at the time so this was a nice introduction to demystify alchemy as a subject impossible to understand (it's hard but not impossible).

it's an introdutory book though. practical as the title informs, it has very basic summary of concepts and straightforward and useful definitions. it never wants to go deeper than that — it only indicates and recommends study material in case you do. in the words of the author himself this is a "brief condensed outline of the alchemical path"

[Max M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly a lot of time and resources went into compiling such a dense subject matter into a cohesive and condensed format. This book aligns the reader on the fundamentals of alchemy, it's history, and current applications within science and medicine.

[Paola Dunbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in Alchemy this is a great introduction to the basics and gives practical practices to build an alchemical practice. I have come to discover Alchemy is not for me but I enjoyed learning a bit about it and it's work. It's a short book but packs alot of information.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good thing about this book is it is concise and approachable. The big problem with it is it left me wanting more detail and explanation. I would say it’s a good start as far as theory is concerned but I would hesitate to do any experimentation with its content.

[Rammy Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this book didn't really draw me in like I expected. There's a good chance it didn't happen because I have no background in Alchemy and most of the concepts in it perplexed me. That been said though, this is a well written book, exploring some valuable basics to start with in your Work, especially in practice. As I already said it took me a while to catch up with the theoretical knowledge, since I had no idea that you have to kind of connect the dots when it comes to reading alchemical texts. Apparently the information is hidden behind metaphors and different codenames of sorts in order to protect it from people unfit to pursue the Work.

I definitely want to search more into the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of Alchemy, as I don't understand why exactly go through all this processing of materials in practice. I just need to familiarize myself a bit first.

I would recommend this book to someone that has a basic idea of what Alchemy really is about and what is to be achieved through the Work.

[Daniel Molina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Providing a brief overview of different alchemical practices (spagyric, laboratory and spiritual) from a practical perspective, Cotnoir explains in a detailed manner on how to prepare for work and what to expect.

[Allison Dehn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Killed the time, but left my brain immediately. Moral: read if u have nothing better to read.

[Mika · Rating 5 out of 5]

His way of explaining things is just amazing. A great book for beginners with 0 to little knowledge of alchemy.

[Wong Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great way to understand where alchemy came from and how to contribute to this great work. Its worth a read if you're questing after the infamous sorcerer stone.

[Josh Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually really well written. It’s like a really good blog post on practical alchemy. But not looking to add physical alchemy to my hobbies at this time.

[Sebastian Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a bit advanced for what I knew prior, especially towards the end. Can’t say I retained many of his instructions, it is definitely more of a manual. But I got a nice grasp on the basics of transmutation.