Customer Reviews

Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum (25th)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an extraordinary collection of art - comprehensive and diverse, spanning a significant portion of human history. Brief descriptions and explanatory text are sprinkled about but the greatest pleasure, in my opinion, derives from the gorgeous reproductions of art related to alchemy and mysticism.

I actually own two copies of this book. One that I peruse regularly and another that I shall keep as a spare should my first wear out. It is an excellent gift - very uplifting and immensely inspiring.

The subject of alchemy has been somewhat cheapened in our time - reduced to a few basic - often misrepresented - ideas and thrown about by simple minds with incoherent ideas. Few people have encountered the breadth of the subject and the contributions it has made to human civilizations. The inspiration it has provided artists and scientists is immense and this book captures quite a bit of this significance.

The author neither advocates existing belief in alchemy and mysticism, nor denies it. It is a historical perspective - largely relayed through imagery - celebrating the great beauty of the subject and the complexities it once contained.

Why do I give this book only 2 stars? I don't agree with the way this book is marketed. Watch out for ordering this book, as there are two books of the same title, author and publisher. What's the difference? One of the books has the word 'icons' on it and has only 192 pages from the original book. The original book has 712 pages. Check that the ISBN's match for what you are after. I made the mistake of buying this book from a site that did not list the page numbers and went off the title, publisher, author and picture on the front cover. Since first writing this review, I have now returned to say that I have the original 712 paged book and am very happy with it. When it comes to a book like this, why settle for second best?

This is a beautiful book, a detailed historical examination of the alchemy trope and its major themes. The emphasis is on the visual arts (great selections here), but literature, philosophy, and comparative religion also get a good shake. I would have liked a more detailed analysis of music and dance, but the book is already huge.

The pictures are well-chosen and well-reproduced, and tell a fascinating story of an ideas percolation across Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The text is also quite a prize; one example of surprising insight: Roob observes that Joyce drew a parallel between Blake's four Zoas and the Gunas of classical Indian thought, while demonstrating through Indian images and Blake's illustrations how Joyce could connect the dots. There's plenty of Blake here and a good squirt of Gurdjieff, too.

A thought on the relationship between alchemy and mysticism to get you going: "It is not a question of 'getting there' or 'being there'; the Tantric tradition speaks of being here. It speaks of transmutation and the analogy of alchemistic practice is used a great deal. For exxample, the existence of lead is not rejected but lead is transmuted into gold. You do not have to change its metallic quality at all; you must simply transmute it" (Chogyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, p.219).

If you love the esoteric symbolism and art associated with alchemy then you are going to love this book. It is beautifully presented with a nice glossy finish to the pages and the colours are excellently reproduced.

There are brief bits of text that accompany the drawings/paintings and even though they are brief they can be quite illuminating.

This book has had pride of place in my collection and I have dipped into it on many occassions. It can be almost meditative looking at these painings and drawings and can broaden your spiritual understanding.

It is a fine collection of alchemical and mystical paintings and drawings and it is unlikely that you will find such a beautifully presented and exhaustively comprehensive collection anywhere else.

High praise that somebody said she owned two copies, one as a spare. I agree that this is a nice book to have as a reference, and I'm sure it must be the largest collection of "Hermetick" and "Alchymical" images presently available under one cover. That said, it's pretty small (although to produce this in a large volume would probably put its price out of the range of the average enthusiast), the colors are often badly reproduced, and the text is only excusable because nobody expects much in the way of text from Taschen. The main thing you have here is convenience. I have a large enough collection of books that I can track down superior examples of most of these images...but I have to track them down. With this book, I just flip through the pages. As a companion to this book I would suggest either (preferably, if you can find it) "Alchemy: the Medieval Alchemists and Their Royal Art" by Johannes Fabricius, or (failing that) "The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century" by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, for a better look at the engravings specifically. Also, "Art and Symbols of the Occult" by James Wasserman has the best color reproductions I've seen of the lavishly-painted sixteenth-century alchemical manuscript "Splendor Solis," amidst many other amusing curiosities.

This book literally leapt off the shelf at me one day while I was in the bookstore. I wasn't into alchemy or mysticism or anything at the time. I was just perusing the art section, and saw this book and was blown away by it. I bought it without a moment's hesitation and have spend countless hours pouring over it. It's so great to see old art that is not overtly Christian, and which is expressing something besides what we are commonly taught of in our mainstream dominant history. Further down the road, I did in fact get more into alchemy and mysticism and their history, and this book then also served as an excellent guide and visual reference for looking into these mysteries. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

This book is a most excellent read for anyone who has an understanding of Spiritual Alchemy. It is fully illustrated with rare material which is extremely informative. This is a must for anyone who is interested in Spiritual Alchemy. This is so far the very best material on the subject I have seen.

This has got to be one of the greatest collections of Hermetic, Mystical and Alchemical images between two covers. Many are rare, and many are in full color--and many many are entirely new to me! Paging through this book is a real voyage of discovery. I particularly recommend this book to anyone involved in the creative arts because these images stay with you and resonate in your psyche for days, weeks, months, and years! An incredible purchase for such a low price!

This is mainly a collection of prints. Each print appears to be well captioned. There is some expose of the ideas behind alchemy and mysticism, without giving too much away. If you are interested in art history or magick then this could be the book for you.

The book is a work of art so much so that I bought the book on symbols from the same company. A great art reference and a good esoteric read