On Becoming an Alchemist: A Guide for the Modern Magician (Hardcover)

by Catherine MacCoun (Author)
Key Phrases: living backward, volatile eros, horizontal consciousness, Great Work, Separate the Subtle, Baggage Disclaim (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. MacCoun follows up her acclaimed novel Beyond the Abbey Gates with a richly gratifying exploration of alchemy. Writing for the advanced magical practitioner who is a novice alchemist, MacCoun represents this ancient art as a kind of spiritual graduate school. Through her vivid storytelling and crystalline prose, she maps out the mental landscape of alchemy, showing how the process is similar to that used by religious mystics. MacCoun devotes the first half of the book to encounters with spirits the practitioner can expect while on the alchemical path. In the rest, she explains how the everyday can become fodder for spiritual growth. Using the traditional components of alchemy as a metaphor, the base metal of a tragic life event or even a bad mood can become source material in the process of personal transformation. Everything in MacCoun's cosmos stands ready to lead the adept toward the deeper truths of reality. This approach may disappoint literalist readers who are hoping for the secret to transforming base metals into real gold, but for MacCoun the purpose of alchemy is the construction of a philosopher's stone in one's heart, leading to the total transformation of the self. (Feb. 12)
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Review
“What MacCoun gives us in her book is a great telling of the workability of magic complete with history, principles, and procedures. She believes that we all have the ability to perform magic, to transform our lives and our world for the better.”—Evolve! Magazine

“A richly gratifying exploration of alchemy. MacCoun represents this ancient art as a kind of spiritual graduate school.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“An enchanting, engaging, and insightful work that investigates the power of our creativity and our relationship to the laws of the universe.”—Caroline Myss, author of Entering the Castle and Anatomy of the Spirit

“Catherine MacCoun is a great communicator, and she knows her stuff from the inside too. Blows a bright and refreshing breeze through the musty halls of hermetic and magical symbolism, and lays it all on the line. Highly recommended.”—Gareth Knight, author of Magic and the Western Mind

“A true alchemist, Catherine MacCoun has transformed profound ideas into a gold standard of what a book on magic should be. Excellently written with prose that sparkles with clarity and wit, this book can serve novice and advanced practitioner alike with equal grace and insight.”—David Spangler, author of Blessing and Everyday Miracles

“Many discussions of alchemy are hopelessly dense and opaque; this one is full of light and life. With admirable clarity, MacCoun shows how alchemy can benefit one’s life here and now. This is uncluttered, everyday wisdom; the most accessible discussion of the psychospiritual dimensions of alchemy to appear in years.”―Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Trumpeter (February 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590303695
• ISBN-13: 978-1590303696
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #620,583 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant treatment of the topic, February 19, 2008

By	John P. Plummer (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have often been disappointed by books on alchemy which descend into complex discussions of laboratory work, or reduce everything to Jungian psychology. Catherine MacCoun has given us a rare, clear, and genuinely wise treatment of alchemy from the perspective of spiritual development and inner service. My only significant quibble is that I would like to see an expansion of her treatment of polarity beyond those dynamics which can fit into the masculine/feminine (or active/passive) box. At many points through the book, I found myself wishing someone had told me these things twenty years ago. Don't miss it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, to say the least..., March 22, 2008

By	S. Michael Wilson "A strange hero to a select... (Phillipsburg, NJ) - See all my reviews

Having read several self-help and personal-improvement books over the past few years, the recent trends are hard to ignore. Most of the books on the market covering these themes tend to simplify life changes and introspective reevaluation to the point of claiming it is as easy as saying `Yes I Can'. With the popularity of The Secret and guided imagery, even talking to yourself is taken out of the equation, and simply wishing or imagining personal improvements is supposed to be enough to bring about radical change.

So reading Catherine MacCoun's book, On Becoming an Alchemist: A Guide for the Modern Magician, is a much needed breath of fresh air in what has always seemed a cliché and uninspired genre.

MacCoun's title and subject matter may at first put some readers off with its references to arcane alchemical arts and magical properties. But what she has actually managed is to offer a fresh perspective into how people make choices, perceive the world around them, and live their lives. She does so by introducing us to an innovative blend of spiritualism and psychology, in much the same way that Alchemy itself blends scientific observation with objective mysticism.

Granted, chapters like the one that uses scenes and terminology from Harry Potter to illustrate a point may take the magician aspect of the book a tad too far for some people. But the message within is much more grounded in reality than some of the `guided imagery' feel-good books cluttering the bookstore shelves these days.

The true test of any book of this nature is the ability of the reader to glean something constructive and useful from its pages, even if they do not buy into the author's overall message. Readers of MacCoun's latest will undoubtedly have no trouble walking away wiser and more aware, no matter their take on becoming a Modern Magician. And that, as they say, is magic.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Profound Book, March 10, 2008

By	Susan (Cambridge) - See all my reviews

I've actually been moved to tears a few times since beginning this book, out of gratitude. It has answered many questions and affirmed unspoken experiences. Using the principles of alchemy as her working basis, MacCoun names inner states and energetic patterns with breathtaking clarity and freshness. It's truly a thinking person's guide to magic, magic being the transformation of poison to medicine, of ignorance to clear seeing.

The first half of the book delves into principles of magic. The second explains the 7 non-linear stages that comprise the process of magic. The names alone evoke tremendous curiosity:

Calcination
Dissolution
Separation
Conjunction
Ferementation
Sublimation
Radiation

MacCoun's writing and reasoning are wonderful--deadly sharp (not sure why previous reviewer found it muddled), deep, and also funny. (Love her dry sense of humor.) While describing deeply spiritual experience, she retains admirable distance from her readers, allowing us tremendous space to encounter the material on our own. This book is equal parts profundity and friendliness--not a common combination.

Thank you Catherine MacCoun. You are giving me confidence and inspiration on my personal path. "On Becoming an Alchemist" is, as another reviewer described, a new classic.