Customer Reviews

The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book serves as a plain language introduction to alchemical symbolism and concepts. It includes an English translation and line-by-line explication of the Emerald Tablet. It also devotes a complete chapter to each of the seven operations of alchemy and includes several black and white illustrations from traditional treatises on alchemy. Unfortunately, the author spends a little too much time attempting to demonstrate his personal alchemical achievements, with results that can be downright silly ("Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know" -Lao Tzu). The suggested exercises are unhelpful (for greater benefit, I would recommend taking up a discipline like yoga), the inclusion of celebrity star signs (not to mention a subchapter called "The calcination of William Shatner") undermines the credibility of the whole, and the absence of a strong editor shows up in several avoidable errors (using the word "courtesan" for "courtier", referring to Antonin Artaud as a 19th-century figure, etc.). Still, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a basic guide to alchemical processes and symbolism.

The book is most suitable for people who are new to alchemy because it is written in a very simple language. In this book Dennis takes the verses from the Emerald Tablet, as a pattern for seven stages of alchemical transformation, and applies it to different areas of human development. He provides numerous examples which are intended to facilitate the understanding of each stage of alchemical transformation, but in my opinion, some of these examples don't quite make it.

The book will nevertheless be very helpful to a beginner to get an idea about the seven stages of alchemical transformation - to actually know them, one will have to experience them - and the later stages of alchemical transformation seem to be beyond the scope of this book - at least I have that impression based on the examples provided.

If you've tried to understand the alchemical and Hermetic
traditions from primary sources, or translations thereof,
you have probably been as frustrated as I was. Those sources
are not written to be read by the uninitiated or even the
semi-initiated. Hauck has tied the tradition together from
its earliest origins and made it understandable. I looked for
my copy of _The Emerald Tablet_ to be able to cite details for
this review, but it's making the rounds of my circle of friends
right now. I may just have to buy another.

"The Emerald Tablet - Alchemy for Personal Transformation" by Dennis William Hauck is an interesting read. Filled with examples from his life and those whom he has known - including William Shatner of Star Trek fame - of how alchemical principals works in daily life, "Tablet" also places the process in its vast historical perspective in an informative and somewhat of a page-turner fashion. While "Tablet" does not contain laboratory directions, it does have a great deal of information that is important for practicing alchemists, so that they can see the effects in their 'outer' life of what is happing on the 'inner'. An ideal read for anyone interested in self-transformation, Jungian alchemy, and as said, laboratory work as well. This is a very practical book and one I enjoy reading often. Hauck is a well known and respected author and teacher on alchemy, and I have enjoyed my brief discussions with him. His students have been generous in their discussion of him to me as well.

It's a good start that gets it right in sections, falls short in several crucial areas.....and completely misses the point in others. For example, the hallucinatory section from page 255 pretty well goes against everything taught in alchemy schools. Those who seek out experiences will tend to seek out more such experiences rather than letting the alchemical process evolve naturally. This basic tenet that the adept is taught very early on is ignored, raised red flags straight away.

Nevertheless, a good starting point that acts into a springboard into more measured and well researched works. Lots and lots of references.

Caveat Emptor - Mr. Hauck has combined his favorite elements from fictional stories and legends around alchemy (and UFOs and Star Trek and other non-related personal interests) and misrepresented them as factual history. A few examples of Hauck's adversarial relationship with facts:

- On page 1 of the introduction Hauck claims that the "Emerald Tablet" document (the indisputed seminal document behind alchemy) is 10,000 years old. This was indeed the claim of Renaissance alchemists who didn't know any better, but modern historians have reliably dated the oldest known copy to the Kitab sirr al-asrar (Secret of Secrets) from 1120 A.D. There's also the niggling point that writing was only invented around 3,500 BC - so Hauck is claiming the Emerald Tablet was written 4,500 years before the invention of writing!

- Hauck inaccurately refers to Hermes (the Greek God) and Hermes Trismegistus (alleged flesh-and-blood author of the Hermetica) interchangeably.

- Hauk relates the story of Apollonius of Tyana (whom he inexplicably refers to using his Arabic name, Balinas) as though it were historical fact. In fact there is almost no historical information on Apollonius; the best we have is the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Pythagorean (who was born 50 years after Apollonius died), which historians regard as fiction.

If you're looking for an introduction to Jungian-style personal transformation using alchemy as a metaphor, but find Jung himself too dense, don't care for the many well-written Jung summaries, and you don't mind that the "facts" on which Hauck's argument is grounded are mostly wishful thinking contradicted by history, you might enjoy this book as an easy-to-read fiction which does indeed convey the basics of alchemy as a system for personal transformation. Otherwise steer clear!

I found The Emerald Tablet by Dennis William Hauck, a deep, mystical, transformative and practical book, with enough historical information about its origins, great and simple description of the 7 steps with beautiful examples to help us get a clearer idea to what this steps would look in our life, powerful and practical meditations to help the reader get the most out of this experience. As I am reading this book, it's teachings have come alive in my own life, transforming to the core and from the core of my being!!!! A life changing book!!!!

Not just for the good writing, organization and fascinating topic, but also for the fact that i've read this book twice, and last night started browsing through it again - one of those books that is worth keeping and reading again every few years. The depth, complexity of some of the alchemists' illustrations are explained in detail. I also like the interleaving of ordinary descriptive material with story - like the story of Balinas at the start of the book or an imaginary visit with Hermes.

What's the first thing most people think when they hear the word "Alchemy?" A bunch of medieval old guys with long beards in robes hovering over their fire stoves trying to turn metals into gold. Well...that's the myth. The reality, is that alchemy in an incredibly rich and diverse tradition of spiritual growth and self-improvement, based on the principles of tranformation and symbol. Incorporating all aspects of western mysticism, known sciences of the day, and the gifts of nature and the heavens, it developed onto a sacred tradition with a large emphasis on healing. Healing the body, the soul, the spirit, the plant and mineral kingdoms, the universe.... Many of the great medieval alchemists (ie: Paracelsus) became pioneers in areas that became what is today our modern medicine.

In The Emerald Tablet, Dennis William Hauck, a practicing alchemist himself, describes the origins, elements, and practices of this age-old spiritual science. The seven alchemical steps to transformation are universal priciples of Becoming, whether one is working in their lab, their psychotherapy session, or observing the natural unfolding of the universe. To the alchemist, the reward of the experiment, as in everyday life, is in the process, not in the outcome. As this is a book of self-transformation, the focus is on internal or "psychological" alchemy, with many valuable insights using alchemical symbolism, a la CG Jung. Those interested in practical lab alchemy should check out "Practical Plant Alchemy" by Manfred Junius, or the home study courses of the Philosophers of Nature offered by Triad Publishing. Perhaps a bit long-winded (like my reviews) and abstract New-Agey at times, neverthless, this is a fantastic book which is helping expose this wonderful tradition to a wider audience during the current alchemical revival.

The first section of the book was exciting and kept me on the edge of my seat. The author's discussions on the Tabula Smaragdina and the Azoth bear much re-reading and were a sort of meditation in themselves. I was somewhat disappointed by the exercises, being comprised of breath-work and visualizations. A lot of the exercizes in the book could be found in Israel Regardie's "One Year Manual" that was written 23 years ago. Another minus in the exercizes, is that they were scattered here-and-there throught a chapter with no real structure. No description of how long one should use a particular procedure or how to tell when you have accomplished the goal. Each chapter gives a number of exercizes and it is difficult to tell if these are complimentary or only one should be used at a time.