Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, August 9, 2000
I've read every Alchemical and Hermetic Chemistry book I could get my hands on over the last 3 years and this was up there with some of the best. It's not for the beginner because it makes some assumptions of general and basic knowledge about Alchemy that could leave the casual read in the dust. This book really caters to the avid student of Alchemy. It is none the less a book for your alchemical collection because the beginner one day will be no longer, and this book will offer knowledge without a doubt. "The lips of wisdom are closed except to the ears of understanding"
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Most Important Books Ever Written, April 14, 2006
Fulcanelli's second book, Dwellings of the Philosophers , was originally one volume consisting of some six hundred pages divided into twenty chapters. In his foreword of the book, written in April 1929, Eug?ne Canseliet reveals the key enabling one to penetrate his master's writings. It lies in the following excerpt:
His method differs from the one that was used by his predecessors: it consists in describing in detail all the operations of the Work after having separated them into various parts. He thus deals with each phase of the work, begins to explain it in one chapter, interrupts it to pursue it in another chapter, and then completes it in yet a last one. This breaking up, which transforms the Magisterium into a philosophical jig-saw puzzle, is not to scare the learned researcher, but it promptly discourages the outsider, incapable of finding his way in this labyrinth of another kind, and unable to restore the order of the manipulations.
At the beginning of the book, Fulcanelli reverts to the subject of stone edifices; the custodians of hermetic science:
[...] Our preference remains for the Middle Ages such as revealed by the gothic edifices, rather than that period of time as described by historians.
Further on, he alludes to Huysmans' statement:
History is the most solemn of lies and the most childish of catches!
He seizes that opportunity to question the authenticity of certain tombs - crypts allegedly containing the remains of this or that historical figure, maintaining that it stands to reason that they are empty, unless corpses were substituted! He then again evokes the primacy of the Middle Ages over the period of the Renaissance:
[...] We deem that the medieval way of thinking reveals itself as being of scientific essence and no other. Art and literature are merely humble servants of traditional science. Their specific mission is to translate into symbols the truths that the Middle Ages received from Antiquity and of which they remained the faithful repositories.
In the next chapter, Fulcanelli gives some definitions of the term alchemy and pays tribute to the Adepts of the past. He then evokes the image of the legendary laboratory with its picturesque character.
In the following chapter, entitled "Chimie et Philosophie", Fulcanelli makes a distinction between alchemy and mere chemistry. He describes the first as the "science of causes" and the second as "science of facts". In his opinion, the latter rests on matter and experimentation, while the first originates in philosophy.
In the next chapter Fulcanelli makes a point of explaining the hermetic Cabala, which is based on phonetic assonance as well as on certain rules resting on the study of ancient Greek - the language of the Hellenes, and before them of the Pelasgians - perhaps of the very gods themselves! It is the language of the birds, the gay science or gay s?avoir, which enables the initiate to express Knowledge in only veiled terms.
After this, Fulcanelli undertakes the actual study of certain historic buildings that are adorned with alchemical symbols, and which he names "the dwellings of the philosophers". The Manoir de la Salamandre in Lisieux (no longer in existence) is the first one he deals with. Fulcanelli suggests that within its walls there existed a fraternity of Adepts - the Flers Alchemists, in the Orne Department - that counted the following three men among its members in 1420: Nicolas de Grosparmy, Nicolas Valois, and the priest, Pierre Vicot. This small group alone is said to have moved to Caen (Calvados Department), and one of the members allegedly erected the Manoir de la Salamandre in the course of the following century. Fulcanelli discusses at length the Secret Fire of the Great Work in this chapter. This Secret Fire is allegorically represented by a salamander, and according to legend, it lives in the igneous element. Several pages farther along, Fulcanelli lists the multiple virtues of the philosopher's stone. Drawing on various texts by the scholarly librarian, Pierre Dujols, he also brings our attention to the alchemical symbolism emanating from the Graal and the Templars' Baphomet.
Referring to the "house of Adam and Eve" in Le Mans, Fulcanelli also discusses in some detail Genesis and the symbolic appearance of the first Adam (made of red earth), and of the second Adam (Sulphur) that united with Eve and which designates Mercury.
In the chapter dedicated to Louis d'Estissac, and recalling the hermetic concerns of the author of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, Fulcanelli sees in the scholarly Fran?ois Rabelais the ma?tre d?s alchimies who initiated young Estissac. In this chapter, Fulcanelli particularly develops his thoughts on the symbolic significance of the Greek letter X (khi), since it is this letter that is identified with Light itself. In this respect, he tells us "the Greek X and the French X represent the writing of the light by the light itself". Bringing up Saint-Andrew's cross, as well as cat whiskers in the shape of a cross, he also tells us about the ways and customs of the Ecole Polytechnique (the "X" ), which he knows too well to have not been personally familiar with them!
In the following chapter, entitled `L'homme des bois' , Fulcanelli refers to the hermetic pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela, as well as to the Parisian alchemist, Nicolas Flamel.
Fulcanelli then extensively examines the coffered paintings on the ceiling admirably adorning the high gallery in the Ch?teau of Dampierre-sur-Boutonn.
The prestigious tomb of Fran?ois II in Nantes provides him with ample material to discourse on the alchemical androgynous state, and thus discuss what sets the hermetic Cabala in opposition to the mysteries of the Hebra?c Kabbala.
In the study of the Holyrood Palace sundial in Edinburgh, Scotland, Fulcanelli gives the reader precious information about the making of the Adepts' famous vitryol. Furthermore, he supplies significant details about the hermetic character of the prestigious Order of the Thistle, with which Scottish alchemist Alexander Sethon was likely not unfamiliar.
In its subsequent edition, The Dwellings of the Philosophers ends with a chapter entitled "The Unlimited Paradox of Sciences", which is decidedly hermetic in orientation, although also apocalyptic. According to Eug?ne Canseliet, this section was added to the previous text and was composed of the material of a third "collection of handwritten notes" that his master, Fulcanelli, had left with him before taking them back in 1928, thereby making it impossible to eventually publish the third book. That book, had it been published, would have been entitled Finis Gloriae Mundi - The End of the Glory of the World.
The alchemist Fulcanelli was the most famous adept of the 20th century, the man who achieved the Great Work less than 100 years ago, but his true identity has always been shrouded in myth and uninformed speculation...until now.
Patrick Rivi?re reveals with profuse documentary evidence the true identity of the enigmatic and prestigious author of The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers. Beginning with an overview of French alchemical life at the turn of the 20th century, Rivi?re carefully builds his case step-by-step with facts, documents, and photographs, introducing us to the well-known physicist who was known as Fulcanelli. Rivi?re also demolishes the scurrilous hypotheses that suggest Fulcanelli never existed. Rivi?re is uniquely suited to solving this mystery as his teacher was Fulcanelli's sole student, Eug?ne Canseliet. (ISBN 1-897244-21-5 Red Pill Press)
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real thing, September 20, 2007
This is the most thought-provoking work on alchemy I have come across. There is so much here, that it's difficult to know where to start.
Fulcanelli is the first practical alchemist I've read who came out and said that without divine inspiration and the aid of the stars, one will not be able to carry out the Work. So often it seems that folks concentrate purely on the practical side or worse, purely on the spiritual side. Most seem to ignore the astrological aspects, I guess considering that "as below, so above" is referring to the practical and spiritual, not to the celestial. It is refreshing to hear someone reiterating the importance of all three aspects--material, spiritual, and celestial--for success.
Fulcanelli is very explicit when discussing aspects of the Mineral Path, to the extent that I don't understand why I have not seen this book more often referred to when alchemists working on the Mineral Path discuss their operations. I wonder how many people have actually read it. Perhaps folks are put off by the apparent topic, the alchemical decorations on various buildings. But while the book does discuss these decorations, they are only a jumping-off point for discussing alchemical concepts and steps in the process. For instance, when touching upon salamander decorations, he gives many excellent clues about the nature of the Secret Fire.
One of the especially interesting things he discusses is what he calls "cabala." This refers not to Kabbalah or Qabalah but is instead a system of transmitting meaning by using visual puns that was especially popular in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, according to him. Anyone who is even slightly interested in alchemy knows the importance in it of graphics. We all know that these pictures are meant to be metaphorical, but Fulcanelli suggests that they incorporate visual puns as well. Looking for these puns gives us a whole new way of reading these pictures. 'Course, we need to know medieval French and German, etc.:)
Although alchemy has mostly managed to escape the attention of contemporary writers who simplify complex magical or spiritual systems in order to sell books or make a name for themselves, much contemporary writing about alchemy is dominated by the same sort of fluff-bunnyism that so undermines serious studies of magic. If we go back to the original works, we are presented with the problem of what has been lost in translation, and a number of these were garbled, either deliberately or not. Fulcanelli's book is perfect for the individual who has a background in alchemy and who rejects the "make the Stone in your head" approach yet who has had enough of beating their head against the impenetrable older texts. And that's a lot of us! Fulcanelli will give you new ideas for how to go about alchemy that you cannot find anywhere else.
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