{"product_id":"pocket-essentials-alchemy-alchemists","title":"Pocket Essentials: Alchemy \u0026 Alchemists","description":"Review\n\n\"Well written, informative account.\" --Independent on The Gnostics\n\n\"An exemplary introduction.\" --Telegraph on The Cathars\n\nProduct Description\n\nOften alchemy is seen as an example of medieval gullibility and the alchemists as a collection of eccentrics and superstitious fools.\nIn this Pocket Essential Sean Martin shows that nothing could be further from the truth. It is important to see the search for the philosopher's stone and the attempts to turn base metal into gold as metaphors for the relation of man to nature and man to God as much as seriously held beliefs.\nAlchemy had a self-consistent outlook on the natural world and man's place in it. Alchemists like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus were amongst the greatest minds of their time and the history of alchemy is both the history of a spiritual search and the history of a slowly developing scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton devoted as much time to his alchemical studies as he did to his mathematical ones.\nThis book traces the history of alchemy from ancient times to the 20th century, highlighting the interest of modern thinkers like Jung in the subject, and in the process covers a major, if neglected area of Western thought.\n\nAbout the Author\n\nSean Martin is the author of several other Pocket Essentials titles, including Alchemy and Alchemists, Andrei Tarkovsky, The Cathars, The Gnostics, and The Knights Templar.","brand":"Kamera Books","offers":[{"title":"New - Paperback","offer_id":32911281422421,"sku":"9781843446095N","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2481\/5790\/products\/9781843446095.jpg?v=1606568205","url":"https:\/\/smeikalbooks.co.uk\/en-us\/products\/pocket-essentials-alchemy-alchemists","provider":"smeikalbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}