There's a good mixture of black and white, sepia and full-colour images.Ĭontent-wise, you'll find everything in here from Da Vinci to the caduceus. It's a hardback with a robust spine, the pages are thick and glossy and the images really pop. There are numerous books on the occult in a practical, wordy sense but books like this that show the illustrative side are much rarer to come across.Įven if you don't know anything about the occult or don't care to, this book is objectively beautiful. It's not very wordy, but books like this primarily serve an aesthetic purpose as well as acting as a springboard for further research. This fine little book is an absolute treasure trove of esoteric imagery, complete with accompanying quotes and attributions. My review is of the Bibliotheca Universalis edition that has 500-and-something pages. Otherwise, I'd suggest some preliminary reading before approaching this.

If you are well read in mysticism and the history of alchemy, this is the book for you. We chemical engineers share a common ancestor with phrenologists and palmists - not a very edifying thought! It is interesting to note that mystical ideas about the interconnectedness of mythology, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and art gave birth to such an unimaginative science. They can only enjoy the beauty of the images, and get some sort of rudimentary understanding, which itself is rewarding enough.Īlchemy is the ancestor of my profession - Chemical Engineering. Those without knowledge of the development of mystical thought and alchemy would not be able to enjoy the wealth of information this book provides. Alexander Roob does not provide a sequential narrative. This is not a book for the beginner (which I am). This is a magnificent compendium of alchemical symbols and the mystic thought behind them.

Alchemy & mysticism by alexander roob