Ambix Journal of Alchemy and Chemistry

View free content online March-April 15

Tara Nummedal introduces the "Alchemy and Religion" issue

Jenny Rampling editorial on new developments for the journal

New Alchemy Blogs and Webinars

Picturing the Triumphant Chariot of Antimony
http://www.ritmanlibrary.com/2013/02/picturing-the-triumphant-chariot-of-antimony/

Lawrence Principe Takes Basilius Valentinus to the Laboratory
http://www.ritmanlibrary.com/2013/02/lawrence-principe-takes-basilius-valentinus-to-the-laboratory/

Wouter Hanegraaff hosts the second "Infinite Fire" Alchemy Webinar 
http://www.ritmanlibrary.com/2013/02/introducing-the-second-infinite-fire-webinar-host-wouter-j-hanegraaff/

Oroboros in an 18th cent. Jewish manuscript

thanks to Aharon Varady

J. Coulthart on Alchemical illustration

"As Borges considered metaphysics to be a branch of fantastic literature it’s possible to consider this kind of alchemical illustration as a branch of fantastic art."
feuilleton -- Atalanta Fugiens

Alphabetic Body in F.M. Van Helmont's Alphabet of Nature

Lawrence Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy

I got this book as a Christmas gift and have not been disappointed. It's really the first reliable, scholarly introduction to alchemy that is both an easy read and a fascinating guide to the subject. It is well illustrated with useful diagrams that help explain the chemistry, which Principe shows was the real focus of the work. I especially appreciated the chapter on Zosimos, which sets the record straight about the nature of his dream as well as providing an interesting framework for thinking about his gnostic influences. There's lots of great stuff on medieval and islamic alchemical theory explained more clearly than I have seen in any book on alchemy, and Principe even tackles some of the more difficult renaissance cases like Maier and Khunrath, persuasively putting those strange texts into their religious and alchemical contexts. I only wish that it had been longer. A more lengthy review to come.

Versluis vs. Hanegraaff (not sure he understands emic vs. etic here)

Still, one has to wonder about the implications of the sharp division he makes between a “religionist” perspective and an “empiricist” one. Let us consider, for a moment, the example of an alchemical treatise. It may well be that this treatise includes arcane allusions to alchemical work that only a practicing alchemist would recognize and understand. We could envision an etic approach to this treatise that completely fails to recognize what the treatise conveys on alchemical discipline, whereas an emic approach might very well be the only one that could get at what the alchemical work is actually about. In this case, as in a number of others I might also cite, a sympathetic empiricist perspective may well be indispensable for understanding the work one is investigating. And this, in fact, is the methodological approach that I am advocating here.
Methods in the Study of Western Esotericism