The History of Alchemy. The Journey of the Philosopher's Stone from the Bronze Age to the Atomic Age

Alchemy is usually associated with images of flasks, furnaces, laboratories, or mandrake root. But the universe of gold-making iconography is far broader: it’s rich with symbols and allegories connected to the customs and religions of different cultures. To see, in these mysterious miniatures, a real world of the past, we’ll take an exciting journey through ancient China, mysterious India, travel to the land of the pharaohs, to Greek sages, Arab caliphs, and European heretics—and we won’t ignore the present either. From this book you’ll learn how yoga is connected to the Great Work, why the Arabs ate mummies, why such figures as Shakespeare, Newton, or Goethe were interested in alchemy, and what in the USSR they mined a philosopher’s stone for. By decoding mystical images that symbolize alchemists gaining superpowers, we will discover a new dimension of world history.

Sergey Zotov is a cultural anthropologist, junior research associate at the Duke August Library (Wolfenbüttel, Germany), a graduate student at the University of Warwick (UK), and a laureate of the “Prosvetitel” (Enlightener) prize for the bestseller “Suffering Middle Ages. Paradoxes of Christian Iconography.”