Review of The Riddle of Alchemy

[Esther Lichtenberger]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Riddle of Alchemy" by Paul Kiritsis.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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I rated The Riddle of Alchemy by Paul Kiritsis five out of five. The editing was thorough, and I noticed no spelling or grammatical errors while reading. I recommend this book to anyone of college age or older. While there is no profanity or sexual scenes in the book to influence this suggestion, it can get quite dense and technical at times, which may be difficult for a younger reader. Kiritsis and their editor did an excellent job with the citations for those of us wanting to delve deeper into specific areas of the topic later. I love adding more texts to my TBR via another author's citations or bibliographies.

The author meticulously researched the initial history, which is evident from the sheer amount of information and citations in the first section. Kiritsis discusses a variety of ancient schools of thought from various regions and their religious origins. It is a well-rounded exploration of alchemical and philosophical thoughts and how they took from one another, merged, and evolved as time passed, shaping and influencing modern-day sciences, philosophy, religion, and intellectual thought. Alchemy during the Renaissance enthralled me, and I was utterly fascinated by the discussions of imagery, mythology, and the further introduction of human thought and the psyche. One of my favorite aspects was the manuscript pages at the beginning of the chapters and how the author dissected the imagery to explain their many facets, nuances, and allegories and how they related to alchemy, philosophy, and then again to psychology.

One thing that would have improved my understanding and enjoyment of the book is more illustrations. A timeline or mapping of the theories and their origin and evolution would have been nice. A glossary of terms at the beginning would also be helpful. I had to stop and look up terms such as Gnostic, Socratic, Neo-Platonic, Empyrean, etc. A brief description at the beginning with a map showing the region of origin of each, as well as a timeframe for them, would have been an excellent reference piece for somebody who isn't as well versed in philosophy or hasn't taken it in college in the last twenty years.

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The Riddle of Alchemy
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