Alchemy was never only about metal. For most of its long history the work in the flask and the work in the self were spoken of as a single labour - and Spiritual Alchemy takes that inner reading seriously, and carefully.
The second book of The Great Work walks the old map of transformation stage by stage: solve et coagula, dissolve and recombine, and the colours of the work from the blackening through to the red. Read not as chemistry, and not as a cure, but as a language for the slow change a person actually goes through.
What you'll find inside
The colour stages - nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, rubedo - read as a map of inner change, one chapter eachSolve et coagula, the master rhythm of all alchemy, and how it works in a lifeThe modern psychological reading - Carl Jung's encounter with alchemy, the shadow, the union of opposites - named clearly as a modern lens, never confused with what the old alchemists wroteActive imagination and how to sit with an emblem; a reflective journal; gentle, safe contemplative practiceAnd the most important chapter of all: the pitfalls, and how to know when to set the work downA clear boundary, kept on every page: this is history, symbol, and contemplation - not therapy, psychology, or medical advice, and not a treatment for anything. The dark stages are images, never diagnoses; where the inner work grows intense the book says plainly to go slowly, and to seek a qualified professional in real distress.
Honest, grounded, and quietly beautiful - the inner half of the Royal Art, with the mystery kept whole. From the author of the Hermetica series.