Reddit reviews Real Alchemy: A Primer of Practical Alchemy

Hum,this is strange,I'm pretty her favorite book is that .

Robert Allen Bartlett, author of Real Alchemy and The way of the Crucible did an interview in which he discusses the history and basic teachings of alchemy that you may find useful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD3BkmTjvDU

You may find Robert Bartlett's information on the topic useful. He's worked as a professional chemist for years and is also a modern day alchemist. This is his first book. This is his 2nd. He also gives classes online and in Washington State, north of Seattle.

His teacher wrote this book.

You may also be interested in searching for the alchemy course published by Jean Dubuis. There was a torrent available if you go looking.

>For instance, fire brings change, water brings healing, you have probably heard of those connections before.

Have a look at the origins of the elemental theory, and their changing use in practical Alchemy from 600 C.E. to 1600 C.E. There are a couple good beginning books on the topic - this one, this one, and this one - will totally deepen your understanding of the principles.

I thought this was a question for r/occult or r/alchemy, but I see you tied it into Druids. There hasn't been much activity there from the revivalists that I've seen, but if you're more intk the hkstory like me, the evidence shows that the Druids, like most ancient prjests, lracticed a kind of proto-alchemy, judging from all of the support that they were herbalists and Pliny's claim that they brewed mistletoe into a tincture. The wlrd "potion" as I've seen isn't really used in the alchemical literature. The drinks are tinctures (extracts, usually in alcohol), elixirs, and teas.

I've never thought much of it, but come to think of it, because the alchemical tradition is rooted in the Hermetically dominated western esoteric tradition, all of the symbols are limited tk such (4-5 classical elements, the planets, etc.), so making a Druidic alchemical tradition would hopefully do away with those in favor of Celtic ones. Could ogham be used that way? Then again, the proto-alchemy probably wasn't practiced with symbols in the same way.

As to what actually became chemistry, I don't know the full story, but to summarize, all or most of the practices of manipulating the physical substances (e.g. distillation techniques) were adapted into chemistry and metallurgy, while the meaning and theory attached to such were discarded.

If you're interested in taking this up as a hobby I highly reccomend
Robert Allen Bartlett's Real Alchemy. He gets into how to make the famous Philosopher's Stone towards the end, but IMO that's bogus as we would know about that discovery. It's best used in a practical sense for making offerings. I've only made one elixir, but maybe I should get back into it sometime.

This is the only book I have on the subject. I just did the very first exercise and it worked wonders. You should start with a Saturnine herb first and work your way up the ladder of lights to the Moon for the best effect. The most expensive piece of equipment is a still; I got a miniature copper still off eBay for $120 I believe. Then you have herbs and alcohol but those are pretty cheap depending on how much of either you'd use.

So you mean this thing is still lingering around?

your question sent me off on doing some research and I found this one which seems to be very highly regarded: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Alchemy-Primer-Practical/dp/0892541504/ref=cm_wl_cp_al_pt