Hermetic Philosophy & Alchemy Mary Atwood Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery
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Description
Hermetic Philosophy & Alchemy Mary Atwood Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery. The modern facsimile format makes this once‑legendary rarity accessible while retaining the depth, structure, and voice of the 1850 original. Mary Anne Atwood’s A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, restored here under the fuller title Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy: A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery, with a Dissertation on the More Celebrated of the Alchemical Philosophers, is the foundational 1850 study that almost vanished from existence after Atwood and her father withdrew and destroyed nearly the entire print run. This modern reprint preserves the complete structure of the original: Part I offers an “exoteric” historical and philosophical survey of alchemy, tracing its public doctrines, symbolic language, and intellectual lineage; Part II turns inward, presenting Atwood’s “esoteric” analysis of the Hermetic Art, its concealed subject, and the initiatory mysteries she believed lay behind the alchemical tradition. The work blends historical research, metaphysical speculation, and a Romantic‑era fascination with spiritual transformation, making it one of the most ambitious attempts to articulate the inner philosophy of alchemy. Unlike the later abridged edition issued under the shorter title Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy, this version reproduces Atwood’s full argument, including the chapters her family suppressed for being too revealing. It presents alchemy not as proto‑chemistry but as a symbolic science of spiritual regeneration, rooted in ancient Hermetic, Platonic, and mystical traditions. The modern facsimile format makes this once‑legendary rarity accessible while retaining the depth, structure, and voice of the 1850 original. For readers of Hermeticism, Western esotericism, or the intellectual history of alchemy, this edition remains the definitive gateway into Atwood’s visionary synthesis of philosophy, symbolism, and spiritual psychology. For other interesting books visit Kim's Cool Storefront
