Alchemy is not just gold-making; it is a mirror of the Western imagination. Secrets, symbols, and crucibles endure. In Alchemy: ancient and modern, H. Stanley Redgrove charts the history of alchemy from medieval European alchemy through the Renaissance, where laboratories, monasteries, and courts shared the same hungry curiosity. Clear and brisk, this occult history nonfiction brings alchemical doctrines explained in plain terms, then follows their surprising links: alchemy and mysticism on one side, and alchemy and modern science on the other, as chemistry, physics, and experimentation began to separate from myth. He tracks their influence on medicine, metallurgy, and the habits of experiment. Redgrove writes as a careful early twentieth-century interpreter, making the book a scholarly reference guide as well as a lively doorway into rosicrucian and hermetic lore. You will find a grounded reference for esoteric students and a practical study guide for hermeticism, with attention to symbols, aims, and methods rather than sensationalism. Particularly valuable are the concise Renaissance alchemist biographies, sketching the lives and teachings of notable figures and the currents of thought that shaped them. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. For the curious browser, it offers a coherent map of alchemy and mysticism; for the classic-library keeper, it stands as the complete unabridged text of a significant interpretive work that helped modern readers take alchemy seriously again.