This new & completely redesigned edition creates a colourful & vibrant guide to the secret art Klossowski de Rola elucidates the mysterious language & polyvalent symbolism from a variety of perspectives practical spiritual elemental & historical & explains how the true alchemist differs from the modern chemist & the false practitioner Gold is only a by-product & emblem of the Great Work of the alchemist The latter part of the book comprises the full text of a seventeenth-century exposition upon an alchemists dream-poem & five richly illustrated Themes sections reproducing full sequences of alchemical thought art & paraphernalia