A classic work on alchemy and mysticism charts an ultimately doomed quest for spiritual enlightenment, says MICHAL BONCZA

The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy And Mysticism by Alexander Roob (Taschen 12.99)

MAKING sense of the world is hard enough in the 21st century, even with all the available paraphernalia of science, philosophies galore and contending religious beliefs to choose from.

Spare a thought then for the souls of the Middle Ages who had only the most rudimentary empiric tools to satiate their desire to comprehend the terrestrial and celestial universes.

Alchemy And Mysticism is a reprint of the Alexander Roob classic, first published in 1997, whose accessible, almanac style charts that quest.

Its also a fascinating mine of information, whose erudite text is accompanied by spectacular illustrations. They range from medieval woodcuts, 16th-18th century colour book panels and assorted diagrams to William Blake illustrations.

Marrying the keenly observed structures and motions of the heavens to the earthly domain required colossal acrobatics in logic that were routinely complicated by the ideological scrutiny of the Holy See in Rome.

The search for universal harmony and all-encompassing spirituality the philosophers stone was to be traced to Adams fall from celestial androgynity, the divine state of grace that protected against the devils temptations.

Hence Adam, a woman and a man at the same time, had the philosophers stone within his grasp until his head was turned by Lucifer, according to the mystic Jacob Bohme. This prompted a separation from his feminine self Sophia wisdom and the ensuing corruption and death.

Finding the path back to that lost paradise and restoring universal homogeneity has absorbed alchemists and mystics for the best part of the last 2,000 years.

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The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy And Mysticism by Alexander Roob (Taschen 12.99)