Just two of my favourites.
Cherry Ghilchrist, The Elements of Alchemy, 1991
The alchemical operation works on three levels of being at once - on body, soul and spirit. The hermetic philosophy maintains that everything - animal, vegetable and mineral - contains these three elements, but in an unawakened form. The Great Work breaks down the existing relationship between them, activating each seperately, and leading them from an ignorant and inert state to perfection. The alchemist initiates this operation both in the materials he works with in his laboratory and in his own being. He aims to free the soul and spirit of matter and to reunite them with the body in a new and exalted form; he also attempts this task in his own life.
Thomas Vaughan, The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan, ed. A.E.
Truth calls to man: 'Be ye transmuted... be ye transmuted from dead stones into living philosophical stones. I am the true Medicine, rectifying and transmuting that which is no more into that which it was before corruption, and into something better by far, and that which is not in to that which it ought to be. Lo, I am at the door of your conscience, knocking night and day, and ye will not open unto me, yet I stand mildly waiting... Come again and again, often come, ye who seek wisdom... O sonorous voice, O voice sweet and gracious to the ears of the sage, O fount of inexhaustible riches to those thirsting after truth and justice! O solace to the need of those who are desolate! Why seek ye further, anxious mortals?'
