Alchemy History

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense, written and read by Rory Sutherland. To be brilliant, you have to be irrational Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take...

George Soros, called "a superstar among money managers" by The New York Times, shares the investment strategies he uses to read the mind of the market.

In The Secrets of Alchemy, Lawrence M. Principe, one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, brings alchemy out of the shadows and restores it to its important place in human history and culture. By surveying what alchemy was and how it began, developed, and overlapped with a range of ideas and pursuits, Principe illuminates the practice. He vividly depicts the place of alchemy during its heyday in early modern Europe, and then explores how alchemy has fit into wider views of the cosmos and humanity.

Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.

In Essence and Alchemy, which has been published in fourteen foreign editions, Aftel teaches the art of making natural perfumes, complete with recipes. She resurrects the social and metaphysical legacy that is entwined with the evolution of perfumery, from the dramas of the spice trade to the quests of the alchemists. Tracking scent through the boudoir and bath and into the sanctums of worship, she offers insights on the relationship of scent to sex, solitude, and the soul, unearthing a forgotten world of natural essences and their profound resonance with body, mind, and spirit.

In 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary.

At the dawn of the 20th century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the worlds scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives.

“Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the...

A fierce, lyrical manifesto that dares readers to face death without sentimentality—and reveals dying well as one of the deepest acts of living, loving, and human responsibility. Die Wise does not offer seven steps for coping with death. It does not suggest ways to make dying easier. It pours...

Explore the occult from ancient times to the modern day with one of its most respected scholars and practitioners. Take an enlightening journey through occult history, exploring 100 dramatic incidents, arcane knowledge, and key historical figures from around the world. John Michael Greer delves into two millennia of tradition, from the earliest alchemists to pagan rituals; from the philosopher's stone to cabala, the first tarot, and the Knights Templar; and from the first horoscopes to fortune-telling trials and the birth of modern witchcraft, or Wicca.

Brought to you by Penguin. Three great strands of practice and belief run through human history - science, religion and magic. Over the last few centuries, magic - the idea that we have a connection with the universe, and that the universe responds to us - has developed a bad reputation. But it...

A Kirkus Prize nominee with five starred reviews! A New York Times bestseller! 2018 Audie Award nominee for Best Male Narrator! Named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR and the New York Public Library! "The queer teen historical you didn’t know was missing from your life.”—Teen Vogue...

Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his 10 years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy, he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern finance.

This audiobook is read by the author and contains original music and eight bespoke meditations. A revolutionary new tool for spiritual growth and evolution from one of today’s most dynamic spiritual leaders. Shaman Durek is a 6th generation shaman who has devoted his life to bringing a message...

Quicksilver & the Alchemy of Pain explores why dark love stories can feel more honest than “healthy” romances—and what that says about our own history with hurt. Using the metaphor of quicksilver, the book looks at how we learn to confuse chaos with depth, obsession with intimacy, and suffering with proof that a relationship matters. Through reflective storytelling and psychological insight, it shows how certain listeners see themselves in violent, morally gray love stories not because they’re broken, but because those stories finally give language to survival patterns they already live.

In this Christian Encounter Series biography, author Mitch Stokes explores the life of Isaac Newton, the man behind the atomic theory. As an inventor, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher, Isaac Newton forever changed the way we see and understand the world. At one point, he was the world’s...

In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions - clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips - and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer.

Luis Íñigo nos ofrece una versión total de la alquimia, desde sus antecedentes en las doctrinas filosóficas del hermetismo, del gnosticismo, del pitagorismo y de la Escuela de Jonia hasta la actualidad en la que, si bien no se practica, sí que se han aprovechado sus hallazgos en medicina o en química. Nos muestra en el inicio del audiolibro las teorías de la alquimia, el trabajo de laboratorio de los alquimistas y los avances a los que llegaron con principios que aún pertenecen a la ciencia como el de causa y efecto.

In 2010, Nick Polizzi did something unimaginable. He assembled a group of eight desperately ill patients from around the world and brought them into the heart of the Amazon rainforest to put the mysterious medicines of native shamans to the test. The healing journey that unfolded would change...

Four Alchemists. One book. A constellation of ideas. The third annual Alchemy Lecture took place in October 2024 at York University to a sold-out in-person audience and online viewers from multiple continents. Four Alchemists—thinkers and practitioners working across disciplines and...