Book Review by Dawn "Belladonna" Thomas

On Becoming An Alchemist A Guide To The Modern Magician
by Catherine MacCoun

At the mention of Nicholas Flamel in the first sentence I knew this was going to be an interesting read. The book is very well organized and the subject matter is fascinating. That said, I think it would be an excellent book for more advanced practitioners but possibly too difficult for beginners. She introduces the reader to new definitions to terms like "subtle", "vertical", "style", "NOW", "The Between", "Levity" and "Gravity". I really enjoyed the exercises in the book. At first they seem to be simple but proved to be more challenging.

The book is divided into two parts. Part one is based on principles of Alchemy. In this part is a section called Levity and Gravity. Here she details how to travel above and below the horizontal plane. She also discusses the theory of The Baggage Disclaim Area. Everyone has baggage and Ms. MacCoun shows how to handle the baggage correctly so that it can be left behind as the reader moves on. The next section is called Living Backward and asks the questions "How" and "Why" affects an action. This is a topic to which everyone can relate.

The second part is the procedures: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Sublimation, and Radiation. These are the steps she gives for proceeding from one phase to the next. The reader needs to go through each of these steps in order to do the Great Work.

The last section of the book has two very important chapters listed as Appendices that are integral to the rest of the book. The first Appendix is titled How to Meditate and breaks the process down to understandable terms. The second Appendix is titled Night School and describes the process of dreaming and how to recognize messages. This does not necessarily address interpreting dreams but helps differentiates between the messages

I actually was disappointed to finish the book. The material was presented so well I would have liked to continue reading. Ms. MacCoun has a well written in depth book on Alchemy that has left me wanting more.