To be an alchemist, traditionally one must gain access to the Philosophers’ Garden - but to advance into the garden one must be an alchemist.
ARS ALCHEMICA: Foundations of Practical Alchemy provides essential instruction to assist the student to gain ingress into this sacred realm. This work teaches the practical laboratory alchemy of the past masters and for the first time reveals many of their secrets, including the volatilization of the salts and the mysteries of the sal ammoniac salts. These are a major key to many operations of the arte without which the student fails in their operations. The author, Gary St. M. Nottingham, additionally explores various alchemical formulae, and shares for the first time clear and detailed instructions omitted in other modern alchemical works. This enables the student to perform both simple and complex operations of the arte. The correct mindset of the alchemist, often overlooked, is also considered. Alchemy deliberates that all life is one - as such the alchemist is influenced by the work as much as the work is influenced by the alchemist.

About the author: Gary St. M. Nottingham The author first came across alchemy when he was fifteen through reading the popular early 1970’s occult magazine ‘Man, Myth & Magic.’ This encouraged him to find out further about the arte and to study Israel Regardie’s ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’; this in turn led to the works of Hollandus, Paracelsus and eventually Junius. However, it was his involvement with a group of alchemical practitioners that opened many of the doors for him and much that he had learnt finally began to make sense. Subsequently, he has taught and written extensively on the alchemical arte, running several one-day workshops and weekends on practical laboratory alchemy. His other areas of occult study are astrology, grimoires, and the Kabbalah, all of which are expressed as part of his alchemical work.