Mercurius

by Patrick Harpur

516 pages, Paperback, Size: 15 x 23 cm

The Marriage of Heaven and Earth

After being out of print for several years (and fetching a small fortune on auction sites like eBay and specialist bookstores), Patrick Harpur's acclaimed magnum opus has finally been re-released in paperback by Blue Angel Gallery.


"Know this: I, Mercurius, have set down a full, true and infallible account of the Great Work. But I give you fair warning that unless you seek the true philosophical gold and not the gold of the vulgar; unless your heart is fixed with unbending intent on the true Stone of the Philosophers, unless you are steadfast in your quest, abiding by God’s laws in all faith and humility and eschewing all vanity, conceit, falsehood, intemperance, pride, lust and faintheartedness, read no further lest I prove fatal to you."

In 1952 a country clergyman called Smith begins his tortuous quest for the Holy Grail of alchemy - the Philosophers' Stone which transmutes base metal to gold and confers immortality. As he pits himself against the bizarre perils of the GreatWork, it becomes clear that his arcane transformations are as much spiritual as chemical. Gradually the shadow of alchemy falls over those around him; a young girl whose sudden pregnancy is a local scandal; Janet, trapped in a barren marriage; and Robert who pursues his own quest for the legendary blue glass of Chartres.

Thirty years later, Eileen comes to live in Smith's vicarage. In the medieval cellar she unearths a hidden manuscript and begins to read of secret fire and mysterious prime matter, a green lion and a raven's head, a fatal conjunction of king and queen, a descent into Blackness and putrefaction. As she penetrates farther into the alchemical labyrinth, she is haunted both by her own history and by that of her neighbours, the menacing Mrs Zetterberg and the disfigured Pluto - and, finally, by the enigma of Smith himself.

In separate but interwoven accounts, Smith and Eileen strive towards the one thing necessary for the Work's success -the great Secret guarded by the paradoxical Mercurius, who leads them to the zero point where Heaven is wedded to Earth and the miraculous Stone appears at the interscction of time and eternity.

By reconstructing a highly sophisticated but almost forgotten world-view, Mercurius restores to us our own spiritual heritage which, rooted in the alchemists' dark retorts, will perhaps flower in the light of the future.

PRAISE FOR 'MERCURIUS' AND PATRICK HARPUR:

"Mercurius is a book written at least as much to elucidate as to entertain. It is probably the most explicit account of the alchemical art ever published - it presents a strong argument for the perfectibility of man and against the species of bloodless asceticism which drives a wedge between spiritual and corporeal love."
The Literary Review

"Extraordinary and brilliant... the work is a classic and will be recognised as such."
Charles Nicholl, author of The Chemical Theatre, The Reckoning, and The Lives of Rimbaud and Leonardo da Vinci.

"Each of its 479 mystical pages needs to be closely read, for the dramatic turns in this extraordinary alchemical novel are so well hidden that one dare not skip a single sentence for fear of missing an essential key to the developing mystery. It is rare to find an author who can expound with such authority on a subject whose very existence is known only to a few initiates. He goes far beyond Jung... This book is uniquely useful. There is no rival to it."
Fortean Times


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Footnotes: Philosophers, secret fire, history of imagination, Patrick Harpur, Greek Philosophy, Renaissance magic, psychology, romantic poetry, tribal ritual, ancient myths, otherworld, philosophic transition, alchemy, golden chain, spirits, gods and goddesses, unconscious mind, spiritual books, holy grail, new age gifts, holistic books, London, New York, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa..