A course in mastering alchemy will guide you in practices of the alchemist of old who would be very adept in these ways.

When I picked up this book, I expected something quite different than what I actually got.
I cannot really recommend this book unless you share the same New Age worldview as the author. It has no information about traditional alchemy, and honestly a lot of what it does contain comes across as self-aggrandizing and spurious.

There’s a whole section at the beginning that is just the author quoting his students and talking himself up, and it only goes downhill from there.

The author (Jim Self) describes the book as a sort of collaboration between himself and various channeled sources referred to as “the Teachers of Light.” These apparently include Metatron, Yeshua, Mary Magdalene and Lord Melchizedek.

I’m not criticizing the practice of spirit communication by any means, but I’m seeing a lot of unverified personal gnosis passed off as, well, gospel in this book.

In case you couldn’t guess from that list of names, Jim Self seems to be a sort of New Age Christian. Though not Christian myself, I’ve nothing against it in principle.

I found it disappointing when I was expecting to read a book on alchemy though - and you won’t find much (anything, really) about spagyrics or other alchemical techniques in this book.

Instead, the author seems to use the term “alchemy” to refer to a vague concept of personal transformation. Mr. Self claims that Metatron defines alchemy as “changing the frequency of thought, altering the harmonics of matter and applying the element of Love to create a desired result.”

To me, that reads like a bunch of scientific-sounding words thrown into a blender and peppered with even more vague feel-good words. To be honest, a lot of this book reads exactly like that.

The author claims that humans are from the “12th dimension” but have fallen into the 3rd dimension in some kind of cataclysm. I guess it’s an interesting take on the concept of the Fall and Genesis, but the author doesn’t actually provide decent explanations for what a “dimension” is.

In fact, most of what he says rests solidly at odds with the usual definitions of these words. He seems to be redefining everything to make his metaphysics sound more high-tech and scientific.

At one point he even says that the message he delivers is timely specifically because it can now be understood through science. Well, if that’s true, why does he redefine most of the science-y words he uses?

As I’ve come to expect from New Age authors, Mr. Self devotes many pages to the “Law of Attraction.” When he says that those with low self-esteem are “carrying a huge billboard on [their] back that reads ‘Kick me,’” it comes across exceptionally poorly.

I get that he’s trying to inspire people to love themselves more, but it doesn’t really work. It seems like Mr. Self believes low self-esteem or insecurities are some sort of capital sin, and that the universe (clearly our nanny) will thwack you for having the gall to think something less-than positive.

This reeks, in fact, of the toxic positivity that was so popular among occult authors in the 1980s, but thankfully fell out of favor in the mid-2000s.

It’s exceptionally odd nowadays to read an author devoting so much time to the supposed vibrational transgression of thinking poorly about oneself, yet barely address more pertinent (read: real world) issues like human rights and abusive social systems.

I guess Mr. Self beliefs that if we all just get our vibes right, we won’t “attract” any kind of disenfranchisement, and things will be a-okay.

And if they aren’t, of course, it’s the victim’s fault for not vibrating highly or something. It’s not well explained, despite the author devoting pages and pages to this.

If nebulous talk of Metatron’s chosen ones and ascension to the “5th dimension” sounds good to you, have at it, but this book was not helpful for me in any way, shape, or form. It was actually hard to read because of the repetitiveness - a lot of it seems to be saying the same things over and over.

In the beginning of the book, the author claims his system is unique, but there’s nothing here that can’t be found in plenty of other older New Age books, a dollop of toxic positivity, and precious little for willworkers like me to sink their teeth into.

I give this book one star. That’s my perspective, though, and you’re obviously free to make up your own mind about it.

This has a beautiful cover. I liked the subject matter and found it enlightening.