THE DRY PATH OF ALCHEMYBoth erudite and magnificently practical, The Dry Path of Alchemy consist of ten jargon-free chapters plus two appendices, profusely illustrated with 180 full colour photographs and more than 50 additional illustrations.Naturally, the Dry Path begins with the preparation of Saturnia and the canonical salts, along with the collection of dew and confection of the Styx.Chapter One of The Dry Path of Alchemy details how to obtain the First Mercury from stibnite, and elaborates upon the advantages and disadvantages associated with its canonical preparation from stibnite ore and from commercial antimony trisulphide.The authors explain how, according to the interpretation of those who follow the antimony path, stibnite - called Saturnia by some ancient alchemists, and also referred to as the black dragon, the grey wolf and the son of Saturn - "must be purified (or purged, according to some modern texts) before proceeding to the separation, to release it from the siliceous gangue and other impurities that might contain." Practical insights pertaining to the purification of the stibnite are elaborated. The canonical technique in which molten stibnite ore is guided towards immersion in the Styx - the "waters of oblivion" - is described, including the composition of said waters.The preparation of the Styx - a task involving the preparation of two salts, and their dissolution in dew - is described in even greater detail in Chapter Two. The harvesting, storage and canonical use of dew is discussed at length, as is the canonical preparation of salts (via passage through the mirror of Mars) towards the confection of the Martial regulus of antimony.This Martial regulus of antimony can be prepared using the earlier purified stibnite which, the authors note, "some alchemists call Philosophic Lead." In these initial chapters the authors emphasise how, according to Fulcanelli:... the fundamental matter of the alchemical work ... is iron; the stibnite is a material used to open the metal and leave it ready to be decomposed into its own sulphur and mercury, and after opening it, it also permits that this can give you part of its tincture to do the great work. Fulcanelli describes it as a grinder, and he goes on to say that it grinds the reincruded metal into an impalpable powder which has a huge specific surface that enables the attack by acids (aqua regia), salt of Ammon (ammonium chloride) or adsorption (surface adhesion) of the antimony quintessence by the same process called eagles that we will explain in later chapters ... The stibnite, if not the fundamental matter of the Great Work, eases the extraction of the quintessence, this being much more difficult by other procedures, such as the attack with mercuric chloride and salt over iron sulphate used by some modern alchemists with mediocre results.Genuinely ground-breaking, The Dry Path of Alchemy is a book that no serious student of alchemy can afford to be without.