If you love the esoteric symbolism and art associated with alchemy then you are going to love this book. It is beautifully presented with a nice glossy finish to the pages and the colours are excellently reproduced.

There are brief bits of text that accompany the drawings/paintings and even though they are brief they can be quite illuminating.

This book has had pride of place in my collection and I have dipped into it on many occassions. It can be almost meditative looking at these painings and drawings and can broaden your spiritual understanding.

It is a fine collection of alchemical and mystical paintings and drawings and it is unlikely that you will find such a beautifully presented and exhaustively comprehensive collection anywhere else.

Why do I give this book only 2 stars? I don't agree with the way this book is marketed. Watch out for ordering this book, as there are two books of the same title, author and publisher. What's the difference? One of the books has the word 'icons' on it and has only 192 pages from the original book. The original book has 712 pages. Check that the ISBN's match for what you are after. I made the mistake of buying this book from a site that did not list the page numbers and went off the title, publisher, author and picture on the front cover. Since first writing this review, I have now returned to say that I have the original 712 paged book and am very happy with it. When it comes to a book like this, why settle for second best?