English | 2005 | ISBN: 0099490021, 0670862185 | 454 pages | EPUB / MOBI | 3.4 MB

Since the seventeenth century, science has been contending with philosophy, organized religion and the arts for domination over Western civilization and society. By the middle of the twentieth century, the battle appeared to be won; scientific rationalism and skepticism were triumphant. Yet in the last few decades a strong and potent counter-current has emerged. One manifestation of this has been the so-called occult revival.In The Elixir and the Stone, Baigent and Leigh argue that this occult revival and indeed the entire revolution in attitudes which has taken place recently owes a profound debt to Hermeticism, a body of esoteric teaching which flourished in Alexandria two thousand years ago and which then went underground. The authors trace the history of this intriguing and all-encompassing philosophy which has much in common with contemporary holistic thought charting its origin in the Egyptian mysteries, and demonstrating how it co