The biggest curse of alchemy is that it has always been shrouded in so many secret symbols, glyphs, and strange rituals and practices, to scare away all but the bravest or the certifiable,: often necessarily so if you valued your life or your career prospects, (as in the case of Isaac Newton, who had to carry out his experiments in secret). It also led to hierarchical, male dominated societies that are still in evidence today…
Consequently, even if I had read every book ever written on the subject before I began my own inner journey, I would be none the wiser, because my own experience as a woman has shown it to be nothing more complicated than an experiential journey of the heart. Neither do we need any faith or religion, in fact the only thing we need to know, indeed as reknowned french alchemist, Trogiani, wrote, is;
That the innocent child often succeeds, where the greatest minds fail