Comment on devient alchimiste. Traité d'hermétisme et d'art spagyrique basé sur les clefs du tarot

Paris: Chamuel, 1897. First edition. 8vo, xxiii, 417 pp, wrappers typographically printed in black and red. Illustrated with a frontispiece photograph of Albert Poisson, and photographs of Papus and August Strindberg. With a preface by Papus. Text in French.

First edition of this work on tarot and alchemy by the French occultist and editor of L'Hyperchimie. Castellot was heavily influenced by Charles Fourier, and was for a time a member of the SFIC (French Section of the Communist International) until he was excluded in 1922. Castellot was a devotee of the monadist philosophy Hylozoism, the belief that all matter is in some way alive, and this perspective underlies his work on alchemy, hermeticism, and spiritual communism. Today he is best remembered for being a mentor to August Strindberg, but his unique body of work is long overdue for a rediscovery and translation, in particular this unusual work, which attempts to outline the alchemical correspondences of both the major arcana and the suits.

Like other publications from Chamuel from this period, the book was printed on terrible paper. The binding of this copy is broken and separated in several places, but is complete. Rare in any condition.