ALCHEMICAL HEALING: A MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL OF OUR TIME
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2020
ALCHEMICAL HEALING is a hands-on guide for practitioners and patients as well as a journey of discovery, a meditation on what it means to heal and live a truly health-filled life. It helps readers understand and apply, each in his or her own way, the principles, tools, and practices of alchemy and to discover how doing so can help turn things around in our inner and outer worlds. The book includes information drawn from traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist alchemy, medieval European alchemy, Kabbalah, Vedic Tantric traditions, and modern depth psychology. But it’s also a personal story, rooted in insights from Lorie’s own life challenges and study of alchemy during thirty years of practice as an acupuncturist, therapist, and healer.
The book’s ultimate aim is to open a doorway that has been closed by modern Western consciousness, between our current physically-oriented reality and the realms of the intangible—the space of magic, myth, and the imaginal world of the soul. Whether a practitioner, student, patient, or person on a path, engaging with the concepts, tools, and practices presented in ALCHEMICAL HEALING will bring the reader closer to the light of the authentic Self, which is the true goal and gold of the alchemical quest.
Lorie Eve Dechar’s first book Five Spirits (Lantern Books) was published in 2006. Her background includes a master’s degree in Acupuncture from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute and training in Archetypal Psychology, Gestalt and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy as well as stints as a gardener, environmental activist, poet and Zen student. Lorie currently maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Nyack, New York, is a member of the faculty of the Tri-State College of Acupuncture in New York City, and leads workshops and trainings nationwide. Lorie divides her time between New York and East Blue Hill, Maine.
Benjamin Fox is a co-founder with Lorie and the director of A New Possibility. He is also a professional counseling astrologer, a licensed massage therapist with 20 years of experience, and has been involved in men’s healing work for the past two decades.