The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz | John Crowley

Celebrating the 400th anniversary of one of the most outlandish stories in Western literature, this new edition The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days has been translated by John Crowley and illustrated by Theo Fadel.

The Chymical Wedding is an allegoric story divided into Seven Days, or Seven Journeys, and which tells us how Christian Rosenkreuz was invited to go to a wonderful castle full of miracles, in order to assist the Chymical Wedding of the king and the queen. The story is symbolic of alchemy, the Sacred Marriage being the goal. 

The Chymical Wedding by Johann Valentin Andreae continues to be acknowledged as a literary gem, an exceptional story written in the Western esoteric tradition. The story follows the narrator, Christian Rosenkreutz, on his path toward spiritual knowledge and inner transformation. The whole experience of what he first witnesses, then in which he participates, and finally for which he takes responsibility, profoundly challenges him.

This is an important book for the present critical time of change that is facing humanity. We are witnessing the dazzling development of scientific and technological thought, yet modern thinking is ill equipped to solve the deeper human mysteries and the social questions. The Chymical Wedding invites the reader to transform the power of scientific thinking into new and more positive ways of viewing the world without losing one's clarity and certainty.

About the Author

Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), or Johannes Valentinus Andrea, was a Lutheran theologian, who claimed to have written Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz, one of the three founding works of Rosicrucianism, as a youthful jest. He was born in Herrenberg, Wurttemberg, in southwest Germany, studied theology and natural sciences in Tubingen, and died in Stuttgart after a long career in the church.