Johann Angelus Silesius (1624-77)

was a famous poet and mystic of the seventeenth century. This volume is the first to present his poems about the sorcerer''s stone and spiritual alchemy.

The sorcerer''s stone appears alongside other alchemical images in Angelus''s masterwork, the Cherubinic Wanderer, as a metaphor for transformation in the Christian life. Just as alchemists transform lead into gold, so God can transform the human soul.

This translation keeps Angelus''s original poetic forms while using accessible, colloquial modern English. The original German text is included.