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An unusual book; an attempt upon the basis of the psychoanalytic principles to deal with the symbolism of alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. The first chapter is made up of the translation of a parable, taken from an old work on the Rosicrucians, published in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The author then proceeds to give the psychoanalytic interpretation of this parable and subsequently to ring the changes on the various interpretations, particularly the mystical. The work is illuminating in the light which it throws upon the meanings of the various mystical movements of the Middle Ages, and in particular shows alchemy in its true light. The average person thinks of this art as existing for the purpose of transmuting baser metals into gold. As a matter of fact alchemy dealt with the fundamental problem that has interested mankind from the beginning of time and is the first mystery to occupy the mind of the child, namely the origin of life. With this problem it dealt in all its ramifications, while the symbolism of the metals and the apparent effort to change the baser into gold were all mystical ways of covering over the real spiritual issues under a seeming chemical procedure. Many of the ignorant were led astray to hunt for the philosopher's stone and the secret of the transmutation, while still others, who sought deeper in a different direction, endeavored to create the Homunculus, but the true initiates understood that they were dealing with the spiritual regeneration of man. It is the old story of the origin of life—birth, death, and re-birth—with which the psychoanalyst is familiar, seen over again in these mystical societies of the Middle Ages, and it is illuminating to see how the author hitches up their symbolisms with the infantile theories of birth and the symbols that we are familiar with in our patients. From the psychoanalytic point of view another chapter has been added to the interpretation of the cultural history of man—the chapt