A Flower of the Fire (Philosopher’s Stone Trilogy Part 1)

With the Roman Empire on the brink of collapse, Zosimos of Panopolis has a solution: the philosopher’s stone. To discover it, he’ll need to synthesize a wealth of competing philosophical and religious traditions. Can a Greco-Egyptian alchemist cure what ails his aging civilization before it’s too late?

Researched, written, and produced by Thomas Ignatius and Corinne Wieben, featuring the voice talent of Thomas Ignatius and original music by Purple Planet. Special thanks to Librivox for the recording of Julius Caesar.


Music

Purple Planet - Jezebel

Purple Planet - The Fellowship

Purple Planet - Chimera

Purple Planet - Cobwebbed

Purple Planet - Possessed Doll

Purple Planet - Sense of Loss

Purple Planet - Shadowlands


Sources

Primary

Linden, Stanton J., ed. The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Zosimos of Panopolis. On the Letter Omega. Edited and translated by Howard M. Jackson. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978.

Secondary

Bull, Christian H. “Wicked Angels and the Good Demon: The Origins of Alchemy According to the Physica of Hermes.” Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies 3, no. 1 (April 2018): 3–33.

Camplani, Alberto. “Procedimenti magico-alchemici e discorso filosofico ermetico.” In Il tardoantico alle soglie del Duemila— Diritto, religione, società: Atti del quinto Convegno nazionale dell’Associazione di studi tardoantichi, edited by Giuliana Lanata, 73–98. Pisa, Italy: ETS, 2000.

Charron, Régine. “The ‘Apocryphon of John’ (NHC II, 1) and the Graeco-Egyptian Alchemical Literature.” Vigiliae Christianae 59, no. 4 (November 2005): 438–456.

Dickie, Matthew. Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World. London: Routledge, 2001.

Edwards, M. J. “The Vessel of Zosimus the Alchemist.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 90 (1992): 55–64.

Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy. Translated by Stephen Corbin. 2nd ed. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978.

Elkhadem, Hossam S. “A Translation of a Zosimos’ Text in an Arabic Alchemy Book.” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 84, no. 3 (1996): 168–178.

Fleming, Stuart. “Alchemy and the Ancients: Shattered Dreams?” Archaeology 35, no. 3 (May/June 1982): 72–73, 81.

Forbes, R. J. “On the Origin of Alchemy.” Chymia 4 (1953): 1–11.

Fowden, Garth. “The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antique Society,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 182 (1982): 33–59.

Frankfurter, David. Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Fraser, Kyle. “Baptised in Gnôsis: The Spiritual Alchemy of Zosimos of Panopolis.” Dionysius 25 (Dec. 2007): 33–54.

Fraser, Kyle. “Zosimos of Panopolis and the Book of Enoch: Alchemy as Forbidden Knowledge.” Aries 4, no. 2 (July 2004): 125–147.

Graf, Fritz. ”Theories of Magic in Antiquity.” In Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, edited by Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer, 93–104. Leiden: Brill 2002.

Graf, Fritz. Magic in the Ancient World. Translated by Franklin Philip. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Grimes, Shannon L. “Zosimus of Panopolis: Alchemy, Nature, and Religion in Late Antiquity.” PhD diss., Syracuse University, 2006.

Grimes, Shannon. Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt. Auckland, New Zealand: Rubedo Press, 2018.

Janowitz, Naomi. Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews, and Christians. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Keyser, P.T. “Alchemy in the Ancient World: From Science to Magic,” Illinois Classical Studies 15 (1990): 353–378.

Lindsay, Jack. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. London: Frederick Muller, 1970.

Luck, Georg.

Linden, Stanton J., ed. The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1985.

Mertens, Michèle. “Alchemy, Hermetism, and Gnosticism at Panopolis c. 300 A.D.: The Evidence of Zosimus.” In Perspectives on Panopolis: An Egyptian Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest, Acts From an International Symposium Held in Leiden on 16, 17, and 18 December 1998, edited by A. Egberts, Brian P. Muhs, and Jacques van der Vliet, 165–175. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 31. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2002.

Poochigian, Aaron. “Zosimos.” The Classical Outlook 91, no. 2 (2016), p. 64.

Read, John. “Alchemy and Alchemists.” Folklore 44, no. 3 (September 1933): 251–278.

Stolzenberg, Daniel. “Unpropitious Tinctures: Alchemy, Astrology and Gnosis According to Zosimos of Panopolis,” Archives internationales d’histoire des sciences 49, no.142 (June 1999): 3–31.

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The Fisher King (Philosopher’s Stone Trilogy Part 2)

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The Lovelorn Lady