Part of the Casswiki article series Books
Le Mystère des Cathédrales: et l’interprétation ésotérique des symboles hermétiques du grand œuvre (Mystery of the Cathedrals: Esoteric Interpretation of Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work) is a magnum opus by Fulcanelli, first published in French in Paris in 1926, with prefaces by Eugène Canseliet; a hermetic study of French Gothic cathedrals, which details the hidden code of alchemy.
Written in a cryptic and erudite manner, this work reveals the purpose of Phonetic Cabala within the alchemistic works as well as the process of the Great Work. From this work, it appears that Fulcanelli cannot have inferred his expositions of alchemy from the art itself, rather he is using this art as a springboard for discussing a field of knowledge that he has been separately initiated to.
Laura Knight-Jadczyk discusses Mystery of the Cathedrals and the subject of alchemy in her The Secret History of the World and in the Grail and Wave series.