Thanks for the link. Had not found it yet. I'm going to add this article to it.
Yes I can feel you on the guru thing.
I find the topic of alchemy to be so broad, just looking at that thread I already see so many different perspectives.
Each part of the world has their own alchemical tradition, but they are all so interesting. Indeed having someone to teach you one of the traditions sounds very useful.
"It permits you to see, more clearly than our perishing mortal eye can see, vistas beyond the horizons of this life, to travel backwards and forwards in time, to enter other planes of existence, even (as the Indians say) to know God." R. Gordon Wasson