THE WORKINGS OF ALCHEMICAL PREPARATIONS

The workings of alchemy are divided into two principal areas of activity: the Greater Circulation and the Lesser Circulation.

The Greater Circulation refers to the alchemical workings of the mineral kingdom. It involves the use of minerals and metals in the pursuit of the philosopher’s stone. This is what most people instantly imagine when one mentions the work of the alchemist—the quest to transmute base metals into gold using the lapis philosophorum, or philosopher’s stone. As we have seen, this is a vastly oversimplified definition of the alchemist’s work; the Greater Circulation involves itself with both the outer and inner elixirs.

Although I continue to find the subject of the Greater Circulation truly fascinating, there is no equivalent to be found in the Druidic tradition.

The Lesser Circulation refers to the workings of the plant kingdom, and it is the methods and processes of the Lesser Circulation in relation to the Druidic tradition that we shall be concerning ourselves with for the remainder of this book. In particular, we shall be exploring the area of alchemical workings within the Lesser Circulation concerned with the preparation and production of medicaments through the methodology that Paracelsus called spagyria. We shall see as we progress that the two activities from which the term derives—to divide and to bond—form the beginning and end of every alchemical working, as they do in this same area of work within the Druidic tradition.

SPAGYRIC THEORY

All spagyric medications are prepared in the same way, using three stages: separation, purification, and cohobation (recombining the separated parts). By preparing their medications in this way, spagyric practitioners believe they are actively intensifying the potency of the plants being used while releasing additional healing powers in a way that is not possible by any other method. They believe that the more usual methods of preparation such as infusions and tinctures extract only part of the potential curative properties of the plant from which they are prepared. Spagyric remedies, on the other hand, release the entire curative potential of the plant as a result of their unique method of manufacture.

Alchemy has been variously described as the “raising of vibrations” and “the elevation of basic substances,” and it is in this context that spagyrics believe that their preparation methods release the full potential of the plants they use.

Within the realm of alchemy, spagyrics employ a similar range of plants for the same effects as most other curative and preventive systems that have their basis in natural medicine. This range of plants is, of course, much wider than that used in the Druidic tradition, as the history of alchemy has covered a much wider area of plant habitats and encompasses the use of many plants beyond the reach of the Druid/Celtic cultures.

Spagyrics use the medicinal parts of the plants they harvest. These may include the bark, roots, seeds, flowers, leaves, fruits or berries, or combinations of these. The plants are gathered at various seasons of the year, depending on their individual life cycle and overall planetary influences. The selected parts of the harvested plants are then used as the prima materia, or raw material, for the subsequent processes of manufacture.

As we have seen, this manufacturing process begins with separation, but first we must ask, What are we going to separate and for what purpose?

All substances belong to one or another of the three kingdoms or principalities: animal, vegetable, or mineral. Our focus is on the vegetable kingdom.

The first step in the spagyric process is to extract the essence from the plant employed. This essence contains the alchemical mercury of the plant with its sulfur adhering to it; the remaining plant matter contains the plant’s salts. We have seen previously that all substances, including plants, contain mercury, sulfur, and salt. This alchemical mercury is not what is normally understood as mercury or quicksilver. The sulfur is not common sulfur or brimstone. Nor is this salt common sodium chloride. Each has a separate and specific alchemical meaning removed from the accepted “scientific” interpretation of the name.

In most of the alchemical processes involved in the Greater Circulation, it becomes necessary to separate the sulfur from the mercury in order that the spagyric adept may work with all three alchemical substances separately. This is not the case in the plant processes of the Lesser Circulation, wherein the spagyric practitioner may work equally effectively with the combined mercury and sulfur liquid (the extracted essence) together with the salts contained in the remaining plant matter.

At this point it is important to note a few of the essential principles of the Lesser Circulation, principles that are for the greater part consistent with the Druidic tradition and practices.

The essence (or quintessence) of the vegetable kingdom is the same in all plant life. It is the common force or energy of all plants. It does not vary from species to species. (The Druidic tradition maintains that different parts of the plant contain different “manifestations” of this force or energy. see here). The salt or ashes produced differ from one plant to another. Each plant yields a unique salt with its own unique attributes. These two principles hold equally true for all essences (mercuries) obtained from the animal and mineral kingdoms.

Following the extraction of the essence, the remaining plant matter, or caput mortum (dead head), as alchemists call it, is burned to ashes (calcinated) in order to extract the remaining salts. The calcinated ashes are then reunited with the previously extracted essence and, following a period of digestion and maturation, the alchemical medicine or elixir is formed.

We can see, then, that all alchemical elixirs are produced through the three main steps of the spagyric process: separation, purification, and cohobation, or reunification. It is apparent, therefore, that alchemical elixirs are the result not of natural phenomena but of artificial production.

This is the theory of the preparation of spagyric medicines. Let us now look at a practical example of the preparation of an elixir from any common herb.

PRACTICAL PROCESSES

Unlike Druidic plant lore, alchemical practice allows for the use of fresh or dried plants. Whichever form is used, the first stage as we have seen above is the separation of the extract. This may be achieved in any of three ways.

• Maceration. The fresh or dried herb is steeped in liquid for an extended period.
• Circulation. The fresh or dried herb is percolated in a fashion similar to coffee percolation.
• Extraction. The fresh or dried herb is placed in a specialized extraction system such as a Soxhlet Extractor, a specialized piece of laboratory equipment used mainly in the process of extracting essential oils.

Any of these methods may be used to obtain the extract, but for the sake of simplicity we shall adopt the maceration method for our example.

The appropriate herb is first ground to a fine consistency, either with a mortar and pestle or by rubbing it firmly between the hands. The ground herb is then placed in a suitable glass vessel, one with a tight lid, and covered with the maceration liquid, or menstruum, which will extract the essence. The most common menstruum is any form of strong alcohol (40 percent or more by volume), usually brandy (called “spirits of wine” by alchemists). The vessel is now sealed and set aside in a warm place to allow the menstruum to do its work.

After two or three weeks the menstruum will have taken on the greenish hue of the herb, showing that it has achieved the extraction of the essence. The clear liquid is then poured off into another vessel for later use. This is the herb’s essence, containing its properties of mercury and sulfur.

The remaining herbal matter, containing the salts of the herb, is placed in a flameproof dish and ignited. As it has been steeped in alcohol, it will burn readily and quickly reduce to black ashes. These black ashes are then repeatedly heated and ground until they become a light-colored powder. This is the process of calcination.

The calcinated powder is then recombined with the essence (the salts are recombined with the mercury and sulfur) by placing the calcinated powder into the vessel containing the essence and tightly sealing the vessel to prevent the escape of any vapors. The vessel is then set aside in a warm place for about two weeks to allow the liquid essence to “digest” the salts of the calcinated ashes. This process is called digestion. This completes the manufacturing procedure, and the herbal elixir and medication are ready for use.

By using this method of preparation, spagyric practitioners maintain that the elixir produced is more potent and efficacious than any other form of herbal medicine.

Now, how do the history, theory, and practical processes of alchemy relate to the ancient and contemporary Druidic tradition, and what may we learn from alchemy that will enrich our understanding of Druidic practices?