For centuries, alchemy has been seen as a transformative art – a mystical science wherein base lead is turned into gold, the mundane elevated into the extraordinary. While the scope of alchemy as a whole is huge and sprawling, many texts recommend students start first with spagyric alchemy: the application of alchemical principles to extract potent medicines from the vegetable kingdom. In this post, and those following, we will dive deep into the theory and practice of creating spagyric medicines.
A reasonable question on which to start is: what is alchemy? Frater Albertus, in his 1974 classic The Alchemist’s Handbook, defined alchemy as “the raising of vibrations.”1 This is a serviceable, though somewhat vague, definition. Alchemy is the art and science of elevating things to their purest and most idealized state. What that means depends on the context in which one is speaking – minds are purged of their base instincts, and elevated towards enlightenment; plants are separated from their impurities and elevated to powerful medicines; stones and metals are separated from their dross and evolved into diamonds or gold. In every case a specimen is purified and refined until it attains its perfect evolution.
Spagyrics are the application of alchemical procedures to the vegetable kingdom, to create potent medicines that heal the body and harmonize the spirit. It is derived from a pair of Greek words: spaō, meaning “to draw out” or “to divide”; and ageirō, meaning “to gather” or “to join.”2 The etymology of the word itself hints at the process involved. First comes a separation of the base material into its constituent parts. These parts are individually purified and refined, after which they are recombined into a unified and perfect whole. The foundation of the whole field of alchemy rests on the understanding of this process: solve et coagula, et habebis magisterium.3
How specifically this separation is applied, and where the divisions are drawn, depends on the alchemical text in question.
Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt
This is probably the most common division in discussions of alchemy. It involves the separation of a base material into three distinct parts: the Mercury, the Sulfur, and the Salt. These are not the substances commonly associated with the names in modern chemistry, but rather are three primal components within every substance. They can be viewed as parallels to the tripartite division of a human being into spirit (spiritus), soul (anima), and body (corpus).
Mercury is described as the subtle, mediating principle inherent in a thing. It corresponds to the universal spirit, the animating breath of Divinity. It dissolves the other principles, and can thus facilitate their separation. On its own it is clear, cool, and volatile. It is often associated with imagery of the Moon or of birds.
While the Salt and Sulfur of a material are unique to it, the Mercury is universal across an entire kingdom. All plants share the same philosophical Mercury (though the kingdoms of animals or minerals will have their own). In the vegetable kingdom, the Mercury principle is represented by ethyl alcohol (ethanol).4
Sulfur is the forceful character inherent in a thing. It corresponds to the soul – still subtle, but more closely bound to the individual than the spirit. While it may be volatile, it is more commonly described as hot or oily. It is often associated with imagery of the Sun and of dragons. In the vegetable kingdom, the Sulfuric principle is represented by the essential oils and volatile organic compounds of the plant.5
Salt is the most fixed and stable substance within a thing. It is that which is non-volatile and incombustible. It corresponds to the physical body. In the kingdom of plants it is composed primarily of potassium carbonate, containing 10% to 20% other salts in a mix unique to plant in question: potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, sodium carbonate, etc.6
There are a couple further things to note about these three principles as they pertain to the vegetable kingdom: First, while the separation of the Sulfur from the Mercury is ideal, it is not strictly necessary within the vegetable kingdom.7 Simple recipes for spagyric essences involve at best a partial separation of the Mercury and Sulfur; tinctures don’t generally attempt to separate them at all.
Second, alchemical Sulfur comes in multiple forms in the vegetable kingdom. The volatile Sulfur contains those elements which are easily driven over in a distillation train at a moderate heat. In contrast, the fixed Sulfur is composed of those elements which are soluble through digestion of the raw material, but not volatile enough to evaporate. While some instructions turn this fixed Sulfur into a salt separate from the true philosophical Salt (often called Sal Salis, the “Salt of Salt”, to distinguish it), this is again not required. The treatment of both salts is the same.8
While this threefold division is one of the clearest and easiest to understand (and is the one we will be working with most extensively going forward), there are a couple others with which we should be familiar.
The Classical Elements
First proposed as a set by the Greek philosopher Empedocles, and refined by later Greek philosophers, the classical elements consist of four primal principles of which all matter is composed: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Aristotle, in his On Generation and Corruption, described them in terms of sensible qualities: Fire, which is both hot and dry; Air, which is hot and wet; Water, which is cold and wet; and Earth, which is cold and dry.
Fire, as it pertains to alchemy, is generally considered the lightest and most volatile of the classical elements. It has a character that is hot, sharp, burning, or caustic.
Air is the next lightest, not quite so volatile as Fire, but moving more readily than Water or Earth. Its character is motive and vaporous.
Water comes third, heavier than Air but not so heavy as Earth. It has a character that is flowing, cooling, and dissolving.
Finally, Earth is the heaviest and most solid of the four. It is the most dense, fixed, and stable portion of the matter.
Different alchemists approach the classical elements in different ways. Some – such as those of the Greek tradition, as well as the spagyric writings of M. Johannus Isaac Hollandus – treat the classical elements as the primary divisions of the base material, into which the matter must be separated in the course of an alchemical operation. Others, indeed, use the classical elements in conjunction with the threefold division of Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt – dividing the materia first into four parts associated with the classical elements, and then dividing each of those parts further into its own Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt.
Finally, some alchemical texts approach the elements not as fundamental divisions within a material, but instead link them to states or stages in the alchemical process.9
The Body and Spirit
In addition to the threefold division (Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt), and the fourfold division (Earth, Water, Air, and Fire), there is one final model worth being familiar with: that of Body and Spirit.
This division is predominantly seen in later alchemical texts, written by staunchly Christian authors. For these authors, the alchemical process of solve et coagula was viewed as resonant with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consider this passage from the Gloria Mundi sonsten Paradeiss Taffel:10
The body of Christ had to be separated from its soul in order that it might receive the same power and glory. But now, Christ having been dead, and His soul having afterwards been reunited to His body, they are henceforth inseparably conjoined into one subtle essence. His divine omnipotence which He received from His Father, which governs all things in heaven and earth, and is equally perfect from all eternity, is now one Person with the Christ Jesus, who suffered, died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, in endless power, glory, majesty, might, and honour.
Here the volatile “Spirit” is distilled off from the “Body” of the base matter, and afterward recohabitated to achieve perfection. Instead of a three- or fourfold division, the base material is divided simply into two.
In alchemy, the essence of transformation lies in understanding how the components of a material are broken down, purified, and recombined to create something perfected. Across history, different schools of thought have applied varying models – whether the triple structure of Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt; the classical elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth; or the duality of Body and Spirit. Each model offers a unique perspective on the process of solve et coagula, but they all serve the same purpose: refining a material to reveal its highest potential.
In the realm of herbal alchemy, these divisions allow practitioners to work with plants on a deeper level, engaging with the subtle energies and intrinsic qualities that make each plant a vessel of both physical and spiritual power. Whether separating essential oils from fresh herbs or calcining herbal salts, the alchemist seeks to harmonize and elevate each component into a potent and unified whole.
In the posts that follow, we will explore how these theoretical principles come to life in practice. From the choice of herbs and menstruums to the meticulous steps of spagyric preparation, the art of herbal alchemy reveals itself as both a craft and a profound act of transformation.
This post is part of a three part series. You can find the second part here.
- Albertus, F. (2022). The Alchemist’s Handbook. Weiser Books. ↩︎
- Junius, M. (2007). Spagyrics. Healing Arts Press. ↩︎
- “Dissolve and [re]unite, and you shall have the magistery.” ↩︎
- Manfred 2007. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Albertus 2022. ↩︎
- Namely: calcination, dissolution, filtration, and evaporation. ↩︎
- It is worth noting, on this front, that the four classical elements – Earth, Water, Air, and Fire – map precisely to the four possible states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. ↩︎
- Originally published in Frankfurt in 1620. Author unknown. ↩︎
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