Over the course of the last couple posts, we’ve been discussing the field of alchemical spagyics: the application of alchemical principles to create plant-based medicines. In the first post, we talked about the high level theory of alchemy – solve et coagula – and different theoretical models for how that separation can be effected in plants. In the second, we went deep on the ingredients for a spagyric preparation, discussing the nuances of how to select both herb and menstruum. This week, we’re finally ready to consider key questions regarding the process itself, and to create a clear methodology for the creation of potent plant medicines.
Definition of Terms
Our goal of defining a clear process is somewhat complicated by the lack of standard terminology between alchemical texts. Virtually all texts agree that the simplest preparation in spagyric alchemy is the tincture; this is essentially a standard herbal tincture in which the Salts are extracted from the macerated plants and recombined with the liquid.
The next step beyond a tincture is slightly more complicated. It involves a greater degree of separation, and repeated circulation in a distilling apparatus after the components are recombined. This is referred to by Junius Manfred as an “essence”, which is the terminology we will be using going forward.1 Heliophilus calls this same preparation an “elixir.”2 Frater Albertus does not seem to distinguish between these terms, and uses them – as well as “quintessence” and “magistery” – interchangeably.3
Once you move beyond these two simplest preparations, it gets even more confusing. Different texts describe the creation of “first entities,” “magisteries,” “quintessences,” and “vegetable stones,” with wildly different processes for each. We will largely ignore these more advanced preparations, as they are beyond the scope of this discussion.
Methodology
Today we will be focusing on tinctures and essences. For each, we will try to synthesize a single, straightforward process for its creation. How can we resolve discrepancies between conflicting source texts?
The first thing we will look for is consensus. In cases where multiple sources agree, and one is the outlier, we will follow the majority recommendation. In cases where there is no clear consensus, and modern texts (those from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries) disagree with historical ones, we shall prefer the latter. While modern sources lay out their processes much more clearly than historical ones, they are also generally further removed from common alchemical practice. We will try to strike a balance between historical authenticity and clarity of instruction.
If there is no clearly superior text, we will fall back first on alchemical theory – processes that embody the alchemical model of solve et coagula most clearly will be preferred. Finally, we will fill in the gaps by considering sources that speak more generally of the philosopher’s stone (rather than spagyrics per se). One of the key maxims of alchemy is that of resonance: as above so below, as within so without, the core alchemical process is echoed in many scenarios and planes of existence. Given that the synthesis of the philosopher’s stone is the highest work of alchemy, it stands to reason that other processes of laboratory alchemy will be consonant with that perfect work.
Ultimately, the goal of this discussion is to arrive at a clearly articulated method, rooted in alchemical literature, that can be unambiguously followed for the creation of both spagyric tinctures and essences.
Open Questions
The broad strokes of the process for creating tinctures and essences are agreed on across sources. Herbs are extracted in an alcoholic menstruum. The resulting liquid is separated from the body of the herbs, either by filtration or by distillation. After the liquid is separated off, the remaining body of the herbs is dried, burned, and calcined (baked at a high temperature) to white ash. The salts of this ash are added back to the initial liquid preparation, and the result is circulated and matured for some time.
Before we get into a step by step process, let’s talk about some of the open questions: both cases where sources disagree, and where they are lacking in specificity.
The first is on the duration of the initial extraction. Most sources give no concrete timeline for this. Taking cues from modern medical herbalism, we can guess that herbs should steep for a couple of days at minimum, with no real upper bound. Longer durations produce more potent extractions, but this is definitely an area of diminishing returns. Sir George Ripley, when discussing the creation of the philosopher’s stone in Liber Secretissimus, gives the following guidance:
Put them in a good strong curcurbite or glass vessel, and close it well at the top, so that no spirit will exhale, for if they find an opening to evaporate, you will fail, for you will lose and dissipate the flowers of our Gold. When this Vessel is well closed, put it in the oven of the Philosophers, in the Ashes or in the sand with a temperate fire below, during the space of a Philosophical Month, which is six whole weeks, and during this time our gross bodies will be dissolved and mortified and will be ready for a more royal generation.4
The philosophical month referenced is 40 days, echoing biblical passages where trials last for forty days and forty nights.5 This seems as good a timeframe as any. Six weeks is about the standard recommendation for a tincture in modern medical herbalism as well.
There remains the question of whether to perform this extraction at room temperature or under heat. Most sources that pertain specifically to spagyrics do no mention any heating required in the initial extraction. But sources that discuss the philosopher’s stone often do. Both the previous passage from Liber Secretissimus, and this one, from Sigismund Bacstrom’s Rosicrucian Aphorisms and Process, discuss keeping the work under a constant, temperate heat:
5th. Place your luted globe glass or glasses (for it is most prudent to work with five or six glasses at once, from as many different good subjects) in a hogshead or wine pipe, filled two-thirds full with horse dung already in proper fermentation, so as to show a degree of heat from 120 to 140 or 150 degrees by Fahrenheit’s thermometer. The greatest heat is in the middle, where it is generally from 140 to 150 degrees: less heat is round the staves where it varies from 90 to 100 and from that to 120 degrees.
Your horse dung must be procured before, as it takes sometimes five, six or more days before it ferments and gives the necessary heat. This is soon discovered by the steam arising from it, and by the thermometer buried in it nine or ten inches deep.
You must have two hogsheads or casks, in order to prepare a second before the fermenting heat has entirely left the first; which heat seldom lasts longer than three weeks; as your work must never become cold one single moment. You must cover the top with clean straw pretty thick, and also all round the casks, especially in winter, or the work will be too cold and your operation will be very much retarded, if not fail.
6th. Your bath thus previously prepared, and your glasses well luted and varnished all round the joining of the neck and stopper, except the surface of the oak, bury them in the bath all round the cask, where the gentlest heat prevails, deep enough that only the upper part of the neck and stopper, that which is luted, may be in sight or level with the surface of the bath. If they were buried in the middle in the beginning of the work your subject would dry up instead of liquefying and putrefying.6
This reiterates the desire for gentle heating, as well as giving us some guidance on the temperature itself: between 90 and 100° F (32 – 38° C) – in other words roughly the temperature of the human body.
Given these sources it seems reasonable to say that a heat source is not required when extracting a spagyric tincture, but that keeping the mix around body temperature for the duration of the extraction is beneficial.
The next matter that has to be considered is the treatment of the calcined salts. In some texts, the ashes are added directly to the tincture. In others, the ashes are dissolved into warm distilled water, filtered to separate the solution from the insoluble sediment, and the water is evaporated to yield a purified salt (which is then added to the tincture).
Adding the calcined ashes directly to the tincture is probably fine. The tincture will dissolve those salts which are soluble, and the remaining sediment will settle to the bottom. Any subsequent filtering or decanting will leave behind this sediment. That said, the latter method of washing the salts first seems to better embody the theoretical principle of solve et coagula, so that is the method that we will prefer here.
We must also decide whether to deliquesce the salts before adding them back to the tincture. I have only seen this step described in Heliophilus’s Alchemy Rising: The Green Book.7 It involves repeatedly setting out the salts until they liquify (they are strongly hygroscopic, and will absorb water from the air), and then drying them again. The rationale is described thus:
Spread [the salts] thinly on a plate and take them outside in the evening, remembering to collect them before dawn. Our salts have become like a magnet, drawing the vitality out of the air. The moisture in the air, the dew, contains the philosophical fire of the alchemists, which will be absorbed into the plant salts and quicken your spagyrical tincture. Calcine the salts gently, repeating the process so that the salts are saturated with our fire and finally add them to your clear tincture.
Given that this only appears in one of the sources we’re considering, it seems that it can be safely omitted. It shouldn’t hurt anything to add it in when preparing a tincture or essence, but it does not seem to be critical to the process.
The final question is how to recombine the salts with the tincture such that they become a unified whole. For tinctures, Heliophilus directs us to mix them together and place them in a pelican (a glass alchemical vessel that facilitates the repeated evaporation and condensation of a solution) for a philosophical month. For this purpose, a gentle heat source seems more important than in the initial extraction (given that the goal is for the solution to repeatedly cycle inside the glass). I love the symmetry of this approach: our process is bookended with gentle digestion on both sides, beginning and ending in warm, enclosed, darkness.
For essences, the process is a little more complicated. Once the salts are combined with the tincture, the mix is distilled repeatedly (traditionally, seven times). This serves to open and “volatilize” the salts, making them more readily available for absorption into the body.
We now have all the puzzle pieces required to articulate a standard process for the creation of spagyrics – both tinctures and essences.
Creating a Spagyric Tincture
- Choose your herb, and an appropriate menstruum, as described in the previous post. The ideal is to work from fresh, whole herbs extracted into a rectified spirit of wine (the philosophical Mercury of the vegetable kingdom).
- Combine the herbs and menstruum in a glass vessel, and leave to extract for 40 days. If possible, keep the mixture heated to body temperature for the entire 40 day period.
- Strain out the herbs and set them aside. Filter the resulting liquid and save it as well. This liquid now contains the Mercury and the Sulfur of the plant.
- Spread the herbs out on a heatproof dish, dry them, and calcine them at or above 750° F (400° C) until they have burned to white ash.8 This process can take a while and produce a great deal of smoke, so it is best conducted outside.
- Combine these ashes with three times their volume of distilled water. Warm this mixture gently to help dissolve the soluble salts. Filter the liquid from the remaining sediment; this sediment can be discarded.
- Gently evaporate this liquid until a thin, white salt is formed. If the salt is yellow or brown, steps 4, 5, and 6 can be repeated until the salt is white or bluish. This is the philosophical Salt of the plant.
- Combine this salt with the tincture created in step 3 in a large glass vessel. Let this mixture mature at body temperature for another 40 days.
Once prepared, spagyric tinctures have a shelf life of several years. Their dosage is similar to that of standard herbal tinctures.
Creating a Spagyric Essence
- Choose your herb, and an appropriate menstruum, as described in the previous post. The ideal is to work from fresh, whole herbs extracted into a rectified spirit of wine (the philosophical Mercury of the vegetable kingdom).
- Combine the herbs and menstruum in a glass vessel, and leave to extract for 40 days. If possible, keep the mixture heated to body temperature for the entire 40 days.
- Distill the resulting mix at 172° F (78° C). When nothing more comes over, save the distillate, the residual liquid, and the solid herbs. The distillate contains the Mercury and volatile Sulfur of the plant, the residual liquid the fixed Sulfur, and the herbs themselves the bound Salt.
- Calcine the herbs, dissolve the ashes, filter, and evaporate – as described in steps 4-6 for tinctures. This yields the Sal Salis of the herb.
- Evaporate the liquid left behind during distillation (that which did not come over) into a thick honey. Calcine this as well, dissolving, filtering, and evaporating the ashes as in the previous step. This yields the Salt of Fixed Sulfur of the herb.
- Combine both salts with your distillate from step 3, in your distillation apparatus. Distill this mix at 172° F (78° C). When nothing more comes over, pour the distillate back over the residue. Repeat this process a number of times (traditionally seven).
- Remove this mix from the distillation apparatus, place in a large glass vessel, and let it mature at body temperature for another 40 days.
Once prepared, spagyric essences have a virtually unlimited shelf life. Because of their higher potency, their required dosage is lower. Begin with a few drops, and increase from there as necessary.
Alchemy is more than a process; it is a philosophy made manifest in the material world. By working through solve et coagula, we engage in the ancient art of transformation – not just of plants, but of ourselves. The creation of spagyric tinctures and essences follows a cycle of separation, purification, and recombination, refining the raw material into something more potent and complete. This mirrors the path of the alchemist who, through careful practice and study, learns to refine both substance and spirit.
The process of crafting these remedies is meticulous, requiring patience and reverence for the materials. Every choice – the selection of herbs, the type of menstruum, the duration of digestion – affects the final outcome. In following this path, we are not merely extracting chemical compounds from plants; we are capturing the essence of the plant’s soul, aligning it with alchemical principles to create a preparation that resonates on physical, energetic, and spiritual levels.
As we complete this series, remember that alchemy is as much about experience as it is about knowledge. Each tincture or essence is an opportunity to refine your craft, experiment, and deepen your understanding. The work does not end with a single preparation – it is an ongoing journey of refinement, discovery, and transformation.
- Junius, M. (2007). Spagyrics. Healing Arts Press. ↩︎
- Heliophilus. (2017). Alchemy Rising: The Green Book. Scarlett Imprint. ↩︎
- Albertus, F. (2022). The Alchemist’s Handbook. Weiser Books. ↩︎
- Sir George Ripley was an English alchemist writing (voluminously) in the 15th century. ↩︎
- E.g. the rains of the flood, the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. ↩︎
- Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom was the organizer of a Rosicrucian society in London in the late 18th century. The text in question is most likely written in the 1790s. ↩︎
- Heliophilus 2017. ↩︎
- Above 1650° F (900° C), the salts may fuse into a glassy slag, spoiling the calcination. ↩︎
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