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The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy

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The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy Manfred M. Junius Translated by Leone Muller Contents Preface V11 1 Spagyria and Spagyrics 1 2 Advice of Basilius Valentinus 23 3 The Three Philosophical Principles and the Elements 30 4 Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt in the Plant World 54 5 The Extraction of the Three Philosophi al Principles from Plants 60 1 . The Extraction of the Essential Oils, That Is, of the Volatile Sulfur 61 A. Distillation by Boiling in Water 62 B. Distillation by Means of Steam 65 C. Distillation with an Oil Separator 66 2. Mercury 69 A . Separation 70 B. Purification 72 3. Fixed Sulfur and Its Salt 86 4. Salt 93 6 The Stars 96 1. The Foundations 96 2. Stars and Medicinal Plants 101 The Sun 101 The Moon 104 CONTENTS 106 109 112 115 119 Days, Hours, and Rhythms of the Planets 122 - Pre ace 4. The Exact Horoscope as the Basis for the Works 132 7 Preparation of Spagyric Tinctures and Essences 138 1 Tinctures 138 A . Spagyric Tinctures through Cold-Maceration 140 The renewed valuation of natural healing methods in our time B. Spagyric Tinctures by Soxhlet Extraction 143 has led to a steadily growing interest in medicinal plants and their 2. Essences 146 classical-and thus also the spagyric--methods of preparation . The C. Spagyric Essences Prepared from Tinctures 147 practice of spagyrics consists in the application of alchemical, or D. Spagyric Essences from Fresh Plants through Fermentation 150 parachemical, findings and methods to the preparation of tinctures, E. Spagyric Essences from Fresh Plants through Fermentation essences, and other products from the medicinal plants at our after Addition of Fermentable Sugars 151 disposal. This book aims to give the reader an understanding of F. Spagyric Essences from Fresh Plants with Separation of the these methods . Etheric Oils and Subsequent Fermentation of the Residue 152 I have tried to present spagyrics holistically. Without knowl- G. The Method ofJohann Rudolf Glauber 154 edge of the conceptual world and background of spagyric thought, . The most 8 Circulation 158 a mere practical methodology would be incomplete important methods of preparation are discussed separately, while 9 The Plant Magistery of Paracelsus 162 corresponding important textual passages are quoted in the origi- 10 The Circulatum Minus of Urbigerus 166 nal. At the same time, as an experimental manual, this work will, it 11 Elixir- Clyssus- Vegetable Stone 183 is hoped, stimulate the practice of spagyrics . By the very nature of 12 Alchemical Signs and Symbols 233 our field, such a book can never be complete . Moreover, a certain inconsistency is hard to avoid . The vast field of spagyrics presents 13 Old Weights 246 itself rather like a mosaic that is only slowly completed by the Epilogue: How Can We Heal? 248 collaboration of the reader . The lively response to the original Italian version induced me Notes 253 to enlarge this work in the German language, on which the present Bibliography 261 English translation is based. The bibliography contains the titles of further works that may later be consulted for advanced studies . It is assumed that the reader has a fundamental knowledge of botanic medicine, or that he or she is willing to acquire it . For that vi PREFACE PREFACE reason, this book does not deal with individual medicinal plants . in Adelaide ; and to the Ayurvedic physician Dr . $hagwan Dash of Several excellent works on this subject are easily available . (See New Delhi, also a much-revered teacher of the author . Thanks the bibliography .) also to Hans Nintzel for his kind assistance in reading the English In principle, spagyric preparations contain the curative powers manuscript. of the plants used in each case, either integrally or partially . By further specific processes unique to spagyrics, these curative pow- ers can be further potentized either all together or separately . The hermetic terminology often strikes the uninitiated as strange and can easily lead to misunderstanding ; one must there- fore familiarize oneself with the often dramatic and always figura- tive language of this field, although it thereby loses much of its beauty and evocativeness . Anyone who walked into a laboratory supply store asking for suitable equipment for the "extraction of the Philosophical Principles" of plants, or for an "alembic for spirits," would be greeted by a perplexed look, unless the sales- clerk happened to have a knowledge of spagyrics . An initiated spagyrist, however, would immediately understand the request and be able to make appropriate suggestions, for behind these terms which at first seem absurd are hidden clear concepts . The classification of plants after the seven planets of antiquity may arouse reformatory urges in modern astrologers . Modern astrological research also takes into consideration the transsaturni- ans, and possibly still other influences and rhythms . Out of respect for the classical tradition, I have limited myself to the septenary. Besides, a distinction has to be made between the seven planetary principles as such and their planets . In our time, parachemistry has become ever more accessible to the public and is today practiced in many countries . Medicines from the leading spagyric pharmaceutical companies as well as from good individual spagyrists are helping people throughout the world. The bibliography of the Swiss edition retains several titles from the original Italian edition . Similarly, the acknowledgments ex- pressed there are repeated here . Special thanks are due to Mr . Augusto Pancaldi, Ascona, friend and teacher of the author ; to Professor Dr . Krishna Kumar, formerly of the Calabrian State University, today general manager of the Australerba Laboratories viii 1 Spagyria and Spagyrics Therefore, learn Alchimiam, otherwise called Spagyria, which teaches you to separate the false from the true . -Paracelsus In the word spagyria two Greek words are hidden : span, to draw out, to divide; and ageiro, to gather, to bind, to join. These two concepts form the foundation of every genuine alchemical work, hence the often-quoted phrase "Solve et coagula, et habebis magisteriuml " (Dissolve and bind, and you will have the magistery) .1 The alchemical work always takes place in three stages : (1) sepa- ration, (2) purification, and (3) cohobation (recombination, or the "chymical wedding") . In the spagyrist's view, these actions lead to an increase and a release of certain curative powers in the initial species. Spagyric is the application of alchemical working methods to the production of medicaments . When we learn that the famous physician Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus (c . 1493- 1541), prepared a large part of his famous medicines according to spagyric methods, we must thereby understand a very high level of PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF PLANT ALCHEMY Spagyria and Spagyrics How do spagyric plant remedies differ from nonspagyric ones? the hermetic art . The latter has little in common with vulgar alchemy, which is often disparagingly called "the art of gold- Ordinary tinctures, infusions, decoctions, and the like, utilize in part the curative powers of the plants from which they are prepared. making. The beginnings of this true hermetic art are to this day shrouded The spagyric preparation "opens" the plant and by its own process . It is in principle synergistic, and in obscurity . We know that the hermetic-spagyric method of liberates stronger curative powers . We preparation was known to many ancient cultures . In ancient China, 2 less interested in isolated pharmacologically active principles for instance, in India ,3 and among the ancient Egyptians4 we find cannot do justice to the methodology of spagyrics if we measure it according to the standards of analytical chemistry or pharmacology, important contributions to alchemical medicine . Between the an- cient Indian and Chinese alchemy there exist many parallels. In even if these sciences can explain in their own way part of the . Just as homeopathy has its own find- India, alchemical preparations are part of the southern Indian siddha effects of spagyric remedies medicine, of Ayurvedic medicine as also of Unani medicine, which ings, experiences, and laws, which cannot be comprehended solely came later to India through the Muslims and represents a further by the prevailing chemical-analytical knowledge, so, too, does development of ancient Greek medicine. spagyric insist on its own standards, for which it has its own . In the case of many of these conceptions The alchemy of the Western schools is chiefly based on the conceptions and symbols Egyptian tradition. In ancient Egypt, hermetism was taught in the and ideas we are dealing with analogies, which, however, prove to .6 temples of Memphis and Thebes. From the writings of Zosimos of be extremely valuable, just as in traditional acupuncture We must not consider spagyrics and alchemy as a whole merely Panopolis (Akhmin, A.D. 300) we learn that alchemy was practiced . It is rather in Egypt under the supervision of kings and priests, and that a preliminary stage of the later scientific chemistry another way of looking at nature and its !powers . And as modern divulging the secrets of this art was against the law .s The hermetic Western chemistry and medicine, at the latest since Virchow, art was taught exclusively by oral transmission . broke completely with the chemical and medicinal arts of the past, The Arabs were the chief agents for transmitting theoretical . and practical alchemy to the Europeans, who then merged it with many perceptions of spagyrics have remained closed to them There exists a somewhat similar relation between chemistry and the Christian tradition. Felix Mann, Among the historically accessible European sources, special alchemy as between neurophysiology and acupuncture mention must be made of the writings of Paracelsus . Before the M.D., president of the Medical Acupuncture Society, who has much older Indian and Chinese traditions became known in the striven for many years for a scientific explanation of acupuncture : West, the Paracelsian writings constituted the earliest information in the Western sense, writes in one of his books that could be dated with certainty .
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