Some Alchemy Basics I wanted to share

Which ones do you love to work with? Or, which ones do you have questions about?
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HighSkies
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I've went through a book so far and learnt some basics about alchemy, if anybody wants to add anything else feel free to. So to say everything vibrates in the universe, and everything is alive whether it is a plant, animal or mineral/'rocks'. They and we all have what's called the 3 essentials to ourselves, the alchemical sulphur (soul), mercury (spirit, life force) and salt ('body'). The reason why you see alcohol called 'spirit' sometimes is because alchemy discovered how to process them, the essence in the water is the lifeforce(spirit) of the plant/plants used.

Everything is made up of 4 elements and these are not literal definitions of them. The word 'fire', 'water', 'earth' and 'air' are merely used similar to how the words 'red' or 'blue' are used to represent the plural symbolic aspects of nature's laws. They have nothing to do with the physical things which are called these 4 in themselves besides that. Even now I have not fully grasped the concept, will add the word alchemical to each in order to prevent confusion:

Alchemical 'Fire' - Relates to the qualities of radiance, expansion, warmth and light - Often linked to hot/dry properties.

Alchemical 'Air' - Penetrating, diffuse, moveable - the wet and hot properties often.

Alchemical 'Water' - Coolness, contraction, mutability or change - the wet and cold properties often.

Alchemical 'Earth' - Stability, rest, intertia, strength and solidarity - often refers to the dry and cold properties of things.

To give an essential of how the three essentials are extracted and combined take rosemary elixir:

The oil (sulphur) turns into air and is caught in something during the brewing, the life essence or 'spirit' of the the rosemary goes into the water and the 'salt' (physical remains) of it are cooked/dried into ash. When the three are joined back together after purification into an elixir its true potential, qualities and powers are unlocked. The rosemary would be harvested during a certain phrase of the moon also to ensure its healing properties are active before its used.


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Books I would recommend for starting off with alchemy would be 'Real Alchemy', 'Alchemist's Handbook' and 'The Way of the Crucible'.

Direct quotes for context:

"Our Rosemary remains in the flask as a watery mush and we allow this to ferment. In
fermentation, the plant "dies" and "gives up the ghost"—that is to say, the life force departs
into the watery medium. After fermentation we can distil from this mush a volatile liquid
which the ancients called the Alchemical Mercury. This volatile liquid, which is mainly
alcohol, carries the Spirit of the plant—the life force. Today we still buy "spirits" at the liquor
store and this is where the term comes from.

Remember, these physical materials are a reflection of the spiritual forces in Nature.
The alcohol contains the life force as its body in this realm. The alcohol is not the spirit but
merely a vehicle of spirit in the plant world, a focal point.
We now have separation of the Three Essentials, the oil or Sulfur, the Mercury as
alcohol, and the Salt, which still lies hidden in the extracted Rosemary residue. The next step
of the process is the purification of our separated essentials. The Mercury and Sulfur are
redistilled a number of times until they are highly refined in the physical sense, but also
exalted in the spiritual sense.

To obtain the Salt, the extracted plant material is dried and then incinerated to an ash.
This purges the accumulated impurities and structural components, which protected the plant
in its growing environment. They have served their purpose but are no longer necessary. The
light gray to white ash we obtain is dissolved in water, filtered and the liquid is then
evaporated leaving a purified white crystalline salt. This represents the Alchemical Salt, the
true body of the plant. With the separation and purification of our three essentials complete,
we move on to the final step of the Spagyric process, that of cohobation.
In a sort of resurrection, the finely powdered Salt is saturated with its Sulfur and
awakened into activity by addition of its life force, the Mercury. After a period of digestion,
our "Elixir" is complete. The alchemists considered such preparations to be exalted and
evolved living medicines able to express the plant's true healing potentials not only on the
body but at the level of the soul and spirit as well."


Finishing off with a different quote it had:

"When now the Spiritus and Corpus come together and are united after their
preparation, one can do wonderful things with them, since they have then a hundred times
more power than they had previously, for after the Conjunctio of the Souls and Body there
exists a Glorified Corpus and a Great Elixir. With it one performs miracles." — Isaac Holland (circa 1480)


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To explain why an alcohol extract of a plant for a potion is preferred by alchemists but not compulsory (You could try to use distilled water or glycerol).

Apparently it is because of the fact the substance travels very quickly into your bloodstream. So thus in conjunction with the herb you are using, it will cause the effects of the herb to enter your body very quickly.

Just a few drops diluted into water for drinking are very concentrated extractions of the plant or bark you want to use already.

Seems why they want you to make sure the plant is safe.


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If I understand correctly the overall concept of alchemy is about transformation, and about parallels at different levels of reality. So I am wondering: since it sounds like you have delved into this and probably carried out some experiments or procedures, have you been able to produce changes in yourself (or in something else) through alchemy that you perceive as positive changes?


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JaycubL wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:30 am If I understand correctly the overall concept of alchemy is about transformation, and about parallels at different levels of reality. So I am wondering: since it sounds like you have delved into this and probably carried out some experiments or procedures, have you been able to produce changes in yourself (or in something else) through alchemy that you perceive as positive changes?
I want to do the next set of them but they require some expensive equipment, alembic distiller or furnace etc.


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JaycubL
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I want to do the next set of them but they require some expensive equipment, alembic distiller or furnace etc.
Ok that is understandable. I do have a little experience from my life that I can share to help you figure out how to get those things for cheap if you want:

When I was a teenager I got really into chemistry and figured out this simple way to construct a distillation rig from three glass bowls or cups. I used it to make concentrated nitric acid:

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A furnace can be pretty easy if you are ok with it being small and simple. Even a little camp fire can be a temporary furnace. Another thing I was into as a teen was metal casting, look up home metal casting videos or websites for examples. If you want to make it a little nicer you could get a bag of mortar mix and a used hair dryer (as a "bellows") for probably under $10 together, and build a little blast furnace to run on wood scraps or charcoal briquettes. That can get extremely hot.


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Wizard wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 5:16 am I want to do the next set of them but they require some expensive equipment, alembic distiller or furnace etc.
If you are following procedures with a known outcome, do you think it would be just as effective if not maybe more effective to do them entirely in an internal world of your imagination?


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