A Spagyric Essence

 

Roughly one year ago, I purchased The Green Book, by Heliophilus from Scarlet Imprint. It was a leap for me, since I was accustomed to keeping my reading list in the realm of generalized witchcraft, folk magic or herbalism.

What piqued my interest was the notion of plant alchemy, and having read nothing practical on the subject before, I purchased the book. This was my introduction into Spagyrics.

For those of you who do not know, Spagyrics is a term that refers to plant medicines that have been crafted through alchemical procedures. The various components of the plant’s chemistry are extracted, purified, and then recombined to form an essence more chemically, and therefore spiritually, inclusive of what the plant has to offer.

Much has been written on the subject, and I encourage you to do more research.

Heliophilus’ book was both an awakening and an enigma at my first devouring of the literature. A romantic example of classical potion making, if only I could find the competence to digest the arcane verbiage. It has been almost a year to the date since I began this sideline endeavor, and it has taken this long before enough of the material has made enough sense for me to put it all together. I won’t credit my incompetence as the primary hindrance, however, as acquiring the necessary glassware and equipment has been a slow, but steady process.

Regardless of my gentle pacing, I have completed an experiment.

I decided to practice with wormwood, albeit “tree wormwood” (Artemisia arborescens), but wormwood nonetheless, as my first Spagyrical Tincture. Despite the darkling witchy vibrations I’ve always felt from this necromantic wort, its fragrance has become quite soothing.   

Andrew Chevallier in his Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine says that the plant is an anti-inflammatory, eliminating worms and easing stomach pains; and David Hoffman in his Holistic Herbal says that the plant’s tonic action should help many different conditions thanks to its benefit on the body in general.

A word to the wise would be to research an herb before you decide to take it internally. Or apply it externally for that matter! As I’ve read, most of the warnings for wormwood are aimed at pregnant women since this plant can cause miscarriages, being a confirmed abortifacient. Being a male identifying “cissy” boy, I think I’m safe. I’m going to be extra safe, however, and not take the plant for more than two weeks at a time. I want the chemicals to give my digestive system a little boost, not coddle dependence.

For those reading and wondering about the effects of wormwood on the body, I am obliged to send you to this site for further investigation from a reputable source.

I used the woody variety, since it’s what I could find at the greenhouse. As the foliage came to a waning period, I took this chance to harvest it before it died back for the year, being sure to harvest on a waxing moon.

150 Proof Everclear™ is my next requirement. Pure grain alcohol.

I need a strong solvent of spirits to pour over my dried herb. This sits for three months on a dark shelf in my closet. In this time, what I’ll call a vulgar tincture is produced. The essential oils and all the chemicals that are soluble in alcohol are transferred to this liquid.

Strained and filtered, my tincture has a lovely, deep green color, smelling strong of its original fragrance, only tinged with alcohol this time. I set some of this aside in a dropper bottle, and pour the rest of the liquid into my retort.

I’m sure many an herbalist out there have a more sophisticated distilling apparatus, but me, I make it up as I go. I found this glass retort online, and the receiving end turns out to be a clear “potion” bottle I found at Target. I mix and I match and I make do.

The retort sits in a dish of sand, which gets heated on the stove. The receptacle sits in a dish of ice water that slowly melts from the heat coming off the stove.

The tincture is left to distill for a few hours as I clean and plots around the house. My cat watches me lazily as I sing emphatically to Beyoncé, the passion growing deeper and stronger the more white nationalism I see on the news. Her soulful ballads assuaging my guilt and my grief as water cannons are turned on the indigenous people protecting their clean water source.

While the medicine purifies, my attention turns to the plant matter that was left over from the original tincturing. By now it’s been rung out and left to sit, encouraging any remaining alcohol to evaporate off. If only the republican party and their corporate fascism would evaporate out of American politics.  

As I digress, the distilling is now done, and I have a beautiful clear liquid that smells richly of wormwood. My essence changes form.

I use a chopstick to scrape as much of the congealed vegetable residue left in the bottom of the retort. Impurities, which now join the dried-out plant matter left to evaporate on its own accord.

Now, with the stove-top unoccupied, I can put my tiny cast iron skillet to work.

The still green plant matter gets put into the pan, and up the dial goes on the stove top. After roughly thirty minutes of sizzling and cooking, I continue stirring the stuff, letting it brown and blacken. This procedure is best done outdoors, so don’t follow my lead, as you’ll have one hell of a smoky apartment.

   

We live, we learn, and we open the kitchen windows.  

The smoke will continue until there is little left to burn. The smoldering ashes are what is eventually sought after, so do not quit until you get there. After that, the heat will just continue to reduce the ashes further and further down. This process is what is referred to as calcination.

When the ashes have become significantly lighter in color, the leaching process can begin.

For this I use two measuring cups and a Black Teavana® PerfecteaMaker. An indispensable device that I encourage everyone to have.

 

 

 

With the calcined ashes poured into the filter, I pour distilled water over them and it collects in the measuring cup receptacle. The color of the water is now a sooty grey, as it has picked up some of the ashy debris.

My goal through this process is for the mineral salts that dwelt within the growing plant to dissolve into the distilled water. Along the way, some of the dirtier bits get through. This is okay, as it is my first filtering. Once I’ve completed about seven or nine filterings, pouring the water back and forth over the ashes, I’m left with what I want.

I keep the number of doings at a sacred numeral, for this is sacred work. My go-to numbers are three, seven, nine, thirteen, twenty-one, forty-two, and seventy-two. You may have your own significant numerology, however, so use it.

I pour this ashy liquid into a heat resistant Pyrex beaker, and boil off the water. With my rudimentary and make-shift laboratory, the microwave helps with this. I’m sure much is lost in such a crude process as this, but it’ll have to make do. What I’m left with is a mixture of mineral salts and ashes.

With a razor blade and a butter knife, I scrape off the sides of the glass, and collect what I have. The color is now a paler grey then what I started with, but it needs to be paler. Ideally, it should be white, but I’m only going to do two of these evaporating processes.

 

The ash and salt is poured back onto the little cast iron skillet, and turned on high. No smoke this time, but the powder turns almost blueish grey on the heated metal. Further calcination.

After it has lightened up considerably, I pour the powder back into my filtering system, and leach off more of the plant salts with distilled water. This time, there’s less debris, so once I’ve sufficiently dissolved the salts in the water, I pour the solution back into my Pyrex beaker.

This water is evaporated off once again in the microwave, leaving me with a lighter salt than before. I scrape this off the glass one last time and mix it with a little bit of distilled water.  A linen cloth is used to form a pouch-like filter over the mouth of a glass receptacle. I pour the solution through the mesh, filtering out any remaining caput mortuem. I am left with a transparent solution of distilled water and mineral salts. 

 

 

 

 In a holy and matrimonial coupling, enacted with anticipation in the evening sunlight, I pour the salty solution into the glass bottle containing the distilled tincture. My Spagyric is complete.

  

Chevallier, Andrew. FNIMH. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine. Second American edition. 2000. DK Publishing Inc. pp. 66 “Wormwood”.

Hoffman, David. Holistic Herbal. Time-Life Books. 1998 Reprint. Pp. 64 “Wormwood”.

Heliophilus. Alchemy Rising: The Green Book. Scarlet Imprint 2015. Pp. 41-43 “Tinctures”.

https://www.drugs.com/npp/wormwood.html

Image from J.D. Mylius Anatomia Auri 1628, via alchemywebsite.com