Via Serpentis

Alchemy : Al-khemia : 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖

Alchemy unraveled from all its mystery and mysticism is simply the practical application of Nature and Natural processes. Whether pertaining to metals, plants, or spirituality, alchemists strive towards the same goal of transmuting a raw and impure material into its elevated and purified form through the replication of the same natural processes that form our Universe. Regardless of the details of the practice - allegorical, spiritual or physical - the philosophy and core methodology remain the same.

Alchemy is to be understood and approached as both work and ritual. It is the very definition of a Sacred Science as captured by the etymological roots of where it is practiced; the laboratory - as an amalgamation of labor and oratory. 

The word Alchemy (and consequently, chemistry) reaches our English language from the Greek χημεία (khemia, "cast together" or "pour together"). It is further derived from the Greek rendering of the Egyptian word kemet ( Km.t , 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖) one of the ancient names of Egypt meaning “land of black earth” from where the practice is believed to have originated. The Al - prefix of course coming from the Arabic definite article “the”. Thus, Alchemy came to also be known as a Hermetic Science intimately tied to the Hermetic philosophy of Hellenized Egypt, as well as the “Black Art” and the “Royal Art” in reference to both the land of Egypt and the spiritual powers of transmutation and life-after-death imparted to the Pharaohs as Divine Kings.

Alchemical Polarities, Elements & Principles

Alchemical theory describes the universe as being composed of 2 Polarities (Celestial Salt, Celestial Niter), 4 Elements (Fire, Water, Air, Earth), and 3 Principles (Sulfur, Salt, Mercury). This is the mean by which the Cosmos comes into existence, Order arises out of Chaos, and the One is made manifest into the many.

Celestial Niter and Celestial Salt are the polarities of Creation. These are respectively the Active, Volatile and Expansive energy of the Divine Masculine aspect of the Cosmos (Celestial Niter) and the Passive, Fixed and Contractive energy of the Divine Feminine (Celestial Salt). From this polarity all is set in motion and the inherent tension between the Spiritual and the Material is born.

The 4 elements of Fire (🜂), Water (🜄) , Air (🜁) and Earth (🜃) are further expressions of the Volatile (Fire & Air) and Fixed (Earth & Water) Celestial polarities. Today we refer to them as the "classical" Elements to differentiate them from the elements of the periodic table; and since they made their way into Western culture via the writings of classical Greek philosophers. However, the concept of four elements predates the ancient Greeks by millennia. The first written evidence of a cosmology centered around four Elements is found in the Babylonian epic Enûma Eliš dating to the 18th/19th Century B.C.E.

The classical elements represent the Elemental forces of Nature. So while in a alchemical or magical sense we may call upon Fire per say, we are not just invoking the fire made of burning embers and flame we commonly associate with the word "fire"; rather we are invoking capital “F” Fire, the philosophic active and expansive Element of creation of which the fire of flame is but a manifestation.

Aristotle in his work On Generation and Corruption went on to describe the Elements in terms of four sensible qualities: Hot, Cold, Wet, and Dry. Each of the classical elements contains two qualities, a primary and a secondary. Fire is primarily Hot and secondarily Dry, Water is primarily Cold and secondarily Wet, Air is Hot and Wet, and Earth is Cold and Dry. As such, nearly every substance on earth could be described as pertaining to one of the classical elements given how that substance is perceived by our senses.

The Three Alchemical Principles of Mercury (☿), Sulfur (🜍), and Salt (⊖), pertain to all members of the Mineral, Animal and Plant kingdoms . As with the Alchemical Elements, these three essential Principles do not equate with the chemical elements or compounds we associate with these words but with the philosophic principles expressed in the Natural and Spiritual worlds. These are respectively the Spirit, Soul and Body of a thing.

Alchemical Mercury is the Spirit, that vital life force that flows through all beings of the same kingdom and species. There is a Human spirit and life force as there is one for minerals, plants and animals. It is the fluidic principle that connects and runs through all members of the Natural world as a current of visceral, instinctual and psychic streams. It predominates in the elements of Water and Air.

Alchemical Sulfur is Soul. It constitutes the volatile principles of Fire and Air and is the expression of consciousness, divine intellect and the true Will of an individual.  It is that principle given straight from God that makes each of us individually unique and is the root of our own consciousness and Higher Self. While we share the Human Spirit, each of us has a more individual expression of Soul that applies to us while living as the means by which we can retain a sense of Self in the vast ocean of Spirit and by which we can irrefutably state that “I am”. 

Alchemical Salt is the Body - the fixed and material principle found in the elements of Earth and Water in which both the Spirit and Soul can coexist and act. It is only through Body that the union of Spirit & Soul can occur and be expressed via the experience of life.The Philosopher’s Stone of Spiritual Alchemy is the creation of a new immortal body of light that persists after death and retains the Sulfuric and Mercurial principles so that our Sense of Self (Spirit + Soul) instead of being dissolved into the streams of Sprit and reabsorbed back into the divine source of Soul can continue to coexist and experience eternal life after death.

SpaGyrics

Paracelsus coined the term Spagyric to describe an alchemical process that contrary to popular belief is not exclusive to plants. Derived from Ancient Greek σπάω (spao, "to draw out”) and ἀγείρω (ageiro ,”to gather”), Spagyric literally means to extract and recombine. It describes the process at the heart of the alchemical axiom - Solve et Coagula, whereby from a base material (whether of vegetable, animal or mineral kingdom) we extract  the three Philosophic Alchemical Principles of Salt, Mercury and Sulfur. We in turn refine and recombine this triad of Body, Spirit and Soul into an elevated form as a Spagyric preparation. Spagyric preparations are EXTREMELY potent medicines, where a regular tincture may require 20-50 drops to be effective, a Spagyric preparation would only require 1 or 2 drops to have the same effect. 

The Spagyric processs is a microcosmic representation of the natural cycles of our planet. A Fire element heats Water which in turn vaporizes into the Air and interacts with an Earthen element (the prima materia) prior to cooling and returning to liquid. Wet organic matter putrefies and ferments into alcohol, it then dries and succumbs to the inner heat of decomposition transforming itself into ash, salts and dirt. Nothing here is artificial, it’s all natural processes sped up through the manipulation of hot and cold elements. 

Every part of the process is to be meditated upon and contemplated. Alchemy is a sacred spiritual pursuit that puts us in touch with something far greater than ourselves.

SpagyricS: The Alchemical Principles of Plants

As discussed above, all members of the Plant, Animal and Mineral kingdoms are understood by Alchemists to be endowed with the Three Philosophic Principles of Mercury/Spirt , Sulfur/Soul and Salt/Body.

Mercury/Spirit of the Plant - This is Ethanol, plant alcohol. Every plant regardless of species when left in water “dies” and putrefies thereby fermenting the water and creating alcohol. All plants produce the exact same type of alcohol - Ethanol. This is the universal spirit of plants…it is something that is so clearly in our daily vocabulary that we often overlook it. Ever wonder why alcohols are called spirits?

Sulfur/Soul of the Plant - The Essential Oil. This is what makes the plant unique, what gives it a distinct flavor or aroma or medicinal or spiritual property. You need not see the plant to know from what plant the essential oil comes. For example, take a whiff of a Rosemary oil, immediately you can identify what it is as this is the individual expression of that plant. The Essential Oil contains most of the healing and magical properties of the plant.

Salt/Body of the Plant - This is the vessel in which the Soul and Spirit are contained during the lifespan of the plant. The leaves, the bark, the wood, the roots, the ash, etc…

Spagyrics: Plant Medicine Preparation

🜍 Extraction of the Sulfur

This is the first step of a simple Spagyric preparation. When dealing with plants, the Sulfur is the Essential Oil, this is the volatile principle that expresses the individual Soul of the plant. We extract the Sulfur of the plant via steam distillation whereby the plant is steamed with distilled water that transmutes the volatile essential oils into vapor which is then cooled back into liquid through the condenser tubes. We collect and bottle the essential oil (Sulfur of the plant), and set aside the remaining distillation water and hydrosol. 

☿ Fermentation & Distillation of the Mercury

This is the death and putrefaction of the plant material. Our objective is to release the plant Spirit from the body of the plant in the form of Ethanol Alcohol. First, we remove the plant material from the distillation biomass vessel and place it in a fermentation jar together with the Hydrosol water and the remaining distillation water. We then add a handful of fresh plant material in order to introduce natural yeasts into the fermentation process and then set the jar aside in the cellar. 

Over the course of several weeks, the decomposing plant matter releases CO2 as it ferments in the water. Once the rate of CO2 release slows down and eventually stops, the fermentation process is complete.  At this point we have the fermented solution of water and ethanol which we need to further distill to separate the Mercury (alcohol) from the water. We repeat this distillation process 7 times, each distillation producing a more refined Alcohol and thus, purer Spirit. We bottle and label the Alcohol as the Mercury of the plant and set aside the remaining water (known as the Phlegm). 

⊖ Calcination of the Salt

Through repeated incineration and grinding down in a mortar and pestle, we are able to refine the remaining plant matter into a whiteish/grayish fine chalk-like ash. Once we achieved the desired purity of the ash salt (as close to white as possible) we combine the ash with the Phlegm and any remaining hydrosol in roughly 1:3 ratio, stir and let sit for 24 hours. The rehydrated ash produce salt crystals which herald the final stage of the calcination phase.

☌ Recombination

Lastly, we recombine and bottle the extracted Sulfur (Essential oils), Mercury (Alcohol), and Salt (Mineral Crystals) of the plant into its final medicine.

Spagyrics: As Above, So Below

To ensure the most refined and potent medicine, we astrologically time the Spagyric operations to align in accordance with the biological and spiritual rhythms of Nature and our Cosmos. The Hermetic axiom of “as above, so below” guides our work;  for everything on earth is forever connected to the Cosmos from which all came into being. The principles that govern the celestial bodies in the sky above our heads are the same as those that are affecting the roots of plants in the soil below. Thus plants are harvested and medicines prepared on the appropriate Planetary days and hours (see below) according to the correspondences of the plant and the desired effect of the medicine, and always in strict observation of the Moon and her cycles. Those medicines designed to take things away (Pain relief, reduce inflammation, etc.) should be timed to have the major stages (extraction, fermentation/distillation, calcination, recombination, etc.) on the Full Moon so that it orients to the diminishing moonlight imbuing the medicine with that power of reduction. Alternatively a medicine created to bring something in (Improve immunity, give energy, etc.) should be time to align with the New Moon and be prepared during the growing light. Medicines designed for more esoteric pursuits (spirit sight, dream work, etc) will often require a combination of lunar cycles, major solar events (i.e. solstices & equinoxes), and other planetary alignments to reach their full potential.

Classical Planets & Chaldean Order

Magical and Alchemy traditions, places great importance on the seven classical “planets” -  Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. These are the celestial bodies that our earliest ancestors observed and whose effects on the natural rhythms of life they studied. The term “planet” comes to us from the Greek πλανήτης (planetes, “wanderer”) as these were the celestial objects that moved at their own pace against a backdrop of “fixed” stars. It is only recently that we’ve reclassified the word to denote a specific astronomical body different from the Sun and Moon. 

The ancient Greeks credited the Babylonians as being the first people to meticulously document the cycles of these planets. Specifically, the Chaldean Magi of southern Babylon were hailed as the greatest astronomers of early antiquity and it is from them that we have inherited much of our astrological and astronomical understandings. By measuring the Sidereal Cycles - the time it takes for a planet to return the same point against a background of fixed stars - these Chaldean Magi discovered the cyclic rhythms and relative distances of each planet. The band of background stars used to measure the motion of the planets is what we know today as the Zodiac and the sequential ordering of the planets is the Chaldean Order that would make its way into nearly every esoteric tradition.

Seen from our vantage point on Earth, and sorted from slowest/furthest to fastest/nearest, the Chaldean order is: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon.

It’s worth noting that the sidereal cycle observed for the Sun is a reflection of our Earth’s planetary orbit.  From a geocentric perspective this is measured by the apparent return of the sunrise or sunset position to a fixed point of the zodiac ( i.e. 0° Aries)  and acts as  the base rhythm of 1-year (365.25 days) by which we structure time and identify the outer and inner planets. For this reason whether we assume a heliocentric or geocentric position this Chaldean Order holds true as an accurate representation of the relative structure of our solar system. 

Planetary Hours

Together with the classical planets the Alchemical tradition inherited the Ptolemaic system of Planetary Hours in which every day is divided into twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night and each hour is ruled by one of the classical planets following the Chaldean Order.

Depending on the season and our latitude, the actual length of these “hours” will vary. The length of the day hour is calculated by dividing the time between sunrise and sunset by twelve , the length of the night hour is the remaining time until the next sunrise also divided by twelve. Only around the equinox will night and day hours be equal and actually 60 minutes since on these days there are equal periods of day and night. 

The planet who rules over the hour of sunrise is understood to be the primary celestial influence over the entire day.  This idea is hidden in plane sight in the names of the weekdays. It is much more obvious in Latin (where it is literally ‘day of <planet>’) and the Romance languages, but is present in English as well  once we understand the Norse roots of the names of the weekdays and correspondences between Roman and Norse deities (i.e. Mars and Tyr, Mercury and Woden, Jove/Jupiter and Thor, Venus and Freya).

Every following hour is ruled by the next planet in the Chaldean order. For example on Sunday, the first hour (sunrise) is ruled by the Sun and the remaining daylight hours are as follows:  Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn. The night hours are: Jupiter (sunset),Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury. This concludes the 24 hours of Sunday, the next hour is ruled by the Moon and is the sunrise and first hour of Monday. This pattern remains true for the remaining days of the week.

A simple way to visualize this is via the Planetary Heptagram where the planets (in Chaldean Order) are written around the circumference of the circle and are connected so as to form a continuous seven pointed star. Each point of the star connects to the next following the order of the weekdays.