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Welcome to the article series we wrote for the Philosophers of Nature. If you are not yet familiar with our work, this is a great place to begin! This series of articles introduces the system of Alchemical Constitutional Healing which we created, based on our research into ancient texts and our personal laboratory experience over the past decade. Here you will find an introduction to our groundbreaking work to revive the energetic healing system of Paracelsus, including his three-level configuration of the self, and the planetary archetypes in healing. Also introduced here are our innovations and extension of this philosophy into a practical diagnostic and healing tool for body, spirit, and soul. If you enjoy this article, be sure to explore the rest of our website, where you will find more information about our work, and our Spagyric herbal extracts uniquely created to be used within our system. We also teach the full system as an intensive, three-day course and through tapes. For more information, contact us. |
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Introduction to Medicinal Alchemy In this and the following two articles we will be sharing our work with fellow P.O.N. members, in the hopes that the studies and practices we have followed will be of as much interest and benefit to others as they have been to us. It is not our intention to set down any type of rigid system or dogma, rather, we wish to present ideas and work which have added to our understanding of alchemy. We also hope to initiate productive discussion among our friends and peers so that a greater understanding of the Work may be available to all. Many of you are probably familiar with eastern systems of healing, in which the esoteric levels of being play as important a role as the physical. Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and other similar systems place great emphasis on the mind, spirit, soul, and other intangible aspects of self as part of the course of therapy. In the West, this approach seems to have been forgotten, and even in the increasingly popular forms of alternative medicine, the focus is mostly on the physical. On the other side of this gap is alchemy, which, in its classical form, is rich with esoteric knowledge and work, but in modern times is not widely understood or used as a healing system. In some of the older texts healing work is discussed, but the emphasis was and still is on other reasons for doing the Work– as a spiritual discipline, a radical form of chemistry, for metallic transmutation, and the like. In our studies of ancient alchemists and healers and in our own laboratory work, we have discovered a system which bridges this gap, bringing alchemy's awareness of the higher planes of being to natural healing, and bringing the practical, vital, and physical applications of medicine to the alchemical work. It is this synthesis of the physical and spiritual that we will be presenting in this series of articles. We should note here that, while mineral work is very important in alchemy and healing, most of our medicinal studies and processes have been with plants, as they are easier to use and more versatile for use in healing. While very powerful, mineral and metallic extracts have a greater potential for toxicity and can often be overwhelming to those using them, and we feel their best application is as part of spiritual practice, leaving healing work to plant preparations. We should also note that we are not doctors or clinicians, and our ideas are not intended to replace the advice of such professionals. "That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below" Hermes Trismegistus' famous words from the Emerald Tablet are well-known to all, and serve as a guide in all types of spiritual work. To us, these words speak of the microcosm of Earth's inhabitants as reflections of the macrocosm of the greater universe. Like the heavens above, all beings on Earth are made up of constellations of cycling energies, including humans and the plants we use as medicines. Each plant has a different growth pattern, chemical makeup, taste, smell, and use, and these different qualities can be classified and understood using the planetary system of the ancients, as seen in astrology or Qabala. Each of the seven classical planets of the ancients can be seen as an archetype, with rulership over organs, body parts, energy centers, illnesses, individual plants, and healing effects. This rulership is called sympathy and is a two way interaction in which a planet above exudes certain qualities of energy more than others, and a plant below makes manifest more of one planet's energies than another. These planetary energies as they relate to medical effects are called intelligence, or the ability of a plant to act on one organ, system, or illness, but not on others. After the intelligence and use of a plant is examined, the work of alchemy and spagyrics is to draw out, purify, and magnify those qualities. A raw, unprocessed plant is pure and holistic in Nature's intended way, but its usefulness for healing is limited. Chemical isolates of plant constituents, on the other hand, are stronger and more physically powerful than the raw plant, but lack the balance and synergy that the original plant created between all of its components. Often, a chemical in the leaf may balance a detrimental chemical in the flower, or a constituent of the seed will potentiate one in the root. Additionally, different types of processing will extract different chemicals from the same plant, and so nothing should be considered spent and discarded. In alchemical and spagyric work, all of the plant's components are separated from each other, purified chemically and elevated energetically, and then recombined in the original proportion. In fact, the word spagyric comes from two root words meaning separate and recombine, or the more classic solve et coagula. The results of this process are preparations with the holistic balance of the original plant, as well as the original intelligence and life force of the plant, but with greater focus, intensity, and healing potential. This attention to energetic qualities is also seen in the healing system of homeopathy, which has many connections with and similarities to alchemy. Hahnemann, the founder of the homeopathic system, studied the work of Paracelsus, an alchemist and doctor, and based much of homeopathy on aspects of Paracelsus' work. However, there are as many differences between homeopathy and alchemy as there are similarities, and the distinctions between these systems are crucial to an understanding of either. In homeopathy, medicines are prepared by taking a substance, mineral, vegetable, or animal, and diluting either the raw substance or an extract of it in various menstruums. These menstruums can include alcohol, water, sugar, and others, and there is a strict set of rules to the pattern in which the dilutions are performed. The raw substance or extract is diluted in a certain proportion of the menstruum, which proportion determines the concentration and application of the eventual homeopathic. After each dilution, the mixture is succussed, a process of physically shaking or jarring the mixture in order to both combine the ingredients and potentize them vibrationally. Successive cycles of dilution and succussion are performed, until very little or none of the original substance remains chemically in the preparation. The idea behind this seeming negation of the original substance is that, by removing the physical aspects of the raw material, one is left with the purely etheric qualities of the original substance, charged into the menstruum. These purely etheric qualities are considered to be the true healing aspects of the substance, and the greater the dilution the more focused they are considered to be. As evidenced by many years of popular use, homeopathy is a very effective method of healing, and it is not our wish to dispute its usefulness. We do wish to contrast the results of homeopathic manufacturing with alchemical and spagyric processing, as both are often grouped together under the general term of vibrational or energetic medicines. While homeopathy achieves energetically charged medicines by stripping away all other levels of being, spagyrics achieves energetic medicines through purification, spiritualization, and concentration. Homeopathic medicines work very well to negate an illness by introducing a vibration opposite to that of the illness, in much the same way as the sound wave of a white noise will negate the sound wave of another sound. However, the energetic charge of a homeopathic medicine is a frozen vibration, charged but unchanging and without growth or intelligence, unless reactivated through additional potentizing. By working with the original components of the plant which it created as it lived, and taking great care to work gently and naturally to preserve all original proportions and life force, spagyrics achieves medicines which continue to grow and have the life force and intelligence of the original plant, focused and magnified. If we use our wave analogy again, rather than negating the wave of the illness, spagyric medicines work to elevate the user above the level of the illness. Spagyrics, then, are physical extracts like common herbal tinctures, but with greater life force, and are energetic medicines like homeopathics, but with healing chemicals intact and with life force and intelligence. As stated before, intelligence is a plant's ability to act on one organ or illness but not others. In spagyrically prepared medicines, this intelligence is magnified, and in studying medical case histories shared with us we have learned that spagyrics act more quickly and efficiently than other remedies, and without many of the side effects that even natural medicines can have. This ability of the medicines to travel quickly to the distressed organ or system, and the tendency that spagyrics have, as has been reported in these cases, to become stronger with aging time on the shelf is clear evidence to us that the life force of the plant has been both preserved and exalted. In addition to using spagyrics to draw out and magnify a plant's general healing ability, spagyric processing can be used to determine the healing energies to a specific level of being or cause of illness. Each of the main aspects of a plant- the cellular structure and hard tissues, the alcohol and fermentation products, and the essential oils and resins, represents a different level of manifestation within the plant. These three levels correspond to the common alchemical division of Salt, Mercury, and Sulfur, respectively. Since "that which is above is as that which is below", humans, too, are made up of the same three-fold division, consisting of the body, spirit, and soul. By concentrating on or emphasizing one of these three components in a plant preparation, the spagyrist can obtain different medicines, targeted to the corresponding level of being of the user. A simple extract in which the body of the plant is only minimally purified would be used for the Salt, or physical level of health and disease. Concentrating on the extraction and purification of the alcohol components results in a medicine for the Mercury, or spirit and mental/emotional level. Finally, the most refined preparation in which the essential oils are the focus would be appropriate for healing the Sulfur, or soul level of being. In addition to the different physical emphasis, the spiritual or etheric focus of spagyric work on each level of preparation will also direct its action. In the next two articles, we will examine these concepts in greater detail. We will explain the rulerships and healing uses of each of the seven planetary energies, and how these energies interact within the body. The imbalances of these energies which result in disease and the restoration of balance though spagyric preparations will be discussed, as will the three levels of being as they relate to illness and healing. A system for examining and treating each of the three levels through the creation of a personal constitution will be explained, and we will also discuss the role that higher-level spagyrics can play in spiritual development. Strength & Wisdom, |
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