The Art of Distillation : Lab Work Photoessay

We’ve just posted a new installment in our free members-only course, with texts from us and a classical source, a lecture, slideshow, and other resources for deeper study, all exploring the Art of Distillation, which is also the new Module in the expanded curriculum for the next session of our School.
The Art of Distillation is [...]

Working Philosophically : Crystals in Nature and our Lab

Our new free members-only course continues to expand, with new writings by us and ancient authors, an audio lecture, slideshow, and more. In this installment, we are focusing on two themes: Qabalah and the Tree of Life, and the Alchemical and Spagyric idea of working philosophically.
Qabalah is a very sophisticated expression of the Hermetic axiom, [...]

Maturing a Magistery : Lab Work Photoessay

In late September, our first session of students attended the Advanced Lab intensive, bringing them to the culmination of their 18-month plant Spagyric studies in our School of Spagyric & Alchemical Arts.
In the Basic Lab intensive, earlier this year, students learned the basics of Spagyric creation, practicing distillation, plant extraction and purification hands-on in our [...]

Vintages

You have probably heard of vintages in the context of wine, on a label or in wine guides. Grapes, like any other crop, are subject to the changes of Nature and her processes, from rainfall fluctuations to soil life to the heat and cold of a given year.
As they grow, grapes take in the story [...]

Sulfur : the Soul of Spagyrics

We wrap up our long-running series on the three levels of Spagyric with Sulfur, the Soul level of being, connecting the previously discussed Salt/Body and Mercury/Spirit levels to the divine realm of archetype and universal energy. As we discussed in our first article on Salt, and our second installment on Mercury, these three levels were [...]

Mercury : the Spirit of Spagyrics

This level of being is often the hardest to understand, as befits its Mercurial nature, but it plays a literally vital role in our Spagyric work.
As we discussed in our previous article on the Salt level, Spagyrics works with three different aspects of being in plants, each corresponding to a level of being in us. [...]

Salt : the Body of Spagyrics

Our new Seaweed Spagyric led us to do more research into the mineral aspect of healing plants, studying it from an herbal perspective as well as working out how to best bring the mineral content of plants into Spagyric medicines. This got us thinking about the Salt level of being in Spagyric work, and wanting [...]

Herbs’ qualities on the decline?

We’ve noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in our lab work with plants, and we’re wondering if anyone else has seen the same changes, too.
The plant raw materials we’ve been getting have been declining in potency and strength, as well as showing a drop in energy and intelligence. This is happening with all our sources, from [...]

The Energy of the Lab - Part 2

In our first article, we discussed some of the ideas and practices that Alchemy has inherited from the Hermetic tradition, and how much of that core philosophy also informs magickal work. We also described some of the ways of preparing for a magickal ritual or an alchemical process, especially in how the planetary intelligences are [...]

The Energy of the Lab - Part 1

As we practice it, Alchemy is part of the Hermetic tradition of Western spirituality. This lineage traces its origins into history and beyond, into the legend of the semi-divine Hermes, revered under many names throughout time. The traditions that bear the name Hermetic follow the principles set forth in the brief but important Emerald Tablet [...]