Making a full Three-way Philosophical extract takes a great deal of time and focus as one progresses through each of the steps.
The first process was Distillatio, or distillation, of the volatile Sulfur (essential oils), followed by Fermentatio, or fermentation, in order to allow for the Spirit to embody our work so that the Mercury may be subsequently received in the process to follow.
We must once again return to the process of Distillatio if we are to retrieve our Mercury from the depths of the darkness.
Within the Spagyric Alchemy practice, the Principle of Mercury is known to be attracted to the ethyl-alcohol of the Plant Kingdom. It is important to move with guided-haste upon the completion of Fermentatio, for should one move too slowly then the work may be lost as Acetobacter spp. begin to decompose the ethyl-alcohol into acetic acid. Thus, we begin by first separating the liquid solution from the biomass of the plant matter. In my work I use pantyhose as it will sustain a large amount of material.
The first bit is fairly simple as the biomass sticks heavy to the bottom of the flask.
Be sure to capture as much of the plant matter as possible and strain it of the solution saturating it.
DO NOT THROW AWAY THE PLANT MATTER. Set the plant matter into a heat resistant receptacle in order to evaporate the remaining solution. I use a steel bowl and place it in the oven at a temp of 225, stirring periodically.
Once your plant material is dry, be sure to store it in an airtight container. We will be revisiting this in future processes in order to receive the Salt, the mineral salts which comprise the herb.
Once your solution has been sufficiently filtered from the biomass, return it to a flask which will be used to complete the set up of our still.
Set up the still and begin adding heat using 2nd Degree Fire, an oil bath. We use 2nd Degree Fire for this part of the operation in order to add sufficient heat to bathe the solution within the flask and bring over our Mercury. Monitor the temperature of the oil bath around the temperature which water boils during the first distillation. It is alright to have a large amount of water in the initial product as this will assist in subsequent purification.
The cloudiness of our product shows us that there is a high water content within our Mercury. Be sure to save the solution from which the product was distilled, this contains our fixed Sulfur and will be later retrieved as the Salt of Fixed Sulfur.
To reduce the water content and raise our Spirit to greater purity, we continue to distill the product. We apply 1st Degree Fire, a water bath, to our still upon the second distillation. We do this because the solution in the flask will never be at a greater temperature than that of the water it is bathed in. This will allow us to bring our solution up to the point of which water boils, but not beyond it.
Here, our product begins to become much more clear, but we must continue our search for the purest Mercury.
Often, you will find that the product will be distilled 7 times; however, I failed to add enough fermentable sugars, and thus ended up with much less product than desired, so I finished with 3 distillations. We continue using 1st Degree Fire in this distillation, but we keep our water bath to a lower temperature as ethyl-alcohol boils at a much lower temper than water at 178ºF. In this video, I discuss a bit about the spiritual aspects of the process.
Our product comes our crystal clear upon the completion of our third distillation. We now take our separated and purified Mercury and seal it away, along with the volatile Sulfur.
When we have separated the Sulfur, Mercury, and the Salt individually, we shall recombine these constituents in order to allow for them to coagulate in the Chymical Wedding. Be sure to follow along so that you can receive the next steps of the process!
Piper nigrum is commonly known as black pepper. This herb contains many different compounds which act on the body in superb ways. Some of these effects are as follows: Anti-inflammatory, CNS-depressant, and nootropic.
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