Alchemy of Spagyria
Spagyric medicine is a highly misunderstood and esoteric form of plant medicine that has only recently become under scientific study in very recent years. Preliminary findings have shown its superior shelf life stability over conventional preparations and its notable ability to carry medicinal activities from plants in a bioactive form. There remains a single published report on the quality and composition of a single species of spagyric (as of 8-28-2023) which is denoted in my own scientific enquiry, was far from a comprehensive, all-inclusive analysis. With spagyrics only just being inoculated into the scientific tradition, they remain entirely nascent in the scientific literature and require far more intense scrutiny before their novel chemical makeup and pharmacological effects can be fully comprehended through the materialist lens of understanding. Although, a feat of this nature may be fully outside the scope of the scientific institution, considering their supernatural tendencies and preparations, albeit, it could lend great credibility and explanatory value to the mythos surrounding this enigmatic medicine.
Spagyria (the 'art' of preparing spagryic medicines, from plants, animals, and minerals) has a fundamentally mystical origin within the alchemical tradition. The Swiss physician and Father of Pharmacology, alchemist, discoverer of morphine, and arguably the worlds first medicinal chemist, Paracelsus, is accredited with the discovery and implementation of spagyric medicine. When he founded pharamcology, he did it with spagyrics. He is famous for noting across many of his treatises the significance of spagyric medicine, which often is referred to simply as the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, or more aptly, truth from delusion, reality from imagination. When it comes to spagyric medicines, it is an outgrowth of an already dominating form of medicinal plant preparation within the alchemical tradition. The precursor form of medicine had focused extensively on what alchemists called "mercury" and "sulfur", that is, "spirit" and "soul", or more chemically speaking, "alcohols" and "oils". Oils may also be considered as the "essence" of a plant, or what makes a plant unique in its characteristic make up.
Spagyria can be considered the physical or externalized aspect of alchemy, which is originally a spiritual tradition that deals with the evolution and interpretation of the soul (or what we in modern days would now call, consciousness). Further, spagyric work can be understood as the spiritual lens of interpretation nominally used in alchemy, projected on to the various forces and natural workings of natures numerous processes. It is a powerful holistic perception that lays a framework for a system of interaction between organic matter. This lens is based on a monadic philosophy that suggests a single creator and origin of reality as the fundamental causal principle across all material processes. It is most often represented by the cabalistic Tree of Life, pictured on the right, which employs a decad to interpret the various layers of the One origin, but also can employ any number of numerological based correspondences, such as the trinity, the quaternary, and duality. Ultimately, all of these different systems, which lay the ground work for numerology and the perennial philosophy, are attempts at describing the "indescribable One", or Keter, as it is more commonly known in the tradition.
The One contains the duality, contains the trinity, and the quaternary. In the Pythagorean tetractys, the One is described as a system of 10 based on 4. Through the triangular breakdown of 4 i.e., 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, we are able to attain all known integers and thus all known moieties of the incomprehensible Unity. In a sense, using more numbers helps us to gain greater explanatory power over the One. It is the finite which best describes the infinite nature of ultimate truth (Keter).
What all this means for spagyric medicine is that, spagyrics are physical attempt to take a single 'organic composite' and separate its fundamental aspects, either based on the duality, trinity or quaternary, or combinations thereof, subject them to purification and ultimately recombine them so that the material organic composite might be brought back into a form that more closely represents its fully Unified form.
Medicinal Chemistry of Spagyria
What all of this looks like, in an extraction lab, on a plant, is the separation of the tripartite essence of a plant into its oils, alcohols and salts.
From a bifurcated dualistic perspective, this is separating a plant into its primary metabolites and then its secondary/specialized metabolites. From a chemical standpoint, all plants are purely made up from a primary and secondary/specialized metabolite profile.
This article is a summation of the above video and is still being edited. Please enjoy the video dissertation while the article is improved.
To be continued...
