Alchemy

The Twelve Processes

 

Jabir ibn Hayyan identified four basic techniques necessary for the practice of alchemy: purification, solution, coagulation, and combination. Purification involves the separation of the impure from the pure and is done either by fire - calcination or sublimation; or by water - distillation or filtration. Solution is accomplished through maceration and dissolution. Coagulation can be done by crystallization, congelation, or evapouration.

Combination is achieved by circulation, cohobation, digestion, crystallization, or fixation. To be more specific:

 

Calcination: The burning of anything to ashes. It is the burning off of all combustible impurities. It can mean to melt a metal in the presence of air while stirring it, oxidizing the metal and forming a calx.

 

Circulation: The gentle heating of a solution and a cooling of its vapours. The condensation flows back into the original solution. The solution rotates from liquid to vapour to liquid continuously.

 

Cohobation: The taking of a distillate and pouring it back over whatever remains of the material from which it was distilled.

 

Congelation: The turning of a liquid into a solid, as in water congealing to solid ice. It can also mean a solidification of a mass due to the loss of water or other solvent. It can mean crystallization.

 

Crystallization: The opening of a body or the congealing of a liquid around solid matter. It forms a beautiful matrix in which the salt is suspended. Most salts when dissolved in water, and the water evapouration, will form crystals. It is also used to purify salt.

 

Digestion: A slow, gentle "cooking." It helps break down some things so that they will have a better, more intimate mix with other things. Generally, the mixture is placed in a flask and sealed. This flask is then put in a warm and dark place and kpt at around 40C.

 

Dissolution: The dissolving of one substance, the solute, into a liquid, the solvent.

 

Distillation: The extraction of a liquor from a body or solution by heating and then cooling, condensing the vapour, and collecting the resulting liquid, the distillate.

 

Evapouration: Is the removal of the more volatile portions of a mixture by exposing it to the atmosphere and, at times, by gently heating the mixture to accelerate the process.

 

Fermentation: The breaking down of the plant and the release of its Mercury that is alcohol, with the aid of a ferment or yeast. A similar process occurs in the mineral realm.

 

Filtration: A mechanical means of separating particulate matter from a liquid. It is generally accompanied through the use of filter papers, fritted glass, screens, cotton, and funnels.

 

Fixation: To make that which is volatile non-volatile. How this is accomplished varies from material to material.

Maceration: A form of dissolution. Typically it refers to the soaking of herbs in a solution of water or alcohol. It takes about two to three days to allow a proper maceration in water. If the time is too short not all the virtues are put into solution. If left too long, decomposition and fermentation may start. When macerating with alcohol, there is no real time limit.

 

Multiplication: A process in the Great Work where the strength of the Philosopher's Stone is augmented.

Projection: A process in the Great Work where the Philosopher's Stone is tested by changing lead or mercury into gold or silver.

 

Putrefaction: The decomposition of the impurities of the body, the ephemeral parts. It is a form of purification, all in preparation for the opening of the body. It is the first half of fermentation.

 

Sublimation: The purification of certain salts or minerals that exhibit the ability, when heated sufficiently, to change from solid to gas and back to solid without going through the liquid phase. Sal ammoniac is a good and useful example of a salt that is purified in this manner.

 

The Four Degrees of Fire

First Degree: A soft and gentle heat accomplished through a water bath in which the flask is heated by suspending it in the hot water. This can also be done by suspending the flask in the steam of boiling water.

 

Second Degree: A hotter temperature provided traditionally by an ash bath in which a pot of ashes is heated much like a pot of water; the flask to be heated is immersed up to the height of the material it contains.

 

Third Degree: Hotter still and is achieved with a sand or iron dust bath which is the same as the ash bath.

 

Fourth Degree: The hottest that can be provided by a bare flame; a type of open flame is a "reverberating" flame, where the flame is reflected directly onto the matter being heated; the fire was traditionally a charcoal fire that was in a special furnace called an athanor.