The Spagyric Blueprint Resources Guide

I get a lot of questions about where to get supplies, glassware, herbs, and other
equipment in order to prepare spagyrics, as well as good texts and other resources. So
I put together this guide to help you to find good quality materials, as well as a list of
what I think the ideal laboratory would look like. This of course can be scaled up and
down depending on your needs.

Plant Material
In general I prefer fresh plant material over dried plant material any day. Even if I’m
going to use an herb dried, I’ll pick it or buy it fresh and dry it myself- that way I know
that it hasn’t been sitting on a shelf for 5 years oxidizing and gradually lowering in
quality. Let’s face it, if you start with crappy plant material your end product will not
be quality- spagyric or otherwise. Be a stickler about plant quality!

I encourage you to get some identification books for the plants that grow in your local
bioregion so you can not only harvest your own plants, but also so you get more
acquainted with your local habitat and the medicines that grow around you. I think
this is a critical element of herbalism that should always be tended to. Perhaps find a
local instructor who can help you properly identify your local medicines.

Be sure to always key out and properly identify all herbs that you work with! You
do not want to accidentally harvest Poison Hemlock instead of Angelica- that’s a deadly
mistake. So be very clear with your identification! There are lots of identification
books out there, my general suggestion is that you find some that are specific for your
local area.

It can also be good to do some research on any local organic herb farmers and growers
that can provide you with fresh plants. If it needs to be shipped, just make sure that
the plants are packed with ice packs to preserve their freshness (especially if you live
in a warm climate). With smaller producers you can sometimes coax them into
harvesting the plants in accordance with planetary timing mechanisms- most are
usually pretty excited to learn about it actually!

Alcohol
For those of you in the United States, the best place to get alcohol is The Organic
Alcohol Company in Ashland Oregon- they actually used to be called Alchemical
Solutions (which is pretty cool!). They are one of the only providers of pure organic
alcohol in the US, offering a relatively wide range of different sources: from cane and
grain to grape. Grape alcohol is considered the best alcohol to use for spagyric works
since it is seen as the highest evolution of the plant kingdom due to the fact that it
yields the highest amount of volatile Mercury (distilled spirits). That being said, it is
really quite expensive! The website for them is simply www.organicalcohol.com.
Some states require you to obtain a permit to be able to purchase 95% alcohol. I’m not
sure how easy it is to acquire one of these permits in certain states, but I’ve had to get

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them in both Washington and Oregon and it was really quite easy. The application
process was quick, the permit was less than $50 per year, and all I needed to tell them
was that I was an herbalist making tinctures. From what I have heard it usually is not
difficult to get a 95% alcohol permit.

For those of you outside of the United States you’ll have to do some research as far as
obtaining quality organic spirits.

But even better is to make your own distilled spirits for extraction. This can be done
from scratch by buying a whole lot of grapes, making your own wine, and distilling
that wine down to 95% alcohol. This is great because you get really good experience
with doing quality fermentation as well as distilling alcohol. But to short cut it a little
bit, you can buy a whole bunch of good quality wine (I always suggest organic,
preferably biodynamic) and distill that down to 95%.

The reason it's nice to make your own alcohol for extraction purposes is that you can
distill the alcohol according to the planetary timing mechanisms to infuse it with the
specific planetary influence you want to be present in your medicine. You can basically
prepare gallons of alcohol specifically determined to the signature of each planetary
influence and then select the right one for the plant you are working with. Some
practitioners of the art will simply buy the 95% alcohol and then make different
planetary batches from that.

Water
Some spagyric practitioners use straight 95% alcohol on all of their plants. I’m not a
big fan of this as each plant has its own unique biochemical profile with different
solubility ranges of the constituents. In this way I usually always dilute my 95%
alcohol down with water to get that right percentage range that will yield the best
quality extraction of that particular plant.

Water is also used in the spagyric process for dissolution of your mineral salts of the
plants. This is best done with the hydrosol of the plant, or the phlegm of the plant if
you do not have hydrosol. These 2 waters are by products of either essential oil or
alcohol distillation, respectively, and are determined to the signatures of the plant you
are working with.

For spagyric tinctures where there is no distillation done, it is best to use pure distilled
water for your dissolutions and to combine with your 95% alcohol for extraction. Some
people just buy jugs of distilled water, but like the alcohol, it is most ideal to distill your
own water according to the planetary timing mechanisms that suit the remedy you are
working with. In this way you are literally incorporating the planetary energies not
only with the timing of your extraction but with the actual menstruums themselves
which further enhances the subtle astral qualities of the medicine.

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As for the source of your water, I highly recommend a few different methods for
collecting. I personally tend to like spring water that is coming straight out of the
Earth. You can find local spring water sources for your local area through the website:
http://www.findaspring.com/

Traditionally speaking, rainwater is considered the most ideal type of water to be used
for spagyric works, especially when collected during a thunder storm. Dew also holds
a special place in alchemy- this is ideally collected in the springtime by staking sheets a
few inches above the ground and ringing them out into a vessel at dawn. These waters
can then be distilled and purified accordingly. If you live in the city or near a lot of
industry, collecting rain water may not be super ideal as there may be toxins in the
water. I don't know much about this so be sure to do your research as you certainly
don’t want to concentrate any toxins in your water!

Glassware
And now for the big question… where do you get your lab equipment!? This is one I
get all the time so I’ll share with you some of my suggestions.

A good place or an introductory still for extracting the Sulfur of the plants is from
Gary Stadler over at www.heartmagic.com His basic still will run a little less than $400
and will get you distilling oils right away. I used that still for quite some time. The only
thing is that it isn’t that ideal for rectifying Mercury, the best way to do that with that
kit is to use a water bath so you don’t scorch your medicine with the hot plate.

Gary also has a handful of other spagyric friendly setups, including larger sized soxhlet
type extractors, vacuum distillation setups, concentration and circulation vessels,
pelicans, as well as larger sized stainless steel distillers getting up to over 50 gallons!
These can be purchased as electric or gas units. The gas ones (propane) need to be run
in a well ventilated area (like a garage) and have tile flooring or bricks so you don’t
burn your house down. The electric ones require a 220 plug- like what your dryer
plugs into. You might need to hire and electrician (or figure out how to do it yourself)
to get the appropriate power to run the electric still.

Honestly I get a lot of my glassware and lab equipment from eBay! You can find good
quality glassware on there for pretty cheap. I suggest you just make sure it’s new and
hasn’t been used for processing any harsh chemicals- that's just my preference.
Another thing you can check on is if the nearest university has any chemistry
equipment for sale, you can sometimes find really good deals that way.

Heating sources can also be bought off eBay for good prices. A brand new heating
mantle can sometimes run you up to $1000 for the larger sizes, but you can find them
on eBay for less than $500 often. A critical consideration here that you absolutely need

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to check though is how it is wired. A lot of these pieces of equipment come from India
and China and may not be wired in a way suitable for where you are. So be sure to
check on that.

Fermentation Supplies
Vessels for fermentation can typically be purchased at a local fermentation or brewing
supply shop. For years I used those 5 gallon glass carboys for clarifying wine, which I
loved because they were glass, but hated because the opening at the top was only a few
inches wide and I would end up spending literally an hour or 2 with a coat hanger
trying to get the plant material out of it!

So I got pretty tired of doing that and ended up switching over the food safe certified
buckets designed for fermentation. Plastic…. definitely not ideal in my opinion. I use
6-8 gallon buckets for all of my fermentations these days. That being said you can get a
1 gallon jar that seals nice and tight, drill a hole in the lid and stick an airlock and
rubber stopper in it to do smaller batches. Though your yield may not be quite that
great…

But alas, I have discovered a revolutionary product, called the Big Mouth Bubbler.
These are 5 gallon wide mouthed fermentation vessels! I’m really excited about these and
will be replacing all of my plastic buckets with these. You can find them here: Big
Mouth Bubbler

The only other things you’ll need for fermentation are airlocks, rubber stoppers with
holes drilled through them that fit the airlocks, and some good wine yeast and sugar if
you choose to go that route (see Fermentation lesson for more details in The Spagyric
Blueprint). If you do choose to use sugar, it is generally recommended that you use
fructose, as that is the endogenous sugar already found in the plant kingdom so
technically you aren't adding anything foreign. The best place for fructose that I’ve
found is Steviva. They offer non-GMO crystalline fructose at reasonable prices when
you buy in bulk.

Tincture Press
I think this is a critical piece of lab equipment, though many might disagree with me.
Essentially, this is a hydraulic press that will help to squeeze as much possible liquid
out of your plant material so you can have the highest yields possible. I use my tincture
press all the time, and am stunned how much more medicine I get from its use. Never
waste medicine!

There are different sized tincture presses, so simply pick one up that suits your scale,
though I do recommend getting one bigger than you think you will need so you can
scale up if you need to in the future. The 2 best places for presses are the Longevity
Herb Company and Strictly Medicinals. The one I use is from the Longevity Herb

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Company. I know they are expensive and not necessarily the most priority piece of
equipment, but once you get it you'll be glad you did!

Book List
Here’s a list of books that I suggest you look into and pick up if you so desire in order
to have a good set of references and resources to further your knowledge and
understanding of plants, alchemy, spagyrics, and making quality herbal medicines. I
divided them by different types of books to make it a little easier to navigate. Just to
mention, most of the books on alchemy I am suggesting here are more modern texts
that I think that good to start with in order to get your bearings with the work, then
you can jump into more classic texts.

Alchemy and Esoteric Studies

Real Alchemy by Robert Allen Bartlett
The Way of the Crucible by Robert Allen Bartlett
Spagyrics by Manfred Junius
The Alchemists Handbook by Frater Alberts
The Emerald Tablet by Dennis William Hauck
The Sorcerers Stone by Dennis William Hauck
Alchemy for Dummies by Dennis William Hauck (I know I know no one likes to get
the … for Dummies books but this one is actually pretty good!!)
The Path of Alchemy by Mark Stavish
The Kybalion by Three Initiates
The Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie
The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune

Herbal Medicine Making

The Herbal Medicine Makers Handbook by James Green
Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth by Sharol Tilgner
Phytochemistry and Pharmacy for Practitioners of Botanical Medicine by Dr. Eric
Yarnell

Herbal Materia Medicas

The Earthwise Herbal: Volumes 1 and 2 by Matthew Wood
The Earthwise Repertory by Matthew Wood
The Book of Herbal Wisdom by Matthew Wood
Medical Herbalism by David Hoffman
Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth by Sharol Tilgner
Anything and everything by Michael Moore (primarily for west coasters in the US)
Felter’s Materia Medica
American Materia Medica, Therapeutics And Pharmacognosy by Finley Ellingwood
Culpeper’s Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper

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Plant Chemistry and Pharmacology

Medical Herbalism by David Hoffman
Herbal Vade Mecum by Gazmund Skenderi
Herbal Constituents by Lisa Ganora
Phytochemistry and Pharmacy for Practitioners of Botanical Medicine by Dr. Eric
Yarnell

Medical Astrology
Medical Astrology by Judith Hill
The Astrological Body Types by Judith Hill
The Handbook of Medical Astrology by Jane Ridder-Patrick
Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the Sick by Nicholas
Culpeper
Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology by H.L. Cornell
How to Give an Astrological Health Reading by Diane L. Cramer
Dictionary of Medical Astrology by Diane L. Cramer and Kris Brandt Riske
Astro-Diagnosis, A Guide to Healing: A Treatise on Medical Astrology and Diagnosis
from the Horoscope and Hand by Max Heindel
Astrology Nutrition and Health by Robert Carl Jansky and Eric Hedendal

That should keep you busy for awhile!!

If you have any other questions or feel like there are other things I should add to this
resource guide feel free to let me know and I’ll update it.

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