Alchemical

Research Study:
Ruling Planets and Salt of Sulfur Crystal Structures
By James Collins

Abstract
According to the Philosophers of Nature (PoN), the ruling planet of any given herb will
determine how that plant's Salt of Sulfur crystallizes. One could therefore determine the plant's
ruling planet by observing its crystal structure under the microscope. In this article, the crystal
structures of seven herbs, each with a different ruling planet, were observed under a
microscope. It was found that only two of the seven crystal structures observed agreed with
this correspondence study.

Introduction
Jean Dubuis has stated that the crystal structure of the Salt of Sulfur of any given plant will
correspond to its ruling planet. This present study will attempt to determine if this theory holds
true.
There have been many instances when different sources (i.e. books, internet, etc.) have
given different ruling planets for the same plant. In his article, “Planetary Attribution of Plants”
Johann Hasler made an attempt to rectify this situation, and a new table of plants and their
corresponding ruling planets was given. Many alchemists try to follow astrological timing in
their work in order to strengthen and improve the quality of their end product, so following
incorrect timing would almost definitely prove to be disadvantageous. Having a test to
determine the ruling planet of any given herb or plant would virtually eliminate this problem.
This present study gives some first steps in determining if this test would be feasible.
In this present study seven herbs were chosen, each ruled by a different ruling planet:
ñ Basil (Mars)
ñ Lemon Balm (Jupiter)
ñ Horsetail (Saturn)
ñ Celandine (Sun)
ñ Chickweed (Moon)
ñ Yarrow (Venus)
ñ Caraway Seeds (Mercury)
Eight ounces of each were obtained. These plants were chosen because both
“Alchemist's Handbook” by Frater Albertus and “Spagyrics” by Manfred Junius (two very
popular reference books on the alchemical art) agree that these are the ruling planets of the
chosen herbs above.
In this series of experiments, the Salt of Sulfur of each herb will be obtained and
crystallized, then their crystal structures will be analyzed under a digital microscope.






Review of the Crystal Structures
Crystals can take a number of different shapes depending on their chemical makeup and
the way in which they grew. We can divide these shapes into seven categories by measuring
their structure along their three axes.1

Figure 1: All seven crystal structures.

The Cubic System
The cubic crystal is also known as the “isometric” crystal. It is
characterized by its total symmetry: It has three crystallographic axes that are all
perpendicular to each other and are equal in length. At each of the crystal's four
corners there is one lattice point. An example of a crystal that has the cubic
system is fluorite or ordinary table salt.


The Hexagonal System
The hexagonal crystal has four crytallographic axes comprised of three equal
horizontal axes (a, b, d) at 120°, and one vertical axis (c) that is perpendicular to the
others. The c axis can be either shorter or longer than the horizontal axes. Beryl follows
this crystal structure.


The Tetragonal System
A tetragonal crystal is a cubic crystal that has been stretched along its c axis to
form a rectangular crystal with a square top. Wulfenite follows this crystal structure.

1
The following information is adapted from http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/crystalline_structures.html, which provides a wonderful and
concise explanation of the seven crystal structures or habits. The individual diagrams of the different crystal structures are from
http://www.wikipedy.com/crystals_classification.htm

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The Rhombohedral System
The rhombohedral crystal is also known as the trigonal crystal. It has a shape
that is similar to the cubic crystal, but has been skewed, as if one had gripped
opposing corners of the crystal and stretched it. It is still considered “prismatic” in
that all six of its faces are parallel to each other, just like the cubic crystal, but it has
an oblique shape. Tourmaline is an example of a crystal that follows this crystal
structure.


The Orthorhombic System
The orthorhombic crystal has three perpendicular axes, all with different lengths.
An example of a mineral that bears this structure is stibnite.





The Monoclinic System
The monoclinic crystal has three unequal axes. The a and c crystallographic
axes are inclined toward each other an an oblique angle, while the b axis is
perpendicular to the other two. Feldspar follows this crystal system.



The Triclinic System
The triclinic crystal has three unequal crystallographic axes, all of which
intersect at an oblique angle. It has no discernible symmetry and no mirrored or
prismatic planes. Rhodonite follows this crystal structure.

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The Crystal System and Correspondences
In Mineral Lesson #13 of the Philosophers of Nature lessons, Jean Dubuis gives the
following planetary correspondences for each of the crystal systems:

Planet Crystal System
Saturn Cubic
Jupiter Tetragonal
Mars Orthorhombic
Sun Monoclinic
Venus Triclinic
Mercury Rhombohedral (aka Trigonal)
Moon Hexagonal
Table 1: The planetary correspondences for the crystal systems.

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Since we now have the corresponding planets, we can lay these crystal structures in
their proper position on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as follows:

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Procedure
Normally, we obtain the Salt of Sulfur by drying, calcining and leaching the “soup” or “thick tea”
left over from the steam distillation of the herb which provided the essential oil (or alchemical
"Sulfur"). Here, since we will not be needing or using the essential oil, I will merely boiled the
herbs (separately, of course) with distilled water until I could no longer obtain any more “tea.”
This tea was boiled down, dried, calcined to a gray-white, then leached to obtain the Salt of
Sulfur. The solid herb which was left over from the extraction was be dried and then calcined
and leached to obtain the Salt of Salt for comparison. The Salt of Sulfur was dissolved in distilled
water and then left in a lab incubator at 40C until the water evapourated to the point of
saturation (which was observable by salt crystals forming on the surface of the solution). This
saturated solution was then poured into an 8 dram bottle witha piece of natural twine in it,
which acted as a substrate for the salt crystals to form on. The bottle with the solution and
twine was left in the incubator until roughly half the solution had evapourated and crystals
were observed adhering to the twine. The twine was then removed and left on a petri dish to
dry in the incubator. All crystals were then analyzed by sight under the microscope.
In this experiment I avoided the use of a Soxhlet extrator. This was merely out of
personal preference because I find that this type of extractor has the habit of clogging very
easily, and I did not want to deal with the hassle of unclogging it all the time. The procedure
above was deemed both adequate and equivalent.
Astrological timing was not followed in the above experiment. In other words, I did not
start the extractions or any other operation at the hour of the ruling planet. I felt that to do so
would have greatly extended the amount of time, as my own life situation (i.e. my job) did not
allow me to always follow these timings. For those who are curious, I suggest conducting this
same experiment while at the same time following astrological timing to see if there is a
qualitative difference.

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Results
The amounts of Salt obtained from the above procedure are listed in the table below. As
can be seen, the amounts of Salt of Salt are very miniscule, and as a result there wasn't enough
to grow crystals with.

Salt of Salt Salt of Sulfur
Basil 0.3g 10.1g
Lemon Balm 1g 11.4g
Horsetail 0.1g 7g
Celandine 0.4g 7.2
Chickweed 1.3g 10.9g
Yarrow <0.1g 7.5g
Caraway <0.1g 3.9g

Basil

According to the literature, the Salt of Sulfur of Basil should follow the orthorhombic
system (similar to that of stibnite), but what it actually seems to follow (as seen in the above
pictures) is the cubic system. This indicates one of two things: 1) that the salt-crystal
correspondence theory does not hold up, or 2) that Basil is in fact ruled by Saturn rather than
Mars.

Lemon Balm







According to the literature, the crystal structure of the Salt of Sulfur of Lemon Balm
should be tetragonal, but in the above pictures that is obviously not the case. The crystals seen
in the pictures above seem to follow more the orthohombic or even triclinic formations. Again,
as in the case of Basil, either the theory does not hold up, or Lemon Balm is actually ruled by

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Mars (or perhaps Venus).

Horsetail







According to the literature, Horsetail, being ruled by Saturn, should have a cubic
formation within its Salt of Sulfur. Again, that is not the case. The crystal formations that the
Salt of Sulfur of horsetail seem to take is of a triclinic system. This would indicate also that
either the theory does not hold up, or that horsetail is ruled by Venus rather than Saturn.

Celandine







Traditionally, celandine is ruled by the Sun, which correlates to a monoclinic crystal
structure. This is confirmed in the above pictures.


Chickweed







Chickweed, being ruled by the Moon, should have a hexagonal crystal structure; this is
confirmed in the above pictures.

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Yarrow







Yarrow, being ruled by Venus, should have a triclinic crystal structure for its Salt of
Sulfur. However, in the above pictures it can be seen that it actually follows a tetragonal crystal
structure, which, according to the theory, would indicate that it is rather ruled by Jupiter.


Caraway







Caraway, being ruled by Mercury, should have a rhombohedral (or trigonal) crystal
structure within its Salt of Sulfur. However, as can be seen in the above photos, this is not the
case - rather, they follow a hexagonal crystal structure, much more like that of quartz crystals. If
the theory we are testing were true, this would indicate that caraway is actually ruled by the
Moon.

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Discussion
In a 1992 seminar with Jean Dubuis2, it was stressed that an elementary knowledge of
crystal structures is necessary if one wants to progress in the alchemical work. Salt in particular
exhibits all seven of the basic crystal structures, as indicated above. According to Kabbalistic
and alchemical tradition, these seven basic crystal structures correspond to various levels on
the Tree of Life, which in turn resonates with the inner level of the Operator or alchemical
practitioner. Using these different crystal structures while working with not only the Salt of Salt
but more importantly with the Salt of Sulfur opens up a large field for experimentation both on
an inner and outer level. Work of this sort is not limited to the plant realm, either; one can also
practice this work with Salt in the mineral realm. Jean Dubuis even mentions that "if you
change [antimony's] crystalline network... the Red Stone is possible."
By using these correspondences, Jean Dubuis stated that you can determine the ruling
planet of any given plant by crystallizing its Salt of Sulfur and analyzing its structure under a
microscope. However, when this theory was tested following the above procedures, only two of
the seven crystal structure corresponded with what tradition would have them. Thus far, this
attribution of crystal structures and planetary rulership does not seem to hold up.
I am not willing to completely disregard this system altogether, however. Several
variables have not been explored: First, astrological timing was not followed in the course of
this experiment. If this is going to be explored, a system will need to be established to
determine whether the crystal structure is a result of the astrological timing or the plant itself
(ie. does all Salt of Sulfur form a monoclinic crystal structure when following Solar hours, or
only when an herb ruled by the Sun is used?). Second, does making an extraction using ethanol
instead of water make a difference in the resulting crystal structures? 3) Because there was not
enough Salt of Salt obtained from the herbs used, I did not explore the crystal structres that
would have been obtained here. A possible future experiment might be to take the same herbs
used above and just calcine and leach them, then see what crystal structure this takes. Granted
this would be a mixture of both Salt of Salt and Salt of Sulfur, but this would nevertheless be an
interesting course of experimentation.
From this experiment we have a few possible conclusions: 1) The Salt of Sulfur -
planetary correspondence system does not hold up. However, the reasoning behind this
system, as explained by Jean Dubuis and Robert Bartlett3, still seem sound. I would argue that
the system still needs a little bit of tweaking in order to hold up to scrutiny - perhaps a new
system based on this "older" model; 2) The traditional ruling planets of the herbs above are
wrong and need to be revised. I do not think this is a likely possibility, however, as the
traditional ruling planets of these herbs have long been established.
There is some variance to the ruling planets of various herbs when comparing different
source texts, such as Culpepper's Herbal, Jean Dubuis, Frater Albertus, and Manfred Junius. This
has led some to adopt a dual-rulership for some herbs in order to account for the discrepancies.
It would be very useful to have a test by which one can determine objectively and with
certitude what planet rules any given herb. With the research presented in this article I hope to
start developing such a test. Further research will be conducted at the Toronto Hermetic
Society.
2
See www.mcs.net/~alchemy for a transcript of this seminar.
3
See Robert Bartlett's "Real Alchemy".

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