Alchemy is a very complex science. Like chemistry, which actually finds its roots in alchemy, the technique of the alchemist would look like confusion and madness to anyone uninitiated.
Alchemy is a science many thousands of years old, and it’s impossible to determine from whence it really came. Alchemical works can be interpreted in numerous ways and, as such, can result in vastly different conclusions depending on who is reading them. However, the origins of alchemy are generally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, also known as Thoth, also known as Mercury, also known as the god-figure who got around and ended up with too many names.
Herbalism, on its surface, seems to be a much less complicated science (at least, depending on how it is pursued). Professional herbalists work to create medicine by identifying the energetic components of plants and combining them to correct imbalance of various energies in sick or injured humans.
Introducing phytobiology and pharmacology into your herbal practice will certainly make it more complicated, largely by adding lots of large words into your vocabulary, but the magic of herbalism really shines when it’s combined with alchemy. Esoteric or alchemical herbalism includes the use of astrology and various universal principles to enhance the function of plants and the potency of medicine.
This article will explore the various uses of alchemy, both spiritual and physical, as well as the use of herbalism, both modern and ancient. The intertwining arts of herbal medicine and alchemy are fascinating to observe in their development and even more exciting to practice on your own.
A Primer on Alchemy
Alchemy is a fascinating branch of science.
The first thing that one should know about alchemy is that it can be considered, simultaneously, two separate sciences. Alchemists are working at the same time in two diametrically opposed realms: the material and the spiritual.
On the one hand – the hand that most modern researchers prefer to consider when discussing alchemy – it is a form of primitive chemistry. As you can tell by the names of the two sciences, alchemy and chemistry are quite related, the latter having emerged from the prior.
This emergence attests to the depth of alchemy. Chemistry is only a single, core component of alchemical science: that which deals with material elements. Chemistry, which has given to us such valuable scientific tools as the periodic table of elements, is essentially alchemy without the soul. It is alchemy that has been dissected and had its material components extracted and neatly laid out.
As it were, the material aspect of alchemy is best known as a method for transmuting and purifying metals. Alchemists were often reported to be engaged in the constant pursuit of changing base metals into gold – and most alchemists were perfectly happy to have people think that’s what they were up to.
Through a series of different processes, the skilled alchemist can actually take any base metal and turn it into gold. However, what most alchemists were interested in was something far more subtle than gold. Something far more pure, far more valuable. This could only be achieved through the practice of the other arm of alchemy: the spiritual sid
This is where things get interesting becauseIn fact, because of the ingenious writing of the alchemists, the majority of alchemical texts can be read as both guidebooks for physical-chemical science and guidance for spiritual transformation.
You see, the spiritual side of alchemy involved the transmutation of the alchemist’s soul. Through the same alchemical processes used to change heavy base metals into gold, the alchemist would transmute the lower, base emotions and egoic impulses into the less egocentric and more spiritual virtues.
For example, the first alchemical process – whether physical or spiritual – is calcination. Calcination is the process of purifying a substance by exposing it to high temperatures in the absence of much oxygen. This was necessary to reduce a base metal to its elemental components.
Spiritual calcination involves the purification of the soul. All unnecessary impurities must be discarded by the alchemist before they can proceed to the next step of the transmutation of the soul.
Many alchemists preferred to work these two physical and nonphysical goals at the same time. It was often found that those who remained devout to both their material and metaphysical work found that their transmutations would become successful around the same time.
Alchemy: a Blend of Art, Science, Psychology & More
Calling alchemy simply a science does it a disservice.
Alchemy emerged at a time when humans saw no point in separating the various disciplines that modern people practice in isolation from one another. Alchemy is a seamless combination of science (chemistry and biology, especially), art, linguistics, psychology, spiritual transformation, and medicine.
One might wonder how art could play into a discipline that involves medicine. Or, perhaps, how psychology and spiritual transformation could go hand in hand, or what biology and linguistics could do with one another.
A deep study of alchemy will answer all of these questions and more. For the purpose of this article, we can only provide a few bullet-point answers to these vast questions, each of which provides a small example of how varied and powerfully versatile alchemy can be thanks to its combination of various disciplines.
- Alchemy relied heavily on symbolism. Symbols are a form of art; a symbol is a character that holds multiple meanings. Symbols can be esoteric, carrying different meanings for those who are more educated in certain areas. In the case of medicine, certain alchemical symbols could inform practitioners of the medicinal use of certain substances. These same symbols would, to a layman, mean absolutely nothing, thus preventing the misuse of potentially dangerous medical knowledge.
- Psychology and spiritual transformation go hand-in-hand, regardless of whether or not you’re aware of it. In fact, psychology is only the modern manifestation of what people used to achieve through spiritual practice. Our culture lacks a modern set of tools and rituals for the development of the psyche.
- In ancient cultures, critical moments of personal development would be honored by a ritual, an initiation, or something that would activate a latent psychological element. Alchemy allowed people to do this on their own, without the need for tribal rituals with multiple people. Psychologist Carl Jung spawned an entire branch of psychotherapy that deals with the integration of the spiritual and the psychological through alchemical transformation.
- The language of alchemical texts was often confusing, allegorical, parabolic, or seemingly nonsensical. This was done intentionally to obscure information from those who were not initiated into the proper sciences. In other words, somebody trained only in the physical art of metallurgy could read a textbook on transmuting lead into gold and learn how to do just that, whereas an initiated spirit alchemist would learn how to unlock their full potential as a human being from the same book.
- Alchemy also dealt with nonphysical biology or occult anatomy. This includes all of the numerous nonphysical and energetic components of the human body that operate outside of the scope of our five basic senses. These subtle energies are among the most vital for the health and wellbeing of the individual, and alchemists taught, to those trained well enough to decipher the linguistic riddles, how to heal and maintain these nonphysical biological components.
Those are just a few examples of how the blending of seemingly different disciplines actually leads to the emergence of one cohesive and comprehensive discipline. The science of alchemy was holistic in the sense that the whole was much greater than any of its parts.
Alchemy provided practitioners with an entire worldview and life’s work that could be pursued endlessly until the alchemist’s dying days. Not only did alchemy provide an avenue for fascinating new discoveries into the world, but it provided a framework for self-discovery and personal growth.
History of Alchemy
Alchemy has a very, very long history. Conventional history says that alchemy emerged out of Ancient Egypt a couple thousand years ago. However, alternative history publications – many of which draw on fragments of alchemical and historical texts that were burned along with the Library of Alexandria, which we will discuss below – posit that human society has been thriving for much longer than we are told.
Some of these texts suggest that the truly ‘ancient’ Egyptian society, the one that actually built the pyramids, lived millennia before the pharaohs and papyrus-crafters that inhabited the region starting around 2,000 BCE.
Nowadays, most people are told that Atlantis was a fantasy city that never existed. However, ancient thinkers like Plato who relied oftentimes on the oral tradition, viewed history on an entirely different timeline than we do today. A timeline that posits Atlantis not as mere fantasy but as a society that collapsed in a time so distant that its people had long lost its knowledge, language, history, and much of its actual memory. Along this timeline, there is a history of humanity that spans many tens of thousands of years beyond what our modern history tells us.
If some of the world’s greatest philosophers were willing to openly discuss something that, based on orally-transmitted knowledge and hundreds of books that trace out a similar history, it gives some credence to the idea. Perhaps knowledge of our ancient history was more common in those days, whereas today’s leaders seem to take offense at the suggestion that there once existed older and wiser civilizations.
Khemet – a Much More Ancient Egypt
The original name of Egypt was Khemet from which the word al-khem-y is derived. Many do not know that Egypt’s original borders spanned a massive area that encompassed much of Northern Africa as well as many areas in what is now Europe and the Middle East. The empire even stretched as far as Russia in certain areas.
For some reason, though, this has been scrubbed from history textbooks. So, too, has the fact that many of the Egyptian monuments seem to have been erected far longer ago than our textbooks claim.
One of many pieces of evidence is the erosion found at the base of the Sphinx. This particular type of erosion can only be caused by heavy rainfall, a natural occurrence that hasn’t regularly occurred in Egypt for more than 12,000 years. This would suggest that the Sphinx was either built separately and long before the pyramids, or that all of the structures actually belonged to a society that existed shortly after the last Ice Age.
In short, nobody knows for certain when alchemy began. The famed Emerald Tablet of Hermes is often said to be the original alchemical text. In it, Hermes Trismegistus, known in Egypt as Thoth and in Greece as Mercury, as well as the Father of Alchemy, Art, and astrology, described the seven most important natural laws by which our universe is governed.
These laws became the foundation for the mystery schools that taught people how to take control of their own destinies. Those who fully understand the implications of these natural laws develop abilities that some people might consider supernatural, but that really just reflect a deep understanding of natural law.
We’ll discuss these laws later in the section regarding herbalism & alchemy.
Much other alchemical knowledge was also attributed to Hermes. He educated the early peoples regarding the use of plants as medicine. He explored and explained elemental theory. Many claimed that Hermes was the messenger to the gods, that he spoke directly to higher beings.
Perhaps Hermes himself was a relic from an older age and simply retained the knowledge that had been gained from these societies. What if the theories of the four elements, alchemical transmutation, and these natural laws were not primitive discoveries, as they are often considered today, but the result of many genius minds working together in an advanced civilization?
According to these much more extensive accounts of human history, Egypt was not so much a budding, new civilization. More so it was the resurgence of knowledge, technology, science, and spiritual wisdom that had come to its apex in a previous civilization.al
Alchemical Book Burnings
Many of the alchemical texts that survive from these ages talk openly of ancient civilizations that preceded them. Since these civilizations are said to be the first ones that humanity ever created, one has to wonder what they’re referring to.
Mentioned time and time again are the realms of Atlantis and Lemuria. Atlantis was said to be a high society wherein alchemy may have first flourished. The knowledge of these people was passed on down from generation to generation until Atlantis, which thrived on an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, sank due the shifting of sea level. Atlantean survivors fled north to Africa, eventually landing in Egypt.
The practitioners of alchemy in Lemuria were of an even older race of humans that migrated to India nearly a hundred millennia ago. When the sages of India traveled eastward to Egypt and the two fascinating cultures converged, the result was the culmination of knowledge that we now attribute to the Egypt of antiquity.
Or so say the timelines of many older books. In either case, most of these books – most of the world’s alchemical manuscripts, in fact – were burned during the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
Book burnings have been a fairly significant part of history. Book burnings reflect a moment in time at which a government or leading authority decides that the contents of a book are forbidden to become public knowledge. They set a clear line between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” information, which turns the whole notion of a free society on its head.
Of course, the official narrative of the book burners usually posits that the books are heretical and contain sinful information. In some cases, this is true. However, throughout the vast majority of the book burnings, a common theme runs through the subject matter of the books: they significantly empower those who read them, allowing them to glimpse, practice, or study universal mechanics that are kept secret from the general populace.
A number of alchemical book burnings took place before the Middle Ages. Roman authorities were particularly harsh against books containing information that did not support their conquest of the peasant populace. They decreed that astrologers burn all their books in the 5th century and burned the Etrusca Disciplina, a book on cult and rituals, was also decreed to be burned.
The actual burning of the Alexandrian Library, however, was the result of Muslims who believed that “if the books agree with the Qur’an, then we have no need for them; if they disagree, then they are heresy.”
A History of Herbalism
Herbal medicine has been around for as long as people have been. In fact, herbal medicine has been around much longer than that, the only difference being that its first advocates were animals rather than humans. Since animals are less prone to scribbling on paper and drawing on stones, we don’t have many records of their usage of herbs.
Nonetheless, animals have always seemed to have a keen intuitive sense of which plants are edible and which aren’t, and there have been many cases in which animals have been seen to utilize plants medicinally. This could have been helpful for early herbalists.
Plants and animals are believed to have emerged on Earth at around the same time, some 500 million years ago. Perhaps the symbiosis shared between the two types of living beings helped to foster these medicinal properties. For example, a plant providing medicine to an animal that eats it would secure a more effective way for its seeds to be spread as the anal digests the plant and expels its residual seeds elsewhere.
The First Prehistoric Herbalists
Archeological evidence shows us that people have been using herbs for eons. The earliest samples of herbal medicine yet recovered were from the teeth of Neanderthals dating back some 60,000 years. Traces of chamomile and poplar were discovered in their plaque, suggesting awareness of either their medicinal or nutritional benefits.
Herbalism and shamanism often go hand-in-hand, and the first evidence of practiced shamanism can be found in cave paintings that date back at least 30,000 years. Herbal medicine was continually practiced throughout the ages. The first textbooks about herbal medicine arose when writing itself is said to have first emerged around 5,000 years ago.
The First Written Records of Herbalism
The Sumerian Tablets, the oldest record of civilization that we have, contains highly complex herbal formulas showing an advanced knowledge of the power of herbal medicine. Though there were only twelve formulas, they called for the use of more than 250 plants.
Doubtless, many other impressive things happened between then and the writing of the Ebers Papyrus in 1,500 BCE. This impressive document listed nearly a thousand herbal medicines. While this wasn’t their first herbal compendium, it’s one of the only ones that remain intact.
Many of the herbs included are popular today, especially in systems of medicine like Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which were taking root around the same time.
Interestingly, though these systems take fairly different approaches and use entirely different language and symbolism, they seem to point to different aspects of universal truth. Whereas
Ayurveda focuses on the three primary universal energies: sattva (purity, peace, clarity), rajas (passion, lust, anger, motion), and tamas (heaviness, lethargy, dense, slow) and how they interact with individual constitutions. Traditional Chinese Medicine focuses on energetics as well as outlining the systems in the human body through which these energies travel.
Even though modern science likes to describe things in more specific, mechanistic terms, these ancient and original understandings of plant medicine are still efficient today.
Herbalism & Harmony: Why Plant Medicine Can Heal a Broken Community
Even though the terms may differ from culture to culture, it’s obvious that human beings used to be intuitively aware of a fine balance of subtle energies that interact with one another. By learning to understand these energies and their effects, people can learn to create harmonious environments, both internally and externally.
One of the aspects of traditional medicine is the elemental makeup of the universe: the belief that all of the universe is composed of varying quantities of base energies or elements.
Western Herbalism refers to the elemental factors of earth, air, water, and fire. Ayurveda includes these for, as well as ether. Traditional Chinese Medicine includes earth, water, fire, metal, and wood. All systems describe how the vital life force flows through the individual and the planet and how these deceptively simple relationships can be harnessed for the greater good of humanity.
A harmonious external environment can be cultivated by balancing the natural elements in a culture or society’s lifestyle. When one is attuned and sensitive enough to feel and focus on life’s subtle forces, they are far less likely to get distracted or fall under the whim of gross materialistic or negative forces.
We’ll touch on the elements that are still widely used in Western herbalism today.
- Fire is aggressive, passionate, fast-moving, hot, and destructive.
- The state of stress, with its high blood pressure and capability of causing frustration and redness in the skin, is a good example of excess fire energy in an individual,
- Water is embodied by the feminine principle, which is sorely lacking in our patriarchal society. Water is fluid, flowing, cold, expensive, and receptive.
- Bruce Lee always said to be like water, because water takes the shape of the glass that it’s poured into. It accepts what it is given and it conforms itself to align with its surroundings. Humans, on the other hand, often try to force our surroundings to align with us. Since this is generally not easy to do, you can see how the refusal of water’s adaptability leads to more heat (stress, anger, panic, irritability, etc. when one can’t control their situation).
- Earth is heavy, dense, grounded, sturdy, heavy, and cool. It provides stability and structure. In its abstract form, earth is what allows matter to take shape and hold together.
- A reasonable balance of earth energy will keep you grounded and stable. However, excess earth can lead to sluggishness, constipation, fatigue, and depression.
- Air is also cool and dry, but it is expansive, fast-moving, and active. Air can flitter to and fro like the thoughts that dance through our mind and it’s often associated with cognition and energy levels.
- The dryness of air can lead to skin conditions if it comes in excess. Extra air can also lead to anxiety, panic, and other ‘active’ thought disorders
For example, our present-day society could be said to have an overabundance of fire energy, or tamas.
Since our society has people dealing with more stress than ever before, it would make sense that we could bring about balance by introducing more of the water element. It could be the counterbalance to a hyper-stressed, fiery society: we would benefit from cooling down, allowing things to take shape around us instead of forcing them into shape with our own will.
Even if scientists refuse to acknowledge the elements as an objective reality, you can see how they produce a functional system of thought. The previous, modern example shows how the elements can be understood as a symbolic representation of natural forces that are ever-present.
The ancient alchemists and practitioners of herbalism recognized that plants are inherently capable of possessing or displaying the properties of certain elements. Naturally, this would mean that they could be useful for balancing out excessive amounts of other elements. By identifying the elemental imbalances of various health conditions, herbalists began to apply medicine to their patients based on the elemental constitution of the individual as well as the illness affecting them.
Many modern scientists and doctors disagree with this system of diagnosis. It is often disregarded for its simplicity, or merely because we live in a reductionist society and the quantity or amount of water or fire as a base element cannot exactly be measured or quantified. This is one of the many examples of the difficulties that have arisen from the separation of science and art or, more liberally, right-brained thinking.
Taken entirely literally, of course, the theory of elements makes no sense. Cinnamon, a plant containing an abundance of fire, obviously contains no flames within. And yet, even modern science agrees that cinnamon, or at least its most potent active constituents, are effective at treating conditions typically associated by herbalists as resulting from excessive moisture, like a cold. A herbalist would just use simpler terms: cinnamon dries the body.
Herbal Medicine & Paganism
Paganism is a very broad term that describes a massive number of spiritual and religious beliefs that spanned most of Europe prior to the Christian conquest. If there is one thing that links Pagan beliefs together it’s that they generally revere, above all, an entity that all people can perceive firsthand: nature.
In that sense, Pagan religions are among the most grounded and stable because they’re based on natural cycles and processions. In an age of scientific materialism, it’s somewhat ironic that Pagan religions are considered taboo because they’re some of the only religions that actually could be quantified and scientifically verified.
For example, many Pagans rely on the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar allows people to make decisions based on the current phase of the moon (waxing, waning, full, quarter, etc.). These different moon phases can provide information about many of the principles and influences that we see here on Earth.
The phase of the moon doesn’t just impact the tides. The moon also influences gravity, our emotions, and physical health (remember, we’re largely made out of saltwater, too! If the moon has a strong enough pull to drag the entire ocean up the shore, imagine what it might be doing to the ocean water that we’re made of.)
Most importantly, lunar calendars allow a much greater relationship with plants. Plants can become vastly more potent if they’re planted according to the phase of the moon. The power of the moon on planting is no joke.
You can observe this phenomenon in your kitchen. It helps if you’ve already had some experience sprouting or germinating beans for snacking on – then you should already know that it often takes between 2-3 days for the sprouts to emerge. Try sprouting a bowl full of mung beans within a couple of days of the full moon, during the waxing gibbous phase, or even on the day of the full moon itself. You’ll notice that the seedlings emerge incredibly fast in comparison, sometimes in less an 24 hours
Pagans also had an intuitive sense of the seasonal energies and their relationship to plants and animals. Their entire lives, especially their gardening cycles, were reflections of the much larger cycles that mother nature has organized so perfectly. The negligence and refusal to adhere to these rules are one of the reasons that the present-day earth is in such disarray.
The Witch Hunt & Herbalism
In the Middle Ages, particularly during the days of the Holy Inquisition, there was much anger and hatred directed towards those who practiced herbal medicine. The Holy Inquisition was a subsect of the Catholic Church whose aim was to convert people to accept Jesus Christ and the holy word of the great, loving God by capturing, maiming, torturing, and executing those who they deemed were heretics.
Unfortunately, the witch hunters were essentially impugned and could act upon their will indiscriminately. This was essentially a time of rampant chaos and murder by government officials in an effort to maintain a sense of order. The result of this was a society in which you could have your neighbor murdered if you didn’t like them by simply calling upon the Inquisition and informing them that they were a witch.
What, exactly, is a witch? The answer to that question varies from person to person. To a member of the Holy Inquisition, a witch was anybody who they found irritating or cumbersome. Officially, witches were those who practiced ‘magic arts,’ including healing, fortune-telling, and divination.
Many of a witch’s healing remedies involved the use of herbs, meaning that most herbalists could likewise be considered witches.
Approaching the time of the Salem Trials, people seemed to be subscribing to what has been termed “Moral Panic.” This theory says that when society is faced with sudden or unprecedented changes, people often look for a scapegoat to shift their blame or to aggressively pacify their unease.
By now, Christianity had imposed itself over society at large. Any other religion, whether it was some form of Pagan nature-worship, a self-directed meditation practice, or even members of Judaism or Islam who had converted to Christianity, was considered a heretic. Practitioners of herbal medicine were seen to be worshiping or practicing nature magic and were thus accused of being witches.
Modern-Day Herbalism
After the insanity of the Inquisition died down and Christianity had established a permanent hold on much of the developed world, and after they had forced themselves upon the indigenes of North and South America and destroyed much of their ancestral knowledge about plants and medicine, herbal medicine began to slowly emerge from the shallow grave the Christians had dug for it.
The alchemists actually played a big role in this. Even during the witch trials, alchemists were not specifically persecuted, although they were by no means impugned.
The reasoning for this stretches far back into history and deserves an article of its own. In summary, however, alchemy was revered as high art. Skilled alchemists were sought out by all, employed by royalty, and treated with respect. Prior to the witch trials, alchemists were most often only brought to trial for debasing currency (i.e. making, or feigning, gold which they would then exchange for goods and services).
Alchemists who abused the craft or who fell under the scrutiny of the Inquisition could be tried just like anyone else. But, despite alchemy being far closer to a magical art than herbalism alone, it was rarely described as such.
Alchemists simply had to remain a bit more hush-hush about certain aspects of their work. As interest in murdering witches slowly waned, alchemists became more comfortable expressing and sharing their knowledge about the healing properties of plants. Famous alchemists and herbalists from this time include Nicholas Culpeper and Copernicus.
Culpeper published one of the first manuscripts on the use of herbal medicine, in a form similar to what we still use today and the Materia Medica. In fact, many of the traits and properties we ascribe to plants came from this original manuscript. Even though he relied only on ancient knowledge and working theories like the doctrine of signatures, Culpeper produced herbal knowledge that even today proves useful and stands up to scientific scrutiny.
As time progressed and herbalism became more and more popular, official organizations were set up to train and regulate herbalists. Schools of herbalism began to emerge in Europe. Herbal standards, many of which are still in use today, helped to ensure that there was a system in place so that herbalists could evaluate the strength of their medicines both to other workers or to the customers.
Alchemy & Herbalism (Hermetic Herbalism, Solar & Lunar Medicine)
Alchemy and herbalism are two complementary sciences that work very well with one another. Both sciences are interested in various physical and nonphysical components of reality, which immediately sets both of them aside from modern sciences which deal generally only with the physical.
- The physical side of alchemy deals with the transmutation of metals.
- The physical side of herbalism deals with the alkaloid content and medicinal properties of herbs as can be studied with physical methods.
- The non-physical elements of alchemy are many, although generally can be summarized by the transmutation of the human soul.
- The non-physical elements of herbalism are not as widely implemented today as they were in the days when alchemical herbalism was more popular. Modern herbalism is often limited in its non-physical elements to the energetics of various plants. However, when dealing with alchemical and astrological herbalism, these non-physical elements become far more varied and useful.
Both alchemy and herbalism are very useful sciences on their own. Each one comprises a vast breadth of knowledge that can be used for improving human health and increasing our lifespan. However, when combined together, alchemy and its related sciences can be combined together with herbalism to create a powerful medicinal system that is far stronger than either alchemy or herbalism on their own.
Hermetic Herbalism
As mentioned earlier, hermeticism is a broad blanket term used to describe a number of sciences attributed to Hermes. Hermes, the Messenger God, is said to have brought a number of sciences to human attention. These include alchemy, astrology, herbalism, and mathematics.
Although we tend to study these sciences individually nowadays, they were originally all considered branches of the same science. Interestingly, during the original days of hermetic medicine, it was only the initiates, a very small segment of society, who are allowed to study. Nowadays, although the information is available to everybody, it is fragmented and very few people remain who can fully integrate the various systems of hermeticism.
We will outline a few of the basic concepts associated with hermetic herbalism here.
Astrological Herbalism
Astrological herbalism makes use of the position of the stars and planets to produce plants and medicine that are more potent than average. Solar and lunar medicine are large components of astrological medicine, which we will go into detail about below.
Astrological herbalism is a component of a larger system known as medical astrology. In this system, each part of the body is associated with a certain sign of the zodiac. Likewise, plants all contain associations with different zodiac signs.
Many people associate the zodiac signs with their respective periods during the year. However, using an astrology clock for practice, you can begin to learn how the various astrological signs also have their respective times during the hours of the day, the minutes of the hour, and even the seconds of the minute.
During the period of the day or year associated with a certain zodiac sign, one might be inclined to make medicine dedicated to a body part associated with that sign. For example, if I’m making a digestive aid for the gut, an organ associated with virgo, I might want to do that during the virgo hour (roughly from 12:50 to 1:50 and 00:50 to 1:50.)
Astrological medicine also takes into account the influences of the planets. Each plant contains its own planetary influence which can, in turn, accentuate or hinder medicine depending on which time of day it’s applied, and to where.
Astrological herbalism provides a system in which you can fine-tune and perfect the very art of herbalism itself, thereby making your medicine much more effective and powerful. However, learning the influences of each individual planet and how they relate to the constellations and the elemental composure of the body can constitute a lifetime of study.
Solar & Lunar Medicine
Solar and lunar medicine are two of the easiest aspects of astrological medicine to master. They simply involve adopting the energies of the sun and the moon and infusing them into your medicine.
Sometimes this can be as simple as making solar or lunar infusions by leaving your medicine out in the sun or moon for a while. Lunar infusions are particularly potent at different times during the lunar cycle.
The full moon, the moon’s fullest expression, is a good time to finish processing herbal products, for example. The new moon is a good time to plant seeds and to begin new medicines.
The old concepts of the Sun and Moon Doctors provide good insight into how solar and lunar energies can influence the individual.
The Sun Doctor is seen to be ever-present, ready to show up and shine light onto others. They are practical and determined, ready to fulfill their tasks, although they may seem to lack depth and struggle to remain flexible when confronted with changes to their carefully-constructed plans and processes.
The Moon Doctor, on the other hand, seems rarely to be present at the surface. They are impractical and may seem to be flaky and prone to daydreaming, although this is because they are committed to a much deeper reality than that which the Sun Doctor dedicates their time to.
The Sun Doctor provides for that which can be seen, that which is illumined: other people, for example The Moon Doctor, on the other hand, provides for the unseen. To pragmatists – those who excessively focus on ‘light’ aspects like science and math – the Moon Doctor might seem to be a space-case, but the Moon Doctor speaks intuitively to the subconscious and spirit.
Most people identify with one or the other. Imbalances of either solar or lunar energy can lead to pathologies. Excess solar energy can lead to inflammatory issues and agitation; excess lunar energy can lead to lethargy, fatigue, lack of motivation. If you naturally lean towards one pole, it would make sense to seek to pull yourself towards the other to find balance.
The 7 Universal Principles as Applied to Herbalism
Hermes, the legendary messenger to the gods and the author of the Emerald Tablet and the Corpus Hermeticum, outlined in his writings the seven laws or principles that govern our universe. Even today, thousands of years after Hermes revealed these laws to humanity, it only becomes increasingly obvious how these laws are true.
In the days of Ancient Egypt, only those who dedicated their lives to the study of occultism and the mystery traditions would begin to grasp how these principles affected our daily life. Nowadays, science and mathematics have become available to the general population and most people can see immediately how at least some of these principles manifest throughout our lives. I
Even physics, one of the most rigid sciences, is beginning to prove these principles to be valid. While several of them are yet to be verified by conventional science – chiefly the principle of mind, which has nearly, but not quite, been verified by quantum physics (although many quantum physicists might not actually realize how accurately experiments like the Double Slit seem to validate this ancient law) and the principle of rhythm, although this is detailed intricately in many of the Mayan sciences and clearly visible in their large, cyclical Long Count calendar. And, though the principle of gender i visualized perfectly by the Yin and Yang symbol or the philosophy of duality, it remains difficult to prove or even discuss in today’s politically charged atmosphere – those who practice and study esotericism have no doubt that science is only lagging a few steps behind and will soon catch up. Here’s a quick briefing on how each of these principles can influence herbalism..
Principle of Mind
The principle of mind presupposes that the universe is a mental construct and that our minds can influence our surroundings. This principle can be observed by meditating, sitting with plants, learning to communicate with them nonverbally, especially with the use of psychedelics.
Principle of Rhythm
The principle of rhythm can be observed clearly in the cycles of the seasons. There are obvious connotations here for herbalists.
Principle of Gender
The principle of gender is made manifest in plants, which are often obviously male or female. Although some plants are self-seeding and thus both male and female, this does not defy the law but rather affirms it by showing that gender can manifest equally in a single organism (androgyny.)
Principle of Polarity
The principle of polarity shows that everything has its opposite. Hot, for example, is the opposite pole from cold. This principle helps one avoid extremes and maintain a balance.
Principle of Correspondence
The principle of correspondence is described well by the phrase, “as above, so below.” This is very important when dealing with astrological medicine.
Principle of Vibration
Everything moves, nothing is still, and vibration is present in all things. Although physicists only realized the vibratory nature of the universe in the last century, Hermes was telling this to the ancient Egyptians.
Principle of Cause and Effect
The principle of cause and effect states that everything that happens has an original cause. This is a good reminder to stay present and remain aware of your actions, lest you create an effect that you don’t want.
Conclusion
Herbalis and alchemy are two separate disciplines nowadays, although they originally were considered different arms of a unified science. Learning how to apply the two practices together can lead you to a rich and powerful system of medicine that can encourage good health and a long life.
The study of both herbalism and alchemy can be a lifelong practice. If you really want to see the most impressive benefits of these practices, don’t shy away from a serious commitment!
Written by Nigel Ford, research author, addiction worker, and owner of Hermetic Herbals.
