Creating Your Own Elixir

[alejandrocerv]

Hey y'all,

I've just started with alchemy and am going to be starting some basic spagyrics tomorrow (my 20th birthday!), but am wondering if, going forward, alchemists make their own elixirs based on intuition and experimentation, or is it better practice to go by prescribed formulas?

Thanks!
Ale

[Desecrated]

both.

in jazz music you learn scales. Which are formations and cluster of tones in a specific order.
As you get better and better and learn these by heart you can start to improvise and change the clusters around.
Really good musicians can even take different scales and superimposes them upon each other.

[alejandrocerv]

That is just the metaphor I best understand! Thanks!

[RavenDarkWind]

Just make sure the herbs you're using are safe for consumption. You'd think that would be a given, but sometimes even extremely intelligent people fall for the whole natural therefore super healthy fallacy. Best of luck!

[RoseRed]

Testing my tablet. Apparently, this time it posted. I'm such a Luddite - but at least I'm trying. [thumbup]


In my world (which is not Chaos Magick) elixirs contain brandy and honey.

So, what kind of elixir are you talking about?

[alejandrocerv]

Just make sure the herbs you're using are safe for consumption. You'd think that would be a given, but sometimes even extremely intelligent people fall for the whole natural therefore super healthy fallacy. Best of luck!

Haha very true. Thanks for the reminder!

[alejandrocerv]

In my world (which is not Chaos Magick) elixirs contain brandy and honey.

So, what kind of elixir are you talking about?

I'm referring to alchemical plant elixirs, with alcohol as a base. So, brandy could very well be a part of it (although I don't imagine honey would be a great idea unless it were also fermented)!

[RoseRed]

I'm talking about basic herbalism. I make tinctures with an alcohol base. (Add some honey and people might actually drink it LOL)

[alejandrocerv]

I'm talking about basic herbalism. I make tinctures with an alcohol base. (Add some honey and people might actually drink it LOL)

Ah. Pardon my ignorance; I'm a noobie. My tinctures will also undergo a calcination process and then be diluted 10-20 drops in a glass of water. So, pretty similar. I'd love to chat more about tinctures and herbalism in general!

[RoseRed]

Sounds good to me. I don't know if it would fit in this thread but I'd be happy to chat if you started one about it.

[shaded_shadow]

I'm fighting myself from dissecting differences between herbalism and herbal alchemy, I think even herbal alchemy was an off shoot of alchemy not true to the original alchemy but not 100%. If your going to perform hermetic alchemy you'll probably want to study. Alot. Lots to know.

[alejandrocerv]

Yes, spagyrics was invisioned by Paracelsus, so any alchemists before the early- to mid-1500s (and many afterward who agreed more with Agrippa) would not have practiced herbal alchemy, at least not with the same system in place (alchemy didn't even always have astrology in it). Studying is what I do, and I'm currently reading Agrippa's seminal text. It's a journey.