The Prima or Herbal Work

One – The Equipment

A description of the old equipment
- The Furnace (sand, water and oil baths) and incubation
- The Alembic (ceramic, metallic, glass)
- The Retort (ceramic, metallic, glass)
- Receivers
- Crucibles
- Mortar and Pestle
- Filtration

 A description of modern equipment and its relationship with the old
- Electric and gas elements (and incubation)
- Thermometers
- Retorts
- The Distillation train
- Soxhlet extraction
- Receivers
- Crucibles
- Mortar and Pestle
- Filtration
- Fermentation kits
-Storage Jars

Buying equipment (and dealing with lamp workers)
Care for equipment (heating, cooling, corrosion, washing)

Two – The Materials

Herbal lore (tradition and contemporary)

Theory:
- Alcohol (Mercury)
- Oil (Sulphur)
- Salts

Three – The Processes

Lab safety

The basic herbal spagyric tincture
The Theory of the practice
Astrology and energetics  (theory and practice)
Geomancy (theory and practice)

The practice:
- Distillation of volatile oil
- Fermentation
- Filtration
- Maceration – Digestion – Circulation
- Distillation
- Calcination (black, white, yellow, red)
- Grinding
- Leaching
- Cohobation

The philosophy of the Practice
- The tradition, the old masters, ethics and secrecy
- The Qabalistic relationship between elements and principles
- The law of analogy (the relationship between mind and matter)
- The Qabalistic view of the intelligences of the elements and principles
- Spagyrics and Qabala

The yearly herbal work cycle (dealing with time economically and energetically)
The Circulatum
The theory and practice

The Herbal Stone
The theory of the practice, both wet and dry

The Primum Ens Melissae
The theory
- The principles and their attraction and repulsion
- Rejuvenation

The Practice:
- Preparation of tartar (winestone, calcination of herbs, commercial)
- The deliquescence of tartar (above and under ground and artificially)
- The herb Melissa, its preparation
- Maceration of Melissa in the oil of tartar (hot and cold methods)
- Filtration of the maceration
- The preparation of the alcohol
- The extraction of the ens (pressure method and simple method)
- Concentration of the oil and its ingestion

The Volatisation of Tartar
The theory of the practice
The practice:
- The preparation of the tartar
- The preparation of the oil
- The process itself
- Cohobation
- Ingestion

The Secunda - Metallic Oils

Four - The Equipment

he relationship between the herbal equipment and mineral equipment
Additional requirements

Five – Materials

Solvents (Mercuries)
The theory of the preparation and uses of:
-         Kerckringers menstruum
-         Vinegar
-         Actuated vinegar (simple)
-         Lye
-         Mineral acids

The preparation of solvents for the mineral work. (practical)

Minerals (Salts)
Minerals vs Metals (in theory and practice)
Qabala and Metals (theory)
The selection and obtaining of minerals and metals for the work (theory)

Metalic oil (Sulphurs)
The Theory

Six – The Processes

Extracting oils from gems with (simple) actuated vinegar (theory)

Preparing minerals for the work – raw, roasted and calcined (theory)
- Sulphides
- Oxides
- Glass of antimony

Preparing minerals for the work (the practice)
Macerating Minerals and Metals (the theory)
Macerating Minerals and Metals (the practice)
- Lye maceration (seven planetary metals)
- Vinegar maceration (seven planetary metals)
- Maceration by mineral acids (commercial and traditional)
- Maceration by the new method (seven planetary metals)

Separating the tincture of a metal from vinegar
- Distillation
- Evaporation and drying

Separating the tincture of a metal from a lye
- Neutralisation of the menstruum
- Collecting the kermes

Separating the tincture from the new solvent
- The peculiarities of separation from a solid solvent)
- The alternative (neutralisation)

The purification cycle of a raw metallic oil (theory and practice)
- Washing the oil
- Digestion
- Filtration
- Evaporation
- Grinding
- Peculiar nature of the cleaned sulphur

The preparation of a metallic oil for ingestion with ethanol
- The preparation of the ethanol
- Care of the dry sulphur before extraction
- The method of extraction (identifying the essence as opposed to the fixed portion)
- The last digestion
- Dosage (ingestion)

The yearly cycle of working with minerals (economically and energetically)

The Tertia or Great Work

Seven – The Various Paths

That there are various approaches to the work and what they are.
- The wet and dry ways as the primary mainstream approaches
- Literature of the dry way
- Alternatives to the two primary approaches

The history of the wet path (practitioners, authors of literature)
Comparing the literature/authors of both approaches (conclusions drawn therefrom)

Eight - The Equipment

The exact requirements (theory)
- Storage for maceration
- Incubation for maceration and digestion
- Circulation (as an alternative to maceration – Soxhlet and conventional)
- Distillation of solvent (retort and distillation train)
- Calcination (furnace options)
- Distillation of prima materia (retort or train)
- The philosophic egg
- Final digestion incubator

Cleaning and care of equipment used in mineral work

Nine – The Materials

The crude matter (in theory and practice)
The father of the prima materia
The prima materia (what it really is in theory and practice)
The traditional terminology for the materials (the confusion of tongues)
The choice of solvent
- First by Lye
- Then by Vinegar
- Finally by the new approach

Ten – The Main Process - Part One

The problems associated with preparing the chaos of the stone (in theory and practice)
- The gum sericon (azoth – the formless and void earth)
- The choice of menstruum for obtaining the gum
- Hollandus - his calcination water (the first solution to the problem)
- The purification cycle (the second solution to the problem)
- The digestion of the chaos (the third solution to the problem)

Extracting the elements from the chaos and their separation
- The first distillation
- Eliminating the acid
- The water             flood                The Waters
- The air                  eagle                The Spirit which moved upon the waters
- The fire                 lion                   The Light
- The earth              dragon              The Dry Ground

The purification of the principles
- The rectification of the crude Mercury
- The rectification of the Sulphur (the blood of the lion)
- The calcination of the Salt (fourth solution to the problem)

Eleven – The Internal Work

Active imagination
- Opening the First Gate
- Mastering trancework (T1)
- Communication with archetypes (T2)
- Understanding the cycle of experience (T3)
- Speaking the language of the unconscious (T4)

Spagyrics applied internally (T5)
- The Philosophers Mercury and Salt (Ruach and Nephesch)
- Understanding why your Mercury and Salt won’t harmonise
- The Role of Sulphur in the unification process (Neschamah)

Wedding the King and Queen (T6)
- The Middle Pillar Exercise

As above so below (T7)
- The relationship between the inner and outer worlds
- Taking advantage of the mirror effect for the purposes of cohobation

The Philosophers Stone (T8)
- Opening the Second Gate
- The Sulphur of the Wise (Neschamah)
- The Philosophers Stone (Yechidah)

Transmutation (T9)
- Internal transmutation and high magic
- Eliminating karmic debt

Opening the Third Gate (T10)
- The path from advanced adeptship to mastery

Twelve – The Process – Part Two

The purification of the principles
- The common volatisation of the Salt (fifth solution to the problem)
- The uncommon volatisation of the Salt (alternative fifth solution)

The Alkahest or Eagles Gluten (In theory and practice)
The Cohobation
Multiplication
Projection