Are the Alchemy and Spagyric Arts of Hermetic Herbalism of 400 years ago relevant in our times?
Are you curious, as a I am, about alchemy and spagyric herbalism? Or, are you not new to these terms and ways, but think are there things you’d like to know about them, from a more modern perspective?
If you’re curious, I think you’ll find that Hermetic Herbalism delivers much more than information. Hermetic Herbalism offers a rational view and logical connections between seemingly disparate subjects: human beings in health or illness, astrology and the planetary influences, and spagyric medicine-making.
Told by translator R. Bailey, who makes it possible for English readers to know Jean Maveric, this book considers methods and philosophies of hermetists from the Age of Enlightenment (17th-19th centuries) in Europe.
What is this book about, from the first page on?
Hermetic Herbalism: The Art of Extracting Spagyric Essences by Jean Maveric. Edited and Translated by R. Bailey, 2020. Published by Inner Traditions.
Hermetic Herbalism is a collection of wisdom and beliefs about plants and their natural influencers—the sun, moon and planets—as taught by a French practitioner who lived about 100 years ago, perhaps until the 1920s or 1940s.
A master-instructor-herbalist of his times, Maveric begins by stating the spiritual beliefs of hermetism. Beginning with the First Thought, of Divine origin, he relates substance and matter in our universe to the laws of creation. Spagyrists, Maveric states, strive to re-acquire the basis of matter in combination with spirit by means of alchemy.
So, there is a spiritual structure that supports the spagyric art. Among other things, it validates the medicinal value of plants. Otherwise there is no basis for believing that medicines cure disease. Maveric says the objective is to refine matter to its quintessential core. And only such medicine is suitable because it unites matter and spirit, thereby encouraging the body to heal.
The properties of plants
The properties of plants as medicines appear as in Renaissance times, occupying 1st, 2nd or 3rd order of healing properties. These three orders or levels correspond at the first level to stronger herbs, at the second level to milder herbs such as alteratives, digestives, etc. and more such at the third level along with calmatives and wound-healing herbs.
Three post-Renaissance-era physician-scientists (16th-18th centuries in Europe) organized features of plants, the herbs and vegetables and flowers that we deem healing. Key plants were organized according to taste and other actions for a grand total of 618 plants. All of these are delineated in the Index of Common and Index of Scientific Plant Names.
A materia medica, of sorts, the features and properties of plants begin in the first chapter, right after the discussion of the creative force. As a consequence, the reader will not get lost in philosophy, but rather be able to apply new ideas to familiar plant material of the Northern Hemisphere, e.g. in French and European kitchens and medicines.
On the spagyric art
Maveric’s instructions in the spagyric art are full of detail on equipment and process. A reader familiar with chemical processes could approximate, even achieve, a hermetically derived quintessence.
There are 4 parts to the spagyric process. Method, equipment, and source of heat are an obvious trio. The fourth element is time, which makes these processes rather repetitive and of long duration.
One of the things I noted was the names of different kinds of flasks. I counted 9 words for vessels, all similar to flask but with variations, in which to place material ready for heating!
The variety of flasks required, certainly the instructions as well, are a tribute to the chemistry of the 1600s, which imitated and improved on the spagyric history and art of more ancient days.
References to special humoral and plant data
Paging through Hermetic Herbalism will net the reader some points of reference that might be quite handy. For example, I can easily find the characteristics of the four bodily temperaments—Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Melancholic— and illnesses that can arise when imbalanced. Also, the action of the four elements upon them—Air, Fire, Water and Earth—are cataloged.
The zodiac signs as signatures of the plants
Maveric provides charts delineating Houses, bodily structures, and the seasons, year-round, when planting or harvesting is best.
However, I’m basically unacquainted with how to work with astrological calculations. And while I can appreciate that the movement of planets impacts human life, I don’t have a notion on why! Where Maveric’s diagrams are instructive for someone conversant with astrology, I can at best appreciate the concepts.
In the account of “Planetary Natures…” there is a brief characterization for each planet, followed by its attributes. Checking through the attributes I can identify one that matches an illness in nature or temperament, etc. That much helps me to roughly approximate the planetary ruler of a disease.
Then, with the example of a planet’s influence and its associated plants, the planetary influence of the Sun is the element of Fire. And the element of a temperament such as Choleric, is also Fire. So, I can be reasonably sure also that plants ruled by the Sun would augment, or increase the Fire temperament or the element of Fire in a human body.
Correspond Plant Signatures to Planetary Influences
According to Maveric’s “Astral Medicine…”, a person who suffers should be treated with a medicine that closely resembles the astral nature of the disease. I can find these correspondences in the zodiac signs of plant signatures.
In the case where the person’s temperament makes them age too quickly, the remedy should follow a diet contrary to their dominant humor. So, if the temperament of the person who suffers is hot and dry, they will become balanced with their temperamental opposite, with cold and wet foods like asparagus or cucumber that mitigate those hotter influences.
Does a reader need a background in astrology?
In practice, a stronger background in astrology might help in choosing and administering a remedy. More to the point, knowledge of astrology would be key to understanding whether a remedy will cure a disease. And I suspect there are subtleties of this I need to explore further. Accordingly, the circular strategy of checking associations and re-checking until the answer becomes clear is common in scientific and thus hermetic principles.
What was my experience?
Reading the book provided a link with very early or premodern chemistry by way of a 20th century French adherent to hermetism, Jean Maveric.
Maveric presumes readers are knowledgeable and perhaps skilled with respect to either astrology or medicine making. If not, he says, skip over the unfamiliar parts of the text and experiment with the plants or areas you know. Therefore, a lack of skill is not hugely detrimental to grasping the concepts in the book.
Even without solid preparation in astrology, I can do research mid-stream in the text, and come back to the pages of Hermetic Herbalism a little more awake to the concepts in chemistry of the 1600s.
Such participation I think is really delightful and rarely found—that what’s presented gives me cause to look outside the text for more information. And that motivates me to develop a knowledge base in the subject—something I lacked at first. From now on I won’t be able to pass up an article, book or conversation on astrology, hermetism, alchemy, spagyrics or the cultural disposition of medicine in history.
Who knows? Since humans tend to repeat themselves, Alchemy and the Spagyric Arts of Hermetic Herbalism from 400 years ago may become relevant for our times. And we may be looking more closely at the spagyric arts in the future of herbal medicine.
Locate the book online:
Hermetic Herbalism: The Art of Extracting Spagyric Essences by Jean Maveric at Inner Traditions.
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