Making of Hyssop Stone

By Julia Griffin

Making of hyssop stone — this would be used in plant alchemy or alchemy in laboratory (plant stones and essences)

Everyone has their own methods of working but in the end when done with the separatory and purification parts of the alchemical work one should have at the very least 3 of the alchemical elements front of them. At minimum these would be the crystalline salts of the herb, its volatile essential oil -if the plant has any-, and of course the alcohol obtained from the herb or wine via distillation.

The job of the alchemist is then to combine these three in such a way that a union begins to take place, and the salts which outwardly seem hard and impervious begin to drink up the liquid fractions introduced to them. Drop by drop these liquid fractions are added, until the salts begin to change their nature and appearance. Slowly they become darker in color ranging from pale amber, to a deep rusty red. The salts become sticky and adhere to one another.

The above takes time and patience a minimum we have found of 3 months to bring about this state, and yet it is not done. For Nature left to her devises has a surprise, for the artist a marriage much spoken of but seldom seen, the union of opposites, into a singular new divine child. It is only through art, assisting Nature that her subject can be brought to such an exalted state. In the dark warmth of the incubator the many become one, what was solid, now flows, what was obstructive to light, is now translucent.

The work is now though just truly beginning for the nascent stone must be feed and tempered by the artist. Finally the red powder of projection is added and the final casting of the stone is made. Where before the gentle heat of one's own hand would have been enough to cause the stone to melt like wax, it now resist fluxing for it like the salamander has learned to love the flame. Do not think though that your stone can not flow for it can, as placing it in the oven at 200 F will bring about its fluxing but with no smoke. Too, if left out and exposed to the air, the stone will begin to run in time. We have heard people say that this should not be so, we refer them to "Collectanea Chemica" in which the Adept writes "You have, by carefully following our directions above, procured the tinctures, white or yellow, in the Vegetable Kingdom. The yellow is more efficacious if the work is well performed; either of them, by being exposed in the air, will soon run into a thick, essential oil, smelling very strong of the plant…"

Alchemy in the 21st Century — An Interview with John Reid by Julia Griffin.

Oil of Metal — Plant Alchemy by Julia Griffin.

Julia Griffin
PO Box 366
Clermont, Georgia 30527
770.983.1958
Email: info@onetrueself.com