HERBS / ALCHEMY "Simply put, this is a classic text on plant alchemy, or spagyrics, for the modern practitioner. . . . Anyone serious about learning alchemy needs to have a copy." --Mark Stavish, director of the Institute of Hermetic Studies and author of The Path of AlchemyThe practice of spagyrics is the application of ancient alchemical working methods in the preparation of tinctures, essences, and other products from medicinal plants. While ordinary tinctures and infusions use only a part of the great curative potential of plants, spagyric methods "open" medicinal plants completely to reveal their more powerful healing properties. Drawing on the rich imagery and symbolism of ancient source materials, Manfred M. Junius describes these methods in great detail, showing readers how to prepare plant remedies alchemically for their own use as well as imparting a knowledge of the ideological world in which alchemistic and hermetic thought flowered. Spagyrics includes the Plant Magistery of Paracelsus and the Life Elixir recipe of Andreas Libavius among its historic techniques as well as a wealth of scientific information that demonstrates the greater efficacy of alchemical methods of plant essence extraction. This classic source text preserves the nearly forgotten but highly valuable methods of this true hermetic art for preparing natural remedies.MANFRED M. JUNIUS (1929-2004) was a professor of biology at the University of Calcutta and later served as the production manager for spagyrics for Australerba Laboratories in Australia. He was also head of the Australian School of Ayurveda in Adelaide, Australia. His Western alchemical knowledge was obtained through many years of personal instruction from Augusto Pincaldi in Switzerland.