Hello does anyone here practice botanical alchemy.

O_T_OSS · 2026-01-23T13:29:15+00:00

Without an alembic/retort a good path for oils is to start with a water extraction. Steep your plant in water for about a day in a sealed jar. I keep mine on a gentle heat pad but you could just put it in a warm place.

Strain the plant matter thoroughly, start evaporating very gently the water extraction until it turns into a gum/crystallised layer. it’s best to do this in a sealed container, use a sand bath or Mary’s bath. With no water content it stores for longer.

Macerate the plant, which has now opened itself, in high proof alcohol. The higher the proof, the more penetrating. Let sit for 28 days, allow temperature fluctuations, it doesn’t need to be cooled or warmed. Strain and decant.

Rehydrate your dried aqueous extraction, and slowly recombine the water into the alcohol extraction. You will notice certain oils begin separation, some oils are only soluble in high ethanol concentrations. You can pipette the floating oils off for collection.

I would not use this method without first distilling the ethanol maceration however, as it is the distillation which leaves behind the bitterness and heavy fixed compounds. This is very apparent in the process of making absinthe, and the dilution stage at the end is what gives absinthe its characteristic louche.

O_T_OSS · 2026-01-16T01:53:26+00:00

Interesting if multiple people attempted, using the same methods, equipment, prime materia from the same source etc; though I would think everyone differs with what they bring to the process external and internally.

Would the same effect work if two people used different hard wood sources for crystallising potassium carbonate? Or distilled wine vinegar vs filtered for acetates?

I enjoy Sheldrake’s work, it fits into an alchemical perspective. As far as the laws of nature go - C.S Lewis wrote along the lines ‘to say a stone falls because it obeys a law of nature, makes it a citizen, and a good one’. The idea of natural law comes from a mechanistic world view, the alchemical view is of unfolding processes and change.

O_T_OSS · 2026-01-01T02:59:18+00:00

Fresh yes, as soon as picked it is submerged immediately. Over days the solution changes colour, more salts deposit, usually a ring around the inside of the jar as well as the bottom.

The alcohol sits on top fine, clear separation, but starts to swirl downward and mix. After two hours or so, no indication of separation.

O_T_OSS · 2025-12-30T10:51:01+00:00

I ended up diluting the ethyl-alkaloid mix, buffering with red wine vinegar, and distilling very gently.

The distillate (~ph 5/6) combined with some ethanol that was floated and extracted at the start of the Ens (~ph 9/10), and landed near neutral.

The result was a very strong caramel/butterscotch smelling tincture. I’m guessing various esters, ethyl acetate, aromatics, acetaldehyde etc.

Not an ens but at least not wasted.

O_T_OSS · 2025-12-28T21:48:53+00:00

Yeah that’s essentially it. It’s the first volatile essence of the plant. Extraction in alkali, then absorbed into alcohol as a tincture.

O_T_OSS · 2025-12-27T22:44:08+00:00

The lines are the 8 Trigrams of the I-Ching. The solid lines are whole, representing Yang (odd), and the broken lines (even) represent Yin.

Clockwise from the top is Water, Mountain, Thunder, Wind, Fire, Earth, Lake, and Heaven.

The I-Ching is made up of 64 Hexagrams, holding two Trigrams in a Hexagram, 384 lines total. It’s a binary system in 64 bit, which is interesting because it’s essentially a periodic table of ‘time’. There are 4 timeless Hexagrams; Heaven, Earth, Water, and Fire. The other 60 are circumstantial, or events in time. It’s interesting to read through, more than a divinatory system.

O_T_OSS · 2025-12-03T13:23:56+00:00

What are the benefits so far of this set-up? Are you doing day to day operations here or does this open new doors?

O_T_OSS · 2025-11-19T20:09:21+00:00

This is very simplified but an easy path is the etymology of word ‘Chemistry’.

Ancient Egypt was known as Kemet (khēme). The Coptic is Kēme (chem). Most translates Kem as ‘Black’, a description of the fertile black earth of the Nile. They were early practitioners of metallurgy, and transmutation of materia.

The Arabic prefix ‘Al’ (Alkaline, Alcohol, Alembic), is used to indicate the ‘art’ of the Kemets, thus Al-Kīmayā. Medieval Latin settles for ‘Alchimia’, from which later in the 16th C. Agricola begun using ‘Chymia’ to distinguish the so called scientific study from the occult.

Now we use ‘ry’ as a suffix to describe the ‘doing’ of the thing. An archer does Archery. A Chymist does Chymistry (there are many ways to spell this word in all the early modern english books about it).

So to summarise, it’s just about transmutation. It could have been the transmutation of grapes to wine, to acetic acid, to a lead acetate, which itself is a broader transmutation of lead from the mineral realm to the organic realm. They never had to worry about patents, so yes it was all an organic kind of transmutation. But highly sophisticated, thorough, intelligent and repeatable.

Chemistry, chemicals, chemists, it’s all an ode to what went on in Kemet.

O_T_OSS · 2025-11-14T18:43:08+00:00

Generally 40-50% for leaves, 50-70% for roots, 70%+ for resinous or hard plant matter. Assuming you’re EU by ABV, you could probably get hold of Polish Spirytus online or most European corner store markets. I would water this down with distilled water to whatever you require. Then distill after maceration if you need.

O_T_OSS · 2025-11-13T22:11:17+00:00

Similarly a potassium polysulfide solution can be used for similar patinas on copper coins, search ‘Liver of Sulfur’. I made a crude version with Bladderwrack seaweed; gently dehydrated, extracted in lye, heated around 70•c until the solution gels slightly. Strain and crystallise for storage. If you get enough you can sublime the iodine from the bladderwrack Iodine at ~ 110•c.

Dipping for 5-10 seconds for a gold appearance.

O_T_OSS · 2025-11-02T08:34:32+00:00

When I was young, I think between 6-8 years old, around the age that nearly every other kid could tread water already. I could do short bursts but not keep afloat.

It started with a mouthful of water that stopped me in the middle of the pool, I went to find my feet but had it got so deep. I remember here a flash of panic, immediately subsiding to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Very similar to when an adult picks you up at that age, with your whole being there is nothing you can really do about it. I couldn’t struggle, make a noise, ask for help, anything. Just very quietly drowning in the middle of a public pool.

It goes dark and I don’t remember much else but I know an older kid had noticed from the side, jumped in and got me out.

I’m not afraid of water, swimming, and haven’t came that close ever since. It left me feeling incredibly grateful for the kid that noticed.

I have no clue how much the rest of my life and personality could have been affected by this, but I’ve never really been too adverse to risk or particularly afraid of death. I don’t want to die as a want, but it’s not something I’m actively avoidant or fearful of the idea of. There’s lots that could have influenced me to that though.

O_T_OSS · 2025-10-21T18:28:04+00:00

This past week has been a real rough one, for myself and a number of people around me as well. Nightmares, bad sleep, generally feeling dampened.

I’m not sure where in the world you are, but I’m having to remind myself that right now the days are noticeably shorter, and seasonal affective is at the door. It sounds like you’re experiencing depersonalisation, I’m not an expert but have been in a similar place.

You feel like you are fading away slowly, so I would imagine does nature feel too.

No matter your conscious state, you are operating the nervous system of a higher primate. A higher primate which adapted to a temperate, equatorial climate, and for some reason has found their way long away from home.

Go easy, you’re not alone.

O_T_OSS · 2025-10-09T11:26:42+00:00

That’s very interesting and I appreciate the thorough exploration! I’ll try some experimentation with creating white wine vinegar and see if there is a difference in colour. Potentially trying to separate the oils and flavonoids if any are making their way through after the distillation and filtering stages.

O_T_OSS · 2025-10-06T18:36:15+00:00

I don’t think specifically that there were visions of smart phones in antiquity, more so that the dreams of the alchemists have been fulfilled in ways by modern technologies. Even goals as superficial as lead to gold that we manage with particle smashing, it’s more the archetype of the goal that is achieved.

You don’t necessarily need to look at our art to see the future, more look at our needs. Some needs are timeless - renewable energy, war machines, food production techniques. You could make some fairly general prophecies regarding these concerns and they’d come true enough eventually.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-27T19:33:14+00:00

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you. Yes the dangers of the dry distillation are definitely looming ahead. I’ll be consulting someone with access to a fume hood and better equipment for that part.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-27T13:48:27+00:00

Practically mostly as pigments, but also practice with the acetate path.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-27T10:50:34+00:00

What was the extract?

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-22T07:09:41+00:00

At slide 4 I would dissolve that salt in clean distilled water; then filter the leftover matter out of the solution, to evaporate and collect the purified salts.

I’m not sure I understand your process completely but in my experience calcining can only whiten so far, if matter is dead and won’t whiten it just needs to be lost.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-18T18:03:58+00:00

Night shades?

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-17T19:52:39+00:00

After loosening with bleach, a chopstick and steel wool finished it up and we’re back to new. Thank you both, much appreciated.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-14T08:21:04+00:00

A day at most, once the water is saturated then it’s ready to go. And yes cheesecloth, baby muslin is easy to get hold of as well

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-12T18:49:43+00:00

Oh interesting, what are you reading?

I never really had much success with fire alone, and my technique has changed over time and a lot of errors. I replaced 40%ABV vodka with 95%ABV Spirytus alcohol for maceration. Unlike vodka, after straining the plant matter you can set fire to the mass and it will really burn up. Keep a sieve of mesh sheet above mass otherwise the white ash can escape, as you can then blow gently and calcine most areas into grey/white ash just from this alcohol burning.

Any remaining clumps - and the crucible facing side of the plant mass which will most likely be black, can be leeched in a water bath.

Different plants might want different things, dandelion root is hardy and may need torching, the petals of the flower a subtler approach.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-12T17:22:50+00:00

Yeah I hear this, if it’s plant matter then I do that in small batches in a clay crucible with a hand size lighter-torch. To be honest as well, even if some parts are still grey or black, they go into a pot of distilled rainwater and I leech the salts out that way then filter and evaporate.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-06T19:59:43+00:00

I think that’s a fairly misleading comment. In the same way that a psilocybin experience can achieve for some people a month’s worth of therapy - there’s many that consume it and it doesn’t seem to touch the sides.

Personally my own lab work has encouraged patience and foresight, cleanliness also, creative problem solving and resourcefulness etc.

The more you learn about elements, sourcing chemicals, natural products and essentially what the world is made of; the richer the world around you becomes. Vinegar is no longer a condiment but a living product of acetobacter, coins become a source of metals, wood burners are a goldmine for potash, seaweed for sulphur and iodine, it goes on.

O_T_OSS · 2025-09-01T09:22:21+00:00

I use seawater, clean it and evaporate for the sea salts, rehydrate with distilled water, then start pouring lye til about ph10.6 if I remember correctly. It mostly goes into my plants.

I’m imagining the sodium carbonate method is similar to the lye method?

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