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Artwork by Rosanna Hughes, BA Dip Ed. Earth - Air - Fire and Water
The Pharmageddon Herbal

Chapter 12.
 Spagyria 
by Ivor Hughes

Introduction
The history and development of pharmacy, is bound to the development of its solvents and carrier substances. Without them, pharmacy would have remained little more than a primitive art.

The development of those substances is inextricably bound to alchemy, and they are far older than is allowed by the party line advanced by orthodox pharmacy, e.g. Dioscorides is credited with introduction of wine as a solvent for medicinal substances, and closely followed by Galen, with vinegar, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

The �Iliad� of Homer is dated circa 750 BC, and in which Helen of Troy is said to have cast a substance called �Nepenthes� (Opium) into wine. The resulting potion was a specific to banish woes and sorrows. This we know is correct.

We may see that wine was in use as a solvent almost 1,000 years before Dioscorides. Orthodox pharmacy credits the introduction of alcohol (spirits of wine), to two Spanish alchemists of the 13th century AD, i.e., Arnold of Villanova and Raymond Lully, whose knowledge was based on that of the Arabic School of Alchemy, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian, Greek, Indian and Chinese schools, they all had sophisticated records, dating back circa 800 BC.

     The Exemplar Paracelsus
Spagyric Pharmacy, sometimes called Herb Alchemy, is the Royal Road of Medicine. Paracelsus stated that the true purpose of Alchemy, was not for the vulgar purpose of Gold making, but rather for the production of medicines. The term �Spagyria� is said to have been coined by Paracelsus, from the Greek. The essential meaning of which, was to draw out and then to bind.

�Solve et Coagula, et habebis magisterium�
Dissolve and recombine and you have the magistery.

The Medical Establishment of his day were followers of Galen the Greek, who was physician to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 � 180AD)

Let it be said, that Galen as Physician to the Emperor, would undoubtedly have been up with the latest medical vogue of the day. He also introduced a few innovations of his own. Wine vinegar as a solvent for herbal medicines is a good example.

The following is extracted from USD 1926 Monograph on Vinegar.


 
    The series of changes which occur during the acetous fermentation is called acidification. The following equations represent this change:

C2H6O + O = C2H4O + H2O
C2H4O + O - C2H4O
2

     Vinegar, when good, is of an agreeable, penetrating odor, and a pleasant acid taste. According to the Magnes-Lahens, wine vinegar always contains a little aldehyde. The better sorts of vinegar have a grateful aroma, probably due to the presence of an ethereal substance, perhaps acetic ether. The color of vinegar varies from water white to deep red. When long kept, especially when exposed to the air, it becomes ropy, acquires an unpleasant odor, putrefies, and loses its acidity.  The essential ingredients of vinegar are acetic acid and water, but, besides these, it contains various other substances derived from the particular vinous


 liquor from which it may have been prepared. 
     The Principal foreign substances which vinegar is liable to contain are sulphuric and sulphurous acids, and copper and lead, derived from improper vessels used in its manufacture.  Tin has been found in it after standing a short time in tin vessels.  The testing of vinegar for genuineness and purity involves so many complex factors that a  work on food analysis, such as that of Leach, should be consulted.
     Vinegar is at present used as a medicine only for its local astringent properties, and in the form of an enema diluted with three times it's bulk of water to kill seat worms. In the dermatitis produced by exposure to the sun made into a paste with glycerin, bismuth and starch, it is very effective.  In hemotemesis one ounce to a tumbler of water often acts very advantageously, and may be taken freely. At one time vinegar was largely used in pharmacy as a menstrumm, but on account of its tendency to undergo decomposition it has been replaced by diluted acetic acid in both the American and British Pharmacopeias.

Vinegar is a fine solvent of minerals, which makes it harshness in this realm, too fierce for the delicate structures found in plants. A herb contains hundreds of specific molecular structures which are linked to each other in harmonic patterns. Dilute Acetic Acid of the British Pharmacopoeia is 6% w/w with the limits between 5.7 and 6.3%. Those figures are the equivalent strength of the finest of the Malt and the Wine Vinegars. However it contains none of the virtues.

Plant structures are easily disrupted or rearranged thus destroying the natural synergy. The compounds are easily damaged or destroyed by excessive heat i.e. temperatures in excess of 60 Celsius and in some cases even lower. Remember that heat accelerates a reaction. The herb is also sensitive to the type of solvent used to extract its virtues. If the wrong solvent is used it may cause a precipitation reaction whereby the molecules clump and are thrown out of solution; Or worse still the constituents complex, and rearrange themselves into different entities. Consequently the temperatures employed and the type of solvent used are of vital importance if the extract is to remain viable. Complexing is also the consequence of the mixing of two or more plant drugs. Consequently such preparations are of dubious antecedents. These type of Galenic preparations were part of the orthodox medicine of the time.

Paracelsus, in front of his students, burnt the works of Galen. Let us not confuse the symbolism of this act, as some kind of petty attack upon the reputation of Galen, but rather as an attack on the Medical Establishment of the day. Who by their slavish following of academic diktat, totally ignored the evidence that Paracelsus had placed before them. This in the same manner, as the Establishment slavishly followed the �Phlogiston Theory�.

Paracelsus denounced Galenic Practice, and thus drew down upon his head the wrath of the Medical Establishment of his day. So once again he took to the road, healing as he went, dispensing his charity to the poor and oppressed. From his sickbed and two days before he died, he called the public notary to his bedside and dictated his will to distribute his meager possessions to the poor. 

The names of those that hounded Paracelsus to his death, have long since been consigned to obscurity, and are heard no more. Whereas the name of Paracelsus grows ever more luminous with the passing of the years. Who was Paracelsus ? Much has been written, but much lies hidden. The true import of his teachings are only now being realized, some 500 years after his death. Let Paracelsus speak for himself with some selected aphorisms;


Between heaven and earth there is a unity, reflected on one hand, in the real or supposed influence of the sun, stars and planets on the life of plants, animals and men, also on the medicines derived from them. On the other hand, in the repetition of the structures from which sprang the notions of Macrocosm and Microcosm.

The reason for this is that man does not know himself and does not know the energies hidden within him, and does not know that he carries the stars within, and that he is the Microcosm and thus within carries the whole firmament with all its influences.

To be a Physician means to receive a mission from God and to carry out His orders, or to fail without recourse.

If Nature is your Teacher your Soul will awaken

Everything that is within can be known by that which is without.

Medicine should be based upon truth and not verbal sleight of hand. Practice should not be based upon speculative theory; Theory should be derived from practice.

The nature and force of a disease must be discovered by their cause and not by their symptoms.

To give to each Nation its own type of medicine, the theoricam best suited to it, as it behooves. For I can well realize that my prescriptions may turn out to be ineffectual among the foreign Nations, and that foreign recipes may turn out to be ineffectual in our Nation. That is to say that I write for Europe, and I do not know whether Asia and Africa may profit from it.

The art of medicine is rooted in the heart. If your heart is false, you will also be a false physician; If your heart is just, you will also be a true physician.

All the remedies are on earth but we lack the men to gather them. They are ready to be harvested, but the reapers have not come. But one day the reapers of the right remedies shall come.

Blessed and thrice blessed is the physician who recognizes the Medicines in their living action, who knows how to obtain them and who knows that they are not dead. There are many medicines in the world which are already dead.

The Remedy is nothing but a seed which you must develop into that which it is destined to be.

In all things there is a poison, and there is nothing without a poison. It depends only on the dose whether a poison is a poison or not.

The Art of medicine consists in the extracting and not in the compounding, it consists of the discovery of that which is concealed in things, and not in compounding various things and piecing them together.

In one herb there is more force and power than all the papers. that are read in High College and are not fated to live long.

Nature is the physician not you. From her you must learn, not from yourself. She compounds the remedies not you. See to it that you find out where Nature has her pharmacies, where her virtues have been written down, and in what boxes they are stored.

And since the fit manner is not to be found in pharmaceutics, we explore further; that is to say that we must learn from Alchemian or Spagyria.   
Paracelsus 1493 - 1541


The Basis of Works 12.1
No system of knowledge can be fully understood, without first examining the body of ideas in which it is embedded. The core language of alchemy is based on seven philosophical pillars, i.e. four elements and three principles.

The four philosophical elements refer to the states of matter as follows;

The Philosophical Elements. Table 12.1A

Sign

Substance

Earth

Air

Fire

Water

State

Solid

Gaseous

Radiant

Liquid

By manipulating the philosophical elements, all manner of chemical tasks may be effected, and as testified by Carl Jung, the language of alchemy was precise, as well as beautiful. The three philosophical principles refer to the triad in all matter, animate or inanimate, they refer to the life principle in man and plants as follows;

The Philosophic Principles. Table 12.1B

Principle

Man

Plant

Condition

Operation

Mercury

Soul

Alcohol

Etheric

Distillation

Sulphur

Mind

Extractive

Mutable

Extraction

Salt

Body

Salts

Fixed

Calcination

By using the signs of the seven philosophical pillars in various combinations, precise operational instructions may be given to the adept, irrespective of language or culture. In addition to the elements and principles, there were approximately 300 other signs to cover the equipment and physical substances, upon which the alchemist operated. The possible permutations between 7 and 300 runs into the millions. It can be seen that 7 philosophic principles are the very epitome of �Occam�s Razor�.

To repeat;

No system of knowledge can be fully understood without first examining the body of ideas in which it is embedded. The examination is such a seemingly simple thing. Yet it is difficult, because it involves placing the ego to one side, and without prejudice, allowing the ideas to work upon the psyche. In this respect, the following quotation has relevance.

" To seek in Alchemy either a crude chemistry or a psychology in the modern sense of the word is to remain blind to the sacred view of nature and the doctrine of the unicity of the Cosmos which forms the foundations of all the traditional sciences, especially Alchemy which stands at the antipodes of the segmented and secularized world which forms the object or subject of study of both modern chemistry and psychology "

Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
Islamic Science

If our meditation is successful, we may verify by direct experience, that Professor Carl Gustav Jung was indeed correct in his assertion that, the �Collective Unconscious� performs its transactions by the use of Alchemical Symbolism to project archetypal patterns onto matter. This Spiritual Homeopathy brings matter to life by the transfer of what Jung called the �Anima Mundi� meaning the soul of the world. The point to be made here, is that the Masters of old had penetrated the portals of the psyche, and bought to the surface of the consciousness its existential basis, which is spirituality and not scientific materialism.

Metal and Mineral Transmutation 12.2
All is flux, all is in motion, all is transformation. The �raison d�etre� of Alchemy is transformation or transmutation, whether it be spirit or gross matter. By direct intervention, the object, or subject is raised to that which it is destined to be. The term �Transmutation�, is no longer a bone of contention.

In the realm of minerals or metals, gold and diamonds have been manufactured. What is in contention, is the level of energy required to bring about the transmutation. According to Science, high levels of energy are required, hence, the antagonistic furore over the matter of �Cold Fusion� . Which ignores the fact that all around us at bio-temperatures (37�C and under), Nature performs transmutations.

The science of chemistry is concerned with electron transfer. Nature deals with proton and electron transfer. Chemistry considers that elementary particles are made of the same stuff, e.g., protons are made of proton stuff, and Electrons are made of electron stuff. Therefore, the difference in the physical properties of the elements, are accounted for by the elements atomic weight, i.e., the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of the atom. Consider that the Gold makers traditionally used Mercury or Lead as the starting material for the production of gold. The following table shows the close relationship between Gold, Mercury and Lead.

Table 12.1A

Common Name Atomic Number Chemical Symbol Atomic Mass
Gold 79 Au 196 . 97
Mercury 80 Hg 200 . 59
Lead 82 Pb 207 . 19

Biological Transmutation 12.2a
Each one of us, every single manifestation of life, from the tiniest microbe, to the staggering complexity of the animal frame, is a miracle of transmutation. Who � when holding, and gazing into the knowing eyes, of a new born child who is a miracle of transmutation, can deny the undeniable ?

The following is an extract from a book by a distinguished French Scientist;


"Classical agriculture ( by this I mean the science that is taught in schools), is a huge imposture, which is frightening in its cynicism. It recommends the use of complete fertilizers, the word "complete" being identified with �N� �P� and �K�, as if these three elements were the only ones to be found in plants. Its basic postulate is to restore in quality and quantity, the soil�s elements taken from it by the yearly harvest. One may say that this agriculture has enclosed itself in a dilemma:

A. If the law of restitution is to be satisfied (whereby one implicitly recognizes that elements other than N, P, and K are taken away at harvest) , the plant would have to find these other elements in the soil in limitless amounts.

B. Or, plants themselves must make these elements found at harvest and not provided for by the soil. Implicit in this alternative, is a transmutation of elements through a biological channel."

Professor C. Louis Kervran
1901-1983

Nominated for the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology.

The quotation was taken from the English translation of his book.

Biological Transmutations by Professor C. Louis Kervran,
translation and adaptation by Michel Abehsera,
Happiness Press, ISBN 0-916508-47-1


Dr. Kervran was not the first to conduct experiments relating to biological transmutation. Some of the recorded historical experiments were carried out in the 19th century, some of which are listed below:

In 1822 an Englishman named William Prout, conducted an experiment whilst studying the incubation of chicken eggs. His findings demonstrated that the bodies of chicks, hatched in an incubator, contained more calcium than was originally found in the egg.

The founders of the Agricultural Research Station at Rothamstead, Lawes and Gilbert, in a series of classic experiments, found that plants appeared to extract more elements from the soil, than the soil actually contained.

In 1873, the analytic chemist, Albrecht von Herzeele, published a book entitled �The Origin of Inorganic Substances., which offered proof that plants transmute the elements, for example, Phosphorous into Sulphur - Calcium into Phosphorous - Magnesium into Calcium - Carbonic acid into Magnesium, and Nitrogen.

The publication of Professor Kervran�s work caused considerable controversy. Nonetheless, many scientists corroborated his experimental findings. For example ;

Professor Hisatoki Komaki, an agronomist at the Institute for Biological Agriculture (Otsu, Japan), presented a paper entitled: �Observations on Non-Radioactive Biological Cold Fusion, Using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae�, at the seventh International Conference on Cold Fusion in 1998. (Yeast of the sugar fungi tribe)

The paper describes how Komaki and his team performed a number of carefully controlled experiments, and were able to successfully verify that certain types of fungus can create iron and magnesium, by transmuting other elements.

Many other scientists have produced similar results from numerous experiments. The only workable hypothesis that can be derived from the combined results, would suggest that Enzymes, using some elements as the catalyst, have been performing proton chemistry, or transmutation on numerous elements of the Periodic Table. Quite obviously, these results present a problem for the keepers of the scientific sacred cows. They cannot do that, and neither do they know how it is done

Circadian Rhythms 12.3
The word �Circadian�, is from the Latin meaning �round about�, and it refers to those physiological rhythms that occur at least once every 24 hours, in the whole of nature. The knowledge of such rhythms is very ancient, and has been the subject of much study down the ages.

The Science of Biochronometry, or the measurements of life rhythms, is relatively new, and has developed its own language to hide the embarrassment caused by its root. For example, � Zeitgeber �, which is German for � Time giver �. The time giver is a so called biological clock. Science postulates that this clock resides somewhere within a living organism. However, so far science has not been able to identify or locate such a clock within any organism. The parent of Biochronometry, is Astrology.

Astrology and Circadian Rhythms 12.4
Astrology in its purest form is the study of rhythms, terrestrial and cosmic. Those rhythms are fundamental to our existence, irrespective of our sphere of activity.

By studying the organic patterns of heaven and earth
a fool can become a sage. So by watching the times
and seasons of natural phenomena we can become
true philosophers.

Li Chuan 735 AD.

A prerequisite for the establishment of a settled agricultural society, would be a knowledge of those organic patterns. A perusal of early writings on the subject will be sufficient to understand, that, irrespective of lack of instrumentation, that the knowledge was of high order, and applied as a matter of course to the affairs of our kind, and in particular to medicine. The following quotation is abstracted from; 

 �On Airs, Waters, and Places �. Attributed to Hippocrates, and Translated by Frances Adams.

Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place, to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces, for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes.

Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then, such as are peculiar to each locality. We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities.

From these things he must proceed to investigate everything else. For if one knows all these things well, or at least the greater part of them, he cannot miss knowing, when he comes into a strange city, either the diseases peculiar to the place, or the particular nature of common diseases, so that he will not be in doubt as to the treatment of the diseases, or commit mistakes, as is likely to be the case provided one had not previously considered these matters.

And in particular, as the season and the year advances, he can tell what epidemic diseases will attack the city, either in summer or in winter, and what each individual will be in danger of experiencing from the change of regimen. For knowing the changes of the seasons, the risings and settings of the stars, how each of them takes place, he will be able to know beforehand what sort of a year is going to ensue.

Having made these investigations, and knowing beforehand the seasons, such a one must be acquainted with each particular, and must succeed in the preservation of health, and be by no means unsuccessful in the practice of his art. And if it shall be thought that these things belong rather to meteorology, it will be admitted, on second thoughts, that astronomy contributes not a little, but a very great deal, indeed, to medicine. For with the seasons the digestive organs of men undergo a change.
Hippocrates 400 BC.

 

 

Hermetic Philosophy and Astrology. 12.5
Biochronometry grapples with its subject matter on the basis of an internal zeitgeber, or biological clock, that controls the rhythms of an organism. This supposition has produced more questions than answers. The Hermetic hypothesis postulates that the zeitgeber is a Cosmic Clock. It further considers that man is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Each organ system, and its corresponding controlling endocrine gland, is triggered by a planet. The following diagram will illustrate the hypothesis.

             Man as Microcosm. Figure 12.5A

The rising and falling hormonal tides are orchestrated by the pineal gland. By the same analogy the Sun is also considered a microcosm of a macrocosm, and that our sun revolves around its own sun. 

By what force are our hormonal buttons triggered? The short and simple answer is, �By Magnetism�. Each celestial body and each biological entity has its own magnetic field.

Voltage and Amperage, when introduced to a conducting wire, creates an electro magnetic field around the wire. This phenomenon is utilised by step up and step down electrical transformers.

If this magnetic field cuts across a conducting medium, it will cause a measurable current to flow in the conducting medium.

Thus, as the magnetic sheathing of our planet cuts across that of the other solar bodies, magnetic currents and their harmonics are induced and registered by our glands. The Chakras are the glands on the etheric level.

The diagram is from, 'The Theory of Celestial Influence by Rodney Collin'



�Each Endocrine Gland or its associated Nerve Plexus is sensitive to the magnetism of a particular Planet�
Rodney Collin�

The Hermetic Hypothesis and Scientific Corroboration. 12.6


 'The Scientific Basis of Astrology' by Dr  Percy Seymour. 
Published by W. Foulsham. Slough, U.K.

When this book was published, Dr. Seymour was the Principal Lecturer in Astronomy at the University of Plymouth, UK. In an interview, Dr. Seymour made the following statement;

"I am a scientist. As such I cannot propose or understand a model of reality which does not take account of scientific data. I am not an astrologer, in fact this theory developed out of an examination of the arguments that astrology cannot work!

As a theoretical astrophysicist, with an interest in the relationship between fundamental physics and the large-scale structure of the universe, I am searching, as are many others, for a model to explain the current anomalies and paradoxes in these areas that are beyond the domain of astrophysics i.e. biology, chemistry, and to my amazement, astrology."

The following are selected quotes from the book;

"It is now accepted by almost all scientists that the sunspot cycle effects the magnetic field of Earth, and the agency responsible for this effect, the solar wind, has been detected".

It is also beyond doubt that the moon causes tides in the upper atmosphere which give rise to electric currents, and these generate the lunar daily magnetic variation.

There is also plenty of evidence that both the steady state as well as the fluctuating behaviour of the geomagnetic field can be used by organisms, including man, for purposes of finding direction and keeping internal body time. This much is all well documented, and widely accepted.

There is evidence, largely ignored, that positions and movements of planets as seen from the sun, play a major role in the solar cycle. Furthermore, there is some evidence, highly controversial but difficult to dismiss, that some positions of the planets, as seen from Earth at time of birth and are linked to personality characteristics of individuals.

"This evidence exists. What my theory does, is to prepare an interpretation, based on this evidence, which can be scientifically tested. Very briefly the steps are:"

1. Planets effect the solar cycle in specific ways.
2. The solar cycle effects the geomagnetic field.
3. The geomagnetic field affects life on Earth in certain observed ways.
4. Specifically, many species, including man, can be influenced by particular states of the geomagnetic field.
5. The particular influences appear to correlate with the planetary positions.
6. I propose that the behaviour of the foetus, at the time of birth, is linked to the cycles within the geomagnetic field, which in turn are influenced by the solar cycle and positions of the planets. Resonance is the phenomenon by which the foetus is phase locked to specific cycles.

To put this in more specific terms, my theory proposes that the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, control the direction of the convective motions within the Sun, which generate the solar magnetic field.

They do so because they play the major role in moving the sun about the common centre of mass of the solar system. As the solar cycle builds up to a maximum, so certain configurations of all the planets, at different stages, play a part in the disrupting the magnetic field of the sun, by means of the tidal tug (due to gravitation), of the planets on the hot gases in the Sun.

Thus, the planets play a role in the modulation of Earth's magnetic field by the solar wind. I am also proposing that the tidal tug of the planets on the hot gases trapped within our magnetosphere will, because of resonance, lock some of the vibrations of the Earth's field in step with the planetary movements.

The resulting fluctuations of Earth's field, are picked up by the nervous system of the foetus, which acts like an antenna, and these synchronise the internal biological clocks of the foetus, which control the moment of birth.

The tuning of the foetal magnetic antenna is carried on by the genes which it inherits, and these, to some extent will determine its basic genetically inherited personality characteristics.

Thus, the positions of the planets at birth are not altering what we have inherited genetically, but are labelling our basic inherited personality characteristics.


Dr Seymour has not said anything, that science does not already know. What his words do is to underline the intellectual dishonesty which is so much in evidence in all of the present day scientific disciplines. He is a courageous and intellectually honest man who has challenged a shibboleth of science. A major problem for most of those disciplines is the rigid hierarchical structure that will bully or ruin those that would dare to step outside of its tightly controlled fiefdom. Any whiff of Vitalism is suppressed in case Academia has to rewrite its carefully structured mythology.

�All professions are a conspiracy against the laity�
George Bernard Shaw
1856 - 1950


The Solar Heartbeat. 12.6

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven;
A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up
that which is planted; A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down
and a time to build up.
Ecclesiastes 3 : 1-3.

From the most ancient of times, the rising of a certain star or constellation would herald the time to plant. Whilst the progression across the night sky would measure out the seasons until it was time to pluck up that which had been planted. The ancients knew when the natural sown healing plants were at their maximum potency, and gathered them thus. The later Masters knew that there was a time to break the plant down and a time to build it up. A specific time for each and every chemical step.

Consider the modern day �Sorcerer Apprentice�, in their clean white coveralls, hovering round their stainless steel fermenting vats. Microbes for nutrition and production; antibiotics and vitamins. Microbes in the service of man. Life in the service of life. They know how the carefully controlled, bubbling ferments may inexplicably slow or stop, and then for no apparent reason, recommence. Dr. Seymour has pointed, in the language of science, to the mechanism, whereby these common phenomena occur in living organisms.

But what of the countless laboratory technicians who have suppressed annoyance when a routine non organic chemical reaction fails to react. Then mysteriously, the reaction occurred later, with no intervention on their part. Eastern philosophy makes no distinction between animate or inanimate, between life and non life. It is considered that all is imbued with consciousness. Orthodoxy has drawn lines where no lines exist. The line that was drawn between life and non life, has become blurred.

All substances are magnetic. The science of physics has divided substances into 3 magnetic categories, they are;

1. Diamagnetic, e.g., Copper, Silver, Water
2. Paramagnetic, e.g., Air, Liquid Oxygen, Platinum.
3. Ferromagnetic, e.g., Magnetic Iron, Nickel, Permalloy.

Ferromagnetic substances exert strong lines of force when exposed to a magnetic field, for example, the familiar magnetic compass. Whereas the effect of Diamagnetic and Paramagnetic substances are so minute, that they need instrumentation for detection.

             The Magnetosphere of Earth. Figure 12.6A

The point to be made here, is that all matter, irrespective of its atomic composition, is affected by magnetic fields. Everything in our known universe is constantly bathed in fluctuating magnetic fields.

The transmission and reception of that electronic matter here on earth, has far reaching effects upon the whole realm of nature. Some of these effects are immediately obvious, such as light and heat. But what of those cycles which are linked to the 11 year Sun Spot cycle. Those great magnetic storms which buffet the magnetosphere of our own planet?

Moon as Magnetic Modulator 12.7
In Paragraph 12.6 the principle of electromagnetic induction was touched upon. A brief explanation of that principle is in order.

 

In 1820, a Danish physicist, Hans Christian Oersted, discovered that a magnetised needle is deflected, when placed next to a wire through which current is passing. This simple observation, led to speculation that a reverse effect also existed, i.e. that a current can be caused to flow in a conductor exposed to a magnetic field.

Eleven years later, in 1831, the English chemist and physicist, Michael Faraday, demonstrated that this was indeed true. Faraday also demonstrated that plane polarised light was rotated in a strong magnetic field, the significance of this is that it demonstrated the connection between light and magnetism. The following diagram illustrates the principle of electromagnetic induction.

           Electromagnetic Induction Figure 12.7A
The letter �A�, represents a coil connected to a sensitive galvanometer at �B�, which registers the strength and direction of a current. The letter �C�, represents the North pole of a bar magnet.

When the bar magnet is introduced into the coil, and whilst in motion, a current is induced in the coil, which registers on the galvanometer.

When the bar magnet is at rest, the current ceases to flow. If the bar magnet is then removed, the current will again flow, but in the reverse direction, as shown on the galvanometer.

The significance of this is, that an Electro Motive Force (EMF) is induced in a conductor whenever the magnetic flux is changed.

Thus we have an image of our star, the Sun pouring out electronic matter, whilst the moon passing across the face of the earth, interrupts or modulates the Solar Flux. The moon also performs the same function when it interrupts the flux of those stars that form our Zodiac.

Solar Eclipse and the Saros Cycle. 12.8
The moon produces the phenomenon that we call a solar eclipse. At such times, the solar outpouring of electronic matter is, to all intents and purposes, halted or deflected. As an analogy, we may think of an electric bulb and a switch. The moon performing the function of the solar switch.

The interruptions of the solar flux occur on a cyclic basis and are, therefore, predictable. The discovery of this cycle has been attributed to the Chaldean civilisation, and named by them, �Saros� . The cycle of Saros lasts for 18 years and 11 days, after which, it repeats itself. During that cycle, 28 total eclipses are observed in different parts of the world. In addition to that figure, we must also take into account the partial eclipses.

Chapter 12 of the Pharmageddon Herbal consists of two modules. This first module has been concerned with giving an outline of the body of ideas within which the Pharmacy of Spagyria is performed, and why timing of the various operations are set by the Cosmic Biological Clock. As the Hermetic Dictum states .. 'Ever follow the footsteps of Nature and let her be your guide'. The Pharmaceutical operations follow.

Spagyric Part 2.
Spagyric Part 3.

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