An alchemist lecture: The Preparation of Lemon Balm

This is an online lecture that an alchemist gave to a group of fellow occultists in 2010. Lemon balm elixir is of particular importance to alchemy in that it is often one of the first elixir's an alchemist prepares and as discussed in the lecture one they often take the rest of their life as an alchemist. Its claimed to provide rejuvinating effects as well as the ability to extend the lifespan of the alchemist. This was part of a series of lectures. Only the initial one has been transcribed here. The names have been changed to give anonymity to the participants. If you're interested in learning more about alchemy I would recommend contacting the International Alchemy Guild. Their website is at www.alchemyguild.memberlodge.org. This particular document wasn't produced by the guild or endorsed in any way by them. Alchemist: This lecture has been designed for a very entry level student so it shouldnt be above anyone at all At anytime, just feel free to ask any questions at all, i only ask yous to think about the question and its relevance before you ask im not interested in questions such as...how would you use the ens to charge a wand etc Guest 1: Better tell them what the Ens is before they get any ideas :)

Alchemist: Its an alchemical lecture focused on lab work and as we dont have much time,
better to remain focused. Before i start has anyone made the Ens melissa before? Guest 1: Not me, not yet anyway Alchemist: I understand its late for most, so i wont rush too much. ok faust, i have made it roughly 7 times,the first time around 2000. I have used both dry and fresh herb several times to see if there was any serious difference Guest 1: Was there a difference? Alchemist:yes and no. Yes there was a difference in some colour results. There wereno difference in effects. I eventually grew the herb myself. It takes over gardens easily and is very resistant to most conditions except frost. Severe frost anyways. Ok...im gonna begin the lecture in a second. Does anyone want to say anything before i get into it? Guest 2: what is Ens Melissa? Alchemist:according to Paracelsus it is the first being of the herb melissa officianalis. First being being the most pure aspect of it Guest 3: so its a vegetable stone? Alchemist:no its not a stone, a plant stone is designed to pull a quintessence from any plant. The Primum Ens Melissae. This lecture will outline what has become a very popular

topic in the wider alchemical community, I say wider because upon a cursory net search you can easily find upwards of 10 different pages commenting on the Ens in various manners, whereas 10 years ago you would be lucky to find 2 pages of information regarding this important Herbal preparation. The Primum Ens Melissa is as I mentioned above, a herbal preparation using as its primary subject the Plant Melissa officianalis, more commonly known as Lemon balm. Lemon Balm grows easily in moderate climates and is readily available. This particular method of preparing the Ens was first outlined (as far as I know) by Paracelsus, and can be found in a book called The life and doctrines of Paracelsus by Franz Hartmann. From memory its at the end of the book as an annex Guest 4: so it is some kind of vitality infusion? Alchemist:it does contain vitality indeed!But thats not classical alchemical nomenclature Guest 4: I'm new to this, so trying to figure out some basic things Alchemist:which is what I am trying to portray this in. I've only just begun...ride with it for a while and then see if things become clearer. The primary reason for attempting the Ens is that it is a species of Herbal remedies that have rejuvenating properties. I know of one person in particular who had legendary results with the Ens. I met this person around 2002. He was given a sample by my first alchemical teacher and had alot of classic symptoms. His finger and toe nails fell out and regrew but he was old and quite ill so the results for someone like him are much more extreme. Ingesting the Ens helps the alchemist keep good health in mind and body while extending his natural life span allowing him the greatest possible chance of solving the greater problems in the alchemical journey, the confection of the Philosophers stone and the Elixer of life. In other words its like a side kick. Its not the goal but it seriously helps in achieving it We are very fortunate with this particular process handed down to us by the Thrice greatest as it requires very little complicated equipment and is very easy to make. But as with many of the classic alchemical receipts handed down to us, there is a lengthy, so called more natural way to the goal, and a much more direct process to the goal. Its up to our own personal predilection to decide which way we want to go, but I have done both ways (largely) and can say that there is little difference in the quality of the end product, which as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Before I go on to much of a meandered rant let me show you the original recipt and then we can go through a blow-for-blow description of the process in order to come to some small understanding of what exactly the Primum Ens Melissae is. I will now paste the complete orginal receipet and gives yous a few minutes to look over it before i continue

Now to be distilled, and the alcohol evaporated until it becomes of the thickness of a syrup, which is the Primum Ens Melissae; but the alcohol that has been distilled away and the liquid potash may be used again. The liquid potash must be of great concentration and the alcohol of great strength, else they would become mixed, and the experiment would not succeed.'" Guest 4: is this a full text. It seems cutted Alchemist:thats the annex in the book i had Theres another small piece to it but its got nothing to do with how to make it Guest 5:i dont see anything..jumps right to distillitation and evaporation? Alchemist:ok I will repost in smaller jumps Guest 5: Thanks Alchemist:'The Primum Ens Melissae is prepared in the following manner: Take half a pound of pure carbonate of potash, and expose it to the air until it is dissolved (by attracting water from the atmosphere). Filter the fluid, and put as many fresh leaves of the plant melissa into it as it will hold, so that the fluid will cover the leaves. Let it stand in a well-closed glass in a moderately warm place for twenty-four hours. The fluid may then be removed from the leaves, and the latter thrown away. On the top of this fluid absolute alcohol is poured, so that it will cover the former to the height of one or two inches, and it is left to remain for one or two days, or until the alcohol becomes of an intensely green colour. This alcohol is then to be taken away and preserved, and fresh alcohol is put upon the alkaline fluid, and the operation is repeat This alcoholic fluid is now to be distilled, and the alcohol evaporated until it becomes of the thickness of a syrup, which is the Primum Ens Melissae; but the alcohol that has been distilled away and the liquid potash may be used again. The liquid potash must be of great concentration and the alcohol of great strength, else they would become mixed, and the experiment would not succeed.'" finis I'll give you some more time to read over then ill go blow for blow. ok lets get into it proper 1) Take half a pound of pure carbonate of potash, and expose it to the air until it is dissolved (by attracting water from the atmosphere). This is the starting amount of pure potassium carbonate the author recommends us to start with, the reality here is, is that the amount needed is totally dependent on the amount of Herb we will be working with. If we have a large amount of herb, say 2 pounds, then the amount of saturated tartar water required will be greater. To sum it up, more herb, more solvent needed to extract its

essential nature. To obtain pure potassium carbonate there are basically 2 ways. One is by calcining (burning) the plant material to leech its salts (which is largely pot carb), the other way is to buy commercial grade potassium carbonate. I can assure you that both forms of the salt behave exactly the same. I wont go into minute detail here on how to obtain plant salts via calcinations as it can be readily found in other places on line. Next the author instructs us to expose the pot carb to the air..this statement has caused a whole lot of confusion and outright stupidity within the alchemical community. The entire purpose of exposing the pot carb to the atmosphere is to obtain a saturated menstruum (solvent used to macerate the herb for example). Others have insisted that the Ens wont work if its not exposed to the spiritual radiation, or secret fire, issuing from the Sun. This goes against a common saying bellowed throughout classical alchemical literature that goes something like this....nothing is added to our subject, only the impure taken away.... This absolute need for an outside or foreign thing being needed for an alchemical preparation to be effective is basically clinging to the magic bullet theory. This is the same theory chemists turned wanna be alchemists practice. The belief being that if they work with enough solvents and strange matters long enough, that they will come upon this magic substance that will rush them to the greatest goals in this divine art. am i going too fast and are there any questions before i go onto the next passage? Guest 2:speed is good Alchemist:2) Filter the fluid, and put as many fresh leaves of the plant melissa into it as it will hold, so that the fluid will cover the leaves. Let it stand in a well-closed glass in a moderately warm place for twenty-four hours. The fluid may then be removed from the leaves, and the latter thrown away. So we have our saturated salt water and now we are asked to place as many leaves into the container holding the water as possible. This goes back to what I said previously, the more salt-water you have, the more herb you can use. Contrary to popular opinion it is acceptable to quickly pulse the herb in a blender with a little of the Tartar water, this also helps in being able to add more herb. Because the most pure parts of anything is very small, the more starting matter you begin with, the more pure aspects of the matter you will end up with...simple logic really.

The author now instructs us to gently warm the mixture and to keep it like this for 24hours. This time frame is just a guideline, you can keep the herb macerating for weeks or months, it wont be detrimental at all. The basic rule of thumb is that the next stage is ready when the water has taken on a very dark tea like colour. One author I will name, mark stavish has said in one of his books that you don t want to heat or boil the herb mixture because it will damage the subtle principals. Alchemist:This is rubbish and a lack of understanding. If that was the case when we distil our alcohol from an alchemical herbal chaos it would destroy various elements due to the heat, the same logic can be applied to steam distillation of herbal sulphurs (oils and resins). The point being, yes you can heat the tartar/herb mix, it has actually proved most efficacious. I usually heat it til it just gently simmers and what this does eventually is that it allows the Ens to be seen floating on top of the mix as a green oil...this is a good sign! The leaves don't have to be thrown away, you can calcine them and get more pot carb if you so wish. Any questions thus far? 3) On the top of this fluid absolute alcohol is poured, so that it will cover the former to the height of one or two inches, and it is left to remain for one or two days, or until the alcohol becomes of an intensely green colour. This first point is extremely important, if your alcohol is not very very strong it will not float on top of the herb water but will sink into it and you will never separate it again properly. Basically it is ruined. The best way to make sure your spirit is strong enough is to place some pot carb into it, shake it about for a few minutes and then syphon off the top layer. The pot carb will consume any residual water re Once again the amount of alcohol you place on top of the herb water is totally a personal thing as is the amount of time you leave it floating on top.maining in the alcohol. Practice has shown that the alcohol will tinge (pick up the ens) almost immediately, especially if you There is a real secret concerning the amount of time the spirit is left one...the longer its left on, the more brownish-golden it becomes, theres a reason for this that I will hopefully explain some other time. Often times a bright green tinctured spirit is not seen, sometimes its a mixture of green and brown, or just brown. have heated the herb so the Ens will be floating on top before the spirit is placed on it.

Theres no hard and fast explanation of why this is, but the general consensus is that whatever colour you get the end results are basically the same. Guest 3: so green and brown are ok. Any colors to watch out for? Alchemist:they are the two primary coloured tinctures you get with The Ens. The green is considered better, but not enough research has gone into it to prove that conclusion. Sometimes you will get a green tincture initially then it will turn brown in a few hours Guest 2:does fresh leaves verses dryed leaves each lean to one side of green or brown? Alchemist:yes there is a correlation between dried and fresh and brown and green

Alchemist:it all has to do with saturation Guest 3: does fresh leaves result in less water being obsorbed from your alcohol by the PotCarb Alchemist:fresh herb required some additional pot carb in the mix as it adds some water to it. but in saying that, some salt will leech out of the fresh herb as you can see salts slowly fall out of suspension. As long as your solution is saturated the alcohol will float Guest1: Is there anything in this formula we should be aware of for issues of toxicity especially with the potassium carbonate? Alchemist:faust..pot carb isnt especially toxic to humans. It will make you very dehydrated but its the basic salt of all plant life hence very safe to work with. We arent ingesting the tartar water mix its just the engine that gets us the Ens Anything else? ok 4) This alcohol is then to be taken away and preserved, and fresh alcohol is put upon the alkaline fluid, and the operation is repeated until all the colouring matter is absorbed by the alcohol. This alcoholic fluid is now to be distilled, and the alcohol evaporated until it becomes of the thickness of a syrup, which is the Primum Ens Melissae; What the author is saying here is to repeat what you have just done, after removing the tinctured alcohol, which you must do with great care so as not to grab any of the liquid beneath it, you place more alcohol on top, and keep removing and replacing until the spirit will no longer colour (tinct). Thats fresh alcohol replaced each time and it must be strong each time From here theres a few things you can do, you can just add all the spirit batches together and digest slowly in a warm place for as long as you wish. Digestion helps to create more quintessential particles over time. its these new forms of evolution that actually has the profound effect on our systems. What these products are trying to acheive is to greatly acclerate our evolution. What the

philosophers stone does to a base metal is to greatly speed up the base metals life. Its like for example, if we could grab an acorn trees seed and within 15 minutes speed up its life cycle so its fully grown. Thats what the PS does to a metal and thats what the elixer and to a lesser degree the Ens, does to us Or you can simply add all the spirit together and distil like the author suggests and keep going until you have a thick oil left behind. Or you can simply evaporate until you get the same condition..a thick oil. I would suggest halving your Ens at the spirit stage and saving half to digest for many years and using the other half as a medication in the present. The Ens truely is a quintessence as it contains the natural oils from the plant, the mercury/spirit from the plant, but most importantly it also contains volatile plant salts in its mix which can be proven by some simple experiments which I wont go into detail now. That is basically the finish of my lecture today... If you have any further questions now please ask Guest1: What are the effects most people get if they are still relatively healthy? Alchemist:good question Guest 2:do you have time to say how to make potcarb from plant mater Alchemist:ill answer faust and then ill quickly go over it but its very pain staking. The most common effects ppl get when young and healthy are darkened urine, increased bowel movements, excessive sweating, and deep and powerful lucid dreaming so its purging your body of toxins Guest 2:What doesages are recemended, and how many times per day? Alchemist:dosages are not hard and fast as its hard to work out how concentrate your prep is but most works say 7 drops in a glass of wine for say 7 days Alchemist:but i think thats just a nice way of saying not many ppl know Guest 2:should non spiritual ppl take it for more days to fully mature Alchemist:i think before anyone gets into serious mineral preps they should certainly flood their system with herbal rejuvinates Guest 2: Is it common for ones nails to fall off Alchemist:no its not. I've only met one person and heard of several stories. Again, these ppl were aged and ill Guest 2: would you suggest to make potcarb from the dreges at the bottom of a wine fermentation container Alchemist:yes you certainly can 42. I havent used it before but i know many have. I think its called argol or something similar. Te basic way to make pot carb from plant

matter is to burn it to ash. Stir it often on an element or fire outside until its as grey as it can get then let the ash cool. Put it into a container and fill with hot distilled water. Stir then use coffee filters to filter the water. Evap the water and you will be left with a crude salt. Sometimes its dark brown or reddish or greyish. You need to dissolve this crude salt again in water. Then you need to dissolve this crude salt again in water and then refilterand evap. Keep doing this til the salt remaining is pure white. A word of advice....you will need a shitload of plant material to get any decent amount of pure salt which is why i buy mine Guest 2:I buy mine as well, when I was making it, I couldnt keep up with requests from others for some potcarb, and My own projects Alchemist:theres alot of sites that details this if what i just said is too brief Alchemist:exactly. Its very time consuming to makewhich is why there were apprentices in days gone by hehe.