How Animal essences and spagyrics are made.

For those of you that follow the work of Kymia Arts, you will have taken notice that we offer and produce animal essences and spagyrics. As with most of our projects and products, the question of: "how do you do this?" almost always surfaces.

An animal spagyric is very similar to a plant spagyric. The three principles of the material are separated (sulfur, mercury, and salt), purified, and then recombined. Of course when making an animal spagyric an animal must be used rather than a plant.

Listed below are the steps taken at Kymia Arts to produce a full animal spagyric  

Step one is securing the animal you wish to work with. Depending on what you wish to create of course determines what must be done to secure the animal. Some animals can be easily caught like scorpions or spiders. But other animals, such as large mammals, usually have to be hunted. This is a huge practice in itself, and much can be said on how to go about this. Each animal has its own unique habitat and qualities. Understanding this life form and thinking on its level becomes a necessary practice when catching and hunting wild animals. 

Once you have the animal of your choice in your possession, it has to then be processed. For the best results, the animal must be freshly dead. This phase of processing deals with separating all of the pieces of the animal. First the animal is skinned of its hide. The pelt is not used in the production of the spagyric and is instead tanned and saved for other uses or for display. The blood is then collected and set aside. The animal is gutted, the organs collected, and those are set aside. With the interior of the animal empty the muscle is then cut from the bone and set aside. Then the bones are collected and set aside.

Now that we have all of our pieces separated we can then begin to process each one for its respected Sulfur (Oil). Each piece of the animal can under go a different operation to render its essence. The blood, bones, muscle, and organs all yield an essence. If you are to make a full spectrum animal spagyric, then you will want all of these individual sulfurs in your end product. 

Some of the blood collected is filtered into a flask, sealed and set to digest. Another portion of the blood is set to ferment to render the mercury of blood. The blood set to digest will be allowed to circulate and digest for a minimum of one lunar cycle, but I often allow several cycles to pass. After you have digested the blood to your liking, it is then to be filtered into a round bottom flask as to undergo distillation. The digested blood is then gently distilled. A phlegm will come over into the receiving flask. Once the phlegm stops coming over or slows down, and before reaching dryness the distillation is stopped. After the heating flask has been allowed to cool, the phlegm is then poured back over the material left in the heating flask. A gentle distillation is repeated. This process is repeated at least 3x, or until a volatile essence begins to come over with the original phlegm. The distillate is collected, and then funneled into a retort. The phlegm is then separated from the essence via distillation. The separated and collected phlegm is then poured back onto the dregs that remained behind in the heating flask. This wash is filtered and then set to evaporate. Upon evaporation small crystals should emerge, this is the salt of blood. These salts are washed with distilled water, filtered, and evaporated to dryness several times to render the purified body of blood. After all is done you will have the sulfur and salt of blood. 

The blood that was set aside to ferment is also filtered into a distillation flask and gently heated. A spirit will come over. This spirit is rectified several time with subsequent distillations. Then end product is the Mercury of blood.

​The organs of the animal undergo a slightly different process to extract their sulfur. Some pieces of the organs are separated and set aside to ferment. The other portions are crushed to a paste and then bathed in a dried and rectified Spirit of Wine. This solution is sealed and allowed to digest for a minimum of one lunar cycle. After digestion the solution is filtered into a distillation flask and gently distilled. The spirit will distill over and carry trace amount of the essence trapped in the organs. The distillation will be allowed to progress until the matter in the heating flask is of a dark and resinous quality. Special care is taken to not distill to dryness. The distillate is then added back to the heating flask and the cycle of distillation is repeated. This is done several times, until once again the essence becomes volatile and flies over into our receiving flask. The final distillate, after several iterations of the process is then placed in a retort and gently distilled. The original spirit is separated from the volatilized essence. The essence of the combined organs of the animal is now procured. This sulfur is set aside and saved. 

While this process was occurring, fresh spirit of wine was added to the original organ paste. It is allowed to digest for a full lunar cycle (minimum). The solution is filtered and the process of distillations just described is undertaken. The organ paste is extracted a minimum of 3x to yield the entirety of its essence.

After several extractions have taken place on this paste, it is then removed and burnt to an ash in a strong fire. The ashes of the organ paste are collected, washed with distilled water, filtered, and then set to evaporate. Small crystals will form upon evaporation. This is the purified body of the combined organs of the animal. These salts are then washed, filtered, and evaporated several times to render highly purified salts. 

The organ material that was set to ferment is then filtered into a distillation flask. This solution is gently distilled, and the operations necessary to render a rectified spirit are followed. The material used for fermentation is also calcined, and its ashes leeched to render salts. Now we have the purified sulfur, mercury, and salt of the associated organs of the animal.

Another operation undertaken is working with the bones of the animal. The bones are placed in a large pot and boiled with distilled water. Once a strong tincture has been pulled off, the solution is filtered and then distilled. The distillation will render a hydrosol and a volatized essence.

The boiled bones are then crushed and placed in a flask with the radical vinegar procured from the distillation of copper acetate. This menstruum dissolves the majority of the bones. After a digestion cycle has taken place, the solution is filtered into a heating flask and then set to distill. The solvent will distill over. The distillation is stopped once the material in the heating flask is of a think resinous consistency. This resin is removed and placed into an evaporation dish. Distilled water is poured of the gum and allowed to evaporate. This washing cycle is repeated several times to remove all acidity.

After our acetate solution has been washed, a dried and rectified wine spirit is poured over the solution. This solution is then filtered into a heating flask. The wine spirit is gently distilled over leaving the essence of bone behind. Fresh dried spirit is added back onto the essence and the distilled off as to wash to essence further. After several cycles of washing with the spirit the essence is filtered out of the heating flask and set aside in a sealed flask. 

All remaining bone pieces are burned down to an ash in a strong fire. These ashes are washed with distilled water, filtered, and then allowed to evaporate to yield the salts of bone.

Once all of these operations are complete we can then recombine all of our separate sulfurs, mercuries, and salts to create a finished spagyric.

Animal spagyrics made in this manner contain the entirety of the animal. All of its principles are separated, purified, and recombined as in the tradition of spagyric. As you can see, much time, attention, and care is taken in the creation of these spagyrics. Months, sometimes years are spent in preparing these products. Each animal essence is a treasure. One that you can find no where else. Only some of the animal spagyrics Kymia Arts produces can be viewed under out Animal Alchemy tab in the top tool bar. Others remain in our reserves....            ​