I have come to leave a tip to those whom it may concern. I am a member of a secret order that utilizes yage in a Hermetic setting, involving preparations of Alchemy & Ceremonial Magick. We use a method for extracting DMT & other alkaloids that does not involve dangerous chemicals. This method was put forth in an ancient alchemical book of pictoral stills with no words called the 'Mutus Liber,' or 'mute book.' I am here going to set forth our interpretation of this text so that those interested might utilize yage to it's full benifits.

Step 1: Burn enough wood to gather roughly 1 gallon of ashes. Grind these ashes down into a fine powder, & roast them over high heat in a ceramic pot until they are white to light gray.

Step 2: Cover this with water & boil for 10-15 min. Strain through coffee filter & return liquid to heat to evaporate. Boil down to salt crystals and place in oven to draw off excess moisture.

Step 3: Place salt crystals outside at 8:00pm. Leave them out over night to gather dew (this step cannot be over-looked), which will convert the salts to an oil that is powerful solvent. Pour this oil over the macerated herb (this will work for anything) in a mason jar. Cover mouth of jar with plastic wrap or baggie, restore lid, & bury for 3 days.

Step 4: Strain out plant matter & return liquid to jar. Pour in an equal amount of un-adulterated grape brandy, cover with plastic & lid, & shake vigorously. Store in dark hot room for 28 days, shaking daily. During this time the alcahol will absorb the 'magic' from the oil. Collect the alcahol & discard the oil.

Step 5: The alcahol can then ingested, or evaporated off to leave behind the magic salt.

^they are outlining typical spagyric technique..it has nothing to do with making a base or anything for extracting..sure lye might end up being produced but not for the purpose you have assumed. It seems the whole tek is based on spagyrics which were popularized kinda late in the whole alchemical fad in europe.

But jamie, if you follow the procedure as outlined, things as the day tripper outlined will happen: you make a caustic salt out of the ashes; the caustic salt turns to an "oil" overnight, presumably hydrated by ambient humidity/dew; herbs are macerated in it and the enriched "oil" is retrieved; then enriched "oil" is mixed with brandy and the brandy absorbs the magic from the oil (?); and the brandy will separate from the "oil" (?).

I understand that in alchemy terms oil might not mean something non polar or that processes can be outlined that follow absolutely no logic from a scientific perspective but really, the above procedure really sounds like a fine way to make a dangerous, caustic end product.