I am trying to decipher a 17th century Tek if anyone has any suggestion please comment below.

Its clear from the text that Acacia, Vinegar and spirit of wine are used.


"It is fitting for you to know that this vinegar is not the vinegar of Philosophers, but our vinegar is something else, indeed a drinkable substance, namely the material itself. For the Stone of the Wise is made from the Acacia of the Wise, which must first be prepared through the common distillation of Acacia, Spirit of Wine, and other waters, and must be reduced to its specific measure. Remember this well in memory of me, if pure distilled vinegar is poured upon destroyed Saturn, and preserved with the warmth of Saint Mary, it loses its acridness and becomes sweet like sugar. For with the vinegar distilled once or twice from it, and placed in the cellar, you will find elegant white and translucent stones, resembling crystals."

Sounds to me more like a description of lead acetate preparation if taken literally. Lead = saturn, and dissolving it in spirit vinegar and evaporating down on a bain Marie ("warmth of St. Mary", i.e. steam bath) will indeed "destroy the acridness" of the vinegar and leave crystals of what was known as "sugar of lead" - lead acetate, being possibly the world's first artificial sweetener, if a rather toxic one.

Can you provide a transcript of the whole Latin text? What is its source? It would be helpful to see the context of the word "acacia" since it may be referring to something besides the tree. A quick look at the etymology shows that it's of of uncertain origin and goes back over 600 years.

"The genus name is Neo-Latin, borrowed from the Greek ἀκακία (akakia), a term used by Dioscorides for a preparation extracted from the leaves and fruit pods of Vachellia nilotica, the original type of the genus."

Acacia gum may perhaps have been prepared in crystalline form so clarification of this would be preferable to jumping to hasty conclusions.

Thank you for taking time to respond.

The text is attributed to Basil Valentine the word AZOTH has been replaced with ACACIA.

I thought that the saturn in vingear reference could be acetone

Or that saturn/ lead could be interpreted as prima materia/acacia

Destroyed saturn / shredded acacia

The philosophers stone/ lead to gold.

I would love to hear anymore thoughts you have.

But has spice been known by western culture by ca. 1700? I thought it was "discovered" around 1900 by anthropologicsts?

Cheers

There is a case to made that it is much older and even that some of the advances in chemistry at this time were as result of pursuit of the philosophers stone.

The stone is connected to both immortality and communication with Angels

There are several references to Acacia being the Prima Materia.

I would also love to hear anymore thoughts you have.

More of the text slightly different translation

"Now it behooves you to know that this vinegar is not the vinegar of the Philosophers, but our vinegar is something else potable, namely the substance itself: for the Philosopher's Stone fromAcacia becomes wise, that through common, distilled acacia, the spirit of wine and other waters must first be prepared, and must be reduced to its certain manner. it loses and becomes sweet like sugar: for vinegar distilled from it twice or thrice, and placed in a cell , you will find elegant white and transparent stones, corresponding to crystals, what an exceptional extinction and they are the healing of all burnt and incensed burning fires. If you are able to prepare a red oil from these metals, let it be immersed in Mercury precipitated by Venus, and it should be used in other ways. If you achieve this, neither the Sun nor the Moon will be able to hinder you from acquiring riches"

All ideas and comments welcome. Thanks

B.Valentinus,

I don't know what to say about all of this, mainly because I cannot translate your pictures. But I LIKE the idea of folks doing things with DMT plants in the 18th century.

Regardless of all of this, Welcome to the Nexus. Have you tried DMT yet? Extracted your own? If so, what did you think? If not, any plans.

Regardless a warm welcome to you.

Thank you PANDORA. Yes I have tried and extracted dmt.

One experience I had

"I shouted my name, i said this is who I am and reality returned and my memories with it."

From this I have taken that Im am not who I think I am, that the people I see are not who I think they are and the world I see is not what I thought it was.

Thanks for sharing!
"Acacia" is used in freemasonry, so probably in other esoteric branches ;
Does it make reference to an ancient use of the tree ? hard to know! but definitly, it became just symbolic at some point - so i wouldn't be too exited about it being referenced in ancient texts

Hi Quetzal7

Thanks

Why do you think Acacia was chosen as a "symbol" freemasons originally used Cassia.

PD Newman has written several books on the topic of Freemasonry and DMT if you are intersted.

Here is one ritual attributed to Cagliastro.

Has there been some evidence of the Templar Cult utilizing DMT?

Twilight Person

"In the pineal gland there is a tiny grit, or sand, concerning which modern science knows practically nothing"MPH

Yes I believe there is evidence and hope the MS above in original post if deciphered can help.

The "cult" is not all bad,

"Between 1990 and 1995, Strassman administered some 400 doses of DMT to nearly five dozen human volunteers, and the book documents the project and the doctor’s discoveries. The research which led to the publication of Strassman's book was funded by none other than the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Foundation, a subsidiary of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. As the story goes, LSD researcher Daniel Xander Freedman, who passed away in 1993, was a big supporter of Strassman’s work and served on the scientific advisory panel of the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Foundation. Freedman advised Strassman to apply for a grant from the foundation and assured him that he would do all he could to get the DMT project funded"

B. Valentinus - I came across the Hartlib manuscript myself years ago but glossed over it as being too vague to be worth researching.

For those who wish to see the original source and full text
https://www.dhi.ac.uk/ha...6B_06_05&docset=main

It's only recently that I have come to appreciate the value of this manuscript, thanks to the way that the Hartlib text when compared to the version of the recipe found in Johann Mylius's Opus Medico-chymicum, 1618, directly connects the word Acacia to 'philosophical mercury' through the term 'Azoth' which is a corruption of the Arabic 'al-zā’ūq' meaning 'the mercury'.

https://www.google.com.a...&printsec=frontcover - See page 80, keyword search 'Azoth'

“Nam Lapis Sapientum ex Acacia Sapientum Fit, qvae per communem, distillitam Acaciam, Spiritum Vini caeterasque aqvas prius praeparari, & ad cerium suum modum redigi debet” (Handwritten manuscript owned by Samuel Hartlib - author+date unknown, speculatively attributed to Basil Valentine)

“For the stone of the sages is made from the Acacia of the sages, which is first prepared by means of the common, distilled Acacia, the Spirit of Wine and the other waters and reduced to its waxy form.”

“Lapis enim Philoſophorum conficitur ex Azotho, qui per communem deſtillatum Azoth & fpiritum vini & alias plures aquas prius præparari & in certum ordi nem diſponi debet” (Johann Mylius, Opus Medico-chymicum, 1618 )

“For the Philosophers’ stone is made of Azoth, which must first be prepared by means of distilled Azoth and spirit of wine, and several other waters, and arranged in a certain order”




B. Valentinus - A connection you would do well to explore is that of the symbol of the alchemical dragon - I recommend a book by Paul Newman (I think no direct relation to P.D.) called 'The Hill of the Dragon' which explores the history of the dragon archetype in deeper detail.

The link between 'mercury' and dragons/serpents is obvious, via the Caduceus of Hermes, and in other interesting ways.

You should read the Mushaf As-Suwar of Zosimos of Panopolis as well as the Book of the Keys of the Work - DMT as the Philosophers' stone really goes back to the oldest manuscripts we have in alchemy. The key proof, aside from the dragon/mercury connection, is in the mention of ants, which have a symbiotic relationship with African acacias.


‘[…] Hermes ordered us to search for the natures in the mountains, because ants are those that bring out the natures.” (Muṣḥaf as-suwar pg. 147)

Then, check out the dream where Zosimos meets a figure of Venus in the Book of the Keys of the work (pg. 169-171) to see an encounter with 'men from India' (black ants)

If you aren't used to reading alchemical MSS - This is gonna be a rough ride. Good luck.


As for exactly what the 'tek' in the Hartlib manuscript is...I haven't cracked it. I went deep down this rabbit hole. The wise acacia distilled by the common acacia - What does this mean?

I thought perhaps it meant an infusion of the 'wise' acacia - i.e. actives in bark, into 'common' acacia i.e. into gum.

A Canadian alchemist by the name of Steve Kalec has made such an infusion which if I recall he names 'the tears of Isis' but perhaps my memory fails me.

However that doesn't explain the 'spirit of wine and other waters' in the recipe. So it probably is not this. I suspect the recipe calls for 2 varieties of acacia for the extraction. This would be consistent with Zosimos of Panopolis.

“You must take the eyes of the dragon along with its wife (The lunar eyes)” (Book of the Keys of the work pg 197)
“Make a gum from the male and the female dragon” (Muṣḥaf as-Suwar pg 366-367)



Straight 100% ethyl alcohol is not an effective solvent for DMT, according to another friend of mine who I won't name here, you really need a non-polar solvent.

Maybe Di-ethyl ether, made by boiling ethyl alcohol with sulphur? P.D. Newman mentions that as an option in his books. I have also thought maybe Gum Turpentine was historically a solvent that could have been used by the ancients, but idk how easy it is to get DMT back out of the turps.

As a side note, this article claims DMT and other substances can be found in the 'succus' or gum which is exuded from the pod of the Acacia Nilotica
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih...pmc/articles/PMC4279630/

The veracity of this source remains to be confirmed. But if true, then even if the Hartlib recipe is not bark, but just Succus, it could still be psychedelic.


The solvent that would have been used in DMT extraction teks of the ancients remains a mystery for now.

Let us know if you get any closer!


To everyone who has just joined the party...welcome to the rabbit hole

THANK YOU SPACE TRAVELLER

Gave me so much to think about before I can make a better response.


But quickly.

THANK YOU SPACE TRAVELLER

Gave me so much to think about before I can make a better response.


But quickly.

SPACE TRAVELLER

With regards to the solvent. Acetone?

hoc in memoriam mei probè observa, si purum distillatum acetum destructo Saturno

lead acetate/ acetone?


The French chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800-1884)
'The mercury of the philosophers was lead. When lead is calcined the metal oxidizes and turns into massicot (lead monoxide or litharge) which is the green lion. If the calcination is continued, the massicot changes to minium (lead tetroxide) which is the red lion. When the acid spirit of wine of vinegar is added, the lead oxide dissolves and when the liquor is evaporated there is left a gummy mass of lead acetate. The distillation of the lead acetate gives various products, particularly water charged with acetic acid and pyroacetic spirit or acetone accompanied by a little brown or red oil; these are the red drops. The residue which is left is finely divided lead dark grey in colourwhich suggests the cymmerian darkness. This residue when touched with red-hot char ignites and changes to massicot of which a portion mixed with the distilled liquor combines by degrees with the acid and passes into solution. This is the black dragon which bites and swallows its tail. In distilling anew we obtain acetone which is the fiery spirit and a red-brown oil very difficult to separate. This is the human blood of the alchemists, the elixir sought. It is red, the predestined colour, and possesses the property of reducing and precipitating gold from its solutions'

What do you mean by "not a good solvent"? Ethanol is an excellent solvent for isolated DMT, but using it to obtain a purified alkaloidal extract from plant material would indeed be tricky. There would be various other biomolecules that dissolve just as readily in the ethanol since it is, of course, a good general solvent.

On that note, it's not even necessary to go to the lengths of producing high proof alcohol since vodka seems to do a good job of dissolving DMT from plain bark. Tannins can be precipitated with the aid of lime, and DMT will actually freeze precipitate from vodka if you have a good enough freezer. A quick A/B cycle would clear up a good amount of the remaining impurities. Acetone would help with the final recovery of the freebase.

I do now wonder if lead acetate would be a convenient precursor for acetone via dry distillation - more convenient than calcium acetate? This is something I need to check. But it certainly produces several fractions of distillate:

I suspect the exact proportions of acetone, mesityl oxide and isophorone will depend on the reaction conditions including the purity of the lead acetate, the thermal flux of the reaction vessel, and the local air pressure. Illumination levels may also be relevant but astrological conditions beyond day/night I will leave to the individual researcher to consider

My man you're gonna need to post the full names of the alchemical texts and ideally links, not just drop screenshots of Latin texts I can't even wordsearch and Google translate 😂

Yes, the Moses quotes from the Turba Philosophorum are direct lifts from Zosimos of Panopolis which is about Acacia in my opinion. The rest I would need to absorb before rendering an opinion.

NO METALS ARE USED IN THIS WORK IN ANY WAY.

“The sages described their work with any one of the crafts similar to it in
order to cover it. Therefore, we have also named it lead from copper.”
(Muṣḥaf pg 151)

When Zosimos, and those he quotes, speak of lead, they mean a result of
the alchemical work, and not elemental lead. Democritus, who Zosimos
considers to be his inner teacher, says:
“Take black lead […] I did not mean the lead of the people, but rather that
you should make use of the black lead which is the result of our work.”
(Keys pg 115)

Zosimos goes to great lengths to explain that this transmutation of metals is
purely allegorical and that the different stages of the work are named with
minerals and metals that in some manner symbolically resemble the nature
or appearance of the work at that moment

So acetone derived from lead is a hard no, for me. Obviously some kind of distilled alcohol is used, according to the recipe. Why search further?

I could be wrong about the acetone - Hartlib manuscript is 17th Century, 1300+ years after Zosimos. If you mix a DMT infused spirit with acetone, do white Crystals form? Only experimentation can tell us. I thought acetone wash was for cleaning up already dried extract, not something still in solution. I actually don't know.

Also the Azoth of Paracelsus is opium, not Acacia, as far as I can tell.

Finally, the vinegar mentioned in Hartlib is not vinegar. It is the name for the final preparation/beverage. "Our vinegar". Sounds like it is an STB method rather than A/B.

I meant not a good solvent for extraction from a basic solution. But I'm just repeating what someone else has said...I haven't done the work! Idk even if they were using 95%+ ethyl alcohol, or just Vodka. I'll digest what you've said and ask some questions, thank you!

Sorry about my earlier post i am def a newbie added a few links

"Succus Acacia" - Sanguis naturæ, or, A manifest declaration of the sanguine ... PAGE 42

https://archive.org/deta...age/42/mode/2up?q=ACACIA


"AZOTH AND GUM ARABIC" Chymischer Glücks-Hafen Oder Grosse Chymische Concordantz Und Collection Von ...By Johann Joachim Becher PAGE 499

https://books.google.com...&q=azoth&f=false


With regards to acetone, is it possible in an effort to find the stone different methods were discovered along the way and that in this "tek" the solvent is acetone.

Just thinking out loud. glad to get so much input from everybody so far mind blown