1. Read all instructions that follow several times and familiarize yourself with each step that you need to undertake. Remember: Safety first whenever working with spagyric or alchemical experiments or products!
2. Begin the operation in the planetary hour of the ruling planet of the herb. While planetary hours come several times a day for each planet, the first, and often easiest, begins within a few minutes of sunrise on the day of the ruling planet. Since Melissa is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter rules Thursday, the first planetary hour of Jupiter would occur immediately after sunrise on Thursday.
3. Start with a prayer to God that the mysteries may be revealed to you and your place in the universe restored. Spend a few minutes on this, and do not rush through it. This sets up your entire reason for undertaking this practice and is the intention, or act of will, that sets everything in motion. It is this initial prayer that separates your experiments from "vulgar chemistry" and makes them something spiritual.
4. Take the herb and begin grinding it by hand in small quantities in the mortar and pestle. Make as fine a powder as possible, focusing on the idea that you are releasing the divine power in the herb as well as within yourself through the work. If you do not have enough time to grind all of the herb by hand, or you have a part that is too tough, such as a seed or root, then grind it partially in the coffee grinder. It is important that you spend time with the herb and keep it in physical contact with you so that it may receive beneficial contact with your energy field or aura. If you must grind it entirely by machine, then place it in the mortar afterward and grind it with the pestle anyhow, focusing on developing the energetic relationship between yourself, the herb, the planet ruling it, and the planet's counterparts in your psyche and body.
5. When the powder is finished, place it in the jar and pour the grain alcohol over the herb until it is saturated with fluid; then add an additional amount equal to what is in the container (two to four "fingers"). The jar should not be more than one-half to two-thirds full of fluid at most, as room will be needed for expansion as the contents heat during the maceration process. The fluid inside will evaporate as it heats and then condense, as it is not capable of escaping. This will cause the fluid to get darker with each passing day. This coloration, or tincturing, is the extraction of the sulphur (soul property) from the salt (physical plant matter) by the mercury (alcohol medium).
6. Cover the mouth of the jar with plastic wrap prior to sealing it tightly with the lid so that neither the fluid nor its vapor touch any metal.
7. Wrap the jar in foil to prevent exposure to light, and place it somewhere warm.
8. Shake it vigorously once or twice a day. Continue this process for seven to fourteen days, until the color of the tincture is dark. However, it is not uncommon to allow the tincture to sit for forty days, an "alchemical month."
That's it: seven steps and you have begun the process of making a basic spagyric tincture that will be helpful to you physically and spiritually. But remember, this is your "philosophical child" and must be treated with love and respect. Each time you handle it, for inspection, for shaking, or in any fashion, remember that it is a physical representation of your soul-personality. Treat it no differently than you would treat a small animal, a child, or a houseguest. As you separate the sulphur from the murky sludge of the herbal mass, so are you separating your soul from the constraints of physical life and incarnation. Just as the soul of the plant is what distinguishes it from other plants, so your soul, your consciousness, and your inner impulse to realize your self is what separates you from other human beings.
In this manner, it is the soul of the alchemist that impacts and changes the soul of the plant in the tincture. It is the attitude of the operator, more than the process itself, that makes alchemy divine. This attitude is literally transferred to the matter being acted upon, just as if it were a patient receiving magnetic or spiritual healing. When the final product is then consumed, we are taking into ourselves a veritable consumable talisman-like that which is suggested by the Christian Mass-through which our body (salt) and blood (mercury) are regenerated, to receive the spiritual power of the plant (sulphur).
Each time we repeat the process of "solve et coagula," we are regenerated by minute degrees and brought closer to perfection.
After the color of the liquid is sufficiently dark, pour it into a clean jar that can be sealed. Be careful to strain or filter the tincture through either a plastic fine-mesh strainer or coffee filters placed inside a funnel. To maximize your efforts, press the remaining fluid from the plant matter through the screen over the filter-lined funnel. The filter will catch any plant matter or particles that might be forced through the strainer and prevent them from mixing in with the tincture. On close examination under light, you will see that some small amount of fine, sandlike particles will flow through with the tincture, but for now we can ignore them rather than replace our commercial over-the-counter coffee filters with laboratory-grade paper filters. Right now, our concern is to separate the fluid from the solid matter as best we can. For the purposes of getting started and getting results that will encourage us to move into more complex areas of alchemical work, this will be sufficient.
This tincture now contains the sulphur (essential oils, waxes, and vegetable fats) and the mercury (alcohol and some water) of the lemon balm. This tincture is identical to any basic herbal product you could make or purchase in a grocery or health-food store. What will transform it into a genuine spagyric, or herbal alchemical product, is the addition of the process of "coagula." We have separated the plant soul, or sulphur, from the body, or salt. That is the process of "solve," or dissolution. Now, we must add the two together again in some form. But for the resurrection of the plant to be complete, its body, or salt, must be purified and made ready to receive the increase in energy. To do this, we use the alchemist's chief tool-fire. Fire is the energetic expression of the universe. Of the four elements common to Wicca, Neopaganism, Qabala, and Hermeticism, fire is the only one that can completely transform and regenerate. This process is known as calcination, and it turns the wet, dark matter of the plant into a white or grayish white powder ready for use in the next step of the process.