Just as distillation can be used to produce a highly purified and psychically enriched menstruum from red wine, it can also be used to strengthen and refine existing tinctures, create Elixirs, and produce higher-quality Plant Stones.
1. Place your tincture in the large flask.
2. Place pure white calcined salts in the receiving flask.
3. Distill mercury over into the receiving flask.
4. Filter the salts with fine-grade filter paper and dry them.
5. Grind salts to a powder and place back into the receiving flask.
6. Return mercury to the large flask, mix with sulphur, and repeat the process six more times.
When working with your tincture in this manner, you must be very careful not to scorch or burn your sulphur. It will thicken and turn into a syrup, often called "honey" in alchemical texts, but it must not be allowed to overheat, or it will be ruined.
Method II is identical to Method I, only the salts are not used to filter the mercury. The mercury is distilled off the sulphur seven times, and with the final distillation it is kept separate. These two essentials will then be added to the salt in the same manner as previously described to create a Plant Stone.
1. If the salt is white or near-white, place it in a heat-resistant dish or crucible on a heat source turned low. The heat may be modulated, but under no circumstances let it burn or scorch the herb.
2. Slowly, drop by drop, place the mercury and sulphur into the heated salt until they are completely absorbed. This is called ir- bibition, or imbibing the Stone with life (mercury) and soul (sulphur). You are, in essence, reincarnating the vegetable power of the plant. However, unlike your previous experiment, you are recombining all three essentials in their separate forms.
3. Continue this process for as long as you like, or stop after one full hour, either planetary or secular.
4. Begin again either next week or on another day, preferably Saturday, on the planetary hour of the plant. If this is inconvenient, then begin at any hour when the work can be done.
5. Between the phases of imbibition, keep the Stone in a place away from prying eyes and, if possible, sunlight. Remember, whether it be in the womb or under the earth, many good things like to grow in the dark.
6. When the Stone will accept no more liquid, place it where you can observe the changes that may take place over the next few months.
7. If possible, store the Stone near a heat source, such as in an incubator or near a gas oven range with a running pilot light, if one is available.
8. If the Stone suddenly jells, quickly pour it out of the crucible into a thimble, as it will harden and be difficult to get out of the porcelain crucible. This hardening is desirable, compared with the softer, easily consumable Stones that may appear.