Armand Barbault

The Alchemical Work By Armand Barbault It is astonishing, writes Jacques Sadoul in his book, Alchemists and Gold, to find a contemporary alchemist - Armand Barbault - working in the second half of the second half of the twentieth century, who strictly applies mediaeval instructions to his Hermetic work. But this is not the least astonishing of the facts to be learned about this devoted alchemist whose memory is celebrated by Frater Albertus in this issue of Parachemy. Armand Barbault not only followed the mediaeval alchemists in his work, but unlike them, described in plain language both his PRIMA MATERIA, or prime substance, and hs methods of operation. His early work was devoted to the discovery of a tincture comparable to the potable gold of Paracelsus, rather than to the confection of the Philosopher's Stone, which occupied his later years. For this reason, he did not use any of the minerals often referred to by traditional Hermetic writers, but as he says, "quite simply ... a clod of earth." His choice of menstruum was inspired by an illustration in the MUTUS LIBER depicting two alchemists wringing out cloths that had been stretched between poles overnight to gather the dew. Similarly, Barbault arose early each morning to drag sheets across the grass in order to collect the precious dew. He also made use of the sap of plants as well as dew in maturing his prime substance. The substance itself, described in the following article, was no more than 1800 grams of earth (less than four pounds). His work in this experiment alone spanned more than two decades, and the substance he eventually obtained was tested in modern German pharmaceutical laboratories. There it was found to be efficacious in treating certain maladies and the laboratories began to search for a quicker method of producing a synthetic substance with similar properties, but in vain. As Raymond Abellio writes in his preface to Barbault's book, THE GOLD Of THE THOUSANDTH "Not only did the liquid prove impossible to analyse, but nothing even vaguely resembling it could be discovered. Yet Armand Barbault concealed nothing." We are indebted to Professor Joscelyn Godwin for the translation from the German of the article that follows. The Preparation of the Alkahest and the Tinctures of the First Matter For nearly twenty-five years, my wife and I have been on the path of investigating the alchemical elixirs or tinctures. The trials passed and the results obtained make it possible to give a review and a judgment of the work, partially explained in my book, which appeared in 1969 (The Gold of the Thousandth Morning). After the successful preparation of the first Tincture of Potable Gold, and after the practical experience of ten years, I can now approach closer to the heart of the matter, with regard to the knowledge acquired and in the sense of the ancient philosophic tradition. The Revelation and the First Endeavors If we pass over in silence that which led us to this search, we can say that everything began quite simply with a clod of earth, taken in winter from beneath a lawn. It was carefully freed from all foreign bodies and impurities, and placed in a retort. From springtime onwards, it was enriched with plants and dew, so as to make a turf. This turf was dried, moistened again, and enriched with further additions of plants and dew-this

done repeatedly, and in a very simple way which is described in my book. But not everything was so easy as that, for this first operation was the fruit of long reflection and meditation. After long preparation. it was begun only when a revelation was granted to my wife. This revelation or inspiration assured her that we were entrusted with a kind of mission. You know that all the old authors state that one must be "chosen" in order to have real success, with the Alchemical Work, and that even that is not always sufficient to guarantee attainment of the goal. Is it not also said that many are called, but few are chosen? This call, reaching us from the highest spiritual powers, showed us the way we had to follow. As the first trial. we were compelled to renounce the life to which we were accustomed, and move to the place where we could find the Materia Cruda and all the necessary materials for the first preparation. All this took place, needless to say, in the greatest secrecy with regard to the outside world. Then came the day when we took possession of this Materia Cruda, our raw material; and this was a terrible trial, above all for my wife, for she had to join battle with the Dragon who guards the etheric forces of the Earth, in order that the earth we had obtained should not be simply "dead" earth. It had to be living earth, containing the seeds or the sparks of life, so that the so-called "Turf of the Philosophers" could be produced out of it. This first trial, which can also be regarded as one of the first aspects of the Labors of Hercules, was successfully passed, for the Dragon at bay turned into a Lion. I leave the interpretation of this metaphysical event to initiates: one finds it traditionally in all works of Alchemy. And so it happened that in the depths of winter, on a moonless day and at midnight, my wife and I took possession of our Materia Cruda. This occurred in the year 1948, on the 15th of February, somewhat after midnight. The Labors of Hercules and Nature Nothing is given in the old authors on the Labors of Hercules. These represent a part of the mystery, and it is left to the neophyte to fathom their meaning on the basis of his own initiation. Must one be silent about these secrets? Certainly one must, if they have been imparted to me by a Master who enjoins one to silence. But in the case of those who believe that they have discovered them themselves, the responsibility is their own. For my part, I believe that this deep knowledge is not transferable; and although I have mentioned the battle with the Dragon, which is part of the secret, it is certain that if the neophyte does not prove worthy he will relinquish this battle and thus not attain victory over the Dragon. Something similar occurs from the moment when the Materia Cruda is in our possession; a material which, as you know, contains as a result of that battle the Spark of Life, the influence of the etheric and spiritual powers, or the Philosophic Seed necessary to the realization of the work. The Adept is then in a position where he must, under the same conditions, gather plants out of doors, early in the morning, place them in a round glass vessel containing dew, and then mix them with the "new earth" (Materia Cruda). It is imperative to capture the life-forces of the chosen plants, so that this does not simply fall back into the earth, as is the normal case when unprepared people gather the plants. This is the continuity that exists between Nature and Man as a perfect union and which allows Nature to render all that she possesses for the realization of the Workwhich cannot be performed without the permission of the spiritual powers.

Knowledge of the Laws of Nature is then necessary. One must know that at night the young plants take up through their roots the sources of life which contribute to their growth. Growth occurs principally as soon as the Sun rises, and while it draws its circle in the sky, activating the marvelous "green retort" in the plants (photosynthesis). We have to collect plants that have the maximum of vitality, or rising forces, with which we nourish the turf drop by drop so that it may achieve its fullest power. A further part of the Work is to nourish the turf with these plants and bathe it all in dew. We use the sap and the dew which appears in pearls on the tips of leaves and grasses, and which rises to Heaven; for neither plants, nor dew, nor sap obeys the laws of gravity. This is a long accumulation of rising forces, which in time makes possible what Hercules did, when he bore the Earth on his shoulders without feeling its weight. I think I can say no more to show you the importance of those first labors outside, with Nature, at the moment of sunrise. You will understand, too, why Saint-Germain says in one of his books that it takes a good dozen years to collect the necessary forces, so that the turf becomes the yeast or spore of which I have spoken in my book. This is also the reason my book has the title, The Gold of the Thousandth Morning. From the Materia Cruda to the Materia Prima And the Work of Art and Nature When secrecies are present. we may think that they refer to the work of the Adept, to the way in which he proceeds, his art and his observations, and that they bring him into dangers which concern only himself, In earlier days one observed silence, and that is understandable; today experimenters patent their findings . . . but in our work one cannot speak thus. Certainly the most ungrateful and difficult time for the pair who are treading the path is the period of preparation, enrichment, enlivening and development of the turf, until it becomes the true yeast or spore. Each year, after the repeated wettings, additions of new plants (maceration), tending, and drying, one observes an alteration in the composition of the turf: it becomes blacker and blacker, and also heavier and heavier. But nothing can give you an idea of the length of time before the first work is finally completed. Who can describe the joy when one day, after pouring over the material another measure of fresh, clear dew, the worker sees this dew become altogether black?-A blackening which becomes more intense until the point where it turns to a viscous, cream-like liquid. He pours this off and keeps it in another vessel. Then the material, remaining in its container, is dried, and another fresh measure of dew is added; and this is repeated sufficiently to complete successfully the first stage of the work. In fact, it does not take long for the dew. now black and viscous, to precipitate a "new earth" on the bottom of its vessel, resembling more a tartaric substance than an earthy one. In this way. the "old earth" (the Materia Cruda)is changed bit by bit into a tartaric substance, which becomes our Materia Prima, now to be calcined. What has taken place? Few adepts know, for it is again a great secret when one says, "Water will become transformed into Earth . . ." - and this is another aspect of the Labors of Hercules. But it is quite simple: The material has become enriched with time, with work, with the long assimilation of anti-gravitational or rising forces, and it now obeys this rising law. Under the influence of the dew, which swims upwards, it has felt itself gravitating from below to

above, and thus obeys the same laws. It has now reached the necessary saturation. The enriched earth rises up, transmutes itself, and is from now onwards in a position to work on materials which are applied to it; it has become an ennobled species of Higher Yeast, or Spore, which is spoken of in the alchemical works without an explanation being given. I do not mention a few singularities of the preparation, for there are some knacks which the experimenter must find out for himself, if he has the patience to go so far. But I can assure you that no substance will have the powers you expect- unless it has been through this state.

Armand Barbault Armand Barbault with his son and PRS students at his home in France. When we as a group of students of the former Paracelsus Research Society visited for the first time with Armand Barbault at his home in France, it became apparent at once that there was a man, or rather a family of man, wife and son, who were dedicated to their work. Emphasizing the practical aspects of laboratory alchemy and taking them literally from the Liber Mundus, it was the earth per se, or the soil as found on the ground that was used to free from it what was to be of therapeutic importance. To have personally seen him explaining diligently the entire procedures of his work beginning with collecting the dew, mixing it with the soil (earth) and baking it on his specially built oven for final extraction and adding some gold to it, to bring it into his Elixir, was most interesting. When he and his wife and son took me upstairs in his home to show me privately some of the glassware he had made up for him and already mounted on the grid, to be used for a special procedure to obtain his alchemistical results that he had hoped to come up with, it revealed his intentions to enter into the mineral world. His work up to then was strictly of an organic nature, but realizing that greater potencies were to be found in the mineral world per se, did let him visualize some other experiments that he had not pursued up to this time. Actually other attempts have been made by scientists to derive important substances from the earth, literally known as rare earths, which indicates that not commonly found substances only were to be used but those that proved to be the mineral contents of rare elements. In Barbault's simple approach, as former alchemists had demonstrated, it was shown by him that such rare elements could be freed from the soil, though very large amounts of raw materials were needed to come up with comparatively small quantities of the very constituents that made up his alchemistical preparations. One may also question if his results were strictly alchemistical as the spagyric process was not always followed as alchemists would indicate. However, the great merit belongs to Armand Barbault that he advocated he alchemistical way in his laboratory to produce what he did. How versatile Barbault was is indicated when he made the changes that became necessary when the gold he had added to his Elixir became too expensive. Neil Powell in his Alchemy, the Ancient Science describes Barbault's Vegetable Gold:" "Armand Barbault regards this liquor as the alchemists' elixir, and calls it vegetable gold. It seems, in fact, to be a typical homeopathic remedy effective in microscopic doses. Dr. Ruth Jensen-Hillringhaus of Freiburg, Germany claimed to have used it to cure a woman paralyzed by multiple sclerosis. Another doctor tried several drops of the elixir each morning and reported a marked reduction in tiredness, increase in initiative, and

improved urination. Others reported miracle cures of uremia and syphilis. Barbault, who found it too expensive to continue adding gold to his liquors, was last reported to be employing the 'Blood of the Green Lion' - extracted vegetable sap. The ever intriguing alchemistical secrecy and romance in the old volumes with their picturesque illustrations gave rise to many ideas of those who dared to enter into alchemy. Undoubtedly Barbault was one of those daring souls who made every effort possible to him to get hold of the concept of alchemy and what better source could be taken to begin with than the very virgin earth where both the organic and inorganic substances are found that have curative effects upon the ailments of man and beast. It takes people like Armand Barbault and his family that keep up a tradition as old as the earth is itself, as our own earth is living evidence of the workings of alchemy or evolution.