Vegetable Gold

vegetable gold An alchemical product made from plants, CELESTIAL DEW, and special peat. Vegetable gold was made in the 1960s by Armand Barbault, a famous French astrologer, and his wife Jacqueline.

Barbault was persuaded by his wife to be come involved in Alchemy after the couple moved to the French countryside in the 1940s. He read the MUTUS LIBER and modeled his own work on it.

The Barbaults’ alchemical work began in 1948. At an auspicious astrological time, they collected four pounds of “philosopher’s peat,” living earth that they felt was specially charged with life forces. For 12 years, the Barbaults and their son, Alexandre, worked with this philosopher’s peat until they transformed it into a golden liquid called vegetable gold. Barbault ingested this liquid, and his son— who became a physician—credited it with prolonging his life.

To collect dew, the Barbaults dragged a canvas over grass before sunrise on a cloudless morning in spring. It took 50 yards of dragging to collect a quart of dew. According to Barbault, the dew contained valuable etheric forces. The wet canvas was wrung out into a container. It was not allowed to touch the ground, lest its etheric forces return immediately to the earth.

The alchemist harvested plants by selecting them one day and mentally ordering the plants to draw greater life forces out of the ground. The plants were harvested the next day before sunrise. The peat, the dew, and the plants were then left to ferment in an ALEMBIC for several months at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixture was reduced to ash by burning at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and the ashes were sifted. Ash, dew, and powdered GOLD were mixed in a circular oven, boiled for four hours, and cooled for four hours, a process repeated seven times. The vegetable gold, or “liquor of gold,” was filtered out. Barbault said that when the Elixir was perfect, a symbolic star floated upon its surface.

FURTHER READING:

• Secrets of the Alchemists. New York: Time-Life Books, 1990.

The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written byRosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.