Etymology:

e·lix·ir

1. Pharmacology . a sweetened, aromatic solution of alcohol

and water containing, or used as a vehicle for, medicinal
substances.
2. Also called elixir of life. an alchemic preparation formerly
believed to be capable of prolonging life.
3. an alchemic preparation formerly believed to be capable of
transmuting base metals into gold.
4. the quintessence or absolute embodiment of anything.
5. a panacea; cure-all; sovereign remedy.

1266, from M.L. elixir "philosopher's stone," believed by

alchemists to transmute baser metals into gold and/or to cure
diseases and prolong life, from Arabic al-iksir, probably from
late Gk. xerion "powder for drying wounds," from xeros "dry."
General sense of "strong tonic" is 1597; used for quack
 
The elixir, both alchemical and pharmaceutical, has a long history of
wonder and controversy dating back to Babylonia. Derived from both
Greek and Arabic origination, the prepared elixir is steeped in magical
tradition, as well as, legitimate apothecial uses. Elixir, or in Greek in
medical terms, meaning “any dry powder” is mysterious, resulting from
the cross-over of science and spagyrics, or the process of making herbal
medicines using alchemical processes. Many of the apothecaries, like
Michel de Nostredame, utilized elixirs magically, cosmetically, and
medically. This presentation uncovers a few historical formulas and
provides a quick demonstration on modern elixir making.
Pedanius Dioscorides (c40-c90AD), Greek
Pharmacological uses: Basically, medicine

Folio from De Materia Medica of Dioscorides, 13th

century
De Materia Medica, Akoniton napellus, in Greek
and Arabic (bound), 15th century
5-49. OINOS APSINTHITES Others put one pound of wormwood and two
SUGGESTED: Artemisia absinthium, Absinthium ounces of dry pine rosin into twenty pints of
vulgare must, and after ten days they strain it and put it
— Old Woman, Wormwood — Absinthe in jars. It is good for the stomach and urinary,
NARCOTIC good for slow digestion, the liverish, for kidney
Absinthites is made in various ways. Some mix disorders and jaundice, for those who lack
one pound of Pontic wormwood with forty eight appetite, stomach complaints, long-lasting
pints [Italian amphoras] of water and boil it until distension from hypochondria [nervous gastric
a third is left. disorder], gaseousness, roundworms, and for the
restrained menstrual flow. It is good for drinking
Afterwards they pour on it six pints of Must down with ixium [3-103] and honey, taken
[grape pulp] and half a pound of wormwood. copiously as a drink and vomited up again.
Then having mixed them carefully they put it in a
jar and strain it out when it is settled. Others put Translated into English by Tess Anne
a pound of wormwood into nine gallons of must, Osbaldeston, 2000
beat it, and binding it in a thin linen cloth, leave it
alone for two months. Others put three or four *ixium – viscous mixture
ounces of wormwood and two ounces each of *Syrian nard – Spikenard
Syrian nard [1-6, 1-7, 1-8, 1-10], cinnamon, cassia, *juncus odoratus – Sweet rush
flowers of juncus odoratus [4-52, 1-16], and
Phoenicean dates into nine gallons of must, beat
them in a mortar (afterwards corking it tightly)
and leave it alone for two or three months. Then
it is strained, placed in other jars and stored.
Others put fourteen ounces of Celtic nard [1-7]
and forty ounces of wormwood, binding it in a
linen cloth, into a metreta [? measure] of must,
and after forty days store it in other jars.
"Physician Preparing an Elixir,“ Folio from De Materia Medica of
Dioscorides, 13th century
"Preparing Medicine from Honey,“ Folio from
De Materia Medica of Dioscorides, 13th century
Galen, c. 129 – c. 200AD
The composition or making of the moste excellent and pretious oil called oleum
magistrale. First published by commaundement of the King of Spain ... Also the
third book of Galen of curing of pricks and wounds of sinowes. A method for
curing of vvounds in the joynts, and the maner how to place them. Abreef
gathering togither of certain errours which the common chirurgians dayly use,
1574 ...
Tacuinum Sanitatis, by Ibn Buṭlān, c. 1038, published 1531.
Title page of ‘The Pharmacy Wares Drugs
and Stuffs Act 1540’ (32 Henry VIII c 40)
The English Dance of Dance: the Apothecary, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1816
 Rise of alchemy, Nostradamus, and the search for the
Philosopher’s Stone

“Alchemists using fire in the distillation process,” Stradamus, circa 1550

“The preparation of Elixirs requires a thorough knowledge and

experience, since an exchange of powers and substances takes place
among the species” – from Spagyrics, Manfred M. Junius
“Agricola” by Michael Meier, Atalanta
Fugiens, 1617
Paracelsus, c. 1493-1541
We must therefore understand that when we
administer medicine, we administer the
whole world: that is, all the virtue of heaven
and earth, air and water. Because if there is
sickness in the body, all the healthy organs
must fight against it, not only one, but
all. For one sickness can be death to them
all: note how Nature struggles against
sickness with all her power. – DAS BUCH
PARAGRANUM (1529-30)

4 Pillars of Medicine: Philosophy,

Astronomy, Alchemy, and Virtue.
Urbigerus, Baro. Aphorismi Urbigerani, or, Certain rules clearly demonstrating
the three infallible ways of preparing the grand elixir, or circulatum majus of the
philosophers : discovering the secret of secrets, and detecting the errors of vulgar
chymists in their operations : contain'd in one hundred and one aphorisms : to
which are added, The three ways of preparing the vegetable elixir, or circulatum
minus (1690). Translated by William Faithrone.
 Philosophers call it a stone
The which hath a great nature
To bring a stone that is so pure
So he have kindly nourishment
Perfect heat and decoction
But in the matrix when they be put
Let never the glasse be unshut
Till they have ingendred a stone
In the world there not such a one…
Excerpt from “Ripley Scrowle,” 16th c.
Mutus Liber,
attributed to
Isaac Baulot, 1677,
alchemical text
showing the
process of making
the Philosopher’s
Stone
Portrait of Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus,
c.1503-1566) by his son César de Nostredame
(1553-1630?)
c. 1614
Excellent & Moult utile Opuscule,
[Excellent and Most Useful Little Work],
c. 1552 [1554?]
Nostradamus Love Elixir or “Love Jam”
Take three mandrake apples and go and cull them as soon as you see the sun rising, and wrap them in
verbena leaves and the root of the mullein herb, and leave them alone until the following morning.
Then take the weight of six grains of magnetite from the point where it repels the iron, as revealed by
the use of the quadrant, and pulverise it on the marble as finely as possible, sprinkling it a little with
the juice of the mandrake apple.
Next take:
the blood of seven male sparrows, bled via the left wing; of ambergris the weight of 57 barley seeds;
seven grains of musk; of the core of the best cinnamon that can be found the weight of 377 barley
seeds; of cloves and fine lignum aloes the weight of three deniers [pence];
of the arms of an octopus [the original French misprints 'pourpre poisson' for 'poulpe poisson', as is not
impossible with dictated typsetting] one eyelet from each, preserved and prepared in honey;
of mace the weight of 21 grains; of sweet flag the weight of 500 grains;
of the root of Lyris Illyrica or Sclavonia ['Illyrian or Slavonian Lyre'] the weight of 700 grains;
of the root of Apii Risus ['Bee's Laughter'] 31 grains; of Cretan wine double the weight of the whole;
of the finest sugar the weight of 700 grains, which is just a little more than an ounce.

Mix all of this together and pulverise and macerate it thoroughly in a marble mortar with a wooden
pestle.

Ladle it out with a silver spoon and put it in a glass vessel, and set it to boil on the fire until it reduces
in quantity to the point where the sugar has become like syrup, or julep.
And take care above all that it is not a willow fire. Once it has boiled, strain it all carefully but
vigorously, and put it in a vessel of gold, silver or glass.
And when you want to use some of it, put just a little of it in your mouth, as it were the weight of half
a crown, and even if you swallow some of it, it will not harm you at all, provided that if you do not
find the person to transmit it to, you do not fail that very day to have sex, wherever it seems best to
you.
To make the basis for a perfectly good and excellent aromatic powder whose perfume is not strange,
but confers an agreeable and long-lasting sweetness, though it can only be prepared once a year: Take
one ounce of the sawdust or shavings of cypress-wood, as green as you can find, six ounces of Florentine
violet-root, three ounces of cloves, three drams of sweet calamus, and six drams of aloes-wood.
Reduce the whole to powder before it spoils.
Next, take three or four hundred in-folded red roses, fresh and perfectly clean, and gathered before
dewfall.
Pound them vigorously in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle.
When you are half through pounding them, add to them the above mentioned powder and immediately
pound it all vigorously, while sprinkling on it a little rose-juice.
When everything is well mixed together, form it into little flat lozenges, as you would pills, and let them
dry in the shade, for they will smell good.
And note that from this mixture may also be made aromatic soaps, cypress powder, violet root powder,
aromatic balls, perfumes, 'Cyprus birds' and perfumed waters.
And in order to make the mixture even more excellent, add as much musk and ambergris as you either can
or wish.
If these two are added I do not doubt that you will produce a superbly pleasant perfume.
Pulverise the said musk and ambergris, dissolving it with rose-juice, then mix it in and dry in the shade.
Quite apart from the goodness and scent that this mixture lends to the items and mixtures mentioned
above, you only have to keep it in the mouth a little to make your breath smell wonderful all day.
Or if the breath was stinking, whether as a result of the teeth being rotten or because of bad smells
emerging from the stomach, or because the person involved had some stinking ulcer somewhere, or some
other odd case that obliged him to flee people's company, keep a little of it in the mouth without chewing,
and it will give out such a good smell that nobody will be able to tell where it is coming from ['Whence is
that goodly fragrance blowing.'?!].
And in time of Plague, keep it often in the mouth, for there is no smell better for keeping away the bad and
pestiferous air.

Translation by Peter Lemesurier, 2000

 Contact:
Kim Schwenk, cyclette@gmail.com
ofoakandashbotanicals.tumblr.com
 Elderberry Elixir
1 cup dried elderberries (if wild crafted, dry)
1/2 cup (echinacea, hops, passionflower or elder)
2 T. ginger root
1 T. cinnamon chips (or powder)
16 oz. water (distilled or fresh)
4oz vodka or brandy (for kids, straight-edge use
vegetable glycerin)
1 juice of a lemon
16 oz. honey or sugar syrup (vegans can use sugar or
agave)
Sometimes I add in 1/2 cup of mullein or 1 t. of licorice
root

Organic and local is best!