The Alchemy of Medicinal Plants
July 2018, Fair Oaks, CA
Related to Biodynamics, Body Health, Mineral and Plant Alchemy
Type: Audio, Podcast | Posted Aug 11, 2026
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In this lecture, Dennis explores the relationship between plant physiology and the laboratory processes used to draw medicine out of a plant. He looks at plant hormones and signalling substances, at the ways plants and animals respond alike to stress in their surroundings, and at why the rhythms of a plant’s chemistry — which shift through the season and even through the day — determine when and how it should be harvested.
He sets the traditional practices of India and China alongside contemporary Western research, then turns to the alchemical view of plant medicine: what it means to take a plant apart, purify the parts, and marry them together again. The lecture closes on the transformative power of fermentation and the method behind preparing spagyric medicines.
Lecture 1 from the Medicinal Plants: Distillation course, recorded July 2018 in Fair Oaks, California. The full four-lecture set continues with fermentation, building distillation equipment, and the influence of spiritual archetypes on matter.
Dennis Klocek, MFA, is co-founder of the Coros Institute, an internationally renowned lecturer, and teacher. He is the author of nine books, including the newly released Colors of the Soul; Esoteric Physiology and also Sacred Agriculture: The Alchemy of Biodynamics. He regularly shares his alchemical, spiritual, and scientific insights at soilsoulandspirit.com.
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