The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

Pliny’s mandrake and it is an allegorical description of the Great
Work: 1369
In a ravine which protects the town on the north is a place called
Baaras, where grows a root of the same name. This is flamecolored,
and at dusk it sends out brilliant flashes so that those
who come near in the hope of plucking it cannot take hold of it, as
it slips away and will not stay still until it is drenched with a
woman’s urine or menstrual blood. Even then to touch it means
certain death, unless one happens to have brought an exactly
similar root dangling from the wrist. It can also be secured
another way without risk, thus – they dig right around it, so as to
leave the smallest possible piece of root in the ground; then they
tie a dog to it and when he springs forward to follow the man who
tied him, it is easily pulled up, but the dog dies instantly – a
substitute for the person who was going to remove the plant; for
no danger remains for those who subsequently handle it. Despite
the greatness of the danger it has one virtue that makes it sought
after; for the so called devils – in reality the spirits of evildoers
that enter the living and kill them if they are not rescued – are
quickly cast out by this plant if it so much as touches the
possessed. Here too flow springs of hot water differing widely in
flavor, some being bitter and others very sweet indeed. There are
also many fountains of cold water, and these do not all issue from
wells on low ground in a row; the truth is more surprising, for
there is a cave to be seen nearby, not hollowed out to any great
depth, but sheltered by a rock that juts out. Above this protrude,
as it were, two breasts a little way apart, sending out water, in
one case icy, in the other boiling hot. When mixed these furnish a
most pleasant bath, beneficial in many sicknesses and giving
special relief to tired muscles. The region also contains sulphur
and alum mines.
The real mandrake or Mandragora officinalis is one of the most
striking plants of Lebanon and the Plain of Sharon. It has a central bunch
of dark-blue, bell-shaped blossom on a flat disk of very broad primroselike
leaves.
Wei Boyang, a Chinese alchemist of the second century CE,
relates a similar tale: 1370
One day Wei Boyang Passed into the mountains to prepare
numinous elixirs. With him and went three disciples, two of
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