The Benefits of Herbal Spagyric Extracts

February 16, 2021 Brandon Gilbert

Spagyrics are an ancient alchemical approach to herbal extraction. The term itself dates all the way back to Paracelsus, who coined it from the Greek "spao" (to extract) and "ageiro" (to combine). They are essentially alcohol-based extracts of beneficial herbs. However, spagyrics also differ from standard alcohol tinctures in an important way. Spagyrics offer a fuller experience of an herb’s character, because the herb’s integrity, personality or energetic imprint is preserved during the spagyric extraction process. However, there’s still a lot of confusion about how to take spagyrics, how this extraction process really works, what the benefits of spagyrics are, and how they differ from regular tinctures. In this blog I’m going to answer all of these questions, and also reveal my favorite spagyrics.

Spagyrics vs Tinctures

People often ask how spagyrics are different from standard tinctures. The confusion here is understandable, as both extraction methods primarily use alcohol to extract beneficial compounds from plants and herbs. But there’s one big difference to note here, and it’s the reason why myself and many other herbalists are drawn to spagyrics over standard herb tinctures. The difference is this: spagyrics contain the “body” of the herb itself, which in many cases makes the spagyric a more potent choice than standard tinctures.

To be clear, this “body” term comes from the alchemical tradition, where spagyrics originated. In alchemy the body is the crystallized soluble molecules contained in the ash or salt of the herb. We’ll take a look now at how the body is incorporated into spagyrics, and why this is beneficial.

The Spagyric Extraction Process

When making standard tinctures, alcohol is pressed from/through the herbs, and the herb is then discarded at the end of the process. With spagyrics, however, instead of discarding the herbs at the end, the herbs are “calcinated” - meaning they are burned and ground repeatedly into a fine powder. The soluble compounds are extracted from this powder using water, and then crystallized before being incorporated back into the final tincture.

Many people feel that by keeping the “body” of the herb in the spagyric, it results in a more holistic and potent experience of the herb’s benefits.

The Hyperion Spagyric Process

Please bear in mind that the processes described here are just the basic ideas and overviews to introduce you to what a spagyric is and that there are many other more intricate and complicated processes that can be done as well.

We employ many of these extremely time consuming, labor intensive, and intricate processes to all of the Hyperion Herbs spagyrics to ensure a deeper level of potency, quality, and efficacy than is currently available on the market today.

I just mention this because there are quite a few "mom and pop" spagyric companies popping up as it is becoming a bit trendy. Frankly the quality of most of these is not something that I would personally consume. This is important because generally there are 998 ways of doing something wrong and only a couple ways of doing it right.

I've always been quite interested in spagyrics but I always avoided them for these reasons above, until I finally met someone with such high level of training, education, and dedication, that I could finally start to see the power of the modality.

Spagyric Benefits

Specific spagyric benefits will differ based on which herb the spagyric is made of. However, there are a few benefits that all spagyrics have across the board, such as:

-Increased bioavailability

-Effects can last up to 3 days

-A Full spectrum of available minerals

-Preserving the integrity & character of the whole plant/herb

-High potency

-Gentle & Versatile

How to Take Spagyrics

Because spagyrics offer higher potency, it’s important to start off slowly when taking them - only gradually working up to higher doses. For my own spagyrics, I recommend people start with 1 dropper under the tongue or in a little bit of hot water, 1-3x per day, or as needed. The latter is my favorite way of consumption as the hot water seems to open everything up and allow all of the amazing aromatics and flavor compounds to fully express themselves.

The Best Spagyrics

The benefits of each type of spagyric will differ depending on what herb it is distilled from. That said, here are my favorite spagyrics right now, and the respective benefits of each. I recommend you find the one that resonates with your current goals and give it a shot :)