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Digestion (alchemy)

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Process of applying heat over weeks
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In alchemy, digestion is a process in which gentle heat is applied to a substance over a period of several weeks.

This was traditionally performed by sealing a sample of the substance in a flask, and keeping the flask in fresh horse dung or sometimes in direct sunlight. Today, practitioners of alchemy use thermostat-controlled incubators.

Digestion is considered one of the 12 core alchemical processes and is "ruled", or "dominated", by the zodiacal sign of Leo.

References

  1. John Reid's Course on Practical Alchemy - II Chapter 2 (November 1, 2010)
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