Vegetative soul

Scientiae / Robert Pring-Mill — Arbor Scientiae The Tree of the Elements / Charles Lohr — "Vegetare Seu Transmutare." The Vegetable Soul and Pseudo-Lullian Alchemy / Michela Pereira... 

Pereira, Michela. Vegetare seu Transmutare The Vegetable Soul and Pseudo-Lullian Alchemy, in Fernando Dominguez Reboiras et al., eds., Arbor Scientiae Der Baum des Wissens von Ramon Lull (Brepols Turnhout, 2002). 

Digby, Kenelm. Of bodies, and of mans soul. To discover the immortality of reasonable souls. With two discources Of the powder of sympathy, and Of the vegetation of plants.. . . London Printed by S.G. and B.G. for John Williams, and are to be sold in Little Britain over against St. Buttolphs-Church, 1669. 439, 23 lp. 

Some Philosophers have called the sun the soul of the world, and have supposed it placed in the middle of the Universe, as it would be easier for it to communicate everywhere its benign influences from a center. Before having received them the Earth was in a kind of idleness, or as a female without the male. As soon as it was impregnated by them, it produced immediately, not simple vegetation as formerly, but animated and living beings, animals of all species. 

Animals have, above minerals and vegetables, a sensitive soul, the principle of their life and movement. They are, one may say, the complement of Nature as far as sublunary beings are concerned. God has distinguished and separated the two sexes in this kingdom, so that from two there should come a third. Thus in the most perfect things is manifested more perfectly the image of the Trinity. 

Supported by the air, and almost entirely aerial, the souls of vegetables push the head of their stalk as high as possible, as if eager to return to their land. 

To the alchemist, everything is alive and consists of a Body, Soul and Spirit or Salt, Sulfur and Mercury. This is true in the Vegetable Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom and the Mineral Kingdom. That the plant world and the animal world are filled with living beings is obvious to all. 

Plant alcohol, or ethanol, is called spirit because that s what it is—the spirit of a plant the same whether made from grapes, grain or mandrake roots, thus the universal principle of the vegetable kingdom. The individual essence of a plant— its soul— is found in its essential oil (a rose has many names, but its fragrance is unique). The body, thirdly, is an invisible salt, extracted from the plant s ashes by separating the subtle from the gross , as we shall see later. 

The salt of plants obligingly acts as a bridge between the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the entry point to mineral alchemy, the operations of which mysteriously reflect the processes within the transforming soul of the alchemist. The key to these processes is the interaction of the tria prima, so let s take a closer look at them and the rich symbolism with which alchemists clothe them. 

The Big-O chili cheeseburger is a good option only if you ve got a plate and a fork nearby, otherwise you ll have quite a mess on your hands. Orean s chili is made with beans, the cheese with soy, and the patty with grains and vegetables. The hot-o-dog gives you the most bang for your buck at a paltry 1.29. There s also a chicken-o-burger and even a filet-o-soul. 

He also said that this was not just a human gift, that everything on the face of the earth had a soul, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal—or even just a simple thought. 

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