SC - Fw: Re: Alcohol consumption through the ages

[marilyn traber]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Patricia Baker <PBaker7049 at AOL.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list ARCANA <ARCANA at BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Date: Saturday, June 06, 1998 10:28
Subject: Re: Alcohol consumption through the ages


>In a message dated 6/5/98 7:06:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
dengrove at EROLS.COM
>writes:
>
><< The way I heard it, hard liquor was first distilled by monks and they
> considered it a substance between the spiritual and the material because
it
> had a clear crystalline color; hence, the term spirits. Several monks
> claimed that drinking it had prolonged there life. In the 16th Century, it
>>
>
>Hello Richard and All,
>
>As I understand it, the more important point of the term "spirits" was that
>the *essence* of whatever was being distilled (whether wine or medicinal
herb)
>was being separated from its dross matter and got into a more potent and
>valuable form.
>The wonderful way Galenic medical theory hangs together as a complete
system
>for explaining the workings of the human body has always charmed me (and
lest
>you think this is going to go racing way off list-topic, bear with me for a
>second).  The four humors (black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm) of
which
>the body is composed correspond to the four elements (earth, fire, air and
>water).  To vastly oversimplify,  an imbalance in your particular normal
ratio
>of humors would cause you to become ill.  To correct this imbalance,
various
>techniques should be used including bloodletting, purging AND/or
>administration of green medicines (herbs).  All herbs are also composed of
>varying proportions of the four elements (of course--that's how the world
>works, isn't it. . .?) and your herbal will tell you these proportions and
to
>what degree an herb is hot, cold, moist or dry.   Each herb is also under
the
>domination of or one or another of the planets (just as we are in a more
>complicated way depending on our birth time) and this correspondence can be
>used as well to give you a better idea of how to choose treatment for
whatever
>disorder you are presented with.  Herbs, because they are much lower down
than
>we are on  the Great Chain of Being (below animals yet above minerals) in
this
>beautifully ordered world view,  do not have much flux in their qualities.
>What we nowadays would call their active principle remains pretty constant,
>only the strength thereof affected by growing or picking circumstances.
This
>active principle was conceived of as a much-downscaled and simple version
of
>our own spirit or soul (I probably shouldn't say "soul" here because I'll
get
>in trouble with the real medieval scholars on the list; I know plants
wouldn't
>be going to Heaven), and this whole system explained what was probably
arrived
>at originally empirically.  Therefore, if you can distill out that
"spirit",
>you have "spirits"--whose crystalline look, appropriate to the higher and
>purer nature of their substance, fit in quite logically.  The spirit of
wine
>(which has a warming and reviving effect) becomes a strong cordial and
>restorative when thus purified.  When monks added good herbs to this
process,
>they had a hell of a medicine.
>
>What brings this closer to Arcana is that despite the mainline medical
>profession's changes and evolution over the last few centuries and the
>concomitant gradual abandonment of this world view by the general populace
>post-Descartes, this system of astrological and elemental correspondences
and
>the the idea of an animistic and interconnected universe has continued as
the
>backbone of most occult systems.  Something important (whatever terminology
>one uses) has been preserved thusly, and here we all are. . .   Has anyone
>read Morris Berman's *The Reenchantment of the World*?  I meant to bring it
up
>a couple of months ago when medieval world view was last discussed, but
>someone borrowed my copy and now tells me she has lost it (grr!).   What do
>other scholars think of Dr. Berman's work?
>
>Regards,
>
>Pat
>


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