The process of boiling a fluid and then cooling the resulting gas, resulting in a purified liquid. In alchemy, the gas produced during the distillation was considered the spirit of the substance being distilled, and the purification through heat is also a form of spiritual purification of the substance being distilled.
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Sandra Kynes, author of several books, including The Herb Gardener's Essential Guide, Plant Magic, and the new Witches' Encyclopedia of Magical Plants, among many others.
Although a few old books...