The ancient Greeks did not have a general word for “matter,” only words for specific types of matter. Aristotle took the word for lumber and adapted it to mean matter, in general. In alchemy it is also called the “First Matter,” is the source of the four elements, and is identical to the “Philosopher’s Stone.”
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...