Archeus

In alchemy, Archeus, or archaeus, is a term used generally to refer to the lowest and most dense aspect of the astral plane which presides over the growth and continuation of all living beings. [The vital principle or force believed by the Paracelsians to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies, and hence for the growth and continuation of life. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/archeus]

The philosophers maintained that the Archeus was the segment of the closest quadrant of the higher worlds which blends with some similarity to the highest vibrations of our physical world. Essentially it was seen as the "gray area" wherein matter, speaking parallel and not laterally, begins to transmute into spiritual energies. In effect it is the glue which binds the heavens to the material, and so allows the maxim "As above so below."

The term was used by medieval Paracelsus and those after him, such as Jan Baptist van Helmont.[1]

[1] Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580 – 1644) was a Flemish chemist, physiologist, and physician. He worked during the years just after Paracelsus and iatrochemistry, and is sometimes considered to be "the founder of pneumatic chemistry". Van Helmont is remembered today largely for his ideas on spontaneous generation, his 5-year tree experiment [2], and his introduction of the word "gas" (from the Greek word chaos) into the vocabulary of scientists.

[2] He performed an experiment to determine where plants get their mass. He grew a willow tree and measured the amount of soil, the weight of the tree and the water he added. After five years the plant had gained about 164 lbs (74 kg). Since the amount of soil was basically the same as it had been when he started his experiment, he deduced that the tree's weight gain had come from water. Since it had received nothing but water and the soil weighed practically the same as at the beginning, he argued that the increased weight of wood, bark and roots had been formed from water alone. However, this "deduction" is incomplete, as a large proportion of the mass of the tree comes from atmospheric carbon dioxide, which, in conjunction with water, is turned into carbohydrates via photosynthesis.