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Term first used by Valentine and later by Paracelsus and van Helmont to denote a spirit that presided over and governed bodily processes.
Synonym(s): archeus
[L. fr. G. archaios, chief, leader]


In alchemy, archaeus is the lowest and densest metaphysical entity or spirit of the astral plane, which presides over the growth and continuation of all living beings.

archaeus (är·kāˑ·s),

n the luminous, radiating healing energy that surrounds and permeates human beings, as described by the 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus.
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The Archaeus is he who disposes everything according to a definite order, so that each comes to its ultimate matter, which at length man receives as a sort of artificial primal matter: that is, where Nature ends, there the Art of man begins, for Nature's ultimate matter is man's primordial matter.