Chapter
9

The Philosopher’s Stone

In This Chapter

• Origins of the concept of a Philosopher’s Stone

• The powers of the Philosopher’s Stone

• The appearance and preparation of the Stone

• The genius of Dr. John Dee

• The magical cipher of the Stone

The idea of the Philosopher’s Stone originated with Alexandrian alchemists and soon captured the imagination of people around the world. By the Middle Ages, the Philosopher’s Stone became the Holy Grail of alchemy. It became not only the key to transforming base metals into gold, but also held the secret to eternal life and spiritual perfection. Because the Stone could turn a corruptible base metal into incorruptible gold, it would similarly transform human beings from mortal (corruptible) beings into immortal (incorruptible) beings.

The origins of the concept of the Philosopher’s Stone can be seen in the theory of the Four Elements and the possibility of transforming one Element into another. There was also an ancient belief that metals could be transformed into one another. This belief probably originated with the observation that some precious metals could be obtained from the ores of base metals. For instance, silver is often obtained from galena, the mineral ore of lead. The preparation of metal tinctures and alloys that imparted the characteristics of gold suggested a single agent might exist that would transmute the metals.

The spiritual significance of the Philosopher’s Stone originated in the Egyptian belief in the perfection of the soul and the creation of an immortal golden body. The mystical doctrine of the regeneration of mankind was part of the spiritual traditions of many early civilizations, and the Philosopher’s Stone was the physical manifestation of that fundamental desire for perfection.

The Magical Touchstone

In Latin, the Philosopher’s Stone was called the Lapis Philosophorum or Stone of the Philosophers, but the Greeks knew it as the Chrysopoeia or Heart of Gold. It was also referred to as the Magisterium, the Magistry, Spiritus Mundi or Spirit of the World, Stone of the Wise, Diamond of Perfection, Universal Medicine, and the Elixir.

The eighth-century Arabian alchemist Jabir did much to popularize the notion of the Philosopher’s Stone among alchemists. He reasoned that one could accomplish the transmutation of one metal into another by the rearrangement of its basic qualities, and that a magical substance would expedite the transformation. The Arabs called this agent Al-Iksir, from which our word elixir derived.

Many religious scholars believe the Philosopher’s Stone is synonymous with the symbol of the stone found in many spiritual traditions, such as the Old Testament stone Jacob rested his head upon, the New Testament rock Christ laid as the foundation of the temple, the Holy Grail or cup of Christ, the Yesodic foundation stone of the Kabbalah, and the Cubic Stone of Freemasonry. In some ways, the Philosopher’s Stone also resembles the forbidden fruit of Genesis and symbolizes knowledge that human beings are not meant to possess.

No doubt the Philosopher’s Stone was the key to success in alchemy. Not only could it instantly transmute any metal into gold, but it was also the alkahest or universal solvent, which dissolved every substance immersed in it and immediately extracted its Quintessence or active essence. The Stone was used in the preparation of the aurum potabile, drinkable gold, a remedy that would perfect the human body. It was also used to restore a plant or animal from its ashes in a process called palingenesis. Because the Philosopher’s Stone carried the Quintessence or life force, it could even be used to create artificial living beings called homonculi.

THOTH’S TIPS

Did you know that the first book in the Harry Potter series deals with the Philoso-pher’s Stone? However, publishers felt the British title (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) was, well, too philosophical for American audiences, so they changed it to the more fetching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The book acknowledges that alchemist Nicolas Flamel successfully created the Stone, although he ultimately destroyed the wondrous object because he feared human beings would never learn to use it wisely. “The Stone,” Dumbledore explains to Harry, “was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want—the two things most human beings would choose above all. The trouble is humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”

What the Philosopher’s Stone Looked Like

Much has been written about the Philosopher’s Stone, and there are scores of recipes for its preparation. In fact, whole books have been devoted to its creation. One example is the seventeenth-century Mutus Liber (Silent Book), which is a symbolic instruction manual of 15 illustrations showing how to concoct the Stone.

Surprisingly, we know quite a bit about what the Philosopher’s Stone looked like. It was dark red in color and resembled a common irregular stone. The material of which the Stone was made was the same red powder of projection so prized by the alchemists.

The Philosopher’s Stone had the peculiar property of exhibiting a variable weight. Sometimes it was as heavy as a piece of gold and other times light as a feather. Its primary ingredient was an equally mysterious element known as carmot. Carmot may have been a mythological substance, because no mention of it exists outside alchemy, nor does it appear in any list of modern chemical compounds.

Although many reports of the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone exist among Arabian and European alchemists, one of the most credible is from the revered alchemist Albertus Magnus, who reported he had successfully created gold by transmutation in the later years of his life. When Magnus died in 1280, he passed the miraculous object on to his student Thomas Aquinas, who is also said to have made many successful transmutations using it.

Another credible report of the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone comes from the sixteenth-century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus. He discovered what he called the “Alkahest,” a single substance from which all the Elements (Fire, Water, Air, and Earth) derived. He used this substance as the chief ingredient in creating his Philosopher’s Stone.

Preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone

According to alchemical literature, there were two ways to create the Philosopher’s Stone: the Wet Way and the Dry Way. The Wet Way, or Humid Way, used natural processes and was more gradual and safer than the Dry Way, which relied on intense heat and powerful chemicals to achieve the Stone in a shorter time.

Even in spiritual alchemy, there was a Wet Way, in which natural inspiration built gradually in the initiate to reach the fervor necessary for personal transformation; and a Dry Way, in which the initiate attempted to ascend on a direct path to divine knowledge. The Wet Way worked with the “slow fires of nature,” while the Dry Way worked with the “raging fires of our lower nature.”

The rapid spiritual ascent of the Dry Way was very dangerous for unprepared initiates and could result in a loss of personal identity or even madness. Tantric alchemists of India followed the direct path by trying to release and control sexual energies, while the path of shamanic alchemy consisted of the use of powerful plant allies and psychoactive drugs. There is no doubt some medieval alchemists made use of such preparations. Alchemists, the first chemists, were very much aware of the psychological and spiritual effects of the compounds they created.

In the laboratory, the Wet Way began with slow digestion and putrefaction of the matter that could go on for many months. The Dry Way began with roasting and heating in an intense fire that might only last a few hours. In both methods, this process was known as the Black Phase, in which the matter blackened as it was reduced to its basic essences.

The Black Phase gave way to the White Phase, in which a purification of the matter took place and the essences were separated out from any contamination. In the Dry Way, this appeared as a white crust formed by dried matter carried by gases bursting in bubbles on the surface of the material. Sometimes the crust puffed up and released a cloud of white vapor into the flask, which was called the White Eagle. In the Wet Way, a white layer of digesting bacteria formed on top of the putrefied material, which was called the White Swan.

During the final Red Phase, the energies released in the previous operations were captured in a solution or powder. In the Dry Way, this was the appearance of a red coloring on the surface of the molten material or in the ashes, which was caused by high temperature oxidation-reduction reactions and was symbolized by the Phoenix rising from the fire. In the Wet Way, the final phase was sometimes signaled by the appearance of a reddish swirl of oil or pink globules on the surface of the matter. This was associated with the Pelican, which sometimes regurgitated a meal of freshly killed fish for its young and stained its white breast plumage with red blood.

The Mysterious Dr. Dee

The most powerful cipher in all of alchemy is a rather odd-looking glyph (see the following illustration). This is the symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, and it’s said to incorporate some of the powers of the Stone whenever it is drawn. In other words, the cipher is believed to carry its own spirit or intelligence, which is evoked every time it is written down or constructed.

The name of this cipher is the Hieroglyphic Monad, and it was created by Dr. John Dee (1527–1608), a British alchemist who revealed the Hieroglyphic Monad to the world. Dee was a true Renaissance man who achieved world renown as a mathematician, mapmaker, cryptographer, magician, philosopher, and astrologer. His library was once the largest in England with over 4,000 rare texts and manuscripts, and his alchemical laboratory rivaled any in the world at the time.

Having entered Cambridge College at the age of 15, Dee began a five-year regimen of sleeping only four hours a day so he could devote more time to studying Hermetic philosophy and alchemy books. “I was so vehemently bent to study,” said Dee of his time at Cambridge, “that for those years I did inviolably keep this order: only to sleep four hours every night; to allow to meet, eat, and drink two hours every day; and of the other eighteen hours all was spent in my studies and learning.”

Dee grew into an imposing figure with a commanding presence. John Aubrey described him in his book Brief Lives: “He had a very fair, clear, rosey complexion and a long beard as white as milk. He was tall and slender, a very handsome man. He wore a gown like an artist’s frock, with hanging sleeves, and a slit. A mighty good man was he.”

Dee was a close confidant of Queen Elizabeth, who gave him a license to practice alchemy and “make gold.” As a favor to the Queen, it is said, he “controlled the Elements” and cast a spell on the Spanish Armada by causing bad weather to thwart the invasion of England. Shakespeare used him as the model for Prospero in The Tempest, and he is also said to have been the inspiration for Goethe’s Faust.

With an intense purity of intention and motive, Dee embarked on a systematic plan to discover the Philosopher’s Stone. He viewed it as much a philosophy as a physical object. In his view, the Stone was “the force behind the evolution of life and the universal binding power which unites minds and souls in a human oneness.” While most alchemists of his time sought the Stone for its ability to transmute base metals into gold, Dee wanted to possess it as a source for spiritual transmutation as well.

The Hieroglyphic Monad

Before long, Dr. Dee realized that he could represent all the powers and characteristics of the Philosopher’s Stone in one magical symbol. After seven years of intense study of alchemical symbols, he found what he was looking for. In just 13 days in January 1564, Dee entered a state of deep concentration and completed a step-by-step mathematical proof called the Monas Hieroglyphica (Hieroglyphic Monad).

The frontispiece for John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica (Hieroglyphic Monad) shows his magical cipher for the Philosopher’s Stone.

According to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, the Monad was the first thing that came into existence in the universe. It can be described as the spiritual atom or egg that gave birth to the whole cosmos. To the Gnostic philosophers, the Monad was the single higher spiritual being (the One Mind) that created all the lesser gods and elemental powers. In Jungian terms, it is the first archetype that contains all the other archetypes. Today we might look at it as a mega microchip that contains all the software of the universe.

When the alchemists depicted the Monad, they often added the Latin caption In Hoc Signo Vinces (In this sign you will conquer). All the coded ciphers of the alchemists were thought to be pieces of the Hieroglyphic Monad, and as we shall see, this is geometrically quite true.

In his proof, Dee used the ancient ciphers of alchemy as geometric figures and applied Euclidean geometry to show their deeper meaning and relationships. Dee believed his proof would “revolutionize astronomy, alchemy, mathematics, linguistics, mechanics, music, optics, magic, and adeptship.” He even urged astronomers to stop peering through their telescopes trying to understand the heavens and instead spend their time meditating on his Monad.

The Cipher of the Stone

Dee believed his cipher was the true Philosopher’s Stone. The frontispiece of his Hieroglyphic Monad is a succinct explanation of the cipher itself, and the frontispiece was considered so important in Elizabethan times that it became known around the world as the Greater Seal of London.

At the center of the frontispiece is the Monad cipher within an inverted egg filled with embryonic fluid and known as the Hermetic Egg. The fluid represented the First Matter; the yolk is represented as a circle and point at the center of the figure. The circle with a center point is the cipher for gold and the sun.

The lunar crescent symbol of the moon intersects the upper part of the yellow yolk of the sun. Thus the sun and moon are united in gold at this level, which represents perfection or the end of the Great Work. Within the frame surrounding the Monad are found the Four Elements and the Three Essentials of Sulfur (the sun on the left pillar), Salt (the moon on the right pillar), and Mercury (the center symbol).

Two rounded lunar crescents or waves representing the Water Element are at the bottom of the Monad. They come together to form the ram horns of the sign of Aries, which signifies Fire. Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, is associated with the burst of life force in the Spring, at which time the Great Work begins. “To begin the Work of this Monad,” wrote Dee, “the aid of Fire is required.”

A cross, known as the Cross of the Elements, connects the bottom and the top of the cipher. Here the workings of manifested reality play out. In this section of the Monad, all the glyphs of the five visible planets along with the symbols for the sun and moon intersect. The metals are also indicated, because in alchemy, the ciphers for the planet and its metal are the same (Saturn/lead, Jupiter/tin, Mars/iron, Venus/copper, Mercury/quicksilver, moon/silver, and the sun/gold; see Chapter 10). By tracing the connecting lines and arcs in different ways, one can locate all the symbols of the planets and their metals and thereby reveal the invisible forces behind Nature.

The merged planetary ciphers are arranged left to right and top to bottom around the Cross of the Elements. According to Dee, by placing the planetary ciphers in their proper relationship, the astronomical symbols are imbued with an “immortal life,” allowing their coded meaning to be expressed “most eloquently in any tongue and to any nation.” In this arrangement, the sun is the only symbol that is always the same, and in that sense, incorruptible like gold. No matter which way the Monad is turned—upside down, left to right, right to left, or its mirror image—the cipher of the sun and gold is always exactly the same.

THOTH’S TIPS

The Monad is a powerful symbol, and alchemists believe it should be treated with the greatest reverence. Starting with the cipher of Saturn/tin, see if you can identify all the planetary ciphers. Then recreate the Monad on a sheet of paper by constructing the ciphers one on top of the other. Drawing the Monad in this way is a meditative exercise that invokes the symbol’s transformative power if done properly.

The heart of the Monad and the one cipher that encompasses all the others is Mercury. In alchemy, Mercury stands for the principle of transformation itself. Just as depicted in the Monad, Mercury is part of all the metals and Elements of alchemy and melds them together as one. Dee embedded the spirit of Mercury at the heart of his master symbol and believed he had successfully captured the essences of all the archetypal Elements and metals.

The Lost Key to the Monad

Dee believed his Monad carried the secret of transformation of anything in the universe, but he never spoke of its meaning publicly because he felt the Monad was much too powerful to share with the uninitiated. He privately told other alchemists that his symbol not only described the precise interrelationship of the planetary energies, but also showed the way to transmutation of the metals, as well as the spiritual transformation of the alchemist.

Dee wrote a private unpublished book explaining in detail the workings of the Monad. In the inventory of his massive library was a description of that book, which he intended only for his fellow alchemists. But Dee’s secret key was destroyed when a mob of Anglican fundamentalists broke into his home and burned his entire library.

Dee had the final say, however. “He who devotes himself sincerely to these mysteries,” he said, “will see clearly that nothing is able to exist without the virtue of our Hieroglyphic Monad.” And he gave this advice to anyone who would read his proof: “Whoever does not understand should either learn or be silent.”

The Least You Need to Know

• The idea of the Philosopher’s Stone originated with Alexandrian and Arabian alchemists.

• The Philosopher’s Stone was like a magical touchstone that could instantly perfect or cure anything.

• Dr. John Dee created a cipher that embodied both the formula to create the Philosopher’s Stone and its magical powers.

• Dr. Dee’s mathematical proof for his cipher of the Philosopher’s Stone is called the Hieroglyphic Monad.