The Philosopher's Stone

Wikipedia gives detailed information on the Philosopher’s Stone, the object of all alchemy. From descriptions of what it is and what it does, it is clear that few ever believed that they were trying to create a merely physical rock, or amulet. What the alchemist is doing is reaching some type of deep down touchstone, the heart of all creation, the heart of the human soul and the soul of the world as well. This is the Stone the builders rejected, the Philosopher’s Stone is the cornerstone of everything. It is the Rough Ashler of the free mason’s the rough stone of Taoism that must be returned to its original wholeness.

            Alternately, this stone is the elixir of life, or it creates the elixir of life. So it is the Graal as well as what the Graal holds. It turns base metals to gold, gives long life, grants immortality and insight. It is the vehicle of transformation in this world, the Eye of the Dragon.

            Here are some descriptions from the Wikipedia article.

The theoretical roots outlining the stone’s creation can be traced to Greek philosophy. Alchemists later used the classical elements, the concept of anima mundi, and Creation stories presented in texts like Plato's Timaeus as analogies for their process.[4] According to Plato, the four elements are derived from a common source or prima materia (first matter), associated with chaos. Prima materia is also the name alchemists assign to the starting ingredient for the creation of the philosopher's stone. The importance of this philosophical first matter persisted throughout the history of alchemy. In the seventeenth century, Thomas Vaughan writes, "the first matter of the stone is the very same with the first matter of all things".[5]





The equivalent of the philosopher's stone in Buddhism and Hinduism is the Cintamani.[12] It is also referred to[13] as Paras/Parasmani (Hindi: पारस/पारसमणि) or Paris (Marathi: परिस).

In Mahayana Buddhism, Chintamani is held by the bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara and Ksitigarbha. It is also seen carried upon the back of the Lung ta (wind horse) which is depicted on Tibetan prayer flags. By reciting the Dharani of Chintamani, Buddhist tradition maintains that one attains the Wisdom of Buddhas, is able to understand the truth of the Buddhas, and turns afflictions into Bodhi. It is said to allow one to see the Holy Retinue of Amitabha and his assembly upon one's deathbed. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition the Chintamani is sometimes depicted as a luminous pearl and is in the possession of several of different forms of the Buddha.[14]

While it is true that sometimes, some people were looking for an actual stone that turned actual lead into actual gold, most often, an alchemist is a term for someone seeking far more than this, seeking to transform the base things at hand back to their original golden nature, seeking it in all the work we do. The Seeking is not metaphorically, but magically.

     

The English philosopher Sir Thomas Browne in his spiritual testament Religio Medici (1643) identified the religious aspect of the quest for the philosopher's Stone when declaring:

The smattering I have of the Philosophers stone, (which is something more than the perfect exaltation of gold) hath taught me a great deale of Divinity.

— (R.M.Part 1:38)[11]

Alchemy is all the processes of the magician’s life, by which we transform all we find that is base back into the divine, by which gradually and earnestly we change that which we touch.