Divine Alchemy: The Most Potent Elixir

Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee…

(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words #3)

Baha'u'llah says that acquiring knowledge of proper alchemy is one of the signs of maturity of the human race.  (Kitab-i-Aqdas: 250)  However He discouraged the Baha'is of His time from investigating further into alchemy, saying the world was not ready for it, and if it were to be discovered too early a great calamity would occur. (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah, vol. 2: 268) 

Nonetheless, He did indicate it was, or could be, an authentic science. In dismissing one arrogant person’s claim to “know” alchemy, He stated: “Among the sciences which this pretender hath professed is that of alchemy. We cherish the hope that either a king or a man of preeminent power may call upon him to translate this science from the realm of fancy to the domain of fact and from the plane of mere pretension to that of actual achievement. Would that this unlearned and humble Servant, who never laid any pretension to such things, nor even regarded them as the criterion of true knowledge, might undertake the same task, that thereby the truth might be known and distinguished from falsehood.” (Kitab-i-Iqan: 189-190)

Thus the base pretensions of some foolish ones did not prevent Him from using some of alchemy’s central terminology. One of the alchemical terms He uses is “Elixir”. He affirms that the alchemist’s dream of distilling an elixir, also called the Philosopher’s Stone, that could instantly transmute metals into gold is a reality, albeit an undiscovered one.  He wrote: “For instance, consider the substance of copper. Were it to be protected in its own mine from becoming solidified, it would, within the space of seventy years, attain to the state of gold. There are some, however, who maintain that copper itself is gold, which by becoming solidified is in a diseased condition, and hath not therefore reached its own state.

“Be that as it may, the real elixir will, in one instant, cause the substance of copper to attain the state of gold, and will traverse the seventy-year stages in a single moment." (Kitab-i-Iqan: 156)

Evidently, He got some resistance to this statement, for He wrote later: “Consider the doubts which they who have joined partners with God have instilled into the hearts of the people of this land. "Is it ever possible," they ask, "for copper to be transmuted into gold?" Say, Yes, by my Lord, it is possible. Its secret, however, lieth hidden in Our Knowledge. We will reveal it unto whom We will. Whoso doubteth Our power, let him ask the Lord his God, that He may disclose unto him the secret, and assure him of its truth. That copper can be turned into gold is in itself sufficient proof that gold can, in like manner, be transmuted into copper, if they be of them that can apprehend this truth. Every mineral can be made to acquire the density, form, and substance of each and every other mineral. The knowledge thereof is with Us in the Hidden Book.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 197-198)

Disclosing the science of alchemy was not His mission.  It remains a hidden science.  But chemical alchemy provided for Him metaphors to unveil a greater, spiritual alchemy, that of the transmutation of souls, to which He called His followers.  There are, then, two elixirs, a spiritual and a material, the spiritual more powerful than the other. 

This is brought out by Baha’u’llah in the following passage: “The vitality of men's belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it? Is it within human power, O Hakim, to effect in the constituent elements of any of the minute and indivisible particles of matter so complete a transformation as to transmute it into purest gold? Perplexing and difficult as this may appear, the still greater task of converting satanic strength into heavenly power is one that We have been empowered to accomplish. The Force capable of such a transformation transcendeth the potency of the Elixir itself. The Word of God, alone, can claim the distinction of being endowed with the capacity required for so great and far-reaching a change.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah: 201)

It is of great importance that the greater spiritual Elixir be known and understood and take effect before the material elixir is known and applied, for knowing this greater Elixir protects us from the dangers of the second.  The “Elixir of His potent Revelation” is greater and more powerful than the elixir which transmutes matter in any form into purest gold. 

In another passage on the Elixir that can transform and transmute souls Baha’u’llah writes: “I beg of Thee, O my God, by Thy most exalted Word which Thou hast ordained as the Divine Elixir unto all who are in Thy realm, the Elixir through whose potency the crude metal of human life hath been transmuted into purest gold, O Thou in Whose hands are both the visible and invisible kingdoms….” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 53)

In speaking of the Divine Elixir’s power to transmute human beings, Baha’u’llah pointed to the changes wrought in those who accepted His Revelation: “It is evident that nothing short of this mystic transformation could cause such spirit and behaviour, so utterly unlike their previous habits and manners, to be made manifest in the world of being. For their agitation was turned into peace, their doubt into certitude, their timidity into courage. Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!” (Kitab-i-Iqan:155)

One of the powers attributed to the alchemical elixir is the healing of illness.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha also employs the notion of the elixir as metaphor for spiritual healing.  “Every divine Manifestation is the very life of the world, and the skilled physician of each ailing soul. The world of man is sick, and that competent Physician knoweth the cure, arising as He doth with teachings, counsels and admonishments that are the remedy for every pain, the healing balm to every wound. It is certain that the wise physician can diagnose his patient's needs at any season, and apply the cure. Wherefore, relate thou the Teachings of the Abha Beauty to the urgent needs of this present day, and thou wilt see that they provide an instant remedy for the ailing body of the world. Indeed, they are the elixir that bringeth eternal health.”(Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 59)

As indicated, this most potent Elixir is to be used by His followers to change and uplift the souls of others, so their divine aspect may come forth.  How to do this?  He advises: “From the texts of the wondrous, heavenly Scriptures they should memorize phrases and passages bearing on various instances, so that in the course of their speech they may recite divine verses whenever the occasion demandeth it, inasmuch as these holy verses are the most potent elixir, the greatest and mightiest talisman. So potent is their influence that the hearer will have no cause for vacillation.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 200)

Baha’u’llah speaks of those who truly follow Him in these terms: “The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning mankind unto Him. No more than a mere handful, however, hath been found willing to cleave to His Cause, or to become the instruments for its promotion. These few have been endued with the Divine Elixir that can, alone, transmute into purest gold the dross of the world, and have been empowered to administer the infallible remedy for all the ills that afflict the children of men.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 183)

Though empowered to administer the divine elixir the proper expression of that power was perfectly stated in a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi: “Love is, indeed, a most potent elixir that can transform vilest and meanest of people into heavenly souls.”  (From a letter written of behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, December 6, 1935)  (Lights of Guidance: 222)

As I said in previous posts, the alchemist’s prima materia from which is distilled the elixir of life points to something like the concept in modern physics of zero-point energy and ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s “etheric matter.”  Humanity will discover this original matter and how to scientifically transmute it into any desired material.   But the Divine Elixir that has been given to us is the greater elixir and we can learn to use it to transmute all things, starting with our own souls, through the science of the love of God, which is, in my opinion, a combination of both sciences, i.e. using the knowledge of God to transmute the primal love of God into any desired form, as stated in the opening quote.