The True Philosopher’s Stone

In one of His Tablets Bahá'u'lláh wrote: 'The first person who devoted himself to philosophy was Idris. Thus was he named. Some called him also Hermes. In every tongue he hath a special name. He it is who hath set forth in every branch of philosophy thorough and convincing statements. After him Balinus derived his knowledge and sciences from the Hermetic Tablets and most of the philosophers who followed him made their philosophical and scientific discoveries from his words and statements...

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 148)

For my money the Hermetic cosmology, tracing its origins to Hermes Trismegistus, or Thrice-great Hermes, who is Idris of the Qur’an, remains relevant, except for the strictly materialist cosmology of today which sees and wants to see nothing beyond physis.  The Hermetic texts have influenced centuries of thinkers, including the great sages of ancient Greece.  It is true that the Hermetic terminology of ether, the relation of Mind and Matter, the stages of the magnum opus to create the Philosopher’s Stone or distill an elixir, and the transmutation of metals are mostly forgotten.  But allowing for changes in terminology and emphasis current cosmology and the Hermetic/Greek ideas are remarkably similar.  Physicist Scott Tyson in his book, The Unobservable Universe, (p.104) observes: “Though incomplete, the philosophy of the Greek philosophers and the scientific understandings of the nature of matter of the twentieth century are quite similar in many regards.”

Whitehead’s celebrated quip in Process and Reality: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”, is echoed by Baha’u’llah.  In His Tablet of Wisdom He wrote: “Although it is recognized that the contemporary men of learning are highly qualified in philosophy, arts and crafts, yet were anyone to observe with a discriminating eye he would readily comprehend that most of this knowledge hath been acquired from the sages of the past, for it is they who have laid the foundation of philosophy, reared its structure and reinforced its pillars. Thus doth thy Lord, the Ancient of Days, inform thee.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 144)  In that work He speaks of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, among others, in glowing terms.

But Whitehead’s remark leaves out the idea that Plato and the other “sages” may themselves be something of footnotes to the Prophets.  Baha’u’llah goes on to say: “The sages aforetime acquired their knowledge from the Prophets, inasmuch as the latter were the Exponents of divine philosophy and the Revealers of heavenly mysteries.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 144-145)

Any similarity between ancient and modern ideas of the structure of the universe and the nature of matter is, then, not just a happy coincidence of a meeting of minds over the centuries.  It seems to be the maturing of a long tradition not just of thought, but of thought based upon the Revelations of the Prophets.  That is, it may be a history of ideas, but it is that because they are all coming from the same source, namely the Prophetic revelations laying out the fundamental structures of mind and thought. 

For example, it was Plato’s idea in his Timeaus that the physical world is the world which changes and perishes: therefore it is the object of opinion and unreasoned sensation. The eternal one never changes: therefore it is apprehended by reason.  Now by reason is not meant simply cognition.  Rather, what is meant, I believe, is the traditional Logos, the harmony that exists between the structures of Reality as a whole and of the human mind in particular that create knowledge, understanding and meaningful relations.  As Baha’u’llah wrote: “It is clear and evident, therefore, that the first bestowal of God is the Word, and its discoverer and recipient is the power of understanding.” (Tabernacle of Unity: 3)  One cannot receive what one is not equipped to receive.  That power of understanding is centered on the rational faculty, the essence of the human reality.  But it includes all the mental faculties.

Plato also spoke of a realm of Ideas, or ideal intellectual realities, that were the archetypes of their physical counterparts; a metaphysical, metaphorical realm of thought as counterpart to the physical metaphors of matter.  This echoes Hermes first principle in His Emerald Tablet, “As below, so above.”  Now there are many ways these realms of mind and matter may be connected.  But for human understanding the best way is through powerful metaphors, each a verbal representation or symbol of a cosmological vibrational harmony.

I mean that if we perceive the relations between Mind and Matter as various ratios of waves, frequencies, domains of morphic fields with morphic resonance that is upset and reset into a new creative possibility by the creative Word, the evolving Master vibration, we create relational structures of meaning through these analogies.  Growth in understanding must include both new form and the renewal of energy, new sequence flowing out from old structure, new relations manifesting perennial principles.  The dynamic coherence between the ideal and material domains brings forth new phenomena from unchanging cosmic structures, for all things are brought forth and returned, the same realities coming and going in and out of the world of existence.  Looking back we perceive them, though they are “not in the form thou seest today”.  Now, if forms of phenomena link in evolutionary patterns, human understanding must do the same.  New forms of ancient phenomena brought forth from new cosmological relations created by the Word are captured/mirrored epistemologically in the mind through old metaphors made new.  Let’s take a look at three such images and metaphors.

To change the soul and thus what the intelligence may see meaningfully, Baha’u’llah admonishes His believers to use His creative Word: “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. I swear by My life! This Revelation is endowed with such a power that it will act as the lodestone for all nations and kindreds of the earth.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 200)

We see the reference to elixir, whose two-fold manifestation into an earthly and divine elixir I talked about in a previous post.  But there are two other words we can briefly look at: talisman and lodestone.  Both have associations with magical practices, in the best sense of that word “magic”, as a wonderful transformative experience.  Talisman comes from the Greek Talesma, which means “miraculous work.” It is an emblem or symbol into which cosmic power is drawn to perform cosmic miracles.  It is a kind of cosmic magnet crafted to attract the Elixir of life, and can transform the material and spiritual worlds.  On the human plane, it refers to the human reality, especially the human heart, since: “Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess.” (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh: 161)  That proper education is spiritual education which I believe is grounded in and upon the science of the love of God.

But the real supreme Talisman is the Manifestation of God. The Bab, speaking as the Voice of God and referring to Himself, remarks: “He is in truth the Supreme Talisman and is endowed with supernatural powers, as set forth in the Mother Book...” (Selections from the Writings of the Bab: 45)

Like talisman, a lodestone (also spelled loadstone) is a literal and a metaphorical magnet.  It has a polarity and is something that strongly attracts.   But, also like talisman, lodestone is not just simply a magnet, but a naturally magnetized mineral, a magnetite ore.  The powder of it is reddish black, and the ore, dark brown to black.  Both these colors are stages in the original alchemical process of creating the Elixir of Life, the nigredo, or first stage, and the rubedo, the last stage.  Lodestone also has the meaning of a thing that is the focus of meaning, attention and attraction, as lodestone of the heart.

Elixir, talisman and lodestone all are symbols for the Word of God and Its attracting and transforming Reality in both the mental and physical domains, emblems and signs of its transmuting power and universal cohesiveness, embodying the ratios of its affinities and the stages of crystallization into material form of its qualities and attributes.

Similarly the alchemical Philosopher’s Stone or stone of the philosophers has also two signs and manifestations, material and mystical meanings, an exoteric substance and chemical process and an esoteric symbol, like unto a mandala, for transforming the soul, all linked to divine Revelation. 

The chemical creation of the Philosopher’s Stone (lapis philosophorum), was to be accomplished through the stages (originally four, later seven) of the “great work”, the magnum opus, that refined and transformed the prima materia, the first or original matter, into the elixir, the essence of all things.  One who distills or refines this fundamental substance into its essence had knowledge of the three levels of creation (Remember Hermes is called “thrice-great” because He had perfect knowledge of the three grades—physical, mental, and spiritual—of existence) necessary for the regeneration of all things. The essence of His teachings is thought to have been inscribed in what is known as the Emerald Tablet.

There may well be an actual stone buried somewhere holding the teachings of Hermes, but if so the actual stone is, according to Baha’u’llah, not emerald, but chrysolite, also green in color.  He refers to this in His Tablet of Wisdom: “I will also mention for thee the invocation voiced by Balinus who was familiar with the theories put forward by the Father of Philosophy (Hermes) regarding the mysteries of creation as given in his chrysolite tablets, that everyone may be fully assured of the things We have elucidated for thee in this manifest Tablet, which, if pressed with the hand of fairness and knowledge, will yield the spirit of life for the quickening of all created things.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 147)

Thus the Emerald or Chrysolite stone means divinely revealed.  The true Philosopher’s Stone, the transmuting lapis of the philosophers, is what is written on Hermes tablet of Chrysolite, which is the symbol of divine knowledge—Baha’u’llah, for example, says to humanity: "All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite.” (The Persian Hidden Words #63)  While chrysolite has a long tradition of reference in Scripture, stone itself is a symbol of the adamantine strength and longevity of divine Revelation, it being the most permanent, unchanging aspect of physical creation.  Hence the stone tablets upon which God inscribed the Mosaic Ten Commandments.

The revealed body of teachings associated with Hermes, or Idris, the Father of Philosophy, hath been renewed and made new with every Revelator and reached Their highest essence, the spiritual Elixir and Philosopher’s Stone, with the Revelation of Baha’u’llah.  He says: “The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 95)