In the Vortex: The Crossing at the B and E

Not in any other of the species in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction and opposition as in the species of man.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions:235)

 As everyone knows, we live in a time of unprecedented upheaval and change.  The “winds of despair” are blowing with hurricane force, while the hopes of humanity are uplifted to bring into being an unimaginably glorious future.  The “world’s equilibrium hath been upset” because a new creation “hath been called into being”. The “lamentably defective” existing order is crumbling with terrifying acceleration, while simultaneously a new “most glorious” order is being laboriously erected.  Always, divine spiritual impulses generate opposing and contradictory reactions among all created things.  We have discussed this as “paradise brought nigh” and “hell made to blaze.”  But it is also a product of any dialectical world-view, a view which in modern times is especially characteristic of Marxian materialist philosophy derived from Hegel’s idealistic logic.  Yet, contradiction in life and thought may lead through the violence of the antagonists interplay to a condensation in which opposites are blended together.

Creationally, everything “created in pairs” means, I believe, not only as two expressions of one reality, as male and female in humanity, but also, as the positive and negative, the antithetical, possibilities of every created thing.   This is one meaning of the B and the E joining and knitting together, which we will explore in this post, for it is an intrinsic law of creation.

“Shoghi Effendi, in letters written on his behalf, has explained the significance of the "letters B and E". They constitute the word "Be", which, he states, "means the creative Power of God Who through His command causes all things to come into being" and "the power of the Manifestation of God, His great spiritual creative force".  The imperative "Be" in the original Arabic is the word "kun", consisting of the two letters "kaf" and "nun". They have been translated by Shoghi Effendi in the above manner. This word has been used in the Qur'án as God's bidding calling creation into being.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 247)

The “B” and the “E” are “joined and knit together” in the resonant interval, where opposites flow into each other.  The resonant interval is the metaphorical gap where vibrations, pulsations of energies, waves and currents from the two worlds, “B” and “E”, meet, like the synaptic gap between nerve endings over which jumps the electrical impulse, carried as a wave by the invisible medium of the soul.  This union is one where B and E come together creating a turbulent flow, as a vortex, that spans, fills and spills over the interval for it cannot be bridged by the realities themselves. Yet it is really the gap that dissolves. The opposites reciprocally influence one another through the joining and knitting of infinite frequencies and vibrations into wave interference patterns that cancel some actual existences, but amplify other potentials into existence.  They are connected directly, but cross oppositely, (i.e. chiastically) bringing together from opposite sides two parts of one process.  This movement is that each process, simultaneously and reciprocally, transforms at the midmost point of the heart into its opposite by bringing forth its opposite and the opposites are manifestly integrated to reveal the full process that is the conditions of renewal, progress and renovation.  It is opposite ends joined and knit together, like blood circulation and respiration.  These are the contradictory/complementary transformative engines of change. 

Knowledge is, too, a point of intersection and interplay.  It is the manifestation of Reality.  The Manifestation appears at the mid-most point of creation, which is where, in His own Being, symbolically, the organic and the spiritual connect, which is outwardly on the plane of manifestation, Carmel, the mountain of God.  Their connection, while direct, for they are a symbol (symballein or thrown together), is one of resonance.  That is, the connection is not like fitting together the two pieces of a broken amulet, but a harmonious blending of frequencies, of light upon a mirror and reflected back.  He raises His voice “betwixt earth and heaven”.  He is “He Who hath been manifested is the Hidden Mystery, the Treasured Symbol, through Whom the letters B and E (Be) have been joined and knit together.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 320)

Again, He is the Alpha and Omega inhabiting both poles of the circle of life, the arc of descent and the arc of ascent.  The vortex is where these arcs meet and energies cross and stimulate their opposites.  The unity of His two stations, “the station of distinction” that “pertaineth to the world of creation and to the limitations thereof” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 176)  and the station of “pure abstraction and essential unity” (Kitab-i-Iqan: 152) which is the unchanging eternity of essence, come together as and at the Primal Point of connection between heaven and earth.  That connection is the originating union of the two realms, though they never “touch” but is, rather, manifest through the collision of opposing energies that both sunders the existing “B” and “E” and rejoins them in new configuration of being and knowledge.  This weaving metaphor is important, joined and knit together being, perhaps, fibers or filaments intertwining in creation that parallels and embodies the sounds of divine Language, the Word of God as Revelation and Divine Being, knitting together a new reality of knowledge of the new creation.  The interpenetrating dimensions of existence make the relation vibratory and the resounding verbs and phrases are educative, bringing forth created things by calling them forth, evoking an inner communion between Spirit and Matter that is reflected in the interlocking dimensions of community life that are manifest both as an embracing unity the binds and knits together the reality of all the “difference, contrast, contradiction and opposition” that is the human reality and world of humanity.

That is, the reflexivity of knowledge, of A is A, mirrors the structure of reality, of B and E manifestly joined and knit together to reflect the “essential unity” of  “these two are the same yet they are different.”  As He asserts of the unity of opposites in His own Being, each bringing forth its opposite in creation: “I bear witness that in His person solidity and fluidity have been joined and combined. Through His immovable constancy in Thy Cause, and His unwavering adherence to whatsoever Thou, in the plentitude of the light of Thy glory, didst unveil to His eyes, throughout the domains of Thy Revelation and creation, the souls of Thy servants were stirred up in their longing for Thy Kingdom, and the dwellers of Thy realms rushed forth to enter into Thy heavenly dominion. Through the restlessness He evinced in Thy path, the feet of all them that are devoted to Thee were steeled and confirmed to manifest Thy Cause amidst Thy creatures, and to demonstrate Thy sovereignty throughout Thy realm.”(Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 49)

But His great purpose in coming He says is “to draw thee from the realms of contradiction unto the retreats of oneness, and to lead thee to the sacred streams of His Law.”(Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries: 8)

 Again, He says regarding the reflexive unity of the “BE” of creation over the circle of time: “Know thou that the end is like unto the beginning. Even as thou dost consider the beginning, similarly shouldst thou consider the end, and be of them that truly perceive. Nay, rather consider the beginning as the end itself, and so conversely, that thou mayest acquire a clear perception. Know thou moreover that every created thing is continually brought forth and returned at the bidding of thy Lord, the God of power and might.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183)

Shoghi Effendi points out where these principles of oneness and the duality of simultaneity and reciprocal action, which is the crossing of energies and processes, help define the overall workings of the two Plans of God: “Such simultaneous processes of rise and of fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other, are but aspects of a greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God, whose author is Bahá'u'lláh, the theater of whose operations is the entire planet, and whose ultimate objectives are the unity of the human race and the peace of all mankind.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice: 72-73)  The House of Justice further illustrates how this turbulence of simultaneous processes working in opposition creates a new vortex of possibilities of social life for those who are alert and can follow the flow: “It is against such "simultaneous processes of rise and fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other," that a myriad new opportunities for the next stage in the unfoldment of the beloved Master's Divine Plan present themselves.” (The Universal House of Justice, A Wider Horizon, Selected Letters 1983-1992: 103)

The principles of reciprocal transformation even operate within every individual and structure his/her efforts to transform society: “At the very core of the aims of the Faith are the establishment of justice and unity in the world, the removal of prejudice and enmity from among all people, the awakening of compassion and understanding in the hearts of all men and women, and the raising of all souls to a new level of spirituality and behavior through the vitalizing influence of divine Revelation. The course set forth by Bahá'u'lláh for the attainment of these aims is the double task of simultaneously building an ideal society and perfecting the behavior of individuals. For this dual and reciprocal transformation He has not only revealed laws, principles and truths attuned to the needs of this age, but has established the very nucleus and pattern of those institutions which are to evolve into the structure of the divinely purposed world society.” (The Universal House of Justice, 1992 Dec 10, Issues Related to Study Compilation)
      Finally, the principles reveal the antagonistic/unifying relations between humanity’s two great knowledge systems: “To every fair-minded observer, you are the living proof that faith in God and confidence in social progress are in every sense reconcilable; that science and religion are the two inseparable, reciprocal systems of knowledge impelling the advancement of civilization.” (The Universal House of Justice, 2003 Nov 26, To the Followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the Cradle of the Faith:4)

The Revealed Word and the Akashic Field

From the heaven of God's Will, and for the purpose of ennobling the world of being and of elevating the minds and souls of men, hath been sent down that which is the most effective instrument for the education of the whole human race. 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.

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 87)

A universal message is not one that is true for everyone at this time, but one that “hath been” true for humanity at all times.  It must have been true in the past, is true now, and will be true in the future.  This does not mean that it will not change, but its change is only that of unfolding in more manifest form its truth.  But, too, it must bring together old ideals and notions with contemporary ideas of the same, yet more manifestly complex, reality so that humanity’s current of intellectual energy runs true.  Thus old concepts such as the ether and metamorphosis, and sciences such as alchemy, are returning in new form to help us grasp the new reality that is also the old reality renewed.

The best example of this progressive unfoldment of the same Reality is the interconnected Revelations advancing the same divine Message through time and history.  It comes in two parts, a material law that is abrogated and replaced with every new Revelation, and a spiritual part that unfolds into greater complexity and clarity.  Of the spiritual aspect ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: “The spiritual part never changes. All the Manifestations of God and His Prophets have taught the same truths and given the same spiritual law. They all teach the one code of morality. There is no division in the truth. The Sun has sent forth many rays to illumine human intelligence, the light is always the same.” (Paris Talks: 142) 

Now one of the most fascinating aspects of the renewal of the spiritual law in new and greater form, and what makes it truly universal, is that each Revelation not only lays the groundwork for the next and future Revelations, a clear idea, but also it seems to affect the past, perhaps in the sense of renewal in some manner.  Baha’u’llah remarks about Himself and His Revelation: “Thou art He, by Whose name the Hidden Secret was divulged, and the Well-Guarded Name was revealed, and the seals of the sealed-up Goblet were opened, shedding thereby its fragrance over all creation, whether of the past or of the future.” (Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah: 240-241)

This brings us to a discussion of another ancient idea receiving new attention, this one from the Hindu tradition, perhaps Indian would be better.  I refer to the doctrine of the Akashic Field and Akashic Record.  According to this belief, the Akashic Field is a universal field of patterned energy underlying creation from which all the universe is formed. Being the background to the subatomic worlds, it also flows through the other realms of stars, galaxies and human life, and is an activating force in all those realms.

But it also seems a storehouse of information, for the Akashic Record is the record of everything that ever occurred or will occur in time and space.  It also holds the potential for all future actual events and thoughts.  Thus the “Akasha” is in two parts, pre-creation formative structure and all-inclusive record, what in the human intelligence we might call imagination and memory.

Modern philosophers, such as Ervin Laszlo in his book, Science and the Akashic Field, accepts the Hindu idea, calling it the “A-field”.  He believes that it may not only be a super dense sea of frictionless energy but also a sea of information conveying the historical experience of matter.  For him, and those who believe as he does, the discovery in physics of the zero point energy field (ZPF), is also the discovery of this universal information field.

In the preface to his book he writes: “Akasha (a-ka 'ska) is a Sanskrit word meaning "ether": all-pervasive space. Originally signifying "radiation" or "brilliance," in Indian philosophy akasha was considered the first and most fundamental of the five elements - the others being vata (air), agni (fire), ap (water), and prithivi (earth). Akasha embraces the properties of all five elements: it is the womb from which everything we perceive with our senses has emerged and into which everything will ultimately re-descend. The Akashic Record (also called The Akashic Chronicle,) is the enduring record of all that happens, and has ever happened, in space and time.”

Now my model of the three levels of divine creation can incorporate all this.  How?

First, is there any support in the Bahá’i Writings for the concept of an Akashic Field and Record?  I don’t know of any specific reference, but the following are some suggestive statements from the Master and Baha’u’llah. (I have bold-faced the relevant phrases)

Regarding an all-pervasive field of energy (an ether) underlying the physical, ‘Abdu’l-Baha speaks of etheric matter.  For example: “Reflect that light is the expression of the vibrations of the etheric matter: the nerves of the eye are affected by these vibrations, and sight is produced. The light of the lamp exists through the vibration of the etheric matter; so also does that of the sun, but what a difference between the light of the sun and that of the stars or the lamp!” (Some Answered Questions: 149)

What about an Akashic Record? Baha’u’llah asserts: "O King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. And He bade Me lift up My voice between earth and heaven, and for this there befell Me what hath caused the tears of every man of understanding to flow.” (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf: 11)  And…

“Thou knowest full well that We perused not the books which men possess and We acquired not the learning current amongst them, and yet whenever We desire to quote the sayings of the learned and of the wise, presently there will appear before the face of thy Lord in the form of a tablet all that which hath appeared in the world and is revealed in the Holy Books and Scriptures. Thus do We set down in writing that which the eye perceiveth. Verily His knowledge encompasseth the earth and the heavens.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 149)

(It may be worth noting that Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, uses the word akasha, characterizing it as a sort of life force.  She also referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action.  I am not claiming that the Bahá’i Writings and ancient and contemporary science and philosophy are speaking of exactly the same thing, only pointing to the similarity of imagery.)

One part of the divine creation that I have proposed is the level, pre-existent to all creation, of the attributes of God.  But this pre-existence is not a temporal priority, but a causal or conceptual one.  Creation changes when these Attributes and Qualities undergo reconfiguration and development, a change indicated by the change with every Revelation of the leading Name of God.  Baha’u’llah, for example, speaks of the change from the Bab’s Revelation to His own as “when He replaced His Name 'the Most Exalted' by 'the Most Glorious'…”(Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 185)

 This divine change is effected by the Will of God flowing through the archetypal and universal categories of the divine Intellect whch forms the cosmological dimension.  The full cosmological dimension is that of all consciousness and intelligence, of the sun of the divine Intellect and its reflection in human minds. The Divine Intellect also pre-exists and “informs” (Laszlo’s word) the Akashic Field.  That is, the divine Will is Spirit as originating, universal metaphysical impulse, the Spirit of God moving across the face of the waters in Biblical imagery. Primal Will is embodied and formed by the universal, divine Intellect, the Spirit as archetypal form and pattern.  In this context, these two, Will and Intellect, are the same, yet they are different.  The union of Will and Intellect is the imprinting active force.  Upon what does this energy pattern imprint itself?  Akashic Field proponents would say the Akashic Field, which I agree with in one sense.  But the first imprint, I would say, is upon the archetypal, metaphysical and receptive substance of divine Love.  Now this metaphysical love has its mental/physical image and counterpart in the cosmos/universe union.  Remember ‘Abdu’l-Baha stated that love is “the unique power that bindeth together the divers elements of this material world, the supreme magnetic force that directeth the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms. Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 27)  The physical universe itself, the world of being, is the manifestation of the heat generated by the interaction of Will and Intellect upon this prima materia.

This divine love—what Laszlo calls a sea of “frictionless energy”—is an inherent part of the universe.”  ‘It is undisputed, however, that the influence of Thine attraction hath everlastingly been inherent in the realities of Thy handiwork,…”(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab:175)

For today’s cosmologists, like Laszlo, who leave God and His Manifestations out of creation, the original substance would be the Akashic Field-information-cosmos and the Zero Point Field energy universe that together make up what physicists call the quantum vacuum.  Creation itself is, in modern terminology, made up of countless wave interference combinations, both physical and mental and physical with mental, that join and knit together in a kind of conjugation to create the infinite manifest things.  There are sub-fields, not only electro-magnetic and gravitational in the physical realm, but mental fields, like Sheldrake’s “morphic fields”, that also operate through time and space.  Together these physical and mental interactions bring about a species-life and learning, each species recognizing its signature in the field of fields, and each tradition of thought in the human realm manifesting what is known as a history of ideas.  I don’t quarrel with the logic of any of this, but I accept the creation as a divine handiwork, not just the interplay of forces.

Now Revelation would also change the Akashic Field and Record.  I mean that the Akashic Field would carry the imprint of previous Revelations, being the Master Imprint, and these would be linked together in a kind of morphic resonance, a species of divine Utterance unlike any other pattern of informed energy, recognizable only as Itself, and progressing toward a state of “highest essence and most perfect expression”. This is what the Bahá’i Writings call progressive Revelation.  Indeed, recall Baha’u’llah claims to see “in the form of a tablet all that which hath appeared in the world and is revealed in the Holy Books and Scriptures.”  

Now the Bahá’i Writings also claim that with every Revelation, creation is made new.  In one celebrated passage—Prayers and Meditations: 295-96—Baha’u’llah speaks of “every several atom” acquiring a new and distinct character.  Are atoms—not the billiard balls of classical physics but the energy quanta of quantum mechanics—where the cosmological Mind resonantly intersects with universal Matter, when and where the divine imprints its mental image upon the prima materia?  In short, in my model, natural law is a physical image of the divine law flowing from self-generating Will through Intellect imprinting upon Love.  

But, if Revelation recreates all creation how is there continuity?  Though the forms of creation are recreated the essential elements and simple substances would not change, just be reorganized and transformed into new things.  Through progressive Revelation, information—the rules, laws and principles of Nature’s organization—is passed from one cycle of Revelation to the next, again through a kind of morphic resonance, because it would imprint the same image, though each time in fuller form, upon the Akashic field, or divine love, reorganizing its patterns and thus reorganizing into new forms “every several atom”.  Because the structure of the spiritual and natural law remains, but ever new things may come from these laws and principles of structure and organization, even precise ratios of numbers for gravity, electromagnetism etc. so exact that there has not been enough time for these to have formed randomly, would be the same. Those numbers are transferred from previous stages of the universe, they are unchangeable or change so slowly that they are nearly so.

Said another way, the first intellectual form, the abstract universal of Revelation, becomes the concrete universal, the formal cause of  the universe, when it imprints upon mental/physical prima materia, the Akashic Field, which is the intellectual essence of Nature since “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality”, (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 83), “the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah:141)

Thus: “Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world. It is a dispensation of Providence ordained by the Ordainer, the All-Wise. Were anyone to affirm that it is the Will of God as manifested in the world of being, no one should question this assertion.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 142)  Now all this imprinting of Revelation on the Akashic Field would be recorded on the Akashic Record.

The foundation of spiritual science is to know, without necessarily fully comprehending, those great spiritual structures from which come forth all created things.  These are the mansions of eternity, eternal principles that are revealed with every Manifestation of God but in ever more complex intellectual and social and material form.   They open and are propagated by light, both intellectual and physical, depending upon which is being emphasized, for both are always part of every act.

Language and Thought in Spiritual Science

He Who is both the Beginning and the End, He Who is both Stillness and Motion, is now manifest before your eyes. Behold how, in this Day, the Beginning is reflected in the End, how out of Stillness Motion hath been engendered. This motion hath been generated by the potent energies which the words of the Almighty have released throughout the entire creation.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 168)

Today, the mind’s attention must be continuously bi-focal: it should preserve a complex identity, yet make room for a difference in that identity.  Thus the symbols describing how this "Man of Two Visions" (The Hidden Words #12 Persian) truly thinks in his maturity must have a static structural aspect and a dynamic process aspect.  These twin characteristics beget the laws of transformation.  All moves forward in any unfolding integral development, though each stage is also under the dominion of one aspect, one Name of God.  Knowledge is the cause of progress, so all progress is from a new Revelation of the knowledge of God.

In a resonating universe, any full truth is the union of metaphor and fact, which may be the confluence of metaphors, as things are the nexus of spiritual and material energies.  Now metaphorical truth is more suggestive than precise, evoking not explicating, exact but not exacting, and the historical movement of thought and language is from the former to the latter and back again on a higher turn of the spiral: effects precede causes in knowledge, mirroring that causes precede effects in being.  Such a truth paradigm maintains that all is potentially knowable because knowledge itself is an interconnected, complex and intricate web of analogical correspondences corresponding to the web of actual life.  Thus spiritual truth, which is “both the Beginning and the End” “both Stillness and Motion”, comes forth at the maturity of humankind.  The truths of the age of Him Who is the “Spirit of Truth” Who “will guide you into all truth” (King James Bible, John 16:13) is both infinitely suggestive and everlastingly creative, and singularly precise depending upon the context.  I mean that fact in one context is context itself in another.  The context is composed of a causal spiritual truth at the locus, or center, and the metaphorical truths of the material world that are its field of effects, its vibrating influence.

The finding in abstract space of the intellectual essence of things, the ding an sich,—which was the great work of the self-conscious individual that grew up within the Adamic cycle, especially after the Greek revolution in thinking associated with Plato and Aristotle as put forth in Eric Havelock’s groundbreaking Preface to Plato—makes room for great relational structures in thought that in language are indicated by analogies and other metaphors, the evidence of things unseen.

We are seeking in this age the general and specific laws of transformation, like E=mc².  But His laws and principles are to convert “satanic strength into heavenly power.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 200)  Divine philosophy may include the “discovery of a radical approach to the transmutation of elements” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 250), but this greater alchemy of soul, the spiritual and sacred science, this science of the love of God, will renovate all the conditions of existence. 

Baha’u’llah’s spiritual principles and revealed truths are the foundation upon which human beings are constructing a new type of discourse which is neither merely perceptual and poetic nor only scientific and conceptual.  It joins and knits together spirit and matter, energy and form.  It is inspirational and motivating, and non-rational as a higher ratiocination. It is for revealing the divine.  Hence, we can roughly characterize it as revelatory.  It borders upon and sometimes spills over into language which the modern temper would call mystical, which grates harshly upon rationalist’s ears, but that is because it is trying to explicate a “mystic transformation” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 156), a transformation so complete as to turn the base metal of human life into the golden age of humankind. This kind of language has been the lingua franca of spirit over centuries of expression.  Its piling up of emotionally-charged metaphors indicates that this is the kind of thing the mind comes up with when encountering something of overwhelming importance and power that empowers, when anyone speaks of high spiritual matters.

The symbolic union of the spiritual and the material in a single unifying discourse of Revelation needs a new logic of description to present its new objects of knowledge.  That is, the syntactical relations and contexts of language must illuminate the transmutations of being.  As the self-conscious individual that grew up within the Adamic cycle became aware of abstract objects in thought, so today, the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, awakening the divine within the human reality, reveals to that new Man spiritual objects of knowledge, because it opens vision to the placeless and timeless.  There is, therefore, also need of a new frame of discourse and a new vocabulary.

Such foundational work is involved in the birth of any science, let alone a new kind of science. This is science as Scientia.  It is the inventing of a language and perspective, of force finding form, which makes spiritual science possible.  Yet it is also the rebirth of an ancient divine philosophy in the modern materialist techo-world, the reintroduction of the sense of the sacred, and it is the addition of the sacred dimension to awareness that differentiates spiritual science from intellectual science as a knowledge domain.

As with any science there is need of both a fundamental coordinating principle, like that of evolution in biology, and operational principles of transformational relations that build into a mature body of knowledge as it explicates its realm of experience and perception.  For spiritual science this is the union of divine love and knowledge.  The unity of all things is, at one and the same time, the foundational coordinating principle, the essential relation, and the goal of divine philosophy.  “The most important principle of divine philosophy”, stated the Master, “is the oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of mankind, the bond conjoining East and West, the tie of love which blends human hearts.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 31)  Similarly on the macroscale: “It will be demonstrated and become evident that the origin and outcome of phenomena are identical and that there is an essential oneness in all existing things. This is a subtle principle appertaining to divine philosophy and requiring close analysis and attention.” (Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace:285)

But, equally as important as foundational abstract, structural and relational principles, new kinds of concepts must be presented in new lexical formulations and syntactical arrangements.  Intellections that only attempt to isolate the intellectual essence of something, or cognitions that statically capture, embalm, or fix in the hard amber of thought, the nature of something and then relate it through other abstract concepts to something else are residue of a once towering but now crumbling paradigm of knowing.

The concepts themselves must be dynamic; they must move, like pulsations of energy or “the water of life”, because they take on the characteristics of Spirit.  It is their divine origin and reality, their connection with the Names of God, that gives them life and motion as conduits for the Will and Mind of God, which is the true Origin of all creation. These are first known in the subtle intimations of the sacred heart.  Only the revealed Word can open our spiritual intelligence to this world, to “see” this Reality.

These living conceptions of spiritual energies flow and integrate, and in their range of integration show the limits of a domain.  They are concepts that unify and resonate to show how structure gets transformed into sequence by process and back again through the exchange not just of force and physical energies, but also what scientists call information, and at times by information alone: the kind of thing in homeopathy where healing takes place through an antidote that has nothing left of the original substance but the memory of it, the information of its past presence. These concepts are themselves complexes of movement issuing into larger complexes and combinations, which, if you will, leap and dance to an inner music and harmony.  Concepts that are not yet really concepts, but symbols, unities of life and experience, body and soul joined and knit together, not ghostly after-life things drained of all their earthy substance.  It is symbols of divine philosophy that in their most complex figuration demonstrate and show forth the reciprocal relations, the mutual-mirroring, between the three levels of creation, and between ontology, ethics, and epistemology, between human being, human doing, and human knowing.  These figurations will gradually unfold into coherent theory that shines forth the divine Spirit in all creative actions.  Let us look at a few examples of what I mean to understand something of their nature.

“We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.

No movement in the world directs its attention upon both these aspects of human life and has full measures for their improvement, save the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.  And this is its distinctive feature.” (The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 84-85)

“Such simultaneous processes of rise and of fall, of integration and of disintegration, of order and chaos, with their continuous and reciprocal reactions on each other, are but aspects of a greater Plan, one and indivisible, whose Source is God, whose author is Bahá'u'lláh, the theater of whose operations is the entire planet, and whose ultimate objectives are the unity of the human race and the peace of all mankind.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice: 72-73)

“Thou hast asked regarding the subject of the return. Know thou that the end is like unto the beginning. Even as thou dost consider the beginning, similarly shouldst thou consider the end, and be of them that truly perceive. Nay, rather consider the beginning as the end itself, and so conversely, that thou mayest acquire a clear perception. Know thou moreover that every created thing is continually brought forth and returned at the bidding of thy Lord, the God of power and might.

“As to the Return, as God hath purposed in His sacred and exalted Tablets wherein He hath made this theme known unto His servants; by this is meant the return of all created things in the Day of Resurrection, and this is indeed the essence of the Return as thou hast witnessed in God's own days and thou art of them that testify to this truth.

“Verily God is fully capable of causing all names to appear in one name, and all souls in one soul. Surely powerful and mighty is He. And this Return is realized at His behest in whatever form He willeth.” (Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 183)

"Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent, He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and, raising His voice, proclaim: 'I am the lifegiver of the world!'... And if they cast Him into a darksome pit, they will find Him seated on earth's loftiest heights calling aloud to all mankind: 'Lo, the Desire of the world is come in His majesty, His sovereignty, His transcendent dominion!' And if He be buried beneath the depths of the earth, His Spirit soaring to the apex of heaven shall peal the summons: 'Behold ye the coming of the Glory; witness ye the Kingdom of God, the most Holy, the Gracious, the All-Powerful!'" (Baha’u’llah quoted by Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 108)

“When, however, thou dost contemplate the innermost essence of all things, and the individuality of each, thou wilt behold the signs of thy Lord's mercy in every created thing, and see the spreading rays of His Names and Attributes throughout all the realm of being, with evidences which none will deny save the froward and the unaware. Then wilt thou observe that the universe is a scroll that discloseth His hidden secrets, which are preserved in the well-guarded Tablet. And not an atom of all the atoms in existence, not a creature from amongst the creatures but speaketh His praise and telleth of His attributes and names, revealeth the glory of His might and guideth to His oneness and His mercy: and none will gainsay this who hath ears to hear, eyes to see, and a mind that is sound. (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha: 41)

“For it must be clearly understood, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized, that the conjunction of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with those of her brother and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot which, under the wings of the Báb's overshadowing Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the future Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, which will be reared on its flank, is destined to evolve into the focal center of those world-shaking, world-embracing, world-directing administrative institutions, ordained by Bahá'u'lláh and anticipated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and which are to function in consonance with the principles that govern the twin institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.” (Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America,: 32)

The Science of the Love of God: Transmutation of Soul

Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!...Likewise, these souls, through the potency of the Divine Elixir, traverse, in the twinkling of an eye, the world of dust and advance into the realm of holiness; and with one step cover the earth of limitations and reach the domain of the Placeless.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan: 156)

I have referenced ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s statement that: “Bahá'u'lláh has appeared and so resuscitated spirits that they have manifested powers more than human….Therefore, the question arises: How is this resuscitation to be accomplished?

“There are certain means for its accomplishment by which mankind is regenerated and quickened with a new birth. This is the second birth mentioned in the heavenly Books. Its accomplishment is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The resuscitation or rebirth of the spirit of man is through the science of the love of God.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace: 277)

That there exists a science that brings about spiritual rebirth is something to ponder.  We should inquire into the nature and content of this science, being careful not to confuse the purpose of science with science itself.  I have in the following bold-faced some parts for emphasis.

First, what is meant by science?  As we know the term, science is a rational way of studying and knowing phenomena that is shared and communicable, that has common rules of inference and deduction, well understood criteria that define accepted facts and evidence from which theoretical knowledge can be generated. Thus, rebirth, while an overpowering, life-changing experience, can never by itself be a science of anything. Like any inner experience that changes the person, the transcendent experience of rebirth cannot be taught.  It can only be suggested.  A science or body of knowledge can be taught, but understanding cannot.  Understanding is the result of a certain alchemy between knowledge, learning and innate potential  

For example, exposure to math and language stimulates into action and reality these potentials for numbers and words residing innately within the human intelligence.  When such knowledge is learned advances in mental capacity and ability, in intellectual awareness and skill, forever change the world because they change the person’s relationship with the world.  Now, the content and procedures that make up what is taught do not bring the mental leap about. Rather, they prepare the conditions for the mind to leap into understanding what it knew but did not know that it knew.  The “leap” (i.e. understanding) is a bringing forth of some new part of oneself that marks the transformation of mentality and intelligence. 

I believe that while ‘Abdu’l-Baha says there exists a science of the love of God this is a different kind of science, however much the same principles just discussed apply.  It is more like true Scientia, true gnosis.  Its purpose is not to bring forth any part of self, but to bring forth a new self.  This sort of change is not something that human beings can bring about unaided.  In that same talk where He mentions the science of the love of God, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, in His opening prayer, asked: “O God! Verily, the world is in need of reformation. Bestow upon it a new existence. Give it newness of thoughts, and reveal unto it heavenly sciences.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 276)  “Heavenly sciences” are revealed.  Hence the leap into new being is an act of will based on faith that is met in midflight, so to speak, by the divine Will that carries one over the abyss.  What is the content of heavenly sciences?

The Master is reported to have said: “May Europe become the divine university wherein heavenly sciences and divine arts are taught and learned!  By heavenly sciences I mean divine philosophy and spiritual teachings….” (Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy: 139)

Divine philosophy, as we know, is one of the signs stated by Baha’u’llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas that would indicate that the maturity of the human race had been obtained.  But, again, this philosophy has been around for quite some time, growing in depth and complexity with every Revelation.  “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)  So divine philosophy is an expanding body of knowledge based upon divine Revelation that humanity must relearn as a science. 

The first thing to relearn is the truth of Divinity.  ’Abdu’l-Baha explained:  “People speak of Divinity, but the ideas and beliefs they have of Divinity are, in reality, superstition. Divinity is the effulgence of the Sun of Reality, the manifestation of spiritual virtues and ideal powers. The intellectual proofs of Divinity are based upon observation and evidence which constitute decisive argument, logically proving the reality of Divinity, the effulgence of mercy, the certainty of inspiration and immortality of the spirit. This is, in reality, the science of Divinity. Divinity is not what is set forth in dogmas and sermons of the church. Ordinarily when the word Divinity is mentioned, it is associated in the minds of the hearers with certain formulas and doctrines, whereas it essentially means the wisdom and knowledge of God, the effulgence of the Sun of Truth, the revelation of reality and divine philosophy.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 328)

The major reason that humanity knows so little of divinity, heavenly sciences, science of divinity, or science of the love of God, and the like, is that it has been immersed in material sciences and knowledge.  He laments: “But according to the evidence of present world conditions divine philosophy—which has for its object the sublimation of human nature, spiritual advancement, heavenly guidance for the development of the human race, attainment to the breaths of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of the verities of God—has been outdistanced and neglected. Now is the time for us to make an effort and enable it to advance apace with the philosophy of material investigation so that awakening of the ideal virtues may progress equally with the unfoldment of the natural powers.” (Promulgation of Universal Peace:326-327)  Notice the change of process: ideal virtues are awakened but natural powers unfold.

The science of the love of God is another name for divine philosophy, for heavenly science, for science of divinity.  It foundational to and inclusive of all other spiritual sciences.  It holds within itself in embryonic form all those dynamic relations between Ontos, epistos, ethos—being, knowing and doing, as new paradigms of knowing, new states of being, new contexts of action. 

The kind of knowledge the mind awakens to is an expression of the level or inner state of being attained to.  Only Revelation awakens the divine within us. Now whereas changes and advances in natural science emphasize changing contexts of knowing and advances in knowledge of outer phenomena, and human or cultural sciences advance understanding of the inner self, and social philosophy focuses on new contexts of collective action for social transformation, the science of the love of god, heavenly sciences, the science of divinity, change the state of being.  That is, the rebirth of spirit is the transmutation, not just transformation, of soul.  Or, rather, it is a special kind of transformation.  Baha’u’llah calls the transmutation of soul a “mystic transformation.”  Let’s probe more deeply into this term “mystic transformation.”

Transmutation means to change the nature of something by changing its state of being (i.e. essence) into another form, especially a higher form, of itself. The change is so complete as to leave nothing of the old essence, else the new thing would be a hybrid. Transmutation is an old alchemical term referring to the changing of an element into gold by applying the elixir of life, the Philosopher’s Stone.  The word remains useful.  In physics transmutation is still the changing of one element into another, but now by radioactive decay, nuclear bombardment, or similar processes.  Biological transmutation is the transformation of one species into another.  Transmutation by natural means over time cannot occur until all the partial and incomplete transformations within a system that advance it toward completion or maturity have been undergone. But with the Elixir complete change is instantaneous.  Baha’u’llah says of elemental transmutation: “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?” (Gleanings: 200) He says about changing copper to gold—which under the proper natural conditions would take place in seventy years—that “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.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan; 157)

Within human beings and human society a similar change of state, not change within a state, occurs at maturity. Shoghi Effendi explains: “That mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change, which we associate with the stage of maturity inevitable in the life of the individual and the development of the fruit must, if we would correctly apprehend the utterances of Bahá'u'lláh, have its counterpart in the evolution of the organization of human society.” (The World Order of Baha'u'llah: 163)  Of the divine Elixir of His Revelation He claims of some: “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)

Thus the transmutation of something is to effect “so complete a transformation.” It is a “mystic, all-pervasive, yet indefinable change” in its character and essential reality.  It is changing the essence of something, but that change is brought about from within, a bringing forth of a latent form and higher expression of essence.  Baha’u’llah says of His Revelation: “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)

The changing of nature which is transmutation is to change the state of being, to transcend to a higher form, to bring forth the essence of the essence.  Transmutation is rebirth when undergone by the individual soul.

But there is a collective epistemic advance, a mystic transformation in understanding, when certain practices are used. Baha’u’llah says: “Consultation bestoweth greater awareness and transmuteth conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leadeth the way and guideth. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.” Bahá'u'lláh, in Consultation: A Compilation: 3)

Finally, there is the transmutation of action.  Individually: “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.” (Kitab-i-Iqan: 156)  And collectively: “'It is not his to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.' Through the power released by these exalted words He hath lent a fresh impulse and set a new direction to the birds of men's hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and limitation from God's holy Book.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 87-88)

The reason that this mystic transformation, this all-pervasive change, is also “indefinable” was set forth by Baha’u’llah in the opening words of His Most Holy Book: “The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation. Whoso achieveth this duty hath attained unto all good; and whoso is deprived thereof hath gone astray, though he be the author of every righteous deed. It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other. Thus hath it been decreed by Him Who is the Source of Divine inspiration.” (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 19) 

Attaining unto all good, is not yet to be good, and inseparable does not mean identical.  Rebirth is neither purely on faith nor on works alone.  The change of state that is rebirth is both recognition and obedience.  These define the righteousness of deeds, and not the deeds themselves. For regarding recognition and the change of state of perception it brings, He wrote: “Never shall mortal eye recognize the everlasting Beauty, nor the lifeless heart delight in aught but in the withered bloom.” (Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words #10)  These are some first principles of the science of the love of God. 

An all-pervasive change of soul is the transmutation into a new state of being.  No matter how similar on the surface one’s before and after states may appear, a mystic transformation has taken place, an indefinable qualitative difference now obtains, that changes everything.  Attaining that qualitative difference is what the science of the love of God, all heavenly sciences, and the science of divinity open to the soul.

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)