The Philosopher's Stone

Born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, in the late fifteenth century, Paracelsus Theophrastus, otherwise known as Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, grew to become a renowned and controversial physician. A true renaissance man and a prolific author, Paracelsus wrote hundreds of treatises on topics as diverse as medicine, chemistry, astrology, natural philosophy, alchemy, occultism and theology. Although recognized as a reformer of sixteenth-century medicine and an early contributor to modern scientific chemistry, it is Paracelsus the alchemist and hermetic philosopher with whom I am concerned for this paper. Much of the scholarship and historiography of Paracelsus, however, remains questionable despite its success in bringing to light this obscure renaissance luminary. Historians, both past and present, have often portrayed him more as a mythologized figure than as a historical personage. The subjective views of his earliest records, written by either his adversaries or his most intimate disciples, blur the line between the mythology and history of the man Paracelsus, and sets the precedent for inaccuracy in later scholarship. The result has been a shadowy and shape-shifting Paracelsus.

Paracelsus gained contradictory reputations for writing extensively on both "empirical" and "speculative" subjects. He was recognized by some as a scientific genius for his academic contribution in the fields of medicine and chemistry, and by others as an illumined sage whose impact lay more in the sphere of philosophy and mysticism. More modern scholars tend to see to him as a superstitious and medieval man - although his contemporaries used the phrase "fatuous quack" to describe him more than once - due to his tendency of blurring the fields of empirical science and speculative philosophy. Such a fusion of disciplines, which in the renaissance mind were hardly separate, makes it more difficult for modern day historians to understand where, specifically, his most significant contributions lie. In the time of Paracelsus, for example, there was simply no distinction between what we would call astronomy and astrology, and likewise philosophy in its various forms could hardly be teased out of the study of medicine. In addition, the concept of "natural philosophy" no longer exists as it once did, subsuming many different areas of knowledge, and thus any attempt to view his writings through the lens of modern academia, with its clearly differentiated and highly specific fields of knowledge, is bound to prove difficult. It was this blending of interests, which included what we might now call "hard" and "soft" sciences, that served as one of the cornerstones of his contentious legacy.

One place where Paracelsus' spiritual insight and physical practicality converged was in his alchemy. As a systemized effort to transmute and ultimately "perfect" base metals into gold, this Spagyric art - Paracelsus often used the term Spagyrist to refer to one who practiced alchemy- was certainly engaged with the mysteries of physical matter. At the same time, however, we know that the recipes and processes used to "cook" these metals were also frequently used as allegorical codes for mystical experiences. By projecting spiritual and psychological dimensions onto the metals in his laboratory, Paracelsus believed he was simultaneously "perfecting" both the matter in his crucible and his very own soul. The nineteenth century chemist Marcellin Berthelot characterizes this binary alchemical operation as a "secret affinity between Gnosis, which teaches the true meaning of philosophical and religious theories... and chemistry, which seeks knowledge of properties hidden in nature." It will be the goal of this paper to explore the dynamics of this "secret affinity," and to uncover the ways in which Paracelsus' alchemy unites personal Gnosis and practical chemistry.

As interesting as Paracelsus' generalized philosophy of alchemy is, however, for this paper I am particularly interested in that alluring, enigmatic dream of every alchemist's, namely that of the Philosopher's Stone, and what role it played in Paracelsus' philosophy and practice. In looking to Paracelsus' conceptions of this Stone, and thus analyzing one specific interpretation of it, it is one of my hopes to extrapolate a clearer understanding of this Stone as a critical element in the age-old quest for perfection and transmutation. The Philosopher's Stone has long been a coveted object for the alchemists, and it was believed to possess the magical capacity to transmute base metals into gold, as well as bestow long-life, or even immortality, upon its possessor. The mythology of this magical Stone has permeated our Western culture, and even to this day its presence can be seen in fairy tales, children's books, and popular movies. This Philosophical Stone, or Lapis Mysterium, was revered as a sacred fulfillment of Nature's slow evolutionary process of maturation, and as such was seen by the alchemists as the culmination or final stage of the Magnum Opus. It appears that few people - and sometimes not even the alchemists themselves - seemed to know what exactly this Stone was, of what it was composed, and even less the processes for making it. This confusion is compounded by the obscure metaphorical language used by the alchemists. Gareth Roberts notes the confusing, and often times frustrating, nature of this idiom; "alchemy's characteristic mode of discourse is to express its truths in binary figures of language: paradox, enigma, equivocation and allegories which say one thing and mean another." It is because of such preference for poetic descriptions of the Philosophical Stone that its true nature is often difficult to ascertain.

In terms of more literal renderings, many alchemists refer to it variously in their treatises as a powder, a tincture, a stone, a liquid, or even intangible spiritual potencies. The scholar of alchemy C.J.S. Thompson acknowledges that the so-called Philosopher's Stone was known by many names, including "the Essence," "the Stone of the Wise," "the Magisterium," "Magnum Opus," "the Quintessence," and "the Universal Essence". One alchemist may declare the Stone to be an impenetrable and immutable substance composed of the purest primordial matter, while another may exclaim that it is the "heart and spirit of Jesus Christ." In addition, many authors accuse other alchemists of misunderstanding its "true" nature, either out of ignorance or purposeful deceit, and after even a brief survey of the contradictory treatises that compose the alchemical forum, it becomes apparent that the "school" of alchemy has little fixed