The Philosophers Stone.pdf

THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE

Israel Regardie

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

BOOK ONE

Chapter

II. The Golden Treatise of Hermes

III. Commentary

IV. Commentary (continued)

BOOK TWO

V. The Magnetic Theory

VI. The Six Keys of Eudoxus

VII. Commentary

VIII. The Magical view

BOOK THREE

IX. Coelum Terrae by Thomas Vaughan

Conclusion

Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The word Alchemy is an Arabic term consisting of the article al and the noun khemi . We may take

it that the noun refers to Egypt, whose Coptic name is Khem. The word, then, would yield the phrase

“the Egyptian matter”, or “that which appertains to Egypt”. The hypothesis is that the Mohammedan

grammarians held that the alchemical art was derived from that wisdom of the Egyptians which was the

proud boast of Moses, Plato, and Pythagoras, and the source, therefore, of their illuminations. If,

however, we assume the word to be of Greek origin, as do some authorities, then it implies nothing

more than the chemical art, the method of mingling and making infusions. Originally all that chemistry

meant was the art of extracting juices from plants and herbs.

Modern scholarship still leaves unsolved the question as to whether alchemical treatises should be

classified as mystical, magical, or simply primitively chemical. The most reasonable view is, in my

opinion, not to place them exclusively in any one category, but to assume that all these objects at one

time formed in varying proportions the preoccupation of different alchemists. Or, better still, that

different alchemists became attracted to different interpretations or levels of the art. There is no doubt

that by some writers alchemy was interpreted in a categorical and literal sense - that is, as a chemical

means whereby the baser metals could be transformed and made precious. There is a vast body of

testimony to this end, evidence which cannot be made to yield any interpretation other than a physical

and chemical one. On the other hand, there are certain alchemistical philosophers to whom it would be

impossible to impute any other interest than a mystical or religious one.

Alchemy is also called Hermeticism. Hermes, from the mythological standpoint, is the Egyptian

god both of Wisdom and Magic - which concepts include therapeutics and physical science as then it

was known. All these subjects may, therefore, claim just inclusion within the scope of the significance

of the terms Alchemy and Hermetic subjects.

It cannot be doubted in any way that such writers as Robert Fludd, Henry Khunrath, and Jacob

Boehme aspired to and wrote of spiritual perfection, a state or mystical condition which was

represented to them by the Stone of the Philosophers. With this idea I shall deal at some length in

succeeding pages. It is equally certain that the first consideration of Paracelsus, for example, was the

cure of disease and the prolongation of life. At the same time his greatest achievements appear to most

modern thinkers to have been his discoveries of opium, zinc, and hydrogen. We tend, therefore, to think

of him as a chemist no less than we do Van Helmont, whose conception of gas ranks him as one of

those rare geniuses who have increased human knowledge by a fundamentally important idea.

But another viewpoint is possible here. For alongside of the genuine researchers, the alchemists

who employed a psychological or spiritual technique, or who were genuine chemists or healers, we have

the scrambling throng of the uninitiated. These had utterly failed to penetrate the secret of the true

doctrine on any of its several levels, and commenced working on anomalous materials which could

never bring them to the desired end. These were the false alchemists derisively named the Puffers. It is

not, then, from alchemy proper or legitimate alchemists, as is so often assumed, that modern chemistry

derives, but actually from the erratic work of the Puffers. These spent themselves in experiments on

alien substances and animal excreta condemned by the true adepts. In consequence, they never achieved

the desired result - the Philosopher’s Stone. But on the other hand, they were led by chance into

unexpected and, for us, most useful discoveries. As an instance we may cite Künckel who isolated

phosphorus, which he most certainly was not anticipating. Or Blaise de Vignère who discovered

benzoic acid without being aware of it. We may also cite the salts isolated by and named after Glauber.

Historically, the literature is immense. Represented in India and the Near East, in the Greek,

Roman, Byzantine, and the Arabic civilizations as well as in Hebrew writings, the entire literature runs

to thousands of titles. In recent years, moreover, we have had the publication of an important Chinese

text. Most treatises from the Aesch Metzareph of the Qabalists to Valentine’s The Chariot of Antimony ,

are deliberately couched in hieratic riddles. Persecution by church, and the profanation of the secrets of

power, whether real or imagined, were equally dreaded by the adepts of the art. Worse still, from the

modern viewpoint, these motives and these literary techniques induced their authors to insert

intentionally misleading statements, the more deeply to bewilder unworthy pretenders to their mysteries.

Others, ignorant of the first principles of the art, the unscrupulous charlatans whom we have seen were

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Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone

called Puffers, and many another quack, taking advantage of the general credulity and superstition

prevailing at these times, issued utterly meaningless and nonsensical works pretending to reveal the

working of the alchemical art.

With these latter I am obviously not concerned in this place. Nor, for the moment, am I interested

in the purely chemical aspect of the subject, however valid such an interpretation may be. My principal

concern at the moment, when Analytical Psychology and psychological methods daily prove more

absorbing, is to divine whether or not there is anything concealed within these obscurities which related

to man, revealing methods of perfecting or integrating his consciousness. I believe that they do, and

therefore I propose an examination of a text or two to see in what way our present views may not be

enlarged.

A cursory glance at certain sections of the alchemical literature reveals the fact that the art relates

to what anciently was known as Theurgy - the divine work. Its object was to afford by technical

methods of meditation, reflection, magical practices and forms of interior prayer, a more rapid mode of

spiritual development and an acceleration of intellectual evolution.

The alchemical and magical theories roughly amount to this: In the course of long aeons of time,

Nature has gradually evolved a complex mechanism of reaction which we call Man. Marvellous as this

organism is in many ways, yet it manifests several defects. A stream cannot rise higher than its source.

And without entering into the complicated and at first sight rather bewildering realm of alchemical

cosmological theories, it is held that Nature has fallen from a certain divine state - from grace as it were.

It may be said that man’s consciousness has relegated to a sub-ordinate place the once proud and divine

universal spirit. An efficient and useful servant, it has usurped the place of its lord and master.

Because of this condition of things, it is held that by herself and unassisted Nature cannot regain

her former glorified condition of equilibrium. The alchemists referred to all things within the natural

realm - especially the unawakened and unenlightened man, torn perpetually by internal conflict. For

man to attain something other than an intolerable state of conflict with the misery and suffering and

uncertainty resulting therefrom, some other and higher means than are found in the natural state are

required to transcend his constant companions of fear, inferiority, and insecurity. The alchemists assert

that everything within the circle of limited and fallen Nature can only beget its kind. Hence man’s own

natural efforts in an intellectual direction cannot elevate him beyond his natural state and can only beget

a similar kind of unregenerate, unillumined condition. Thus the continual failure of philosophy, politics

and sectarian religion.

But there is the aphorism “Art perfects what Nature began”. And, as another Alchemist has

affirmed, “Our gold is produced by art, adding nothing, detracting nothing, but only eliminating

superfluities.” In other words, the alchemical assertion is that in man is latent an element of Wisdom

which, so long as the natural state of conflict and ignorance exists, remains dormant and in obscuration.

“Within the material extreme of life, when it is purified, the Seed of the Spirit is at last found.” The

entire object of art is the uncovering of the inner faculty of insight and wisdom, the “essence of mind

which is intrinsically pure”, and the removal of the veils intervening between the mind and diverting it

from its hidden divine root.

Existence and the ordinary turmoil of life, the struggle and the confusion which sooner or later

binds consciousness by manifold links to an unevolved infantile and emotional attitude towards life,

create anxiety and deep-seated fears. We entertain fear for the morrow and in the face of the

unexpected. Fear and anxiety give rise in early life to automatisms and compulsive behaviour, to what

might be called a shrinkage of the sphere of consciousness. It sets up an involuntary habitual

contraction of the ego instead of a full-hearted easy acceptance of whatever may come in life, be it joy

or sorrow, pain or pleasure. Continued sufficiently long, this attitude develops into mental rigidity, into

a closed and crystallized conscious outlook, complacent and narrow, in which all further growth is

impossible. Apart, from this, many people become fixed and hidebound for quite other reasons -

becoming over-attached to traditional and unoriginal modes of thinking and feeling. The result is that

all spontaneity of intellect and feeling is thoroughly eliminated from the realm of possibility. It is a

sacrifice which entails the death of all that is creative within. The individual becomes enclosed within

an iron cage of his own construction - forged through fear of life. From this, there seems no escape. No

doubt consciousness becomes developed to a very high degree, to the point where it becomes clear,

inventive, and trenchant. It becomes so, however, at the expense of life itself. Such a development is at

the expense of flexibility and elasticity. Its cost is the loss of all that the underlying and dynamic

unconscious aspect of the psyche implies - warmth, depth of feeling, inspiration, and ease of life and

living. Too great a price to be paid.

Now, it is with this rigidity of consciousness, with this inflexible crystallized condition of mind,

that Alchemy, like modern Psychotherapy, proposes to deal, and, moreover, to eradicate. Psychotherapy

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Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone

according to one popular writer, is a means of obtaining self-knowledge through breaking down the

shell of fantasy in which the ordinary person is confined. Analysis is sometimes defined as a process the

object of which is to enhance consciousness. It proceeds by making conscious those unconscious

elements in the instinctual and morally compulsive life which experience demonstrates to be in conflict

with or untrue to reality. The crystallization of the field of consciousness, with its consequent narrowing

of the possibilities of experience, produces a species of living death. The alchemists proposed to kill

death. Their object, by the psychological method of interpretation, was to disintegrate this inflexible

rigidity of mind. This process they call the dissolution or putrefaction. Consciousness is broken down

into its component parts. From this apparently amorphous and homogenous resultant, it was their

intention to reassemble the fundamental elements of consciousness on an entirely new and healthy basis.

It was proposed to establish another foundation altogether, one capable of functioning in a completely

regal and spiritual way. So that the divine root which, according to their theory, had become occultated

and subordinated by the presumption of man’s ego, is able to manifest through a mentality which is free

from the defects which characterize the average intelligence. Consciousness is to be vivified utterly and

is not separated from the Unconscious by a sharp and unnatural cleavage or partition from the other

levels of the psyche. Thus the contents of the one part, by a reversal of values and functions, have full

access of entry into the other, and vice versa.

Like modern psychological methods the alchemical formulae have as their goal the creation of a

whole man, of integrity. What the psychotherapist proposes is freedom from the nervous and defensive

automatisms that render men slaves of impulse and emotion, the automatism of the drunkard, for

example, the drug addict, the kleptomaniac, the chronic waverer, the choleric, the coward. I make but

little mention of the normal habits and automatisms of the so-called average man, though the neurotic

expressions are but slight exaggerations of them. One of the reasons why psychotherapy is so difficult

for the layman to grasp is that few people are aware of the preponderance of such automatic reactions in

all ordinary human conduct.

Not only does Alchemy envisage an individual whose several constituents of consciousness are

united, but with the characteristic thoroughness of all occult or magical methods it proceeds a stage

further. It aspires towards the development of an integrated and free man who is illumined. It is here

that Alchemy parts company with orthodox Psychology. Its technique envisages a religious or spiritual

goal. In much the same terms as Eastern philosophy, Alchemy propounds the question, “What is it, by

knowing which, we have all knowledge?” This is the theme, allowing for variations of a minor

character, pervading the entire nature of Brahmanism and Buddhism, as well as the whole of archaic

philosophy and religion. The Tractatus Aureus avers that “All the wisdoms of the world, O Son, are

comprehended in this my hidden Wisdom.” It is this which gives Alchemy that peculiar attraction which

always in the West it has enjoyed, regardless of whether or not its terms have been completely

understood in the clear light of logical thought.

In order the better to comprehend the basic postulates of this aspect of Alchemy which are

concealed in a seemingly barbarous and unintelligible terminology, I propose to provide a brief

comparison of its terms with those of other systems. Here we will employ a form of the Tree of Life as

understood by the Jewish Qabalists as the fundamental basis of comparison. Its capacity to refer all

symbologies to a single source of reference, thus rendering them more or less intelligible by a process

of classification, is the indubitable virtue of this scheme. Where it is possible I shall refer to Analytical

Psychology for a more modern and readily understandable explanation. Book One will be commented

upon precisely in that light. The Six Keys of Eudoxus , the second text, will be interpreted in terms of

certain aspects of Magic and Animal Magnetism or Mesmerism. These two attempts at interpretation

will render the third text by Vaughan more or less clear.

Since a comparatively complete exposition of the Qabalah may be found in other of my writing, it

would be needlessly repetitive to go over the same ground. This diagram shows the Ten Sephiros of the

Tree of Life arranged in such a way that the seven planets of the astrological scheme may be referred to

them. In addition, there is another unnumbered sphere named Dads , Knowledge. The Philosophy

supposes this to be an entirely new principle latent within consciousness, developing or externalizing

itself as and when man acquires complete and full self-consciousness. With this principle I shall not

deal for the moment, though its mention was important, since it refers to an end result. It is a final goal

of the system, the purified and integrated consciousness developed after the various experimental stages

of the Alchemical work have been completed. The other principles, or Sephiros as they are called, I

have numbered for convenience’ sake. These I can now describe in terms of the usual alchemical,

psychological, and other occult clichés and ideas.

For our purposes, those principles numbered 4 to 7 inclusive are more important, entering more

frequently than the others into exegesis. The trinity of potencies comprising the first circle refer to that

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divine root of man’s being which is the deepest core of the Unconscious, the “It”, the “essence of mind

which is intrinsically pure”. It is the realization in consciousness of this root, pure potentiality, and its

assimilation into the everyday thinking of man, which is the final goal of all spiritual techniques.

Various faculties of consciousness, memory, will, etc., are comprised in the second and third spheres.

The principle numbered 4 is the Ruach , the mind, the reasoning faculties. It is referred to the

element Air. I am here reminded of the archaic and primitive correspondences - geist, pneuma, ruach,

breath, spirit, etc. It is consciousness itself, operating as the ruler of the body. It is also named Tipharas ,

meaning beauty and harmony and equilibrium, its symbol being the interlaced triangles. The latter

indicates the union and therefore the reconciliation of two opposing elements in a single symbol. Fire is

the upright triangle, and Water - the downpointing triangle. This intrinsic tendency towards

reconciliation is considered implicit within the nature of consciousness. That is to say, it indicates

intellectual acumen and insight into the nature of the pairs of opposites. This faculty of understanding

enables it to arrive at a third and reconciling factor of poise and rhythm. Another correspondence often

employed is the Sun. Since the latter is the vital centre of the solar system radiating life and heat to all

about it, and without which life could not be - so at the centre of man is this rational intellectual faculty

without which man is no longer man.

Fig.1 - The Tree of Life

Inasmuch as it is the development of this particular type of consciousness which is assumed to

differentiate man from and above all other creatures, elevating him above every other department of

nature, it is quite often referred to as Gold, the most perfect and precious of metals. In the Alchemical

texts the intellect is also one of the Three Principles, the purified Mercury defined as “philosophic,

fiery, vital, running, which may be mixed with all other metals and again separated from them. It is

prepared in the innermost chamber of life and there it is coagulated”. And again, when referred to as the

Philosopher’s Stone, we have this definition from The Golden Treatise of Hermes: “In the cavern of the

metals, there is hidden the Stone that is venerable, splendid in colour, a mind sublime and an open sea.”

But this latter refers more accurately to the consciousness itself represented as a scintillating gem of

untold price and brilliance, the redeeming, saving stone. It becomes this only after the several

alchemical operations when it has been dissolved, coagulated, calcined, purified, refined, and

sublimated into the newly arisen king’s son, crowned with the Spirit, cloaked with the royal purple, and

exalted into the treasure of the world.

The fifth principle on our chart is the emotional, feeling, and passional urge, which gives motive

and direction to life. In contrast to most Western thinking, occultism sharply separates emotion as a

principle from mental activity - though it is admitted that in actual practice the activities of the two do

overlap each other considerably. The nature of this principle is fiery, as witness various colloquialisms

and figures of speech: “thy fire of thy love”, “the white heat of passion”, “consuming flames of

passion”, and “ardent desires”. Alchemistically, this identifies emotion and feeling with the principle

Sulphur, a fiery dynamic principle, on the correct employment and application of which the entire work

depends. The regimen of the fire is the crucial and critical operation of Alchemy - even as in a lesser

way it is in Psychotherapy. In certain psychological cases the awakening of a dormant or repressed side

of the patient’s nature, and the union of consciousness with the anima or fiery emotional nature,

produces integrity and wholeness and a higher synthesis of being.

The sixth principle implies form. Properly, it is the vehicular side of consciousness. Its nature is

substantive. One characteristic of occult philosophy is the theorem that every state of consciousness has

its own particular type of matter. We have the idea in all magical philosophy of a so-called mental body

or sheath, of a mind clothed with a fluidic body of thought, grounded in a substance of extreme tenuity

and subtlety. Referred to the planet Mercury (not to the alchemical principle also of that name) which

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