CHAPTER IX

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE AND
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

THE lure of the Philosopher’s Stone and the quest for the
Elixir of Life provide the subject of many of the early
romances, and much has been written not only of the legends
of how the old have been made young again, but also of the
stories of the search for the long-sought-for agent that was
capable of transmuting the baser metals into gold, an adventure
in which princes and philosophers shared alike.

For ages men of great intelligence and even genius wasted
both their lives and their fortunes in the pursuit of this chimera,
and in later times the lure of this wonderful substance that was
to bring its possessor wealth and power led to both fraud and
trickery.

As already stated, we have no mention of the subject until
the seventh century, when about 620 Stephanus of Alexan¬
dria wrote of “the elements that grow and are transmuted,
because it is their qualities, not their substances, which are
contrary.”

Since the twelfth century claimants to the discovery have
been numerous, and many descriptions are recorded of the
various processes they have employed for obtaining the coveted
medium.

To understand the composition of the agent they sought the
seekers had first to learn that it must have the character of sul¬
phur and mercury, which implied certain qualities and not the
actual substances now known by these names. Jabir describes
sulphur as a “fatness of the earth by temperate decoction in the
mine of the earth thickened until it be hardened and made dry.”
68

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

The term ‘sulphur’ was also used to describe anything com¬
bustible, and was sometimes called ‘the house of the spirit,’
‘elementary fire,’ and ‘Adamic earth’; and sulphur was re¬
garded as the male element. Mercury, on the other hand, was
believed to be the elementary form of all things fusible ; it repre¬
sented lustre, ductility, and malleability.

This sulphur-mercury doctrine was accepted by most alche¬
mists until about the twelfth century, when the theory was
extended by the addition of a third elementary principle, to
which the name ‘salt ’ was given. It was believed to be a basic
principle in the metals which gave to them solidity and resis¬
tance to fire. Mercury was considered to be the connecting
link between the spirit and the body, and the element on which
depended the blood and life.

Many believed that by bringing the elements sulphur, mer¬
cury, and ‘salt’ together they would thus obtain the Philoso¬
pher’s Stone, one of the names given to the agent required to
effect transmutation, and for this mysterious medium a con¬
tinuous search was made.

The French chemist Lemery says :

It is this they call the ‘ Great Work. ’ . . . Some make a mixture
of metals with substances proper to refine them and calcine them
a long time in a strong fire to arrive at their perfection. Others
seek for a seed of gold in gold itself, and believe they shall find it
there as they do the seed of a vegetable in a vegetable. Conse¬
quently, to accomplish this they endeavour to open gold by dis¬
solvents. Others look for the seed of gold in the minerals, as in
antimony, where they pretend there is a sulphur and a mercury,
like to that of gold. Others imagine that they can catch the seed
of gold by fixing the rays of the sun after a certain manner, for they,
as several astrologers, look upon it as a thing incontestable that
the sun is gold melted in the centre of the world.

The so-called Philosopher’s Stone was also termed ‘the
Essence,’ ‘the Stone of the Wise,’ ‘the Magisterium,’ ‘Mag¬
num Opus,’ ‘the Quintessence,’ and ‘the Universal Essence.’
But, by whatever name it might be called, this object of the

69

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

alchemist’s dreams and striving was regarded as the one perfect
thing, and by it

all infirmities might be cured, human life prolonged to its utmost
limits, and mankind preserved in health and strength of body and
mind, clearness and vigour. All wounds are healed by it without
difficulty, and it is the best and surest remedy against poisons.

The various colours of the metals, and the changes which took
place when they were melted with others, were deemed of great
importance by the alchemists. In imparting the colour of a
noble metal to a base one much was believed to have been at¬
tained. The principal operations bear a strong resemblance to
the process of dyeing cloth, and the old designation of tinctures ,
which was applied to the media by which this transformation
was effected, gives expression to the idea of a dyeing operation.

The various stages in the perfecting of the ‘ Stone ’ are thus
described in a work entitled The Open Entrance :

The beginning of the heating of gold with mercury is likened to
the king stripping off his golden garments and descending into the
fountain. This is the regimen of Mercury. As the heating is con¬
tinued, all becomes black; this is the regimen of Saturn. Then
is noticed a plan of many colours ; this is the regimen of Jupiter.
About the end of the fourth month you will see the sign of the
waxing Moon, and all becomes white ; this is the regimen of the
Moon. The white colour gives place to purple and green, and you
are now in the regimen of Venus. After that, appear all the colours
of the rainbow or of a peacock’s tail ; this is the regimen of Mars.
Finally, the colour becomes orange and golden ; this is the regimen
of the Sun.

Of the mysterious and elusive Stone we have various descrip¬
tions left by alchemists who claimed to have discovered the
secret, or by others who declared that they had both seen and
handled it.

“It is called a stone,” says one,

not because it is like a stone, but only because by virtue of its
fixed nature and that it resists the action of fire as successfully as
any stone. Its appearance is that of a very fine powder, impalpable
70

SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF THE BIRTH OF
THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
Triomphe Hermetique (1689)

70

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71

TITLE-PAGE FROM “BASILICA CHYMICA,” BY CROLLIUS (1612)
It depicts the “great masters and symbols of alchemy.”

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

to the touch, sweet to the taste, fragrant to the smell, in potency a
most penetrative spirit, apparently dry and yet unctuous and easily
capable of tingeing a plate of metal. If we say its nature is spiritual
it would be no more than the truth ; if we describe it as corporeal
the expression would be equally correct.

It is described as being of various colours, sometimes as a
red, white, or black powder, or it may be yellow, blue, or green.
Raymond Lully calls it “ carbunculus,” while Paracelsus de¬
clares it to be a solid body like a ruby, transparent and flexible.
Beregard says it is “the colour of a wild poppy, with the smell
of heated sea-salt,” and van Helmont describes it as being
“yellow, the colour of saffron, in the form of a heavy powder,
with a brilliancy like glass.” Helvetius likewise describes it as
being yellow and the colour of sulphur, but it is most frequently
referred to as the red or white stone. One writer declares that,
“although it has concrete form, its working is spiritual.” He
describes it as of a bluish-grey or green colour. “ It is of great
weight and is small. It is a certain heavenly, spiritual, penetra¬
tive, and fixed substance, which brings all metals to perfection
of gold or silver, and that by natural methods.” Another al¬
chemist says, “ Its colour is sable with intermixed argent which
marks the sable fields with veins of glittering argent.” The
quantity of base metal that could be converted into gold by any
given quantity of the Stone evidently varied. Arnaldus de Villa
Nova declared that the Stone could convert a hundred times its
own weight into gold. Isaac of Holland places its conversion
power at a million times, while Roger Bacon states that the
Stone could convert a hundred thousand times its own weight
of a base metal. It was sometimes called the ‘ powder of pro¬
jection/ that used to obtain gold being of a red colour, while the
powder for producing silver was white.

The processes for making the Stone recorded by some of the
alchemists who claimed to have discovered it are usually so
vague and wrapped up in such mysterious and symbolic lan¬
guage as to be unintelligible, but Rabbi Simon ben Canara, a

7i

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Jewish alchemist of the sixteenth century, has left an account of
his process for making the Philosopher’s Stone which well illus¬
trates the type of symbolism employed by writers of that period.

1

The mine of our Mercury, our Saltpetre, not of the vulgar, our
Ponticity

Or purging quality and our Vitriol, not that of the vulgar,

Our actuating and our Sal Armoniack, not of the vulgar ;

2

Of the germ of Mercury or living water or volatile salt,

Parts of the fixe, one part. The homogeneity of Mercury,

The living actuated, our Mercury, our living and Pontick water,
The Mercury of the wise, the homogeneous Mercury.

3

Let 2, or the most 3 parts of our Mercury liquefy,

One part of silver or gold subtiliated and they will become one
body,

Spongious and inseparable which is called our silver and gold and
not of the vulgar. The Silver by a Mercury of 5 eagles, the
Gold by a Mercury of 7. This is the sophick calcination of

Irrovate or water our gold coming from our calcination with 2 parts
of mercury in proportion to the gold vulgar. It will become a
black body not spongious. The gold coming from the black¬
ness at the change of colour openeth its germe and shows its
vegetation.

This is the sophick Putrifaction and vegetative germination.

5

Our gold changing its green colour, becomes the white sulphur,
which is a body animated with an incorruptable soul. This
is our white gold without imposition of hands and opening of
the vessel, melts or dissolves again with various vapours like
the peacock’s tayle by continuing of the heat. Then is our
gold made volatile and this is a volatilization the wet way.

72

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

6

Continuing the heat, our gold being made volatile, the wet way
becomes dry and becomes a lucid body. The dawning of the
day, and this is the volatilization the dry way. This dawning
disappearing little by little. Our gold riseth in very fine red
grains or powder which is our red sulphur so much wished by
all the Sophi, but not the end of their labours. The volatiliza¬
tion the dry way.

7

Our red sulphur is imbibed with 5 parts of new mercury in pro¬
portion to the said sulphur’s weight, and this by seven divers
imbibitions and with continuation of the heat. By the rota¬
tion of the wheel of Nature, in a month’s time is made putri-
faction and at foresaid Regimens, at the end of the month,
the King riseth Omnipotent which is our perfect Stone. The
Medicine of the 3rd order, capable in its projection to trans¬
mute metals.

To God Eternal Praise. Amen.

The following lines on the Philosopher’s Stone are attributed
to Basil Valentine, who will be referred to later:

A Stone is found which is esteemed vile,

From which is drawn a fire volatile,

Whereof our noble Stone its selfe is made,

Composed of white and red that ne’er will fade.

It’s called a Stone and yet is no Stone ;

And in that Stone Dame Nature works alone,

The Fountain that from thence did sometimes flow,

His fixed Father drowned hath also.

His life and body are both devoured,

Until at last his Soul to him restored ;

And his volatile Mother is made one,

And alike with him in his own kingdome.

Himself also virtue and power hath gained,

And far greater strength than before attained.

In old age also doth the son excell
His own mother who is made volatile

73

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

By Vulcan’s art, but first it’s thus indeed
The Father from the Spirit must proceed ;

Body, Soul, Spirit are in two contained,

The total art may well from them be gained.

It comes from one and is one only thing,

The volatile and fixt, together bring
It is two and three, and yet only one,

If this you do not conceive you get none.

Adam in a Balneo resideth
Where Venus like himselfe abideth,

Which was prepared at the old Dragod’s cost,

Where be his greatest strength and power lost.

It’s nothing else, saith one Philosophus,

But a Mercurius Duplicatus.

I will say no more, its name I have shown,

Seek for it there, and spare no cost or pains,

The end will crown the work with health and gains.

The Elixir of Life is described by some as a solution of
the Stone in spirit of wine and by others as a solution of gold,
but the Elixir and the Stone were apparently often confused.
By some they were considered to be one and the same body, but
by others they are referred to as distinct substances. Some al¬
chemists apparently believed that there were three different kinds
of Stones — animal, vegetable, and mineral.

Artephius believed that human life could be prolonged for a
thousand years by taking the Elixir, and others declared that it
gave not only perpetual youth, but also an increase of knowledge
and wisdom. Regular, daily doses of one grain dissolved in a
sufficient quantity of white wine were to be taken in a silver
vessel after midnight. To preserve health it was to be taken at
the beginning of spring and autumn. “By this means,” says
Zacgarias, “one may enjoy perfect health until the end of the
days assigned to him.” Isaac of Holland recommended that the
dose should be taken once a month; life would thus be pro¬
longed “until the supreme end fixed by the King of Heaven.”

For prolonging life and rejuvenating the aged, Paracelsus

74

THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

recommended his Primum ens Melissae, which, he says, should
be prepared by dissolving pure potassium carbonate in water

APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING AQUA VITAE

From a woodcut
Brunschwig, 1507

and macerating in the solution the fresh leaves of the melissa
plant. On this mixture spirit of wine was to be poured several

75

LURE fif ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

times to absorb the colouring matter, after which the liquid was
to be distilled and then evaporated down to the thickness of a
syrup.

The ‘ Alcahest,’ his celebrated medicine for all ills, was made
with freshly prepared caustic lime and spirit of wine, which
mixture was to be distilled ten times. The residue left in the
retort was to be mixed with pure potassium carbonate and
dried. It was then to be placed in a dish and ignited, and the
residue formed his famous remedy.

76