The Stone as a Metaphor
The legendary Philosopher’s Stone was said to be able to transform base metals into noble metals, like lead into gold. People searched for it for eternity, but it was impossible to achieve such an atomic transformation using alchemy. Low-value metal couldn’t be upgraded to a higher one. All the searching for this physical ‘stone’ proved to be pointless. Greed did not pay off. The Philosopher’s Stone, Lapis Philosophorum, literally translates to Stone of Those Who Love Wisdom. So, what does the Stone actually represent?
Like many other ancient concepts (e.g., the Holy Grail), the Philosopher’s Stone represents an esoteric or inner matter. It was a metaphor, an allegory whose meaning has been lost, leading people to the illusion that an immediate inner transformation from lead to gold was possible. It explains a similar eagerness born out of misunderstanding, just like the alchemists with their metal experiments. But what does the Philosopher’s Stone really entail?
It clearly refers to a method to transform from a lower spiritual state to a higher one. A transition from inner impurity to purity, from mechanical living to conscious living, from a state of waking sleep to being fully awake: Self-realization, in other words.
Lead is Heavy, Gold is Heavier
Spiritual lead has a ‘heavy specific weight’ of dark clouds, ignorance, suffering, and limitations:
emotional-mental impurity.
Spiritual gold has a ‘heavier specific weight’ of Awareness, Knowledge, Happiness, and unlimited possibilities:
emotional-mental purity.
Our True inner state of mind ‘weighs more’ than our usual state of mind. This is completely understandable when we grasp the allegory of the philosopher’s stone.
But what does the philosopher’s stone entail, in its true meaning?
It is clear that it must be a method that allows us to transform from a lower spiritual state to a higher spiritual state. One could say that we transform from an unnatural limiting state of mind to a natural unlimited state of mind. The Philosopher’s Stone would therefore be a transformation method that makes us evolve to our optimal achievable human state, where we can make optimal use of all our human capacities on an emotional, mental, and physical level. A golden state of mind and no longer a leaden one. This is called the transition from earth to heaven in the Bible. And ‘stone’ in that same scripture stands for ‘theory’ or ‘method’, as an allegory/metaphor. The most famous ethical commandments were thus carved into ‘tablets of stone’: a theory that every human should realize.
This conversion from our ordinary worldly state to a more enlightened spiritual state cannot take place immediately, no matter how much we want it to. Our ego really wants it! There are even ‘masters’ who want to sell us this illusion, so don’t fall for it. Every person must go through a spiritual ‘alchemical’ transformation process, such as from caterpillar to butterfly, or from lead to gold. This requires effort in relaxation and a lot of perseverance, from faith and conviction that it is possible for every normal person to become a True Human. Through self-realization, self-actualization, and lovingly overcoming inner blockades, psychological tendencies, and conditionings. With both mind and heart in which wisdom develops from love for wisdom.
Self-realization is a destination, not a merit. Any idea of merit blocks transformation. However, our ego, the cluster of all our identifications, seeks merit and thinks it’s enough to just superficially understand such a transformation theory and then be ‘done’ with it, from imagination and without that real love for wisdom that is essential for transformation: lead dressed in gold paint. Continuous conscious effort (in relaxation) is therefore necessary for inner liberation, because the identifying ego will always tempt you to think that understanding the transformation theory would be enough to realize yourself. And so, you fall back asleep.
One method became very famous and is described in the New Testament and the esoteric Apocrypha. However, due to all the translations and revisions of the original texts, the biblical parables, and thus the described method, are barely comprehensible to modern man. How current religions treat people is hard evidence of this.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky laid the foundation for a much more understandable Philosopher’s Stone, the Fourth Way: a practical method mainly for the Western working person, which can transform them from lead to gold. The Vedic philosophy also offers a philosopher’s stone: the Bhagavad Gita, to name just one example.
The Philosopher’s Stone is the esoteric method known as the Magnum Opus or the Great Work. Not coincidentally, this transition process is referred to as The Work in various spiritual-philosophical methods: the Work that cannot be bypassed. All true sages point us in that direction. And if we want to realize a transition in our society? Then we must start with this transition in ourselves, and then realize it in our surroundings.
