Philosopher’s Stone

This refers to the basis of everything, the universe before the big bang brought light, substance and energy – or Love, wisdom and Power into existence. We all are in possession of the Stone or a tangible manifestation of the prima materia. It is described as a stone, a powder, a liquid, as invisible, or as a stone that is not a stone. The descriptions of the prima materia are even more confusing. Ruland’s Lexicon of Alchemy lists 134 different names for it, many of which seem to contradict each other: fire or water, medicine or poison, etc. They seem to point to a substance that unifies all dualities and is beyond the confines of logic.

I say we all have it because in dreamless sleep we are all without form, beyond logic and is a unity of all dualities. I believe we are all also manifestations of the creative action behind the universe. Our unconscious mind connects our ego with the primal existence – dreams are a half way house between the Huge Knowing -tthe unconscious – and our fragile personality.

“In Jungian terms, the prima materia refers to the unconscious. In its initial state before creation, the prima materia is called the ““massa confusa,” or the chaos on which the world of form was imposed. Likewise, the unconscious, when first encountered, seems confusing and illogical until the order of consciousness is imposed on it. The philosopher’s stone has the power to bring whatever it is combined with back into a preformed state, so that its form may change or transform. This is also the goal of the psyche itself, which seeks to dissolve fixed aspects of the personality back into their undifferentiated state, so that they can transform into the higher state Jung called individuation.” Quoted from The Encyclopedia of Dreams by Rosemary Ellen Guiley