Alchemy how to create the philosopher's stone. Where can I find the Philosopher's Stone? Source of Spiritual Wisdom

Alchemists of the Middle Ages called the philosopher's stone, as well as the stone of wisdom, a substance that has the ability to transform base metals into the noblest of metals - gold. Scientists for centuries have been obsessed with the idea of ​​​​creating this divine elixir, which could heal diseases and grant people immortality.

How did the idea of ​​the philosopher's stone come about?

At the beginning of the development of alchemy as a science, its followers assumed that the miraculous substance with the ability to transform tin and copper into gold was a stone (hence the name). However, over time, opinion changed, and medieval scientists began to work on creating a powder or liquid elixir.

Alchemists firmly believed that a magical substance could be created by adding and mixing components found in nature, mainly sulfur and mercury were used.

The worthless work of alchemists

Thanks to the constant efforts of alchemists to create the philosopher's stone, the modern science of chemistry was born.

In constant attempts to obtain the long-awaited result in the form of a miraculous elixir, in the process of difficult searches, scientists of the Middle Ages made a lot of important discoveries:

We obtained nitric, sulfuric and acetic acid;

Alcohol was created;

We received new salts;

Compiled the world's first system of chemical elements;

Alchemists discovered new substances - antimony and arsenic;

Scientists became aware of zinc and bismuth, as well as the nonmetals sulfur and carbon.

Famous alchemists

Great minds worked tirelessly to create the philosopher's stone. Here are just some of the famous progressive alchemical scientists who contributed to the development of science:

1. Albertus Magnus studied minerals, was interested in philosophy, and conducted experiments in inorganic chemistry that were significantly ahead of his time. Author of the famous treatise “On Alchemy”. The scientist believed that the philosopher's stone could be obtained if the right components were used.
2. Arnoldo de Villanova was a brilliant mind of the time who gave daring lectures at the University of Paris. Contemporaries believed that the scientist managed to discover the philosopher's stone.
3. Raymond Lull - he is called the greatest alchemist of all time. He claimed that he was able to transmute base metals into the coveted gold.
4. Paracelsus is a famous alchemist and doctor who created new medicines and studied magic. He spent many years of his life searching for the philosopher's stone, with which he wanted to heal people.
5. Nicolas Flamel is a fabulously wealthy simple artisan who claims to have unraveled the secret of the philosopher's stone.

Facts about alchemy

Alchemy did a lot for the development of science, but gradually turned into a brake on the path of scientific research and gradually fell into decay. And yet there are people who devote time to this old teaching, and some even try to prepare the philosopher's stone at home.

Before we try to do this, let's understand the theory of creating such material. Ancient alchemists assumed that known metals simply grew in the earth, gradually maturing. In the minds of medieval scientists, sulfur took an active part in this process. At the same time, gold was considered a “ripe” metal, and iron was considered an “immature” metal.

How to get the philosopher's stone

Alchemists believed that gold contained “healthy” red sulfur, and silver contained white sulfur. When spoiled red sulfur came into contact with silver, copper was obtained, and black sulfur could “conceive” lead. Thus, the types of sulfur influenced the resulting variant of the metal.

To help the metal achieve the desired condition, the element was carefully processed. As a result of such experiments, alchemists were able to make new scientific discoveries. Sometimes they were recognized as sorcerers and persecuted. In those troubled times, scientists were even burned at the stake.

Ordinary people are interested in the question of whether it is possible to create a philosopher's stone. No metal is transformed into another metal by exposure to sulfur. You can devote a lot of time to science and conduct chemical experiments, but the answer will be one - “no”. At the same time, you can conduct original experiments at home and feel like a real alchemist.

alchemy term. According to the compiler of the dictionary, the search for the philosopher's stone is one of the most important meanings of wisdom for a person, as a search for the Path of his spiritual rebirth, the harmony of his material and spiritual wealth. In alchemy, its representatives believed that it was possible and necessary to find ways to obtain pure mercury and then, through a series of transformations, turn base metals into gold. In this sense, the philosopher's stone is a way to achieve material wealth. But the philosopher's stone is not only knowledge of the technology of turning metal into gold. The esoteric meaning of the philosopher's stone in alchemy is that it is a special kind of elixir that can give a person spiritual and physical youth, fill human body light, providing the person who has embarked on this Path with omnipotence, omniscience and the joy of Divine love, the happiness of being. Therefore, we must keep in mind that alchemy is not only (and not so much) a great teaching about the search for ways to transform substances into gold, but also knowledge of the ways of change, the spiritual transformation of man himself. The great mystic and alchemist Jacob Boehme spoke about the philosopher's stone: “In this stone is hidden everything that God and Eternity, the sky, the stars and the elements, can produce. There has never been anything more beautiful and valuable than him. This is a gift to people from God. Anyone can have it... Its form is simple and in it is all the divine power.” The Philosopher's Stone, like a snow-white miracle of Cosmic wisdom, is the deepest foundation of the human soul, the human spirit. The spirit is a house, a dwelling, an “eikos” of wisdom, or what can be called the ecosophy of man. Ecosophy is the habitat of the spirit, as well as the deep foundation of human spirituality. Ecosophy is the individual value and moral code of a person, the seat of his conscience. Ecosophy can reveal to a person his Path for spiritual elevation, for comprehending wisdom and rooting it in your life. Thus, like the philosopher's stone, it becomes an elixir vitality, which gives a person great Love, youth and joy of human life, an amazing ability to achieve their goals in the best and most effective way.

The first person to talk about the incredible properties of the philosopher's stone was the Egyptian alchemist Hermes Trismegistus. He wrote down the recipe for making it in his books, but most of them burned in a fire, and the whereabouts of the rest are unknown. Only translations have reached us. At the beginning of the first millennium, alchemy was prohibited by the death penalty. And only in the 700s AD. resumed her teaching. The great figure of alchemy of that time was Abu Mussa Jabir ibn Hayyan. He based the metals on philosophical mercury and sulfur, which were in no way related to ordinary mercury and sulfur.

Ordinary mercury and sulfur only testify to the existence of philosophical mercury and sulfur as spiritual principles. The metal mercury is the principle of metallicity (philosophical mercury), containing the principle of flammability (philosophical sulfur). Dry substances of the Earth give philosophical sulfur, and wet substances give philosophical mercury. It was then believed that the action of fire simplifies the properties of all metals. And therefore, when the two principles are combined in various proportions with the help of high temperature, 7 metals are formed: gold, silver, lead, copper, tin and iron. Moreover, gold is obtained only by combining pure philosophical sulfur and pure philosophical mercury in an ideal sequence. That is, alchemists believe that in gold the sulfur is healthy - red, in silver - white, in copper - damaged red, in lead - damaged black. That is, lead is spoiled gold and can be cured. Earth can also form gold, but only very slowly. You can speed up the process using a certain elixir. And since the density of mercury is greater than the density of gold, it was believed that this elixir must be very dense. Later it became known as the philosopher's stone. In addition to turning metals into gold, the philosopher's stone grants the owner immortality, eternal youth and absolute knowledge. The activities of alchemists are shrouded in mysticism and mystery. It was believed that only a select few could receive the philosopher's stone, so there were no textbooks on this science; knowledge was passed on from teacher to student. There was a lot of talk that one of the alchemists managed to obtain the philosopher's stone, but its recipe is still unknown to this day, and therefore the search continues.

Merits of the alchemists

Thanks to the activities of alchemists, good experiments were carried out and it was the alchemists who obtained useful substances: gunpowder, medicine, many salts and acids, saltpeter. The properties of these substances were also described. In addition, their very important achievement is the discovery of the process of smelting metal from ore, as well as filtering, crystallization and recrystallization. Apparatuses were created for the distillation of liquids and the sublimation of solids. Alchemists invented instruments and utensils for conducting chemical experiments. Already in the 10th century AD. The alchemist Avicenna knew how to produce hydrochloric, sulfuric and nitric acids, as well as potassium and sodium hydroxides.

Alchemists came up with several ways to extract gold from poor rock: separated from sand, mercury and other impurities.

Alchemists-charlatans

There were a large number of charlatans at the courts of crowned heads. One of these was Johann von Richthausen, who was at the court of King Ferdinand III of Germany. He turned mercury into gold in the presence of the king. But then it turned out that he had previously dissolved gold in mercury, and then only evaporated the mercury using heat.

Another charlatan alchemist was at the court of Leopold I. He allegedly turned zinc into gold. Coins were even minted from this gold, but not a single coin has reached our time.

But the most famous court alchemist, who did incredible things, is Sailer. In front of Leopold I and his courtiers, he converted mercury into gold in his laboratory. The experiment went like this: Seiler covered a pinch of red powder with wax, which he called the philosopher's stone. I threw in this pinch and boiling mercury, then stirred it with a thick wooden stick. Then smoke started pouring out and everyone had to turn away. Sailer fanned the fire even more, threw coals into the mercury, which immediately burned. Then he poured the remaining mercury into a flat cup and everyone saw that the metal had turned yellow. The jeweler confirmed that it was gold, and very pure. Sailer was immediately knighted. But the recipe for this trick was still revealed. The stick with which he mixed the composition was hollow and gold powder was poured into it, and the hole was sealed with wax. The coals were also hollow and had gold powder inside. The powder quickly melted in mercury, then the mercury evaporated under the influence of temperature and pure gold remained in the bowl. And the philosopher's stone was just mercury oxide.

In the 20th century, it was proven that mercury always contains a small admixture of gold. Therefore, 20th century alchemists resumed their experiments, but using electricity, trying to separate gold from mercury. It was possible to produce gold in nuclear reactors from a mercury isotope as a result of the capture of an electron from the electron shell of a mercury atom by the nucleus, but the amount of gold was negligible

Elixir of Longevity

The same Jabir ibn Hayyan was the most ardent alchemist, looking for the opportunity to live forever. His recipe was simple: “You just need,” he wrote, “to find a toad that has lived ten thousand years, then catch a bat of a thousand years old, dry them, crush and grind them into powder, dissolve it in water and take a tablespoon every day.” . This was, of course, irony. This is how he emphasized the unreality of his recipe. But unlike Haiyan himself, his teachings and ideas became immortal.

The legend of immortality itself originates in the Sumerian kingdom around 2000 BC. According to legend, the son of the goddess Ninsun, Gilgamesh, wanted to become immortal and learned that to do this he needed to eat the grass of life, which is located on the seabed. He got some grass, but on the way home he wanted to swim. I left the grass on the shore. The snake found the grass while he was swimming and ate it, becoming immortal, and Gilgamesh died.

Jacob Bruce

Alchemists of the Middle Ages tried to find an elixir of longevity in order to live for a thousand years. Thus, the doctor of Louis 13, the alchemist David Campi, recommended drinking a solution of gold in water, arguing that gold is the seed of the earth. And the doctor and alchemist Paracelsus already claimed that the elixir of longevity extends life by 600 years.

In Russia, the elixir of longevity was received by Yakov Bruce, one of the smartest people in Russia during the time of Peter I. His laboratory was located in the Sukharevskaya Tower in Moscow. People avoided this tower, considering him a sorcerer and warlock. They say that Bruce still managed to get living and dead water. He bequeathed to the servants to revive themselves after death. But whether he managed to revive himself or not is unknown. Although he was buried after his death, the grave was looted and his body was not found.

There are also many incredible stories in history when the elixirs of immortality found killed people who dared to take them. A striking example of this occurred in Russia in the Middle Ages. One alchemist monk Vasily Valentin decided to add antimony oxide to the food of himself and the monks in his parish. Many died in terrible agony. Since then, the second name for antimony is antimonium, that is, translated as antimonastic.

Universal solvent

Also, along with the elixir of immortality and the philosopher's stone, alchemists were looking for a universal solvent with which it would be possible to isolate the philosopher's stone itself from other substances, because this solvent alone cannot dissolve it. And use this solvent to precipitate precious metals. It was almost possible to find him. In 1270, the alchemist Bonaventure combined highly concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids, then poured gold powder on it - the gold disappeared. The delighted Bonaventura called this solution aqua regia for its ability to dissolve the king of metals. He immediately began to isolate the philosopher's stone. I spent 10 years on this, but never achieved results. Aqua regia does not affect glass, ceramics, sand, tin and many other substances, which means it is not universal. Bonaventura gave up this business and started making medicine. But the virtually universal solvent turned out to be a useful find.

The philosopher's stone is a special mythical substance. His power is credited with both obtaining eternal life and creating gold from simple materials. This stone has different histories among different peoples, and there is not a single scientific fact that completely refutes or reliably confirms the existence of this mystical component.

What is the philosopher's stone?

The ancient legend about the philosopher's stone has always excited the minds of scientists and mere mortals. According to legends and traditions, this mysterious material has incredible properties. At different times, different scientists sought confirmation that the philosopher's stone actually exists. It has many names and different sources call it differently. So, it can be called:

• rebis;
• the philosophical elixir of the sages;
• elixir of eternity;
• red-colored tincture;
• fifth element of nature.

A variety of powers and capabilities have been attributed to him, but all legends have one thing in common: the philosopher's stone is a reagent with a special property - with its help, metal can be turned into gold. Ancient manuscripts say that this substance appeared as a result of an incorrect reaction between sulfur and mercury. If you give a mystical stone a chemical definition, then it is a defective, incomplete, erroneous reaction between two simple components. No one knows what caused such a strange mistake.

Philosopher's Stone - properties

Even the Gods can envy the popularity of this substance in ancient mythology. He owns all the main mythical miracles for man, the philosopher’s stone:

• gives immortality (eternity of existence);
• allows you to create precious metal (gain wealth);
• endows a person with incredible power (bestows glory on his creator);
• reveals the secrets of the world (grants its owner the great wisdom of the ancestors).

Alchemist Nicholas Flamel is the same scientist who has been searching for the philosopher's stone all his life. He mentioned in his writings that angels appeared to him in a dream and told him how to create this substance, but the dream was unexpectedly interrupted, and the scientist never recognized the last component, which provokes an erroneous reaction between all components. He and his wife believed so much that the philosopher's stone existed that they spent their entire lives, youth, maturity and old age in search of that missing component that would give them the opportunity to create the Stone of Immortality.

What is the philosopher's stone made of?

Various sources provide information about what makes the philosopher's stone so special. What is known for sure is that it necessarily contains three main components:

• philosophical brimstone;
• philosophical mercury;
• silver solution.

All experiments, one after another, suffered a colossal failure. The experimental substances created did not have the power to transform iron into a precious metal, they did not have the power to grant healing to the sick or youth to the old. At one point in the historical past, the philosophers' stone caused many painful deaths. Kings different countries In pursuit of the creation of this stone, they conducted experiments on living people, subjecting them to poisoning with various kinds of elixirs, to which court scientists attributed the properties of rebis.

Does the philosopher's stone really exist?

It is difficult to unambiguously answer the question of whether the philosopher’s stone exists in reality, or whether anyone has managed to recreate the elixir of wealth and eternal youth in one bottle. There is no historical evidence that any scientist who was looking for the philosopher's stone achieved his goal, and legends and epics are difficult to take seriously, so the creation of the rebis is another mystery of the old world that modern scientists and historians have not been able to solve.

Why did alchemists try to find the philosopher's stone?

Much has been said that the creation of the stone came down to the thirst for profit and dreams of immortality, but what is the philosopher's stone in alchemy? For alchemists obsessed with their work, the creation of such a stone was not a desire for profit. Scientists pursued one goal - to give the world a substance with characteristics ideally useful to humanity. Receiving a rebis is tantamount to approaching the greatness of the Gods, comprehending all the secrets of the creation of the world as we do not know it, and opening the door to the eternity of existence, eradicating death and old age.

Where is the philosopher's stone?

Many historical sources, while claiming that the rebis was created, do not indicate where to find the philosopher's stone. If we take as initial information the fact that the philosopher's stone was created, it is destined to become a great achievement or great historical value, and this will mean that such a find could not have been lost. If there is no official data that the rebis was created, we will dwell on the fact that, after all, the mystery of the mystical philosopher's stone (the fifth element of nature) has not been solved to this day and is unlikely to be solved in the future.

Legends... In all this folklore, most often there are deep meaning, which our ancestors wanted to convey to us. Sometimes the spiritual meaning is difficult to see in a story from the past. The stories about the philosopher's stone are so implausible, contradictory and unscientific that it is difficult to see even a grain of truth in them. However, there is factual information about people, scientists and philosophers who took them seriously.

Source of Spiritual Wisdom

According to medieval alchemists, the notorious philosopher's stone was created from fire and water, elements so incompatible that their combination cannot be explained except by the divine. It consisted of a mineral that contained a living principle and possessed a spiritual one. It was believed that the philosopher's stone had the property of turning any metal into gold. The eternal dream of humanity! Naturally, everything that was connected with the process of making stone was a mystery, shrouded in darkness.

Even more tempting was the possible spiritual change, even perfect, that was given to its owner. It was believed that the very initial attempts to obtain this mystical object related to human consciousness, the ability to purify the human soul, obtain, and immortality as the quintessence of the whole process.

Search for the philosopher's stone. History of exploration

The concept of the philosopher's stone was introduced into use by a native of Egypt, Hermes Trismegistus. He was an extraordinary person and, according to legend, was the son of the most important gods of Egypt, Osiris and Isis. He was sometimes considered an incarnation of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth. Most of the works of Hermes Trismegistus were destroyed in the fire of the Library of Alexandria. Those that were saved were buried in a secret place, and information about it was lost. Distorted translations have survived to this day, from which, with a certain degree of probability, one can judge the activities of Hermes. Judging by them, he was engaged in the creation of the philosopher's stone, studying substances that could give a person endless knowledge, youth and eternal life. A document containing a recipe for its manufacture was found and translated. Very poetic and figurative, and most importantly - incomprehensible. So each alchemist did it differently.

There is a well-known legend about King Midas of Phrygia. Even as a child, Midas received a sign of future wealth. One day, the god Dionysus led his army to India. Midas mixed wine into the water of the spring from which Dionysus' teacher Silenus drank. He was unable to continue his journey and ended up with Midas in the palace. Ten days later, Midas returned the teacher to Dionysus, and as a reward received the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. But everything really turned into gold, both water and food. Then, at the instigation of Dionysus, Midas bathed in the river, which became gold-bearing, but he himself lost the gift. In fact, from historical sources it is known about the fabulous wealth of King Midas, but this is unlikely to be connected with the stone, it’s just that all the gold deposits of Phrygia were in the possession of Midas.

Alchemists surrounded the search for the philosopher's stone and all related activities with mystery and mysticism. Only initiates could participate in it. All knowledge was transmitted orally and was accompanied by a special ritual. Follow-up was strictly observed in the experiments. Some things were still recorded. But those alchemist manuscripts that have come down to us often look like gobbledygook and are difficult to decipher. Those that were deciphered are completely understandable chemical experiments. For example, a description of the production of lead oxide. And many more useful things were discovered by experimenters in their quest to obtain the philosopher's stone. They obtained both new substances (gunpowder, saltpeter, important salts and acids) and described their properties and processes. True, they did this in a very vague form. We can say that medieval alchemists, in search of the philosopher's stone, laid the foundation of chemistry, which provides means to heal diseases, influence productivity, and extend life, not yet indefinitely.

In the minds of alchemists, there was no significant difference between living and nonliving nature. Gold was no exception. It was the result of the growth and maturation of metal in the depths. At the same time, iron was considered an unripe metal, copper - the result of spoiled sulfur entering its composition, and so on. Unfortunately, the processes in nature went very slowly and alchemists thought that the philosopher’s stone would help speed up the processes of “ripening” and “healing” of metals.

There was another belief: by changing the content of the two main components of any metal - mercury and sulfur - it is possible to transform some metals into others. In their fantastic search, the alchemists achieved absolutely real results. The first apparatuses were invented for the distillation of liquids, the recrystallization of salts and the sublimation of solids.

In the Middle Ages, the search for the philosopher's stone came down to its ability to turn everything into gold. Poverty, apparently, was the most important scourge of that time. However, the presence of a huge amount of high-quality gold in some historical figures, for example, King Edward, Emperor Rudolf, is inexplicable by any historical facts. Perhaps, after all, someone managed to find methods other than mining?

Fiction or truth?

The answers will again have to be sought in history. King Edward ordered 60,000 pounds of gold from the Spaniard Raymond Lull for minting coins. Provided him with mercury, tin and lead. And what about Lull? He did get gold. Both its quantity and quality were impressive, since those nobles were used in major transactions and are still kept in museums. It seems incredible! However, perhaps there was a typo in the documents, and there were far fewer zeros?

Why is the stone “philosophical”?

So, what does philosophy have to do with it? And this is what it turned out to be. For any self-respecting alchemist, gold immediately turned from a goal into a means. The goal of their entire gold-mining fever was “merely” universal prosperity, the improvement of the entire Cosmos. The true goal of the alchemists was simple to the point of disgrace - they sought to improve, “heal” imperfect metals, and then the world order. It is not for nothing that alchemists were often called doctors.

By the way, the philosophical and medical side of alchemy is present in the legends of not only the West, but also the East. For example, Chinese alchemists knew the secret of the “golden pill of immortality.” And although it was in some way an analogue of the philosopher's stone, this panacea was smelted directly in the human body. And the goal of introducing a “foreign organism” was the complete spiritualization of man (theological aspect) and the acquisition of immortality (a philosophical question).

Literature different eras reflects the exciting search for the philosopher's stone. Thus, Faust’s father, in the words of the great Goethe, prepared a cure for the plague:

"The alchemy of those days is a forgotten pillar,

He locked himself in a closet with his faithful

And with them there he distilled from flasks

Compounds of all kinds of rubbish.[...]

People were treated with this amalgam,

Without checking whether he was cured,

Who turned to our balm."

“Hardly anyone survived,” recalls Faust with a bitter smile. Alchemists did a lot of chemistry with potions, and their experiments on people were not always successful. The story of the polymath writer Jorge Luis Borges deserves special attention. It tells about an instructive conversation between the alchemist Paracelsus and a certain young man who came to ask to become his student. Paracelsus said that if a young man flatters himself with the hope of creating gold, then they are not on their way. But the young man replied that it was not gold that attracted him, but Science. He wanted to walk the path to the Stone together with the teacher. And this is what Paracelsus answered him: “The Path is the Stone. The place where you are coming from is the Stone. If you don’t understand these words, then you don’t understand anything yet.”

It seems that many of us, having read these words, will be convinced that the philosopher’s stone will never be given to them. The search for the philosopher's stone awakens scientific thought; it was not in vain that the alchemists repeated: “Transform yourself from dead stones into living philosopher’s stones!”

But the stone is not easy to get. Mephistopheles himself left a warning:

“They don’t understand how small children

That happiness does not fly into your mouth.

I would give them the philosopher's stone -

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Fairy tales, myths, legends... In all this folklore, most often there is a deep meaning that our ancestors wanted to convey to us. Sometimes the spiritual meaning is difficult to see in a story from the past. The stories about the philosopher's stone are so implausible, contradictory and unscientific that it is difficult to see even a grain of truth in them. However, there is factual information about people, scientists and philosophers...