Daily Meditation: Sunday, November 28, 2010

Philosopher’s stone - fruit of a mystic union

11/28/2010

Whenever chemists combine metals and minerals to create alloys, they are able to reverse the process later, using certain procedures to undo what was previously combined. But alchemists claim they know of a mineral and a metal which combine to mutually absorb each other, producing the basis for the substance from which the philosopher's stone is extracted, and that this matter can no longer be broken down, as the combination is irreversible. This theory can only be understood when transposed to another context. A child comes into the world as the result of the encounter between its father and mother. But, now, how do you break this child down, so to speak, to get back to its father on the one hand and its mother on the other? It is impossible. The child is a new entity, the product of a combination, which cannot be undone so as to get back to its two parents. Thus, the philosopher's stone is the child born of a mystic union.