Hunting the Philosopher’s Stone

“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” ~Rumi

The philosopher’s stone is a symbol of alchemical transmutation. For the purposes of this article, we will be using it as a metaphor for spiritual transformation. The goal is to take the uninitiated ego out of its shell and drag it kicking and screaming through transformation.

The spiritual process of transformation is an ascending fourfold ladder beginning with the cornerstone, and continuing upward into the lodestone, the steppingstone, and the whetstone.

The Alchemical process of transformation has four stages: Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. These stages are also the framework of Jung’s characterization of the four stages of character transformation: Confession, Illumination, Education, and Transformation. Let’s break it down…

The Cornerstone (Nigredo/Confession):

“Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all bugs in amber.” ~Kurt Vonnegut

In the beginning our comfort zone is tiny and our ego is big. In order to initiate the ego, we must become curious enough to take a leap of courage out of the light of comfort, stability, and reason and into the darkness of discomfort, instability, and imagination. This is no easy task.

As George Orwell said, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel; and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.”

Thus, we are faced with a paradox. We cannot become conscious if we don’t rebel, and we cannot rebel until we’ve become conscious.

This is mostly because we are creatures of comfort, and we are social creatures kept inline by outflanking cultural conditions. We suffer from what Nietzsche called, “the herd instinct.” We tend to be more like lemmings than rebels, more like sheep than lions.

But there is a way to get ahead of the curve even while our lemming instincts keep us in line. There is a way to be lionhearted despite our sheepishness. Confession. We confess our weakness, our cowardice, our uncertainty. Then, unfettered by guilt, we trick ourselves into being courageous. We dare ourselves to ask unsettling questions. We must, like Alice and Neo, free ourselves to “fall” down the rabbit hole.

We must first get out of our own way to see the way begins in the abyss. In the darkest darkness. In the deepest depths. Alchemically, it’s called the nigredo, also called “the blackening.” It’s a psychosymbolic death. This is a stage of revelation. It’s where we burn away our psychological dross and begin the painful process of integrating the shadow.

The Lodestone (Albedo/Illumination):

“When you see your matter going black, rejoice, for this is the beginning of the work.” ~Rosarium Philosophorum

The process of illumination begins alchemically with the concept of the albedo, also called “the whitening.” This is the stage of awakening and insight. When we tap the lodestone, the shadow emerges: primal, umbilical, and hungry. It longs for the light, and in its fierceness, it blasts its blacklight outward, drowning the world in darkness. It is our job to assimilate this darkness.

The shadow is like a speck of dirt in an oyster. The only way the speck becomes a pearl is through assimilation into the oyster’s environment. Similarly, the only way the shadow becomes an ally is through assimilation into the environment of the self. Tapping the lodestone is the assimilation of the shadow into the environment of the self, a mighty integration.

Ironically, the meeting of the shadow is an illumination. Our conscious state is illuminated by our unconscious state. Our repressed demons, finally brought into the light, are free to merge with the whole.

Our Anima (inner feminine) and Animus (inner masculine) are activated. Our inner beast emerges. We are finally free to howl. We’re free to use its teeth to bite through the throat of our forefather’s flimsy platitudes. We’re free to use its claws to ground us in the terrible symmetry of change. We’re free to use its keen ears to hear “a language older than words.”

Tapping the lodestone is thunderous, empowering, cataclysmic. It rocks all boats. It tests all waters. It flips all scripts. It turns all tables. It pushes all envelopes. It forces us to think outside of all cliche boxes. It topples all ivory towers, and it transforms the rubble into a whetstone that we can use to sharpen ourselves into an instrument worthy of mastery.

The Whetstone (Citrinitas/Education):

“As fire is the test of gold, adversity is the test of men.” ~Seneca

The process of education begins alchemically with the concept of the citrinitas, also called “the yellowing.” This is the sharpening stage. It’s where our integrated shadow and Anima/Animus wake up to the solar dawn of the emerging soul. It’s where the inner student meets the inner master, where Courage meets Wisdom, where the beast shakes hands with the sage.

The integration of the whole is a terrible knot of beautiful adversity. Our shadow wrestles with our laurels, and both are made stronger. Our inner master is humbled by our inner student. Our inner student is empowered by our inner master. The beast teaches the sage how to be fierce; the sage teaches the beast elegance. The Anima teaches the masculine how to be flexible; the Animus teaches the feminine how to use power.

During this wholeness integration, our fledgling ego gets dragged over the hot coals of the soul. Triviality, pettiness, and sentimentality are burned away. The authentic self emerges as a mighty blade ripe for further stropping and ready to cut through anything inauthentic.

The Steppingstone (Rubedo/Transformation):

“Ask yourself which is better: the painful convulsions of a doubtful awakening, or the grey, yawning torpidity of certain sleep.” ~Lev Shestov

“The reddening,” also called rubedo, is the penultimate stage of transformation. This is the building stage. It’s where the unity of opposites—shadow and light, Anima and Animus, beast and sage—becomes transcendent, provident, and mercurial. It’s where our authentic self (refined ego animated by soul) begins the climb to the summit.

But we don’t climb alone. Our authentic self is a multitude, a terribly beautiful legion. We carry the abyss on our backs. We carry humus in our pockets and humando in our hearts. Our primordial roots dangle behind us, umbilical and strong and marking the trail.

The higher we climb, the stronger our healthy nonattachment becomes. A heightened awareness of the interconnectedness of all things manifests. For we climb to where the Phoenix lives. Forever burning, forever rising, and forever guiding us into transcendence.

The reddening is a bleeding into resurrection. It’s the life-death-rebirth process lived through in real time, in each moment, with each new breath. It’s both a rising out of falling and a falling into rising, both a chaos creating order and an order creating chaos. And from this disordered order reordered, the Philosopher Stone reveals itself.

The Philosopher’s Stone (Infinite Rebirth):

“If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” ~PC Hodgell

As we reach the summit the smoke clears, and the dust and ash settle. At the highest of heights, we breathe in the thin, clean air of Overcoming. We draw the sharpened blade of our authentic self to bear witness.

The Philosopher’s Stone lays in the nest of the Phoenix, golden and glimmering, molten and mercurial. It is panacea, holy nectar, magic elixir. It is all at once the sun and the moon. All at once primordial egg and black star. All at once the blackening, whitening, yellowing, and reddening representation of our previous spiritual annihilation in the cocoon.

We are as much inside of it as it is outside of us. It is the beating heart of our hard-earned rebirth. It is the silver lead of our death transmuted into the gold of rebirth. With it, we rise out of the ashes of our previous iterations of Self with an indomitable spirit. Our soul, robust and lean from our ordeal, is an antifragile force of nature as we bleed back into the blackening with the ability to self-overcome in tow. We outflank Infinity.

We are Overman. We are Magnum Opus. We are the Golden Ratio. We are Christ Consciousness. And not even death can stop those who are free.

Image source:

The Fourth Dimension by Leonardo Senas

About the Author:

Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.

This article (Hunting the Philosopher's Stone) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.