The Inward Philosopher’s Stone
The Philosopher’s Stone – lapis philosophorum, is the alchemical term used to describe the union between the purified ego and our divine nature. It combines the word ‘Philosophy’ to reflect our spiritual reality, and the name ‘Stone’ to reflect our physical reality. It is the mysterious embodiment of the divine into a physical human form. This potential is in us all.
As babies and young children, we begin our journey completely in touch with our divine essence. During this phase of life, we effortlessly live in the moment, just being. We recognise the divinity in babies and young children when they are at ease, and we are inexplicably drawn to them. However, babies and young children have not yet developed the cognition or capacity to recognise their divinity. Although they are completely connected to their divine nature, they have no self-awareness of this, so the connection is unconscious. The purpose of our life journey as we evolve is to develop a mature ego and then expand our consciousness until we can attain conscious recognition of our divine nature. In the process of ego development during life’s growing pains, we lose touch with the nature of our true reality as divine beings. The purpose of the spiritual journey is to remember our ‘home’. This inner journey requires both the Philosopher (our spiritual wisdom) to guide the Stone (our ego) towards deeper truth, and the Stone (our ego) to develop enough consciousness to recognise our true source.
Together-as-one, they achieve the goal of alchemy which is the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. This is fully embodied spirituality. They are a living manifestation of their divine knowledge. They don’t intend to be of service to others; they are just themselves. Their natural expression is of service to humanity as there is no separation between themselves, humanity, and the divine.
This is an experience of being reborn. Life is no longer lived through our ‘ego-understanding’ where we are born to grow, suffer and die. We live through divine knowledge, where even though legitimate suffering is still experienced, we are the ultimate human embodiment of love. We are eternal and free.
The drawing (above) depicts how the first, Inward Philosopher’s Stone was symbolically expressed in my dream. This is a piece of chakra-inspired jewellery that I designed myself, only a few years previous. In the dream, all the chakra colours were filled with coloured resin, and the jewellery was complete. The completion of the jewellery symbolically expressed the completion of the Inward Stone.
The chakras are significant in this dream – as the Inward Philosopher’s Stone equates in the chakra model to the integration of all seven chakras. The Inward Philosophers’ Stone was depicted in this dream in a way that was unique and significant to me.
