Philosopher's Stone

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Philosopher's Stone (disambiguation) .

The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone (1771), Joseph Wright of Derby

The Philosopher's Stone ( Latin Lapis philosophorum ) describes in alchemy the idea of ​​a "stone", lapis , developed between the 1st and 3rd centuries, which is supposed to consist of a substance that converts base metals into noble metals and especially gold and can transform silver . The philosopher's stone also represents the principle of transmutation , healing and purification . Intended for use against various deficiencies and disharmonies, the stone, which is also said to have a rejuvenating effect, is considered a panacea of the highest level of purity and a symbol for the Transformation of the lower into the higher self .

Legend

As the "founder" of alchemy, the divine figure of Hermes Trismegistos is said to have engraved the production formula of the Philosopher's Stone on an emerald tablet over 2500 years ago : According to this, the basic elements of the four-element theory , fire, water, earth and air, are combined with Mercury and sulfur and added salt are the ingredients necessary to obtain the philosopher's stone . The legend of the Philosopher's Stone was widespread (in a universal philosophical sense) from the Middle Ages.

An early enigmatic paraphrase is found in the 3rd / 4th centuries. Century the Philosopher's Stone at Zosimos from Panopolis : "This stone that is not a stone, this precious thing that is without value, this multiform thing that has no form, this unknown thing that everyone knows".

The outer and inner philosopher's stone

The world view of alchemy is based on the so-called animistic principle , according to which there is only one all-pervading divine soul substance that can take on an infinitely varied material form. All things in the world are accordingly viewed as animated and made up of spirit, soul and body. Alchemists believed it was possible to refine and enrich substances by dissolving and changing matter. For the representatives of external alchemy , gold, the most precious of the metals, was the main target of material transmutation . In contrast, the goal of the representatives of inner alchemy was the transmutation of the spirit. Analogous to the outer and inner alchemy , there was an outer and inner philosopher's stone . The overwhelming number of alchemists devoted themselves to the outer philosopher's stone in the hope of wealth and immortality , without knowing that there was another goal of the exercises, the transformation of the experimenting person himself. With the alchemists striving for inner purification, the laboring ones were Goldmakers, who mockingly called them "puffers" because of their hissing bellows, disparaged and despised them.

Laboratory and oratory

In alchemy, the production of the philosopher's stone (Lapis philosophorum) is a step in the “alchemical work”, the value-increasing changes in a source material ( materia prima ), with the stages of calcination, solution, putrefaction, reduction, sublimation, coagulation, fermentation, lapis philosophorum (the materia prima purified to the highest matter ), multiplication and projection.

There were hundreds of alchemical laboratories, some of whose equipment has been preserved and in which numerous real chemical processes can evidently be detected when studying the sources, provided that the alchemical terms are transferred accordingly: Spiritus vitrioli stood for dilute sulfuric acid , Spiritus salis for hydrochloric acid and Saccharum saturni for Lead acetate . In the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era, the vocabulary used by alchemists, which was apparently used for a chemically characterized process, was sometimes ambivalent and seemingly absurd because it was used to describe both spiritual and real purification processes. Laboratory and oratory literally existed side by side; "Spirit" means spirit (Latin spiritus) and spirit (ethanol) at the same time .

Tricks and fakes

When the real foundation had already been withdrawn from the metallurgical faction of the alchemists during the renaissance , the lack of money for many princes led to a renewed boom in gold making. Elector Christian II of Saxony even had the alchemist Seton tortured to discover the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. In order to produce presentable gold-like products (Truggold, also: aurum sophisticum ) in the crucibles, vitriol solutions were boiled with mercury in iron vessels until it turned a golden-yellow color after remelting. Sebastian Brant described the tricks of the real swindlers in his work The Ship of Fools in 1494 . From the middle of the 18th century, alchemy fell into disrepute. In 1908, Lehmann pointed out in his work Superstition and Magic from the Ancient Times to the Present that the golden commemorative coins produced by the alchemists only weigh about 2/3 of the specific gold weight. In the coin cabinet of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, many coins from such allegedly successful tingings are on display today . In 1930 the impostor Franz Tausend carried out his gold-making activity and thus duped many influential contemporaries until the Truggold alchemist trial came about.

Alleged properties

The majority of the alchemical adepts were inspired by the hope of being able to discover the elixir of immortality and may have had the goal of being able to produce gold and silver from base metal. The transformation of base metals should be possible by adding a small amount of this substance , also known as quinta essentia . If the stone possessed the power to transform all base metals in any proportion into gold, it should be called the universal ; if its power was limited to the transformation of a certain metal, it should be called particular .

From the philosopher's stone, which can overcome the corruption (Latin corruptio ) of both base metals and sick living beings, it should also be possible - especially in the ideas of Arabic scripts - to obtain a universal medicine, the condensation of life force in a small one Amount of matter which should have a healing, invigorating and rejuvenating effect on the human body. Whoever found this remedy should be called an adept .

There were various names for the philosopher's stone: red lion , great elixir , magisterium , red tincture , panacea of life , astral stone. A less perfect remedy for turning base metals into silver should be called the White Lion , White Tincture , the Little Elixir, or Magisterium .

As Aurum Potabile ( "Potable Gold") were referred to - in addition to other gold-bearing or high-priced, used mostly in medicine potions - the connection of the Philosopher's Stone with red wine. This should be effective as a remedy against every disease and the only one against aging. The connection of the stone with distilled water, on the other hand, was called universal medicine, which, apart from the rejuvenating, could bring about all the effects of the Aurum Potabiles.

Hufeland wrote critically in 1796: "On the first idea <for the extension of life>, the increase in the quantity of life force, all the makers and takers of gold tinctures, astral salts, Lapis Philosophorum and elixirs of life are building excellently."

Discovery of porcelain and chemiluminescence

An alchemical society, a Hermetic Society, existed in Germany until 1819 . In search of the Philosopher's Stone , the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger and the natural scientist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus invented the European equivalent of Chinese porcelain in December 1707 . Phosphorus was discovered by Hennig Brand , a German pharmacist and alchemist , in 1669 when this urine evaporated, heated on sand and the residue glowed due to chemiluminescence .

The Philosopher's Stone as a literary motif

Under the title The Philosopher's Stone , A. Hartleben's Verlag published an illustrated popular science magazine from 1889 on entertainment and instruction in all areas of knowledge for the home and family, edited by Amand Freiherr v. Schweiger-Lerchenfeld .

The Philosopher's Stone is also the title of a fairy tale from the Dschinnistan Collection by Christoph Martin Wieland , in which the efforts of alchemists to gain wealth are satirized. Mephisto says similarly mockingly in Goethe's Faust II (v. 5063 f.): "If they had the philosopher's stone / The wise man lacked the stone."

The first book in the Harry Potter series is titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . The Philosopher's Stone is kept in it at the special instruction of the Headmaster Prof. Dumbledore at the Hogwarts School of Magic. Lord Voldemort tries to get hold of it for his purposes.

In the first story of the comic series The Smurfs , the magician Gargamel tries to make the Philosopher's Stone using the ingredient "Smurf". In the manga and anime series Fullmetal Alchemist , the two protagonists Ed (ward) and Al (phonse) Elric try to find the philosopher's stone because they hope to use it to circumvent the alchemical law of the “principle of equivalent exchange” to be able to. A philosopher's stone is also mentioned in the book series The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel by the Irish author Michael Scott .

The Philosopher's Stone plays a central role in Andreas Eschbach's 2016 novel Teufelsgold . He should show the way to a perfect world.

In Kerstin Gier's gemstone trilogy , when it does not play a central role, there is often talk of a philosopher's stone in relation to alchemy.

In the fourth part of the Percy Jackson book series Percy Jackson - The Battle for the Labyrinth , the Philosopher's Stone is mentioned more often.

State of the art in elemental transformations

→ Main article : Transmutation

Over time, with increasing knowledge of chemical reactions and the nature of chemical elements, it became increasingly clear that the conversion of metals into gold, or, more generally, the conversion of one element into another in the ways sought by alchemists - and that is all of them are chemical processes that take place in the electron shell of the atoms involved - is impossible because the energies involved are many times too small. Such conversions only work in nuclear physics processes that work with energies that are millions of times higher , in which atomic nuclei can convert into one another (the identity of a chemical element is based in the atomic nucleus , more precisely, in the number of protons in the atomic nucleus). A newspaper report dated April 20, 1896 reported that a New York student had discovered the Philosopher's Stone by converting a worthless piece of metal into gold using X-rays (which became known in January 1896). The nuclear fusion and splitting processes (nuclear fusion or nuclear fission) initiated by human hands since the middle of the 20th century confirm the feasibility of the long-cherished dream of the alchemists. In a nuclear reactor, by irradiation of platinum (78 protons in the nucleus) or mercury (79 protons in the nucleus) are prepared (80 protons in the nucleus) gold. Gold is also a by-product in various nuclear applications in tiny, atomic quantities. However, the energy required for industrial production is orders of magnitude more expensive than the precious metal itself, which is mined. Instead of a fundamental barrier for gold synthesis, economic limits have been introduced.

See also

• Azoth
• Alkahest

literature

• Hans Biedermann: Materia great . The secret images of alchemy. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-86539-101-X .
• Allison Coudert: The Philosopher's Stone. The secret art of the alchemists. (Original edition: Alchemy: the Philosopher's Stone. 1980) Licensed edition. Pawlak, Herrsching 1992, ISBN 3-88199-911-6 .
• Kurt Karl Doberer : The gold makers. Ten thousand years of alchemy. 2nd Edition. Universitas-Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8004-1124-5 .
• Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Alchemy in the Middle Ages. Ideas and images - from Zosimos to Paracelsus. Artemis and Winkler, Zurich et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7608-1123-X .
• Lawrence M. Principe: Lapis philosophorum. In: Claus Priesner , Karin Figala (Ed.): Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44106-8 .
• Hans-Werner Schütt : In Search of the Philosopher's Stone: The History of Alchemy. CH Beck, 2000, ISBN 3-406-46638-9 .
• Literary treatment of the topic by the thriller author Andreas Eschbach : Teufelsgold . Cologne: Lübbe, 2016, ISBN 978-3785725689 . Reading sample here .
• Johann Carl Wilhelm Moehsen (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the sciences in the Mark Brandenburg from the earliest times to the end of the sixteenth century. Life of Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn, churfürstl. Brandenburg personal physician. A contribution to the history of alchemy, as well as the sciences and arts in the Mark Brandenburg towards the end of the sixteenth century. Pp. 17-214. 1783.

Web links

Commons : Philosopher's Stone  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Philosopher's Stone  - Quotes

Wiktionary: Philosopher's Stone  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans E. Ulrich: From Master Eckhardt to Carlos Castaneda. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1987, p. 81 .; Allison Coudert: The Philosopher's Stone. Munich 1980, p. 30.
2. ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Alchemy in the Middle Ages. 1996, p. 84 f.
3. ↑ Hans E. Ulrich: From Master Eckhardt to Carlos Castaneda. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1987, p. 81; Allison Coudert: The Philosopher's Stone. Munich 1980, p. 81f.
4. ^ Hans Biedermann: Materia great. The secret images of alchemy. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 23.
5. ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: Alchemy in the Middle Ages. 1996, pp. 15-18.
6. ^ Hans Biedermann: Materia great . The secret images of alchemy. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 13.
7. ^ Hans Biedermann: Materia great. The secret images of alchemy. Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 21-25.
8. ↑ Hans E. Ulrich: From Master Eckhardt to Carlos Castaneda . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1987, p. 81.
9. ↑ Ernst Darmstaedter : Medicine and Alchemy. Paracelsus Studies. Leipzig 1931 (= Studies on the History of Medicine , 20), p. 65
10. ↑ Guido Jüttner: Aurum potabile. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages. Munich and Zurich 1980 ff., Volume I, 1246
11. ^ Friedrich Dobler: Conrad Gessner as a pharmacist. Mathematical and scientific dissertation, Zurich 1955, pp. 50 and 61
12. ↑ Ernst Darmstaedter: On the history of the "Aurum Potabile". In: Chemiker-Zeitung 48, 1924, pp. 653-655 and 678-680
13. ↑ Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland: Macrobiotics or the art of extending human life. Jena 1796; cited here: 6th edition Berlin 1842, p. 185
14. ^ Heinz Otremba: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. A life in the service of science. A documentation with a scientific appreciation by Walther Gerlach . Franconian company printing house, Würzburg 1970, p. 16.