The Sophic Hydrolith, or Waterstone of the Wise, is an influential alchemical text that compares the alchemical process with that of the Gospels of Christ. The document had a long publishing history, first printed in German by Johann Ambrose Siebmacher in 1619 in Frankfurt. It was reprinted in 1661, 1703, 1704, 1709, 1710, 1743, and 1760. Latin translations were included in the Musaeum Hermeticum (1625, 1678 and 1749), and it was included in Manget’s Bibliotheca chemica curiosa (1702), Hermetisches A.B.C. (1778) and the Magazine for higher natural science and chemistry (1784). As the printing history of this text might suggest, The Sophic Hydrolith has been an incredibly popular alchemical treatise and studied by many scholars including Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton.
To begin to understand the work, a very brief explanation into the beliefs of the author is needed. From the outset, we are told that the alchemical process is one that looks to speed up the natural process of perfection – a kind of proto-evolutionary theory. Alchemists studied the natural world and overtime, things would either devolve, or evolve depending on the catalyst effecting them. For example, a individual of poor intellect could become wise through the process of study and meditation.
Now, alchemists looked at this natural process occurring all around them and came to the theory that this natural evolution could be sped up through human intervention if the proper catalyst was at hand. It was proposed that with the correct catalyst, then illness could be healed, the imperfect made perfect, and mortality conquered by the evolution to immortality. This catalyst is the Philosopher’s Stone.
“For by the light of Nature, and Divine revelation, they intuitively perceived that the Almighty, in His love to men, must have concealed in the world some wonderful arcanum by which every imperfect, diseased, and defective thing in the whole world might be renewed, and restored to its former vigor.”
The process of obtaining, and more importantly, the process of applying, the Philosopher’s Stone is the topic of this text. The author breaks the topic into four parts in an attempt to describe the topic in way that covers the fundamental elements of the great work.
PART I
In the first part of the document, we are told that the first step of the process is to commit one’s self to God in an honest and selfless manner. This sentiment is mirrored in all the great alchemical works and is important to unpack. Many faith’s believe in a True Self, it goes by many names but is most concisely described as an individuals “meaning of life,” or, the divine reason for why an individual is on earth. It is often the case that this meaning is known to us deep in our hearts, but we find it unachievable for any number of reasons – many of which are our own insecurities preventing us from blossoming into the being we were born to be.
The author tells us that God can release us and allow us to attain this state of True Self, but only if our desire to be this is for the correct reason – that being to be of service to God and the betterment of humanity. We are warned:
“If you in any way abuse the gift of God, or use it for your own glorification, you will most certainly be called to account by the Almighty Giver, and you will think that it would have been better for you if you had never known it.”
But why does God play such an important role in this, can a human not manipulate nature of his own accord and thus achieve the same goal? In truth this is not the case, we are told that we must align our body, soul, and spirit so that they work in harmony. Then we are told to have patience, the author stating that:
“[The] artist can do nothing but sow, plant, and water: God must give the increase.”
PART II
The second part of The Sophic Hydrolith is dedicated to explaining the process of attaining the Philosopher’s Stone. Like other texts in The Hermetic Museum, the author tells us that the synthesis of the stone can be separated into two parts, first the preparation of the matter, and second, the transmutation of the matter into the Stone.
Both the Matter and the Stone are described as being one thing in three parts, described in the table below:
Soul Spirit Body
Sulphur Mercury Salt
Father Holy Spirit Son
Fire Water Earth
Cognitive behavioral therapists might include thoughts, feelings, and actions to this list and Jungian scholars might say unconscious, subconscious, and ego. In any case, the fact that the Matter and the Stone are of the same substance, or at least made up of the same parts, indicates that everything necessary for the synthesis of the stone is already present in the Matter.
In true alchemical tradition, the Matter itself is never named, but the author gives us many clues, including the following:
“In short, it is a Spiritual Essence which is neither celestial nor infernal, but an aerial, pure, and precious body, in the middle between the highest and lowest, the choicest and noblest thing under heaven.”
Here we are told it is a Spiritual Essence so we can definitively say we are not working on synthesizing a physical elixir or stone. We are told this essence lives neither in heaven (celestial), nor hell (infernal), but on the material manifested plane where it is the most “noble” thing. Given this and other clues set out in the text, one might begin to see that the alchemical process is an internal journey and the individual is the Matter.
In preparing the Matter, we are told that the Matter itself must be purified and the author warns us that one should not do this without first having studied the Spirit and having a proper grasp into what it is. If the Spirit is symbolic of the sub-conscious, then the warning is later mirrored by Friedrich Nietzsche who says:
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”[ Friedrich Nietzsche – Beyond Good and Evil (1886).]
Carl Jung says:
“The change of character brought about by the uprush of collective forces is amazing. A gentle and reasonable being can be transformed into a maniac or a savage beast. One is always inclined to lay the blame on external circumstances, but nothing could explode in us if it had not been there. As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach.”[ Carl Jung – Psychology and Religion (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East.]
The point here is that the unconscious is a powerful force that for the waking ego is completely unknown. In preparing the Matter and transmuting it into the Stone, it is true that an individual must work with the Spirit, but before diving in, one should first assess the situation and learn from those that have tread the path already.
Once the matter, or self, is purified successfully, the author then proceeds to explain how to transmute this substance into the Philosopher’s Stone. The process is summarized in the following statement:
“Dissolve your substance, and then let it be decomposed; then let it be distilled, and once more condensed.”
PART III
Part three of this work warns us that anyone who pursues the Stone must do so with a true heart and not for personal gain. The Stone’s transformational powers must be used for the betterment of humanity and for the glory of God. This section is brief but poignant in that it reasserts that as one treads the path of personal betterment, there comes a tipping point where the internal work becomes externalized, and those acts cannot be wasted on selfish gains, but rather to better the world and to help lift others up.
PART IV
The fourth part of the text opens with a quote from Psalm 78 and Matthew 8 telling us that the secrets will be revealed as a parable. Parables and symbols are particularly important for a number of reasons, firstly they are used as a security against this sacred knowledge falling into the wrong hands, metaphors also useful devices to protect the author from secular authorities that at the time of publication were actively suppressing these kinds of ideas, but more important than this is the fact that some ideas cannot be adequately conveyed in words and need to be supported by allegory for the meaning to be properly digested by the student. Our own subconscious does this each night in the form of dreams.
This last part of the text dives deep into Biblical allegory and links the Stone of the Philosophers to Jesus Christ. We are told that to know the true essence of the Stone, we are to know God, and the author says:
“If a man would come to know the highest good, he must rightly know, first God, and then himself.”
As God is all, and all is an emanation of the Divine Mind, and we are made in the image of God, we can begin to understand that the First Matter is Divine consciousness. Our own consciousness is then the Matter in which we are given to work with. However, there are stages of consciousness, and we are warned that only a purified consciousness which is joined openly with the Divine will know the truth of the Stone. The author says:
“For he who strives to obtain this knowledge without the Divine light, may easily mistake Saul for Paul, and choose a false road instead of the right path.”
If there is any doubt, the author clarifies it, quoting Luke 17:21 and saying:
“Behold the kingdom of God is within you.
From these words it most clearly appears that the knowledge of the light in man must come from within, and not from without.”
Once God and Divine Consciousness has been established as the First Matter, the process of attaining it on an individual level is divulged and we are described the process in the familiar terms of the alchemist.
“We cannot know that glorious triune Essence, called Jehovah, unless the image of Him is first dissolved and purified in our own souls, the veil of Moses (i.e. our own desperate sinfulness which prevents us from seeing God as He is) being taken away, and our inner heart and soul being purified, cleansed, and sublimed by the Divine illumination of Him that dwells within, namely, Christ, who washes our hearts like pure water, and fills them with His sweet and gentle comfort.”
The author takes the Passion of Christ and relays it in terms of alchemy, the despair and suffering of the flogging and crucification are an analogy for the suffering of earthly man, the surrendering of the soul is the stage of dissolution, the return of the soul of the Son to the Father being the fermentation and distillation, and Christ’s return the glorious coagulation. We are told that the spirit must be allied with God through baptism, before the author states:
“Therefore, we, too, as His [Jesus’] brothers and sisters, should follow His passion, and grow like Him in love, humility, and all other virtues, till we are conformed to His glorified body, and until, having lived and died with Him, we also reign with Him, and share His everlasting glory.”
But alas, it is not enough to simply be baptized. We are told that one must practice what is taught through the word of God and have constant faith. The inner flame that regulates the purification of the inner Stone is fueled by our rising to the challenges we meet each day, and over time, as our understanding of the divine grows, so to is our inner Stone purified.
The above is suggested to be a kind of first stage, a material, conscious working of the alchemical process. Next we are told that the work must be progressed through hearing the word of God. This implies listening to the divine within, the higher form of the unconscious intuition, and we are warned that the above steps must first be complete to ensure that the internal voice of God is pure and true.
The Sophic Hydrolith concludes with the advice that spiritual purification of man is done in stages over a lifetime. Each new challenge that besets the individual acts as the flame that fuels the alchemical process, and an alchemists would do well to remember this and turn the lead of every situation into gold.
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