The myth of the philosopher’s stone, the elixir of life

The myth of the philosopher’s stone speaks of a physical, but magical, substance with extraordinary properties. The best known of them, the ability to turn any metal into gold or silver. This was achieved through a secret procedure called transmutation.

The fantastic properties of this substance did not end there. According to the myth of the philosopher’s stone, this was also the elixir of life. That is, a compound capable of curing diseases, granting eternal youth and immortality. It was also said that it was capable of resurrecting dead plants and animals.

Those who created and spread the myth of the philosopher’s stone were the famous alchemists. These were budding scientists who combined knowledge in physics and chemistry with religion, philosophy and astrology, among others.

The origin of the myth of the philosopher’s stone

Everything indicates that the origin of the myth of the philosopher’s stone has its roots in an idea of ​​the Greeks, called Anima world. Translates as ‘the soul of the earth’ and it is defined as the ultimate substance of which all living beings are composed. This substance made everything alive connected to each other.

The idea of ​​this essential substance was proposed by Plato, who also said that this raw material was associated with Chaos. Later, Aristotle postulates his theory of the four elements and their qualities. All of this was taken up to create the myth of the philosopher’s stone.

However, the myth of the philosopher’s stone took shape only until the Middle Ages. A Muslim alchemist, Zosimus of Panopolis, provides the first known reference to this element, in the 3rd century. He would then be followed by a long list of researchers who dedicated their entire lives to finding it.

The Opus Magnum

The alchemists started from the idea that The four elements (earth, air, fire and water) came from a common substance: the philosopher’s stone. In turn, as Aristotle had pointed out, each element had certain qualities. Thus, the land was cold and dry; the air, hot and humid; the fire, hot and dry; and the water, cold and wet.

It was believed that metals were the result of a combination between these elements and their characteristics. Therefore, If the basic qualities of these metals could be rearranged, gold or silver could be obtained.. They believed that this would be possible due to the action of a substance that they initially called al-Iksir, in Arabic. From there the word “elixir” came from.

Such elixir was a powder that came from the philosopher’s stone and the process was called transmutation. There was a great debate around these ideas, which lasted for centuries.

Albertus Magnus is said to have discovered the stone in the 13th century and passed on his secret to a successor, Saint Thomas Aquinas. Over time, the idea became popular that the secrets of the philosopher’s stone were contained in the Mutus liber either silent book, which only contains images. Whoever wanted to find her had to work for 20 years and that effort was called Opus Magnum.

Paracelsus and the encounter of “the philosopher’s stone”

Paracelsus was one of the characters most obsessed with the myth of the philosopher’s stone. He invested much of his life in finding it and some say that he was one of the authors of the silent book, which contains 15 illustrations. Instructions are also given to obtain the fabulous mineral.

Alchemists made their notes using secret codes. Thus, when they talked about an element, for example, mercury, laymen referred to it as “philosopher’s mercury.” This meant that they were not talking about that element itself, but rather about the secret code of the alchemists.

Many said they had found the substance and described it as a white powder, to convert metals into silver; or red, to turn them into gold. Be that as it may, the truth is that, much later, the American physicist and Nobel Prize winner Glenn Theodore Seaborg achieved it. He used nuclear physics to turn lead into gold.

On the other hand, a group of biologists discovered that if gold chloride is fed to the bacteria Metallidurans cupriadvidusit ended up defecating gold. This was not exactly what the alchemists had in mind, but it proves that the myth of the philosopher’s stone was not as illusory as it may have seemed.

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