Editing Philosopher's stone (section)

==Properties==
The most commonly mentioned properties are the ability to transmute base metals into gold or silver, and the ability to [[Panacea (medicine)|heal all forms of illness]] and prolong the life of any person who consumes a small part of the philosopher's stone diluted in wine.<ref name="ReferenceA">Theophrastus Paracelsus. ''The Book of the Revelation of Hermes''. 16th century</ref> Other mentioned properties include: creation of perpetually burning lamps,<ref name="ReferenceA" /> transmutation of common crystals into precious stones and diamonds,<ref name="ReferenceA" /> reviving of dead plants,<ref name="ReferenceA" /> creation of flexible or malleable glass,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/hm1/hm103.htm|title=The Hermetic Museum|author=Arthur Edward Waite|year=1893|volume=1|pages=259–270|chapter=IX - A very brief tract concerning the philosophical stone|chapter-url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/hm1/hm112.htm#page_259|quote=Written by an unknown German sage, about 200 years ago, and called the Book of Alze, but now [1893] published for the first time.|access-date=25 February 2022|archive-date=16 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616052736/https://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/hm1/hm103.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and the creation of a clone or [[homunculus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paracelsus |first=Theophrastus |title=Of the Nature of Things}} 16th century</ref>

===Names===
Numerous synonyms were used to make oblique reference to the stone, such as "white stone" (''calculus albus'', identified with the ''calculus candidus'' of Revelation 2:17 which was taken as a symbol of the glory of heaven<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salomon |first=Glass |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/717819681 |title=Philologia sacra : qua totius Vet. et Novi Testamenti Scripturae tum stylus et litteratura, tum sensus et genuinae interpretationis ratio et doctrina libris V expenditur ac traditur |date=1743 |publisher=J. Fred. Gleditschius |oclc=717819681 |access-date=19 November 2021 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316063551/https://worldcat.org/title/717819681 |url-status=live }}</ref>), ''[[vitriol]]'' (as expressed in the [[backronym]] ''Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem''), also ''lapis noster'', ''lapis occultus'', ''in water at the box'', and numerous oblique, mystical or mythological references such as ''[[Adam]], Aer, Animal, Alkahest, Antidotus, [[Antimony|Antimonium]], Aqua benedicta, Aqua volans per aeram, [[wikt:arcanum|Arcanum]], Atramentum, Autumnus, Basilicus, Brutorum cor, Bufo, Capillus, Capistrum auri, Carbones, [[Cerberus]], [[Chaos (cosmogony)|Chaos]], Cinis cineris, [[Crocus]], Dominus philosophorum, Divine quintessence, Draco elixir, Filius ignis, Fimus, Folium, Frater, Granum, Granum frumenti, Haematites, Hepar, Herba, Herbalis, [[Kimia]], Lac, Melancholia, Ovum philosophorum, Panacea salutifera, [[Pandora]], [[Phoenix (mythology)|Phoenix]], Philosophic mercury, Pyrites, Radices arboris solares, Regina, Rex regum, Sal metallorum, Salvator terrenus, Talcum, Thesaurus, Ventus hermetis''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schneider |first=W. |title=Lexikon alchemistisch-pharmazeutischer Symbole |publisher=Weinheim |year=1962}}</ref> Many of the medieval allegories of Christ were adopted for the ''lapis'', and the Christ and the Stone were indeed taken as identical in a mystical sense. The name of "Stone" or ''lapis'' itself is informed by early Christian allegory, such as [[Priscillian]] (4th century), who stated,

{{blockquote|''Unicornis est Deus, nobis petra Christus, nobis lapis angularis Jesus, nobis hominum homo Christus'' (One-horned is God, Christ the rock to us, Jesus the cornerstone to us, Christ the man of men to us.)<ref>{{Cite book |title=Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum |location=t. XVIII |page=24}} as cited in {{Cite book |first=C. G. |last=Jung |title=Roots of Consciousness}}</ref>}}

In some texts, it is simply called "stone", or our stone, or in the case of [[Thomas Norton (alchemist)|Thomas Norton's]] Ordinal, "oure delycious stone".<ref>Line 744 in Thomas Norton's The Ordinal of Alchemy by John Rediry. The Early English Text Society no. 272.</ref> The stone was frequently praised and referred to in such terms.

It may be noted that the Latin expression {{transliteration|la|lapis philosophorum}}, as well as the Arabic {{transliteration|ar|ḥajar al-falāsifa}} from which the Latin derives, both employ the plural form of the word for ''philosopher''. Thus a literal translation would be ''philosophers' stone'' rather than ''philosopher's stone''.<ref>As used, for example, by {{harvnb|Principe|2013}} ({{transliteration|la|passim}}, see the pages referenced in the index, p. 278).</ref>

===Appearance===
[[File:Michael Maier Atalanta Fugiens Emblem 21.jpeg|thumb|Philosopher's stone as pictured in ''[[Atalanta Fugiens]]'' Emblem 21]]
[[File:The First Key of Basil Valentine. Wellcome M0012394.jpg|thumb|The first key of [[Basil Valentine]], emblem associated with the 'Great Work' of obtaining the Philosopher's stone (''Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine'')]]
Descriptions of the philosopher's stone are numerous and various.<ref>John Read "From Alchemy to Chemistry" p.29</ref> According to alchemical texts, the stone of the philosophers came in two varieties, prepared by an almost identical method: white (for the purpose of making silver), and red (for the purpose of making gold), the white stone being a less matured version of the red stone.<ref name="A German Sage 1423">A German Sage. ''A Tract of Great Price Concerning the Philosophical Stone''. 1423.</ref> Some ancient and medieval alchemical texts leave clues to the physical appearance of the stone of the philosophers, specifically the red stone. It is often said to be orange (saffron coloured) or red when ground to powder. Or in a solid form, an intermediate between red and purple, transparent and glass-like.<ref>John Frederick Helvetius. ''Golden Calf''. 17th Century.</ref> The weight is spoken of as being heavier than gold,<ref name="ReferenceB">Anonymous. ''On the Philosopher's Stone''. (unknown date, possibly 16th century)</ref> and it is soluble in any liquid, and incombustible in fire.<ref>Eirenaeus Philalethes. ''A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby''. 1694 CE</ref>

Alchemical authors sometimes suggest that the stone's descriptors are metaphorical.<ref>Charles John Samuel Thompson. Alchemy and Alchemists. p.70</ref> The appearance is expressed geometrically in ''[[Atalanta Fugiens]]'' Emblem XXI : 
{{blockquote|Make of a man and woman a circle; then a quadrangle; out of this a triangle; make again a circle, and you will have the Stone of the Wise. Thus is made the stone, which thou canst not discover, unless you, through diligence, learn to understand this geometrical teaching.}}
He further describes in greater detail the metaphysical nature of the meaning of the emblem as a divine union of feminine and masculine principles:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nummedal |first1=Tara |last2=Bilak |first2=Donna |date=2020 |title=''Furnace and Fugue'': A Digital Edition of Michael Maier's ''Atalanta fugiens'' (1618) with Scholarly Commentary. |url=https://furnaceandfugue.org/atalanta-fugiens/emblem21.html |location=Charlottesville |publisher=University of Virginia Press |page=Emblem XXI |isbn=978-0-8139-4558-3 |access-date=15 October 2022 |archive-date=15 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015031412/https://furnaceandfugue.org/atalanta-fugiens/emblem21.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{blockquote|In like manner the Philosophers would have the quadrangle reduced into a triangle, that is, into body, Spirit, and Soul, which three do appear in three previous colors before redness, for example, the body or earth in the blackness of Saturn, the Spirit in a lunar whiteness, as water, the Soul or air in a solar citrinity: then will the triangle be perfect, but this likewise must be changed into a circle, that is, into an invariable redness: By which operation the woman is converted into the man, and made one with him, and the senary the first number of the perfect completed by one, two, having returned again to a unit, in which is eternal rest and peace.}}

[[Jean de Roquetaillade|Rupescissa]] uses the imagery of the Christian passion, saying that it ascends "from the sepulcher of the Most Excellent King, shining and glorious, resuscitated from the dead and wearing a red diadem...".<ref>[[Leah DeVun]]. ''Prophecy, alchemy, and the end of time: John of Rupescissa in the late Middle Ages''. Columbia University Press, 2009. p.118</ref>