The Philosopher's Stone

The Philosopher’s Stone (as Symbolized by the Peruvian Shaman’s Mesa Bundle)

In alchemy, the Philosopher’s Stone symbolizes the alchemical procedure of transforming lead into gold. In Jungian Psychology, this refers to the process of individuation; a movement toward wholeness and a unification of opposites. The Philosopher’s stone may be thought of representing the archetype of the Self.
In Spanish “mesa” means table, which according to one Shaman “is the place decisions are made around.” In Peruvian Shamanism, a Mesa is a group of individual stones that one is “drawn to,” has collected, and assembled over time. An “open” Mesa is a group of stones arranged in a circle in a way that “feels” right in the way they “hold space” together, connecting the personal and transpersonal. When the stones are first found, preferably in nature, they are the prima materia, arcane substance, or undifferentiated material.
Similar to the prima materia, if Mesa stones are “cooked” they can become a medicine bundle or Philosopher’s stone; a method for psychological development and healing. The stones must be worked with, exposed, merged with, and taken out and into life. Like a mandala, the Mesa is a temenos and means for engaging with the unconscious, that over time becomes an embodiment of personal power, or consciousness. The stones become symbols fused with psychic libido through the process of coagulatio, and are a concretization of archetypal images. In a sense, they are a form of working with active imagination. Like the Philosopher’s stone, the goal of working with a Mesa is transformation. This occurs through a process purification and raising conscious awareness in what the Shaman refers to as shifting from “the personal” to the “mythic or archetypal” level.
Opening a Mesa always begins with the ritual of calling sacred space, from the four directions of sky, earth, east and west in the path the sun (conscious awareness) follows. In alchemy, this represents the quaternity, a symbol of wholeness. The four also represents the four elements of air earth, water, and fire which are worked with in the various alchemical procedures.
Through a process of coagulatio, the stones are woven into the subtle body through breath and intention. Like a transitional object each stone becomes imbued with intense, personal meaning. In beginning mesa work, the initial stones become symbols for the shadow material of the personal unconscious. The Shaman apprentice begins to understand their own path or purpose, by connecting with their personal lineage and past. Each stone is given a pattern, signified by memories of past relationship wounds to hold. By imaginally placing negative patterns into the stone, the process of separatio occurs, allowing one to separate and begin to differentiate from identifying with one’s complexes. The process of clearing for one’s self, ancestors, and children begins.
The operations applied to transforming prima materia into the Philosopher’s stone are used in developing a Mesa. Initially, one is working with a “wounded Mesa” and enters a nigredo phrase, with a descent into the dense material of personal history which is held by the stone, as a transitional object. A process of putreficatio begins as inner heat brings about decay and greater awareness of compulsions, defenses, and complexes rises to the surface of consciousness. One engages in the process of morticatio, dying to an old way of being. The question, “What will you die to?” is asked, meaning, what complexes are you ready to face? The process of calcinatio occurs symbolically through fire ceremony. The phrase “taking it to the fire” refers to the purification of releasing old patterns and beliefs into the fire. The sulphuric intensity of heated feelings begins to decrease as energy is shifted from unconscious complexes into ego awareness.
In alchemy the stone is referred to as the “food of angels,” suggestive of the process of coagulatio. In Peru, if asked, “Can you grow corn with it?” it is being suggested to only hold on to psychic material that will further growth toward individuation. This is also suggestive of the fertility principle.
Through sublimation, the painful process of objectifying the psyche and letting go of being identified with one’s story or persona begins to occur. The initial operation involves a solutio as past lineage and personal history is dissolved and fluidity increased, as one begins to somatically experience through the belly, merging with the energy of Amaru, the great snake of Pacha Mama, or Mother Earth.
Over time the size of a mesa increases as one’s capacity to hold power increases. The individual Mesa stones change. Synchronistically, some stones may disappear when the apprentice no longer holds an affinity for the woundedness or complex it symbolizes. Stones that may have symbolized a negative mother or father complex are replaced by new stones that hold the image of the Great Mother and the mountains of the land. Relationships or “membership” to the great mountains begin to form and coagulate as the qualities of the mountain spirits are “downloaded” into the mesa and symbolically emerge in the stones. There is movement from the personal to the mythic collective as energy “sourcing” shifts from the past trauma and complexes to the collective of the great Apus or mountain spirit archetypes. When a Shaman’s is no longer claimed by personal history they open direct communication and dialogue with the holy mountains. The Shaman’s mesa is connected with a psychoidal reality that exists outside of time and space and has the capacity for prophecy through its “membership” to the various mountains. The more availability and consciousness awareness a Shaman has, the greater their power, and capacity to experience the “numinous.” In Ego and Archetype, Edinger (1972) states, “the (Philosopher’s) stone gives a power of conversing with angels by dreams and revelations. To be in contact with the Self brings awareness of transpersonal meanings here symbolized as converse with angels (p.287).”
This process must occur through connecting through the heart and cannot be achieved by staying in one’s head. In alchemy, as the work with the Philosopher’s stone progresses, love is thought to increase. This love is not a personal love but rather a capacity for relatedness toward, what the Shaman refers to as, “the collective” and what is referred to in alchemical or Jungian terms as the process of solutio or experiencing the numiousity of the archetype of the Self.