Basil Valentine & the Philosopher's Stone

In the hands of the Moors who held Granada, there was at that time a sacred treasure, with the possession of which a kind of hidden knowledge was associated. It was a sacred relic connected with a form of Alchemy. Destiny brought it about that this object and the knowledge associated with it fell into the hands of Francisco Almeida. Almeida felt that he had the right to dispose of it after his own insight, but the Order of St. Iago did not agree with him, and desired to keep for itself the right of disposal, both of the relic itself, and of the hidden knowledge which went with it. 

Almeida however insisted on his right and eventually passed on the relic and the knowledge to a certain man from Alsace, whose name was Stefan Rautter. This individuality is known to history under the pseudonym Basil Valentine. His writings, preserved by his pupils and circulated in manuscript form, were at a later time collected and published by Johann Thölde, secretary of the Rosicrucian Order. Thölde's edition contains a few biographical remarks by Basil Valentine himself, but the real name of the latter is not given; it is only inserted in handwriting in one of the extant copies of the edition. Basil Valentine here mentions, among other things, that he undertook in peril of his life a journey to St. Iago di Compostella, and he remarks that those who may now benefit from the knowledge which he brought from thence should thank God that he was enabled to complete the arduous journey.

Basil Valentine's work contains the great secret of Alchemy, which consists in the study of certain transmutations of carbon, referred to mysteriously as the prima materia. The secret is not revealed; it is only hinted at in a half-jocular form, where it is said that the disciple of Alchemy must not take it amiss if he be called upon to dirty his hands with coal.

Basil Valentine also mentions that he came to England. Thomas Malory, who here became his pupil, repeats the same jest in the story of the knight, Beaumains. Indeed, the entire seventh book of Malory's Morte d'Arthur proves him a pupil of Basil Valentine; only what Basil refers to as the stone that goes through many colors is for Malory the knight of many-colored amour.

It was Almeida, therefore, who withheld the knowledge from the Order of St. Iago and was responsible for giving it to Basil Valentine. The hidden knowledge, and the preparation in question, was preserved from thenceforth in the Rosicrucian schools of Alchemy. This knowledge is indeed very ancient, and in the last resort goes back to the time of Alexander the Great, who learned the secret of substance and of its medical use from his tutor, Aristotle.

The coal, the transmutation of which is the subject of Alchemy, is indeed none other than the carbon that is contained in every living substance. In the living body of man this carbon does indeed take on all colors, inasmuch as all the organs are made up of its compounds.

Carbon builds up the human body, which is not only alive, but also permeated in its living substance by soul and spirit. What Basil Valentine calls the Philosophers Stone is none other than the human being looked at from the threefold aspect of Body, Soul, and Spirit.

Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens

Therefore the Philosophers Stone is represented as consisting of three substances, though one in essence. In the Mystery Schools of Antiquity it was always known that the human being must experience a transmutation in body, soul, and spirit if the ordinary consciousness is to be changed into a higher, clairvoyant consciousness. To describe this transmutation in the language of carbon chemistry was the essential content of Basil Valentine's Alchemy.

Thus Almeida brought the Royal Art from Granada to Compostella and from thence, by the hand of Basil Valentine, to Alsace and to Thomas Malory in England.

-Walter Stein

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