Lucid Dream Alchemy: Making the Philosopher's Stone

© Ed Kellogg and Mary Ziemer

Emblem #45 from Atalanta fugiens, by Michael Maier (1617)

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 “He who denies true dreams, lives in a dream” Heinrich Khunrath

Introduction
In Jungian psychology individuation refers to a type of psychic growth through which the
fragmented self becomes whole through a process of integration. Alchemically, the Marriage of
the King and the Queen describes a similar process in the creation of the hermaphrodite or Rebis.
The second verse of the Emerald Tablet (1), a seminal alchemical text, states: “What is above is
like what is below, and what is below is like that which is above. To make the miracle of the one
thing.” The Rebis, often referred to in alchemy as “the one thing,” may signify the final stage
before the “unveiling” of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Reputedly, the Philosopher’s Stone can change lead into gold, and disease into health, but the
Stone may do more than this, depending on the level of alchemy accessed – Physical, Emotional,
or Spiritual. Medieval practitioners viewed alchemy as a Subtle Science that taught how to
transform matter by applying a “medicinam propium” – a proper medicine. This medicine,
known as the Elixir, composed of corpus, anima, and spiritus – body, soul, and spirit – healed
wounds, both outer and inner.

In the 15th century, the alchemist Basel Valentine enigmatically noted that “The stone is derived
from two things and one thing in which is concealed a third thing.” (2)

In this workshop, we'll use alchemical emblems to explore this formula as it relates to lucid
dreaming as follows:

The “two things”: the waking-self and the Other – the dreaming-self – seemingly separate
aspects of a Greater Self that can come together in lucidity; and the “one thing” – the integrated
lucid self – depicted as the Rebis, which through an alchemical process can bring forth or reveal
the “third thing”: potentially, the spiritualized matter of “the Stone” brought into
manifestation.

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To understand this formulation, it helps to familiarize ourselves with the attributes of an
Alchemist’s Study, as depicted by Heinrich Khunrath in the fourth plate in his Amphitheatre of
Eternal Wisdom (1609). (3, 4)

Awake in Sleep: The Alchemist's Study

We invite you to reflect on how this emblem symbolically presents qualities present in a healing
lucid dream experience. To begin, over the arching doorway in the middle leading into the

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alchemist’s bedroom, you'll see the Latin injunction Dormiens Vigila, meaning “Awake in Sleep”
or “Vigilant in Sleep.”

We ask you to take these words literally, as we believe Khunrath did, as a directive to place lucid
dreaming at the center of alchemical work. To us, the emblem visually presents Khunrath's
alchemical prescription for what we would term both lucid and super lucid waking and dreaming
(5, 6) – altered states of consciousness that he himself explored (3), in which one surrenders to a
Higher Wisdom, a Deeper Love, and to the Greatest Alchemist. Medieval alchemical traditions,
Khunrath’s prescription, and our own experiences can serve as lenses through which we can
enhance our understanding of the alchemical emblems we'll work with in this workshop and on
the thread.

Notice that the alchemist’s study divides symmetrically into two complementary halves. On the
right side of the room we find the alchemist’s laboratory, focused on the material world and built
on the principles of Reason and Experience, words carved on the pillars. On the left stands a
curtained oratory, where we see the alchemist on his knees in an attitude of surrender and praise
to the Divine. Underneath the altar the plaque reads “Learn how to die,” echoing Plato’s
argument that true philosophers make dying their profession, and suggesting a willingness to

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undergo an alchemical ego-death. Note that the word “laboratory” contains the word “oratory”
within it.
A table in the middle of the room creates a symmetry axis between the two. Musical instruments
and sheets of music on the table indicate that the principles of proportion and harmony facilitate
the Great Work. The plaque at the front of the table reads: “Sacred music disperses evil spirits
and dispels melancholy,” (3, 4) underscoring the importance of the role that music or chants of a
sacred nature can play in the mystical experience.

When the dual aspects of laboratory and oratory, working with matter and working with the
divine, come into balance in a harmonised psyche, spiritual lucidity can manifest. Through lucid
dreams the alchemist’s bedroom may become a portal to an inner heart space, opening to new
dimensions within the Greater Self or Being.

Khunrath observed: “Through ‘hypnotic Visions or dream-Revelations’ the soul can undertake
to understand and explain the secrets of the whole created Universe . . . , to be united with good
Spirits; to recount things past, contemplate Present Events, [and] presage those to come.” (3)

The Alchemical Marriage

“Let the eye of your heart be opened that you may see the spirit and behold invisible things”
Ahmad Hatif (1198)

Khunrath describes the Stone as: “The Divine, Holy and miraculous Philosopher's Stone, the
matter, the magnificent object and subject of all wonderfulness in the heavens and on the Earth
and also the greatest and miraculous Theatre of Secrets and miracles of the whole universe.” (3)

Imagine yourself taking part in the alchemical marriage at the heart of this “Theatre of Secrets.”
From a psychological perspective, the alchemical marriage or coniunctio of opposites generally
signifies the fully integrated personality through the process of Individuation. Alchemically, this
“re-combination” of two elements – or two opposites – to form a new substance suggests an

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inner “marriage” or coniunctio. In our dreams, the alchemical coniunctio takes somewhat
different forms across Wisdom Traditions: the mystic marriage of the Kabbalistic tradition, the
marriage of the lamb in Christianity, and the marriage of the gods, or hierosgamos, in Greco-
Roman culture. In a Jungian sense, for a man the alchemical marriage would involve union with
his Anima; for the woman, union with her Animus. In describing his own visionary experiences,
Jung wrote: “At the bottom it was I myself: I was the marriage. And my beatitude was that of a
blissful wedding.” (6)

The Meeting of the Lunar Queen and the Solar King

Emblem #4 from the Splendor Solis (1532-1535)

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In this lovely emblem illustrating the 1582 Splendor Solis edition, the King holds a banner
reading “Coagula Masculinum,” or “Coagulate the Masculine” and the Queen one that reads
“Lac Virginis” or “The Virgin’s Milk.”

We can view the dual processes and substances involved in the “marriage” from different levels:

1. Physically, this would involve two substances combining through the alchemical process
of “solve et coagula” – “dissolve and coagulate” or “coagulate and dissolve,” describing
the breaking down of matter and the creation of a new substance, including the “fixing”
of its properties.
2. On the level of psyche and soul, the King may represent the dominant ego-principle and
the Queen that of more soulful qualities, her milk symbolizing spiritual sustenance and
wisdom. The King symbolizes Sun consciousness, and the Queen, Moon consciousness.
3. On the level of spiritual alchemy, the King and Queen may represent the Exoteric and
Esoteric realms respectively – the King symbolizing the visible material world, and the
Queen the “invisible” subtle spiritual realms, the wisdom of the Spiritual Science, and a
connection to the hidden source or ground of our Being. The King requires his Queen to
give meaning and depth to his active principle, the Queen, linked to Mercury and the
subtle realms, has substance but needs an active principle to give her form.

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 Emblem #3 from the Rosarium philosophorum (1550)

In the emblem above, the King holds a banner reading: “O Luna be my wife,” while the banner
held by the Queen reads: “O Sol, I submit to Thee.” Symbolically their nakedness shows that
through love and trust they have begun to let go of the illusion of separateness.

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While some resist the idea of “submission,” in terms of the Subtle Science of Alchemy we can
understand this as referring to the surrendering of form to the formless, of the material realm
“submitting” to the subtle realm, becoming in alignment with it, and at the same time, of the
surrendering of the formless to form, of the subtle realm “submitting” to expression through
matter.

From a Christian perspective, the image of the crucifixion depicts this form of surrender in
unromanticised terms. The alchemical Marriage of unity may feel like a “death” for the ego, but
both Christian and alchemical iconography point to a resurrection – the birth of a more fully
human being and a more embodied spiritual nature.

How might this apply to lucid dreaming? For now, in the following scenario let's imagine the
dreamer as the “King,” and the dream itself as the esoteric realm of the Queen:

1. The Queen stands directly behind the King unseen:

The King may realize that he dreams – but does not recognize their importance. Through
dreams the Queen approaches nightly inviting relationship. The dreamer may long for
deeper meaning but has not acted on this longing. The dream – our esoteric inheritance –
longs for recognition and appreciation.
2. The Queen now stands beside the King with a gap between them:
The full significance of the dream remains “unseen,” yet the dreamer has become more
aware of his dreams. However, he still experiences them unconsciously, caught up in the
action of the dream. He may keep a journal but does not delve into meaning or
application.

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 3. The King and Queen now stand facing one another, a wide distance between them:
The dreamer recognizes the importance of dreams and has entered into a more active
relationship with them, becoming more attentive within the dream itself, working
therapeutically with dreams in a more lucid way.
4. The pair move towards one another but the gap remains:
The dreamer experiences pre- and sub-lucid states, becoming more aware of the dream as
possessing an active essence and intelligence.
5. The pair move towards each other and take hands, they look into each other’s eyes:
The dreamer has experienced increased lucidity and begun to engage more consciously
and more compassionately in the dreamscape. He becomes aware that his ego-based
consciousness may not reflect the only reality and begins to recognize the dream’s
existence – the invisible realm – in its own right.
6. The King and Queen now close their eyes as they continue holding hands:
The dreamer, now fully lucid, experiences an ego-death and realizes – not just with his
mind, but also with his heart – that he and the subtle dream realm seem interwoven and
one; that his very being has its basis within the subtle realms of dreams.
7. Now the Queen on the left and King on the right stand side by side, eyes open, their
arms around one another's waists, holding out their right and left hands
respectively as they look over the kingdom: The dreamer has returned to Waking
Physical Reality having integrated the qualities experienced in his dreams. His more
integrated psyche stands at the ready to move into the world in the service of the “Queen”
or esoteric realm. The energies of the pair work synergistically and synchronistically in
the physical world to bring the qualities of the spiritual, invisible realms into
manifestation. We see this illustrated in images of the Rebis such as this one, titled “The
Demonstration of Perfection”:

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 Emblem #17 from the Rosarium philosophorum

A variety of androgynous figures, like the Hermaphrodite and Rebis, feature prominently in
many alchemical emblems. These variations symbolically indicate different stages of the Great
Work.

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Alchemical Processes
Alchemists varied not only in how they described the operations of making the Philosopher's
Stone, but in the number and sequence of these processes. The four we'll describe here perhaps
seem the earliest and most basic, and one can see other alchemical operations, such as
Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, Coagulation, etc,
as component parts of the fundamental four alchemical processes of Nigredo, “the blackening,”
Albedo, “the whitening,” Citrinitas, “the yellowing,” and Rubedo, “the reddening.” Given the
Alchemical maxim, “As Below, so Above, as Above, so Below,” it should not surprise us that the
alchemical operations have a fractal nature, applying to the processes themselves, from the
microcosmic to the macrocosmic.

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The diagram above illustrates how key alchemical operations might take the work through five
stages, sequentially facilitating a deepening relationship with our Greater Selves and the esoteric
realm in both our dreams and our waking lives. Symbolically one might see these stages of the
Great Work as corresponding to the five elements. In this example, the alchemical
transformation begins with Earth, the Prima Materia and physical self; moves on to Water, the
Emotional self; then to Air, the Mental self; then to Fire, the Soul self; and finally arriving at the
Quintessence, the Spiritual Self and the Philosopher's Stone. Each operation involves a pair of
opposites, an encounter with the Other that results in an alchemical marriage. Yet part of each
process may require an inner death and rebirth before the dreamer can proceed to the next.

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Within each operation, new potentialities of the Philosopher’s Stone become revealed and
actualized.

Conclusion
The standard APA definition of a lucid dream, as one “in which the sleeper is aware that he or
she is dreaming and may be able to influence the progress of the dream narrative,” (8) fails to
communicate the continuum of consciousness available to lucid dreamers (9). Nor does it convey
the transformative effect experiences of this kind can have upon dreamers in their waking lives
(10). One might better define a lucid dream as “A dream in which one realizes that one dreams,
releasing the transformative potential to experience dimensions of the Self, Consciousness, and
the unity of existence with awareness.”

This definition acknowledges the potentialities dramatised within the alchemical marriage:
1) That a lucid experience may possesses its own “reality” or “realities” ranging across a
continuum of awareness from sensory to supra-sensory, from “reality" with a small “r” to
“Reality” with a capital “R”;
2) Dreamscapes and beings may possess an ontological status that moves “reality” and our
perception of it beyond space-time constraints, freeing us to experience realms of consciousness
and embodied states that can both encompass and yet transcend our own;
3) Lucid consciousness has the capacity to both experience and know what apparently
“transcends” it;
4) That the dream may know more than the dreamer;
5) The experience of Unity-consciousness;
6) The expansion and transformation of consciousness in unexpected ways;
7) In conjunction with this inner transformation, waking physical reality may transform as well.

Alchemical emblems and texts depict the Great Work metaphorically, through a multitude of
symbolic illustrations, meant to bypass the limitations of literal language, and to directly instruct
the soul. Following this tradition, on our PDC discussion thread we’ll explore the potentialities

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of lucid dream alchemy together, by working with a variety of alchemical emblems. On each day
of the workshop we'll post different alchemical emblems to contemplate, work with, and discuss.
We'll provide more complete instructions on the discussion thread. We look forward to your
joining us there!

References

1. Steele, R., & Singer, D.W. (1928). “The Emerald Table” a 12th Century Latin translation,
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 21 p. 492. See http://www.sacred-
texts.com/alc/emerald.htm for alternative versions and translations.
2. Roberts. G. (1994). The Mirror of Alchemy: Alchemical Ideas and Images in Manuscripts and
Books. From Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century. University of Toronto Press, quote taken
from p. 68.
3. Forshaw, P.J. (2011). “ ‘Behold, the dreamer cometh’: hyperphysical magic and deific visions in
an early modern theosophical lab-oratory,” in J. Raymond (Ed.), Conversations with Angels:
Essays Towards History of Spiritual Communication, 1100-1700 (pp. 175-201). Basingstoke,
Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
4. McLean. A. (2008). “Alchemical Emblems: Khunrath's Oratory Laboratory,” in “Exploring
Alchemical Emblems,” a series of video commentaries. Free low resolution video available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81bOp7FNrOo
You can order higher resolution videos on Adam's website:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/bookshop/Downloads.html
5. Kellogg III, E. W. (2011). Lucid Dreaming, Lucid Waking, Lucid Being: An Online Workshop.
Presented at IASD's Tenth PsiberDreaming Conference, September 25 - October 9.
http://asdreams.org/telepathy/kellogg_articles/KelloggLDLWLBPDC2011.pdf
6. Kellogg III, E. W. (2013). “LDE Lucid Dreaming Challenge: Exploring the Tree of Life Through
Lucid Dreaming.” The Lucid Dream Experience, pp. 15-22, Vol. 1 No. 4.
http://www.dreaminglucid.com/lde/lde1_4.pdf
7. Jung, C. J. (1965). Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.294. New York, NY: Random House.
8. Vandenbos, G.R. (Ed.). (2007). The APA Dictionary of Psychology, p. 545. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.

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9. Kellogg III, E. W. (2004). “The Lucidity Continuum,” Electric Dreams, 11(10). Available online
at: http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/kellogg/ )
10. Kellogg III, E. W. (2012), “Lucid Dreaming, Psychic Development, and Spirituality,” The Lucid
Dream Experience, pp 19-22, Vol. 1, No. 3. http://www.dreaminglucid.com/lde/lde1_3.pdf
11. Ziemer, M. (2014). “Lucid Surrender: The Eye of the Heart,” The Lucid Dream Experience, pp
14-20, Vol. 3, No. 1. http://www.dreaminglucid.com/lde/lde3_1.pdf

Resources
Websites
The Alchemy Web Site - Levity
Adam McLean's comprehensive online library of imagery, symbols, music, alchemical texts and
commentary. Includes course material in practical alchemy, a comprehensive bibliography, and
modern day resources. http://www.alchemywebsite.com/ See also Adam's meditative
descriptions of the symbols and meanings of a number of important alchemical emblems,
available through YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrAdammclean

Lucid Dream Alchemy

Mary Ziemer's website devoted to the synergistic overlap that she has explored, in some depth,
between lucid dreaming and alchemical workings. For some fascinating and transcendent
alchemical dreams, see especially the "Lucid Imagery" section.
http://www.luciddreamalchemy.com/

Books

Adam McLean's Alchemical Emblems Coloured and Alchemical Sequences Coloured, 2011.
These two volumes showcase hundreds of alchemical emblems, beautifully colored by Adam
McLean, a noted alchemical scholar and enthusiast.

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Adam McLean, The Alchemical Mandala: A Survey of the Mandala in Western Esoteric
Traditions, 2002. See especially the “Meditative Working with the Mandala” section in the
Introduction, which includes the Inner Egg Meditation.

Dennis William Hauck, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, 1999.
Penguin Compass. Entertaining, inspiring, but a bit uneven in the quality of his presentation.

Alexander Roob, The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy and Mysticism. Tashen Books. Original
edition published in 1997, several editions since then. The book to have, if you want to browse
through a wonderful collection of alchemical and mystical art. Although it has relatively little
text, it has an abundance of interesting, intriguing – though not always reliable – side notes on
the images on display. 575+ pages, depending on the edition.

C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy. Bollingen, 1953 (Volume 12 in the "Collected Works.")
Jung deserves the lion's share of the credit for reviving an interest in alchemy in the modern era.
Although a brilliant and seminal work, some find Jung's equating of alchemical processes with
psychological processes as unnecessarily restrictive and limiting.

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