Magical Artefacts

Chapter 19

The Philosopher’s Stone.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

Introduction & Creation:
The Philosopher’s Stone is a legendary alchemical substance with magical properties. Creating the Philosopher’s Stone is one of the biggest goals of everyone keen in Alchemy. Many have sought to produce the stone for centuries. Despite these many attempts, the only stone was created by French alchemist Nicolas Flamel. The stone is predicted to have been made in the 14th century, or later.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

Features:
The Stone has the ability to turn any metal into pure gold, cure any illness, as well as produce the Elixir of Life, which extends the user’s life and prevents them from dying of old age or natural causes. If drunk continuously, it would effectively make the drinker immortal.

However, using the Elixir comes with a downside. Once you reach the end of your natural lifespan, you would become entirely dependent on the Stone and Elixir for your survival. Additionally, it only stops one from dying, and not aging. As you can imagine, Nicolas Flamel and his wife Perenelle became rather decrepit-looking after using it for over six centuries!

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

How It Works:
Now, the way the Philosopher's Stone transforms metals into gold is quite interesting. It is done through a process called transmutation, standing for the conversion of one chemical element to another. In alchemical tradition, this is based on the idea that metals are at different stages of “perfection”, with gold being the most pure and complete. The Stone accelerates this natural process, refining the metal instantly.

Let me give you an example. In alchemy, lead is considered “impure” and an imperfected metal. The Stone has the ability to remove all impurities from lead, essentially perfecting it to the level of gold!

When it comes to the Elixir of Life, it’s harder to know how the potion was made. Since Flamel discovered the Stone, he was also the one to create the potion. Choosing to share it with no one other than his wife, the recipe and its creation is unknown to this day.

My theory is that the Elixir of Life was also created through the process of transmutation, but within a liquid medium. The magical properties needed to be transferred into a liquid form, so perhaps a base liquid was poured over it until it became infused with its life-giving powers.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

Fun Facts:
1. The Elixir of Life has the ability to restore a disembodied soul back to full life, creating a body. Lord Voldemort planned to use the Stone for this purpose after the effect of his Horcruxes. 
2. The Philosopher's Stone is described as red, which is an important colour in Alchemy as it represents the final stage of the “Great Work” (rubedo), signifying alchemical success in achieving the transmutation of a metal into gold, or an elixir of eternal life. 
3. Born in 1330, Nicolas Flamel worked as a scribe and bookseller in the medieval period. 

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

We’ve reached the end of this chapter! I hope you enjoyed learning more about the Philosopher’s Stone, as well as who Nicolas Flamel was. Flip the page as there's so much more to read! Au revoir ;>

Written by Daphne Clarke.
Edited by Sam Diggory. 
Proofread by Hazel Antler.