A Stone (n.) cast on the dung-heap and altogether vile becomes the son of royal birth before whom death, darkness and the waters flee: "rejoice, for the dominion of death is over, and the son reigns."
The Stone (n.) "becomes" infinitely slowly, a fact unknown to the alchemist who urged his readers to turn into living philosophical stones, with the wearisome, interminable meditation the work demands.
A Stone (n.) begets, conceives and brings itself forth — so the old philosophers foresaw from their art that a virgin must conceive, and that father and son, old man and boy, would all become one.
Stone (n.) with magic power appear worldwide, curing Orestes' madness or sealing a vote or oath; at a higher level of culture the belief passed to gems, credited with healing powers and with ruining their owners.
A Stone (n.) is the essence of everything solid and earthly, feminine matter intruding on the realm of spirit; the alchemical stone was not Christ but a materialization of God reaching down into the darkness of the inorganic.