I have a true, precise method to making the Philosopher's Stone. Be warned, this article is a bit long. Ok, it's veeeeeeery long.
I must explain that the Stone could in theory be made from anything, since everything contains the life-energy to some degree, which is the active ingredient of the Stone. You could use fruit juice, or even blood. Urine contains this life-energy in high concentration, due to the fact that it has just come out of you, and you, as a living animal, are full of life-energy.
You will need at least 1 liter of substance as your ingredient; 2 liters is even better. Don't leave the substance in an open container.
Distil the substance at no more than 175°F/80°C in the water bath with the alembic or retort. An alembic will be able to distill 500ml of substance in 24 hours, while a retort will take 1-2 weeks. Obviously the distillation will be faster if the ambient (room) temperature is lower (though not below freezing). Ensure that all the connections are hermetically sealed, and all openings are plugged and sealed.
It is recommended for the alembic or retort to be connected and sealed to the bottle or flask in which the distillate (distilled substance) is to be collected, but it is not absolutely necessary for it to be hermetically sealed at this stage. If the two are not connected then you can wrap cling wrap around where they connect, to stop the distilled substance from evaporating again - though a hermetic seal is safer. The receiving bottle/flask should not be in direct sunlight for the same reason. If the receiving flask is hermetically sealed to the retort or alembic, you may need to open the connection every few hours to release the pressure, else the distillation speed will reduce as the pressure builds up.
The distillation will be much faster if the receiving flask is lower than the water bath, which means the alembic or retort might need to be leaned over to one side in order for the neck to be pointing downwards as much as possible. For this reason it is also useful to have an alembic or retort with a long neck.
When the substance is distilled there will be a nasty black mass in the bottom of the retort or alembic lower-part (though it may not look black the first time), which needs to be calcined. For calcination, the higher the temperature the better. But if you intend to calcine with the black mass inside the glassware, then you are limited to 500°F/260°C as a safe temperature, or a little higher if you are careful to heat up and cool down very slowly; this temperature limit ensures the glassware does not crack. If you transfer the black mass into a high-quality porcelain, alumina or quartz crucible then you can calcine it on much higher heat, such as in a kiln, up to 2000°F, which is preferable. If you do use a kiln, be sure you research how to use it properly and safely, as it can be dangerous to use equipment that can reach such high temperatures if you are not familiar with how to do so correctly; for example: you will certainly need fire-proof gloves, a fire-proof tile, and the kiln must not be used inside your house.
The purpose of the calcination is to burn and destroy the solid part of the substance, in order to extract the salt, which is incombustible. You need to really burn the solid matter in the substance. If calcining inside glassware, you must increase the heat slowly at first, as the glass will crack if heated or cooled rapidly. A sand bath can be used to heat the retort gradually and evenly with a portable stove, burner flame or a hot plate - the sand also keeps the retort in place. To make your own sand bath, fill a saucepan about halfway full of dry sand, and place the retort in the sand so that the bottom part of the retort is covered by sand. Put the saucepan on top of the flame from your portable stove, burner flame or hot plate. At first make sure the heat is not too high, so that you can evaporate off any liquid still in the retort. If the heat is too high while there is still liquid in the retort you risk it bubbling up and spilling. When the black mass is completely dry then increase the heat. Leave it this way for a few hours, until the mass is burnt and cracked, around 6-12 hours.
To calcine with a kiln you will first need to perform a sand bath calcination to reduce the black sludge to dry ashes, which can then be transferred into a high-quality (not cheap-Chinese else it will crack) crucible, which can be put into the kiln and heated to 2000°F. At this temperature the impurities will be quickly fumed away, and the salt will melt and purify very quickly. It is better to keep the salt at 2000°F for 1-4 hours, but if you are in a hurry then it is acceptable to heat up to 2000°F for only a few minutes before turning off the kiln and letting the salt cool. If you remove the crucible from the kiln soon after the kiln is turned off then the salt will cool faster, which makes it shrink away from the sides of the crucible and is therefore easier to remove from the crucible.
The first few times you perform the sand bath calcination, or the very first time you perform the kiln calcination, a nasty smoke will come off it, which will stain everything black and smell really foul, so the calcinations must be done outside. Do not breathe in the smoke, it's poisonous! Do not perform the first few calcinations inside your house or it will become unliveable. People who live in the city may need to take a "camping" or "fishing" trip over a weekend, to perform the first calcination away from other people.
On your first distillation, only distil half of the substance, and evaporate away the remainder. The next day add more substance, again distil half, and evaporate the remainder. You can now begin with the first calcination, or do this another 1 or 2 times, in order to get more distillate and black mass (for more salt.) If using a kiln, it is preferable to begin with 4 litres of substance.
After each calcination, pour the distilled substance back onto the calcined body in the retort or alembic, distill the distilled urine again, then calcine again. You should distill the first 90% of the distilled substance each time, and just evaporate away the remaining 10% before the calcination, so after every distillation you will have slightly less than the time before. This removes the water and other heavier particles from the distillate, as the spirit is more inclined to evaporate earlier (this is evident by measuring the pH of the distillate.) Pour the same distilled substance back on again, distill again, calcine again. Repeat the distillation/calcination again and again. At the end you should have 100 - 150ml of distilled substance, or around 10% of the original volume of substance.
Each distillation much be followed by a calcination; each calcination must be followed by a distillation.
After a few distillations you will see a white salt forming on top of the black mass, when calcining this there will be a sweet flowery chemical smell given off. Keep repeating the distillations and calcinations until the whole surface is white and it has formed into large enough crystals to for you to separate it from the black mass. This may take up to 10 distillations, or it could be much less.
If using a kiln to calcine, you will obtain the white salt after only a couple of calcinations; but continue to calcine it as this purifies it more and more.
If you are using a sandbath to calcine, it is a good idea to attempt to melt the salt at some stage, as this will increase its quality. This will not be able to be done in glass, or you risk cracking it. You can also dissolve the salt into pure distilled water, filter this, and very slowly evaporate the water away, to purify the white salt further, which should be attempted only after you already have sufficient white salt.
If you have already distilled the urine 10 times and you don't think you have enough of the white salt, then you should continue using higher heat to calcine, or try to extract the white salt from what you have by dissolving it in pure distilled water, filtering, and then slowly evaporating the water away.
When you see enough of the white salt has formed on top, you need to extract it, which may require breaking the retort if you are using one. If you do need to break the retort then wrap tape around the bottom half of the retort, and try to just break the glass at the top, keeping the bottom half intact. If you are using an alembic, you will only need to break the lower-part, which is a cheap flask, or if it has a wide opening then you may be able to extract the salt without breaking anything.
You should further distil the distilled substance 3 times in the clean retort, or using a new alembic lower-part, to ensure the distillate is very free from impurities.
Congratulations! You now have the mercury (distilled substance) and sulphur (white salt) of the Sages.
Crush the white salt into powder and place it into the 50ml round-bottom flask. Add a few drops of distilled substance, just enough to cover the salt, not too much.
Hermetically seal the flask, making sure the stopper is airtight by putting wax, vaseline or silicone sealant around it. Place the flask into the water bath. Only the bottom half of the round part of the flask should be in the water, the rest of the flask should be in the air. You might need to cut a hole in the lid of the water bath, or make your own lid. The temperature should be equal or slightly greater than body heat, around 100-105°F/37-40°C. At this stage the heat should be of the degree that causes evaporation and condensation to imitate rain, but the salt should always be moist and never dry.
If the ambient (room) temperature is too high you will need to reduce it by putting the water bath in an air conditioned room, or putting ice against the neck of the flask. The process will be faster if the ambient temperature is lower. If you can see that there are drops of water condensed at the top of the vessel which never fall, then you need to reduce the ambient temperature.
The salt will slowly absorb the moisture. The whole process can take longer than a year, so don't give up. As long as you know you have not used too much heat both now, and in the distilling of the First Part, then it will work.
When the salt has absorbed the moisture and starts to become dry, add another couple of drops of distilled substance. Then wait again until the salt again starts to dry, and add another couple of drops. Continue doing this until the salt is entirely saturated, at which point it will be of the consistency of melted wax.
When the salt has been entirely broken down and saturated with the distilled urine, it will turn black, which is a sign of putrefaction. Black is the natural color of decomposed matter. The body will not turn black suddenly, but it will have been getting darker and darker during the previous imbibing stage. When the whole mass has turned black then you know it has putrefied completely. This is a great sign, because you will now be more than half way to completing the Stone.
When you are sure that the salt is entirely saturated, then you need to turn up the heat a little. It's difficult to give an exact temperature since it depends on many factors, but just turn up the heat little by little until the body starts to become dry. But the heat still needs to be low enough that the moisture will rain down, the difference only being that during imbibing the salt had to be always moist, whereas now you want the salt to dry out between the rains.
Slowly slowly the body will start getting whiter, and may pass through different colors, including one that looks a bit reddish. Don't worry about these colors; we just need the body to get white.
Having adjusted the heat during the black stage, so that the body dries out in between rains, the black body will slowly pass through various colors and turn white.
As when turning black, the whiteness will not appear suddenly one day, but it will be a slow progress over a few months.
Both the White Stone and Red Stone must be fermented with silver or gold respectively before they are complete. It is only possible to ferment the White Stone with silver, and the Red Stone with gold, nothing else can be used, neither can silver or gold be used to ferment both.
The ferment (silver or gold) is not considered to be an "ingredient" of the Stone. The Stone is already developed when we apply the ferment, but it needs to be fermented in order to be used for our purposes. The Stone would be harmful if ingested without being fermented first.
The Stone will break down the silver or gold into its own form, but adopt the frequency and stability of the ferment. The life-energy needs to be given an impression of a stable form.
To perform the fermentation (and also for multiplication) grind the Stone to dust and mix this together with the ferment. Optionally, you can melt this mixture of the Stone and the ferment together with a heat strong enough to melt gold, then beat it into plates and grind it into powder again - this optional stage will speed up the process. Now add a small amount of distilled urine again, and continue with the imbibing, blackening and whitening as you did previously (following chapters 22-24).
The fermentation process should take 1-3 months the first time.
Now the White Stone is complete. It can be multiplied in quantity and quality, and raised to the power of the Red Stone.
To mature the White Stone into the Red Stone you should place the White Stone into a clean round-bottom flask as before, and make extra sure it is hermetically sealed. Now place this in the water bath and heat it at the temperature that the White Stone melts into the consistency of melted wax, which will likely be around double the temperature during the previous stage. After a number of months the Stone will turn an ash-orange color. At this point you should now take the vessel out of the water bath and put it onto a high heat source (such as a gas stove, heating mantle or hot plate). The degree of heat should be as high as possible without cracking the vessel, so no more than 500°F/260°C. Leave the Stone on this heat and wait patiently for a number of months again, eventually it will turn into a red powder.
