Alchemy as a Path of Development

Introduction: The Perception of the World in Ancient Times

When we evoke the word Alchemy, it resembles a chest into which everyone unconsciously places elements ranging from the marvelous to the mysterious, even the strange. Images emerge: that of an old mage wearing a Phrygian cap, a furnace where coals burn around a crucible, the cathedral of Paris, the road to Saint James of Compostela, Nicolas Flamel, the philosopher’s stone, gold, and the quest for immortality. A scent of sulfur and incense mingles together, evoking both the depths of the earth and the underworld, as well as the celestial lights of paradise. And just as hope was the last thing to emerge from Pandora's box, so too appears the hope of a tangible higher world.

But to begin this journey, we must set aside all our concepts and prejudices on the subject and return to the beginnings of the world, to those times when there was no mental framework through which to interpret reality. For “primordial man,” perception was direct, and above all, there was no separation between the observer and the observed. The connection was continuous and sensory: the human being was part of nature and, above all, a great observer of solar, stellar, and seasonal cycles.

To the coldness of winter, when matter remains still and cold, succeeds spring, during which warmth induces movement in all matter: water thaws, liquefies, and evaporates; seeds germinate and join this movement of ascent. Then fire intensifies during summer until dryness gives birth to fruits, which will be harvested in autumn—a season of colors, like the pomegranate with its red seeds, filled with the finest essence of this rising energy.

It is within this immediate connection, marked by the inseparability of Humanity and the Cosmos in its broadest sense, that Alchemy reveals itself. For it is indeed a revelation, and not a magical act or a mental projection; it is directly linked to the purest awakening of the Spirit. It is the science of the Divine—of God, of Hashem, the emanation of the Tao, or of primordial nature itself—the axis of all things, if words cannot fully contain it. The origin is within us, radically timeless.

The one who discovered the Stone for the first time in some undetermined past is no greater than the one who will discover it today or tomorrow; on the path of our inner liberation, we are all pioneers.

1) Alchemy in History and Civilizations

Predating all formal systems, the name of “Al-Chemy” has seeded human thought, without borders or limits of time. It must be understood that it embraces everything, across different civilizations.

a) In Egypt

The alchemical tradition teaches that the very first inventor of the Science was Thoth, called Hermes Trismegistus. This latter name means “thrice-great,” that is to say, accomplished in the three worlds, bearing the triple crown over the divine, spiritual, and physical realms.

Thoth-Hermes is the demi-god founder of the earliest dynasties of the Black Land (Upper Egypt), the one who gives birth to the universe in gestation. Indeed, one of the etymologies of Al Khemia (another name for Egypt) means “Black Earth.”

This mythical ancestor left us his Emerald Tablet:

It is true, without falsehood, certain and most true: that which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing. And as all things came from One, through the mediation of One, so all things were born from this unique thing by adaptation...

In Egypt, alchemical practices were present from the highest antiquity, but they were reserved for the innermost secrecy of the temples and transmitted only from master to disciple—just like other practical arts, as this was a way of preserving and protecting knowledge. Moreover, all later esoteric movements would adopt this same model of transmission.

b) Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia stands at the forefront of the historical stage. We find references through certain myths, such as that of Gilgamesh, who seeks the plant of immortality.

It was during this historical period that the working of metallic mercury notably developed.

c) In China

In China, alchemy merges with Taoism. In the Tao Te Ching it is said:

The Dao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all beings.

From the earliest times, the Taoist vision was holistic and privileged, in alchemy, the path of cinnabar (mercuric sulfide).

Reference is often made to the outer male cinnabar, or Wai Dan—the path of laboratory cinnabar: thus, the physical philosopher’s stone based on cinnabar.

This path is complementary to the inner female cinnabar, or Nei Dan, in which vegetal substances are absorbed and combined with internal practices, mainly based on breathing, which is assimilated to fire.

By analogy, we may speak of the path of the microcosm and the path of the macrocosm, as well as their derived practices, widely known today through Qigong and Tai Chi.

d) The Arab World

The Arab world inherited the foundations of Greco-Egyptian alchemy, often within Sufism brotherhoods, and left us great authors such as Jabir ibn Hayyan, known in the West as Geber, through his chemical works.

I had the opportunity in Egypt to meet the head of a Sufi Tariqa, whom his disciples called “the Red Sulfur.” I do not believe they possessed the Stone, but the allusion was highly significant.

When I asked the Master about his group’s relation to the Prophet, his answer was unequivocal:

“We existed before the Prophet existed on this Earth; our Silsila goes back to Hermes Trismegistus.”

Thus, back to Sumerian civilization.

e) In the West

In the West, the tradition was mainly transmitted from the Middle Ages onward, more specifically during the Crusades, when knightly brotherhoods inherited the alchemical legacy of the Arab world—notably the Knights Templar.

Among the essential figures, we may mention Nicolas Flamel and Pernelle. Flamel traveled the roads to Camino de Santiago and there found the explanation of a book on alchemical practice called the Book of Abraham.

f) Modern Times

Modern times saw the appearance of abundant alchemical literature.

When studying the origin of these texts, it appears that the treatises on the Philosopher’s Stone and universal medicine were deeply influenced by Greco-Egyptian mythology (one may refer to Antoine-Joseph Pernety and his Mytho-Hermetic Dictionary), emphasizing revealed knowledge and tradition.

Many alchemists, in their books, put forward an ethical rule of humility, requiring adepts to efface themselves behind their messages—messages offered by inspiration or by the generosity of another adept, through what one of them called a fatum chymicum, an extraordinary destiny.

Among them we may cite:

Basil Valentine, author of many treatises including The Twelve Keys of Philosophy and The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony

Eirenaeus Philalethes, An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King

Salomon Trismosin, The Golden Fleece

George Ripley, The Book of the Twelve Gates

Michael Sendivogius, The New Chemical Light

Alexandre-Toussaint de Limojon de Saint-Didier, The Ancient War of the Knights and The Dialogue of Eudoxus and Pyrophilus

It was during this period that modern chemistry and physics were born.

Many believe that alchemy was merely a proto-chemistry, but this is absolutely false.

We may cite among the major figures Isaac Newton, whose alchemical research was central to his life—equally, if not more, than his discoveries on gravitation (we shall return to this point).

Antoine Lavoisier was no exception in chemistry, as he sought to understand the nature of fire (then called phlogiston), and through mercury discovered that air contains a combustible part: oxygen.

g) The 19th and 20th Centuries

The 19th and 20th centuries saw alchemical literature become rarer, but we may still cite two major works:

Cyliani and his Hermes Unveiled, which I recommend reading, as it is a short text closer to storytelling and wonder.

Fulcanelli, with The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers.

2) The Principles of Alchemy

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, darkness covered the abyss, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. God said: Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.”

We could revisit the Book of Genesis and all the sacred texts that speak of the beginnings of the world, for they run parallel to and complement the alchemical vision.

a) Unity and Light

From Unity comes the primordial Light, which arises from no matter and is not the result of the transformation of any pre-existing energy. On the contrary, the various forms of energy represent transformations of this original Light.

This Light is pure consciousness. It has no direction, fills all space, and exerts pressure upon everything, much like air. It is the organizing agent of chaos.

This Light is Spirit: all things come from it, and all things return to it. Spirit, being permanent omniscience, is the sole subject. The object created by Spirit is the Work.

But a dramatic observation appears: Spirit is the source of all possibilities, including the possibility of opposition to itself. This opposing force is anterior even to time and space.

Though not preponderant, this force of opposition is obstructive. It has no true power, yet it has always distorted and diverted whenever possible. It has opposed all the works of the creative Spirit with infinitely varied results: it is the root of inertia and of mass, a closure of energy upon itself.

This spirit of opposition was called “An.” Zoroaster described it as the adversary: Ahriman, the force that draws all things back into matter and imprisons Spirit.

The primordial Light is emitted by God to fill the abyss, the entirety of space. This indeed occurs, except at certain points where the spirit of opposition refuses to let Light enter.

These regions—whose dimensions may be on the order of a neutron or smaller—become voids of Light, ruled by the opposing spirit.

We might say that matter is a separation from the initial Light, an energy folded back upon itself, closed in upon itself, against which primordial Light exerts pressure.

In summary, matter is “non-light,” or Light turned back upon itself.

Gospel of John begins by saying that the Light was in the darkness, and the darkness received it not.

Matter is illusion: we believe it to be real as substance because we perceive it as extended, impenetrable, and inert. Yet extension is limited, while the Light is not.

Its inertia is proof of its opposition to action, but also of its impotence to act.

The major effect of inertia is gravitation. If you follow this reasoning, you will understand that the alchemical proposition stands in opposition to physical theory.

According to physics, inert and blind matter somehow senses, at a distance, the presence of another inert and blind matter, and from this mysterious exchange emerges an energy we call gravity.

But according to the ancients, gravitation is rather the logical consequence of a struggle between Light and the spirit of opposition.

Light seeks to occupy all space and therefore exerts a pushing force upon particles of matter. Consequently, there is no attraction properly speaking, but rather a flocculation of inert particles resisting the pressure of the surrounding medium.

This phenomenon can be observed in colloids, where a dispersing phase acts upon a dispersed phase to produce coagulation.

Thus, gravitation is not the attraction of matter by matter, but the effort made by primordial Light to purge space of the spirit of opposition.

This allows us to understand differently black holes and the latest discoveries in physics and astrophysics, such as what physicists call the Great Attractor and the Great Repeller, where matter migrates through filaments toward a single point.

Broadly speaking, this operation resembles a great cleansing, gathering dust and pushing it toward the waste-bin.

This is comparable to the functions of our body, which purges itself of toxins and antigens through coagulation and the expulsion of corrupted matter.

This vast process—the primitive infection of the world by the spirit of evil and its cure—is called by the Hermeticists the separation of the pure from the impure.

The agent of this renewal is primordial Light in its ceaseless activity.

In all traditions, there is mention of a Golden Age among the Greeks, or of Paradise, a primordial state of transparency to Light.

If human beings could recover this original purified state, free of the spirit of opposition, they would enjoy perfect life.

As for its properties, primordial Light is at once turned toward its creative Spirit and toward the created object.

It penetrates all bodies except those filled with opposition, or partially grafted to it, as is the case with living beings.

Human beings embody this ambiguity because they possess volition and action, two criteria associated with Light.

Among those whose spiritual life is intense, strange phenomena have been observed, including verified cases of levitation, or great Tibetan masters who, standing in sunlight, cast no shadow.

Pure Spirit would thus have opened opposing matter by fully transmuting it.

b) Fire

This primordial Light has a faithful servant: heat.

According to physics, heat is considered a degraded form of energy—entropy—because it cannot be enslaved; it radiates freely in all directions.

It would therefore be more accurate to say that heat is the most perfect form of expression: existential, liberated from constraints, freed from contingencies.

It is transmitted through matter by conduction, or outside matter by radiation.

The “fire, soul of the world,” having gained its freedom, expands through space wherever it finds room to spread.

In this race toward great freedom, fire sometimes stops to incarnate itself within a system where it becomes the engine of a physical or living phenomenon.

There is always a spark of it in ordinary matter, since it escapes even when matter is compressed to the extreme by primordial Light—as in the sun.

The sun itself is squeezed like a sponge, and its energy pours out to nourish all other material bodies gravitating around it.

It gives matter time to awaken and grants its heat so that matter may purify itself.

The food we eat also carries this fire, and this gives us life.

Some simple organisms, such as lichens, are even capable of extracting nourishment from raw minerals and performing transmutations at their own level.

Of course, extracting this fire requires effort, whereas in the primordial times—and at the end of time—there is no longer such effort.

In the heavenly Jerusalem, according to Saint John, the cubic city, a river of the water of life flows from the throne of God, and on its banks grows the Tree of Life, whose leaves bring healing, at the moment when every spirit of opposition shall be purified.

c) Duality: the Fixed and the Volatile

Having spoken of the primordial actors—Unity and Heat—we may now turn toward physical matter itself.

A simple observation appears: matter is either fixed or volatile, with gradations between these two extremes.

This corresponds to the Chinese notion of Yin and yang.

In Nature Unveiled, these opposites are named alkali and acid (moon), or salt and nitre (sun).

Alkali, or the fixed principle, is the most solid and therefore the most closed.

Acid, by contrast, designates the volatile, which is more open, more able to receive primordial Light and to act as its vehicle.

In Nature Unveiled, this salt (associated with sea salt) is everywhere in the sea and relates to nitre, which according to the text is more present in the aerial and terrestrial spheres.

For the ancients, an entire balance is established through the water cycle, the guarantor of life.

These salts ensure the transfer and diffusion of the energy of primordial Light.

We shall later see the importance of this notion in practice.

d) The Four Elements

From this duality arise the Four Elements, which are not substances but principles convertible into one another:

Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

They arise from the relationships between Light and matter, from the presence or absence of their qualities.

The elements are conceived through four elementary qualities combined in pairs:

heat, cold, dryness, and humidity.

These correspond to the four temperaments found in traditional and homeopathic science:

the sanguine, lymphatic, melancholic, and choleric.

Fire is hot and dry.
Air is hot and moist.
Water is cold and moist.
Earth is cold and dry.

e) The Three Principles: Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury

In every substance situated between fixed and volatile, capable of undergoing the rotation of the elements, there are three principles in varying quantities.

Each metal, representing a planetary harmony, contains more or less sulfur, salt, or mercury, in differing quantity and quality.

Sulfur does not designate the common chemical element, but the active principle: spirit, fire, the tincturing aspect, that which gives color.

Mercury, as its name suggests, stands between fixed and volatile. It occupies the middle place, acting as messenger and bond.

Salt is the most fixed, most alkaline part, and gives body to the other two principles.

3) The Stages of the Great Work

a) The Secret Fire

This is the essential point for accomplishing the Work.

One must find this first salt capable of serving as the support of primordial Light (Spiritus Mundi), the vessel able to retain the Spirit of the World and open the chosen matter to make it evolve from prima materia to the first matter, and finally to the Philosopher’s Stone.

In alchemy, bodies do not act upon bodies; only Spirit—the Secret Fire—does.

It alone can naturally and effortlessly separate all impurities and terrestrial residues, and in sublimation separate the three principles so that they may later be reunited.

As Limojon de Saint-Didier wrote:

“I would greatly pity you if, like me, after knowing the true matter, you spent fifteen years entirely in labor, study, and meditation, without being able to extract from the Stone the precious juice it contains, for lack of knowing the secret fire of the sages…”

Without this Secret Fire—a salt akin to water, yet which does not wet the hands because it melts at very low temperature—it is impossible to enter the King’s closed palace.

b) The First Work: Separation

Once the Secret Fire of the Sages and the first matter are in our hands, we may proceed to the first stage.

This may be accomplished through the wet way (the Mother) or the dry way (the Father).

The Secret Fire separates and purifies the three principles, which generally settle in layers within the matrix vessel.

c) The Second Work

The purpose here is to purify the three separated principles as much as possible from all residual impurities and strengthen them in power and virtue.

This stage is often called “the Eagles.”

d) The Third Work: Conjunction

In a flask or small crucible, according to the chosen path, the three principles—Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury—must be united and cooked together in exact proportion.

From this union is born the Philosopher’s Stone.

The final coction is gradual, and the administration of fire must be suggestive rather than forced.

It is in this stage that the colors of the Work reveal themselves, like the Peacock’s Tail:

black, white, and red.

This is an indissoluble reunion of the purest parts of the leprous body of the first matter.

It is therefore a rebirth.

The Stone is resurrected, having passed from death to life in a purer realm, freed from the primordial fault.

The three principles are united incorruptibly, incapable of separation.

e) Multiplication

Once this first Stone is obtained, its transmutative perfection is not complete.

It must be multiplied—at least three times, and up to eight—by repeating the Third Work.

This phase is much quicker and leads to the final Philosopher’s Stone.

If the process of multiplication were continued indefinitely, the Stone would gain such fusibility and volatility that it could pass through the vessels containing it and return to primordial Light.

This gave rise to the literature on eternal lamps.

The Stone, brought to a liquid state through repeated multiplication, becomes luminous like a little sun and was said to have been used in certain lamps, such as that of the tomb of Tullia, daughter of Cicero.

f) Transmutation

At this stage, the Stone is already highly transmutative.

To increase its virtue, it may be projected onto pure gold, which vitrifies into a purple glass.

This can then be projected onto any metal, transforming it into pure gold, superior to twenty-four carats.

If the adept stopped at the White Stone, the result would be silver.

The Stone directs metals toward their most stable state: gold.

Its power of multiplication follows a mathematical progression.

At the fifth multiplication—the causal state—the Stone reaches a power of one part in one hundred thousand.

g) Universal Medicine and the Arcana of Long Life

Ordinarily, there is no need to orient the Stone toward gold to obtain universal medicine of the first degree.

According to the texts, it increases lifespan, prevents physical and mental illnesses when taken at the equinoxes, rejuvenates, and above all reveals to its possessor higher planes of consciousness—mental, causal, and buddhic.

In modern terms, it carries one into a higher world and state of consciousness.

Taken in small quantities, the Stone induces perspiration, cleanses the body of impurities, and recharges it with fire and energy.

Some adepts are said to take the medicine of the third degree every sixty years.

3) Metallic Genesis

The immediate consequence of this philosophy naturally extends to metals and their genesis.

They are not perceived in their ore deposits as different and separate from one another. Rather, they are understood as belonging to a continuous gradation, ranging from lead to gold, as illustrated by the text of Huginus a Barma: The Reign of Saturn Changed into the Golden Age.

4) Methods

The methods are simple, though it remains necessary to respect the basic rules of chemistry, namely to work cleanly and carefully.

The first principle is to work with pure materials.

There are, of course, two main paths: the wet way and the dry way (the Way of the Mother and the Way of the Father), often with bridges between them.

a) Grinding

The material must be crushed as finely as possible.

b) Coction

A coction must be carried out, and for this a small heating mantle with temperature regulation is necessary.

It must be possible to maintain a constant temperature over long periods—days, weeks, or months.

Operations performed in furnaces or crucibles are faster, but require appropriate technique.

c) Filtration

One must learn to filter liquids using a funnel and gauze or filters, so as to retain only the best and purest part of the liquid.

d) Sublimation

One must learn how to sublimate dry or semi-dry matter.

e) Calcination

One must know how to calcine gently or more strongly, without burning all the material.

f) Dissolution and Coagulation

Mastering the alternation between dissolution and coagulation is fundamental.

g) Reunion of Principles

Finally comes the reunion of the principles.

5) The Different Paths

a) Spagyrics, or the Vegetable Path

Spagyrics is the most accessible path for beginners interested in practical work.

The word spagyric first appeared in the work of Paracelsus, Opus Paramirum, published in 1530.

It is formed from two Greek roots:

spao — to separate

ageiro — to reunite

It is not alchemy proper, but its symbolic process is closely related.

In this practice, a chosen quantity of plant material is macerated in alcohol (which here plays the role of Mercury) at low temperature, around 40°C, for at least one week, in order to extract the sulfur or tincture.

This sulfur is mainly composed of essential oils, when the plant contains them.

After this period, the liquid is filtered.

The remaining plant material is then burned.

Its ashes are dissolved in distilled water (at least twenty times their volume), filtered again, and evaporated without boiling.

When the salt is dry and as white as possible, it is calcined in a fireproof dish.

A kitchen oven is sufficient.

This process is repeated until the salt reaches maximum whiteness.

A slight yellowish or reddish coloration may indicate sufficient purity.

Often two qualities of salts may appear:

one amorphous

one crystalline

The crystalline form is said to have stronger psychic effects (not psychotropic).

The reunion of the principles then takes place in a flask.

The purified ashes (salt) are placed at the bottom and gently imbibed with the alcoholic tincture.

The vessel is then placed on a gentle thermostatically controlled heat.

The salt gradually absorbs the tincture.

This process of imbibition must be repeated.

When the union is perfect, it can be tested by placing a little tincture on a copper blade and heating it:

if nothing smokes, the union is complete.

A spagyric elixir may then be made by dissolving the salt into the tincture.

These tinctures are still used today to support healing and are said to act upon the deeper causes.

Some practitioners place the salt in a long-necked flask and gradually nourish it in darkness at cellar temperature.

This is a long process, but maturation and coction produce a harmonious “marriage” and a subtler substance, which may later be exposed to the full moon at specific times of the year.

b) The Cinnabar Path

This path may be described as Chinese in spirit, though it was also practiced in several Middle Eastern civilizations long before the West.

Traces of cinnabar practice are also found in ancient India.

In the West, this path was transmitted by Roger Caro through the FARC (Frères Aînés de la Rose-Croix).

In this path, cinnabar—or mercuric sulfide—is separated by means of a dry and liquid salt.

The sulfur and mercury thus obtained are reunited through this salt to produce a slightly transmutative stone.

c) The Vitriol Path(s)

The so-called Vitriol path is that of sulfates extracted from pyrite, chalcopyrite, or marcasite.

These substances naturally contain the three principles.

When pyrite is exposed to air, it hydrates and forms a white salt on its surface, similar to saltpeter (sal patres), which is collected by lixiviation.

This is followed by successive phases of filtration and dissolution until a crystallized vitriol is obtained.

This vitriol is then subjected to slow coction.

It is then distilled in a long-necked retort, with heat slowly increased.

At this stage, two liquid phases appear:

The first is a transparent acid.

The receiving vessel must then be changed.

With further increase in temperature, a red oil rich in metallic tincture rises.

Thus we obtain:

the red sulfur

the transparent mercury

the caput mortuum remaining at the bottom, which contains the salt

The latter must be calcined and the fixed salt extracted through repeated dissolutions and filtrations.

Then the principles are slowly reunited in a flask over gentle ash-fire heat, up to what the old texts call “horse-dung heat.”

d) Antimony

This path was popularized by Fulcanelli, Eugène Canseliet, and in modern times by Patrick Burensteinas.

Here, one takes stibnite, or antimony sulfide, and proceeds to its separation by means of a vegetable alkali, with or without iron.

Iron (“Mars”) and antimony (“Earth”), worked in a crucible in precise proportions and at fusion heat, produce the starry regulus.

The more perfect the matter, the more perfect the Star of David appears.

This regulus is then purified to reach the stage of the “Eagles” and finally obtain a white salt, which in this path forms the basis of the Stone.

6) The Finality and Quintessence of Alchemy

The practice of alchemy, as you can perceive, is not chemistry.

It is above all a philosophy and a connection to the universe.

The word alchemy itself contains Al, meaning God.

This dialogue with matter is a sensitive one.

From the very first steps of practice, this sensitivity becomes especially tangible when one proceeds to the reunion of the principles—Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury—which form the quintessence, or Philosopher’s Stone, where the purest elements are united indissolubly.

This manifests through dreams, an impression of inner purification, lightness, and clarity.

It is even common, in the early opening phases and during the black phase (nigredo), to experience melancholy.

Spirit wanders.

It is also common to enter into communication with energies or beings that become guides.

One must understand that prayer and belief lead into the laboratory:

Orare Laborare
(To pray and to work)

The operator is entirely linked to the Work, almost as in a form of quantum entanglement.

Patience and humility—or rather conscious presence and self-effacement—are necessary to advance.

At the same time as matter touches its shadows, we touch our own.

Likewise, reconnection and transparency to primordial Light are rediscovered.

Like the fire in the bush seen by Moses, it becomes perceptible here.

In alchemy, as René Alleau said:

“The symbol is observable.”

Conclusion: Taking the First Steps into the Temple of Nature

The first step is experimentation with simple things.

Spagyrics is an excellent way to test this path at little cost and with minimal danger.

In all cases, one must abandon the magical vision according to which it is the operator who acts upon matter.

We are somewhat in the position of John the Baptist:

“I baptize you with water; but one more powerful than I is coming... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

And again:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist even had his head cut off—a symbol of the effacement of the mind in favor of the heart.

An alchemical proverb even says:

“The Stone says: help me, and I will help you.”

This repositioning of the individual is made in favor of observation and inner listening.

It is like finding the zero point, the inner axis.

And it is at that moment—of mental detachment and inner openness, free from disturbing emotions—that the “Clear Light,” as the Tibetans would say, or the Secret Fire, as the alchemists would call it, reveals itself or leaves visible traces for the seeker to follow.

These traces may be feelings, dreams, certainties—

like the one who, in Plato’s cave, after years of believing in the reality of shadows projected on the wall, finally turns inward toward the true Light.