Chapter X: Letter From Sternbuchta: A Portrait of the Stone
Sternbuchta does not give the recipe; she gives the portrait. Her letter describes the hidden essence drawn from stone—activated, multiplied, and capable of restoring what has fallen into disorder.
If the Emerald Tablet gave the cycle, Letter from a Woman Alchemist on the True Stone of Wisdom by Theosophia Sternbuchta gives the portrait of the essence brought forth from within it. Her letter does not primarily describe how that essence is extracted. It describes what it is like once brought forth: a hidden thing drawn from stone, activated, multiplied, and rendered capable of restoration.
The letter appears to originate in the late seventeenth century and was later printed in Berlin in 1779. MB first encountered it in 2006, when it was passed along to him by an acquaintance. Interestingly, after discovering the letter, he attempted to contact a professor of antiquities to discuss it. Soon afterward, the page with Letter from Sternbuchta disappeared. For nearly twenty years, he searched the internet for it periodically. Although he had mentioned it in passing a few times during our initial work together, I had never seen it, so I knew little of what it really contained.
One day, as our alchemical research deepened, he discovered it on an archived Wayback Machine page dated June 5, 2002. The page introduced it as follows:
“This is a never-before-published letter from a female spiritual alchemist of the late seventeenth century. It is a complement to the kinds of spiritual treatises found in works available in The Divine Couple, edited by Robert Faas, and in Wisdom’s Book: The Sophia Anthology, edited by Arthur Versluis.”
Because the archived page includes a notice restricting duplication, I do not reproduce the full text here. Instead, I quote only the passages necessary for analysis. Readers who wish to read the full letter can do so at this link. Its meaning will likely be much clearer after working through the interpretation that follows.
Who Sternbuchta Is—and Isn’t
