Shamballa Stone

Getting blood out of a stone

Down to the inmost point of death they flung the sacred stone….

The Sons of God arose, scanned the depth of Flame and took from its heart the sacred stone of fire….  TCF Stanza 11

The symbol of the sacred stone and the centre called Shamballa have many interesting connections. Students of Roerich will be familiar with the cintamani stone that Nicholas Roerich was said to have carried in order to return it. Perhaps less familiar is the deeper stone symbolism in which this journey is mythologically embedded.

The stories exist in many cultures and are essentially variations on a single theme. A stone falls from heaven and is lost. Man’s job is to recover the stone, use it to transform himself and the world and then return it to its source.

The grail is an expression of this theme being said to have been fashioned from an emerald that fell from Lucifer’s forehead.

The philosopher’s stone is another example. The hermetic formula:

Visita inferiora terrae, rectificando invenies occultum, lapidem, veram medicinam

is an acrostic for Vitriolum and translates as:

Visit the inferior regions of the earth; in rectitude will you find the hidden thing, the stone, the true medicine.

The stone, originally from heaven ( often a meteorite ) falls to earth and man’s job is to find it. The reference to the interior of the earth and the fact that a dragon or serpent often guards it gives us the clue to its location and spiritual significance. The stone in its ‘lost’ form is the kundalini or spiritual will force coiled at the base of the spine. It is the dragon energy that arrived in the second round and is the secret of the life of the soul. TCF894 .

The transmutation of base metal into gold indicates the lifting of this stone to the heart, the solar or consciousness principle after a descent into the unconscious and overcoming the python.

The sacred stone is also the omphalos at Delphi or the Kaaba at Mecca. The Kaaba is a black stone. Another black stone is that of Cybele which was relocated to Rome. Ossendowski tells the story of a black stone sent by the King of the World to the Dalai Lama and subsequently transferred to Ulan Battar in Mongolia where it disappeared.

In alchemy the nigredo stage corresponds to the descent into the earth, albedo – the whitestone corresponds to finding the sun, the soul and lifting the stone to the heart. Rubedo – the red stage involves the realisation of the fiery essence of the love principle.

We might thus locate the three ‘jewels’ of  emerald, sapphire and ruby at base heart and crown as three representations of the one diamond soul.

The Christ is also represented as a stone. First of all the foundation stone ( base ) and finally the keystone ( crown )  in the living temple. The middle or heart stage is represented by bread ( the turning of stone into bread ) and the crown stage is also linked to the wine mysteries.

When the stone is returned to the crown or Shamballa it becomes a source of amrita, the elixir of life or soma, the ‘true medicine’. In some alchemical drawings this is represented as water flowing from a stone.

The return of the stone to Shamballa therefore symbolizes the completion of the great work. The centering of the consciousness within the jewel in the crown causes a revitalizing of the blood through the release of the waters of life and also is a prelude to the opening of the doorway in the heart of the jewel and the transfer of the fiery essence.

An interesting aside for Jan

Another word for the sacred stone is baetyl . It was on such a baetyl that Jacob slept and dreamed of his ladder – subsequently Beith- El  then Bethlehem.

“ So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took a stone which he had put under his head

And set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the place Beith-El – the house of God and gateway to heaven “ Genesis

We might take the leap from baetyl to Betelgeuse or betel-juice as it is commonly pronounced. Now betel juice is blood coloured. Remember that phrase –“ like getting blood out of a stone “. If betel juice is another name for the elixir of life that is eventually obtained through the alchemical process from the hidden stone then Betelgeuse may also be a way station on the journey back to cosmic Shamballa or the black hole. Indeed it is in reference to Betelgeuse that Dk awakens us to the power of human consciousness when focused towards sources of cosmic energy