I’ve been thinking about the concept known as Rebis. In the Alchemical Tradition that word denotes the culmination of the “Great Work” … which includes the union of opposites. I don’t think there’s much chance of Rebis being achieved in actuality. And in the arena of the mind, I think it’s a wonderfully worthwhile project, but one that probably always proceeds one step forward and two steps back. I say this because the union-of-opposites-like enterprise I’m preoccupied with these days is enhanced collaboration of my conscious and unconscious faculties. And my experience so far is that the unconscious is vast, and by comparison consciousness is miniscule. Like the difference in scale between the earth and the entire rest of the universe.
An idea I’ve been toying with is that what I’m consciously aware of expands in response to experiences in actuality and as a consequence of contributions shared by my unconscious faculties, either while on the edge of sleep or as ideas that present themselves to me while I’m awake. Such day-time gifting usually takes place during moments when I’m not actively responding to a pressing need in actuality, or on those occasions when I’m engaged in some manual task like applying leaves to the tree in the image above. While performing almost automatic, largely repetitive actions with my hands, unsought ideas present themselves that often feel wildly out of left field and at the same time also wonderfully pertinent.
Shortly after I first began noodling over Rebis several weeks ago I happened upon a particularly wonderful Tarot deck called Visconti Sforza. I do not read Tarot cards myself, but I’m always grateful for the ideas that cross my mind when I look at them. While looking at the Visconti Sforza deck the “Rebis Card” above began to take shape in my thoughts.
After thought 2/15/26: In my original post above I said, “I don’t think there’s much chance of Rebis being achieved in actuality.” That statement has been wagging its finger at me and the ideas it has triggered include the thought, “What if the ‘union of opposites’ is the perpetual maintenance of the entirety of actuality?”
Per Dr. Google …
In the alchemical tradition, the agent that causes the union of opposites (coniunctio oppositorum) is the philosopher’s stone (lapisphilosophorum), which is itself the result of the process, acting as a catalyst that combines opposing natures like Sun (Sol) and Moon (Luna), or Sulfur and Mercury. This transformative union often occurs within the “vessel” (or retort) under the intense heat of the athanor (furnace), symbolizing the integration of soul and matter.
What if the “philosopher’s stone” is not a substance that is the result of a process, but is actually the process itself that is behind all physical existence. A process that for the most part creates the illusion of static circumstances, while simultaneously also accomplishing the great cosmic energy/matter balancing act. (If so, perhaps those events that appear to human sensibilities as random and catastrophic are the “stone” restoring a balance between opposing forces in situations where one component or another has acquired or lost vigor.)
If Rebis (the union of opposites) occurs everywhere, ever and always, how might that process have been conceived to be a “stone”? Perhaps the mechanics of alchemical practice disinclined alchemists to visualize it otherwise. What I’m imagining is legions of practitioners over hundreds of years manipulating “things”, and in doing so observed that those “things” were changed. And perhaps those observation inclined them to speculate that the goal they sought would come about … consistent with their practices … through discovery and application of some “thing” that would trigger the accomplishment of the great work. My two cents.
After thought 2/17/26: Reviewing my thoughts above it occurred to me that my suggestion that alchemists might have misinterpreted a vast … one might even say cosmic … process to be a thing (the “Philosopher’s Stone”) may have somewhat arisen as a consequence of my recent read of an article by the astrophysicist Adam Frank in The Atlantic. An article with the unfortunately sensational title The Truth Physics Can No Longer Ignore. If I understand Prof. Frank correctly, he notes that the philosophy called “reductionism” dominated the study of physics through much of the 20th century. The idea was that the essence of how something worked could be discovered by identifying how the smallest components of that something worked. His article focuses on living systems, which he characterizes as “complex” because the coordinated action of all their smallest parts result in something that can take action. He cites as examples, plants growing toward light and humans sending giant metal contraptions into outer space.
I wonder if similarly, there is an generative agency behind all the materials, interactions and reactions studied by alchemists that cannot be fathomed by studying from the bottom up … by the study of materials, interactions and reactions. If so, I wonder if we creatures who are within the generated system can hope to achieve a position from which we can take in the big picture.