Alchemy is not taught.
The process, the composition of ingredients, the honing of intention can be taught; but alchemy itself, is something we discover or realize, or remember even.
Most folks attribute alchemy to the realm of fantasy - a bubbling cauldron, a book of spells, and the token head of bat. But it is quite real, ever present and everywhere.
Our food goes through alchemy, doesn’t it? It’s journey from fridge to mouth, and then again within us.
When you write an email - you take formlessness thought and through a process of typing on screen, you create and commune so another can see and read your thoughts formed into words.
When you are in deep pain - physical or emotional - it becomes tears, a cry or a wail.
This transmutation is the physical aspect of all alchemy. The non-physical aspects, which are far greater in magnificence and importance, through intangible are felt. This is where awareness, love and intention come in.
The activities listed above, we do all the time, yet we do most of it without awareness or intention. So now we begin to realize that we are walking cauldrons and as such the epicentre of alchemy in our lives.
I think this is why we remain blissfully ignorant, often in assertive denial of our own power that lies deep within. We delay our journey within and we like to distract ourselves with the noise of the outside, because we know, we always know, that if we pull on this thread, there is no return.
Because if You and I are truly walking Alchemists, it would would mean that we could possibly convert the every part of dark, cold heavy iron into gold (physically, metaphysically and emotionally). Herein, likes the responsibility to Self, to Others, to Earth and Universe of what is it to truly and fully know the Self and act from that essential knowing.
This may not be part of your belief.
And if so, that is alright.
It is part of my knowing.
I know it, now more than ever before, because I see myself and I see You already doing it, in those everyday mundane acts, having little idea the power of our incants and our actions. We are in many ways asleep to it, or just waking up.
The path between being the unconscious, unrealized, sleepy alchemist and the one who walks in Mastery, has a few notables that I have come to know.
1/ The Master does not seek preference or pleasure from external places, people or situations. Ideas and even desires around this are routinely burned in the proverbial cauldron fires
2/ The Master knows that outer alchemy is a representation of that which we allow to occur within. So the limits of what is possible depends on belief, trust and the ability to surrender into the unknowable, joyfully
3/ In Mastery, there is a great risk in liquifying, because you loose the identity structure you think you are. Masters know their limits and delight in the gooey edges of their courage
4/ The deep and great intimacy that comes from knowing the Self through the process, and knowing the process through the Self. A great alchemist moves with love and intention of the process, not the outcome.
5/ And most importantly, the knowing and deep appreciation of true power. That which cannot be given or taken. That which is formless yet felt and is aligned with Universal Laws, like the law that all things change.
I am certain there are more, but these are most profound and relevant to me in this moment.
The more I witness the mundane moments of the day - cooking a meal then doing dishes, going out and then returning, paying for coffee and then drinking it, writing an email and then getting a reply - the more I know that purpose of all this, is in the ’this-ness’. It isn’t in some external meaning or book or practice.
It sounds like a spiritual practice, right?
I think because it is.
Turning dense heavy matter into something luminous shimmering, under heat and pressure with detachment from outcomes, great love and courage, and a mad descent into the depths of our being, this is the stuff of the Greats.
And the knowing and realizing of Inner Alchemy is one of many many ways.
It is most natural to me, at least.
It is the moment we find ourselves in - with the ingredients of the now, with the process ( the intention, consciousness and love) and of course, with breath.
The one which dictates the next action, the response, the next scene, it is You, and only You.
The Master, who is remembering.