WE ARE LIVING IN TIMES OF ALCHEMY
At the time of writing this the world has irrevocably changed in just a short few weeks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And by the time I write next week’s storyhack it will have transformed completely once again.
Thing is – it always has.
This is the true nature of evolving life and consciousness on Earth (and beyond).
The real challenge has been one of distraction.
Most of us have been locked within a story of survival our entire lives. Our ancestors were locked in the same story (but often with a different context). And now, once again, we find ourselves facing our personal and collective story of survival.
How have you responded to the crisis and isolation around you? Have you felt a sense of relief or a sense of panic? Most of us, if we are honest, have probably experienced a roller-coaster of emotions that seems to change on an hourly basis.
These emotions are the messengers of alchemical change.
I describe alchemy as the ancient art of transforming lower forms of consciousness to higher forms. You could say that alchemy is a staged process of story metamorphosis. A process that transforms the underpinning narratives by which we live and upgrades them to higher levels of personal and collective meaning. Fear and panic are ‘lower’ emotions that keep us trapped in inaction and distraction. Acceptance, curiosity and creativity are ‘higher’ emotions that unlock hidden resources and connect us back into the web of potential around us. Peace, love and harmony are higher still, and initiate us into a sense of unity with all of life. From this place, the human world stops attracting our attention. We find ourselves lifted to a new plane of existence, being in the world but not of it.
The process of any alchemical transformation starts with the prima materia – the core essence of life. This is the part of us that exists beyond survival consciousness. It is found in the space we arrive at when we allow the noise of the human world to fall away. It is the state we were born into as a baby and will die into when we transition out of this human form. It is the ending and the beginning of all our stories.
Sometime later we enter into a stage of separation. We experience ourselves as isolated and individual. We may feel alone, abandoned and victimised by the external world. Whenever you find yourself blaming or judging, you will be working with the alchemical force of separation. It could be argued that collective human consciousness has been in this stage for some time now. There is only one path out, and that is first to become aware of our thoughts, our habits. In order to move on from this stage we must recognise and let go of anything that doesn’t serve our growth. Everything that keeps us small and subject to the social forces at play on the planet must be shed. This path is hard, but the energy that awareness brings can be so powerful, so liberating. Allow it to pass through your stories and cleanse them, letting go of anything that stops you from reconnecting to life and evolving.
Once we have been able to release we move into a process known to alchemists as conjunction. The elements of our story start to join together in a deeper pattern, pointing the way towards our real purpose and destiny. Are we headed towards this stage on the earth right now? Is COVID-19 one of the clearing forces of separation that is actually bringing us to new levels of clarity and focus, allowing a new conjunction of meaning, purpose and vision to emerge for humanity? It’s not lost on me that this year began with the astrological conjunction of Pluto and Saturn (see my January 20 storyhack on this). Conjunction of new information, new ways of living and new future visions is in the making on a global level as we speak. Can we surrender to this inherently creative process?
And if so, where are we headed from here?
What beliefs and stories will we be basing our future vision on?
The good news is that you get to choose.
And so do I.
In fact we all get to choose how we will make and tell our future.
The final stages of alchemy that follow conjunction allow us to embed and solidify our future visions – so it is really important to be careful what you wish for. Fermentation is the next stage of the process. It is often compared to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, where the imaginal cells of the new being fire into action to create a whole new body.
So what personal / social and global body are we choosing to lay the foundations for now?
Everything you think, speak, eat and do is contributing towards your imaginal cells of the future, even as you read this.
What future story are you choosing?
Are you getting sucked into the classic human victim narrative of ‘everything bad is happening TO me from outside forces I can’t control’?
If the answer is ‘Yep’, then stop right here. No one else can control your inner beliefs and choices (see Victor Frankl Man’s Search For Meaning for details). You alone choose, and you create.
This metamorphosis and liberation of your choice and free will lead to the eventual distillation stage of alchemy where we hone in on what truly inspires and ignites us. We enter into a field of phoenix-like clarity, rising up from the ashes of our old stories and flying high above the world to see the whole landscape of possibilities open out before our hearts and minds. We live from this place, free and unbounded by previous restrictions. Can you imagine what the world will look, feel and sound like when we reach this stage of social, global and universal alchemy….the fabled golden age? Perhaps.
The final stage of the alchemical process is coagulation. It is mystical, magical and very difficult to describe in words. As I understand it from the fragments of experience I have had thus far, it is a time of transcendence, transfiguration and transmutation. When the purified essence of our life expands in unity and interconnection with everything else and we fully realize that everything in our external life stems from our internal levels of consciousness. Indeed, the nature of true unity dictates that there is nothing outside of ourselves. ‘Me’ merges completely with ‘we’ and we start to reach the stages of non-dual awareness where the story of interconnection comes alive in the cells of our being.
But then who knows ?
Perhaps we fade into the fabric of the universe like Yoda?
Perhaps we start dancing and playing like children just let out of school for a very long cosmic summer?
Or perhaps we go on living our lives in joy and celebration of a world and an Earth that is completely transformed.
Only choice will tell.
So choose wisely.
