Now that we have unearthed the unconscious materials that we once discarded, we can also now sift through it to really find parts of it that can help us grow. In this stage, the alchemist separates and filters the products of dissolution. The water in this stage asks us to let go, and to release the structures and the systems that define our perceptions of ourselves. It is in this stage that we must unearth those parts of us - the parts of us that we have rejected - whether they are perceived faults, or painful memories, or traumatic upbringings. When you are primarily driven by ego, as one is prior to undergoing your journey into the spiritual, we may have buried parts of ourselves in order to create an image of what our identity is. Here, we are plunged into the waters of the unconscious. The chemical process of dissolution is to take the ashes from calcination and dissolve it in water. This stage asks us to humble ourselves - fire sparks the journey into the self. Or it can come gradually over time, through the suffering we experience in life, or even when we get all the things that we could ever want, but without feeling a true sense of fulfillment. The break with the worldly can come to us in something as sudden as a traumatic event like a loss. These things can be beneficial, but the larger of a figure it plays in our lives, the more we chase it, and the more it can consume us. Along the journey of life, it’s easy to get lured into the rat race - we seek wealth, but also status, fame, prestige, things to feed our ego and our own perceptions of our identity. This stage refers to the breaking of our attachments to the worldly. In alchemy this is depicted as the burning of the prima materia into ash. The Seven Stages of AlchemyĪgain, this process is going to look familiar here to other tarot readers, because it has a similar narrative ( we humans are usually pretty bad at coming up with different narrative arcs) of the human spirit being broken, remade, tested and reborn again. Here, we’ll follow and trace the metaphor of creating the philosopher’s stone from prima materia, and what it means in terms of self development and actualization. Alchemy is another thread that links all religions and faiths to the vast indra’s net of spirituality. If you’re saying that this sounds familiar, you’re right - it’s similar to the states that we see in other religious or esoteric traditions, including tarot (the world card), and buddhism (enlightenment), as just a few examples. What alchemy is actually fixated on is spiritual development - with the end goal being a state of awareness, completion and harmony. Like most occult practices, the true value of alchemy is hidden underneath much obscure symbolism, warding off the muggles, and keeping the secrets within. It gives to the uninitiated a somewhat comical impression: a loony man’s thirst for material wealth leads him to believe that it’s possible to turn lead into gold. And that is for the most part, what people outside of spiritual circles do. It’s easy to dismiss alchemy as an ancient and outmoded form of chemistry - a stumbling block along the history of scientific thought.
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