Why Alchemy?

At its most elemental, alchemy is about transformation.  The ancient alchemists sought to transform base metals into gold. Through this pursuit, they discovered the principals by which many materials are transformed. By applying heat; combining elements; adding or removing components; increasing or reducing hydration, what appears at first glance to be immutable can be transformed into something else. Carl Jung embraced the metaphor of alchemy to describe the process of personal metamorphosis.

I am passionate about transformation, and became enamored with Jung’s alchemical metaphor decades ago.  But there was more at play for me when I chose to call my business “An Alchemical Life”, and to embrace “Alchemy” as the term for my particular approach to magic. To me, what the alchemists, were doing, was studying and describing the properties and qualities of subtle energy. And let me tell you…I have been having a love affair with subtle energy forever.

So, what do I mean by subtle energy? Simply put, everything is vibrating. At the smallest levels of matter that we have been able to observe, there is movement.  And things move at distinct frequencies of vibration. Light, sound, solid matter, color, water, soil, plants, animals…all vibrating at particular frequencies. Particle and wave.  We can experience these vibrations through our senses. And, of course, we are readily familiar with what I call big energy…thunder, lightning, earthquakes, war, transportation, sports, fireworks, the heady scent of lilacs…these are all examples of big energy. It is easy to experience; it makes itself known.

Subtle energy is different; it’s there all the time, but not necessarily obviously. You have to listen for it, or feel for it, under the constant thrum of day-to-day life. Often, it’s more a hint or a sense of something. Like the way different shades and hues of the same color can evoke different responses in us. Or how, you might be thinking you aren’t hearing anything, but then, when you pay attention, you can hear different soft hums and buzzes; or a bird calling in the distance.  If you hear a set of chimes, or a singing bowl, or a musical note, when do you actually stop being able to hear it?

Now, some people are more sensitive to subtle energy to begin with (those of us who can hear fluorescent bulbs, for example), but I believe this sensitivity can be taught, enhanced, cultivated.

Here’s an experiment for you to try:

The next time you are in a really loud restaurant or bar, and you notice that you and your companions keep trying to talk louder and louder to hear each other over the din, stop. Pause.  Notice the big energy of the loudness. And then, instead of trying to be louder than the loud, try to actually be quieter. Drop your voice down in your throat a bit. Talk with a softer volume.  Not whispering. Just quieter. I have done this many times, and I have found that my companions and I can hear each other much better (and save our throats from getting hoarse).  What happens is, you find a different frequency to communicate at. You’re choosing a subtler frequency than the predominant one around you.

So, coming back to subtle energy and alchemy, I discovered a long time ago that I am very sensitive to ambient energies, and that I could get easily overwhelmed by energy that was very big, or very dissonant or chaotic. I found the quieter energies of nature could soothe that overwhelm. And I started to notice subtler and subtler levels of energy within that quiet.

Later in life, when I was beginning the journey of working with people, I got trained in a lot of techniques, many of which were big energy techniques. And, let me just say, there are some wonderful big energy techniques. Over time, I was drawn to the subtler techniques, and started to experience and witness the magical ways that they could effect change. While the techniques varied, at their core, they shared a common paradigm…by attuning to the vibrational level, what is dissonant can be brought into harmony. What I saw was a reworking at the cellular, molecular, vibrational level. Transformation. Alchemy.

From there, I started a personal exploration, based on the question “what if I lived my life as if, on some level, everything could be worked with?” For more than 20 years now, I have been living that question.  Along the way, I have discovered the magic of my life. I have learned how to feel when things are in alignment, and how to realign when I can feel they are out of alignment. I have come to trust my intuition, and to trust my sense of the best timing for things to unfold. Everything unfolds in its time, and we can listen for the timeliness of things. I have cultivated a deep trust in the Universe, even in the midst of the most chaotic times of my life. I now know myself to be a part of the interdependent web of “being”, as we all are, and that the web is a conduit by which everything communicates. We find our power not in the overpowering of our world, but by fully inhabiting our space in it. I now know that, when my mind cannot figure out the way through something, I can lean into that web of subtle energy and vibration, feel it thrumming and pulsing, and trust the way will become clear. It always does.