Alchemy Part Four: The stages out of lead
Here is where we get to see where we are in in life. Have we heard the call or not. Does our shame, blame, and guilt block us. Have we let Loki become our demons, our mental blockades. Or are we stuck in the third chakra in its survival and acquisition trap. Or are we feeling the sting of Karma in the fifth chakra. Are we in touch with our bodies desires, or are they overwhelming? Is it our only way to comfort? Have we tempered our feminine side with our masculine? Do we get out of ourselves and ask guidance from the holy spirit. Is our magical child free to aspire? Once we set the child into the sky with the kite do we follow it. Or is it stuck in the clouds and will not come back and bring the change?
Now we will see where we stand in the alchemetical stages of our development. How is that gold and silver making out?
Prima Materia
Luke Skywalker surveys in the distance over a barren wasteland, nothing. But frustration and anxiety well up inside him as he feels stuck in life. He wishes to go to stars and builds models of ships that might take him there one day. Life is the stagnant wasteland that his home sits on the edge of.
In the movie Excalibur, the symbol of the land and its fertility has been molested by the hero archetype of Lancelot. For some scholars argue that Gweneveare was only a symbol or goddess of the land. The King is the land and the land is the King, but the land is in the possession of Lancelot. Some myths say that Lancelot rebelled against the King in warfare, which is symbolically the same as his adulteress transgression. The land of the kingdom enters the wasteland and undergoes deprivation and starvation. For as Henry the eight new only too well, when there is no heir there is no rest. For if the queen is in the arms of the Hero, the King is infertile. If the King is unhappy, the kingdom suffers. Look at the whirly wig that Henry caused! Back to our ego's; Arthur the King is the Chief in Command, the Zeus; Lancelot is the active half of the ego who acts upon his chief's commands, the Colin Powell or Mars; and Guinevere is the queen that provides life to whatever the King wants to plant in her and brings new to it. She is also the home one finds joy and comfort in, the place all adventurers yearn and return to as the end goal. The mission has always been to find out how to make home better. What did Dorothy want most from Gwendolynn, when the lion asked for courage, the Tin Man a heart, and the Scarecrow a brain? The secret is to make yourself comfortable in your own home, in your brain.
Many of us have come to this site because of boredom and emptiness we find in life, much like Luke scanning the barrens. Others come to us because Gweneveare has been in control of the King and has made him impotent. Gweneveare could be our mother or our projection of her in our wife. When you take away control from the king the woman becomes barren because she lacks directed assertiveness of the Yang energy that is dominant in men. So she looks to Lancelot the hero figure to implant her with his seed of body and thought, if the husband can not dominate her she finds another. So the king becomes impotent in the world outside the bedroom and within. Which brings us back to Luke and his wasteland. Others are like Mordred fighting their father to share a space in the kingdom or abucate his seat. Our Fathers sometimes do not allow us to choose our paths in life, they want us to be lawyers or doctors to be safe. Other fathers want us to follow in their footsteps. And still others are afraid of their mortality and us replacing them. This is when Luke must confront his father Darth Vader for control. Or the more passive means of Herbie standing up for his right to become a dentist. Some women ended up here because Gweneveare was forced to grow up and save the kingdom before her time. She still hungers for the joy and comfort of the home she never had, and is not guaranteed to find in the castle of marriage. She is not properly grounded to bring forth a bountiful harvest by giving reassurance and justification to her kings decisions, or more important; her own. The Harvest of the health of her children's happiness also becomes perilous. Many times the woman finds herself in health professions trying to save the world so her mother would be saved with the rest, and then and only then does the child within think she will find the joy and comfort from the mother she secretively yearns for. But allot of parents had children to provide the joy and comfort for themselves they never found before! Then others are like Merlin wandering around the wasteland as kings fight with one and another, dreaming of a day when the rightful king would bring order. Imagine all the ideas and dreams he could tell him to decree. We find ourselves to be the dreamer looking for the courage and decisiveness of the King and hero as we play the cowardly Lion. We come here as the what ifs, what should be, and what can never be's. The magicians though, that is the majority of us.........
We are the people who built the pyramids, rowed Lief to America, stood scared behind a tree and shot at lines of redcoats, marched on Washington for equal rights, and had built the computers, cars, and airplanes that keep our world going. We are the meek, the angels. We produce and manifest the swords and the armor that the round table depends on. We either make them for Kings that protect our interests and happiness or those that empower us through fear and desire. But most of us are without hope and become apathetic to the difference in Kings. We are the producers, the manufacturers, and soldiers. We are the muscle, we are where dreams become reality. We are the world, and we are the world we produce. This is the realm of the body and consciousness. We are the hand tempered and controlled by the will. We are the manifestations. And here is the final battle, the bar, the measure and the cut. The generals and Kings never win the war, but the direction and real time life actions of the soldiers.
But truth or propaganda can change our actions. When truth comes, it rings true. If truth sounds harsh, we deny it and let desire in. Desire for another answer brings the fear there is not another. Then we are hit with guilt and shame of others who are open to be deceived. Then you all become asses in the circus with Pinnochio; for as your nose can tell, lies have become your friend. At this point we have already been deceived by the candy feats, the instant gratification that our media and corporations anaesthetize us with. So as we fade in energy and eat the candy bar for the quick energy it provides, we are faced with the crash that leaves us even more faded. Propaganda creates this descending spiral into the wasteland. Truth is the only way out. Allot of us know what our truths are, but we are still in denial and look here for the answer that is within........
This is the Prima Materia. This is the beginning of the Hero adventure. This is the advancement of the problem to be remedied. Here the aspiration for change brews. The distilling begins here. It is the child and its history entering upon the threshold of adulthood. Trials and tribulations proceed from here on until the journey is over and we return home.
Developmental Stages of Ego
1. Ego is absent, totally identified with the unconscious, as in infancy.
2. Just as you grow and develop physically, your ego rises and you learn to distinguish yourself from your environment.
3. Your ego becomes aware of its emergent powers and explores love of self and parents.
4 Your ego stops focusing on making people respond and starts trying to make things.
5. The pangs of separation from the original condition of blissful wholeness are felt in the alienation of the adolescent identity crisis.
6. The ego begins yearning to recapture the sense of wholeness in love of the beloved and creativity.
7. Attachment to strictly personal needs is further dissolved by being a nurturing parent, teacher, mentor, and detachment from externals is experienced in mystic ecstasy.
8. The reign of the ego in consciousness ends in illumination for its destiny is to transcend itself.
9. The tyranny of the puny ego is over; it is again absent, having merged back into awareness, cosmic consciousness, unification (Ultima Materia)
Miller; The Modern Alchemist
Four sides of the Ego
1. The King; Zeus,President, task maker.
2.Hero;Mars, General, logical planner and engineer guided by statistics and tangible facts.
3.Mystic; Merlin, Himmler/vizier, instinctual planner and engineer guided by emotions and hunches.
4. Magicians; Vulcan, soldier/civilian, the manufacturer and laborer that brings the ideas of the other three into reality and brings change to the Earth.
Four Common Personas of one troubled in Prima Materia
1. The person as Packaged commodity, ready to be sold to others as a dressed for success conformist. Acceptance is based on superficial conformity rather than on genuine personal qualities.
2. The placater emulates rather than initiates, looking to others rather than internalized values as cues for appropriate behavior.
3. The corporate clone is so geared to organizational life that bureaucratic precepts guide his entire personal and family life.
(Miller; The Modern Alchemist.)
4. The Passive/Aggressive or Aggressive/Passive person in romantic relationships stuck swinging from the trees of good and evil.
"Society can teach sick behavior. Some Individuals respond to the demands of society for "normal" behavior by learning to suppress their inwardly held values and feelings and doubting their own perceptions."
Millers, The Modern Alchemist
Symptoms of a plagued Persona
1. Wearing a social mask in front of your own face.
2. Identifying with your role or occupation; mother or CEO; and not with your soul.
3. Unhealthy behaviors are carried over from childhood through adaptation techniques learned to survive through trauma or crazy making behavior by our adult care givers that repress our own voice, emotions, logic, feelings, and growth.
4. Living by and adapting to other's negative impressions of ourselves and ignoring the truths inside.
5. Codependency arising from from primary caregivers are unable or unwilling to meet your needs; an abandonment of your soul that you go agree to even inside yourself. (Miller claims that 95% of our population feels this way, so you are not alone.)
6. Guilt, Shame, and Blame.
7. Control issues arise.
8. ignoring your own interests and needs to satisfy others.
9. Fear of rejection and anger.
10. All or nothing behavior resulting in various dependencies. Everything is white or black with no balance or moderation.
11. Taking too much responsibility for others.
12. Obsessive thinking.
13. Difficulty making decisions.
14. Being out of touch with your feelings.
15. Fantasy thinking, what if behavior.
16. Problems with intimacy.
17 Chronic physical ailments, low blood sugar, and fatigue.
18. Lack of hobbies or social life.
19. Extreme stir crazy and homeboundness after work. (Time to make the doughnuts syndrome.)
20. Hopes that the end comes not too late.
21. Damn breaking floods of emotions on those you feel safe with, emotional abuse of others who will continue to be your only source of release. Abuse of those who you feel to be the only one who really cares about you.
22. "Who am I is heard." Often.
Archetypes of Borderline Children
1. The Hero (First Aid, Athletes, Politicians.)
2. Saviors (Health Professions.)
3. Clown (Trades and arts)
4. Black Sheep (Any profession in opposition to one of your parents, or in time the same one.)
5. Perfectionist (CEO,Lawyers, and engineers.)
6. Placater (Gophers, Restaurant management, assistants.)
7. Lost Child ( Drifter or one who hangs on to a profession for years due to the fear no one else would hire them.)
This is the Led
This is how to get the Led Out!
The Nigredo
You have received the call. Internal pressures will not allow for you to continue in the same manner of living any more. You seek advice, scan the self help books, invest in therapy. But now you must ask this question; do you want only temporary release so you can deal with life better or do you want to give up good enough for better. If it is temporary release, stop reading here. For as in Herman Hesse's Stephenwolf, only mad men may enter the magical mystery theater of the mind. There is no enabling here. Abandon all hope yea who enter, if you go on, your next guide is Mephistocles and Virgil as you enter the divine comedy. For you have past the midway point in that dark forest. Those who proceed are the brave, those willing to give up good for better, those willing to make change, those who see mistakes as learning. Those may enter. For here you either take the angelic guides hand from Virgil or the devilish paw of Mephistocles. For you have entered the twilight zone of your subconscious's. Can you guess his name, if you do have some courtesy and some grace. For he is part of you, he is your shadow. For you been chasing him too long like Peter Pan, time to sew him to his appropriate place.
When an individual is physically healthy, he works as a whole indifferent to its internal parts. But as soon as the doctor tells you that you have pancreatic cancer, you quickly learn where the pancreas is and what it does. The same is with your shadow. When your self is split, its parts speak out to be addressed. So now we venture onto the world of the archetypes. In this world you will meet varied characters as Dorothy had found in Oz. But first she meets with the Wicked Witch. So shall you. That is if you had ignored Virgil's advice..,
Nigredo is the next step. You come to the fourth chakra and find yourself no better or no worse than someone you admire. You believe you deserve as much happiness as them. They have put faith in you. But once entering the fifth chakra of Nigredo, Uh-Oh, all that stuff we did to gain survival that hurt ourselves or others return like nasty indigestion and settles in our throat. The fifth chakra is the review of our past. It is like standing naked in front of the mirror. Can we accept our faults and move past them, or do we wallow in denial and guilt. Do we project them as some one else's problem. We have read allot about the shadow already, if you had been drawn or rejected by those pages, we probably have been in Nigredo for some time now. Is it time to move on?
The other half of Nigredo is the Dragon....
Aurelia Occulta Philosophorum
I am infirm and weak old man, surnamed the dragon, therefore am
I Shut Up in a cave, that I may ransomed by the kingly crown.
.......A fiery sword inflicts great torments on me; death makes weak my
flesh an bones...My soul and my spirit depart; a terrible poison, I am
likened to the black raven, for that is the wages of sin; in dust and earth
I lie, that out of three may come one. O soul and spirit leave me not,
that I may see again the light of day, and the hero of peace whom the
whole world shall behold arise from me.
In fairy tales the dragon hides in his cave and hordes over gold and young virginal children. The hero goes to slay or befriend the dragon to receive the gold and free the child. The Dragon hordes things it has no use for usually, so after we conquer our own fear, the dragon is easy. Especially if we befriend it and not make it defend itself. It senses fear. It is Devils snare from Harry Potter, like quicksand it reacts more to anxiety. If we come in peace, so shall it. The Dragon only gives up its cave's treasure to the hero that is only better than him. Only growth and truth .
What are the treasure and who are the princely children? It is ourselves. The lost children. The side that could dance, paint, laugh, and play. The side we condemned because of the want of others approval. They are the guardians of our secrets, dreams, hope, talents, and true professional callings. Either it be plumbing or quantum physics, they hold the truth. What is the gold, it is the well being that manifests in true fiscal wealth along with true emotional happiness.
So who is the Dragon, it is ourselves. It is ourselves coming to our self. Like the omnibus consuming its own tail. It is our unadjusted ego to the whole. It is the ego that ignores itself. It is the mad king jumping on the funeral Pyre of his still living son. The Shadow is our guardian devil. Our school of hard knocks teacher. He is an honest brutal friend.
This phase is Luke entering the cave on the Planet in the Dagoba system. Here he confronts Darth Vader, but is warned that he has too much anger. Here he removes Darth Vader's head from his shoulders to only find his own face behind the visor. The Same happens in Excalibur as Lancelot fights in the buff a knight in shinning armor. He finds his own face starring back at him from the visor too. Befriend your devil. He is the Ghost of Christmas future. He helps remove those Marley chains. But you must be ready for it can destroy you or leave you stuck in life.
Myths talk about the hero's who refuse the call we discussed in the previous stage.
"Because I have called, and yea have refused... I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
Proverbs, 1: 24-27, 32
Time Jesum transeuntem et non revertentem: "Dread the passage of Jesus, for he does not return."
This is the denial to give up everything for the kingdom of God. This is stopping at the temple gates afraid of guardian statues. These statues are the gargoyles on cathedrals and desire and fear on the Buddhist temples. The Buddhist fear and desire statues may be your real life mother and father who prevents you from growing up. This is the denial of several little deaths through life. We are to shed our skin throughout our life like the snake. To hold onto any time, moment, or life as we find in a marriage, occupation, or role is denial to our new calling. Sometimes it is our parent encircling us in their reality we must break forth from like an chick hatching through the skin of the egg. Like Odin encircling his daughter Brynhilda in the Ring saga, to protect her virginity. Much like the Dragon discussed earlier.
King Minos received a Bull to sacrifice, but kept it for his own profit. Sacrifice of the bull is to release the powers of the universe upon the world. The dual nature of hero slayer and sacrifice. Herod Antipias slays Christ for the world to receive his boon. Michael slays the dragon for the kingdom to grow. Hermes sacrifices his brothers stolen cattle to become a god. Osiris ushers the dead to the underworld as a bull. But Minos rejects the wealth and prosperity for his kingdom in the death of the bull for his own. So his Child is born as the minotaur he must sacrifice other youths too. Sounds like Papa Bush sending youths to W's war machine for sacrifice.
Another image is Sleeping Beauty put to sleep with her whole court by a jealous hag, representing her mother's dragon destructive nature. Sleeping Beauty is encircled also by her mothers world by an enormous hedge that encircles the castle. The castle being the symbol of the mind. It is for every child to break forth from the world of their parents into their own. As they advance, they advance the parent. But many parents refused their own calling and still stuck in their parents sphere of influence.
Refusal is to be stuck in a circular argument. My friend bought a car to get to a job she hated, that she could not leave because of the car repairs she needed to pay for so she can get to work again. In Vampire myths, it is only when we invite the vampire into our home, our head, may he do us harm. Most harm is self inflicted, even if we put ourselves into harms way, like a bad neighborhood, waiting for some one to transgress upon us. But the vampire does not suck blood from the neck, but the blood of your children. For it is a psychic vampire that steals your zest for life. Steal yours, steal your children's. Kill the lead vampire, save your children. Name the problem, rupplestiltskin, save your children. Heed the call save the children, even yourself.
So walk bravely with Mephistopheles or Virgil," it is your choice babe, for I think you will not be back in five days time, so choose wisely." For yes, it is always your choice, even if you pine away Tori. It was always your choice.
But the Dragon you faced now is the elder dragon of Revelations. It is the first witch squashed under the house. The second awaits you later. It is Longshanks and his idiot son from Braveheart and their descendants the Bushs. It is Herod the Great and Herod Antipas with Christ. It is Cromwell and his idiot son against the Milleniumists. It is Jon Adams and Jon Quincy Adams against the Jefferson, But Quincy got smarter! The child of the dragon escapes to grow along with you. You will face him at the end of our adventure. W.
Calls to Adventure
1. Dreams.
2.Depression.
3. Lustfulness and boredom.
4. Puberty.
5. Career changes.
6. Relationship changes.
7. Physical ailments and diseases.
8. Moving.
9. Kicks in the teeth.
Archetypes
1. Old Man/Fairy Godmother (guides)
2. Wicked Witch or evil Vizier (Negative half of Parental figure)
3. Mysterious man or woman (Healthy subconscious lover and mate; anima the feminine soul {the place that pours forth} of a man and the animus the male spirit {distillation of matter back to the place that has poured forth} of a woman.
4. Dirty neglected children (Our inner child)
5. Animals (various mythological traditions based on the animals native traits)
6. Aids (Old Man or Fairy Godmother in disguise)
7. Compatriots
8. presenter of challenge
9. The Shadow
4 Attitudes toward Nigredo
1. Enantiodromia, the Pendulum between two extremes of thinking with no middle ground. All or nothing.
2. Ambivalence, stuck in between two opposing thoughts. Standstill.
3. Denial; going back to the old destructive life.
4. True compromise; middle path between all the opposing parts of your psyche and the world around you. The willingness to endure the pains and tribulations of transformation.
Solutio
Solutio is dissolving a solid into a liquid form. It is taking the tangible reality that you call your life and let it become mutable like water. It calls to let go of all the things you hold most dear. Like the phrase, "If you let go of something you love, it will return." All that was not yours will not, for it will find its appropriate home. So be brave and have faith. In Herman Hesse's Stephenwolf, the dog nature, the civilized social adapted persona, must give into the spirit of the wolf from the Steppes. It is the acceptance of your instincts, not fear or anxiety, but your true instincts. In time the inner self will balance with the external persona you show to society. To be in and out of the world at all times. The spirit of your instincts will lead you to your soul.
Here is the land within the dark forest and the dungeons of our subconsciousness we find in varied collections of the fairy tales from throughout the world. It is Frodo's Journey into Mordor. Or Dorothy dodging the perils of OZ. Do you buckle up and curl into a ball when the witch approaches or do stand firm?
This is your own personal Armageddon. Armageddon is meant to be meant as a meeting place in the crossroad town of Meggido in Judea. A meeting place for the Kings and Queens of the world to gather and compromise at the end of the world. When the German's and Gaul's overwhelm Rome it was felt to be the end of one world and the beginning of the Mediaeval. Solutio is where your ego meets with its subconscious subpersonalities and higher guides. But the world you left, is no more. You can only step in the same piece of water once. How it goes is up to you, it is your own Neverending story.
Remember Wendy sewing on Peter Pan's shadow. It is time to take the thread and needle out. You must realize that your shadow is you. To realize you are Lucifer, the light bearer. They are not your child's problems, wife's, or bosses, but your own. Your personal Lucifer shines the light on your mistakes so you can learn from them. It is the helpful critique of a painting in an art class to the slap on the ass when we reach for the hot pan on the stove. Lucifer shines physically and mentally. Imagine what a world it would be if YHVH could look into the light and see himself as the devil? It is the integration of Lucifer with his twin brother, the God of the old testament.
Secret is not to confront your shadow with its destruction or denial, but acceptance. The more the ego denies the voice of the shadow, the more the shadow takes over and stuffs you full of twinkies and Gin. It senses your desires and fears and reacts like a vicious dog to them. Come with hand out and in peace your shadow turns into a lap dog. But one without a master, only an equal. Lucifer had said he was to only serve the self of God and not his desires and fears of man. Lucifer called for God to be true to himself and God cast him into the hell of his subconsciousness as a scape goat for all of his projections. So out of love for his brother Lucifer confronts God throughout time until he is healed once more. He calls him to be true to himself. From time to time he uses us to do so. For God has problems with his mother as well!
YHVH is the ego king, Christ is the spirit, and Haga Sophia is the soul. Within us the passion play manifests so we may unite the three, so they can become whole. We are the missing fourth part that completes them.
Thoughts of insanity might come from time to time. Reality is speculous. The mind and the body seems to be split. Your muscles tense over the slightest thing. Logically the anxiety does not call for the amount of tension in the back or chest. When thought through, the stress is minimal, put the pain extreme. But you have entered the Twilight Zone. Your own personal fairy tale.
Then your body may come out of this in a hypersensitive sensual mood that the mind may not follow. Here you enter the collective evil and the reawakened natural instincts of your body. You get to renew your ethical grounding. The Golden rule is re-taught. Approach-avoidance is common. Three steps forward and two steps back. You swing from prudish behavior to wantonness. Here, you are teaching yourself. You have been in the world long enough, you can create your own laws, morality, and happiness. Also you can now learn to bring your own justice and redemption needed to bring change into your life.
Bastion in the Neverending story with Aurin is seen in this place when he listens to the evil empress and indulges in himself and forgoes his friendship with Artreu and the Luck Dragon. Here the wise man figure appears again. They can be external teachers, lovers, friends, family who know a little more than you. But be careful that you do not find someone who feeds your negativity and justifies it. Like the Evil empress with Bastion or the White Witch in the Narnia tales with Edmund. Here an addict might run back to his doped up friends who justify his giving in and up to the drug. Some look to go back the way they came, but the bridges are burning.
Here your anima/animus, wolf/dog, and shadow become separated. In alchemy you must separate items before you join them. Here all your internal parts become external characters in your life.
The biggest thing I find with people going through this phase with me is the teenage rebel. First people see you are the caring non-judmental ear that puts them at ease. They feel comfort in knowing their emotions are justified within you. They hear your wisdom and they start walking out upon their own path heeding your advice. But as they begin the three steps forward, two steps back; they get overwhelmed by fear, shame, and guilt because the desire for change is too great. Their shame turns into your blame in their eyes. They can not hold the shame within themselves, it must be you that are hurting them. You have become their outward conscious. They have turned you into their father. At this point they begin running away from you, as most teenagers do. Here they are pushing the limits, finding their own boundaries. But the person as the teacher/father figure, has never changed. Even if they think you are the most condemning person on earth. You have never change a bit. It is common for the person entered upon Solutio not to be seen by his guides for quite some time. Until they have brought enough change to themselves to show their face again without the shame they feel inside. It becomes a solitary time. It is a time that social needs conflict with the individual's in what seems like Armageddon.
Other times you must play the devil. In Bruce Lee's philosophical film "Circle of Iron", David Caradine plays this blind teacher who guides a youth across a wasteland. Here the youth learns to fight monkeys, has an anamorous interest get crucified, and his vow of chastity broken. Here he comes across many adversaries. All of them were David Carradine in various disguises. He was the monkey who attempted to kill him, he was the Sheik who crucified his lover, and his condemning teacher. By overcoming the trickster shadow, killing his sick anima, the teacher the youth was ready for was able to teach the pupil. But the teacher and the pupil were one in the same on multiple levels. That junkie that pushes you to do enough drugs to kill an elephant, might just be the projection of your own shadow. He is justifying your own destructive voice in your head. He seem so comfortable because he is a part of your self.
Solutio is the body of the fairy tale.
Coagulatio
This phase is when Luke Skywalker removes the targeting visor and the computer guidance system to use the force, his own innate abilities to blow up the death star. This is the Uroborous, the dragon swallowing its own tail. The alpha and omega. This is the symbol of the powers of nature, the chaos. This is the phase that Percaval releases the reigns of his horse. This is the place that you let go of your will to something greater. This is the plunge into the personal currents of your life without fear and desire. The mere act of just doing.
All that you desire has become fruitless and you are exhausted. Your goals have proven to unattainable by your desires. Here you learn to start to aspire.
Here you realize you are not in your old world. "Toto, I do not think we are in Kansas anymore!" You do not associate as being the wicked witch or Tin man of your inner self, but you do not associate with yourself who has flown the balloon home yet. Your mind and your body seems to be split.
This is reflective in the archetypes predominant in this part. The great dragon is the animal half of the personified wicked witch. The beast of the Apocalypse and the great whore of Babylon. This is the feminine half of the Dragon seen in Nigredo. She is the mother of the old and new serpent. She is the tidal wave that overwhelms, the fire that can not be quenched, the wind that will not cease. She is the destructive obtuse powers that will blow up the whole room to kill a single fly. She asks you to kill your old ego symbolized by the old dragon. Now you have become the new dragon. This is the phase that Bastion becomes overwhelmed and completely cut off from his mentors and guides. The dark empress controls him, the whore of Babylon.
This dragon is also Kali Ma. Black Kali. Kali is the wife of the Hindu version of Gabrielle, Shiva. The maker and breaker of forms. What does not work is given up for new growth. What is horrible in the eyes of God is destroyed by Gabrielle's flaming sword. But Kali is the emotional disembowlment. She is seen hideous with tongue licking blood, skulls worn around her hips and neck, as she flails her Cries knife. But she also has prominent pubic hair exposed. She is also a symbol of new life, she skins away all your baggage you can not remove yourself. The skulls around her neck and hips are all the old personalities and personas you have outgrown. So face Kali Ma voluntarily, for life will become much lighter afterwards.
Now you take responsibility for your own conscious once again. Now like most parents with their first born, they are over careful, over protective. So the brighter the truth you found, the larger your shadow seems to loom. Your faults become more distinct in the light. Here you face your own faults and remove your denial.
It is like a fine sauce. You boil the residue from the meat and vegetables. The water separates and evaporates into the air. You add the spices, butter, and flour. The temperature is lowered and is simmered for a longer period of time. Here all the ingredients merge and settle together. Then once place in the fridge for the day, the ingredients congeal a little more. Sauces always taste better the next day. Coagulatio means to congeal. Here Einstein comes down out of the clouds to prove the math to the technicians of science. Here you merge your own evil, inner workings, and insightful relationships with your world.
The wise man and the old dragon are symbols of lineal time, direct actions. Conscious decisions. The Uroborous and the Whore of Babylon is the Goddess of instincts and cyclic time. She is about the life and death reality the soul knows. The Wise man is the points between this tangible life. He is what most believe is real. The goddess brings about the continual life and death cycle of the ego, the emotional half. The wise man governs the continual life of the body and the things needed to promote its health.
Sublimatio
In the Navaho Myth of the two Sons searching for the father Sun, they first must go through the mother. They come unto the Great old Spider Woman. She gives them the gifts to overcome the path that cuts and the poison that their father will give them. She is the void in between the fifth and sixth chakra. In the sixth Chakra we become one with God. But not before the challenge. Here is the light saber fight between Darth Vader and Luke. This is Arthur fighting Mordred. It is the Sennex versus the Puer. The new Dragon inside you must face the old dragon once again. But this time it is the old Dragon of the collective unconsciousness, not the subconscious. It is the youth from Lee's movie "Circle of Iron" meeting Christopher Lee to gain the book of knowledge and replace him. The Senex only gives up good for better. Only the right attitude or hero he may succumb to .
But the secret is, how do you succumb him so you may not replace him as the old Dragon. The Indra. How do you raise him and yourself to the seventh chakra? In the seventies they started writing stories of hero's who get the sons of tyrants to change the lives of their fathers. In previous myths when the guy with the white hat kills the guy in black, he dons the black hat at that moment. My Lebanese friend reminded me that when any rebels take power, they become as oppressive as the tyrant they replaced. Karma is a bitch. There is only one hard road for change. Short cuts need to be redressed at later dates when the illness continues to spread.
Sublimatio refers to sublimating, to elevate or transmute something into the air. This is leaving the crown chakra into the air above. It is entering eternity and the collective consciousness. It is giving yourself to the service of the Holy Angel. It is the moment of true giving up everything to enter the valley of the higher imagination. Previously you gave up all to gain the kingdom of God. Now you are here, you are to raise the kingdom into the Valley and give it new life. It is coming back to the father as an equal. If not you become the bully in control of your infirm father. It is the rebel turning into the tyrant.
But the other key here is to remain tethered in between heaven and earth. It is the balloon floating between landing and rising with helium pulling it up and gravity pulling it down with the rope keeping it in place. At this point some become insane. Here is the people who do not want to return from the fairy tale world they have entered. Cuhulain and Ulysses are examples of these hero's who do not return home. The first returns hundred of years later like Rip VanWrinkle to become useless and turn to dust. The other almost looses his wife to the suitors he must fight to get her back. It is the son who goes out and saves him so he returns.
Here the body and spirit balance out. Life is easier. The tension is removed by deep breathing. It is like a weight has been lifted from your chest. Your muscles open up. Your guard is dropped. As long as you ego is open your spirit rises. pnuema refers to spirit. Pneumatic tires are spirit tires. So as your spirit lightens, so does your breathing. Just do not get meglo maniac, do not relate yourself as the creator and sole God. But cocreator and co God with everyone. Here you must let your ego go to a greater power.
Alebedo, Rubedo, and Coniunctio
In the Holy Grail story Perceval is transfixed by a Hawk who has swooned down upon a dove and left behind three drops of red blood on white snow. The Colors of Passion. The colors of Christ. The colors of Sex. Compassion, saving/balancing, and Creation. Here the the body and spirit shape the soul. The soul is the unified world. It is Christ returning Sophia and our world back to the Plemora that she fell from. It is rising the God of the Old Testament to the door keeper and not the bridge guardian at his toll booth.
People who have gone through this point can just heal with their presence. People seek them out just to bask in their presence, for the comfort gained. Here the individual re-experience the union of opposites as in the fourth chakra within himself. Feminine and Masculine thinking are balanced.
The hawk attacks the dove. They are bound together merging as one. The spirit is red, Rubedo, and the body is white, Alebedo. After the crucifixion the body of Christ rises as the white dove to be burned in the fire, Calcinatio, that merges the spirit and the body. Thomas did physically put his finger through Christ's wrist. Christ had become the Philosopher's stone and black Phoenix that rose from the white ash (White robes in the Tomb). He was the light that transpired into the darkness of the void and has returned. The Bodhisavta.
Here society and the world of your parents are balanced with your external and internal life. They see in accord with each other. It is Luke giving peace to Anakin Skywalker, letting him breath the spirit without his persona on. His mask is removed. Anakin spirit flies to be with Ben Kenobi. Also your relationship with your wife and children are saved and grow to new heights. Your wife feels the truth in your heart and the children are no longer confused by your contradictory teachings. Here you can give comfort, joy, justification, and reassurance to them and everything in the world. Love is first felt, for you have learn to love yourself. Desire and fear is far behind you. Nirvana is yours.
Here is the new life. You are your true self. Your true calling, your born profession is to follow your bliss and you now listen to the child in the dragon's cave. Work becomes play. The new and old dragon are removed and have been through the stages of the hawk and the dove to rise as the phoenix in Coniuctio, the marriage of opposites.
At this time you are asked if you shall be a bodhisavata or a Guatamea. Siddharta Guatamea reached Buddha hood and was forced to teach and then went into eternity as an non distinct element. But a consciously entity. Bodhisattva are those who return to the world to teach so the whole is happy. It is the youth denying the role of Indra or escape of Buddha to return to the world as a teacher alongside the David Carradine character. Here we return to the fourth Chakra, The Christ consciousness, the heart chakra. It is your choice. This is the return in the hero cycle. It is Sam, Pippin, and Merry returning to the shire after defeating the great evil to free the shire of bandits that have overwhelmed it in their absence. It is coming out of the fairy land as a hero and becoming one in the world. It is your choice. You can enjoy your honest mad millions from your bliss, or you can help others enjoy what you have been fortunate enough to receive. It is giving back. For when you give back you are continuously giving to your self.
Then some come back as Mephistocles and Lucifer. Great men that brought great change through horrible means. Hitler, Napoleon, and Alexander. All would not act until inspired from something beyond themselves. But it is a destructive power that few gods can overcome. When they acted out of their own personal egos they fell and were punished. If they remained resolunent and strong and followed the greater voice, they would of been integrated into society as you did with your personal shadow. They would diminish into a quaint ignored life until society goes unbalanced and destructive once more. But when they are quiet they become subtle strong powers that make you laugh, they become the influence behind dada, the bizarre joy, the unexpected, and anything that keeps us from boredom. They become our comedians, painters, and novelists. Hitler did want to attend art school?
So it is now for you in either pole to change the world. The next phase in Alchemy is in creation. It is using the same methods of developing yourself, to develop the worlds into it's perfect state, nah, beautiful state. It is about how that is done.
This first alchemetical group is what this page is about. In the next pages we discuss other methods of getting to Coniunctio and the fourth chakra. One for all, all for one. Love yourself, love your neighbor.
I
Love you.
I comfort you.
I give joy.
I justify you.
I reassure you.
PREVIOUS
NEXT
Alchemy is an ancient art of psychology. Alchemy is ancient art of chemistry. Alchemy founded the saying as above as below. alchemy was refounded by Carl Jung. Alchemy was practiced throughout the world from china to englandd. Alchemy attracted people of science like Isac newton. Alchemy is what Harry potter discovers in the sorcerors stone. Nicolos flamel was a famous alchemist. alchemy was in Gulivers travels. alchemy is the understanding of kabala. alchemy is being a great docter and appling the principles to become a grwat mechanic. alchemy is throughout our fairy tales. alchemy is the process of self actualization. alchemy is turning the led of your soul into gold. alchemy is not all mysterious. alchemy alchemy alchemy oh my.
