Natural Health Centre

How Alchemy can Benefit your Life

Are you a master, a saint or a prophet?

The ancient art of alchemy has undergone a renaissance recently, helping many people to receive insights about themselves and other people. It is also providing guidance to busy lives. It dates back thousands of years and has always been part of life in the East, but in the West science eclipsed alchemy during the eighteenth century and it is only in the last fifty years or so that the art has been resurrected by psychotherapists and spiritual thinkers. It is generating more and more interest and with its blend of psychic and scientific skills, it is rapidly becoming seen as worthy of serious study.

When we think of alchemy, most of us have visions of men in cloaks with beards and singed eyebrows, trying to turn lead or base metal into gold. Yet, if you stop to think about it, what a beautiful image that is – lead into gold – turning something poisonous into something beautiful and indestructible. Alchemy is full of symbolism and this is the most well known. If you think of your worries, anxieties and past psychological pain as the metal, then it is the role of alchemy to transform that darkness into gold, to release you from the chains that we all carry. In this way alchemy can energise your life, spirituality and relationships.

Alchemy is an esoteric and elusive subject that is difficult to understand. Firstly, the language used to describe alchemy is archaic and cryptic. Many alchemists had the desire to pass their knowledge on only to those who were clever enough, or committed enough to decipher their riddles. Just as in shamanic path-working, descriptions can be used that only fellow travellers will recognise. In alchemy, you will often have had to experience to understand. Secondly, the art relies heavily on symbolism and allegory, an unusual way of communication today. Finally, alchemy is holistic and works on three aspects of life, the physical, the psychological and the spiritual, often in parallel. This can make it a difficult subject to tie down or be specific about. Alchemy, however never fails to reward those that persevere in exploring its mysteries and the ancient writings and images are poetic and beautiful.

Because of the holistic nature of alchemy, it tends to be seen in different ways by different people. A scientist will see alchemy as a useful way of understanding the beginnings of chemistry (Isaac Newton was an alchemist), a psychotherapist will see alchemy as a method of inner work on the psyche and a mystic will see alchemy as a way of connecting with the divine or spirit. Ultimately the essence of alchemy is transformation, whether that is transforming metals into gold, your worries and anxieties into gold, or your meditation and prayers into gold.

Western Alchemy tells us that we are made up of four elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Each of us has a different proportion of these elements in our being, which affects us psychically as well as physically. There are twelve key archetypes, these are the scientist, the priest and the researcher, who are air; the achiever, the knight and the dervish, who are fire; the artist, the friend and the disciple, water and finally the guardian, the sovereign and the healer, who are earth. By working on exercises that help identify our make up and which archetypes we identify with, we can immediately better understand why we are the way we are and also why we get on better with some people than others. It can help us to determine whether we are in the right job, help solve relationship difficulties and also guide us in terms of looking after our health and social wellbeing. You can also get guidance as to your spiritual development.

Exercises working alchemically include meditation, visualisation, breathing, drawing, painting and movement. The processes you experience have such exotic names as moritificatio, solutio, calcinatio and sublematio.

One thing that has always been true is that alchemy is seen by its adherents as the great work and sacred. Medieval alchemical work always involved meditation in addition to whatever the alchemist may be doing with his chemical equipment. Alchemists see alchemy as a way of life and it is interesting to see that today people are becoming more concerned about, as an example, what they eat. That is, what they put in their bodies and the reaction it causes. Another area of concern is the effect of what we release into the atmosphere on mother Earth, or Gaia. Most of what we do in life can be seen as an alchemical process.

Ultimately alchemy is about the marriage of the Sun and The Moon, the masculine and feminine, but within our own souls, integrating our being.

Alchemy tends to work better in groups, with people bouncing off each other, contributing energy to each other and sharing laughter and tears. Just one workshop can have an enormous impact on people’s lives, providing understanding and direction. I try to ensure that my groups remain small (usually six people) so that each participant can have personal attention.