Spring is arriving in earnest. The apple trees in my driveway are blossoming and native wildflowers are showing themselves. And the moon is beginning its next cycle, bringing its theme of Alchemy into focus.
So, a few things about alchemy…
We begin with the alchemical container itself, a hermetic vessel in which highly disparate elements are held. This crucible is often considered to be the individual psyche, and today it is not a stretch to also imagine that our personal homes, our physical bodies, and collective human consciousness are the vessels in which extreme states of being are playing out.
Grief and hope, intensity and spaciousness, vitality and sickness, fear and love are all in play at once, seeking some new and unimagined-until-now synthesis.
Of course, we can’t discuss alchemy without also discussing intention. This shouldn’t be mistaken for a conversation about ‘manifestation’ or ‘creating our reality’. Rather, the need for intentionality in this case is expressed as a careful curation of what goes into the container. What messages are you absorbing or replaying in your head these days? What beliefs and emotional states are you breathing life into?
A third vital element is the plain and simple Unknown. The alembic is an enclosed container, it is opaque and we truly don’t know how things are going in there. We just keep tending the container while the Mystery plays itself out. That is the skill that any alchemist must cultivate, the capacity to be alive and at choice amidst uncertainty.
You can hear more on these themes in this excerpt from April’s New Moon Café.
In the dream of the Alchemy Moon, we gingerly step into the wounded landscape. The trees are burned, the soil is fragile, and sensitive hands pour water on the ground, letting empathy be the song of renewal.
It is not known what we will find when the time comes to open this crucible. But it is certain that the way in which we tend it will shape what emerges.