In the 7 videos on Alchemy on the ENArmonya YouTube Channel you have a summarized class of the seven steps with a meditation.
But here we delve into a more detailed explanation.
As I already explained, the history of Alchemy is full of lights and shadows. In Europe alchemy degenerated into a chemical pseudo-science from which modern scientific superstition is born.
Some true alchemists searched for gold within themselves to make more gold, and their Philosopher's Stone was a spiritual body they called Rebis, which stabilizes further developments. But this is something that almost no one understood, since there are other factors that were ignored in superficial Alchemy, and those are related to the Diamond Body.
Concerning this there is a gem called The Secret of the Golden Flower, although the only decent translation is that of Thomas Cleary, since Wilhelm's, used by Jung, is corrupted by unrefined intellectual psychoanalysis.
Carl Jung delved into Alchemy and Kabbalah in a very intellectual way, and although his notions of Self, Shadow, Animus, Anima, Collective Unconscious, Personal Unconscious, etc., are useful, he barely managed to understand what the real Work is, since he remained within the psychological scope.
Unfortunately, today Alchemy is still misunderstood, hence the fantasies about Kundalini, spiritual bodies, ascended masters and many other memes of the spiritualist market abound.
Now, with the aim of returning to the introductory article, I will now present the best-known alchemical stages, although within each one there are many nuances, and not all of them come in order, since each one contains the others:
1.Calcination
Its symbols are Fire, Lead, Saturn and the Root Chakra.
The First Awakening is an unsustainable situation that already comes from a certain work, in this or other existences. An inner consciousness makes us see the egoic personality is asleep, that it cannot do anything at will, that everything happens to by accident, that the soul is unhappy, knowing nothing for sure. There is only one safe act, gaining greater Consciousness to stop many mechanical reactions, holding negative emotions and thoughts under the Light of Self-observation.
And this first step of Self-observation already introduces the first Fire of Conscience/Consciousness, which burns the Raw Material buried in the psycho-somatic subconscious and Unconscious (outside the physical body).
Thus begins the Dark Night of the Soul, a long period of inner spiritual confrontation, sadness, regret, discontent with oneself and the world, but above all an emptiness as background suffering.
But as the ancient poets sang, a new age arose from chaos after the gods and worlds were turned into ashes.
Giving up our worldly attachments, the desire for status is surpassed only by the need to solidify our true identity in service of the higher. This is how everything that has calcified in ourselves is eliminated or softened.
Our preconceived notions about our identity and our beliefs are put to the test.
The alchemists used the Acrostic VITRIOL in reference to what corrodes all metals except the Gold of our Being. And it means:
Visita Interiora Terra
Rectificandur
Invenies Lapidem
Visit the Interior of the Earth
and rectifying
you will find the Hidden Stone.
This invites us to travel further into our subconscious and unconscious earth, like the protagonist of Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne.
2.Dissolution
Its symbols are Water, Tin, Jupiter and the Sexual Chakra.
Just as ashes are poured into water and dissolved, so work leads us to feel deep and repressed emotions that bring out lights and shadows.
Letting go of control, fear and clearing the mind for a deeper reevaluation is washing away the ashes of our old reality, an experience of greater freedom without fear.
Washing away the old beliefs and worldview of the old personality to confront the authentic self is what they anciently called Parting the Red Sea with the Rod of Moses (Moshe, Upon Waters, was an Egyptian title).
It is also associated with Water Baptism or Baptism of John. From the New Testament, another alchemical work par excellence, we know the Essene chief Yochanan the Baptist invited people to Metanoia:
Turn your minds (Metanoiete, Tevunah), for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2).
Tragically, religious idol worshipers translated “repent.” But that's worthless friends. Repentance is for the weak who fall back into their stupidity and ignorance before going back to sunday confession the following week or rub their hands over their face praying to Allah, and feel that the Merciful One has already forgiven them. Thus souls are thrown into existence after existence without change.
Metanoia is a Greek word that means leaving the old mind behind to receive the Renewed Mind; an act that in the Aramaic passage appears as תובנה, Tevunah, Comprehension from the Penetrating Vision of Understanding receives intuitive Wisdom (Hokmah); although in Hebrew it would be Teshuvah, which is to return, teshuv, to the Hei or Consciousness of Life.
This means resisting the first attacks of pride and stubbornness of the false psychic Ego, which lives on self-deception, self-sabotage, attachment to base pleasures, victimhood...
Only with detachment from self-gratification and psychological inertia can we enter the Kingdom, which is the true Self, as the Master taught in Aramaic:
ENA Ena, I, I is the Door; he who enters through me will be saved; will go in and out and find grass (John 10:9, Peshita Aramaic version).
This is the key to the so-called Secret of the Golden Flower, a work poorly translated by Wilhelm as Circulation of Light. Thomas Cleary comes closer with “turning the Light.” But the Spanish is richer, and I prefer to translate it as Turning of Light, which is precisely the literal meaning of Teshuvah.
Mr.Gurdjieff taught something very similar emphasizing the need of Self-Remembering, the only key to transmutation. Surely he read the Secret of the Golden Flower, and knew how that is also taught in the New Testament.
Without a constant return to the very root of our Being, no alchemical transmutation is possible. And this has nothing to do with breathing exercises or physical yoga, and even less with sacred sexuality or Harry Potter potions.
3.Separation
Its symbols are Air, Orange Sulfur, Mars, Iron, Solar Plexus Chakra.
Through dis-identification and conscious confrontation, helped by the Light of Consciousness, we achieve the extraction of Essence from psychic residues, separating ourselves from old emotions (regrets, fears, resentments, twisted thoughts, animal desires...).
Here we rediscover our sensitive feminine and active masculine side, ready to unite for greater expansion. That is, we begin to identify with our true Personality, leaving behind false characters: the glutton, the lazy, the aimless unemployed, the sick victim, the addict...
No one can get past these false characters, much less the abounding transgender versions.
Here we discovered our Essence brings with it our best version full of Light and Mercy. And this is precisely where the real Dis-identification begins, producing the first flash of profound Stillness, the beginning of the Genuine Remembrance of Self, the deep Waters.
Now, just as we feel our Angel Messenger or real Self merged with us, we also see the Accusing Devil himself, as close to the Angel as a Tango couple.
This is precisely where the dragon's tail turns tango, like Morwin's tail in the movie Outlander.
And thus Truth is born, because you see that within you there are two. But as Ysho said:
No one can serve two Masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or esteem one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).
4.Conjunction
Its symbols are Earth, Salt, Copper, Venus and Heart.
By filtering unwanted materials we obtain Natron, a common tendency of Salt to form solid bodies.
The union of valuable astral elements from all stages generates a fertile ground or receptive body for the vision and stabilization of the Diamond Self, ENA ENA, as Y´shua called it.
That is why an allegory presents us with Y´shua taking dirt that he mixes with his saliva to puts it on the eyes of the blind man who cannot see.
You are the Salt of the Kosmos, he said.
By salting the earth we begin to see more clearly and being at ease with our New Version, comfortable within the body, since Satan does not separate the soul and the body, his most cunning tactic: divide and conquer.
Body and Soul, Masculine and Feminine, Matter and Spirit begin to feel good together.
This is the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon, Rationality with Intuition, symbolized by the Rebis, Matter Twice, because it is the stabilization of the Astral Body.
It is known as the Rainbow Mantle of Yosef, ruling the many Egypts (Mitzraim), managing wealth well with the gift of Solar soul (Tifereth) and Vital Foundation (Yesod).
5.Fermentation/Putrefaction
Its symbols are Azoth or Alchemical Mercury, Raven, Peacock, Vermilion Bird and Throat Chakra.
As the old ego breaks down, a new despairing longing for union and depression may arise due to friction between new and old elements. This is like a return or recapitulation of the calcination phase, but with a Nigreo stage that must pass to Albedo and finally to Rubedo, intensification of the Fire of Conscience.
Putrefaction is symbolized by the Head of the black Raven, an indication of the Nigredo, decomposing matter. This happens because the false ego, fed by retrograde Light, clings to its past vices and beliefs.
Therefore there has to be a new conscious struggle, which can accentuate the desperation of that Nigredo or Blackness of the soul. We confront demons in the darkest places within ourselves. Saturn teaches us the hardest lessons again.
Although through our conscious suffering we can find the cause of the problem and the way to resurrect. Our black land, Khem, is our fertile land. Israel comes out of Egypt.
Now, when the masculine and feminine aspects of the soul fight again within, this brings a primary element, the Azoth (i.e. Quick) or Alchemical Mercury, a feminine element that represents a deceptive nervous and agitated energy, known in Alchemy as Cauda Pavonis or Peacock Tail. Watch how that bird shakes its tail and maybe you'll understand. And see how mercury swallows up all the gold (light).
In the Torah it is represented by the Serpents that sting the Israelites in the desert; and the Serpent that Moses raises; just as the Kundalini awakening or raising of the Serpent, mentioned by the Yogis of India.
The alchemical work known as The Secret of the Golden Flower (translation by Thomas Cleary) mentions it in various ways:
The light is easily stirred and hard to stabilize. When you have turned it around for a long time, the light crystallizes.
And some of us were born with such an amount of Azoth that experts labeled us as fanciful, distracted, restless children, or as they would say today, with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and so many other wisdoms, invented to increase ignorance and unconscious suffering in the Lunatic Asylum.
In old Alchemy it was said that all metals come from Azoth, which itself is highly toxic when inhaled or ingested, as it leads to palpitations, hallucinations, panic attacks.
In a spiritual sense these are astral hallucinations and kundalini awakenings that people confuse with awakening of Consciousness. But as the sly Mr. Gurdjieff taught:
In so-called 'occult' literature you have probably met with the expression 'Kundalini,' 'the fire of Kundalini,' or the 'serpent of Kundalini.' This expression is often used to designate some kind of strange force which is present in man and which can be awakened. But none of the known theories gives the right explanation of the force of Kundalini.
"Sometimes it is connected with sex, with sex energy, that is, with the idea of the possibility of using sex energy for other purposes. This latter is entirely wrong because Kundalini can be in anything. And above all, Kundalini is not anything desirable or useful for man's development. It is very curious how these occultists have got hold of the word from somewhere but have completely altered its meaning and from a very dangerous and terrible thing have made something to be hoped for and to be awaited as some blessing.
"In reality Kundalini is the power of imagination, the power of fantasy, which takes the place of a real function. When a man dreams instead of acting, when his dreams take the place of reality, when a man imagines himself to be an eagle, a lion, or a magician, it is the force of Kundalini acting in him. Kundalini can act in all centers and with its help all the centers can be satisfied with the imaginary instead of the real. A sheep which considers itself a lion or a magician lives under the power of Kundalini.
"Kundalini is a force put into men in order to keep them in their present state. [1] If men could really see their true position and could understand all the horror of it, they would be unable to remain where they are even for one second. They would begin to seek a way out and they would quickly find it, because there is a way out; but men fail to see it simply because they are hypnotized. Kundalini is the force that keeps them in a hypnotic state. 'To awaken' for man means to be 'dehypnotized.' In this lies the chief difficulty and in this also lies the guarantee of its possibility, for there is no organic reason for sleep and man can awaken.
(P.D.Ouspensky, Fragments of An Unknown Teaching)
Therefore, Kundalini or Cauda Pavonis is part of a rectification phase. And the Master himself taught it by pointing out:
Just as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Adam is to be lifted up in the last times (John 3:14)
6.Distillation
The Secret of the Golden Flower also gives the key:
The Light shakes easily and is difficult to stabilize. But when you turn it over for a long time, the Light crystallizes...
Now, the first stable crystallization in the distillation/sublimation process was represented by the union of yellow Sulfur and Quicksilver, which first leads to Citrinitas, a golden state of illumination that encourages spiritualization. Citrine is a greenish-yellow gemstone.
Taoist alchemists called it the Golden Pill.
Spiritualization or Albedo begins when we see the world more clearly, appreciating what we are achieving, even the shadows experienced. This is the Integration of the Shadow, Harmony of Conscious and Unconscious, Anima and Animus, the Inner Couple, the man for the woman and the woman for the man, uniting in the Being that transcends them.
Here the control of the ego loses definitive force and false personalities no longer govern, since the Voice of Consciousness is obeyed.
When the Putrefaction phase is addressed with the divine Mind, the Son of Adam or Walking Child, grows and the person begins to feel and speak the vibratory tones of truth, experiencing the Rubedo, represented by the Red Sulfur and the Vermilion Bird.
The Ego here has been crucified many times, bringing the blush into a deeper renewal. Only the aspirant who reaches this point can turn the other cheek without feeling hurt, following in the footsteps of the Master.
Legendary is Red Sulfur popularized by Sufi alchemists such as Ibn Arabi, whose poetry inspired Rumi and so many others.
For in this phase the prophetic Word takes shape and its understanding leads us little by little to the Albedo, the final Whitening.
Its associated symbols are the Silver Moon, the Phoenix and the Third eye.
Thanks to the permanence of the Sun of Consciousness in the body, the waters of the psychic world begin to boil and condensate up to their final desalination and sieving.
Here the essence has already been stabilized by the mental level and begins to free itself from dense matter, experiencing its Redemption.
Overcoming the Dark Night of the Soul and the Nigreo with the Divine Mind brings the true relief of divine Ambrosia or Bliss, further stabilizing the astral clothing, the immortality of the soul-spirit.
The Phoenix is thus reborn from the ashes, as a sublimation and distillation of what is real.
By purifying the fermented and condensed solution we obtain a new crystalline solid form, Mercury well mixed with the meninges in the brain.
Thus, substances like the hormones of wellbeing are released from the Pineal Gland (i.e Melatonine) and Pituitary Gland (Oxytocine), generating a Cerebral Ambrosia filled with Endorfines (painkillers), Serotonine (wellbeing), Dopamine (motivation hormone); and even a transmutation that regenerates the physical body with a second body of light that energizes the entire system up to the crown chakra.
If the process is interrupted, Cauda Pavonis may appear, an oily substance that comes out of the fermentation process and is associated with tremendous delusions of fantasy.
Rubedo is the process necessary to stabilize the astral body and permanently access the finished facets of the Diamond Body. There must therefore be a continuation of spiritualization, strengthening the spirit. We protect our spirit with our subtle bodies, acquiring the possibility of doing things previously impossible. We begin to see our divine nature.
The spirit comes and goes to be tested and finally purified, producing the Mother of the Philosopher's Stone through sublimation, or condensed matter.
Thus the spirit rises from the earth to the heavens to descend and combine in itself the power of above and below. In the last process no impurities should flow.
When you no longer react to the past as you once did, you have gone through the process of distillation.
7.Coagulation
Its symbols are Gold, the Sun, the Crown and the Blood of the Messiah.
Blood coagulation is associated with a process of wound healing, astral healing from trauma, the final integration of all shadows, which cease to be monsters pulsating in the Unconscious. This would be the definitive union of Animus and Anima in the Crystalline Heart of oneself, ENA, the Diamond of the Sekhina or Divine Presence.
But let us remember that this is not possible without first stabilizing the physical body (salt), astral-mental body (red sulfur), since Azoth agitates everything and can drive one crazy.
Back to the passage from the Secret of the Golden Flower (translation by Thomas Cleary):
The light is easily stirred and hard to stabilize. When you have turned it around for a long time, the light crystallizes. This is the natural spiritual body, and it steadies the spirit above the nine skies. This is what is referred to in the Mind Seal Scripture as "silently paying court" and "soaring upward."
The Astral Body is made from planetary and solar dust, which has now been crystallized into a body of purer essences, an armonious inner solar system that immortalizes the soul within the solar system and prepares it for more evolutionary degrees. This is how the Supreme Matter or Philosopher's Stone is produced, which turns everything it touches into Gold.
As the apostle Paul taught, we go from splendor to splendor, since there are bodies with lunar, solar and stellar splendor.
This means that the alchemical process continues even after the journey through the earth, until the definitive reintegration into the Kingdom of the Father, which is always available in the Diamond Body that each of us is.
Big words are those. More on the Diamond Body in further articles and videos.
Meanwhile, here you have the first of a series:
