What is Alchemy? When we think of alchemy in general, what comes to our mind must be the image of a mad scientist surrounded by balloons filled with foam liquid, feverishly trying to turn lead into gold. There is a record of obscure formulas and processes of transformation of the nature of material substances, but the alchemists were written deliberately obscure, to hid their work by people who misunderstand and abusing it. Or if you like to play Mana Khemia, you’ll imagine what kind of Alchemist there. They’re able to extract some certain elements and turn it into a new different item and use it in a combat. Basically, true Alchemy involves the whole being of the alchemist. The transformation echoes of natural substances of a profound transformation of consciousness within the alchemist himself.
The Emerald Tablet, a hermetic text says it contains the essence of alchemy “work” states: “As above, so below. As below, so above.” And “this correspondence and the interaction of material and spiritual, inner and outer, body and spirit, which it as the central of alchemy.
The “great performance” of the alchemist is to create a synthesis of these apparently conflicting values through a process of purification and sublimation, which would create the philosopher’s stone, the material substance of the symbolic truth beyond duality.
The essence of material life is transformation. Consider the plant to absorb the sun’s energy and transmuting sugar, starch and protein, and these substances when you eat into blood and tissues, etc. in our body. Our life is intimately linked to all life. The relevance of alchemy to us today, I believe, is to help bridging the gap between our physical and mental. We have become so habituated to mentally abstract ourselves from the life process we fail to feel and appreciate the wonder and exquisite unity of all life. We have lost touch with the vital essence of things.
When you see a tree that refer to it as a static object, you enter a relationship with him as a vital and inherent in our very life. The scientific model, which comes from the mental approach to life, has created many technological miracles, but by manipulating the natural laws of “objective” point of view always leads to some form of pollution.
Alchemy is the life. Consciously lived life as the totality of our experience, subjective and objective, and a deep sense of appreciation, with deep humility and wonder in the magic of lifeform.
