In the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, a young man embarks on a journey of
discovery. Like so many hero’s journeys
this one begins as a quest for material wealth but ends, ultimately, in a discovery
of real truth. Along the way, the young
man learns of the joys and sorrows of love, deceit, violence and the inner
power of self. He learns that there is
a magic to the world that while it does not transform lead into gold it does
transform a boy into a man, a child into adult, transforming grasping at things
to a quenching of spiritual thirst. The
boy concludes that in the end “life really is generous to those who pursue
their destiny.”
Today, I want to speak to you of
transformation; of seemingly impossible transformations.
The ancient art of Alchemy is often
misunderstood. It is misunderstood as
an archaic science, an attempt by the greedy to transform base metals into
precious ones. It is commonly believed
that Alchemists were the foolish predecessors to the modern chemists of the
enlightenment who showed us what real chemistry was about. Nothing could be more mistaken.
Alchemy, which is an art performed for
thousands of years, is actually a form of spiritual understanding. True, in its most extreme forms alchemists
tried to change lead into gold, but most alchemists were herbologists that
mixed plants to create medicines. They
consulted astrological charts and, most of all, they studied and helped people
believe that the power of transformation resides first and foremost in the
human spirit.
It is hard for us to appreciate the holistic
approach these ancient practitioners used towards emotional, physical and
spiritual healing. We live in a reduced
world; the parts of our universe and ourselves are reduced down into a
thousand, million parts. The healing
power of water in a bath, or over a waterfall is reduced to H20, therms of
energy and gravity. What Alchemists did
was to see the parts as necessary for the whole. In our world we see the parts as less than the whole. None other than Francis Bacon, the great
enlightenment political philosopher was an alchemist who worked with chemical
elements and plants in order to create cures.
He recognized, of course, that there was more to learn about our
physical universe by reducing these chemicals to identifiable parts (our own
Joseph Priestly, for whom our UU District is named, discovered oxygen and read
Bacon). But he also understood that
there was great power in healing the whole person, the whole society, the whole
world. In Bacon’s famous work New Atlantis, he portrays a utopian
society in which physicians begin by investigating the life of the person
before treating the disease. How
different this is from our own medicine, which treats the body as a machine, a
constituency of parts, to be manipulated and repaired.
Alchemy is an art, not a science. And as an art it requires less adherence to
rules but more energy in imagination.
Imagining the possible outcomes to a certain procedure, is what lead to
many an ancient cure. Add to this a
belief that every one of us has a destiny to fulfill and you will begin to
understand the art. The end of alchemy
was transforming a thing or a person into what they were meant to be. This is what art is; the transforming of
material into form. Michealangelo
understood this, seeing a statue in a block of marble. Alchemists were more than a romantic
beginning to modern science; they surpassed science. Seeing an end before the experimental means to get there. How does a diamond come to be? Millions of years of terriestal pressure on
a piece of coal. Isn’t all physical and
biological life a series of transformations, including ourselves? Aren’t we the stuff of stars, amoebas,
reptiles, amphiphans, mammals, apes?
Won’t we and all that we have created annihilate into stardust, billions
of years hence?
Alchemy isn’t wrong science, it is right
art. And science, as necessary as it is
to help us discover our universe and make life good and long, is only one way
of looking at the same universe. We
could learn much from the old ones; our science could learn much a thing or two
as well.
The onward progress of physics has gone so
far inward as to lose its thread back out of the labyrinth. What was Newtonian physics yields to
metaphysics at this quantum level: thinking now that a particle is some
formation of a 7th dimensional manifold when we live in a three
dimensional world is bordering on alchemy.
We have already crossed back over the threshold of the ancients. This last week the journal Nature reports that scientists may have
discovered anti matter, but the energy needed to extract one particle was
enough to power a suburb of Chicago. To
what end? Is it time to try coming at
discovery from the other end? Good
scientists already do use imagination as their guide. What was it that Einstein said, “Imagination is more important
than knowledge”. We can get the
knowledge, but can we imagine what to do with it?
Alchemy is about that power of imagination
and the transformation that can comes from that power. We are all alchemists already, capable of
changing our world through our spirits.
In Aesop’s fable of the Fox and the grapes, the fox proclaims the grapes
sour anyway unable to reach them. The
fox didn’t change the chemistry of the grapes but he did change the reality of
his world.
So how do we practice this alchemy of
spirit? How do we transform our world
and ourselves? We begin as the ancients
began by burning away what is of no use. By process of elimination whether with medicines or metals, the
alchemists of old would subject their concoctions to burning sulfur, the same
ingredient in gunpowder. This alchemical
fire is an old symbol dating back to Sumerian and then Arthurian myths. It was the belief that only that person who
could see something good from the ashes had the power to change the world. In the myth of Arthur and the sword, it was
only the boy king, true of heart and himself the survivor of an incredible
injustice that could free the sword of truth from the stone of the earth. So it is with us. Can we destroy what is of no use to us anymore?
Take anger as an example of this
alchemy. It was once believed that
anger was like a demon within us that needed to be let out; punch a pillow,
start a fight, boys will be boys. What
would you do with your anger as an alchemist?
Well, you would submit it to the sword. Unsheathe it first, know its power in your
hands, recognize the feeling as honest and legitimate. But then, like Arthur, examine the sword,
how powerful and beautiful it is, red hot like Mars. And then with that knowledge realize that such power can both
create and destroy. Anger can be used
with forethought to motivate us to speak out against injustice, taking care to
not utter falsehoods. Anger can be used
to motivate us. And yes, it can
destroy. But only when it needs to
destroy.
I once welded the sword of anger
indiscriminately, slashing at those I loved with my frustrations. Not taking the time to examine what caused
me to raise the sword to begin with. It
was only with inner reflection that I was able to use it wisely. Counting to ten alone was not enough. We must ask ourselves as alchemists “where
does this fire come from and what is it for?”
If it is only a flash, like sulfur, then cool it with the green water of
love. For the water of life, like
Venus, tempers the Mars of anger.
“Losing our temper” is just that.
We have become unbalanced by the fire, unable to use the sword
judiciously. Next time you feel the
rage of Aries rise in you, whether in road rage or towards the ones you love
gain control of that sword, pour forth the tonic of love to cool the blade.
Temper the steel of your anger. Realize that as you are angry you may not be seeing
the world as it is. The use of anger
and love like this is alchemy. When the
ancients would taste a medicine and it burned the mouth, they knew they had to
cool it down. The whole of the product
is what is important here, not its parts.
Anger is only useful to us if we can balance it with love.
Look around you. Alchemy occurs all the time.
Take food. Why is it that some
recipes of exactly the same ingredients taste so differently than others? Why does a burger on the grill taste so good
and Burger King so bland? The whole is
more than the sum of its parts. Cooking
well is an alchemy. Knowing by tastes
and spices how to achieve the right meal is an art. Computers can’t do this.
Only we can. Why is it that
families try to collect Mom’s recipes and bind them in a book? Because she was an alchemist with food. And chances are you can’t reproduce this,
because the spirit of alchemy implies that what we produce is by its nature
unique. The true tragedy of our modern
age is the soulessness of what we have created. Martha Stewart.com. McArt.
Even scientists know that each experiment is every so slightly different
in its results. Accept the
differences. Alchemy implies
diversity. It is our very soul.
Look around. I drive by the ruins of some old house and I see the alchemy of a
place. I sense the soul of what once
was there. Even the most ancient ruins,
piles of tumbled rocks, speak of the inner beauty of a place. We could learn to appreciate decay and
change rather than controlling it.
Transformation is cumulative. I
have the fortune to live in an old house rescued from ruins. But I can sense what is new and old by my
alchemist spirit. I type at a computer
that is all that is forward about our age, but the computer rests an old and
beaten oak table. The table gives soul
to my work; the table and computer are transformed.
Look around. What is it that you really love about your partner, your kids,
your parents, your friends. Pay close
attention to what brings joy; that smile, the way they twist their hair, a
phrase, a look, a touch. Leave aside
what annoys you. Just see what you
love. Write these things down and
present them on some occasion soon. “I
love the way you write, the way you form your letters…” I once wrote Francis. Now all my notes are hand written. What a power to transform! Marriage is often
alchemical. Forget the boundaries and
the rules, the ones who have been married for fifty years will tell you the
secret is in the melding of two lives into one.
Look with eyes at what is good and hold it
up, the parts will yield new love and appreciation. Simple notes that say thank you are alchemical enough. I often give away the books I read, but I
never give away a book without inscribing a message. Your life is a book to be given away as it is read, transform it
with a message to those you love.
To be an alchemist of the spirit we must
learn to look not at things from the outside in but from the inside out. What is it that makes junk into treasure? Not the thing but how we see it. I can remember selling some old chair years
ago in a yard sale. The back needed
gluing, the seat was worn. A real
piece. Someone bought it for $5. Lo and behold, there was my chair in an
antique shop selling for $50! Same
chair, perhaps repaired a bit, but, my, did it look great! Well, of course, I bought it. My kids admonished me for spending a net of
$45 on what was already mine. From the
outside, like the junk chair, such a decision would seem stupid, but from the
inside it was $45 well spent. I brought
home myself in the process. I saw a
soulful piece of furniture from the inside out. In this fiercely rational world, new is better. Decisions are subjected to spread sheets and
we work for the most money. But the
alchemy of our spirits calls us to look into our world for deeper meaning. To feel honestly and take control of what is
ours to control. To work for less money because it fills our destiny. To repair an old car because it has
soul. These decisions don’t make sense. By its nature alchemy doesn’t “make
sense”. Like Spock used to remind
Captain Kirk on the old Startrek shows, we are by nature “irrational creatures”
first and foremost. There is a good
reason why we are so. Because meaning
is not found so much by adding up the parts or reducing them down to their
barest elements. Meaning is found by
creating something new and whole and soulful from the parts of our lives. I often counsel people who bemoan their
lives as a waste of time, to look more carefully at what you have become, at
what lessons you have learned from life.
I believe no experience is wasted.
The ultimate alchemy is what we become from those experiences. Learn to look again from the inside out and
see what you really are, what you really believe and what you really can do.
In the Arthurian legend of Merlin, perhaps
the greatest alchemist of all, the wizard advises his young King Arthur
thus: “while this treatise may be of
importance to fools and of no importance to the so-called wise and while the
royal will have but little labor for it, glorify the Most High Creator who has
taught us his faithful servants to transmute accidents into substance, that
they may bring action to the powers which lay hidden in all things.” (from the
“Allegory of Merlin” published in Theatrum
Chemicum III, 1602).
As alchemists of the spirit I implore you as
well to look deeper into your lives for that which gives you meaning and in
taking note of those elements, use them to transform your world. We are all alchemists of spirit with the
spirit of alchemist. So may it be.