The American Heritage Dictionary defines alchemy as: “A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aim the transmutation of base metals into gold.” That “alchemy” is an expression of the P-B false self, the all too common pursuit of an illusion. Like all such yearnings, they have as their basis the underlying light of the True self seeking to penetrate the darkness of human suffering. It is that mystic’s definition of alchemy that psychologist Laurens Van der Post is describing: “They [alchemists] were seeking to create a new sort of man, a greater awareness of reality and increase of meaning.”[i]
The process of the true alchemy is The Point of Power Practice. By breathing and choosing not to react in the everyday “lab” of life we are transmuting fear into compassion, suffering into joy, despair into happiness, conflict into peace, and slavery into freedom. By shifting paradigms, we can all become modern-day alchemists.
Alchemy
[i] Van der Post, Laurens. Jung and the Story of our Time. New York: Random House, 1975, p. 207.
