The Alchemy in Spiritual Progress
Burning with fever, drowning,being swept into a tornado,being challenged by theopposite sex, magicallytransforming into something orsomeone else, flying (withoutan airplane!), breathingunderwater, being touched byan angel.
Is this tonight’stelevision lineup? Is it anotherHarry Potter adventure? Or dothese things sound strangelyand personally familiar?
If so, it is because these are experiences common to those on the spiritual pathway and ones that canappear in both dream and waking realities. Each are good examples of the seven stages of alchemicaltransformation. Ancient alchemists put various metals and substances through rigorous proceduresthat were intended to turn the original material into gold. This art-science was a metaphor for what wetypically experience in the stages of personal spiritual growth.In this, the first of seven articles on the alchemical process, we will explore the foundational stagecalled Calcination.
Dennis William Hauck, author of the profound work, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemyfor Personal Transformation, and one of the world’s few practicing alchemists, defines the value ofCalcination as “beneficial because [it exposes] deeper layers of our essence while rubbing away thefalse person.” This is certainly what most of us might think we want, but direct involvement in theprocess is often a frightening thing.In Calcination, we come face to face with the ego’s resistances. It tries to protect us from the unknownby maintaining the status quo, the old way, the “safe” way, even if outdated. Calcination, over whichthe ego has no control, makes us feel like all we hold dear is threatened. It’s a death-like experience.
