Alchemy
Hannah Green
Art by Karen Lynn
Listen to: Abundance Practice Podcast Episode: Shadow, Creativity and Private Practice with Hannah Green MFT
Alchemy is the art of transformation.
Change involves both dissolving/letting go and willing/intending. The mother of all alchemical formula's is solve ~ coagula.
This equation means that transformation is a death ~ rebirth cycle that requires letting go and dissolving as well as sustained willingness to birth new forms and ways of being. BTW...Every month in Embracing the Shadow we explore both aspects of transformation.
Solve practices allow us to release what we no longer need and make space for something new.
Coagula practices direct our energy and point us towards our highest aims.
Jungian psychology is rooted in alchemy. Creating a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious mind is an alchemical process. Solve practices help us access the unconscious and develop a more fluid and receptive approach to life. Coagula practices bring the wisdom of the unconscious into our conscious, day to day lives in tangible ways.
A solve process or practice is one that dissolves the ego and is about letting go. An example would be: grieving, dancing, embodied meditation, having a bath or authentic movement. A coagula process or practice is one that creates a new form or way of being. An example would be writing a book, setting a boundary, creating a business or baking a cake.
When solve and coagula practices are rightly related transformation occurs. These are natural processes that are happening all the time. Look to nature for endless examples! We alchemists simply seek to consciously engage in, amplify and enjoy the process.
In your own life...
What is dissolving
What is manifesting?
What helps you get into creating?
What helps you lean into letting go?
How do community and relationships play a role in both?
Here are two wonderful books that delve deeply into the intersection of alchemy and psychology:
The Alchemy of Psychology by James Hillman
Alchemy: Ann Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology by Marie-Louise von Franz
Poem for the Month
Messenger
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird -
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
Mary Oliver
Some Current Inspirations:
The wonderful and inspiring reality TV show Escape To The Chateau
This album by Water Feature for listening to around the house