Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1

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Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1.
Volume 3 No.1 Winter 2002
ARTICLES
The Alchemy in Spiritual Progress: Part 7
Three Gems of Alchemical Initiation: Part 3
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EDITORIAL
From the Editor
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 Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1.
The Alchemy in Spiritual
Progress
Part 7: Distillation
by
Nanci Shanderá, Ph.D.
“Your feelings and thoughts are the feelings and
thoughts of the Whole Universe,” (from
The Emerald
Tablet
by Dennis William Hauck). This statement
describes the process of Distillation, where we
become far more interested in the greater good than
merely in our own. It is the transformational stage
where we are spiritually and emotionally mature
enough to merge with the collective conscious and
unconscious without becoming devastated by what
we find there. The reason we can keep our balance
after having arrived at the Distillation stage is that the
ego no longer controls us and we can therefore
appreciate the mysteries of the collective - and
personal - shadow material without the ego’s
intrusion. (The shadow is that part of our own
consciousness, as well as society’s, that holds the
darker, rejected, denied, and powerful aspects. It not
only holds difficult material that sometimes feels
demonic in nature, but is also is the repository for our gifts, talents, and Soul’s voice until such time as we
are ready to fully take them on.)
Distillation brings the creative out of us. It encourages all that we are to manifest in balanced and serenely
powerful ways. It heralds the entry of the influence of the higher forces and the balancing of those forces
with the lower ones, which provide our "groundedness," so crucial to wholeness. Someone once said that
to be spiritually high all the time made us no earthly good. I see so much of the so-called “New Age”
philosophies, as well as many religious ones, promoting the idea that our spiritual task is to transcend the
body and earthly pleasures and problems, and move into an idealistic realm populated by angels and
eternal joviality. These philosophies are based upon ages-old misconceptions about spiritual experience.
These ideas imply that we are not capable of dealing with the reasons our Souls brought us down to earth
in the first place. These philosophies would have us either become dependent upon intermediaries
between us and our gods or look at life through very smudged rose-colored glasses. The truth about life is
that it is exactly what it is in every moment. It is childish to believe that there was some kind of cosmic
mistake that gave us the parents we have, put us on a toxic planet, and dropped us off without a user’s
manual. Our infantile needs for remaining blind and rebelliously unresponsive to all the problems that our
Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1.
Souls chose life on Earth to experience keep us unconscious and unevolved.
Distillation takes us into higher realms of awareness, but because we have been through all of the
purifications and difficult challenges in the previous stages, we have a finer appreciation of the purpose of
those difficulties. A distilled person is able to walk in both worlds at once, without rejecting either. And -
this is very important - a distilled person is mature. She/he does not expect life to meet egoistic
expectations, nor does she/he view it as a devastating disappointment just because it doesn’t meet
those expectations. A distilled person would tend to perceive Earth as a “workshop planet,” where we
have the blessed (yes, I said
blessed
) opportunity to really grow. A Soul who chooses Earth as its
experience has great courage.
A distilled person would know that the Soul, rather than the ego, was now guiding her/his life. A distilled
person surrenders to the higher forces while celebrating and honoring the existence of the lower ones. A
mystical symbol of this state of consciousness which appears in many spiritual and religious logos is the
image of two triangles, one with its point coming down to either touch or merge into a second triangle
whose point rises up to meet or merge with the other.
In the last article on Fermentation, I shared with you the process I had just gone through - a deeper
burning out of the ego’s influence and control over my life, particularly in regard to my creativity. As I
began to emerge from the fermenting experience, I consulted my favorite tarot deck, The Alchemical
Tarot, and drew the three of coins card in response to my question of where I was going from there. This
card depicts a man at a desk doing some drawing or writing. He is seated by a window which looks out
onto a lovely scene. Above the window are the alchemical symbols for mercury, salt and sulfur, which
together represent wholeness. The card also illustrates the stability that is required in order for creative
endeavors to manifest as a result of having combined the higher inspirations with the unconscious urge to
create.
I was very pleased with this card because, over the next few weeks, it provided a confirmation of the value
of the writing work I’ve been doing on these articles and the books I’m writing. From an ego-based
viewpoint, I would have viewed this as personally gratifying since I had wanted to be an author since I was
a little girl. But from the perception within a distilled consciousness, I understand the impact upon others
that my writing will have, and that has become far more important than if it were merely for my own
personal pleasure. (Don’t get me wrong - it’s also a great feeling to see what appears on the page as I
write. But I am able to take on the primary purpose of my work as an offering to the world, rather than
within the limited scope of only my personal life.)
A medieval alchemical drawing shows a well from which are emerging the masculine sun and the feminine
moon. This depicts the process in distillation of arising from the depths of the lower work into a balanced
relationship with both higher and lower aspects of being. Also in the picture is a pelican shown pecking at
her breast until she draws blood that she then feeds to her young. This represents the sacred sacrifice we
are asked to make if we are sincere in our intentions to become spiritually advanced. At some point we are
required to make a sacrifice that benefits the greater good. It is important to understand that I am not
talking about the soap opera type of sacrifice, with the heroine dramatically swooning with the back of her
hand on her forehead. That kind of sacrifice is no sacrifice at all. It’s just more ego drama. The true
sacrifice is one based upon the origin of the word: it is to make a sacred act or, to make an act sacred
rather than self-serving.
Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1.
Next time we’ll look at the last stage of alchemical transformation called Coagulation, which is the
congealing of all earthly and heavenly consciousness within an individual. It moves us beyond even the
ability to walk in both worlds found in Distillation and into a new consciousness that is a combination of
both but that has become one distinct consciousness, no longer consisting of two aspects. It is what the
alchemists call The One Thing. We may call it God.
Nanci Shanderá, Ph.D. is a Mystery School teacher and spiritual counselor-dreamworker at EarthSpirit
Center in Eagle Rock, California. This article is excerpted from her book in progress:
Digging for
Gold: the Art & Soul of Spiritual Experience
. She can be reached at 323/254-5458. Her website is
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Three Gems of Alchemical Initiation
Part 3: Distillation of Shen, the Third Gem of
Alchemy
By
Lynn Osburn
Shen is the manifestation power of existence. When Shen is distilled
things manifest. When Shen is distilled within the subtle body
transcendent evolution can be attained. The human being distills shen naturally. In the drawing to the left
above are shown the ventricles of the brain where the alchemical distillation takes play. The mechanisms
of the cerebro-spinal system are akin to the furnace and retort/receiver bodies used in mundane
distillation. In this analogy the distillation chamber itself is in the brain. The natural production of shen
within the human being is mind power. Do not think shen is mind for shen is much more than mind. Mind is
a manifestation of shen.
The major religions and philosophies direct the pilgrim to calm the mind using the analogy of a still pond
that reflects distortion free the mysterious transcendent inspiration of cosmic origin. The still pond reflector
state is passive shen. When one receives the manifestation of passive shen—the reflection of inspiring
ideas upon the still mind, and then returns to the outer world and puts the ideas into action so that they
become manifest, then one is using active shen power to manifest the idea (passive shen) in the world.
Shen is the power to do things.
Will and imagination are fed by shen power. In alchemy
will
is fixed sulfur and
imagination
is volatile sulfur.
Both are conditions of the alchemical soul. When you “imagized” the chi power in the circulation praxis of
the first gemstone you were employing basic shen through volatile sulfur to manifest the chi power.
However if you tried to entertain both concepts in the beginning the manifestation would more than likely
Alchemy Journal Vol.3 No.1.
fail thus discouraging you from further attempts.
The important thing in the first gemstone praxis is to feel the chi power; you cannot feel the chi power in
the beginning if your natural shen power of mind manifests instead of the chi power: If your mind makes a
phantasy of It losing the chi into an idle dream. Once you can feel the chi power in the circulation shen will
ride with It instead of consuming It.
You use shen power through volatile sulfur to configure the concept of the inner circulation. You use shen
power through fixed sulfur to set the inner circulation concept into motion. Imagination and will in this way
stir spirit into motion. Moving spirit is chi. It is felt as vibration which is waveform energy. When you feel
vibration in the circuits of the subtle body that is chi power energizing you. Chi power engenders feelings
of calmness and serenity.
You use shen power through volatile sulfur to configure the ching sublimation concept. You use shen
power through fix sulfur to hold back and redirect the natural pleasurable surge to orgasm during the ching
praxis. You redirect your earthly ching power with fixed sulfur. Earthly ching power has an intimate affinity
with fixed sulfur. It clings to fixed sulfur so will power can turn the direction of sexual energy—will power
can sublimate sexual energy into pure ching power.
Sublimated ching does not vibrate like chi power, It pulses and surges as discrete energy quanta more like
bits than waveforms. When you feel the pulse as a fluid or gas-like plasma moving up your spine and
packing density at the base of your skull that is ching power enlivening your subtle body. In this respect
ching is likened to the alchemical salt that gives form to the subtle body so that It unites there.
After the chi/spirit, the ching/body and the shen/soul have each been separated from It by conscious
awareness, feeling and sensation, so that one knows each power separately, They reunite as One in the
subtle body which then evolves according to your nature.
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