Alchemy
Alchemy in its basic principles describes a process of transmutation where a lower density is shifted to a higher value or vibration. Many think of Alchemy as turning lead to gold. While this has some merit and accuracy, the concept’s definition is much grander and far more encompassing than simple metallurgy. I have applied transmutation to the single most important issue humanity currently faces. The clear conflict between the importance of money versus the importance of an ecosystem that will continue to support human life. A balance has been lost. A human intimate relationship to the life forms around us has suffered dramatically and this has caused a drastic decline in the areas of health. This, in turn, has crushed the buoyancy of happiness and sanity as well. To have health we have to have healthy food. To have healthy food we need healthy soil. To have healthy soil we need a healthy relationship with our planet. To have a healthy relationship with our planet we need to spend time with her and let her feed us. The moment one watershed can feed itself independently, in Earth's current conflicted paradigm, is the moment we have an example of social Alchemy in seed form.
Many other possible applications exist all around us. In fact, I have found the many options of applying the steps of Alchemy seemingly endless. As I share the following viewpoints of the Medicine Wheel, if you the reader would please remember that it is one way to view it and is certainly not necessarily a universal truth, I will be sharing personal choice as to representations, allegory, interpretation, and viewpoint.
The Medicine Wheel
There is no end or beginning of a circle. This fact gives rise to choices one makes that forms a personal relationship or interaction with our planet, energy, others, and life itself. We each must choose what to believe and eventually gain the awareness that our beliefs cause our experience. At this revelation, what we choose to believe becomes much more important, and most begin to look into it far more deeply. The Medicine Wheel is a depiction extrapolated from an observation of the constant state of change that the Earth goes through each year. The four basic seasons are represented by the cardinal directions and placed about the wheel in their sequential quadrants clockwise. This path shifts to counterclockwise as we pass over the equator into the southern hemisphere. I have lived most of my life in the northern hemisphere and so I find it much easier to view it, as so many tribes of the northern hemisphere have, as a clockwise progression. Familiarity with the fairly simple pattern is served by applying representative colors, elements, animals, and modalities to each of the "four winds”. The above picture shows an example of the colors and animals used by the artist and I chose this particular drawing because it is very close to my own adopted viewpoint of the wheel. It does not, however, depict the elements or modalities outright. Next, I will share the way it makes sense to me. Others are free to hold different viewpoints obviously, though I do resonate with this relationship and interpretation of some of the vast applications of this stylistic device.
1} EARTH: West, Autumn, Blackening, Financial, Physical, Mother Bear /Crow
2} AIR: North, Winter, Whitening, Health /Nursery, Mental, Owl /Swan
3} WATER: East, Spring, Melting /Fermentation, Networking /PR, Emotional, Hawk /Peacock
4} FIRE: South, Summer, Forming /Fruiting, Arts & Crafts /Imagination, Spiritual, Wolf /Phoenix
With some imaginative thinking, I have moved on to not only apply what I have gathered in research and study around Alchemy and the Medicine Wheel to healing modalities but also to formulate what I believe to be a very unique and advanced method of handling business and at the same time community affairs. I have called it by other names, however, I am currently calling the concept, “Alchemical Permatrust Integrations”. The idea is to bring together all the entities that it might take to run a business inside one mother ship. I will refer to them here as quadrants since there are four basic categories that ALL jobs can easily fit into. Starting in the West, with business itself, is the bank and /or treasury quadrant which handles all aspects of financial needs. This can be anything from payroll to accounting and everything in between. Moving clockwise we next come to the North. Here we find the information quadrant made up of teachers, researchers, and students. Next, comes the Eastern quadrant that is comprised of outreach, PR, and marketing /advertising experts. Finally, in the South comes the doers. I’ve come to call this the product and service quadrant which most likely would end up being the largest group.
There is within this model a clear and direct cause to create direct interplay between the West and East quadrants and the North and South quadrants for each would heavily rely on what the other has to offer in way of functionality and relevance. All, of course, hold equal importance for the whole to run smoothly, however, the opposites on the wheel would have closer ties viewing the larger picture. Each quadrant could easily be broken down within themselves in a similar fashion as quadrants within quadrants in order to create bio-mimicry within.
One intentional community that applies this methodology to itself is the first step in terms of practical application and testing of the waters. I believe that once one community shows success in the use of this equation, it will naturally recreate itself. "Hiving Off" is a term I have come to use for such a metamorphosis. This idea not only resolves the issue around an unbalanced importance level around capitol, but also the cure for nature deprivation disorder so common in our overpopulated urban sprawl. I believe that everyone has either an interest in or skill which lands somewhere in the matrix of this formula, and puts the wind at the back of grassroots eco-friendly projects that otherwise suffer at the hands of the corporate elite. Paul Curtis Stevenson Jr.
"Four Eagles Standing Alone on Water"
The pictures in this post are my original work, all rights reserved.