The Great Heroic Work of Alchemy is Something to Be
by Eric Meece at UUFLG, Sept.17, 2023

Now I don’t want to seem like a troll, or be too droll. In alchemy body and soul are mixed together and purified in the same bowl. It has become the great symbol of transformation, made through contemplation. Poetic herbs and metallurgy create a potent combination. Those who practice this art can gain healing and higher consciousness together, whatever the psychic weather.

The story is a hero’s journey, the great work. It’s a hermetic science, which means it’s what we call holographic. This thought today generates some static. It combines science with philosophy that is truly socratic. The alchemists told of transforming lead into gold, but they threw away the mold. What they knew was really bold. All they needed to know was the maxim, as above, so below. That is what they sold. Alchemists did the trick in rare cases, so it’s claimed. In vain did later greedy chemists try to make it stick without doing the inner work. They still got sick because they forgot the maxim of the ordeal, to dissolve and congeal.

Rock n roll fans of recent times have listened to alchemy as they climb the stairway to heaven. And I like to climb to Bach’s Toccata in F Major, BWV 540! The story is painted in symbols and in life-giving patterns through their metals and wares. Just like in the song we climb through seven levels, and at each stair we become more aware. Since that which is above is like that which is below, the solid metals have seven levels, but so do the planets that we can see, and their music of the spheres sounds through the scale, and shines round the rainbow colors too. The elements play their role in this tale of earth and soul, and the stairway sings within us through our soul centers called chakras along our backbone, which is just like the greater axis of the earth as it turns through the signs.

We start at the first stair built of lead, grounded in earth. Our own being is rooted there in the base chakra and the color red. Its planet Mars is there, and also the lead planet Saturn, and we hear the basic sound of C.

The second stair is made of tin. Through watery echoes we swim, feeling the sensual second chakra’s orange dance of abundance, and we hope not of sin. Sweet Venus and Jupiter bring joy and the delicious sounds of D, but we still are in no position to win.

So we climb the third stair of iron, as our soul goes through fire. We need strength to climb higher. At our solar plexus the Sun’s yellow energy and the iron power of Mars get us riled and ready for the most-important next stair, and like Ali we can now sting like a bee and sing the steady sounds of E.

At stair number four we open the door to the sacred heart, there meeting the first precious metal because the real heart stopper is copper. All elements are balanced as our inner gyroscope shows us the way. Gently we sing the pastoral F as we walk through fields of green. Saturn brings fair justice to Earth and the Moon reflects the sky as Venus joins the two in love.

At the fifth stair we clear the air. Rotating three times within two revolutions, swift-flowing Mercury connects us to the throat and thus to sound itself, and to its perfect matching proportion in the dominant tone of G. Our greatest challenge is to be true blue and speak well. Only if we use and manage our minds, mouths and ears can we turn the key to the higher levels.

At the sixth stair the silvery lunar starlight and the prophetic wisdom of indigo Jupiter shine through our 3rd eye. Visionary revelations blend the two sides of our brain in the elevated sound of A. Then the great work is crowned above it as we step onto the royal purple and gold top stair of divine marriage in which the male golden sun and female silvery moon combine in eclipses because they are the same size as we see them, and they match these shiny metal colors too. The B sound brings us to Spirit. This is the elixer blend which can keep us healthy and wise within, even without the wealth of gold. And we can return down the stairs and climb again.

chart of chakras, seasons, signs, planets, metals, colors, tones

chakra chart

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