Define: Alchemy

"An Alchemist in his Workshop" by David the Younger Teniers

This week's assignment: to blog about what "alchemy" is.

Well, at first I thought I would search the internet for relevant videos and articles on the subject of alchemy, but a simple google search on multiple variations of this theme seemed useless. I was flooded with images with "healing properties", doomsday prophecies set to pictures, and historical presentations on how alchemy has been perceived throughout the ages. In the field of art, I came across countless images like the one above depicting an elderly scholar surrounded by the clutter, often with an apprentice of some sort, attempting to achieve some transformative power.

None of these images or ideas seemed to align with the idea of alchemy as we discussed it and as I believe it to be in relation to ourselves and our world. Alchemy, simply said, is the power to transform. It is the quest to control one's environment, the quest to control and transform the self. When one thinks about the stereotypical idea of turning lead into gold, one must think of it as a simple metaphor. This is what we must do for ourselves....as an action and a process. We must transform the low-brow into the high-brow, and I think that is the goal of this class. How do we move from the state of lead, of demotic language, to a state of gold, into the realm and language of the gods?

I think the vital difference between an "alchemist" as Coelho would define him and the average man is the mentality of control and observation. We often become restricted by our surroundings, believing the illusion we have been born into, illusions such as place and specific identity. Without going into the "soul of the world" and "personal legends", I think it is safe to say that the process by which we break out of these restrictions or limitations is the process by which we become, rather than passive observers in our lives, truly active, engaged, and creative controllers of our own selves. Call it a transformation of soul, call it a hero's journey, the process remains the same. It is the shift of values, the shift between worlds by a P2C2E, the waking up to our simulation and the act of revelation. This is "alchemy," the active recognition and taking part in a process of realization and transformation.