The Alchemical Nature of the Pandemic • Linda Hartley

Back in lockdown here in the UK, in the depths of winter, it is a hard time for many. While some continue with the impossible stress and trauma of frontline work, others are shut in at home, perhaps without a sense of purpose but with enormous amounts of uncertainty – how do we get through this, when will it end, what will come next, what can I do to help that transition when it comes?

The coronavirus, and the global lockdowns and restrictions its presence amongst us has necessitated, could be likened to an alchemical vessel, the sealed container in which ancient philosophers sought a mysterious transmutation. We are surely in such a place, needing, hoping, waiting for some deep inner change that will allow the outer forms and structures of our lives to release and reform.

Alchemy is “the medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy whose aims were the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for diseases, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life.”[1] The alchemist’s art was one of mysterious transformation.

A philosophical tradition practised around the globe since ancient times, records can be found “throughout Europe, Africa, China and throughout Asia, observable in Chinese text from around 73–49 BCE and Greco-Roman Egypt in the first few centuries CE.”[2] In modern times it has been given new life and meaning through the depth psychology of C G Jung and the many who have been influenced by his work. Jung emphasised that, to the ancients, Alchemy was both a chemical process and a mystical process.

The alchemist him or herself sought to be psychologically and spiritually transformed by her quest: the body would become ‘spiritualised’ and spirit embodied. Long periods of gestation were required, entailing various stages and processes: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation or Putrefaction, Distillation, and Coagulation.

Through these stages of burning, dissolving, uniting, putrefaction, and purification, new consciousness is born: the rigidity of ego is burnt up, unhelpful attachments dissolved, the unconscious shadow made conscious and integrated, and the Alchemist achieves her goal of illumination. Those who study and travel through these stages as a map for psychological individuation and personal transformation undergo profound changes – a dissolution of the old sense of self and the rebirth of a new way of being.

In the Fullmetal Alchemist series we learn the first rule of Alchemy: “Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy’s first law of Equivalent Exchange.”[3]

Wise words indeed, even if spoken by a cartoon character! They make me wonder if we could see the losses we currently face as the giving of something of value in order that something new, something of equal or even greater value to us at this time in our history, might be felt, known, embodied.

The alchemical process requires a hermetically sealed container, a vessel, for the duration of the process. Transmutation cannot be rushed. Like the pandemic, the process will take whatever time it takes; it does not follow the laws of Chronos time as we know it. Kairos time holds sway here. In psychological work the containing vessel requires a trustworthy therapeutic relationship. For the mystic, it includes the meditation hut or cave or temple, which holds the retreatant for the duration. For some of us it might involve the mediation cushion, the movement studio or yoga mat, regular walks in nature, a dream journal or creative practice. Through all of these, the practice of mindful, compassionate, non-judgmental awareness is essential as we learn to witness the processes happening within and around us. Mindfulness is, itself, an alchemical vessel, a containing discipline that allows for transformation to occur.

In this time of restriction, I wonder if we could reframe what we are enduring as an immersion in the ancient and time-honoured alchemical process of psychological and spiritual transformation; immersion in the deep inner processes of dissolution and renewal, of death and rebirth, as described by the ancients in the perennial journey through the underworld. When a caterpillar dissolves within its chrysalis, does it grieve the loss of its former self? Or have an image of the beautiful form that it will soon emerge into, the shape or colour of butterfly it will become? I imagine not! It can do no other than be with the processes of dissolution and embryological fermentation that are forming it into something completely new.

If we are in such a process right now, and I feel we are, we cannot truly know what we will become once we emerge. But we can be with what is happening within us, witnessing with kindness and compassion towards ourselves, with presence and careful attention to what is occurring, so that we might emerge with deepened consciousness and perhaps greater preparedness for what may come next. Using our practice, whatever form it might take, to support us, we can stay as present as we are able to, without berating and judging ourselves in those moments when we inevitably will lose presence.

Over the last month I have been participating in an online course with Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron –Turn your World Around – a practice for dealing with difficult emotions. I am sure we have all been through many waves of emotion during this last year of the pandemic – the burning fires of anger; the painful dissolution of loss, sorrow and grief; anxiety and fear as the world we know (and indeed our own known self) falls apart, disintegrates, slips away out of our grasp; or the paralysing forces of depression that can so easily swamp us.

At the core of Pema’s teaching is the advice to pause in the moment of arising emotion, and to return to the central practice of being present, embodied, and kind to ourself. With mindful attention to our bodies, and an accepting and kind attitude towards all we are feeling, we can allow the gradual transformation of our emotions and come closer to our essential nature. This is the essence of the alchemical process. Perhaps, during this time of collective restriction, we have been offered an opportunity to practise this ancient art of transmutation – of our suffering and pain into a wiser and more compassionate approach to life.

I believe that we are meant to change through this time of enduring loss and restriction. We are meant to allow the slow, putrefying forces of time to work upon us, transmuting our old ways of being into something new. Staying open to the subtle signs of change, of guidance when it appears, the small glimmers of joy when they reach up from deep within us, perhaps we can develop just enough inner support and strength to be with this momentous turning that is happening in our world. Those of us with a somatic movement or Authentic Movement practice know many ways to return to embodied presence, with kindness and acceptance towards the parts of us that might be struggling.

I finish with a poem by David Whyte, which speaks to this alchemical inward turning:

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

David Whyte
(from House of Belonging)

Footnotes

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alchemy
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist Alphonse (Introduction, episodes 2-41). Fullmetal Alchemist series created by Hiromu Arakawa