Alchemy Class Notes – Session Twelve

"Enter alchemy – thing-words, image-words, craft-words. The five supposed sources of alchemy are each a technology. Each is a handwork physically grappling with sensate materials: (1) Metallurgy and Jewelry: mining, heating, smelting, forging, annealing; (2) Cloth and Fiber Dyeing: dipping, coloring, drying; (3) Embalming the Dead: dismembering, evacuating, infusing, preserving; (4) Perfumery and Cosmetics: grinding, mixing, distilling, diluting, evaporating; …

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Visions of Johanna – An Alchemical View

When I first started studying Alchemy in the writings of C.G. Jung and much later, James Hillman, I had difficulty finding its relevance in the life of us moderns. Already lacking enough time in the daily grind to leave room for a little reading, writing and relaxation, how does one find the time to devote …

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JANUARY CHALLENGE… My Awakening Experience And Moving Forward

Here is my contribution to Barbara Franken's January Challenge series. This is a story in which the right kind of trouble unexpectedly brings a gift. From an early age, I struggled to feel a sense of belonging and identity. As a child I loved play-acting and imagining what it might be like to be a bear, a dog, …

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Alchemical Psychology, Part VII – Air

"The Imagination of Air and the Collapse of Alchemy," is Hillman's next to last chapter in his book, Alchemical Psychology. He reminds us at the start of the chapter that it is the images of air and not their measurement that was the focus for the alchemists. The chapters of this wonderful book get meatier …

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For A Dancer

One of the most beautiful, yet saddest songs about death that I have ever heard is Jackson Browne's For a Dancer. Maybe you've heard it? In my teens, friends and I loved JB's album, "Late for the Sky," in which the studio version of For a Dancer can be found on. My friend Regina, who …

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