At the heart of alchemy is a firing process. The firing process is the way of taking material which has been subject to conditioning and is riddled with impurities, and transforming it into something pure through a series of heatings and coolings. With each cycle, impurities are drawn out of the material. Eventually, what remains is the pure essence of the thing. A golden elixir.
The material we work with is our energy — that which composes our bodymind experience.
We are born pure, essential energy. Instilled with the essence of timeless knowledge. Life conditions us to separate from that knowledge. The false knowledge we imbibe creates a divide between body and mind; Eros and soul; yin and yang.
As a result of this conditioning, we live in a state wherein we are are struck by lightning and knocked unconscious. Flooded with information, and unable to swim. We seek joy in damaging things. We become disconnected from the earth and from the heavens. We come to believe we are lone mountains who must hold impenetrable walls or else shock all those who attempt to touch us with tenderness. We are burned by the fires of ourselves and others.
One of the greatest sources of conditioning is our unconscious seeking of joy outside of ourselves. We mistake these temporal sparks for the eternal fire of illumination, trapping ourselves in cycles of soul starvation.
To return to the eternal flame which nourishes our lives, we must cultivate it from within.
The cultivation begins with a simple process of breathing and feeling. Resting the breath on the mind and the mind on the breath such that we are not impeding the flow of energy through our systems.
The following is a meditation to help you cultivate a connection with this eternal flame.
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