The Stone of the Wise
In my last post, I touched on my enduring fascination with the 7 lettered alchemical acronym
V.I.T.R.I.O.L
Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem
translating into:
Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying what you find there, you will discover the hidden (philosopher's) stone.
The Philosopher’s Stone is the desired outcome of (inner/outer) alchemy.
And VITRIOL is both the literal laboratory chemical and the individual’s fire of sublimating desire that sets the 7 stages of alchemy in motion. VITRIOL also transmutes and awakens into a blissful brain hormone - what I have come to understand as a sort of amrita - Sanskrit for nectar of the gods/of immortality, that exists largely dormant in all of us.
Entheogenic plant medicine ceremonies - most notably with Ayahuasca, the Amazonian Mother vine containing among other things, the chemical compound DMT - are also of course alchemical journeys.
The word ‘entheogen’ literally means the god within. And as you may know, DMT is a chemical that occurs naturally in the brains of humans and other mammals - but is for the most part latent unless aroused through the transmutational processes of inner alchemy.
This is what is meant by a Kundalini awakening in Yoga- where the coiled ‘sleeping’ serpent at one’s root chakra - symbolizing the sleeping, survival + fear based consciousness - awakens and makes its way up through the 7 chakras to the crown. Here, it unifies with its polarity and begins the rooting + rising circuitous play-dance of opposites that gives birth to organic cycles of creation, preservation and destruction.
This is the Alchemical Marriage - the union of opposites. And as you may already know, Yoga means to unite or to yoke.
(Not peachy butt in Lululemon leggings ;))
The heart-based integration of this Union, brought on by the awakening to and of one’s indigenous amrita - not just metaphorically but physiologically, by expanding the capacity of our colonized nervous systems to make space for the vast Mystery of meaning + magic that we innately are - is discovering the treasure of the Philosopher’s Stone.
As with all sentient phenomena, this treasure is not static but a process that continues to go through stages of birth, death and rebirth.
Like the seasons, the cycles of the moon and the passage of day into night into day.
And so with us: in order to rise up and into the fullness of our potential and the wholeness of ourselves, we have to root down, to fully incarnate into our lives and bodies.
In order to ascend, we simultaneously have to descend.
In alchemy, VITRIOL is the blazing fire of change that awakens and moves one through the 7 stages of transmutation. In Tantra, this is dancing with the sublimating fire of desire without being consumed by it.
In Shamanic terms, this is the poison path - the ability to realize poison into medicine, the nectar of the gods.
Through all these different stages of alchemical transformation, we go through Solve et Coagula - dissolving and coagulating.
This is what we’re going to be doing in ROOT + RISE (sadly without the plant entheogens.)
In my experience, having the support of ongoing teaching + intentional community to consciously enter into the cycles of transformation that Life in all Her sensational Mystery desires from us and for us, makes these processes way more meaningful + empowering, and way less isolating + overwhelming.
If you follow the Schumann Resonance, you’ll know that the Earth’s frequency is accelerating pretty rapidly - our planet is in a crucial stage of her own alchemical rebirth. The lead weight of the force-fed, colonized meanings about who + what we are as humans needs to transmute + transform in order to vibrate in harmonious, supportive reflection.
ROOT + RISE is an invitation to reclaim and re-member your indigenous amrita.