Alchemy Phase 2: Dissolution
In Calcination, you learned that you weren’t your body, your circumstances, your identity. None of these things ultimately defined you – because, as they receded, changed, eroded, YOU still existed, something fundamental beneath it all. Something was still there, and it was an opening to a larger universe.
Developing Devotion
In Dissolution, you might try to find some ground to stand on. You may end up exploring for a bit, but then returning to your life as usual, finding your old identity (or a slightly modified one), and a comfortable life to give you a feeling of safety and stability.
Calcination can leave people in an existential crisis if they don’t find something to focus their energy on. While it may bring a sense of adventure, it’s hard to sustain a life without any solid sense of identity or foundation. So it’s understandable that some people decide to abandon ship.
If you want to continue to carry the energy forward and allow yourself to evolve, you may want to choose an ideal to dedicate your life to. We all have ideals, values and motivations that drive us. We’re not always aware of them, but they’re like programs in the background, directing our energy and actions.
This is the time to consciously evaluate what’s important to you. Ask yourself, “What is my WHY?” This opens up our minds, gets us out of our comfort zones, allows our natural intuition to flow through us more clearly. And, when our devotion is ripened, we no longer feel separate from the Divine, but supported by it. We are not caught in the “trap” of a harmful, mechanistic reality that runs lifeless and cold. We sense the Moreness and intimately feel drawn to it and lulled by it. This lifts us. Suspends us.
Blend as Water
In Dissolution, we start to blend into the solvent, the liquid that contains and supports us. The Universal Solvent is Water. Water is Love, Unity, Connection, Grace. We loosen our boundaries, and can do so more easily without being locked into our identities. We float, which is the grace and faith in the More. Our devotion, which begins to inspire our activity and animate our daily actions, influencing all aspects of life from career to relationships, is a manifestation of the greater sense of Love we feel towards the Creative Principle in All Things and our desire to know It more. It is NOT subservience to a deity. Would it be any different from the affection towards a lover? It is pure and unconditional. It flows through thought, word, and deed.
The buoyancy we learn from this stage assists us further in our processing and development, offering momentum for the other stages to fruit. How does one best take advantage of this stage, and what are its pitfalls?
Fear has not been obliterated and can still appear in this stage. When it does, we may feel overwhelmed, lost, confused, desolate, abandoned, listless. All has been burned away, and now what is left?
It is easy in this stage to take to forms of escapism and addiction. The initial relief becomes to us as a saving grace, restoring hope in something, helping us to feel good. But, without an identity, this is a trap, as we lock onto it with an iron grip. Devotion occurs here, but it is in a form that causes us to forget ourselves more and more, to withdraw our light and sink inward. It is not introspective, but avoidant. It is devotion to drugs, sex, sugar, entertainment, maybe even sleep. Wild ideas and flurries may come, and there may be something substantial in them, but without the influence of a higher ideal, and without that element of faith as support, our ideas become distortions, and rather than inspire, they collect dust.
Transcend and Include
So the goal is to not give into these escapes. As in the previous stage, it is best to listen and observe. However, the emphasis here shifts to paying attention to our Ideal. It is a transcendent ideal, in service to something larger than a limited sense of self. It is expansive, encompassing, upfliting, energizing, loving. It brings our focus regularly back to the Big Picture, so we can stare through the opening of the matrix and fall in love with the Moreness. And yet, it can also flow through our daily lives, inspiring our actions, motivating our practical choices. It guides us.
Without this devotion, we won’t have the energy or motivation to continue the journey of transformation. Ways to access this devotion are often creative or spiritual in nature. Stream of consciousness writing every morning can help us tap into this flow and listen to our intuition. Painting, dancing, music, theater, connecting with nature, and meditating can all be avenues for finding and aligning with our devotion. The simplest way is to ask, verbally, as an inquiry to one’s Higher Self or Infinite Intelligence. And then notice the signs.
An observance of synchronicity, in itself, can foster devotion, as one becomes more aware of Infinite Intelligence and Its expression. Recording these can be a helpful tool, to remind us that reality is not what so many people are telling us. Feel into what is behind these synchronicities. Call to It. Ask for Its illumination.
