Alchemy flows beneath the surface of Western civilization like a river of gold, preserving its images and its insights for us so that we could one day understand our presence on this planet better than we do. Alchemy builds a rainbow bridge between the human and the divine, the seen and unseen dimensions of reality, between matter and spirit. The cosmos calls to us to become aware that we participate in its life, that everything is sacred and connected—one life, one spirit. Alchemy responds to that call. It asks us to develop cosmic consciousness, to awaken the divine spark of our consciousness and reunite it with the invisible soul of the cosmos. It changes our perception of reality and answers the questions: “who are we and why are we here?” It refines and transmutes the base metal of our understanding so that we – evolved from the very substance of the stars – can know that we participate in the mysterious ground of spirit while living in this physical dimension of reality.
Alchemy has been called the Royal Art. What does this mean?

It means that each one of us carries latent within his or her nature the royal value—the greater, finer, more complete or whole person we are capable of becoming. Alchemy is about the process of redeeming or giving birth to that royal value—the quintessence of our nature—assisting it to come to full consciousness and to bring us to wholeness or spiritual maturity. Alchemy is the process which transmutes the volatile matter of our being into finer and finer elements. It tells the story of the rescue of spirit buried or lost in the forms of its creation which needs our help to emerge from its place of exile. In entering the alchemical Great Work, we become the co-redeemers of spirit, working hand in hand with spirit to release, redeem and re-unite with the divine cosmic ground of our psychic life and all of nature.

“Hidden within man there exists such a heavenly and divine light which cannot be placed in man from without but must emerge from within.”  – Zosimus of Panopolis