Being here is the primal mystery that gives rise to our seeking. Is not our presence more than out bodies? Toward what goals will we strive? How may we live graciously on the Earth?
The ancients taught that the earth was alive a pulsating, evolving being. To them nature and the elements were ensouled and that all matter and substance were permeated with the mystery of divine immanence. To the ancients it was obvious that divinity was present in the human soul as well as in the elements of nature. From these certainties streamed the essential sanctity of all life.
Every religion gives its prescription for bringing the sacred into daily life. The Native Americans have as one of their most noble ideals that we learn to walk on the Earth in a sacred manner. Yet vast stretches of civilized terrain are becoming wasteland. It seems wherever corporate culture and modern technology go a portion of the earth dies.
Weapons manufacturing is still the world's number one business. The growing deterioration of the world's air and water along with the steady proliferation of weapons of mass destruction threaten the existence of future generations. Even our culture has been described as toxic especially to children. It appears we are entranced like a princess in an enchanted tale and deaf to the spirit calling out to us through our slumber.
Sometimes it takes a life of trauma perhaps a near death experience for an individual to become aware of the deeper wisdom that guides us from within. Our current culture is flirting with an apocalyptic event of series of convulsions that might bring the human race to such a collective trauma. To avoid catastrophe we will need to embrace a sacred manner of living on the Earth.
Fortunately the human race is a work in progress. The past is prologue and the book of human culture has only begun to be written. Though science has produced an extraordinary material technology, we are still childish in our ability to live by the truths taught by the wise men and women who have given humanity its highest cultural and spiritual impulses. To live those truths is the task of the future. Doing so will require a transformation in our understanding and our ways of living. Centuries ago philosophers gave the mystery of transformation the name alchemy.
The word alchemy is vaguely mysterious in most people's minds and might conjure an image of a medieval sorcerer toiling in a shadowy laboratory seeking to discover the secret of making gold. However it is true that alchemy refers to an archaic branch of medieval chemistry. Alchemists were the forerunners of modern science and in their research they discovered zinc, created porcelain and introduced the use of chemical compounds. Alchemists were known to have sought a mysterious substance they called the philosophers stone that would give then the power to transmute ordinary metals into gold.
In addition they hoped to acquire the Elixir of Life which would grant them abundant perhaps even eternal life. Historically many of the greatest names in science, philosophy, theology and art busied themselves with alchemical experiments and writings. These include Paracelsus the father of modern medicine, Albertus Magnus who was himself canonized and is best remembered as the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon a Franciscan who was one of the most learned and innovative minds of his day.
Perhaps most notable is Isaac Newton the greatest physicist who wrote exhaustively of his experiments with the transmutation of metals in his alchemical diaries. It should be remembered that Isaac Newton is widely considered the greatest scientific mind ever to have lived unequalled by any save Albert Einstein.
Although a novice might initially scoff at the notions of alchemy and wonder why such great minds would be interested in its mysteries, modern science has led us into a world where transmutation of substance is a given. With the advent of Einstein and atomic fusion the new physics demonstrates conclusively that matter may be transmuted into essence or energy. During the early 1900's experiments were conducted using quicksilver also known as mercury which was a key element of the alchemists were carried out by physicists using a cyclotron.
Inside a particle accelerated the physicist's bombarded mercury with subatomic particles and succeeded in transforming the mercury into a small amount of gold. This theory certainly supports the beliefs of the alchemists that the "seeds of gold are contained in all substances" yet it is essential to understand that the traditional alchemical effort to turn base metals into gold is an allegory.
The Philosophers Stone and the Elixir of life are terms represented of states of consciousness as alchemy was closer to philosophy than pure science. The alchemists were seeking the secrets of abundant living as they were pioneers of the spirit who hid their work from the foolish and intolerant by using symbols of turning coarse matter into gold. Although they foreshadowed modern science they were primarily concerned with transforming the elements of their own souls. Genuine alchemists sought wisdom before wealth.
Alchemy in the true sense of the word and in the sense that I am using it in this context is a process whereby the commonplace becomes special. It is the act of turning ordinary living into sacred living and the alchemy of sacred living is the art of soul transformation that enables humans to express the golden light of the spirit in all areas of life.
Since primordial times a stream of ancient wisdom has flowed through human culture a knowledge that seeks to inform us of the diverse presence of the mystery of our being and the purpose of our earthly appearance. Because it has to do with the unknown and because it grants access into a world previously hidden and enshrouded in silence it is only natural that this wisdom should be given the name of the mysteries.
Until we can penetrate beyond the veils of unknowing these truths remain at least in part a mystery. In coming face to face with the realities of the spirit human beings find themselves and as we realize the mysteries of our own being we will comprehend our presence and purpose on the Earth. Many humans are still grappling to figure out what is life all about. Most people live life in a dark underground cave and have forgotten about the sunny atmosphere outside the cave a luminous world that was once our true home.
Humans need to emerge from the darkness and discover the bright realm outside the cave of ignorance. There is a body of essential truths that form the core of all religions and scared traditions both ancient and modern and that the science of the future will be based on these insights, the essence of which has been called the perennial philosophy in other words the secrets of existence. Once humans begin to master the truth that is when humans will step outside the dark cave and into the brightness of the world we have all forgotten and the land of light from which we have come.
There comes a time when each and every human has a personal realization and that is when the map of a new and higher consciousness will arise and this is when we will find the eternally living keys to personal and cultural transformation. Each of these keys is like a letter in natures alphabet which helps us to read the living book of truth that lies before us each day and when we being to express these ideas in our lives we will see unfolding before us the beauty and wisdom that governs life.
For those who activate the power of the celestial laws through harmonious living will begin to experience a transformation and it will be like each one is handed their own key to a realm of limitless possibilities. Only then will humans awaken and be lead to the discovery of life's greatest treasure the immortal jewel of the indwelling spirit.
