Alchemy

Alchemy What process need there be to make of broken things – the real? Great sorcerers have failed, formed molten monuments to greed’s glory. I, poor peasant that I be, had neither flame nor Patron, nor desire to be purified. Priests had tried to rid me of the evils they perceived; prayed and chanted waving wands and crosses to summon the fire of hell or open the gates of heaven. To their chagrin, I remained unchanged. Alone in a world of twisted wreckage I formed alliances with the aspects of my being that had resisted the sorcery. Realizing that I was an individual and need not be party to the organized incarceration of my mind and spirit. I honed the edges of my intellect on tools hand fashioned by experience. Culled the detritus of past lunacy and sorted carefully aspects that might still be of use. Fear, that mighty bastard, fought to stay on the throne surrounded by its henchmen – hate, rage, and an ever present anger. My choice? Flee the kingdom or take the crown. I could no longer remain in exile from my self but had my self-alchemy the strength to approach the pseudo King and challenge his hold on the empire? Thus did I, we, the many aspects of my being, conspire to outwit and outmaneuver a slow, entrenched, inflexible imposter. Slowly the seeds of truth took root, gave blossom to integrity, trust, and a self-reliance not based on self. Wisdom followed, slowly, as is wisdom’s want. So did the alchemy of youth give way to the alchemy of growth, the alchemy of ego to the alchemy of spirit. So was my darkness brought into the light my weakness into strength, my being restored. John G. Lawless