What I Learned at the 2011 International Alchemy Conference
By Lorrie Kazan
www.ilovemypsychic.com
What I hadn't consciously realized as I entered the darkened, windowless rooms
of the vibrant Long Beach Convention Center, was that I was entering yet another
transformational process just by showing up. Speakers were passionate,
educated, dedicated, and there were so many of them that a number of different
workshops were scheduled at the same time. (You can purchase cds and
dvds.) This conference gave far more than your money's worth.
It's said the hero's journey starts with a call, and it was at least a mini-call
for me to get a media pass, arise early, drive the exotic 710 freeway to that
foreign
Alchemists believe death
and darkness are where the true work begins. "In the midst of where
you're most stuck, if you stay with it long enough, something starts to change.
Consciousness begins to merge out of places where we don't think consciousness
exists," Dr. Stanton Marlan asserted in his lecture, one of my favorites at
the conference: "From A Dead Stone to a Living Philosophical One."
The Alchemist's quest is to turn lead into gold.
Two primary methods
exist for this: in the scientific laboratory, and in the soul where
we transform the base metal of our characters into cosmic gold. Internal
alchemy is done by reading, searching, and through the depths of the therapeutic
process.
Award-winning physicist, Nassim Haramein, (whom I've since learned via the
internet is also controversial) regaled us with equations
in which he proved
that everything is connected and therefore nothing can be isolated. We
must see the whole in the part and the part in the whole.
Haramein's goal is to produce clean, efficient energy in a non-destructive way.
Energy, he says, is infinite. It's in the stars, back holes. It is
the whole. And what is the one thing everything has in common?
Space. Even the densest matter is mostly space.
An atom is 99.99999% space; the little oscillation within it we call matter.
"Nothing touches anything," Buckminster Fuller realized. Setting his hand
on the podium, Haramein told us, the atoms on my hand are actually far from
the atoms on the wood where is hand was resting.
You have 100 trillion cells in our bodies dividing a million cells a second just
to maintain. If DNA were pulled from us like yarn from a sweater, its
length would equal -- okay, my notes aren't clear -- but something like 6 times
from the sun to Pluto and back, and all without being confused, or it -- I
presume life -- would be over.
Haramein quoted Buckminster Fuller who said, "We've confused the telephone for
the conversation." For Haramein, the brain is the phone
that we're confusing for the conversation.
Looking to the brain for consciousness is like dissecting a radio looking to
find the announcer, he said.
He spoke about living inside a worm hole inside a black hole in a
holofractalgraphic universe.
In the next workshop
I listened to William Henry (Soul Rising, Awakening of the Soul), who showed us
sacred art as a doorway into the soul. Jesus said (though obviously not
during the lecture), "Rise and do not be afraid." Henry believes Jesus
transmitted a tone before the resurrection, which he amplified after it as he
became a body of light. If I understand
correctly, that tone is in the sacred art and in the light body itself.
You are here to learn to manifest your light body/coat
of many colors, your rainbow body. Henry believes icons (sacred art, not
the Brittany Spears kind) teach us how to embody divine light. Our souls
become what they behold. Behold the light of heaven. Use it as a
sacred mirror and portal into the divine; trust the image to show the way.
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of every day life," Picasso
once told us. And it truly was inspiring to feast on magnificent
images of light and color.
The Garden of Eden was pure light, the milky way, he says, is between
Sagittarius and Scorpio, east of
"How much time did you spend today putting on your body of light?" he asked.
Are you in touch with the tone of love ringing through every cell? Live
righteously in service, love, peace, joy and compassion.
This brings me to Dr. Stanton Marlan, Jungian analyst, whose talk made a deep
impression on me.
His room was even darker and stuffy, not ideal for anyone claustrophobic, in
case you were wondering. But he also had a presence, a power point
presentation, and a powerful intellect. His theme
was the importance of darkness, reminding me
of my favorite Roethke quote, "The dark has its own light."
He talked about the journey into the unknown being like a journey into madness,
and the paradox of the poison that also heals. He compared the self to the
philosopher's stone, and said there is no difference between prima materia and
ultra materia. Our ultimate goal is reunion with the divine source that
never left.
The cycle of death and rebirth can feel like a punishment. He cited Jung's
sense that darkness/sinking into darkness is the beginning of the work, and
therefore success, though we seldom see it that way when we're actually in it.
"You must be prepared for the light," he said, "or you will be torn apart by
it." It's this process then that must be
preparing us for the transformation.
"How could you wish to become new before you become ash?" he quoted
Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Not fearing the darkness and
staying with our stuck places
leads us to discovering consciousness, where previously there seemed to
be none. You can't move this energy, these dark places by force of will,
Dr. Marlan said. We have to open
ourselves to something else that shows us a direction. We don't know our
individual paths until language starts to speak.
As that language is revealed, we
begin to understand the unique way to live
that belongs only to us and couldn't be found by just
following others' rules.
There were more lectures and
events that night but I felt full to the brim with ideas. I get that way
sometimes, as if words are steaming from my head, falling from my mouth,
tripping under my feet. So much more was available
from the conference, but my highly sensitive self had what it could take
for now, and after another swing through the
exhibition floor, I really needed to go home.
I'd missed the lecture on clutter by feng shui
practitioner Tess Whitehurst, but had read the beginning of her book at
one of the booths in the exhibit hall. Booths of clothes, books,
scientific paraphernalia, a peace pyramid, dancers, singers, some food, though
not enough, William Henry's icons, a palm reader, a fortune teller, jewelry,
t-shirts…
I went home thinking about clutter, that I needed to deal a blow to mine so I
could think clearly, write this article, make sense of all I'd learned and was
yet to learn. And I wish I'd been rested enough
to stay for it all, to drink in the abundant darkness, and savor many more
moments for later. But for now, I had so much.
That
night I fell asleep. I dreamt about my mother. In the dream, she was still
alive and wouldn't speak to me for weeks. I was staying at my aunt and
uncle's house (as I did on special school holidays when I was young) but it was
time to go home, and I was dreading what I might find when I got there.
When I awoke I remembered how much I'd look forward to going to my aunt's and
how sad I'd be when it was time to return. Why have this dream now in the
midst of an alchemical weekend?
I consciously went back into the dream, into that time in my life and contrasted
my experience at my mother's house and my aunt and uncle's. My mother's
house felt empty; in fact, we might not have food, the refrigerator
could contain almost nothing, even the
furniture might be gone, or some cheap replica in place of what we'd had.
My mother often feared people, disdained answering
the door if the bell rang. Especially after my mother went back to work,
my sister and I were left alone for long periods of time.
I wondered if my cluttering weren't a reaction against that feeling of
emptiness? Unlike my mother, I have too many projects, so many plans that I'm
generally running late. I couldn't go to the whole conference because I
was doing readings, also writing, and then there were invitations I'd declined.
I'm already so full inside myself it's all I can do to take on any more.
And I crave light.
My mother needed darkness, did all she could to block out light that hurt
her eyes.
In contrast, my
aunt and uncle are generous, enjoy people, and are
fun-loving. Even now in their 80s,
they're hosting parties, buying gifts, looking for other couples to go out with.
"If God had meant us to be vegetarians, he wouldn't have put chicken on sale at
Vons," my uncle might say while on his way out to buy supplies for his weekly
cooking for others spree.
What did I
learn at the conference?
I like sound bites and simple ways to express things.
I'd like my articles to be easier to write.
I'm still mining my own past and how it's shaped me. When I awoke,
feeling pulled into a spiral of feelings from the past, I also questioned what
choices I could and would make to enhance the life I choose to lead.
And I hoped that next year I'd be able to attend even more workshops at
the 2012 International Alchemy Conference.
Currently, you can find them on facebook and at
www.alchemyconference.com/?amigosid=19.
Lorrie
Kazan is an award-winning writer and one of our selected, field-tested
Cayce-recommended psychics. You can
learn more about her, sign up for readings or free articles and ezines at
www.lorriekazan.com.