Alchemical Theme of the Week

🛁 Dissolution 🛁

DISSOLUTION

"The cure for anything is salt water—sweat, tears, or the sea." – Isak Dinesen

The chemical process of dissolution is to take the ashes from calcination and dissolve them in water. Psychologically, these are the waters of the unconscious. Once we feel we have surrendered to the fire and feel our identity as we knew it and our general perceptions of how life is supposed to work have been reduced to ashes, we might find the soaking of this new stage oddly comforting. This is a softening period, it’s connected to the dreamy lunar forces, which are always playing with the weight of water. This is the warm salty bath, where leftover attachments easily dissolve and even float away.

Sometimes, this stage was called “Mary’s Bath”...which evokes images of the Holy Mother’s warm embrace and transcendent Grace. This period can feel slightly ungrounded, which comes as a welcome change from the refining fire that got us here. It’s the tending to wounds after the burning. It may feel transcendent, but with that comes a feeling of floating, not yet embodied. If you are ever going to embrace your dissociative tendencies, this is an excellent opportunity. The shadows we have faced in the fire have not left us, we still see them more clearly than before, but in this warm bath, we are just grateful to have our wounds tended by the warm waves of acceptance.

*Mary the Jewess*, the earliest alchemists we know of, invented many chemical apparatuses, including the Double Boiler, which is basically a pot of boiling water, nesting another pot inside it, so that the heat conducted through the water creates a gentle, indirect heat, and the ingredients in the top layer can slowly melt instead of burn. The process is much easier to control, now the time of burning is over. Rich sauces and chocoalates are made in this way. There is an element of sweetness. The time of intense fire is behind us. We know we can handle anything, even if we are still naked in that bath and mentally separated for a while longer.

If you are in this dissolution phase, ACCEPTANCE is a wonderful word to employ as often as you remember. Another helpful thing is to get yourself near or in salt-water. Epsom salt baths do wonders for clearing away the energy of others, which we tend to pick up when we are most vulnerable. In the bath, shower, or pool, imagine yourself as a glass jar or wine bottle, with the label slowly dissolving. You don’t need to know what that label was made of. Just let it go. And drift back to a sense of source. Enjoy every minute. You deserve it. 🛁

(I’m currently editing the next podcast episode and this is the card that was chosen as a point of conversation. I will publish it next week. It’s a good one. Stay tuned!)

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