Hello Human,

Welcome to Alchemy Practical Applications, the first ever online Alchemy course. For the next six months, we'll be going on a collective journey of inner-knowing. What does this mean?

Alchemy is the science, art, and philosophy of change. whether you're turning raw ingredients into a meal, or taylor swift is turning an ex-boyfriend into a song, Wherever there's transformation, there is alchemy.

The ultimate transformation being pursued in the alchemical tradition is that of turning lead into gold, often with the help of the philosopher's stone. Why? Because gold is virtually indestructible. It doesn't scorch, rust, or tarnish, and no matter how you melt and remold it, its integrity always remains intact.

In the most meta-critical and reductive manner, this "alchemical program", like twitchy the cat, is something that I "alchemized" by turning some of my worst experiences into valuable lessons with the help of my schooling. But my education is not my only "philosopher's stone" and lessons are not the only "gold" to be had or made out of unpleasant experiences. Your "lead" and catalyst will be different than mine and unique to you, and may change under different circumstances. education and knowledge, for example, fail to be useful in many situations, and can even obstruct rather than speed up certain processes.

In a technical sense, this program is something of a hybrid between a rhetoric/media studies course and a personal development mentorship, informed by various spiritual philosophies, and rooted in global awareness. There will be a lot of writing, reading, films to watch, and playlists to listen to. topics will range from mythological and literary material to politico-historic events, investigating a multitude of themes that overlap and intersect between the individual and the collective. As you read and learn, you will be looking for these themes in your own life, cultivating a particular awareness of them, (re)performing them, and documenting your experience. Ideally, you will be working towards producing a personal creation, whether that be a poem, a painting, or a business idea.

Throughout the process, we'll be learning to engage critically and without judgement with inner material (thoughts and emotions) and external material (media and relationships). We'll be honing our reasoning skills and using them to deconstruct learned "truths" about the world; we'll be enhancing our intuition and allowing it to guide us as we reconstruct our own truth of the world; and we'll be recognizing our role in the world around us as individuals, learning what we can offer, from a place of authenticity, to the collective.

Ultimately, this is less of a "course" or "program" and more of a commitment between you and yourself, to a new, loosely-guided way of being that you will integrate into your everyday life. For a period of six months, you will be consuming certain media, literature, and music, be assigned tasks, and be given different paradigms through which to examine, understand, and interact with the world around you. You will be trusting me to curate and guide you through these paradigms as we explore them together. Thus, the more deeply you can commit to and integrate the work that i give you, the more enriching your experience of our seven months together will be.

This journey is for people who:

- are mentors, teachers, healers, or leaders in any capacity who would like to deepen their spiritual or personal philosophy
- are compelled by their newfound awareness of the ongoing events in the holy land and the world to establish a broader, collective awareness
- have been on a healing journey for a long time and/or have done ample therapy but feel like they've plateaued
- have recently had a spiritual experience and may be recovering from a period of spiritual psychosis
- just want to be the best version of themselves, and want to explore alchemy as an avenue through which to do so
- several or all of the above

As humans, we are born in a kind of oblivion, and over time, contend with certain obstacles and experiences that require us to develop tricks and mechanisms to keep ourselves safe and maintain some semblence of that original oblivion. In doing so, we grow to have layers upon layers of material dedicated to keeping us from feeling pain, that eventually begin to keep us from truly feeling anything but lingering, implacable resentment.

To know, we need to shed the layers, not by peeling them back from the outside--that only agitates it, like when you pick at a scar or pimple--but by expanding from within and allowing what needs to, to fall away.

Sometimes people will experience sudden, explosive expansions of awareness, as an effect of plant medicines or other drugs. But this experience can be created completely naturally, through one's simple will and dedication to the work.

What is the work? It is becoming love and coming into the fullness of truth, your truth, not as it is told to us, but as it is experienced, as you experience it. It is about gratitude and knowing that so long as we're alive, good is always overcoming. It is about understanding that you, as an individual, are solely responsible for how you feel. There are challenges that will make or break you, bring you to the precipice (or even depth) of existential crisis, and force you to face anything you are inclined to ignore. Whatever is inauthentic or conflicted within will be destroyed; whatever is left will comprise the root of virtue from which you resurrect, and the process will begin again. What is most important is that you be well intended, be honest with yourself first and foremost, and maintain your integrity.

I would (and will continue to) advise that you develop the ability to meditate, as the mind can get whipped up into a frenzy processing these experiences and there are critical thresholds to cross where the ability to find stillness will be essential.

Over the next six months, lectures and discussions of assigned readings will be released to you every two weeks.

We will consult a number of texts, including:

• The Emerald Tablet
• The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
• The Prophet - Gibran
• Alchemy an Introduction - Marie Louise von Franz
• Selections of Shakespeare
  

My mission with this program is to make the tools of inner-knowing more accessible to people. I want to help you find and expand that obscure, central fire blazing in the core of your being, hidden beneath layers of ego and trauma. And over the course of six months, I will be giving you the knowledge and guidance you need to become solid and comfortable in that expansion.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing you in the Twitchyverse: https://discord.com/invite/wxce96pnse

Safe travels light-beam.