Are You An Alchemist?

Dropping off some books for a friend I figured I’d take a look at some of the esoteric books on the stacks.

Astrology.

Wicca.

New Age fluff.

Pretty much what I expected.

What I didn’t expect was being asked if I was an alchemist.

The question came from a woman next to me who I had apparently missed standing there, was she there the entire time, or did she see me first?

Was I an alchemist?

I was trying to transform myself, to restore myself, to be more than Human.

Aspects of alchemy were involved, but would that qualify me as one?

She could see I was thinking, that my words were carefully being weighed and that maybe I could not answer that while I could.

Did I think the Philosopher’s Stone was real, an actual stone was her next question.

Yes, was my reply.

I do. I think it can turn base metals into gold, and not from an allegorical setting.

Sitting down on the ground in-between the stacks we had an insightful conversation for an hour or so.

My feeling was that the Stone has to be both, it has to be both physical and metaphysical. That as soon as conditions are placed on it, as soon as certainty is placed on it, the magic is lost. That the mythology is what gives it the power, and that if the soul believes the mythology it becomes real on another level that interacts with this level.

Isn’t that the definition of magic?

I choose all of it to be real and literal in my heart, even if my mind tells me otherwise, as there is a power in that which leads to the Universal Elixir.

Always Believe.