Inner Work Guide's Alchemical Gnosis Yoga of the West

It is said that a prophet is never recognized in their own home, but their mettle is surely tempered there.

Last week we talked about how the reason for anyone ‘doing’ anything is essentially unknowable; at best we are left in theposition of having to accept or reject the credulity of theirexplanation.

Indeed our judgments about the reasons for another’s ‘doing’ are projections of the whispers from those forgotten voices of ourselves. But how did we lose sight of the sources of those whispers?

My mentor and I were having a light meal at a corner bistro just around the corner from apartment, he was sipping on his drink and I leaned back in my chair to just allow the moment to sink in. The day was glorious, a New York rarity in August that felt like late Spring or Early Fall, where the suns rays messaged you rather than assault with heat and humidity.

Now, one would think that Athena would stand up for her priestess who had, according to all accounts, kept her vows and virtue intact. Yet the law can be harsh -- blind justice enforcing the need to seek conformity above all else, as well as preserve taboo, led to the conditions of a dehumanizing endeavor. It is under these circumstances that Athena created the Gorgon Medusa. So twisted and misshapen had she become by the blind application of law that to simply gaze upon her would cause any to be transformed into stone.

When I was growing up in the 1960's a woman who wanted to play sports was frowned upon. They were judged as not exactly embodying the feminine ideal. Young African American males were told by the images on TV and the news that society thought them to be thieves, pimps, or drug dealers, and African American women were fit only to be domestic help or prostitutes. And the LBGT community lived a mole like existence in their closets. These are just extreme examples of some of the things people of my generation have had to deal with, and it is not surprising that the nervous system has built a bulwark around the original innocence.

The personality you have developed to survive has no more basis in reality than do images projected onto a movie screen. Yet we all think "they are us."

Our work really then, is clearing away the untruth about who and what we are. Again, these untruths are what cause us so much frustration and pain in life. Most of what we believe about ourselves (the sins of perception), are accepted not as second nature, but as our undisputed true nature.

The truth of the matter is, there is not, nor has there ever been, something wrong with you. You, my friend, are not broken. This might seem like a paradox, because we are, after all, working on things about our selves that we want to improve, elevate, or spiritualize.

I originally discovered you from Rawn Clarks documents from many years ago, do the Franz Bardon teachings have any influence on your work?

How do you foster a sense of community among your students, especially those who may be new to alchemy?