Inner Work Guide's Alchemical Gnosis Yoga of the West

Thoughts rise into awareness and then leave, or try to leave. Upon becoming aware of a thought, most of us immediately attach a story to it. Usually, this takes the form of a story from our past, conjuring up all sorts of feelings and emotions associated with that story. The

After twelve months of living in the cave's inner darkness, emergence into physical light felt like going through a second birth. The searing pain of the light when it hit his eyes and the burning when it touched his skin made him think he was mother and child in one, for indeed, he had experienced the disorienting agony of his rebirth. He had faced those shadows crawling up from his internal Stygian

The traveler finds themself in a cave dimly lit by an open fire whose flames cast shadows on the earthen walls. Alone, cold, and scared, their internal equipoise is often disturbed as an involuntary shiver races through their body. Sitting in the semi-dark, the traveler ponders the events in their life that have brought them to this place of initiation, and their rational mind questions the sanity of it all. Yet something inside them has hungered – yearned for this moment when they will truly begin their inner trial, the ultimate quest.

Hermetic inner work is about transmutation; it is not about excising, destroying, banishing, denying, shame, guilt, or blame. It has nothing to do with the corrupted 'killing the dragon' and the Hero's journey motif prevalent today. One does not become whole by cutting away parts of themselves. The same energy blocking you is the same energy, when understood, that will allow the emanation of who and what you want to be.

Hermetic philosophy is sublimely expressed through an unbroken chain of oral and written arcane understanding of mythologies. For the Alchemist, all creation/matter 'is good' because it is an emanative expression of the One. Hermeticism seeks 'balance through a means other than conflict.'

Know this: acceptance does not mean acquiescence!

At the core of everything, there is – in Hermetic Terminology – a 'Palace' [space] that is a nexus containing both Heaven and Earth or the non-physical and physical reality that maintains and, indeed, is the cause of its emanation and perception.

In Alchemical literature, this 'Palace' is also termed a Quintessence. As I understand it, the Quintessence is a fifth element, the original element, having an unperturbable homeostasis because of the perfectly balanced existence of the four elements within it. Indeed, it gives birth to these four elements and uses them to conceal itself. When the alchemist works in reverse to make a physical analog from the four elements derived from the matter being worked on in his lab to create a seat for the divine presence, it is, for me, analogous to the 'Ark of the Covenant,' a physically tangible place where the spirit of divinity (Shekhinah/Alchemical Arcanum) resides.

Regarding feelings and emotions in inner work, one of my mantras is 'the friction is the conversation.'

Dysfunction, dissatisfaction, and discomfort are your best friends in inner work. Let's face it: the angels of our nature do not need more tending. Hermetic inner work is about bringing illumination to the dark places and seeking understanding as to why you do those things you know are not productive, why you do or say those things that cause my inner dialogue to say, 'That is not me.' What is preventing you from moving forward or filling me with fear?

Spiritual awakening is about coming out of the false beliefs of who you thought you were and coming into the conscious knowledge of who you are. It essentially comes down to the question of if no books or teachers told you how to act, who would you be?

Through an act of Will, the One reflected on itself and knew itself fully in all its varied aspects. That refraction gave birth to the potentialities stored within the 'pregnant emptiness.' This recognition of self and the extension of a seeming separateness would have collapsed immediately back upon itself into Unity without the ability to circumscribe itself. The second pole of the 'seeming extension' acts as a container and allows for fully exploring any emanation's potential.

How can something be formed out of nothing? When I first began studying Hermeticism, that was my central question. There is, though, a gulf between the meaning of ‘nothing’ and ‘no-thing,’ 

This is the first episode of a new series concerning Hermetic Cosmology. Hermetic cosmology arises from observations by Hermetic Adepts carried out over generations and ages relating to Nature and how its various conditions form our physical reality. No matter which of Nature's three kingdoms (plant, animal, or mineral), the subject followed an indisputable cycle of emanation, growth, and dissolution (death).