Modern Alchemy with James & Bersabeh Ray

Andre grew up in Southern California, graduating from California State University, Fullerton, and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He then started his legal career in 2006, as a trial attorney within the Colorado state courts. In 2007, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Over a four-year period, Andre engaged in estate planning and trial work. During that time, he was recognized by leadership as being within the top 5 percent of trial attorneys in the Air Force.

With a desire to have a more stable home life, Andre left active duty and transferred to the Air Force Reserves, where he held the rank of Major. He served as a trial advocacy instructor, government appellate counsel, and estate planning attorney. Andre practiced as a federal trial attorney for the District of Arizona, handling the highest level of federal cases. In 2014, he decided to go into private practice as a full-time Arizona estate planning, wills, trusts, and probate attorney.

Andre cites the Air Force's core values — Integrity, Service, Excellence — as the guiding principles behind Pennington Law, PLLC as well as for his work in the community. He explains them as, "Integrity — when no one's looking you do the right thing; service before self; and excellence in all we do."

As Andre explains, it starts with asking, "'How much good can I give to the community?' I tell my kids every day, 'Have a great day and do great things.' And that's the way I think about it; every day is another day to do a great thing, to change someone's life."

With a yearning to give Arizona children the chance to succeed, he founded residential homes dedicated to the well-being of foster children. In addition, he was appointed and served as a part-time judge for the Maricopa County Justice Courts (2015-2017). Andre holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is a coach and lifetime member at ⁠De Boa Jiu-Jitsu Academy⁠ in Surprise, Arizona.

Connect with Andre here: ⁠https://www.penningtonestateplanning.com/⁠

⁠https://www.facebook.com/andre.pennington.716⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/penningtonwealth/⁠

Unfortunately, most have very little self-awareness.

ASK: Who are you?

Beyond what you do

Beyond what you have or own

If everything was taken away from you: friends, family, colleagues, business, finances… who would you be?

Most people have little to no understanding of who they are.

I'm an entrepreneur, parent, man/woman, engineer, architect…

Those are all things you do, or a role you play. They don't qualify for who you are.

Why do you do what you do?

Why do you like certain things and not others?

Why do you have certain habits and traits?

Do you ever promise yourself you're going to change and then you don't? Why is that?

Do you ever do things and then wonder why?

Ever do things that are disempowering, maybe harmful even though you know it's not good for you?

Why is that?

Unless you can answer these questions, you'll have little to no ability to influence yourself—much less be able to discipline yourself—to do something different.

You're flying on UC autopilot.

95% UCM

It's not about just changing your thinking.

Make the UC/C

Your results are a reflection of you. If you want your external results to change you must change...

Alchemy of Influence:

https://harmonicwealthglobal.com/mastering-communication-and-influence/

Transmutation not denial is the tool of mastery ~ Esoteric Axiom

Possibly we've all heard about this crazy concept of alchemy where ancient scientists attempted to turn base metal into gold. That's a metaphor and a front for the Catholic church during the Inquisition (sought out and destroyed "heresy")

What transmutation really means is taking something of low value (lead) and turning it into something of high value (gold).

Ultimately the gold that the alchemist seeks is an awakened and enlightened consciousness. What many ancient teachings call a Christ Consciousness.

Christ it a title meaning: "the chosen one" "the anointed one" "an ideal human being."

So, the ultimate objective of true alchemy is to become an ideal human being—actually to become more than human. To literally become superhuman.

Superhuman is not dodging bullets and jumping tall buildings, it's to become a higher order of humanity.

Let's face it: look around you and you'll quickly realize that a large portion of so-called humanity is operating at an animal level. Driven by money, food, sex, power. This is not even human... this is sub-human.

Becoming human means having higher morals, principles, and virtues. To literally transmute the lower animal drives into higher drives of meaning and purpose.

From there, the journey continues step by step, stage by stage to superhuman but please understand that you must become fully human first.

That means you must be driven by much more than sensual pleasures and power.

This journey is the true objective of all Alchemy. What the alchemists call "The Great Work." To bring God into the world of form.

And this journey is turning metaphoric lead into gold.

Three simple reasons you're here:

• Clean up
• Grow up
• Wake up

And they must happen in that order.

Chaos Theory: all creation and all order come from chaos which must be structured and ordered.

Order is just organized Chaos.

We began a discussion on the transmutation of the sacred into secularism last week.

This transmutation has been in operation since the Renaissance and the concept of Humanism; but has accelerated in most recent years.

This is problematic; and it creates many current issues.

First, without a vertical relationship with some type of organizing principle—call that God—all we have is a horizontal view of the world.

What does a horizontal view alone give you?

• • It tends to eliminate morality and get you to focus solely on ethics.
  • When I was in prison the gang members had a code of ethics. But they weren't very moral.
  • Because our species has a need for a guiding and structuring principle, we have only our peers—or what we perceive to be our peers—to look to for what we assume to be moral and just.
  • If there are no overarching principles that we have been taught or trained into, then we make them up.
  • Ethics without Morality are effect of a lack of a vertical principle and actually there are more.

So, what do we have to measure on horizontal plane to determine our ethics? Money and materialism have become the organizing principle which means they have become our God.

The destruction of the family unit and traditional gender roles have become ethics. All in the name of "inclusion" but actually driving exclusion.

Gender dysphoria and blending and transforming—even at the risk of depression, body mutilation, and increased death wishes drive us even further away still from each other.

One of the greatest causes that Bersabeh and I find of suffering for those we work with is a lack of integration.

Peace, Prosperity, and Power come from inner unity.

External diversity is a good thing. Different opinions, beliefs, and perspectives. But internal diversity is chaos.

To be Whole is to be Holy. This is a sacred journey that receives little to no attention in the secular world.

The human heart is the center of our bodies; and in the mysteries it's the throne of God. When we return to the center we return to the sacred.

Maybe it's time for all of us to consider doing what's necessary to get back to center.

It begins with a decision. It's followed by action. It begins with you.

We want to talk about an alchemical process that's been taking place in our society for hundreds of years now. An alchemical process in reverse. (More on that in a moment)

The replacement and suppression of the sacred for secularism.

You see, all tools are neutral. They can be used for God and goodness or the darkest evil. This includes Alchemy.

The highest purpose and use of Alchemy is to transmute something of low value into something of high value.

The lowest purpose and use of Alchemy is to transmute something noble into something dark. It all depends on the values and intentions of the user.

For example: there's a constant conversation in today's world regarding guns but the bottom line is that it's not really about guns. Guns don't kill people... mentally disturbed people kill people.

The fact is that hurt people hurt other people.

The same thing is true of any tool. It's the user that determines the use of the tool. A knife can cut bread, or it can be a deadly weapon.

So where are we currently in the world, and how did we get here?

We live in an extremely secular world. What is secularism? The formal definition is "religious indifference". A belief that religious considerations should be eliminated from our civil affairs. The ignoring or exclusion of religious duties, in structure, or considerations."

Now while you may at first think this is a good thing which allows individuals to think for themselves, the flip side is that without a belief, structure, rules, and a relationship with God or some type of Higher Principle we have nothing but flatland.

We have no standards to live by except observing those around us.

The horizontal relationship without the vertical relationship only gives us a socialized mind and materialism by which to judge our decisions and actions.

This has been methodically running as a collective program and slowly growing since the Renaissance and the rise of Humanism in the 14th century.

On the flip side, the sacred is more than the religion definition referenced. Religion is a means to reach a sacred end.

The true definition of sacred is the power, being, or realm understood to be at the core of existence, and which has a transformative effect on life and destiny.

The most common term for the sacred is God. But This Motive and Creative Power can be called by a multitude of names.

So, it basically comes down to whether you believe in a Creator and a Higher Power or not.

If you don't, that's Humanism and Secularism.

If you do, then that's the Sacred.

Currently 92% of American's state they believe in God and 83% of the people in the world state they believe in God.

So, where's the disconnect? How do we reconcile the belief and the

practice?

How have we become so utterly materialistic, and money driven?

This is something we'll continue to discuss in our upcoming episode.

But for today, let's end with a quote from Nietzsche, "When God dies, life becomes weightless."

So, how weighty is your life?

This is the 3rd episode of Three Alchemical Qualities for Success. We've covered Resilience and Utilization and today we'd like to discuss one that is not popular with many people: Delayed Gratification.

Unfortunately, far too many in today's world are looking for fast fame, simple success, and quick fix gimmicks. These strategies don't work.

Great work takes time; and you must be willing to sacrifice your current comfort for future greater comfort.

Something of a lower value for something of greater value.

The original meaning of the word sacrifice is to make sacred.

You must lay on the altar of life something of a lesser value in exchange for something of a higher value.

A vision is holding an image of a better future and to accomplish any vision you must give up something in the present.

Let's be clear... you will sacrifice. If you're unwilling to sacrifice something current for your vision, your vision will be your ultimate sacrifice.

The truth is that delayed gratification is always the greatest gratification once the vision is achieved.

Be willing to sacrifice for your dreams, vision, and greatness. In this way do you transmute short term pain into long term gain.

John C. Puritz is on a mission, and he's calling out men in the 21st century to stand up and lead.

With over 25 years of teaching, mentoring, and coaching experience, John wants to educate, equip, and empower today's man to "Man Up, Already!" and learn how to become the amazing man God created him to be!

⁠https://www.amazon.com/Man-Up-Already-Live-Marketplace/dp/1731231296⁠

We've been discussing success and the qualities necessary to achieve it in your life, relationships, and business.

Last episode we discussed resilience. The ability to get knocked down and to get back up. Let's discuss the next quality today: Utilization.

While resilience gives you the endurance to keep going, Utilization is more than that. Utilization is leverage.

Utilization is taking the hit, getting back up; and then utilizing the hit to make it work in your favor versus disfavor. To make it work for you versus against you.

Now, while this often seems difficult, just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.

Napoleon Hill, "Every adversity carries within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

Here's the fact: you learn and grow the most in the crucible of challenge.

Your greatest teacher is often your last "mistake."

How do we learn, grow, and improve? By falling down and getting back up and then taking the learning from the fall and using it to improve

So, at the end of the day, how can you use the punches life throws to make you bigger, better, stronger?

How can you learn?

How can you grow?

How will you utilize (there's that word again), your learning and growth to do better and greater next time?

Ask yourself: What's good about this situation? How can I utilize it to learn and grow? How will I use that learning and growth to do bigger and better next time?

In our last session we began a discussion on success; and today we want to discuss one of the Three Alchemical Qualities for success.

You may recall that in our last episode we discussed the fact that success is a very personal and individual issue.

It's vitally important that you choose something worthy of trading your life for.

That being said, once you've made your choice of what you intend to create the first quality you must develop and strengthen is Resilience.

Resilience is that ability to get knocked down and get back up.

I guarantee you're going to get knocked down. Getting knocked down is part of life.

He or she who gets knocked down and gets back up is stronger and wiser than he or she who never fell.

There are so many things to learn from knock downs. So many ways to grow and improve.

He who gets knocked down and gets back up is stronger and wiser than he who never fell.

Let's face it, most often our greatest teacher was our last so-called mistake.

You can measure your level of resilience by how quickly you recover from a knockdown or set-back.

"I'm grateful for my challenges for they show me who I am; they show me the truth." ~ Esoteric axiom

Alchemy is about transmutation. Taking the knockdown and transmuting it into a building block for stepping forward.

Wiley's path began with fellow combat veterans who were struggling with PTSD while trying to transition back into civilian life.

His success with them led to working with various health professionals, high-powered executives, professional athletes, celebrities, and influencers.

As referrals continued to mount, he felt it was time to make himself more accessible to other leaders looking for – and asking about – similar next-level performance.

Today, he works intimately with a select group of clientele who are willing to do whatever it takes to blow past their limits and master their lives.

Contact Wiley Here:

⁠https://www.wyliemcgraw.com/⁠

⁠https://twitter.com/WylieMcGraw⁠