Reflections on An Extraordinary Alchemical Year

Last weekend, we completed the final stage of the 2009-10 Alchemical Journey programme with our sublime Pisces weekend.  In the two years since we've been running The Alchemical Journey as a full 12-month course, I don't think I have experienced a weekend of cathartic wonder quite like that.  It was an absolute treat for me, as we had the whole of this year's core group, and the whole of last year's group participating - the old school meets the new school - it was amazing!  It was the perfect way to complete was has been a really extraordinary year.  Moving The Alchemical Journey to Glastonbury, bringing Anthony on board, and working directly with the landscape zodiac temple has added immense depth to the course, and I believe we now have one of the most genuinely powerful transformational programmes out there - and definitely one of the most original.

When I think back to The Alchemical Journey's humble beginnings began back in 2006, when I created it as a 12 week course, working with the twelve zodiacal dimensions of the law of attraction, it is incredible to think how far we have come since then.  We are now effectively running a zodiac mystery school, working with profound alchemical principles connecting us to the cyclical / spiral wisdom of seasonal round and the astrological journey of the Sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac. And the work we are doing is providing the context for the most extraordinary transformation in people's lives.  I am continually moved by the shifts that our participants are making in their own lives.

Our journey around the Glastonbury Zodiac has brought us full circle, from our start point up on Walton Hill and the "village" of Street, we again found ourselves on Sunday close to where we began.  We walked along the "Beckery Salmon" to Bridies Mound, Pomparles Bridge (from where King Arthur is said to have thrown his sword Excalibur into the River Brue, as a final gesture before his death) and Wearyall Hill, where Joseph of Arimathea planted his staff out of which grew the Palestinian Thorn Tree, which flowers around Christmas time.  It was one of the most meaningful walks of the year for me, and it embodied so much devotional Piscean energy.  Wearyall Hill holds the unique distinction of looking like a fish on the map and in three dimensions when viewed from above.  And we completed our walk, by parading down Fishers Hill back into Glastonbury.

I feel we are perfecting and refining a great work with The Alchemical Journey and we have moved so far this year in terms of that.  It has become so clear to me this year how this way of working with the zodiac can really liberate our creative potential, whilst deepening our connection with the soul, and at the same time allow our spirits soar to new heights of awareness and revelation.

My Highlights of the Year:
I've been thinking about some of the things that stand out for me this year.  So many rich, vivid memories - and as they say, "you really needed to be there", but I'd still just to honour them briefly here:

• In Aries, it was the mask dance, and the ceremony with David Hatfield at Wagg Drove on the tail of the Girt Dog of Langport.
• In Taurus, the process we did around money & the beautiful walk through the woods in the Taurus figure.
• In Gemini, the flutter and buzz game, and connecting to the Spring at Dundon Beacon.
• In Cancer, it was that beautiful Sunday we had with Marina and Celia offering their ways of accessing the wisdom of the ancestors, and then visiting Bradley Spring (which feeds the rines that make up the Cancer figure), and meeting Sheila Jeffries, its guardian.
• In Leo, the stand out memory was the catwalk and coronation ceremony, one of the absolute highlights of the year.  "All hail the King / the Queen".  Unforgettable.
• In Virgo, I felt we went some way to reclaiming the power and wisdom of the sign of the Goddess, and the walk around the village of Babcary was amazing - so deeply suggestive of the feminine mystery.
• In Libra, I remember the wonderful altar that Colette created, dancing our ascendant / descendant positions on Sunday morning, the synchronicity of the dove feathers and the tranquil beauty of Sunday's walk in the Libran dove figure around Barton St David.
• In Scorpio, the shadow process that was so profound, the Pluto dances on Sunday morning, and the underworld wood we found - complete with its own River Styx - in Alford.
• In Sagittarius, what stands out is the guided journey & divining from our artistic renderings, then the walk up to Baltonsborough Flights on the third eye of the archer, my personal favourite spot in the Zodiac.
• In Capricorn, the initiation process which was so deeply meaningful and then the walk along the Unicorn's horn.
• In Aquarius, I'll always remember us pouring the rainbow waters of life over each other, dancing our Uranus positions and the magical walk around Glastonbury.
• And in Pisces, so many memories still so fresh - the fish dance, Orpheus, the river of life, the Odysseus mystery play, the Neptune astrodrama pieces, and then the most sublime walk in the zodiac and discovering Bridies Mound within such a profound ritual context.

Well the cycle continues, and while we may pause for breath for a couple of weeks, our attention will soon turn to the new programme, when it all begins again in Aries, as buds break through on the branch and Spring begins in earnest with its full-on fiery force!  Our Aries weekend, "The Alchemy of Intention" takes place in Street (near Glastonbury) on 27th / 28th March.  Hope those of you reading this will join us on the journey this year as and when you can.  I have a strong feeling it's going to be the best year yet!

love & blessings
John

Pisces: Diving Deep into the Mystic Ocean

“And the seasons, they go round and round, and the painted ponies go up and down. We’re captured on a carousel of time…in the circle game”. I find Joni Mitchell’s sublime lyric quintessentially Piscean and it always reminds me of this phase of the year as the Sun journeys through Pisces and returns symbolically to the ocean of possibility from which new life can emerge in the Spring.

Melting...
Pisces epitomises the ups and downs of the circle game better than any other. It is traditionally considered the 12th and final sign of the zodiac, and is the third sign of the winter triad returning us to Spring Equinox where the astrological round will begin again in Aries. In Pisces, the contracted crystalline forms of winter are dissipating and becoming less defined. The ice is melting, and as the earth begins to warm up again, ground water breaks the surface and rivers flow. Nature is softening her brittle edges and dissolving her winter identity.

Surrendering...
Pisces is a sign that is full of paradox and apparent contradiction. It is famously associated with struggle, the two fish tied together pulling in different directions, yet is also the sign of surrender, where we sacrifice our attachment to a particular identity and learn to accept what must be. To sacrifice really means 'to make sacred' - or to return to what is sacred - through giving up something of significance to which we have become attached. In the Christian calendar, the Pisces phase corresponds with the season of lent, the season of fasting, traditionally a time to go on retreat or retire to a meditative or reflective place so that we might become ready to receive the new creative shoots of life that break forth at the Spring Equinox.

Poeticising...
Pisces is associated very strongly with the poetic impluse, where attempts at reason and logical deduction must be suspended if we are to be granted access to the mystery of who we really are. The Piscean phase of the journey resonates with the idea that the truth can only be reached through myth and metaphor. Pisces is synonymous with a profound ambiguity where nothing is certain. It is the phase of the journey where we might be well advised to seek guidance from those in our society whose perspective might normally be overlooked - the underdogs, the mystics, the artists, the storytellers, the disenfranchised and disadvantaged in society, for they may understand something that we have forgotten in our quest for distinction and success, clarity and order.

Dreaming...
The dreamtime of aboriginal Australians is far from delusion or escape, but rather connects the tribe to its origins, and to its deepest more-than-human reality. Our over-rational western biases tend to marginalise the importance of dream time and reduce the imaginal realm to mere thought projection, thus explaining it away in the rather narrow terms of humanist psychology. Yet the Piscean injunction is to truly to surrender rational control and open ourselves to the diverse possibilities that emerge from the mystic ocean. We can learn from nature at this time of the year, just as the crystalline forms of nature dissolve and dis-integrate, so we might which explore aspects of our own hard shelled identity we might be willing to relinquish.

Enchanting...
In numerous ancient mystery traditions from cultures spanning the globe, it was the task of the initiates to pass through astrological twelve gateways of experience in order that they might truly come to know themselves from the rich diversity of perspectives that the zodiac presented them with. Each sign of the zodiac carries within it the potential for philosophical transformation and as we journey around the year, consciously embracing and embodying these 12 archetypal energies, we are in essence, enacting an ancient, alchemical mystery play. By entering into the mysteries of the astrological wheel, with its ancient symbolic coherence, we can reconnect us to a paradigm of meaningful co-respondence, which Jung called synchronicity. Indeed, the enchantment that the zodiacal wheel casts on our imagination can liberate us from the suffering we experience from our attachment to the carousel of time.

"To Make a Difference, We Must Be Different"

"To make a difference, we must be different".  Aquarian Abraham Lincoln said something along those lines - having the willingness to stand out, go against the grain, dance like no-one is watching, and love like it's never going to hurt.  Aquarians seem to have a way of being themselves regardless of what others think of them.  And as we enter the mystery of this zodiacal perspective, our work is to release that freedom of expression that flies in the face of social convention and throws a spanner of works of the rules of etiquette and decorum.  Yes, free-spirited Aquarius gives us the wings to fly into a future of our own choosing.  Yet the goal for Aquarius is an impersonal one.  Unlike heart-centred Leo with his proud individualism, the water-bearer pours forth the waters of life for humanity as a whole, as a community as network of interconnected beings.  So we remove our own ego from the centre of the play and become "just" another member of the troupe.  The trick is to do that without losing our individual expression!

The Aquarian perspective seems to elevate our consciousness to a higher plane and lifts us above the fluctuating contingencies of feelings and passions, to a cooler, more detached realm of ideas and ideals.  It puts us in in touch with the humanity that we share in common with one another, and by adopting this perspective we can begin to glimpse the possibility of how we might live together in a community of shared values and principles. 

The sign of the water bearer holds the tension of sameness and difference and can help bring us together as diverse communities. Through accepting that we originate from a common source, it teaches us to release our need to protect only our own clan, as we learn to accept our differences, embrace the myriad expressions of life.  It's rainbow colours remind us that any form of meaningful unity can only ever be achieved through preserving and encouraging its diversity, and allowing that to emerge organically from its grass roots.  Indeed this is really the great tension that exists in Aquarius, for it is so much the sign of ideals, and marvellous plans and schemes that seem to work perfectly on paper yet can prove a disaster in practice if they (all too easily) overlook the contingencies inherent in the creative unfolding of life.  During our Aquarian weekend, we looked in some depth at Living Systems Theory, and one of the things that really struck a chord with me about that was the life never unfolded just according to the plan, but always with an element of innovation and surprise.  The key to evolution, according to Fritjof Capra is not adaptation, as Darwin had it, but creativity.  This is so evident in the human beings evolve their understanding, but equally it is a key component of how living systems evolve also.