Metamorphosis

We often speak of this analogy of the caterpillar becoming the butterfly and aligning the metamorphosis stages with the alchemical stages:

We have the caterpillar—it's feeding off of the leaves and the fat of the land, and it's very earthbound. All it's really doing is feeding. It's just consuming resources and getting fat. And then at some point, there's this little timer that goes off inside of its DNA and it says, "Okay, it's time for a nap." And it goes and it spins itself a chrysalis or cocoon and it settles in for a nap.

And that's the stage where it goes into the first alchemical stage, what in alchemy we call calcination, which means burning it to ash. But here in this case with the caterpillar, it's not a burning, but a dissolving, where all of the old form of the caterpillar breaks down. So once it's in its chrysalis, if you were to at some point go and cut it open and look, you would not see anything that resembles a caterpillar... you’d just see a soupy, gooey mess. Because the whole structure has broken down.

That's the first stage of alchemy. And then we have the dissolution stage, which is this dissolving. All the cells become dissolved into this mix, if you will, and meanwhile the DNA is putting out a new signal. There's a new type of cell that starts getting created called imaginal cells in the metamorphosis process. These imaginal cells have the blueprints, if you will, for becoming the color of the wing or the antenna or the structure of the wings.

What happens is that there’s a bit of a battle inside that chrysalis. The old cells think these new cells are the enemy—they think they are a virus. Because everything is breaking down, the immune cells of the old caterpillar start to attack the new cells. So, this dissolution stage is very confusing. When we are going through that, we feel a lot of emotion, a lot of confusion—we might actually be at war with ourselves over that process. Depression, anxiety, and deep fear is common.

But as the butterfly metamorphosis continues, the imaginal cells start to find strength in numbers. They start to combine together, and in that they’re able to fend off the attacks. And then as more of them gather, they start to diversify and organize “you can be a digestive cell, I can be a color cell,” and so forth. And the very beginnings of a new structure start to form.

This is what we compare to the separation stage, where we’re starting to divvy things out so we don’t all have to do everything and be everything; we can have unique roles and serve a greater whole. As that progresses and the new structure of the butterfly starts to form, we move into the conjunction stage. Now there's a coming together, because those old cells can still be purposeful. They can align with the new structure.

The old cells have a choice. They can go over there and take their skill sets (a digestive cell can still be a digestive cell, for example) and align with the new structure. And if they don’t, they become obsolete and die off. So, even now, there is separation and conjunction, where all of the cells start to come together into this new form. That new form starts to make it clear, and the old cells are wondering, what is this new thing that's emerging out of the soupy mess?

Then as the old cells die off, there's fermentation. Fermentation is the final death of the old. Everything else that makes it past this is meant to be part of the new structure, as in, part of the essential form. The next state is what's called distillation. At the end of fermentation in alchemy, they talk about the peacock’s tail which is this yellow, rainbowy film that appears. All this color comes in, there's light that comes in! It’s like an epiphany at the end of the dark night.

We all go thru a dark night... and the Light starts to come in.

In the caterpillar, it’s when the chrysalis starts to break open, and the light comes in, and the butterfly starts to move toward the light. But it still has to go through more process, a struggle. It's actually struggling to get out of the chrysalis. If you were to come along and say, “Oh, that poor little butterfly, let me help it,” and you opened up the chrysalis and brought it out, it wouldn't be strong enough to fly. It would have a very short and boring life because it wouldn't be able to do what it's meant to do. We can’t rush that stage. It has to go through that struggle.

That struggle, in alchemy, is called distillation. You're going through cycles of elevating and accessing the spirit or higher frequency energies, and then re-condensing it back into the physical. In alchemy, they call it the seven eagles flying, where there’s this distillation of elevating and re-condensing—sublimating and returning. The Emerald Tablet says, "It ascends from earth to heaven and again descends to earth, thereby reviving the powers of the superiors and the inferiors," bringing them into a perfect union. This is the distillation stage is that struggle getting out of the chrysalis.

And I think humanity is kind of going through that right now. We’re in the final stages—like fermentation—and we’re struggling to break out of the chrysalis. A new paradigm is emerging now among us . We’re starting to see it, but it’s not quite there yet to be implemented fully.

And even after the butterfly fully gets out of the chrysalis and it’s free, it needs to dry off. It needs a little rest before it can take flight. When it finally takes flight—that’s the final stage of alchemy, which is the coagulation. It’s crystallized. It’s in its new perfected form. And it can go bring its beauty and joy to the world.

There are so many parallels to our own personal growth and transformation process, right? Physically, mentally, emotionally and how those bodies evolve over time in the subtle. This applies to us individually. You can see where you are in those alchemical stages. That’s why alchemy is such a great roadmap for our transformational process.

And to see when you're at the midpoint, you go “Oh, there's more to do,” so you don't give up and slide backward and have to start all over again. You keep moving forward, keep gaining ground. But it's going to require more will, more discipline, more patience. And letting go of the ego.

We can see that humanity as a collective is going through this alchemy. Alchemy is a transformational process and it’s part of nature, the universe. Even stars go through alchemy. They go from plasma particles to coalescing, to generating light, to eventually becoming a supernova. The formation of galaxies is an alchemical process.

Alchemy is universal and inclusive - from the smallest structures to the largest. I love how alchemy parallels quantum physics. The more I looked into alchemy, the more I saw: alchemists had a very quantum attitude. Everything is connected. It all matters. You can't separate yourself from what you're experimenting on. Everything matters, and we’re all connected.

They brought together the non-physical and physical working together into the alchemical process.

When we’re going through change, maybe we’re in that coagulation or fermentation process internally, often termed the dark night of the soul, or whatever you call it. It’s easy to project that moment onto the eternity of life without honoring the phase we’re in. Consider - what part of the process we’re in?

It’s really helpful to ask: not only who am I and what am I, but what am I NOT?

Then, where am I? Where am I right now? What stage am I in? When you can relate to the stages, #1 it lets you know, “Okay, this is part of a process. I'm in the mix. I'm in the alchemy.” The negative of that is: it’s not comfortable. The positive is: transformation is happening. And it's going to lead to something better if you participate with it, rather than resist it.

The more compassionate you can be towards yourself, the more you can say: “This is alchemy.” When I know what stage I'm in, I can know what’s next. And if I know what’s next, I can ask: what do I need to do to get from here to there? How can I keep moving forward through the process rather than getting stuck because I am resisting it, or beating myself up, or asking why this is happening to me?

The universe is trying to help you grow and evolve and transform so you can achieve your greater beauty and purpose in life. Take the more empowered approach. Become the alchemist of your own life, rather than a passenger and letting it happen to you.

Because if you just let it happen to you and see yourself as a victim, you’re not going to get all the way through it. It’s only when you take your power back and realize: I can participate with this. I can harness the energy of change. I can be intentional with how I direct it. That’s when you’ll make great strides and break through.

We have such an Instacart/Uber Eats mentality about growth! We want it instantly. And while we can have spontaneous remissions and big shifts, it’s also important to reflect on the purpose each part of the cycle plays. Like you said, if someone helped the butterfly out, it wouldn't develop the strength it needs to fulfill its purpose.

Same with us. There were struggles in our past that we didn’t want, but that gave us the exact strength needed for what came next. Struggle is a privilege in that aspect.

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “The obstacle is the way.” By taking those struggles head-on, we become stronger. We discover capabilities in ourselves we never would’ve found otherwise.

Sometimes (okay, often), the challenge is there to make us rise. “Necessity is the generator of all innovation.” We reinvent, and we become something greater than before. There's a cultural mindset now that’s used to everything at the push of a button. We think there’s a magic bullet or one-size-fits-all solution, but we’re far more complex and multi-dimensional.

And the universe - Spirit - is trying to push us to evolve toward what we’re truly capable of becoming. And at the soul-level, that is what we really want, isn't it? To live a fulfilled life and when the moment of our last breath is upon us, we have no regrets. We look back over our time with fondness and satisfaction.