Soul Alchemy - Evolution of the Self through Relationship with the Soul
If you have been walking a more spiritually aware path for a number of years, you may have noticed how much your perspective begins to shift around what spirituality means and how even the language you use to describe your way of living shifts. That is definitely what has happened for me, and every step continues to be a sacred lesson that I welcome warmly (sometimes whilst cringing, crying or looking for a rock to hide under.)
As I write this, Bast comes to mind, the feline Egyptian Neter or goddess who is known for protection, fertility and sensuality. She is the midwife, or Doula, she is there as we are reborn, welcoming us into the new landscape we enter.
But she also delivers the seed-spark of what is to come before we have even began walking towards it; - Bast holds the foresight - she opens us to the glimmers of the life becoming, letting us taste the future, the dream, the desire, so that even if the path changes, the knowing of why/when and how we are facing the current circumstances exists somewhere within us, leading us onwards seemingly blindly. Bast guides us, whilst also holding us through the path we walk - the birthing canal - a long corridor to walk as we change from the old to the new - which plays out in our life changing moment by moment in real time. The feelings, thought processes, physical sensations and the integration of light all changing through a thick, messy, alchemical process. She is the birth and death Doula holding us as we grow and change.
Isn't it interesting when you think about the saying "cats have nine lives", that Bast the feline neter is the one who guides us from version after version of ourselves throughout our life. Even more interesting is that the Egyptians believed we had nine bodies, three with three within, totalling nine. the Ba being one of them. I teach more on this in my Egyptian Mysteries episode 2
Ba- Ast; Soul of Isis.
Ast, or Auset is the Egyptian name of Isis, and Ba is the Egyptian word for the eternal Soul. Her name therefore means the eternal Soul's light living within the life. When we go deeper into this, we can sense the truth of it within ourselves. The Neteru are after all, expressions of cosmic energy that live within us as well as in the cosmos. Each phase or change we go through is therefore seeded by the spark of light that is our eternal Soul, receiving the seed-spark implements the changes needed for the next version of ourselves (lives) then we are guided (invisibly for some of the way) through life towards the change we called in.
Moving through our 'Nine Lives' with Bast
I started to observe that there are phases to the journey - healing & transformation, learning about alignment and harmony with archetypal energies, death & rebirth, integration, initiation, mastery, completion, discovering the wisdom within, mastery, embodying it all. The phases over-lap, interpenetrate, and mingle all together like a soup brewing you into your transformed self. This makes the phases hard to clearly acknowledge with the mind alone, you have to have walked a few spirals round the pathway to really feel each and every phase. I tried incorporating these phases into my teachings, still they felt too rigid and incapable of covering the meaning of what I was trying to relay. So the writings remained unfinished. Like a phase only started, with the end unclear to the person who begun it.
There came a point along my spiritual journey that the phases resembled the ancient concept of alchemy. I was giving names to experiences, but really I wanted to give insight to the wisdom that was the source beyond the experience. Alchemy.
What is Alchemy?
Alchemy is the process of turning lead into gold, but alchemy as we hear or read of it in this way is all about chemists and scientists, symbols and concepts such as the Philosopher's Stone. We all know this is symbolic for a more spiritual and soulful process, but do we really notice it as it's happening to us?
Alchemy is the transmutation, or transformation, of a heavier or denser substance into a lighter one. We could go as far as to say that 'human alchemy' is the process of turning our fears and shadows into the love and light that reveals more and more of our truest self to us. It is an ongoing, repetitive, and simultaneous journey where not just one aspect of density is transmuted or transformed, but a multitude of our parts are continuously changing. We cannot compare the human body to a metal such as lead or gold and expect the same results, but we can see this for the message it is trying to send - transformation of something heavy into something light has to go through a process.
The Four Stages of Inner Alchemy
In ancient alchemy, this transformation moves through four distinct phases. We don't experience them in a neat, linear line, but as an organic cycle that we move through again and again:
Nigredo (The Blackening / The Unravelling): The moment we enter the dark, messy birth canal held by Bast. This is where old beliefs, structures, and comforts break down. It often feels heavy, dark, and confusing, but this unravelling is essential - the old lead must dissolve to make space for the new.
Albedo (The Whitening / The Cleansing): The quiet dawn after the storm. As the initial chaos settles, a sense of stillness and emotional clarity washes over us. We begin to look at our shadows with gentle detachment and wash clean what no longer serves us. A revisit to the dreams and desires to see how we are beginning to resonate with them.
Citrinitas (The Yellowing / The Spark of Wisdom): The light of awareness turns into true insight. Here, the lessons of the dark night become golden wisdom. Embodying, integrating. Our mental body clears, and we begin to understand why we went through the fire. We have learned the lessons of the phases and now we listen to the body's wisdom.
Rubedo (The Reddening / Deep Embodiment): The final stage of integration where spirit meets matter. The light is no longer just a high spiritual concept - it is brought down into our physical cells, our blood, and our daily life. We step back into the world whole, grounded, and transformed. The world seems different, because we are different. We spiralled the great round of alchemical change.
The Four Body System: Physical, Emotional, Mental & Spiritual
It is no coincidence that alchemy moves through four phases - four holds the archetype of foundations, structure, and stability. Just as alchemy has four stages, our human experience is held across a Four Body System: our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. I have always loved how we can look at this wisdom within us as a journey from dense to light (and from light to dense when it comes to integration).
Change of any kind does indeed begin with a seed spark, Like Bast it is the soul light, a spiritual trigger that our soul and divine essence brings into being. From this place, the seed spark must be transformed into being - it must move through the layers of our human being fully to become what it needs to be. And the same can be said for the process of facing a 'shadow' that has been deeply ingrained into our physical self; in order for us to transmute it, we must feel, see, and sense it physically, emotionally, mentally, and bring it to the light spiritually to alchemise it fully into its transformed state. Bringing it harmoniously into our foundations.
We are magnificent beings and there is no simple method to understanding or even facilitating alchemy. No two people are the same, we are all unique, and every journey of transformation is different. We have to feel it filter through our entire being, we have to respond to what it needs through surrender, rest, release, trust and faith in the simply-complex way that we are designed with - feeling, listening and interpreting, trusting and intuitively acting on it. We move through the phases in a non-linear way letting the Soul and the wisdom of the body lead us.
What I have learned is the only way we can support ourselves when the process feels exhausting is to listen inwards for what the Soul is calling for. By doing so we help ourselves to transform all areas of our lives. Home, work, relationships - because the truth is, it is ourselves that we are transforming. Listening to the Soul and learning to trust the ways in which we hear, see, sense and feel its voice is how we move through our own alchemy, transformation and evolution.
Soul Alchemy is our Evolution
My Soul Readings taught me this about myself and it is how they became what they are; I trained in Esoteric healing for two years, this magical modality gave me the tools to understand many systems of the human being - the four body system, the seven centres, and the language of the organs and systems within the physical body. The self healing journey that I went on alongside the training taught me what I never thought I could know about myself. When my training finished and I was practising my Soul work and healing gifts, I discovered that my real love and passion was listening to the Soul and interpreting what I heard, sensed, saw and felt. It was my strength, without realising I was tapping into the Akashic Records, the healing sessions evolved into a sense-feel-hear experience, it became easier for me to speak what I was sensing and soon I began to realise that this was a form of healing in itself. It was allowing the Soul to express what was held in the four body system.
Shamanism and remembering the Neteru gave me the wisdom of the three cauldrons, the ancient ways that are stored within our cells as the soul memories, and how to quiet ourselves enough to listen to them as they awaken.
That is an alchemy of its own, and even those places that you have arrived at through stumbling through the phases of awakening - learning and remembering - sometimes need to transform.
What I have discovered is that just like the meaning of 'spiritual' changed, along with the language to describe life and who I'd become, so did my Soul readings. The evolution of self created an evolution of the creation that my Soul readings. They began as a way to relay messages from your Soul, yet over time they evolved back into a truer form - no reading of the Soul can be clear without the alignment, balancing and attunement of the being as a whole. I didn't realise it at the time but the offering itself was undergoing its own alchemy.
Soul Alchemy.
I had been listening, I had felt it correctly - just like Bast allows us to - I saw and felt the glimmers of what was becoming, but in order for it to become, the alchemical process had to take place. In me and in the offering. I still carried out readings but my Soul only sent them when there was a shift to be observed. Each time a booking came in for a reading something deepened within the offering and I am tremendously grateful to the Souls who received and allowed me to learn with their Souls.
A Soul Alchemy Reading is now recorded as I carry out the reading - the work is all carried out remotely - I get a much better connection this way, allowing for an organic, intuitive journey through your energy body.
When I step into the work, I act as a receiver and transmitter–listening to where your soul leads me, tuning into your centres, and sharing what comes through in real-time. The reading invites you into stillness alongside me, helping you listen to the wisdom already held within your own body and providing you a map to follow as the intelligence of your four-body system speaks to you.
Working with my own method of reading your Soul's Akashic records using the Seven Gates and Three Cauldrons, Soul Alchemy Readings are my own sacred creation crafted from many spirals through the alchemical phases and stages, remembering, embodying and stripping away the smallness that kept them hidden.
Soul Alchemy Readings are carried out and delivered to your email, they are £55 and give you clarity, healing, Soul guidance and much more...I am currently working on joint readings too for couples, parent & child, or any two people who may wish to gain Soul clarity around any given situation. More about this will follow on the Soul Alchemy Readings page very soon.
Simple Daily Practices for Soul Alignment
I'd love to leave you with some simple practices you can do that help to understand ourselves on each of the four layers of our being, that can open up an inner dialogue and support a smoother alchemy process.
First and foremost alignment is essential. Heart, Earth, Cosmos. As above, So below. We open the oneness within us to the oneness of the all. I call this the heart bridge, and I simply breathe until I am fully focused in my heart space then I send a cord of light down through my body to the Heart of the Earth, once its connected I bring my focus back to my heart space and feel the difference. Then I send the second cord up to the Heart of the Cosmos, once I feel the connection I follow the cord back to my heart space and once again feel for the difference now that I am connected above and below. A deep stillness comes over me as I feel myself centred in the oneness of the All.
We can simply ask our four body system; 'how am I?' - How am I physically, Emotionally, Mentally, and Spiritually? (ask your Soul) - making this a journal practice really aids the ongoing alchemy within. I love to do this when I sit with Cacao, her medicine really opens up the creative channels within us. And asking each centre (chakra) too is a great way to deepen the understanding of what we are going through from a Soul perspective.
Working with the Alta Major centre is always useful no matter what stage of alchemy you may be in. The Alta Major is a fascinating energy centre, it overlays and governs our nervous system and can be seen as a filtration system as well as bringing deep calm and harmony from working with it. I have written about the Alta Major and recorded an AM healing if you feel these may be useful.
Finally, the Soul doesn't want you to always make time to sit in stillness to hear its messages. Your Soul is your guide, your teacher, and so you have to be busy interacting with people, nature and just living life in order to receive the messages. Paying attention to every moment with your Soul in mind starts to reveal a sacred lens to look at life through. Try it.
Did that bee just land on your hand for a reason?
What were you thinking when it did?
Why are you more tired today?
Is your Soul trying to redirect or rearrange your plans to make them work better for you?
Alchemy is in everything we do, it is the ongoing process of transforming from old to new and the ongoing process of transmuting what was old into fuel to support the new. You are a magnificent simply-complex being with all of the answers you need dormant within your cells waiting for you listen.
With love,
Gemma x
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