Alchemy: Manipulating Natural Forces to Further the Divine Purpose

by William Bezanson

Alchemy has had a bad rap. The education of an engineer, or of any of the professions involving the traditional sciences, systematically squelches even the slightest interest in spiritual, mystical, psychic, and other non-physical explanations of the natural world. (I’ve had to do a lot of unsquelching over the years.) High on that list of taboo topics is alchemy. Influenced by sarcastic and arcane images of robed, medieval, primitive laboratory experimenters, the popular notion of alchemists is of futile attempts to turn lead into gold. Such notions are usually accompanied by the sentiment of failure to do such transmutations and the long ago abandonment of such useless and uneducated wastes of time.

And yet we want to believe in it. It would seem that mankind has a lingering need to believe in the “supernatural.” We want to think that there is something out there, some other explanation for our mixed-up world.

Certainly for myself, I have felt such yearnings all my life. From my earliest out-of-body experiences of floating above my bed in childhood, through my teen-year fascination with hypnotism, continuing with middle-year dabbling in meditation, dreamwork, and comparative religious studies, up to recent years of spiritual experiences, Jungian analysis, and mystical studies, through all those years this squelched engineer skirted back and forth between the physical, tangible, mundane world and the spiritual, subtle, esoteric world.

A common theme during all those years has been the notion of alchemy. Perhaps I didn’t realize what it was properly called years ago, but several years ago at a Rosicrucian conference I learned that Alchemy was the right term. I had already known that alchemy was not about the physical transmutation of mundane elements, but about spiritual transmutation of our impure soul personalities to a purer, more refined state, and that the medieval laboratory image was simply a diversionary ploy to mislead the unworthy, insincere, unready seekers of superficial thrills.

Alchemy, I learned, is manipulating natural forces to further the Divine purpose.

Practicing alchemy is doing God’s work. It can be considered co-creating the world along with God, as sometimes stated in Christian communities, though not in an orthodox sense. It is a process of subjecting one’s soul personality to a series of tests, trials, and reactions, to facilitate its growth from existing in a predominantly mundane state to thriving in a predominantly spiritual state. It is honing one’s skills to facilitate God’s work here on earth. It is helping to create a spiritual state in this mundane world.

With this new revelation, and now that I have reread some materials and rethought about some of my earlier misconceptions, I have gained a refreshing perspective on alchemy. I now view all of Life as a vast alchemical experiment, in which we are not only the experimental material, but we are also the experimenting philosopher. Nature experiments on us, and we experiment on our lives. As above, so below. All of our growth (physical and spiritual) is ruled by cause-and-effect laws. And all of our life and environment can be experimented with in the sense of studying, forming hypotheses, conducting tests, observing results, forming conclusions, and developing theories for later retesting, refining, and application.

Nature follows immutable laws. However, we usually follow our whims. Natural Law always experiments on us. But we mostly neglect to conduct experiments on our own lives. Nature is a reliable alchemist, but we often drop the ball. We are urged to be alchemists, but we neglect our urgings. That’s the spiritual model, but we mostly have ignored that model. That’s one aspect of what The Fall was about.

So what are the “natural forces” that can be “manipulated” to further the “Divine purpose”? Natural forces are the Laws of Nature, including not only the well-known physical laws, but, more importantly, the spiritual laws, such as the various laws of Karma, reincarnation, planes of existence, spiritual chivalry, the Triangle, telekinesis, psychic projection, life forms on spiritual planes, clairvoyance, creative visualization, and so on. Manipulating them involves studying them, developing our abilities with them, and applying them for noble purposes in our lives and environments. The Divine purpose is God’s will, that is, the ultimate order and reason for the universe.

Each of us can be an alchemist. I am trying to be one. I urge you to check it out.

A good place to start, if you are interested, is in viewing your life to be an alchemical laboratory. Try to make each action, thought, and intent to have a higher, spiritual purpose, and observe the results. One result will be subtle urges leading to a deeper practice of alchemy. Another result will be a sense of increased responsibility to take care of the world. A very significant result will be a spiritual advancement to an even more highly evolved state in your next incarnation.

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William Bezanson fulfills his passion for writing in retirement. His most recent book is Abandoned Shopping Carts: Personal and Spiritual Responsibility. He is a long-standing member of a Rosicrucian order and two related initiatic, mystical orders. He lives with his wife in Ottawa, Canada, and they have six adult children.