what's an Alchemical Journal? and why keep one?
Keeping an Alchemical Journal is a simple, profound daily practice that's been key to my own growth...
... and it's also one of the Three Foundational Practices that we commit to in WEALTH, the community where leaders come into their full power via the Hermetic Arts.
I find keeping an Alchemical Journal so vastly important and so useful that I've decided to teach about it more widely.
As I said, the practice is simple, and maybe even "obvious" to anyone who's been around a few occult or self-development blocks, but the truly magnificent power of it comes when one commits to it over time...
.... and sustains that commitment via a Renewal of My Word Ritual (which I'll discuss in my next essay, it's the second of our Three Foundational Practices in WEALTH).
"Beauty All Around" by Anna Sheffield - the 6-rayed star is a symbol of the alchemical marriage and of Tiphareth, the solar heart center on the Qabala's Tree of Life. Tiphareth means "Beauty" - the perception of rich symmetrical balance that's available to the eyes of truly disgusting unconditional love
Why is a daily Alchemical Journal practice so useful?
Well, that's a deep topic. You can listen to me discuss the full practice here, as part of my audio series The Alchemical Journey.
But basically, keeping an Alchemical Journal is a way of increasing our sense of purpose, our financial success, our relationship joy, and our creative power via greatly expanding our channel of communication with our Deep Self.
We accomplish this by daily, ritually, habitually paying attention to:
our "Tarot card of the day"
the astrological weather
our night-time dreams
our most profound thoughts
the shape of our habits
the contexts and results of our meditations and magical workings
... and the simple next actions that can move us closer to our aims.
What's so darn "alchemical" about it?
Well, the alchemy of the psyche is all about making the unconscious, conscious...
.... it's about uniting the creative, receptive part of us (the unconscious mind) with the rational, linear part of us (the conscious ego) so that we can be way more aware, whole-hearted and effective in life.
A rebis, or alchemical hermaphrodite, representing the blissful "perception of love" (Hermes - perception, Aphrodite - love) level of awareness that comes gradually from doing The Great Work - aka, also Tiphareth / Beauty
By tuning in each day to Tarot divination and to the astrological weather, we gradually gain a precise and personal understanding of the synchronous nature of reality, while giving our unconscious rich traditional symbol-sets with which to communicate with us.
Likewise, as Freud said, dreams are "the royal road" to the unconscious. Our Inner Teacher perpetually comments on our lives and gives us guidance via our dreams, and we ignore this guidance at our peril.
Often, individual dreams don't make sense - it's only by keeping track of a series of dream motifs and themes over time that we can gain the richest insight.
Of course, we can't always remember our dreams (at least I know I can't) so attending to Tarot divination and the astrological weather helps me to connect with the deeper layers of reality at times when I can't more directly access it via dream memory.
And finally: all the magical, symbolic understanding in the world is worth jack squat if we don't put it into action in our lives via perpetually refining our habits and the next steps we take towards our aims.
Character is destiny, after all, as Heraclitus said, and our character consists in our habits and actions.
Keeping a daily Alchemical Journal helps us to carry a golden thread of consistency and remembrance through our lives, so that we can bring the fullest wisdom of our Deep Self to bear on our habits, our actions, our character, our destiny.
P.S. ... in my next essay, I'll talk about the Evening Session of a daily Alchemical Journal practice and how it all connects up with the second of our Three Foundational Practices in WEALTH: the Renewal of My Word ritual.
Search for and follow me @carolynelliott_ on Instagram for even more resources connected to this ;)