The Alchemist

In my experience as a cartomancer, the traditional meanings assigned to the Temperance card in the Tarot have evolved, shifted, and expanded. The appearance of this card in a reading now, for me, aligns with the concept of alchemical transformation, and being the one who performs that transformation on myself, in the fields around me, and of the energies swirling in any environment I move through.

In the last year, I’ve learned to engage with energetic alchemy more and more to level up my healing work, spirit contact, magic, and sorcery. Unexpected challenges tested my limits, or rather, tested the limits and boundaries I placed on what I believed possible. A short while ago, my ancestors and guides chastised me, impatient, and asked:

"Why do you continue to hide? Why do you feel the need to be protected all the time? Get out of the nest and fly."

This was jarring, and I wanted to clapback with: “Well, look at the state of the world today. Don’t we all need extra protection from the forces running amok, both human and non-human, visible and invisible?”

No response.

That communication bothered me and made me feel as though I’d become unwittingly spiritually needy. I took stock of the rituals and techniques I use for expelling, cleansing, purification, shielding, and protection, trying to figure out what might be missing from those routines.

Nothing was missing from those routines. Those rituals were appropriate for playing defense, magical tech that everyone should develop and be confident of employing when needed. Then the epiphany landed. If I have the power to cloak, shield, and protect myself, I also have the power to stand in my power, uncloaked.

An energetic alchemist transforms energies instead of repeatedly deflecting and/or removing them. Of course, I’m not going to jettison my spiritual hygiene practices completely; that would be foolish. And there’s a time and a place where one is safer cloaking and shielding. There’s another angle here, though, to leveling up, one that I missed while I was perpetually playing defense.

The biggest lie we've all been programmed to believe is that we're not powerful beings. We have limitations because of being incarnated in physical bodies and navigating a 3D plane of reality, one overrun with societal and other horrors that deplete or maliciously influence our energy. Yet, energy itself is not bound by time or space. Instead of endless cleansings and counter magic or experiencing an endless loop of reprieve then pushing back, it’s time to step forward out of that loop, take command, and alchemize that shit.

This recent mental adjustment (which then stimulated an energetic adjustment, which is more alchemy) caused some surprising shifts on the physical reality plane, so I know I’ve hopped onto a different timeline even if I’m not quite clear on the map or the territory yet. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll see you when I’m traversing the astral, where all the real action and magic take place before falling into matter and manifestation.