12 Comments
User's avatar
Hilla-G-M Powell Bajwa's avatar

A picture paints a thousand words, that's why I love the alchemical emblems.

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

Couldn’t agree more! Do you have a favorite emblem or manuscript?

Expand full comment
Yung Truong's avatar

I love that your writing is so clean and concise for such an intricate topic. I’d say I’ve been in subliminato since 2021 with my career. The deeper undercurrent of that is probably the ability to recognize what I want to express/ create in this lifetime. The structure you laid out is similar to what I worked through to finally allow myself to just be what it wants to.

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

Thank you, Yung. Yes, sublimatio is great for giving us the space to rise above and reflect, to figure out what is calling to us. I find that this happens especially if we've felt trapped in a job, relationship, pattern, life situation, etc.

It sounds like you've moved more into coagulatio then? How has that been going?

Expand full comment
Yung Truong's avatar

It’s only this year that I’ve felt like I’m finally in coagulatio. It’s new and has its own challenges. I’m way more patient with myself and less stressed out by triggers for sure though

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

There's always unique challenges to each stage! Hopefully they are fueling growth and change :)

Expand full comment
Yung Truong's avatar

100 percent and I’m grateful for it.

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

I do find that the prima materia begins to shift, new operations are needed, after we've worked for a time on a certain dynamic. Especially if we've met and moved through particular challenges.

Best of luck on the coagulatio journey!

Expand full comment
Ramon Castellanos's avatar

I absolute love the work you are doing here Alyssa. I am a long time practitioner of inner alchemy as it pertains to the Daoist energy traditions, but I am being called more deeply into understanding the Western alchemical models through the lens of the Psyche. Looking forward to your upcoming workshop. Thanks for this doing this.

I was wondering if you might be willing to offer some ideas/perspectives, of how someone might do the opposite of what you suggest here. That is...moving from coagulation to sublimation instead, as in transmuting something dense into something light.

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

Hi Ramon, thanks for your kind words, and welcome to the membership :) Have you read Jung's commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower?

Yes, very broadly, sublimatio marks an ascent from what was fixed (grounded and structured) to a state of lightness, expansion, freedom. What's important to note is it moves from a solid straight to a gas using a bit of energy or heat. So there needs to be some effort on our part. The change in states can often times feel fast and sudden when we are moving into sublimatio!

Psychologically, this might be creating space from something that feels tense or emotionally wrought (often by speaking with others, stepping back, zooming out, employing a rational-thinking style approach), attempting to find the symbol within an experience (a reframe), or going for something new that feels "out of reach".

Hope that's helpful! If you have any follow ups, let me know!

Expand full comment
Ramon Castellanos's avatar

Thanks for the kind welcome Alyssa.

I have not read Jung's commentary on The Golden Flower. I put it on the list to do so in the future however!

And I appreciate your insight on this. I just bought your guidebook on alchemical operations, which is intriguing and helps me clarify practices I already have, by adding nuance to different kinds of operations. It is helping flesh out the earlier question I asked as well.

In Chinese Alchemy, a vast field to be sure, with differing perspectives, you sometimes encounter entire traditions build around a single alchemical operation. Like the Taoist 'Water Tradition', which focuses exclusively on 'inner dissolving' of progressive layers of the total being, from the physical to the most numinous. Just as an example.

I do have one more question, have you every played with taking the image of a prima materia, and within the context of imaginal work applied an alchemical operation to it, to see how it changes the image and the somatic feelings connected to it?

Expand full comment
Alyssa Polizzi's avatar

Hi Ramon,

The focus on a particular operation for a whole tradition sounds really fascinating!! I have not come across that in Western alchemy, although it's really got my wheels turning now of how to build a whole inner work method on one operation!!

To your other question, yes, I have applied the operation in the imaginal field and worked with how it changed in the moment. I have also done that during 1:1 sessions with others where I can guide them through the process and we can track how the prima materia is changing in real time.

I think that it might be considered a slightly more advanced technique, requiring skills or ease in holding meditative states, previous experience with active imagination, etc. For some, it might come easier. I definitely recommend giving it a try if you feel called to work with the prima materia that way.

Expand full comment