Alchemical Transformations: 2. Albedo (Purification) [PIANO]
Advent Improvisation
Last week we discussed the transformation of lead into gold in Medieval Alchemy, including the metaphorical transformation of the human heart from its default ‘leaden’ state into Enlightenment or Oneness with God. Commonly this was described as taking place in four steps. The first step is ‘Nigredo’ — darkness. One thing about seasons of darkness, especially our personal trips to the ‘underworld’ in times of loss and grief, is that they sharply clarify to us what’s important and what’s not so much. So this second phase, ‘Albedo’, is about letting go of the ‘dross’, the ‘chaff’ we identified in the first phase.
It’s not that these things are necessarily bad in themselves: maybe there’s ‘stuff’ that doesn’t serve you anymore and it’s time to take it to the thrift store. Maybe it’s habits or practices that made sense in a former time in your life, but not so much anymore. Maybe it’s resentment or anger you’ve been holding, that only hurts YOU and not the object of your anger — maybe it’s OK to finally let that go. Albedo is about leaving behind that which no longer serves us.
There’s plenty of ‘leaving behind’ in the Christmas story. Mary and Joseph leave their home town to go to Bethlehem, and then to Egypt (no small trip by donkey!), and then to Nazareth. As someone who has moved a lot, every time you move you let go of more things that aren’t absolutely essential because that makes the move easier. After Mary and Joseph moved three times, how many possessions do you think were left in those donkey saddle bags? Not many! (“Three moves equals a fire!” — Benjamin Franklin)
The Magi too left behind their comfy Magi offices and traveled afar on camel back — not much fits in those camel saddle bags either. The shepherds leave their sheep. The angels leave heaven to sing to the shepherds. And most of all, Jesus leaves behind His heavenly throne and all that went with that to become a helpless baby to poor parents in a backwater of nowhere.
And who in the story refuses to even consider letting go of anything? Herod! He’s so fearful of even the remote possibility of a threat to his throne in some distant future, that he slaughters a whole generation of innocent infants. Herod hangs on to “what’s mine” with a literal death grip. Of course Herod ended up losing his throne anyway — as all rulers ultimately do — by dying. In Herod’s case he died of a long, excruciatingly painful putrefying illness of uncertain cause, known to posterity as “Herod’s Evil”.
The thing is, letting go is woven into Life whether we like it or not. As we age we leave behind the things of youth — we leave behind the boundless energy of youth, for example, but hopefully that’s offset by gaining wisdom (the hard way!) with time. Our circumstances change — always things gained and lost in the many seasons of Life. “You can’t step into the same river twice” said Heraclitus 2500 years ago. Things evolve, WE evolve. We can fight that process — guess who wins anyway? Or we can embrace change and gain and loss as milestones on our Life Journey.
We can let these changes and gains and losses just happen to us. Or we can be proactive, embrace the process, and do the work of Albedo: embracing the new in our lives, and leaving behind, letting go that which no longer serves.