Alchemy: Transformation Of Consciousness | IT Live Recording

Alchemy was never just about metals; it was a symbolic science of inner transformation. In this recording of Saqib's live event, you’ll discover how ancient alchemical teachings mirror the soul’s journey of awakening. You’ll explore how subtle inner shifts can dissolve old identities, purify the self, and open the door to deeper consciousness.

This talk can change how you see your own challenges: not as obstacles, but as raw material for inner change. If you like this talk, check out Saqib's course: Shadow Work.

Transcript

We will now begin with our exploration,

Our talk on alchemy.

And what alchemy is,

This is a,

As I was saying before in the meditation,

That this is an introduction to alchemy and this is almost like a master class that we are doing on alchemy.

This alchemy word usually,

You know,

In the historical sense,

It means,

And in the physical sense,

It means transforming base metal into,

Into gold.

And this is what we have learned from,

You know,

Stories,

From TV shows,

From movies,

From books,

That this is what alchemy is,

That there were these alchemists,

Almost like crazy people who were trying to turn base metal into gold.

However,

What we don't realize that this is more of,

This is more of a facade.

This is kind of an analogy,

It is,

It is not true alchemy in that way.

It is just kind of a,

You know,

Kind of a analogy,

A metaphor for transformation.

It is what,

What these alchemists or these,

You know,

These people,

Ancient alchemists,

What they were trying to do was they were trying to actually hide the true meaning of alchemy in the,

In the,

In the,

In the physical work.

You know,

The,

The lab,

There is an alchemical,

There are a lot of symbols in alchemy and one of the symbols shows this image in which there is a lab in the front and there is a library at the back,

Which means that on the front,

This is,

Seems to be a physical process of transforming base metal into gold,

But truly what it means is a transformation of consciousness,

Which leads to a higher wisdom.

And this transformation of consciousness is when we say that we are transforming base metal into gold,

It means that we are transforming base consciousness into a higher consciousness.

We are transforming a low consciousness into a high consciousness or,

You know,

In,

In a psychological sense,

Carl Jung would say that we are transforming ego into the self.

Ego is like this limited personality,

This personality that we live with,

You know,

That we are identified with,

We are identified with the ego,

We are identified with,

You know,

This,

Okay,

This is my name,

This is my job position,

This is my,

You know,

This is my family,

I'm a father,

I'm a mother,

I'm a daughter,

I'm a son,

I'm a brother,

I'm a sister,

You know,

And this is what my,

These are my attachments,

This is what my life is all about,

This is the ego.

And what this process does is it helps the ego to transform,

It helps the ego to first kind of experience any,

You know,

A death,

Which is also commonly known as an ego death,

And then a rebirth.

And then integrating it with the unconscious,

Most importantly,

Our unconscious mind,

The part of us that we are unaware of.

And that's why Carl Jung said that,

Unless,

You know,

One of his most popular quotes is that unless you become conscious of the unconscious,

It will drive your life and you will call it fate.

We don't realize that there is an unconscious that drives our life.

And if we don't become aware of that,

If we don't integrate that,

Then our lives will be automatic,

We will be functioning like robots,

We will not be really conscious.

So then alchemy is this process,

The self for Carl Jung then is this totality of being,

Your true nature,

Right,

Who you are.

And this merger between the conscious and the unconscious,

The ego and the unconscious,

Which leads to,

You know,

What is commonly known as,

What is,

I would say,

Known as in Jungian psychology,

It is known as the transcendent function.

I will write it down here,

Because it's a mouthful for those of you who want to check that out what that means.

Transcendent function.

And transcendent function means that kind of another state is created,

A higher state is a third state is created,

When this integration of the conscious and the unconscious happens,

A higher state is created,

A higher state of consciousness is created.

You know,

When something happens,

When you merge,

When you experience this merger,

Right,

For example,

When you are meditating,

Right,

And this is one of the most common examples for us,

Because,

You know,

We all,

Most of us are meditators here.

Have you noticed that when you are meditating,

A third state of consciousness comes into picture,

Not only your ego and the unconscious,

But a higher kind of a spiritual state,

Right?

Carl Jung calls this kind of a divine moment,

A moment of numinosity,

In which in meditation,

You experience that internal bliss,

That joy,

Something greater has come out of the two.

You know,

In the worldly mathematics,

One plus one is two.

But in this mathematics of alchemy,

One plus one becomes three,

Because it is the third is the higher state or the transcendent function.

You know,

Another state of consciousness that appears almost like giving birth.

You know,

That is also kind of the metaphor or analogy for that,

When a man and a woman,

They come together and they mate,

They give birth to a child,

Right,

That is the third.

And so when the ego and the unconscious,

When they mate with each other,

They give birth to a third state,

Which is known as the transcendent function.

And this third state is a higher consciousness.

So alchemy is this process of giving birth to this third state.

Alchemy is the process of giving birth to this transcendent function.

Alchemy is this process through which you rise in consciousness and you transform your consciousness and you become more than who you are.

You become more than the sum of the parts.

And you experience this wholeness,

This individuation,

And you know,

Which is also commonly known in the spiritual traditions as nirvana or enlightenment.

So it's a beautiful,

Powerful process.

And it's one of the processes that has been actually hidden from history,

Because it turns human beings into almost gods.

And that's why there has been a lot of,

You know,

Kind of a suppression of alchemy in the past.

That's why,

You know,

There was this burning of the,

You know,

Library of Alexandria,

In which actually a lot of historians believe that a lot of alchemical texts were destroyed.

That's why there was also this protection of the Holy Grail by the Knights Templars,

In which they believe the Holy Grail is actually,

You know,

The secret of alchemy.

That's why a lot of witches were burnt at stake in Europe and in USA,

In which,

You know,

And these witches were believed to practice alchemy.

And so this history has been hidden.

But then Carl Jung in the 20th century,

At the dawn of the 20th century,

He kind of revived this ancient practice,

And he brought it to psychology.

And it became like a really powerful process of transformation,

To the point that Carl Jung actually spent last 30 years of his life just exploring alchemy,

Because he realized that this is the culmination of his life's work.

He realized that this is something really powerful here.

There is a powerful secret here to be explored.

And so I'm happy to share that with you,

Kind of the introduction to that alchemy today.

And we'll go through that process of what that process is.

This was just a basic introduction into what alchemy is.

But now we'll go deeper into the process.

We will understand what are those stages of alchemy,

What are those stages of transformation that help us go through alchemy.

And there are various practices for that to experience that alchemy.

And some of those practices are that deep inner work meditation,

But also dream analysis,

Dream interpretation,

Active imagination.

These are these processes.

So I'm focusing most of my energy now on this work of alchemy and dream analysis and active imagination.

And I'm also creating courses on that.

I'm in the process of creating a course on active imagination,

But I've already created a course on dream interpretation.

So I'll share that here again for those of you who want to explore how to interpret dreams.

Let's see what the comments are.

Sandy,

Paulo Coelho wrote a book on it.

Yes,

Paulo Coelho wrote a fictional book on that,

The Alchemist.

And the story,

It's kind of an alchemical transformation of that child.

You know that this child who goes through this alchemical transformation,

Although it does not really mention the stages of transformation,

But the story is about that alchemical transformation of that child.

Charles,

Brother,

Thank you for joining.

Good to have you here.

Yeah,

Charles and I,

We discuss Carl Jung a lot,

And I love discussing it with him.

Thank you for being here.

So now we will go through these stages of alchemy.

What are these different stages of alchemy?

And I will list down these stages.

And we will talk about them one by one.

So the first stage,

Now we are talking about this transformation of consciousness,

But we are also talking about this physical process,

Right?

So the physical process of alchemy,

Which is like turning this base metal into gold or turning the base metal into what is also known as the philosopher's stone.

That is the physical process.

So I will lay down the physical process,

But we will not focus much on the physical process because we are not in a laboratory here creating gold.

We are more concerned with the transformation of consciousness.

And I will explain how these physical stages,

They relate to the stages of our inner transformation,

Right?

So I will write that down here one by one.

The first stage is called Nigrido,

Which is also known as,

Which is kind of a blackening of the substance.

In the physical sense,

You initially kind of heat up the substance that you are transforming,

That base metal that you are transforming.

And it turns black.

And this blackening is the,

You know,

This stage in,

You know,

The Latin word for that is Nigrido.

But what does this mean?

What is this blackening?

What is this stage of alchemical transformation that happens inside of us?

Nigrido is this stage,

Initial stage,

In which we go through almost like a blackening,

In which we become aware of our shadow.

We are starting from base consciousness,

But then our shadow becomes visible.

We are living in the world of the ego.

Let's,

If we take ego as that basic substance,

That base metal,

We are living in the world of ego,

And suddenly there is darkness that arises in our world,

Right?

And this happens to a lot of us who go through something,

You know,

Which we also call the,

You know,

Kind of a midlife crisis or quarter life crisis.

Or we also go through this process,

Which,

You know,

Sometimes is also known as the dark night of the soul.

And it's this process of darkness in which darkness comes into picture.

The alchemists identified this process,

And Carl Jung identified this process,

And he believed that this is a very essential part of our transformation,

That suffering is a very essential part of our transformation.

We have to allow ourselves to go through this suffering.

It is not something wrong.

It is not something to be resisted.

It is something to be embraced.

And if we embrace that,

We are in for a great transformation,

Right?

So for those of you who are experiencing that suffering right now in your life,

For those of you who are going through a process,

This process of darkness,

If you are experiencing this low time,

This dark night of your soul,

If you are experiencing this painful time,

This is a great time.

Honoring this time is so important.

If you are in solitude,

Right?

If you are experiencing depression or sadness or stress or anxiety,

If you feel that your life has,

If you have lost meaning in life,

If you feel lost right now,

You know,

Whatever that darkness might be,

It is really important to know that this is an essential stage.

This is not the end of the journey.

That this is a great stage of transformation.

This is a powerful stage.

And if you allow yourself to go through this stage consciously,

Then a great transformation is coming for you,

Right?

A beautiful transformation is coming for you,

If you allow yourself to go through that consciously.

And so this stage is very important.

And this is the Negrito stage.

This is the initial stage of that blackening of that substance in which you are,

Yes,

There is pain.

But most,

What is happening most importantly is your shadow is coming up.

And this is a great opportunity to become aware of your shadow.

Because the shadow is dark,

Right?

And we become aware of our shadow.

The shadow is that part of you that was disowned.

That is,

And that is,

You know,

Kind of a disowned part of yourself,

Which was disowned because it was thought to be wrong.

Maybe it was disowned by the parents initially.

There were some qualities in you that your parents did not like,

That the society did not like.

And then we repressed those qualities and our characteristics.

And that became a part of our being.

But it went down deep into our unconscious.

And we become unaware of it.

But it is still there.

And this is the point when you experience this suffering,

That this shadow starts coming back.

It can come back in the form of anger,

Right?

It can come back in the form of rage.

It can come back in the form of depression.

It can come back in the form of stress,

Anxiety.

It can come back in the form of a health issue.

It can come back in the form of a crisis,

You know,

A financial crisis or a relationship crisis or whatever that is.

So this is the shadow coming up.

And this is a great opportunity to become aware of it,

To notice it,

To become aware of it,

To sit with it,

To do shadow work,

To do this transformative work.

And so shadow work becomes a very essential part of this process.

In shadow work,

You allow yourself to consciously integrate,

To consciously integrate this darkness,

To consciously integrate this darkness,

To consciously integrate this part of you that seems to be dark.

You work with it.

Shadow work becomes one of the important aspects of this stage of Negrito,

In which you are now bringing up to the surface these parts of you that were neglected or that were rejected.

And now you are bringing them to the surface,

You are observing them and you start integrating them in a healthy way,

Right?

You start creating a balance between what you want to let go of and what you want to integrate,

What you want to embrace.

I just posted the course for shadow work here.

You want to integrate that.

That is when this darkness can be transformed.

You can transform this darkness.

This is a great process of transformation happening.

So let's take an example here.

Let's say anger comes up,

Right?

Let's say anger is a part of your shadow.

Anger is something,

Let's say,

Maybe that was neglected in the childhood.

Maybe your parents said that,

You know,

Anger is wrong and you shouldn't be angry.

And if you become angry again,

Then,

You know,

Then we will become angry and you shouldn't be angry and anger is wrong.

Or maybe religion said that,

That anger is evil or something like that.

But is that really true?

That is the question we ask ourselves.

Because anger is a natural response.

If you look at children,

Children are very healthy in their expression of emotions and they are very natural in their expression of emotions.

You know,

They express anger.

They express joy.

They express all kinds of emotions.

They are not shy in expressing happiness and even anger,

Right?

They are not shy in expressing love and even sadness.

So then how can anger be wrong if anger is a natural part of our being?

The problem is not with,

You know,

The problem is not with anger or expressing anger.

The problem is with expressing unhealthy anger.

But we can learn to express healthy anger.

The problem is when we suppress anger too much and then it becomes kind of,

You know,

It comes out as rage.

That becomes a problem.

But expressing healthy anger is a very integral part of our lives.

If we are not able to do that,

We will never be able to draw healthy boundaries.

We will never be able to say no when it is the right time to say no,

Right?

We will never be able to heal our relationships.

Expression of healthy anger becomes a very essential part.

So this is when you are doing that shadow work.

You start kind of embracing those qualities which are not really evil or wrong.

In fact,

They are helpful.

And you also allow yourself to let go of certain harmful characteristics that might not benefit you.

So the stage of Nigrido is that shadow work stage,

Which becomes really important for our alchemical transformation.

Let's see what the comments are.

Re asked,

Would you say that the suffering is to be honored versus avoided?

Absolutely,

Yes.

It is to be honored.

And it is a great way to become conscious of what does this mean in my life?

Why is this coming up now,

Right?

Rather than resisting it or saying,

Oh,

This is wrong.

Or this is something I should avoid.

Or this is something that,

You know,

Why is my life like this?

And I shouldn't be going through this.

Rather than resisting it,

We allow it to surface the suffering and we look at it.

It becomes a really great wisdom for us,

Right?

It becomes a great opportunity to know ourselves.

So why is this coming up?

Why am I feeling these emotions?

And as you observe that consciously,

It starts creating a transformation as you become conscious of it.

I think then someone asked that,

What do you mean by consciously?

So consciously means that rather than neglecting it,

Taking your awareness away from it,

You allow to observe it.

Observing is to become conscious,

To notice,

To observe,

To be here and now,

To presently observe something,

Right?

Is to become conscious of something.

For example,

A very simple example is that if there is an emotional pain that I'm sadness that I'm experiencing,

I can become unconscious of it.

I can try to avoid it,

Right?

I can try to keep myself busy with entertainment,

With drugs and all those things that is being unconscious about it.

But to become conscious about it is to look at it,

Right?

I'm looking at it.

I'm allowing it this sadness to surface and I'm looking at it and I'm observing it.

I'm allowing myself to feel it and observe it and sit with it.

This is what being conscious about these emotions is.

So we observe them consciously.

And sending you love,

Sending love to all those of you who are experiencing this stage of suffering.

I know this can be painful,

But I want to tell you that this is a great opportunity for transformation.

This is a great blessing,

I would say,

Because if you allow yourself to go through it consciously,

Observe it,

Then you are in for some great transformation.

Yeah,

That's right.

You said it wonderfully.

So recognizing the resistance within and integrating it in the whole so it can become a part because being separate is the reason it is resistance to begin with.

Yeah,

Yes.

Great,

So then we this is the first stage of this is the first stage of,

You know,

Experiencing that negrito,

This blackening,

This shadow,

The stage of what is also some people call the dark night of the soul or midlife crisis or quarter life crisis or ego death.

All these all these words are for this stage of negrito.

Now we move on to the next stage,

Which is albedo.

This is the second.

So we discussed the first stage of alchemy.

Now we are discussing the second stage of alchemy,

Which is called albedo.

And this is the stage of whitening in this substance,

This alchemical substance that is being transformed.

It goes through this whitening.

So what is this stage of whitening?

Yeah,

Nick,

That you said it.

Yeah,

That's right.

Nick says,

I feel like these law of attraction courses skip this shadow work.

So we try to act happy and attract what we want without integrating our whole self,

Including our shadow.

Yes,

That's right.

You know,

A lot of times when we try to manifest something by forcing something,

Right?

You know,

A lot of these law of attraction practices are all about,

You know,

Just being positive and just all the time manifesting prosperity,

Abundance,

Money and all these things.

A lot of time there is this kind of this bypassing,

This spiritual bypassing of what is to be faced.

And this is where cyclic manifestation,

I talk about cyclic manifestation comes into picture,

Which means that we are not forcing ourselves to manifest something in the outer world when it is not time for us to do that,

Right?

If we are in the spring and summer of our life,

We want to create things on the outside.

But if we are entering the fall or the winter of our life,

We might want to turn inward and do this shadow work rather than trying to force ourselves to create something on the outside.

So you are right.

You know,

A lot of these law of attraction courses,

You know,

Kind of skip that shadow work,

Which is so essential for our transformation.

So now we are at the second stage.

And I want to I want to quickly ask here that are you finding this useful?

Are you finding this interesting?

Only then we will continue.

I'm just I'm just joking.

But I want to ask you that are you seeing the value in this process of alchemy?

Are you seeing that how this can become a great transformation?

And we have just started with the first stage.

There are still three more stages left.

So thank you.

Thank you for saying that.

So let's let's bring ourselves back to the present moment fully here and now,

Letting go of any past,

Future and allowing yourself to transform.

So then we come to the second stage,

Which is albedo,

Which is whitening.

Now,

This is the stage.

This is OK.

Someone is just joining.

Update me.

We are going through the process of alchemy.

The first stage of alchemy is negrito,

Which is shadow work.

Now we are entering the second stage,

Which is albedo whitening.

So what is this albedo?

This is the second stage in this,

In which this substance goes through this whitening process.

And this is again a metaphor.

This is a symbol for the purification of yourself or your soul,

Of your being,

Of the ego.

This is a stage of purification.

You are going through a purification,

Which means that you are letting go of impurities.

You are letting go of everything that is not serving you.

Right.

We talked about in shadow work that in shadow work,

There are some parts of the shadow that you will integrate,

But there are some parts that you will also let go of and not only of the shadow,

But also of the ego.

This is when you let go of a lot of those aspects of the ego.

So this is the stage of letting go,

Because the more you let go,

The more pure you become.

This is a stage of purification.

Right.

The more you let go of,

The more pure you become.

So letting go of that is so important.

Letting go of our past self that has not been serving us anymore.

That is so important.

Only then we can experience a transformation,

A rebirth.

Only then we can evolve.

We have to let go to rise in consciousness.

Right.

For those of you who know about rocket science,

Or if you understand a little bit of that,

You will know that the rocket has to shed weight across different stages to eventually reach to space.

And if it is not shedding weight,

It cannot rise.

Right.

It has to leave something behind to rise.

And so that is so important,

Because only then something new can come.

When we let go of the old,

Only then something new can come.

For example,

Let's say that I am this person who found myself to be so influenced by society,

So influenced by my family,

So influenced by the people around me,

That I am constantly bombarded with their expectations.

I am constantly functioning from the expectations of society,

Of my family,

That I have been listening to,

You know,

My life is all framed by my family,

By my society.

Whatever I do is because of what others expect me to do.

This is the,

If this is the old personality,

Then you make a very strong intention of letting go of this personality.

And you tell yourself that I'm going to let go of this person who is constantly functioning from the expectations of others and who never was discovering that who this person really is.

Who am I?

Right.

Who am I?

And then you decide at this point,

Maybe that,

You know,

You will go into your solitude,

At least for a while to rediscover yourself.

You will be with yourself to rediscover yourself.

Solitude becomes a great tool in this stage.

Because in solitude,

Only when you can be with yourself,

You can know yourself.

If you are not with yourself,

Then it becomes difficult to know yourself.

Right.

So,

So this,

This letting go,

What,

What are you letting go of?

What old patterns are you letting go of?

What old personality are you letting go of that is not serving you anymore?

You know,

Let's share that.

It is important to share that because as I said,

This is not just an informational session.

This is a transformational session.

So we have to,

We have to go through our own transformation here.

What are you letting go of?

What are you letting go of?

I'm,

I'm letting go of my,

You know,

I will share what I'm letting go of.

I'm letting go of my own unconsciousness,

My own,

Or my attachment to thinking.

I'm letting go of my attachment to thinking because I know that if I,

If I want to have a deeper connection to myself,

I have to silence my mind more and more and more.

So I'm letting go of my attachment to thinking.

What are you letting go of?

Allow yourself to share that because as I said,

This is a transformational session.

And if you are ready to transform,

If you are not just getting information,

But you are experience,

Allowing yourself to experience transformation,

Then let's do that here.

Practically allow,

Allow yourself to share here.

What do you want to let go of that will help you to move forward?

And evolve in consciousness?

I'm trying to catch hold of the comments.

Letting go of using aggression to get what I want.

Wearing masks,

People pleasing.

Outsourcing my decisions,

External validation,

Overthinking attachments,

Control of the unknown.

Letting go of my marriage,

Resentment and expectations.

Procrastination,

Perfectionism,

Expectations,

Need to know.

Patterns of helplessness,

Of learned helplessness.

Yes.

Caretaking everyone,

Absorbing all their pain and emotions.

Control my fear of being alone.

Overplanning,

Overanalyzing.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for saying that.

And just saying that is so powerful,

Isn't it?

As you say that,

You are actually,

There is a part of you that is actually ready to let go.

And you are actually shedding something here.

You are shedding the weight of everything that has been holding you back.

Right?

So thank you for doing that.

Thank you for making this session a practical session of transformation.

By making,

By saying that.

So this is the stage of whitening.

The more you let go of,

The more purification happens.

And whatever doesn't serve you,

You let go of that.

Then comes the third stage,

Which is the stage called citrinitas.

This is the third stage in alchemy.

And this is the stage of yellowing.

Yellowing.

Let's discuss this stage.

So one of the tools of,

You know,

Letting go of or experiencing kind of this ego death or letting go of the past self,

That is a very essential part of the,

For example,

Also the tradition of Advaita,

You know,

Which is mentioned in the Upanishads,

In the Hindu scriptures,

And which is also commonly known in the West as non-duality.

And non-duality,

This becomes this process of,

You know,

Kind of shedding.

It is kind of,

Although it is also the direct realization of enlightenment,

But it is also in a way a process.

And that's why it's kind of a paradox.

And it's called the pathless path.

That although there is,

In a true sense,

There is no path to enlightenment,

But in a way it's also like a path because,

You know,

That realization is,

Although it is immediate,

But also it is gradual.

It is both.

So that is non-duality.

And that is like non-duality becomes,

Is one of the most,

In my experience,

One of the most beautiful traditions for this letting go,

And kind of this transformation or transcendence of the ego.

So I will share,

And,

You know,

It's good that Insight Timer has given us these tools to share these resources now,

Rather than just talking about them here,

Because,

You know,

These resources can become really helpful in that transformation.

So I'll keep sharing these resources as I'm talking about these topics.

So now we enter the third stage of citronetas in alchemy,

Which is the yellowing stage.

So what is this third stage of citronetas in alchemy,

The yellowing stage?

This is the stage which is known as the dawn of wisdom.

This is the stage when gold,

It starts,

This base metal starts turning into gold.

You know,

It's the yellowing,

It becomes goldish.

And this stage is known as the dawn of wisdom,

Which means that now new wisdom is arising.

And this wisdom is different from knowledge.

And this is where the difference between knowledge and wisdom comes into picture.

Knowledge is something that we gain from the outside,

But wisdom is more of the inner.

It reveals itself from the inside.

It comes to you.

There is a realization that happens.

There is a higher consciousness that is developed here.

And you start becoming more conscious,

More wise,

More mature.

The archetype of wise old man becomes very,

Or wise old woman,

It becomes very active for you.

And you,

In this stage,

Usually people become teachers or guides who also start helping others in their transformation.

And so this dawning of wisdom is happening.

This gold is coming.

And we don't have to rush this stage.

We don't have to like directly go to this stage.

You know,

A lot of people,

For example,

Become teachers without even going through their own process of transformation.

And that becomes a problem.

So we have to allow this stage to happen naturally and come to us naturally.

And this is the stage of dawning of wisdom,

Where this inner wisdom has started coming to you.

As if your intuition has started speaking to you,

As if this voice from inside has started speaking to you.

This is when your intuition becomes really,

Really strong.

You are guided to do something.

You become a channel for the universe,

Right?

And that is why we see the difference between people.

And this is not a judgment.

This is just an observation.

That we see people who are not connected to their inner wisdom and they are dependent on the outer wisdom.

Unfortunately,

That's how our education system is structured,

Right?

Our education system is structured in a way that the more external knowledge you have,

The more you are praised.

If you are a PhD,

If you are a scholar,

If you are a professor,

If you are,

You know,

Something like that,

You are praised a lot,

Right?

You are considered to be someone intellectual.

The more external knowledge you have.

That is a problem,

Actually.

That is not really wisdom.

Because true wisdom comes from the inside.

That is just an imitation.

That is just copying others,

You know,

Just mugging up or just kind of getting information from the outside and recycling that information and giving it to others.

But true wisdom comes from the inside.

That is when you are not now dependent on books,

You are not dependent on things on the outside for you to,

You know,

For you to share that with others.

But something from the inner world is arising from within.

Although there will still be aspects of the outside because,

You know,

What comes from the outside is also valuable.

But you are not too dependent on that.

You are also applying your inner wisdom,

Maybe a combination of both outer and inner wisdom.

But that inner wisdom arises in this stage.

And in this stage,

You are,

You know,

It's almost as if you have this inner guidance or this inner voice of the soul speaking through you.

And you also start sharing that in the outer world.

So this is the stage of citrinitas or yellowing.

Yes,

The last one was albedo.

Thank you for writing down,

Writing that down,

Ola for Manoosh.

OK,

Now we come to the final stage of this alchemical process.

And this final stage is known as,

This final stage is known as rubido.

And this is the stage of reddening.

This is the stage of reddening.

So rubido.

So the true alchemists never stop at the gold.

They go further.

True alchemists,

They don't stop at the gold.

They go further.

And they know that now,

They can create what is,

You know,

Usually in the magical world known as the philosopher's stone.

This magical stone that has magical powers.

Now,

This is,

Again,

Just a metaphor or a symbol or,

You know,

It's for something deeper.

It's a facade for something deeper.

Philosopher's stone means,

You know,

That enlightenment,

That nirvana,

Which Carl Jung calls the,

You know,

Becoming the self.

He said that the self is the philosopher's stone.

And that's why he has this,

You know,

Wonderful quote.

I might be rephrasing that.

But he said that the privilege of a lifetime is to become oneself or become the self.

And this,

Because this is the true self now.

This is not just the fragmented self.

We usually live in a fragmented way.

You know,

We are kind of functioning from the ego.

Our unconscious is disconnected from us.

And we are not integrated.

But to have this experience and integration and become whole is to experience the self.

And so this is the stage of rubido or reddening in which the philosopher's stone or the self is created.

And one of the very important aspects of this stage is called conjunctio.

Another kind of Latin term used in alchemy.

Conjunctio.

Conjunctio means,

You know,

This integration,

This conjunction,

This integration of the different aspects of you,

The integration of the ego and the unconscious,

The integration of the conscious and the unconscious,

The integration of anima and animus.

You know,

Anima being the feminine energy in a male and the animus being the masculine energy in a female.

And this integration of the anima and the animus.

And Carl Jung also called this commonly,

You know,

In psychological words as individuation.

So there is an also the integration of the shadow with your,

You know,

With the ego or shadow with that light aspect of you.

So this is the integration or the integration of different archetypes that live within you.

Because each one of us,

There is not just one personality,

But there are infinite number of personalities that live within us.

And these infinite number of personalities are,

You know,

Carl Jung called them archetypes,

Which are a part of our collective unconscious.

And,

You know,

For example,

All these archetypes that you hear about,

Like the wise old man,

Wise old woman,

The hero,

The heroine,

The magician,

The trickster,

Right?

All these are different archetypes that live within us.

And when we start integrating them,

And this integration happens,

As I said,

Through the practice of,

You know,

Active imagination or the practice of dream interpretation,

Because through dreams,

You are becoming aware of these unconscious aspects of you.

The characters that you see in dreams are the archetypes in your unconscious that can be integrated.

So dream interpretation,

Dream analysis,

Dream work becomes a very essential aspect of this integration,

Of this coniunctio to happen.

And so as we do this inner work,

As we keep integrating through active imagination,

Through dream work,

Through our meditations,

Through this inner work,

Integrating these different aspects of us,

Right?

Now we are also integrating the unconscious.

We are integrating the shadow.

We start becoming more and more whole and complete in ourselves.

We start becoming more whole and more complete.

We start becoming a totality rather than being fragmented.

For example,

If earlier I was disconnected with my wisdom and I was dependent on others for guidance,

For knowledge,

Now I am integrating,

I have integrated this part of me,

This wisdom,

This wise old man,

Woman archetype that lives within me.

And now I am becoming more and more whole.

If earlier I was fragmented and if I was,

You know,

Let's say disconnected from the feminine aspects,

Maybe I was too masculine in my head,

You know,

Being more macho and all that,

But I was disconnected from the feminine aspects of,

You know,

Emotions and feelings and receptivity and humility,

Then I'm integrating that now and I'm becoming more and more whole in myself.

This coniunctio is happening.

If I was disconnected from my masculine aspects and I was only in the feminine,

But not integrating the masculine aspects of rationality or,

You know,

Also assertiveness or expressing healthy anger,

Then also I was fragmented and now I can start integrating those aspects as well.

So this is the coniunctio that is happening.

This is the conjunction,

The integration of these different aspects of us.

And this integration leads to rubido,

The reddening or becoming whole or becoming the self or becoming the philosopher's stone,

Which is commonly used in alchemy.

So this is the whole process laid out for this transformation.

And this is a great,

Wonderful alchemy becomes this great transformation process.

And I feel that this is one of the most underrated and almost like lost ancient practices.

That is so powerful for the transformation of consciousness.

It is the science of awakening.

This is the science of awakening or what is known as enlightenment or nirvana.

This is the process through which one goes through this awakening.

And we have let go of this process.

And that's why we feel so lost today.

We don't know how to go through transformation.

But in these ancient times,

This was a very essential part of once of a human being's evolution,

That transformation of consciousness.

But let me now just kind of summarize this process for you of this process of alchemy and this process of transformation of consciousness.

So we talked about initially nigrido,

This stage of blackening.

And this is the stage,

Initial stage in alchemy nigrido,

Which is when a crisis hits or suffering happens.

And this leads to you becoming aware of your darkness.

And this also commonly sometimes is known as the dark night of the soul.

And this becomes shadow work because the shadow is now coming up.

So shadow work becomes a very essential part of this process.

And then we go to and I'm really thank you for all your support.

I'm really grateful to all of you who are who have supported for your presence and for your wonderful comments.

It really feels joy to interact with you here.

And now we move to the now we move to the second stage,

Which is after nigrido is the albedo or the whitening.

And this is the purification,

Right?

This is the letting go of everything that you have identified that you want to let go of.

You are you are becoming purified.

The impurities are leaving you.

Then we come to the third stage,

Which is citrinitas or the yellowing.

And this is when the wisdom,

The gold starts happening,

Right?

The wisdom,

New wisdom dawns on you and your intuition becomes active.

The inner archetypes of wise old man,

Wise old woman become active and you become more and more conscious,

More and more mindful and more and more intuitive.

And then comes the final stage,

Which is rubido and reddening,

In which you start integrating all these different fragmented aspects of you.

You start integrating the,

You know,

Unconscious with the conscious,

The shadow.

You start integrating the anima in the animus and the different archetypes that live within you.

And you start becoming more and more whole and complete and total.

You start becoming the self and that becomes the,

You know,

That becomes the stage of rubido or reddening.

So thank you so much for being here with me.

Reviews

Thank you! For this and every talk, course and guided meditation I’ve done of yours, dear Saqib. I listened to this one today, during months of autoimmune issues, and find myself somewhere in the middle. Thank you for giving me the courage to continue through. Big gratitude

I appreciate you so much, every time I listen to you I grow as a person.

Thank you for recording your talk as I cannot always make your lives. This one is very good. It’s been 2 1/2 years since my husband died and I’ve allowed myself to deeply grieve and the wisdom and transformation that is evolving out of this experience is just like you said… Turning base metal into gold. As I head into my crone stage of life, people are coming to me like never have before. And I’m happy to share my wisdom from my lifetime of experiences. namaste 🙏 ✨🙏✨🙏✨🙏✨🙏

So informative and enlightening. It sums up what I’ve been experiencing these past few years. I listened at the perfect time bc the darkness has resurfaced as depression. I’ve been working on accepting this depression but I haven’t been listening to it. I now know this time is essential and something to cherish, rather than hiding from and fearing it. 🙏🏼 Thank you for your teaching.