Soul Alchemy, as opposed to ...

Sometimes I write at this blog about stuff taught to me by angels whose names appear in the Bible. Not long ago, I found some forums online where people freely and politely discuss and share their views and experiences with spiritual or soul progression. So far, I have not seen any comments by someone appearing to be Christian. I was raised in Christianity, left and returned to it a few times, but have not attended a Christian church for quite a while. 

Part of this discussion thread was published in an earlier post at this blog. Then, Demon_Blade showed up. 

Hephsters
It sure does seem that trauma is at the heart of growth doesn’t it?
I’m glad you found a resolution. I often feel utterly alone but wonder if there’s a part of me that has made it this way and that I’m to blame for my own struggles.
In any case, I have no real doubts that I’ll pull through my own tests just as you have. Thanks for sharing!

Me
Soul Alchemy, as I came to call it, seems to be a solitary journey into God, as I grew up calling whatever is in charge of everything. It is not supposed to be easy, and if were easy, would there be any point to it?
In my case, in my 45th year, early 1987, I had reached the end of my rope, felt I had failed in every way a man could fail, was out of bright ideals and knew it. In that desperate state, I prayed, "Dear God, please help me, I do not wish to die like this, failed." Pause. "I offer my life to human service." I hoped to be successful there and not die, failed. I wept.
About ten nights later in the wee hours, I woke and saw two spirit beings above me in the darkness. Shaped like sifts. White with slightly blue tint. I figured they were angels. I heard spoken plainly into my mind, "This will push you to your limits, but you asked for it (I recalled the prayer) and we are going to give it to you." I saw a white flash as m y body was jolted by something electrical. That happened two more times. The beings faded out.
That was the beginning. Slow, at first. I was moved to a different city, put with a new woman companion, where it really started. She was moving into soul alchemy, but not as fast as I was. She did not think I was crazy, but it was solitary. I did meet people who did not think I was crazy. Some of the ones who accepted as real what I reported I was experiencing could not believe I was not using LSD, peyote, ayahuasca, etc.
There was a dark night of the soul, which was very rough. Then, there was a black night of the soul, which made the dark night seem like a vacation. There was a later dark night. I lived on the street off and on.
I had been well versed in the journeys of Francis of Assisi and John of the Cross, and of Rumi and his teacher, Shams. It was one on one with the Spirit World, and it was angels, then came demons. I had to face and come to terms with the Devil inside me, and in other people, and in spirit realms.
I was made aware ETs and ultraterrestrial beings exist, but I was steered to not get very involved with them.
I was not put in a cave or monastery. I was steered away from fastening to spiritual teachers, gurus, spiritual community. I was left in the ordinary world, where what life served up, or was arranged to be served up, was the grindstone and furnace and tsunami and earthquake and volcanic eruption and alien invasion, so to speak, through which my soul and my human body, emotions and mind were threshed and tested ongoing. That's still happening, but I'm not financially stressed now, thanks to an inheritance.
This summarizes my soul alchemy journey. There are various ways to go at it. Some travelers use long -established practices and rituals, that's what John of the Cross did. And Rumi, I think. Francis of Assisi just had it happen to him, and he somehow survived it, with God's help.
That's what Jesus in the Gospels experienced, and a number of his men and women disciples went on to experience it.
Buddha experienced it. Lao Tzu experienced it. I think Yogananda experienced it. And Kahlil Gibran. Aboriginal shamans experienced it. Women experienced it, but the male paradigm did not record many of the women.
I knew very well a woman who experienced it at the deepest of of levels. It was given to her by angels after she met me. Her soul had agreed to it. I met a few other people it was given to.
I know a younger man it was given to, who is being pushed really hard and he is determined to stick with it, as he knows beyond any doubt that angels whose names are known in the Bible are doing it to and for him.
He is not a church person. His parents are not church people. I am not a church person, although in past times I was at times. We don't know when we are ever not in church, so to speak.

Hephsters
Thanks for that, it’s actually quite comforting right now. I think I’m in a bit of a dark night of the soul phase but the light at the end of the tunnel is finally starting to twinkle through.
I think what I’m wishing for is that mystical experience like your angels experience. It feels like I’m trucking on alone even though I know it’s not really true but yes, it is indeed a solitary journey as you said.
I think patience is the key and perhaps one of my major life themes.

Me
I had read, and then it became my experience, that the dark night of the soul is not of this world but very definitely affects those who experience it. It comes and runs its course and it lifts.
Modern mental health, including psychiatry, does not have much to offer other than perhaps a listening ear. Psychiatric medicine isn't particularly effective and can interfere with and hinder or damage what is in progress, which might look like depression, for example, but is something else entirely.
I loved the movie Brother Son Sister Moon, which is about Francis of Assisi's dark night and what happened after he came out of it.
The commentaries of John of the Cross explain his perspective of both the dark night and the black night. I learned about that in Antonio T. de Nicholas' book, ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS: Alchemist of the Soul, which I stumbled across before the dark night arrived inside of me.
The dark night changes a person, a different person emerges from it. The black night, if it then occurs, changes a person much more. God, by whatever name called, is very involved in both, despite it might seem like being abandoned by God. Angels also are involved, even if they are not visible. The soul agrees to have the experience, the Spirit World obliges.
John of the Cross was a cloistered Carmelite monk, who used certain rituals known to provoke the dark night, and then the black night. Francis of Assisi simply had it happen to him from out of the blue. He was a young man, moving along, then he was apprehended and redirected, so to speak.
That said, sometimes a dark night accompanies fear of being who we really are, we cannot bring ourselves to deal directly, verbally, actionably, with something important. We clam up. We are in a prison or fear. I certainly experienced plenty of that, as well.
In all events, I appreciate your comments and hope the very best for you.

Demon_Blade
Hephsters, you are walking through the shadow of the valley of death. I too have made my journey. Fear no evil my friend and love be with you.
Part of the experience of alchemy is to break down old materials within your spirit , and create new materials. Your ego on this plane had some lead weighting your spirit down. No worries hang in there.
It's has been referred to as the first death sometimes. It's part of the rebirth process.
Ouroboros and the symbolism attached to it, often references the infinite and it's ability to change and adapt. Also at the same times it means the patterns locking yourself into a loop .
Ex. Sometimes you literally have to get your head out of your ass, because while you may have the programing for you to maintain a "safe" loop. It's good to take your tail from your mouth sometimes. To change the loops at hand and create a more heavenly experience.
All pertaining to you on this ego level plane. For we are all just writing programs for ourselves on this level.

Hephsters
Wow, I feel like some synchronicity is at work here. This is more info I needed to hear right now.
I’m literally trying to let old habits die off right now and struggling to move into a new phase of existence, one that I know will be infinitely more rewarding than the old phase but it’s still such a struggle to spit that damn tail out!
Is there a good alchemical ritual system that exists that I could practise to help with the breaking down? Or does it just happen naturally?

Demon_Blade
The universe told me to speak to you.
There is entirely new energy afoot. It's here for healing. It will bring up all the unwanted nonsense for you to sort through. It's is your reasonability to choose what do with it.
The snake naturally sheds it's skin, but sometimes it uses a rock to help in the process .
Take notice of all your patterns. You find something undesirable to you. Do something outside of yourself to break that cycle.
Before my process I had a real problem with other people. I always had to wait on them to do things. And if they ended up not doing anything I missed out in an opportunity. That was not fulfilling to my true self. So I just took a trip in my car for about a week to the beach. I slept in it every night. I did everything I wanted to do while I was gone. For that process I would have never done that before.
You know better than anyone what you truly need to do for yourself . Create a new paradigm
Be mindful of your thoughts without judgment of them. The next step can be incredibly crazy feeling to lose your concept of self. But if you jump into the fire you will only be what you really are
As above so below. So without so with in.

Me
Thank you for your comments, Demon_Blade. I myself had to be dragged kicking and screaming much of the time through the ego resistance and sheer stupidity in myself by what I understood were angels, who are still very much on my case as I approach official dinosaur status - I'm 79. Little did I know what lay ahead for me when it suddenly began in early 1987, as I described earlier in this discussion thread. 

Speaking of snakes, here's a "parable" I lived with heaving heart, rivers of tears running out of my eyes and snot from my nose, in June 1995. 

 

the gift …

A sleeping man dreams he sees the back of a young yogi meditating in the lotus position. Before the young yogi appear two cobras, raised up, hoods flared. One cobra is pure white, the other pure black. Both beautiful. The white cobra says to the young yogi, “We came to you once before because you were innocent, and you knew we brought a gift and you believed you had to chose one of us and you chose me.” The black cobra says, “We come before you again because you now are wise.” The yogi, now very advanced in years, weeps, chooses them both. The sleeping man, now an old man, awakens, crying.

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