alchemical healer

How do we begin to meet the moment in which we are living?

By drawing guidance from the brilliant wisdom disciplines available to us, both old and new. In Module I, we create a foundation for our journey drawing from four distinct wells of wisdom: Ancestral Healing, Kabbalistic and Buddhist practices, Brain Science, and Carl Jung’s psychological understanding of Alchemy.

All of these will speak to the individual and shared heartbreaks that we carry. We adjust the flame beneath our vessel and begin!

In this module, you will:

•  Face and understand the individual and collective phenomenon called the Dark Night of the Soul that many of us are currently experiencing.

•  Learn about the ancient science of Alchemy; understand the alchemical term, Nigredo, and why it is the necessary starting point of the transformational process. 

• Ask: What is the particular heartbreak that beckons me forward?

•  Learn a technique that calms the central nervous system and places you in the calm, generative place called the “center of the cyclone.”

• Receive an essential tool for clearing out your alchemical vessel, to begin transforming unhelpful mental patterns into wise awareness  

• Experience the imaginal (as compared to imaginary) realm and encounter your personal Maggid who will help you form your fearless proclamation.

Western culture teaches us to avoid pain and discomfort, to protect ourselves from the harsh reality of impermanence at all cost.

Often this keeps us scared and isolated. But when we begin to face our pain, letting our hearts break open, we have power to harness. And we discover our kinship with all life.

In Module II, we learn to go contrary to our instinctual and cultural training, with practices and wisdom to expand our capacity to tolerate the “unbearable” and work with it. This is where the alchemical magic begins.

In this module you will:

•  Locate and name the bitter root that sits at the base of your family tree or lineage

• Find the well ancestors and spiritual allies who recognize the wound and help you metabolize the intergenerational trauma legacy

• Understand the power of paradox and learn Tonglen, an ancient Buddhist practice that runs counter to our acculturation, to help transmute painful situations. 

•  Learn about the iceberg model of the Psyche according to Carl Jung’s depth psychological approach, and how it speaks to the shared human experience. 

• Understand the term Transcendent Function, and how patient attention to conflicts within  can help bring forth delightfully unexpected phenomena.

•  Explore remarkable brain science about spirituality and how a personal  relationship with a higher power can serve as a buffer against life’s stresses

In Module III, we take a dive into the soul-filled teachings of the Jewish mystics, whose faith in Spirit helped them walk a path of fierce integrity in the face of immense suffering.

Here we learn the Talmudic maxim: In a Place Where There are No Awakened People, Be Awakened, and how to hold the internal tension of humility and moxie at once, allowing us  to defy the norms of a debased world.

Now is the time to select an area of trouble in the world upon which to shine the light of your attention in the form of action.

In this module you will:

•  Hear the story of two modern Jewish mystics whose intrepid choices give us courage

• Identify within yourself the Jungian principle of holding the tension of opposites 

•  Learn the Hassidic teaching of two pockets and the paradox of being human

• Understand the Kabbalistic principles of Yerida L’Tzorech Aliya: Going Down To  Rise Up and Tzorech Gavoha: the Highest Need and what they mean for your inner spiritual journey

• Continue on in the Ancestral Halls doing transformational work inside your lineage

• Choose an area of woundedness in the world on which to shine the light of your attention

Midway in our journey, we pause for a deep immersion in the ancestral halls, where the potency of the imaginal dimension allows us to transform some of the long-entrenched patterns in our ethnic and family lineages. 

During this ritual, we will seek the help of our spiritual teachers and ancestral guides primed to assist us in alchemizing the bitter root in our family tree and loosen the grip of destructive imprints of the past.

This frees us to become advocates of life, avowed to changing the course of human history by means of our commitment to compassionate action and a radical faith in the power of possibility.

In this module you will: 

•  Learn about Paul Klee’s painting,  The Angel of History and one profound interpretation about the destiny of the world

• Practice two vital tools for self-protection when traveling into the liminal realms 

• Be guided in a sacred ritual designed to alchemize personal and familial trauma  

• Deepen your connection to your ancestral guides and your own sacred purpose 

• Be amazed at the wisdom of the unconscious and what appears for you

There is a natural wisdom that arises when we encounter death and the impermanence of all things, a dissolving of ego that takes a lifetime of practice.

In Module 5 we return to the alchemical cauldron, this time to steep in the medicinal waters of unwept tears and unlaughed joys. We study the power of grief to heal, and follow our heartbreak into “the unbearable,” all the while cultivating self-compassion.

We begin to explore what it means to prepare for our death, in D. H. Lawrence’s words, to “build a ship of death” so that when we pass from this world, we leave a legacy of wisdom, and become an ancestor who continues to work toward peace, wisdom, consciousness. 

In this module you will:

• Explore Buddhist teachings about impermanence and work with cultivating the courage to die continuously

• Learn about death practices and the journey of the soul in Kabbalah, and why working on our physical and emotional attachments before death is so important.

• Understand the effects of deferred grief and unmetabolized trauma and reflect upon how these have affected your bloodline

• Enter the company of your ancestral elders who will help you understand more about your next steps to fulfilling your unique purpose, your tikkun, and creating a meaningful legacy.

• Study and practice wearing the Kabbalistic Cloak of Light and experience its protective power 

• Be guided in a meditation that brings you beyond the veil of this world into your becoming a light-filled ancestor

Every true journey ends with a returning home. Having descended into the dark night, the ancestral halls, and the waters of grief, we now carry what we have gathered back into the marketplace of daily life.

The alchemists called this final stage the Rubedo, the reddening, when the gold leaves the vessel and enters the world. In Module VI we learn to live in the world without being consumed by it: to act with full devotion while releasing our grip on outcomes.

We move in the rhythm the Kabbalists call ratzo v'shov, running and returning, so that we can take in (and give out) more and more light without being overwhelmed.

Together we harvest what our weeks of work have birthed, in ourselves and in the corner of the world's woundedness we chose to serve.

In this module you will:

• Complete the alchemical journey with the Rubedo, and see how the Transcendent Function in your life gives you a new place to stand as a healer.

• Learn and practice Ratzo v'Shov, the third of our spiritual technologies, and the Baal Shem Tov's teaching of avodah b’gashmiyut, serving the Divine through ordinary, physical life.

• Receive Rabbi Tarfon's teaching about the work we will never be able to finish yet cannot abandon, alongside the Buddhist practice of action without clinging.

• Share what has unfolded in your chosen area of world service, and name your committed next step.

• Face the shadow of the healer (burnout, rescuing, and spiritual inflation) and learn a practice for returning to Self when you lose your balance.

• Choose a practice partner or small circle from the course to accompany your world service beyond our time together

We have been hearing about  the dawning of the Age of Aquarius for years, but we are truly standing on the cusp of it now and experiencing all manner of global transformation in the form of chaos, death, and renewal.

In the coming year and beyond, we will be called to contemplate whole new ways of living in harmony, equality, and joy. But birthing new ways of living requires quantum leaps in consciousness. In our final class, we gather around our fire, partake in a ritual of review and release (of the past year) and with our strongest soul intention call in the ingredients that make us clear, strong, and compassionate healers, alchemists, agents of change.

Special guest, internationally acclaimed spiritual astrologer, Emma Kupu Mitchell, who will give us a celestial reading of season and what to prepare for in 2027.