I’ve always felt that everything around me lives in a process of alchemy. Every part of nature, every single living cell in my body, every emotion that I feel.

There is no place where Alchemy is not. In the hot flushing of my cheeks, in the crackling of a fire raging, in autumn leaves softly falling to the ground, and in a bubbling hot spring. All of life is in constant synergy and motion with itself and in what I call an orgasmic state of being.

In all Alchemy there are three main components: there is a container, something that needs transforming and a temperature that provokes the transformation. The greatest container of all is Mother Nature. However our bodies are also vessels through which our inner landscape is transformed. Within our bodies we undergo countless transformations a day. In truth we are all already alchemists.

I know it when I feel the bite of painful news around my heart, the trace of electricity across my belly with my lover’s touch, the fogginess that descends on my mind when I feel powerless. I have learned over time when it is time to run, to accelerate, to slow down and to pause. I have become an acutely aware self-sensory being that with pinpoint precision can know what the next right step is.

But this has not always been the case. In the past I have forgotten, broken and suppressed these natural capabilities. The sensing and feeling of my life had perhaps been numbed by bad TV, junk food and negative feedback that forced me to stay within the constraints of a so-called respectable society in order to maintain a false sense of connection to my environment. I had fallen asleep. But the alchemist in me was ready to wake.

That’s when I discovered the inner heat that transforms and that eventually would lead me back home to myself. Often this energy is recognized as orgasm (not as in climax, but as in the force of life that runs through everything), or as the chi of the Taoists or the magical sekhem of the Egyptians and everything in between. This inner energy is an endless source of mostly untapped power that if cultivated can often be the difference between the average version of you and the super-human super-powered badass medicine version of you. So here are a few pointers of how I did it:
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Step 1: Allowing the inner energy to awaken.

I became friends with my sexual energy. Even though I felt so detached from it at times, it was there and it was just waiting for my attention! I studied and taught Kundalini Yoga, I went on the hunt for meditations that helped me focus on the connection with my body and create clear pathways in my system for the energy to run through.

I also practiced and trained in Orgasmic Meditation. Working with orgasm, I quickly found that the stuckness, the impurities, and the negativity were blasted right out of my system. A hidden part of me arose like the phoenix from the flames, brand new and with the light of orgasm burning like embers through my eyes. My mental faculties were polished, my capacity to contain more desire, more heat, more emotion and more of my essence were greatly increased. It was time to come out and play! And with the passing of time, I became aware that I could only sustain the truth in my body—anything that was out of balance with it was no longer welcome.
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Step 2: Steeping life in love.

I expanded my heart. This is the second element that is essential to embody for alchemists. Everything must pass through the 4th gateway, the gateway of the heart. Without love we withdraw, deplete, and die. Without love we cannot flourish, and babies cannot live. So it stands to reason that love binds all the ingredients of life together and makes it possible to bake them into a magnificent cake. Love is what allows the faculty of discernment to be clear and well directed. Love is what assures that the power cultivated through orgasmic practice is not left flailing like a disconnected cord but is put to good use and held in integrity.

Ultimately to ignore love is to risk falling into force, manipulation and more devious forms of magic. So I make sure that I have a daily practice that connects me to my heart, to self-love and to Mother Nature. I keep an altar at home and every morning before I start my day, I light a candle, say a prayer to call in my guides and ancestors, call in all the elements and set my intentions. Altars are magical portals that allow us through ritual to stay connected to our higher selves, enlisting the support of the cosmos. But if this doesn’t sound like your bag, even a simple intention setting exercise or heart-centered visualization will do. I also have a practice of speaking my desires. I make sure that I tune in with myself and ask myself what it is I really want in each moment. Deciding on the vanilla ice cream instead of the mint chocolate chip is a huge act of love. Saying yes and no when I really mean them is a radical act of self-love.
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Step 3: Grounding in purpose.

I began to cultivate the true essence that I had discovered in Step 1. I filled up with inner energy until I began to live from overflow. Living from overflow meant that I was able to give back to my environment effortlessly because I was no longer drained, hungry or lacking. When I hit this state of flow I knew I had broken through the heavy wall of resistance holding me back and my life moved seamlessly into place. Finally I was able to focus my attention on what it is I really came to do, which seemed to pour out of me in a way that it never had before and with so much ease and grace and undoubted direction, that I finally could embark on the true journey of my life. I was ready to begin to serve others and to communicate what had been learned. It was time to implement my vision and to share the medicine of my essence with others.

Since then I have guided many people through this same process. Each one has found their inner medicine. But there is one common thread that binds us all: Getting to know ourselves is where our power lies. And I have found that often, our “self” is hidden somewhere deep inside the very magnificence of our inner energy.

Relephant Favorite:

20 Alchemist Quotes to Revive Your Faith in the Universe and Yourself.

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Author: Carlotta Mastrojanni

Editor: Travis May

Image: Flickr/Thierry Ehrmann