Separatio: Dissolving Negative Beliefs and Emotional Blockages

(Fifth in the series on alchemy as metaphor for great coaching)

In Thoughts Without a Thinker Mark Epstein shares an encounter between a Zen master and Kalu Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk. This was intended to be "dharma combat," the clashing of great minds. The Zen master, obviously ready to parry any response, held up an orange and asked repeatedly "What is this?" "What is this?"

After several moments of silence, the Tibetan whispered to the monk beside him, who then translated: "Rinpoche says, 'What is the matter with him? Don't they have oranges where he comes from?'" Rinpoche had ended the debate by shifting focus to the Zen master's own questioning.

Sometimes people rely on intellect to make sense of the world and their existence in it. It's important as a coach to meet them where they are, inviting them to question their own assumptions, but without being drawn into dharma combat.

Separatio, separating wholes into components, separating the essence of dissolution from its wastes. This refers to "dismembering" the personality, retrieving the energy released by dissolution of negative beliefs and emotional blockages.

My client John began our conversations with his usual intellectual fervor. He articulated very clearly his desire to "become aware of my assumptions, biases, and limitation and begin consciously choosing different assumptions and points of view." Notice in his self-description below how John first had to access his beliefs through intellectual awareness, and only gradually became aware of his emotions:

A deep interest in Jung came in realizing this was a fascinating way to understand myself and others. Jungians say you need to have some contact with your unconscious to develop the axis between your ego and your inner core. Having a mental framework has legitimized it for me. I like the whole intellectual idea that we've been living in some kind of unconscious activity, and we try to get out of being "asleep."

When my marriage ended it was a blow to my self-esteem. Specifically, I realized I didn't understand what feelings were all about. My wife accused me of not having feelings, of being too logical, and I didn't know what she was talking about. Finally, I realized intellectually I needed to do something, and that's when I sought help. I had to accept all this horrible unconscious stuff, and finally realized I really did have feelings. I realized I was just thinking too much. Now I reveal more when I'm comfortable with someone, noting, for example, "I'm probably too much in my head right now."

I see this whole process as a Hero's Journey. You receive a call, you engage in the search, then there's a struggle, you have a breakthrough, and you return -- somehow changed. One way the call has been particularly clear is with a university course on personal development I'm now teaching. After I retired, I was just living my life when I got a phone call from an old friend who was leaving town and asked me to take over for her. It appealed to something inside of me at an intuitive level, not verbal, and I decided to try it out. I cannot believe the response of people taking this course -- the warmth, and love. It's been great, wonderful! It's taken me outside of my house and outside of myself.

(See also Calcinatio, Solutio, Solificatio, Nigredo, Mortificatio, Sublimatio, Coagulatio)

Nigredo: The Darkness Before the Dawn

(Fourth in the series on alchemy as metaphor for great coaching)

On the first long car trip I took with my new GPS, I felt I had my personal traffic controller, especially as the sun began to set and I couldn't see the road signs to my son's new apartment in a city unfamiliar to me. What a relief, when driving in the dark, to hear a voice saying "in 100 feet, turn right."

Nigredo--separating the extraneous from the real. This aspect of alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition, all ingredients cleansed and cooked to a uniform black matter, representing the moment of maximum despair, the dark night of the soul, the dying of inner chaos and doubt, discovering what really matters, what is authentic essence.

Without a map or GPS when seeking a new destination, our tendency is to either succumb to panic or turn back to more familiar roads. Likewise, the journey of transformation is not rational or linear, there is certainly no GPS, and it can take heroic effort to stay present and open to the change. Carolyn Myss calls this spiritual madness. When we help our clients stay centered and endure the madness, they begin to hear their internal GPS, their own voice of guidance. And Myss endearingly adds, "How do you expect the answer to be given to you? It's not going to come in a letter!"

Here is Nora's description of her emerging voice of guidance:

I think in the process of our evolution we have things that block us. Leonard Laskow speaks of "treasured wounds" and beliefs. So for me the exploration is seeing how I've held things that kept me from moving forward. One of my core issues has been not feeling I'm good enough. Early on I had so little sense of myself that I'd go away in my head. Many of my struggles were in learning to get past that, to stay in real time, to stay in the midst of whatever was scaring me, which was usually a threat proving there was something terribly wrong with me.

I have the image that along the way you move from pain and toward possibilities. There have been times when I had clear choices as to whether I was going to go on or not. I wasn't suicidal, but I thought I'd go crazy. I'd lie in bed and feel there was a battle between light and darkness inside, and consciously choose light. The first few years of my marriage were so hard, and any number of times I felt like walking. But I knew I needed to stay with it, to learn to love, even though there were problems way over my head. And I'm glad I stayed with it.

There have been a number of lessons for me. One is to trust that what and where I am right now, without any exaggeration or drama, is enough. Another is that life without drama isn't mediocre or bland, it's living from the center. It wasn't the events or people in my life, it was the emotional energy I gave to them that was the problem. Drama pulled me away from my heart.

Today is a good day to let go of the baggage getting in the way of my being in my heart. For this, I will gladly leave the drama behind.

(See also Calcinatio, Solutio, Solificatio, Separatio, Mortificatio, Sublimatio, Coagulatio)