Make no mistake about it.  The Purity referred to here is one of Soul and Spirit.  If you think about the Divine as a spark within you (and we do), then Purity in our sense is your ability to fuel and fan that spark into flame in the way that only you – in your very own uniqueness – can do.  But again, don’t be fooled, it can take considerable effort to get that fuel clean enough that it burns without sputtering or igniting an uncontrollable inferno.  This is the Great Work of alchemy, the purification of your best and highest essence of expression in this world.

There are many ways to seek purification, no one way is right for everyone and no one method is a cure all for any individual.  We must seek our own path and allow others to seek theirs, as long a we all do so with peaceful and loving intent.

I often like to look at archetypes as ways to express certain concepts and Vesta comes to mind as a perfect example of this particular notion of purity.

The Roman goddess Vesta (Greek Hestia) was goddess of the hearth and keeper of the sacred flame.  The vestal virgins we’ve heard of are the priestesses charged with tending the perpetual flame in Vesta’s temple.  This role was important, for the fire symbolized the unity and cohesion of  both family and state.  When emigrating to foreign lands, Greek colonists brought a portion of the fire with them in order to link their new community with their homeland.  Similarly, women leaving home brought fire from their mother’s hearths in order to begin their home.  Depictions of Vesta portray a woman of majestic beauty clad in long, white robes, holding a lighted torch or candle in one hand and a votive bowl in another, embodying the qualities of purity, safety, divine protection and security.

While the women who tended the temple flame were known as virgins, it was not because they were sexually chaste, but because they remained unmarried and belonged to no man.  Indeed, they were also keepers of the practice of sacred sexual union, “dedicated to a higher purpose, that of bringing the fertilizing power of the goddess into effective contact with the lives of human beings.”¹  Thus, they also tended the sacred flame symbolizing the kundalini powers of yogic practice and the secret powers of sexual transmutation.²

Vesta/Hestia’s Celtic sister, the goddess Brigit, makes the purpose and rightful expression of this sacred flame even more accessibly evident.  She is the goddess of three fires: the hearth, the forge and inspiration.  She’s known as a healer, preparing salves and tinctures over the flames of the hearth; a protector, practicing smithcraft at the forge; and a patroness of bards, who benefit from her spark of inspiration.  In my mind, she’s a quintessential alchemist, burning the dross of what no longer serves while tempering purified essence into something strong and useful, following her creative faculties throughout the process.

Such is the process of alchemy one of purification.  The Philosopher’s Stone and Alchemist’s Gold have always been none other than our own purified essence, coaxed and cajoled, at times beaten and battered into hard-won and joyful expression.  This work is not for the faint-hearted, but once undertaken, pays in unlimited joy and peace.

The expression  that “You can never run away from you” might be the battle cry of anyone who has undertaken this journey.  The triumphal banner to read: "Know Thyself".  For once won, one has no choice but to entice others along the path and so to reap the reward of both tutelage and company in that place of knowing that we are indeed all sacred, all divine, all equally deserving and capable of joy beyond understanding.

The Alchemical Phases of Purification are:

1. Calcination:         Burning Off the Dross
2. Dissolution:          Learning to Let Go
3. Separation:           Identifying Essences
4. Conjunction:        Creating the Overself
5. Fermentation:     Fire in the Soul
6. Distillation:          Consecration of the Stone
7. Coagulation:        Ultima Materia of the Soul³

You might begin to imagine how such phases could manifest in your life: through your job or work, in your relationships, in the everyday tests and challenges that you put yourself through.  If you pay very close attention, you’ll notice that there is a theme – all of which is to get you to look at YOU, that is, to see your own reflection in others that you might come to know yourself in your perfection and your flaws to get to where you discover your personal divinity and no longer apologize or find excuses for not allowing it to burst forth as the self-sustaining sacred flame of your purified Self.  It is every bit like a birthing process, replete with the full pain and complete joy that accompany it.

Now, as to ways and means to move this process along and facilitate awareness of the lessons to be learned (and hopefully not repeated too many times), I can offer a listing of what has been personally helpful to me.

I also offer my services and products to help move you along your path.

Services and products I offer:

Ø      The Reconnection

Ø      Gemstone Resonance Healing

Ø      Essential Oils

Ø      Custom-made jewelry with stones specifically selected for you

Ø      Magnified Healing

Ø      Training/Coaching

Things to do on your own:

Ø      Meditate

Ø      Eating healthy food consciously

Ø      Exercise

Ø      Talk with a loved one or friend

Ø      Consult an astrologer

Ø      Seek professional help

Classes/Seminars to attend:

Ø      The Landmark Forum

Ø      Spiritual Response Therapy

Ø      Buddhist Daishonin chant (http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/nam-myoho-renge-kyo.php  )

Books to read:

Ø      Healing the Child Within (Charles L. Whitfield, M.D.)

Ø      The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships (Harriet Lerner, Ph.D.)

Ø      When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (Pema Chodron)

Ø      A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Eckhart Tolle)

Ø      Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential (Caroline Myss)

Ø      The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation (Dennis William Hauck)

   
1 M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), 127. 

2 Demetra George and Douglas Bloch, Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-emerging Feminine (Berwick, Maine: Ibis Press, 2003), 121

3  Dennis William Hauck, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation (New York: Penguin Compass, 1999).