Biblical Alchemy: Conjunction (Stage 4)

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of God has risen upon you. Behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the people; but God will arise upon you, and their glory will be seen upon you." Isaiah 60: 1-2

In the Jewish temple's innermost chamber, known as the holy of holies, sat an empty throne. This golden mercy seat was where God and humanity (represented by the high priest) would meet each year on the day of atonement. As the word "at-one-ment" suggests, God and humanity would be reconciled as one with the priest adorned in gold and purified of all that stands between humanity and their true identity as God's holy representatives in the world.

Before the high priest could enter the holy of holies, however, they would pass through a set of purification rituals that closely mirror the alchemical process. A fire sacrifice was made upon an alter, their hands and feet were washed in a bronze basin of water, and they would offer fragrant incense into the air. These purification rituals led up to the moment that God and humanity would share the same holy space at the divine throne where heaven and earth are one.

This idea of God and humanity united together upon God's throne was reflected by Israel's prophets who reported visions of a glowing human figure seated upon God's throne (e.g. Ezekiel 1:26). This same divine glow is described in the Exodus account after Moses returns from the mountaintop with the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. In fact, Moses's glowing face frightened the Israelites to the extent that Moses had to cover his face every time he returned from meeting with God.

On one occasion when Moses was on the mountain, the Israelites took the gold they had taken from Egypt and formed an idol of a golden calf. Israel had strict prohibitions again making idols since humanity itself was created to be the image (lit. idol) of God. When Moses returned to see the Israelites worshiping this golden calf, he performed his own bit of alchemy as he burned the golden calf with fire, ground it into a powder, scattered the powder upon the water, and then forced the Israelites to drink it. As odd as this story sounds, Moses could be making the point that this purified gold belongs inside humanity. In worshiping an idol, the Israelites have failed to see the goodness and glory of their own humanity and made themselves something less than the lifeless object they created. By bowing before a false god, they have become a false humanity.

Another possible explanation for Moses's gold powder drink is a connection to the ordeal of bitter water described in Numbers 5. In this mysterious ritual, a woman accused of adultery would drink a mixture of holy water and powder from the floor of the temple. If she was guilty of the accusation, the potion would bring a curse upon her. If she was innocent, she would be free of guilt. Marriage was a common metaphor for the covenant relationship between God and Israel established at Sinai - a marriage between humanity and divinity. The golden calf incident was a moment of infidelity for Israel that brought a curse upon Israel. The alchemical step of conjunction is also described as a marriage - a marriage of soul and spirit. With this marriage, the masculine and feminine become one before moving ahead in the process of spiritual transformation. To grow, we will need to honor this union and remain faithful to the truth of our newly discovered identity.

Let's skip ahead to the Jesus story. After Peter recognized Jesus as the Christ, Jesus tells his disciples that he will be killed and then rise after three days. He tells his disciples that they must follow him on this path. Seven days later, one of the more bizarre stories of the Christian Bible unfolds. Jesus leads three of his disciples up a mountain where they see Jesus glowing as he talks to the long-dead Moses and the prophet Elijah (who has his own Exodus-style alchemical experience described in 2 Kings 2). Just like the Israelites who saw Moses glowing centuries before this moment, the disciples are terrified. The disciples hear God's voice from a cloud saying, "This is my beloved Son." Jesus, who regularly refers to himself as the son of humanity, is now called the son of God. It's in this moment that the disciples are shown what the Christ represents - humanity and divinity united together as one.

These stories help to illustrate what alchemists describe as the alchemical stage of conjunction. What remains of our identity after being purified through calcination, dissolution, and separation is now reconciled and recombined. This is where we first see our true identity begin to take shape and radiate. Where the first three stages worked through dualities of good and bad, pure and impure, divine and mundane - conjunction is where we finally begin to see the unity beneath those things that appear to be opposed. This is where we see heaven and earth overlap and fuse together as one. Here we step into the holy of holies and see God face to face.

Conjunction is the fruit of the labor of the first three stages. From this view upon the mountain we can now see that those former identity markers - things like wealth, nationality, religious affiliation, career, and various other measures of success were nothing more than illusions that divided and separated us from the rest of humanity. This mountaintop experience will forever change how we see reality, but this is not the end of the journey. In fact, this is the start of something new. The next stage of fermentation will take us to the edge of this plane of existence where we will descend into the abyss before discovering what awaits on the other side. Ahead lies the path on which Jesus called his disciples to follow him - the path of death, resurrection, and ascension. Once we walk this path, the truths we discovered in the holy of holies will become true for the entire cosmos. That one holy moment in time and space will become a microcosm of all that it. As above, so below.

"Thus it was necessary for the representations of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are symbols of what is true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." Hebrews 9:23-24