Biblical Alchemy: Fermentation (Stage 5)

"No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will burst the skins - and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins." - Mark 2:22

The borrow Jesus' metaphor from the saying above, the first half of the alchemical process has been about creating a new wineskin, or a new container, for our true identity as God's image-bearers - where humanity and divinity are married together within us. Our old identity went through a purification process that gave us a glimpse at something greater, something new, something more true. Now, in the process of fermentation, the old will die and be transformed into that new reality.

For the Israelites in the Exodus story, their identity from liberation in Egypt to the border of the promised land was strongly connected to the person of Moses. Moses had led them through the crucible of the Egyptian plagues, parted the Red Sea for Israel to pass through, and followed a pillar of smoke through the wilderness to the mountain of Sinai where Moses represented the people before God. Now at the edge of the Jordan river, overlooking the promised land, Moses's journey would come to an end. Israel's leader could not take them any further on this path. With the death of Moses, a new reality awaited Israel as they entered the promised land.

In the Jesus story, a similar moment would forever define Christianity - the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Despite warning his disciples of his looming fate, the death of Jesus flipped their world upside down. They expected that Jesus would overthrow their Roman oppressors and create a new earthly kingdom, but Jesus was not interested in putting new wine into old wineskins. His kingdom was something entirely different. The promised land that Jesus spoke of, the kingdom of God, could only be reached through a complete transformation of reality.

The fermentation process is sometimes described as the dark night of the soul. We have seen our old identity fade away, but we have only caught a glimpse of what is true and eternal. The glow on our face from the mountain seems to always fade. This disorienting transition may throw us into the depths of existential crisis. For Israel, they wept at the edge of the Jordan for thirty days. For Jesus, he cried out from the cross "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and we are told that he descended into the depths of hell.

For many of us, our egoic identity is all that we have ever consciously known about ourselves. We have built this identity to instill a sense of unique purpose and self-worth as we set ourselves apart from others. But the spiritual path isn't about being superior or separate. The loss of this egoic identity is a type of death. The death of the ego can feel like emptiness because our individual identity markers are blurred or vanish. The unity beneath all reality can initially seem like an endless dark void. But as the grape dies, a process begins that creates something new. A light appears that fills the void. We finally cross the Jordan into the promised land where new possibilities await. Resurrection gives us new eyes to see the world in an entirely new way.

"Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephesians 4: 21-23