I would very much like to thank everyone who showed an interest in the Anarchistic Alchemists Alliance group for doing so. I am humbled and gratified, and I hope to make it worth all of your while.
Here's the first of the substantive Diaries actually written for us. It describes a major concept in Alchemy -- in fact, Alchemists' concept of Alchemy Itself -- and what the eff it has to do with Anarchism, Daily Kos, or anything else in the "real" world in which we live.
But first, the standard unpleasant (but, alas, necessary) bit of business. If it does not apply to you, please ignore and proceed below the Great Orange Curlicue.
NOTICE!
The Anarchistic Alchemists Alliance is intended to be a loving and compassionate place for persons with Spiritual and Mystical beliefs to discuss how to put those ideas to use in creating a better world for humankind to live in. If you are not inclined to take Spiritual and Mystical ideas and values seriously, or are inclined to merely bash them, please do yourself, Daily Kos, The Anarchistic Alchemists Alliance, and all your fellow Kossacks a favor: Pass us by and go elsewhere. This is a community Diary for the Anarchistic Alchemists Alliance community. Honest questioners of any stripe are welcome here, of course. But bashers, and those who are "anti" for the mere sake of being "anti", aren't.
Thank You!
THE QUESTION is often and honestly asked: "What on Earth does any of this have to do with electing more and better Democrats?" This is asked not just to those of us who profess to the politics of the serious Left here on Daily Kos, but to those who post Diaries on spiritual matters as well.
Kindly please permit me to assert that these things have everything to do with each other. When one maintains ties to spirituality, it is impossible (or near so) to isolate it from any other thing that impacts your life at all. Spirituality, by its very nature, pervades the entire life of the one who maintains it. It influences every decision. It is a major factor in setting the ethical guidelines the person lives by. It exerts a strong influence on the person's worldview.
Thus, our spirituality impacts not only that we want to elect more and better Democrats, but (and more importantly) why we would want to do that.
How does this relate to Alchemy? Actually, it's simple. The fundamental idea of Alchemy is that everything is striving and evolving towards a state of Perfection. An Alchemist is one who studies this process of Perfection as it occurs in Nature, and works to accelerate and assist this process so (s)he can enjoy the Perfection when it is achieved. More than anything else, this applies to the Alchemist him/herself. The Alchemist strives to get him/herself to Perfection so (s)he can be, use and enjoy that Perfection.
An Anarchistic Alchemist has certain views about what a Perfected society of human beings would look and act like. This view is Anarchistic insofar as this Perfected society would need no permanent authorities. No member of such a Perfected society would need or want to bear rank or rule over any other. The members of such a society would deal with each other in an honest, honorable, compassionate, and altruistic manner which would obviate any need for permanent authority. (Take that, Ayn Rand!) What authority would need to be exerted from time to time would be as minimal as possible and for the shortest amount of time possible. The inherent weaknesses in the human frame and personage would be overcome by a society-wide, universally recognized obligation (and benefit) of mutual aid. The common property, the common wealth, of the society would be protected against any sort of diminishment by the society's members.
So how does ancient patterns and lore stored up by several thousand years of pre-chemistry mystics relate to making this happen? Well, that discussion is what this entire Daily Kos group is about, and I fully intend to investigate and discuss this in comprehensive detail as our journeys here unfold. However, in Alchemy, there exists a general term for this pilgrimage towards Perfection. The term is:
THE GREAT WORK
And they don't call it that for nothing! The process of getting anything or anyone to Perfection is
Work, and lots of it! Consider an artist creating a work of art. Further consider that this artist wants the work to be Perfect. Now think of what you would consider the artist to do in order to make this come to pass. The artist would spend hours and hours working on this work of art, correcting every flaw (s)he finds and locating all the others to subsequently correct them, all most gently and with the greatest ingenuity.
Now when you consider that such a society as any realistic Anarchist would envision would require that the human beings living in it would be Perfected or close thereto, it would make common sense that the Great Work of Perfection in every individual human being is a subset of the Great Work of creating a Perfected society. Therefore, it can be seen that for any practical purpose, there is only one Great Work, and everyone's strivings toward the goal of Perfection also "count" towards the goal of societal Perfection, which in turn "counts" towards the goal of universal Perfection.
Because this is The Great Work we are talking about, there's no quick and easy, lemon squeezy, name it claim it nonsense here. What we are seeking will require Work to first obtain, and it will require Work to maintain and keep -- just as it is for anything worthwhile. Any human being who has maintained a worthwhile relationship with any other human being can testify to this great truth. But I respectfully submit that any such person can also testify that this Work is truly worthy and worthwhile. Moreover, I also respectfully submit that all such Work is just as much a subset of the One Great Work as any other. And every human being will eventually have to undertake such Work towards every other human being if we are to survive, much less achieve the Perfection that I genuinely hope and believe is possible for our human kind.
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The next Diary in this series will be on the single document that is "the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Bible all rolled into one" for Alchemists: The Emerald Tablet of Hermes (Tabula Smagardina).