The Wheel Turns

From Faust to Frankenstein, the alchemical urge lives deep in us all. The power to transform is magic. We see it in Nature and imagine ways we can harness this power for ourselves.

Both life and the wheel of the year are cyclical. They revolve and evolve, phasing into and out of different rhythms and energies at different times. Samhain, usually halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, is traditionally a time to remember ancestors and those whose lives have transitioned beyond our plane.

Cycles by definition are not linear. Life has found a way to exist on the edge of instability because it dances in and within feedback loops that self-sustain. The balance requires participation. Every healthy cell in your body operates to maximize its advantage while also existing symbiotically with other cells. By contrast, humans have been operating as though a linear materials economy that extracts ever more resources from the finite supply of the earth for the sake of growth is sustainable. A closed-loop materials economy in which the “waste” can be meaningfully converted to new stuff reflects a regenerative model more in line with the cycles of the living world. There is no more obvious nor alchemical an example of this in Nature than healthy soil, for to dust we shall all return.

Death is a part of the cycle of life. Your carbon will be recycled, but the choice to create more light in the world is yours. This principle applies to everything from earlier versions of ourselves to nurse logs and whale falls. This month a full moon illuminates a thin veil. Honor the past, cherish the soil, cultivate the fire of transfiguration to temper the future, fear not the dark, and memento mori.