Alchemy and Other Acts of Transformation

Five years ago, just as I’d finished the first draft of my memoir, Trove: A Woman’s Search for Truth and Buried Treasure, I decided to become an alchemist.

I actually wanted to practice the ancient art of transforming base metals into gold with cool stuff like a crucible full of mercury and cinnabar. I signed up for an online study class for about 100 bucks. I probably should have just bought a cheap paperback, but I thought it would be useful to share secrets and successes with fellow alchemists as we heated lead on Bunsen burners in our basements and, literally, searched for the Philosopher’s Stone. I mean, really, who wants to do that in complete isolation?

As soon as I submitted my payment, I promptly received a pile of digital reading material and a link to join a Facebook group where postings read along these lines:

This might be a dumb question, but can I make spagyric tinctures without using alcohol?

Found a great source for pure dragon’s blood!

I know. I know. But it’s a thing, kind of like Harry Potter-obsessed kids waking up on their 11^thbirthdays expecting an owl to deliver a Hogwarts’ acceptance letter. I’d always wanted to be an alchemist. One of my very favorite books is The Alchmeist by Paulo Coelho which tells the story of an Andalusian boy going on a treasure hunt—also, obviously, my jam.

So none of the questions, reading, or experience seemed terribly off-putting to me.

But here’s the thing—as cool as it was to try to turn lead into gold, I was more interested in the spiritual side of alchemy, the real reason that the medieval art/science developed. It wasn’t about getting rich and discovering the elixir of immortality, but about transforming the base self, about moving into a state of higher consciousness, awareness and illumination.

Honestly, I just wanted to be illuminated.

It was a hard time in my life for a few reasons, and I decided that the way to get beyond the challenges was through an alchemical transformation of my earthly mindset into a shiny gold spirit.

My friend Deirdre, an inspired and inspiring artist and astrologer says that transformation is very much a Scorpio thing. Agreed. I’ve done many things in my life (energy work, shamanism, meditation, fasting) in an effort to travel to spiritual playgrounds. But now that I’m grounded in the world of my book which comes out on 9-19-19, I can’t easily escape to the astral plane.

But what I hope to do is inspire my readers to think about their own alchemical transformation, whatever that may be for them. For you.

I loved writing this book, but now I want it to make others more compassionate for their own journey of searching, of treasure hunting, of experimenting, of transmutation. Along with taking a deep dive into the depths of life’s hardships, I want to express the playful side of my journey too—the search for a buried chest of gold coins.

The whole time I was writing Trove, I knew that when I found a publisher I would create an armchair treasure hunt that readers anywhere could follow online—decoding clues and puzzles using the book—with the hope of finding a valuable treasure. I wasn’t sure at the time what that treasure would be, but now I know.

I started thinking about gold, and transformation. As a memoirist, I take my raw and remembered life stories and transform them into something else, something like gold. So why not take valuable objects that were part of those stories in my book and transform them into something that could be a prize for the Trove Treasure Hunt?

I recently paid a visit to my friend Winnie at TC Jewelers, a tiny shop in Arlington, Mass. She is a gemologist who can turn old jewels

into one-of-a-kind pieces. I gave her a sapphire engagement ring from a relationship that obviously didn’t work out; another from a necklace that I bought in Thailand; an emerald from a ring once given to me by a married man. I also brought her a ruby ring with two citrines that was my grandmother’s but I no longer wear, and a pearl that I found on the street when I was living in Tokyo. It must have fallen off of someone’s earring.

As Winnie my alchemist jeweler, said, “You’ve got the big three covered.”

Right now she is making me a custom sterling silver cuff bracelet that will be the prize in the Trove Treaure Hunt. It will feature the gems from my stories and transform them into something different and beautiful. She will buy the extra gold from me and transform that, too.

It’s not that these old rings and gems don’t mean something to me or aren’t of value in their current state. Of course they are. They hold stories and memories of loved ones and—for heaven’s sake—they are precious gems.

But in order to transform, you have to give. Always. In fact, in the opening of the show The Fullmetal Alchemist, the first law of alchemy is that of equivalent exchange:

Human kind cannot obtain anything without first giving something in return.

As devoted readers, you have given me so much by responding to my work: support, encouragement, love. I can’t wait for one of you to puzzle out the clues in my treasure hunt and dig up the bejewelled prize. As soon as it’s ready, I’ll feature it here.