Ep. 35 The Journey After the Journey
Explicit content warning
04/01/23 • 27 min
No amount of alchemical death and rebirth cycles can change who you are. It can only reveal it. And then the task becomes to live it, to anchor the unchangeable essence of Who You Are into your ever-changing human existence. Wildness and form. Dancing.
So far in this podcast, I’ve talked a lot about what I call the Second Half of the Mountain Journey–the dark nights of the soul, dark nights of the spirit, and distillation. These alchemical processes are necessary to carry us from initial awakening to permanent alignment with the core self.
But what happens when we reach the summit? What are the next alchemical phases and processes we go through once we have an abiding alignment with the unbreakable core within? What is life like then? What’s the reward for completing all seven stages of alchemy?
Exploring in this episode:
- What comes after going through the dark nights and distillation?
- What is the Philosopher’s Stone?
- The alchemical phase of Radiation and how to deal with its devoidness
- The ongoing conversation between ego and soul or the immediate and infinite self.
With love,
McCall
Related episodes:
Living From the Unbreakable Core That Is Uniquely Yours
Born From Nothing--Magical Will
- Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
- Stay connected through my Email List
- Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
- Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
- Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening
No amount of alchemical death and rebirth cycles can change who you are. It can only reveal it. And then the task becomes to live it, to anchor the unchangeable essence of Who You Are into your ever-changing human existence. Wildness and form. Dancing.
So far in this podcast, I’ve talked a lot about what I call the Second Half of the Mountain Journey–the dark nights of the soul, dark nights of the spirit, and distillation. These alchemical processes are necessary to carry us from initial awakening to permanent alignment with the core self.
But what happens when we reach the summit? What are the next alchemical phases and processes we go through once we have an abiding alignment with the unbreakable core within? What is life like then? What’s the reward for completing all seven stages of alchemy?
Exploring in this episode:
- What comes after going through the dark nights and distillation?
- What is the Philosopher’s Stone?
- The alchemical phase of Radiation and how to deal with its devoidness
- The ongoing conversation between ego and soul or the immediate and infinite self.
With love,
McCall
Related episodes:
Living From the Unbreakable Core That Is Uniquely Yours
Born From Nothing--Magical Will
- Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
- Stay connected through my Email List
- Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
- Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
- Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening
Previous Episode
Ep. 34 The Great White Nothing and the Thread That Carries Through
The alchemy of inner transformation is not a self-improvement project. It’s a participation in the soul’s evolution. It may not improve your life at all at first. It’s a rather destructive process–dismantling your beliefs, identities, small hopes and dreams, tearing your life at each carefully stitched seam to reveal what’s unbreakable underneath. It gets worse before it gets worse sometimes, so faithless and consuming, leaving you hanging by nothing but a single thread–your own breath tethering you to life in a place it feels like you never intended to be. And at some point, you realize this is it...there’s nowhere else to go, nowhere to hide, nothing to save you from having to live what’s right here now. So you breathe the breath that is yours to breathe. You take the thread that is yours to weave, and without pretense, fanfare, or promise of any particular outcome you live the impossible–the dream that won’t stop dreaming, the breath that won’t stop breathing, the thread that won’t stop weaving you.
In this episode, we explore:
- The difference between self-improvement and transformation
- The difference between using your creative powers and resources to manifest things to make your life look good vs. using your creative powers to go through inner transformation
- Looking at the Dark Night of the Spirit from a new angle--The Great White Nothing
- The "log and fire" analogy to understand the difference between the Dark Night of the Soul and the Dark Night of the Spirit and why the Dark Night of the Spirit can be so challenging
- Three keys for living through The Great White Nothing/Dark Night of the Spirit
Reading of my piece "The Great White Nothing" put to music at 18:45
With love for and from the Nothingness,
McCall
- Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
- Stay connected through my Email List
- Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
- Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
- Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening
Next Episode
Ep. 36 Burnout and Soul Renewal - A Soulversation With Michael DeMaria
In this episode, Michael DeMaria and I explore the rich, complex, and paradoxical themes of burnout and renewal central to our lives as empaths, recovering codependents (over givers) and creative types.
Speaking from our personal experiences with burnout and how-not-to-burn-out, Michael and I explore:
- The importance of the soul (water, earth) in tempering the creative fire and air of spirit
- How to honor and be in conversation with instead of pathologizing processes of the soul that feel dark, slow, and counter to creative productivity
- Learning to differentiate between the ego being fed and the soul being fed through creative purpose
- How to be who we are....sustainably
I also share the story of how I burned out nine years ago on fulfilling my soul purpose, what I did to recover, and how I engage with purpose differently now.
With love,
McCall
Michael's Website
Click here to watch the video version of this podcast
- Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
- Stay connected through my Email List
- Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
- Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
- Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening
Falling Into Soul - Ep. 35 The Journey After the Journey
Transcript
Ep 35 The Journey After the Journey
No amount of alchemical death and rebirth cycles can change who you are. It can only reveal it. And then the task becomes to live it, to anchor the unchangeable essence of Who You Are into your ever-changing human existence. Wildness and form. Dancing.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Falling Into Soul. I’m McCall Erickson, creator of this space, author of The Second Half of the Mountain–a guide to personal alchemy af
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