This time of year, at the very beginning of spring, I am reminded of the initial material for an alchemical transformation. Early spring in Vermont is not pretty. The bedraggled remains of snow banks are grimy, the exposed earth is dark and wet, exhausted looking grasses and plants, are flattened and a dead-looking brown, and trees look gray and exhausted.
In the process of alchemy, ‘prima materia’ is the fancy name for this first stuff ready for the work and magic of transformation into something very different, something noble, meaningful and beautiful. Alchemy was a complex and serious enterprise before the dawn of contemporary science. The purpose of the process was to transform base metals into gold. Today, we think of this as impossible, magical thinking. And we dismiss the whole concept as the hocus-pocus of a long-ago time. Carl Jung understood that alchemy is also a metaphorical description of the capacity of human beings to develop and transform from childish immaturity to a fully adult human being, or the psychoanalytic process of healing.
When I see the muddy banks, ruts, and bedraggled plant life, I find it hard to imagine that in a short time, there will be lush green transformed into leaves, flowers, and a sense of growth and purpose in the natural world. Nature will progress from this flowering to fruiting, to harvest. But the starting point appears to be ‘messy chaos.’ In alchemy, the actual primary material could be soil, water, any number of actual materials, but messy chaos is the main aspect of the prima materia.
I think there are two lessons from the transformational process that starts with messiness. But first I acknowledge that most of us do not like to see or have any part of any messy chaotic state. However, I think that it would be wise to learn to appreciate it. First, it is from this ‘mess’ that something new and good can emerge. Something new comes from messiness, and not so much from an established order. Of course, it then takes work and dedication to achieve positive change. Second, the alchemical metaphor of change emerging from chaos and mess, mirrored in the natural world, is our story as well, because we are of the natural world. We can learn about ourselves from it.