The Alchemy of Prayer

What changes when I pray? Is it really worth the effort, the time and the emotional implications involved? Naturally, these are pragmatic questions that a presumably a true believer wouldn't ask himself or others. But we are not that spiritual, or are we?

In order perhaps to understand the metaphor called "the alchemy of prayer", we should probably start by trying to define the word "alchemy". The symbols of alchemy have sometimes been employed both by philosophers and psychologists. For instance, Carl Gustav Jung tried to redefine alchemical processes from an interior, spiritual perspective. Also, alchemical symbolism, techniques and philosophy have grown quite popular in post-modernism.

Jung seemed to regard alchemy as a sort of yoga, a sort of meditation. The simple act of practicing alchemy had the power to bring about spiritual changes within the alchemist.

The same thing happens when we pray. Praying may be seen therefore as a sort of alchemy, for its changes our spirit, it changes our mind, it renews us completely, bringing us closer to our Creator.

The most important urge of Alchemy, expressed in the Latin language, would be as follows: SOLVE ET COAGULA, which means to separate, then join together.

The most commonly-known aims of the alchemist were to turn otherwise ordinary metals into gold or sliver, to discover "panacea", the universal remedy curing all diseases and prolonging life for an undetermined period, or to discover some sort of universal solvent. Indeed, it is what praying can do to a man's soul-cure all spiritual illnesses and weaknesses, or sometimes even physical ones; by praying and putting one's trust in Christ the Savior one receives the eternal life. These are the things people have most striven for.

Here is a promise for those prayer alchemists, for the believers in fact: "I would go out before you and will level the mountains, I will cut through bars of iron, I will break down gates of bronze. Give you treasures from darkness, riches stored in secret places, so you'll know that I'm the one God that is calling you by name." (Isaiah 45)

Ever since medieval times, alchemists in Europe and Arabia have begun to search for the so-called "philosopher's stone", which they thought was a precious ingredient for either or both of the two aims mentioned above. Also, they shared the belief that this philosopher's stone would enrich the alchemist's powers, enabling him to attain most anything. At any rate, the support alchemists seemed to enjoy all through the centuries was also because of their contribution to science, to the chemical products, to other products such as cosmetics, ceramics, gunpowder, leather tanning, glass manufacture, liquors, etc.

Both turning common metals into gold and the universal elixir were in fact a symbol of the evolution from an ephemeral, corruptible state to a healthy, forever living and perfect state of the human being. The philosopher's stone would make this change possible. For the alchemist, this meant his own personal evolution from darkness to light, from ignorance to true knowledge, whereas that philosopher's stone stood for some secret, mysterious, unknown spiritual power that would lead him to that perfect state of mind. This may justify our allegory with praying. And philosopher's stone may be associated with the "cornerstone" from the Bible, which is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Praying to Him and through Him may have alchemical powers of changing people's mind and spirit.

With respect to the symbolism of metal use, here is what Paracelsus said in his Alchemical Catechism: "When the Philosophers speak of gold and silver, from which they extract their matter, are we to suppose that they refer to the vulgar gold and silver? By no means; vulgar silver and gold are dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life." So therefore even alchemists did not search only for those precious metals, but rather for more spiritual elements symbolized by them.

Riches and gold are promised in the Scripture to those who search God and his will: "I would go out before you and will level the mountains, I will cut through bars of iron, I will break down gates of bronze. Give you treasures from darkness, riches stored in secret places, so you'll know that I'm the one God that is calling you by name." (Isaiah 45)