Solutio Inner Alchemy Center
Work with Colin at the Solutio Inner Alchemy Center - in Austin or Remotely. Read or listen to this article - 10 min.
The Solutio Inner Alchemy Center was created by Colin E. Davis to continue his and Melissa Mari’s mission of training and supporting inner alchemists of our day. In some respects this Work is like coaching or counseling, in other respects it’s like martial arts training. Read on and then contact me if you feel resonance with what we do.
We all touch the shadow side of life a little bit every day. But then there are the big underworld journeys that occur during life stage transitions and periods of spiritual initiation. And it is during these periods of contact with the unconscious, and the darker components that we call the shadow, when we are forced to shed aspects of our egos that need to be shed for us to develop along our soul path.
Regardless of how we model this cycle and the language we use for it, this cycle of life, death and rebirth is the master archetype behind all of creation and evolution itself. What gives this cycle its momentum is the polarity of duality, the energetic push and pull of opposites. Passive and active, feminine and masculine, dark and light, chaos and order, the Zero and the One. When this master cycle and these polarities of opposites are understood and worked with consciously in life, we are engaged in the Art of Inner Alchemy.
The alchemical process is happening all around us in nature. The seasons of the climate are the most obvious reflections of the cycle of life, death and rebirth that we can witness, and they also have their way with us. There is no escaping this natural cycle, but we can learn from it and work with it.
Humans evolve by way of nature’s cycle largely unconsciously. We do create myths and rituals to keep us in touch with it, but the human ego will always resist the reality of death, of dissolution or of entropy, and it will put up walls to resist that which threatens its well established modes of being.
Because of our natural resistance to darkness, we evolve when what has been living in our blind spots breaks through and takes us by surprise. This is when the monster comes out of the closet by way of a conflict, a break up, an illness or countless other ways in which we are forced to awaken. How we respond to these movements results in how we will mature and grow or even if we will live or die. Often we’re not given a choice as to what will fall away, but we can choose how we work with what nature has given us.
The big life stage transitions or "dark nights of the soul" are obvious when seen from the outside, but from the inside they are not always obvious at all. And the smaller cycles which happen continuously in life are rarely understood for what they are - short winter periods that are setting the stage for a new spring and for new life to emerge - if we will work with the master cycle.
Most people rely on ancient unconscious programming to make it through these cycles and they suffer with the ego patterns that resist letting go of the old. But then there are those who are destined to raise their level of consciousness through these cycles and to learn how to "surf the dragon" so to speak. These are the alchemists.
The alchemical art is one which studies this archetypal cycle and consciously works with the seasons within ourselves and our relationships. And while the shadow is the first matter to be worked with - the prima materia - it is not the only matter. The entire cycle of life, death and rebirth is within our purview.
The Solutio Inner Alchemy Center, as I have called it, is not a physical location, although someday it may be. The Center is wherever the Great Work is done. The primary Center is your own mind-body, perhaps imagined to be at the center of your chest, at your heart chakra. And then from there the Alchemy Center is within any relationship that is attuned to the Great Work. When you and I work together, or with another person or a group, WE become the Solutio Inner Alchemy Center where we engage in the alchemical art of transmutation.
For years, I worked towards creating a curriculum and study materials for this work. And although I have generated this type of material in many formats, I eventually found that the most effective and useful way to train in the alchemical arts is within relationship. It’s actually through oral transmission through the relational field of two or more people, pulling apart, analyzing, feeling and transmuting the contents of the ego and the unconscious psyche together.
Like with the creation of any art, knowledge, technique and experience are necessary inputs. But those inputs direct the creative process, and are not the elements of the process itself. The elements of the process are in the human unconscious and they are not fathomable before the process has been initiated. They are only fathomable after creation has occurred.
The artist sets themselves up with the tools, the environment or the so-called set and setting through which creation can occur. Then they apply conscious will in a particular direction and wait for the creative process to come to life. When it does, it takes the artist through the polarities of destruction and creation. What the artist does, to a large degree, is to hold the polar tension of the creative process within themselves and to watch and wait for creative novelty to emerge. Then they collect up that alchemical gold which becomes the living spirit in their work.
This same process is what the inner alchemist does in life, in relationship, and in their personal inner development work. We have meta-awareness of how the process works, we have developed tolerance for the creative-destructive fire, and we mine the gold it produces. The novel creations that we pull out of the alchemical vessel are particular to what we as individuals are working with. It may manifest as wisdom, epiphanies and creative sparks of genius or it may be a new level of emotional access, non-reactivity, or love for self and each other. There is no limit to that which will be created in the alchemical vessel of conscious inner process and relationship.
What you come into the Center with is what we will be working on. And how we work on it will be established intuitively within the context of who you are and where you are in life. Besides a natural drive to evolve and heal, the one big requirement is that the alchemist be able to tolerate psychic heat. The Great Work of alchemical transmutation gets hot, although there isn’t one setting of heat, on or off. But there is the level of heat that is appropriate for the moment and the individual. An important part of what I do is to be as conscious as I can be of the heat generated and to not allow it get too hot or stay too cool.
If you’re now asking what it is that we are doing that might get hot and what the actual work is, it is simply communicating. We are exploring though deep communication aspects of our psyches that have been repressed and split off, or which are in some way imbalanced and out of sync with our conscious minds and bodies. I am not your counselor exactly, but more like your diving partner and together we discover what is below the surface of the water that needs to be seen and incorporated into consciousness and life.
This will sound interesting to some. Others may not be able to comprehend it. And then there are those who know that this is the Great Work that they are already doing and that psycho-spiritual healing and development is a big part of what they’re here on Earth to do.
For those inner alchemists, or Sacred Life Artists, as we sometimes call them, you are welcome to contact me. We may work together as individuals, couples or in groups - by phone, Zoom, or in person in the Austin Texas area.
If you’re wondering what the $$ situation is, I’ll make sure it works out for you. My baseline is 100 dollars per session for individuals and 150 per session for couples, but if you have financial limitations, we’ll find a rate that works for you.
Thanks for listening, and keep doing the Great Work!
Colin E. Davis