The Alchemy of Tears

Rumi says . . . “There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can't hope. The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.”

So much of this work of being human, of being heartful, of being HERE involves the discovery and application of this “secret, sacred medicine". But the nature of the substance can only be known to us in the high-voltage, electromagnetic laboratory of the body, by way of direct revelation through the breaking open of hearts.

Often buried just below conscious awareness, concealed just beyond the veil, tucked away in our cellular tissue and neural pathways – and in the images, moods, dreams and colors of the soul – this healing nectar or salve awaits discovery and application.

The alchemists had a vision of this “secret medicine,” a ruby red philosopher’s stone, an elusive jewel buried in the human heart and simultaneously in the womb of the earth.

It’s been described as a fluid, a tincture, a restorative solution flowing within the psychic landscape, and out into the natural world. It’s seeded in both locations simultaneously, emerging at the intersection of spirit and matter in the experience and expression of grief.

This secret substance cannot be found in a wound that has healed, but only in one that is weeping.

I know many of us are in touch with “weeping” now, not only by way of personal tears, but attuned, as well, to the collective tears of our culture, and the earth herself.

Even the stars and the galaxies weep, and in certain moments, in quiet, deep stillness, we feel the integral nature of our place in the cosmos . . . And we can know the grounded power, weight and sobriety of universal grief.

May we grow, now, deeply into the dimension of weeping. In deeper and more intimate ways and may tears wash and cleanse and open us, together. Tears of grief and tears of joy, the secret medicine so fundamental to reorganizing and transforming.