The Athanor Letter

July 20, 2024

There’s a war going on in your mind.

If you are not aware of it, it means you are losing it.

But if you win, the prize is bigger than you could imagine.

The purpose of this article is to show you how to take control of your thoughts in a way that is truly evolutionary for your Soul.

There are 4 progressive levels that I want you to be aware of:

1. Sleep state
2. Focus
3. Presence/divided attention
4. Self-remembering

The Alchemist is the one who first manages to take full control of his mental body (focus), then to divide it in two (divided attention/presence), and finally to transmute it into a permanent superior emotional state (self-remembering).

If you don’t understand exactly what I’m talking about, don’t worry: everything will be clearer in a few minutes.

I ask you to pay close attention, because this short article could change your entire life experience.

Before starting, however, I ask you one condition:

For the entire duration of the reading, in addition to absorbing the concepts that I will explain to you with maximum focus, I want you to maintain an active and constant awareness… of the position of your legs and feet!

No matter how absorbed you are in the words you read, your top priority is to understand the content without ever losing sight of what your lower limbs are doing.

Let’s begin.

1. SLEEP STATE

The average human being lives in a state of deep sleep, completely unaware of his true nature and of the possibilities that would open up before him if only he were willing to put in the necessary efforts.

It’s the sleep of consciousness (what Gurdjieff called “vertical sleep”), which differs from night time horizontal sleep only and exclusively by the position of your spine!

In the sleep state, your thoughts are not conscious in the true sense of the word, as they are not wanted by your Soul.

In this stage we can’t even talk about real thought processes, but only about electrical impulses that bounce from one point of the brain to another following the lines of least resistance, in a perverse and self-fulfilling loop.

They are mere chemical reactions to the internal and external environment.

The first step here is to remember that you ARE NOT those thoughts, but you are the Witness (pure awareness) that can consciously observe them.

​Alchemical Journaling is the best way to get started.

Make an effort not to fall into full identification.

Stop justifying that internal dialogue with phrases like: “It’s useful for me to think about that event, even if it causes me pain…”

The suffering triggered by obsessive thoughts is caused exclusively by electrical activities that occur in the biological machine (physical, mental and emotional body) of which you are a guest.

These are USELESS torments for the purpose of your inner evolution.

The problem is that you are often fond of this dialogue, and if you don’t indulge in it you almost feel like you’re giving up or betraying a part of yourself.

It’s like a self-imposed Stockholm syndrome.

All this is not wrong in itself, as it’s part of the natural activity of the mind, which “enjoys” always going back to the same themes… precisely because it always follows the lines of least resistance.

But if you are serious about pursuing the Alchemical path, you must get out of this trap at all costs.

To begin with, you can commit to detaching yourself from these electrical phenomena in a resolute manner, engaging your mind in other occupations.

This brings us to the next point.

2. FOCUS

It's the ability to focus your consciousness on a given subject and keep it there at will.

We live in a noisy age, and in recent years countless volumes have been published on the importance of focus and the ability to keep your mind centered on a goal and free from distractions.

Attention is literally the new oil and the most powerful magical/creative tool at your disposal, and the whole world is competing to get yours.

Your ability to focus like a laser on a goal is directly proportional to the success you will achieve in this life, regardless of what your field of interest is.

“Energy flows where attention goes”.

So this is the first step to come out of the sleep state.

Your mental body is the main battlefield on the path to awakening, as it is precisely the level where the connection between Soul and personality occurs - a connection also known as Antakharana or rainbow bridge in Eastern traditions (this will be the topic of another article).

As I mentioned, the mind - if left to itself and without conscious guidance - mechanically returns to the usual thought associations that cause negative emotions.

The fact that almost every human being has 0 control over his mind might make you think that this is a normal condition.

Well, that’s not the case.

Having a voice in your head that goes off without your permission is a common condition shared by many, but by no means normal.

And you will have to fight with all your might to get out of it.

When you fall into the trap of the internal dialogue of your mind, you must make an effort of extreme will to get out of the loop of negative imagination as quickly as possible.

Becoming the master (and no longer a slave) of your mental body is a mandatory process, which requires time and dedication.

To get started, all you need to do is keep your mind busy.

Learn to focus on one subject, and keep your unconditional attention on it.

For example, the clock exercise is one of the first that I give to my Modern Alchemy students: it consists in observing the movement of the second hand of a clock for a full minute, without losing focus and without letting any thoughts distract you from it.

A basic, yet powerful exercise.

In general however, any activity that requires focus is way better than letting your mind wander.

You - Soul - can decide to keep your mind focused on a particular topic or on a specific activity that is able to polarize all your interest.

By focusing your mind with tireless Will on a subject that particularly interests you, you will expel those obsessing thoughts from your mental field.

Again, this ability to polarize your mind on one goal is closely related to your success in life, and if you think about it… it is the common denominator of all the great human beings of the past.

The mental space of those who are focused takes on a unitary configuration, impervious to the pollution of external mental noise and immune to leaks of that precious mental energy.

If you want to take your practice to a higher level, reading and studying complex texts of philosophy/esotericism (as well as math and music theory) is a good way to learn to interact with the higher subplanes of the mental body (abstract mind, up to the plane of intuitions). But this too will be the topic of another article.

3. PRESENCE/DIVIDED ATTENTION

This is the next stage.

It sounds strange but…

After you have worked so hard to create a unified center of focus in your mental field, you are now called to split it into 2 parts!

Divided attention is an indispensable tool on the way, and represents a real bridge that allows you to move from “simple” focus to the true state of self-remembering.

This is true presence:

A twofold effort, which allows you to be aware of:

1. The action you are taking, the interaction you are having and the environment you are in
2. Your own body field, your sense of being.

This state of divided attention is what I am referring to when I talk about “self-remembering exercises” (different from the pure state of self-remembering that we will cover in the last section).

This practice forces you to bring awareness directly into your daily life.

It is a state that cannot be explained in words, but must be experienced through some practical exercises (even better if assigned by an “external” teacher).

It’s about being present in the Now on occasions that are established beforehand.

You perform an action (walking, taking a shower, answering the phone, etc.), and while you perform that action you are fully aware that it is you who is performing it.

Part of your attention is directed to the act itself, the other part to your sensation of being.

Again, the only way to understand this is to do some exercises, as the concept of presence is by definition supramental, and cannot be understood on a mental level or explained through intellectual dissertations.

If you want to start the experiment, from today you can start practicing the 5 minute exercise (the same one I talk about in my book ‘The Door of Fire’):

“For 5 minutes every day force yourself to stay fully present, whatever happens. Pick a 5-minute time slot in your day when you will try to remember yourself continuously (ex. 18.00-18.05). Same time every day. You must not choose a time when it would be too easy (for example when you’re usually on the couch) or too difficult (when you’re usually having a meeting with your boss). Set an alarm clock to signal both the beginning and the end of the time window. If it helps, you can also repeat to yourself: “I am here, I am present, I am doing this action”. If one day you forget to do the exercise or lose the state of presence while doing it, you cannot repeat it. You have to wait 24 hours. This is essential in order not to disperse energies.”

This, in a nutsell, is the art of divided attention.

This has been the secret practice of Alchemists since the dawn of time, as the effort to remain present produces the Alchemical Fire necessary to awaken the individual to his own Soul.

This practice produces a real Alchemical transmutation within you.

Here a subtle physiology comes into play, as through this practice the so-called Body of Glory (also called 'causal body' or 'body of the Soul') is literally built.

You build your subtle bodies, and transfer your consciousness into them.

Such bodies represent the famous “philosopher’s stone” that survives the death of the physical body.

The immortality that Alchemists talk about certainly does not concern the physical body itself, but the full identification with that entity that is already immortal by definition.

This progressive identification over the course of incarnations allows you to ultimately die and be reborn with continuity of consciousness.

4. SELF-REMEMBERING

True Self-remembering is a HIGHER AND PERMANENT EMOTIONAL STATE.

It's a leap of consciousness, which concerns the opening of the Heart, and in the Christian tradition is also indicated with the term “salvation”.

The divided attention exercises I mentioned serve to prepare the ground for this state of consciousness to one day be activated.

Focus and divided attention are in the sphere of Yang - masculine energy - and require extreme willpower and “penetration” into the habitual sleep state.

Self-remembering is in the sphere of Yin - feminine energy - and it is something you cannot force: it is a divine grace that, when the time is ripe, you simply have to welcome within yourself.

(Other exercises useful to prepare the ground are all those that concern higher emotions, which I talk about extensively in my Modern Alchemy program, such as non-judgment, prayer, forgiveness, law of mirror and so on)

Living in this state of openness of the Heart means… truly living!

And only when you are in this state do you become able to understand to what depth the sleep of consciousness of the ordinary human being extends.

Before then, it’s simply a nice theory to experiment with.

Gurdjieff said: “man does not have a true self, he must build a self through conscious effort”.

In the state of self-remembering you have completed the construction of this central Ego, and you can act in the world with true Will, no longer reacting mechanically to external stimulus.

Simply put, you feel completely alive.

Your central point of awareness is no longer an uncontrolled voice in your head, but your entire body.

Your command center is now in the Heart.

It is from that place that your decision making process takes place, and the head becomes a peripheral tool - useful for service, but with no power over you.

Finally, you begin to live in a state of inner peace: you now perceive that reality is perfect as it is, and there is nothing - absolutely nothing - to fix.

And this, ultimately, is why most Alchemical work is based on self-observation without judgment - and NOT on modification - of yourself.

Change comes as a side effect.

So work within yourself.

You cant' afford to depend on the outside world anymore.

If you want to change jobs, heal from an illness or change your life experience… you must learn to go back to your inner center more and more often, more and more deeply.

They seem like two things disconnected from each other, but they are not.

Healing is always a spiritual matter that takes place outside of time, in the eternal field of consciousness.

Each of us is at a different step on this ladder of awareness.

But if you are reading this article, it is probably right for you to start a serious practice in the field of focus and divided attention.

Alright…

Now, you can stop paying attention to your lower limbs.

You were doing it, right?

May the fire blaze.

Riccardo