EPTThe true purpose of these schools was to practice human alchemy on their initiates. Alchemy is the transmutation of one substance to another. There is physical alchemy, where a substance can be transmuted into gold, for example, but there is also spiritual alchemy where a man is transformed internally from something old into something new. This is not simply gaining knowledge, it is actually changing being. Not the same thing anymore; changing from an acorn (mere potential) into an oak tree. These hidden groups have always existed, hidden amongst the bourgeois society that surrounded them.
Today, things are changing. No longer is an isolated and dedicated life required for the hope of attaining this change, this salvation, but many are slowly changing in regular society. Humans are becoming a different species. We're realizing that we are slaves to our own assumptions, our need for certainty, a false reality, and slaves to those who control us because of our intrinsic weakness and shortcomings.
This crushing realization begins the process. Alchemical change requires first a death before one can be born again. The knowledge of one's own bondage gradually removes all enjoyment from life. Nothing seems to have significance anymore; old pleasures are no longer enjoyable. This continues until rock-bottom is reached. At that point there is nothing left to lose; the search for truth then begins. This is the point of no return.
A changed man cannot go back to his hold self, just as a sapling cannot go back into a seed. It has changed, the old self doesn't exist anymore. The only choice is to fight, grow, there is no turning back. There can be no inner peace in not seeking the truth from this point on, only a personal hell.
This new world is one with no certainty, no clear distinction between the real and the irreal; it all blurs together into the surreal. The more one searches, the more one finds. Puzzles pieces start coming together, incredible possibilities, realities, and truths emerge, and you question your own sanity. This isn't about other people, this is about a personal transformation.
See if you can see the alchemical process described in this song. Listen to the words, think about it in terms of metaphors. Try listening without looking at the images.
