Impressions Fuel Change in the Heart: Real Alchemy

Impressions Fuel Change in the Heart: Real Alchemy

“The bodily food we take is changed into us, but the spiritual food we receive changes us into itself.” ─ Meister Eckhart

G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky and followers of the Fourth Way School describe different sorts of “food” and the most magical of these foods are impressions, what we take in through all our senses. In the Middle Ages, the effort to change lead into gold was known as “alchemy”; this alchemy of the food of refined impressions is real change for the inner world.

Preparing for a dinner with our Teacher, students smooth the washed white linen to a satiny finish. The evening table will carry sparkling crystal, sterling silver patterned with the oak-acorns native to the gold California hills, and porcelain showing castles of old Europe.

Elbow to elbow and directly across, face-to-face, students of Persian, Italian, German, Brazilian, Chinese, Argentinian, American, Canadian, and other backgrounds, look at each other in the enchanting light. Unexpectedly, the Teacher stands up, changes the seat of a guest at the last minute to seat them next to himself, who had not had the opportunity to be in his presence. “This is not an interruption,” he notes, “it is Higher Centers appearing.” The alchemy of beautiful, refined impressions rises even higher with his conscious intervention, transforming the experience into higher states.

The “feast” proceeds, providing enjoyment for different parts. Food for the mind is offered on the theme: Work ‘I’s and thoughts for being in the moment and how to struggle to maintain presence. The guests toast to Divine help and special luck, connecting our awareness to what is best now.

A glance across the table through the gilded candelabras creates presence and a permanent moment in the mirrored light. Ending the event, we recognize that we have been impressions for each other as much as the fine impressions in the room. The Teacher stands and acknowledges every person around the table with a momentary look and, for those nearby, a tap on the hand or shoulder as he departs the elegant dining room.

“What, after all, is more or less, than a touch?”─ Walt Whitman

Many traditions of dining with fine impressions for the soul as well as the body have been valued throughout human history. Paraphrasing the Hillwood Museum’s description:

The below painting depicts an important event of old Russia, a wedding uniting two families of the powerful aristocracy that dominated Muscovite affairs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The artist has singled out that moment during the wedding feast when the guests toast the bridal couple with the traditional chant of "gor’ko, gor’ko," meaning "bitter, bitter," a reference to the wine, which has symbolically turned bitter. The newlywed couple must kiss to alchemically make the wine sweet again. The toast occurs towards the end of the feast when a roasted swan is brought in, the last dish presented before the couple retires.

The scene takes place in a room very reminiscent of those in an old palace in the Kremlin. Various men and women in elaborate costumes of the period are grouped around a table in the center. The bride and groom stand at the right. In the center background is a sideboard on which rests a silver plate and to the left a servant brings in a cooked swan on a large platter. At left foreground is an ivory chest on which stands an enameled silver bowl. Various pieces of silver are on the table. The guests raise their glasses in a toast, while the matchmaker stands behind the bride.

Make no mistake, the highest forms of dining are far more than nutrition for the body. Instead, feed yourself on other transformative impressions – exquisitely beautiful objects, inspirational music, elevated conversations, and gourmet cuisine. When you dine, make every meal a wedding feast in which you cloak yourself with enlivening and loving people, enrich the experience with symbols for the mind and heart, and alchemically change your state.

Post by our friend, Elizabeth

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A Boyar’s Wedding Feast, Konstantin Makovsky (1883), Hillwood Museum