Hello Roger, Robbie, Pat et al,

In the 3rd Alchemy class, Robbie and Pat spoke about cutting off the paws of the green lion.

Two days before I worked this dream image with a sister Embodiment Coach (the term for non therapist graduates of Robert Bosnak’s Embodied Imagination training):

In a dark narrow tall kitchen a stainless steel refrigerator opens revealing (between my eye & chest level) on the shelf the carcass of a lion—no mane, tawny somewhat flaccid fur, seen partly head on and partly from an angle (right side).  I see the head and some curve of shoulder (like the bust of the lioness).  I cannot tell how much of the rest of the body I cannot see. I remark in the dreamwork I cannot see its paws.

The embodiment of this image is felt in the throat, face and head of the female lion carcass—feeling honored and preserved.  Feeling how the cold slows down the decay.  Seeing the color of the flesh—under the skin red/brown remaining constant in the cold.  And yet there is some grief (the dreamer in the chair’s?)—lion morgue.

Perhaps this is an alchemist’s laboratory where the lion’s usual solar hotness is chilled—not gruesomely dead, yet not alive.  Its essence is preserved and made available to the work as needed.

The first sentence of Chapter 1,  The Rudiments: “Desire is not enough, in fact, ignorant desire frustrates itself or burns itself away."  Pat and Robbie spoke of confusing the desire with the object of desire (the goal of advertising).  Stay with the desire but cut away the claws of the desire.  Distinguish the desire from the objects of desire.  Desire is its own thing......
It brought tears to my eyes when they spoke the words: cut off the lion's paws.

Desire is a tricky commodity for me. Here’s what I know I desire. I attend these conversations to see where the alchemy of the moment intersects, interacts with, reveals my inner alchemy.  I’m not particularly studious or interested in following every curlicue of thought/ image with Hillman.  But I am listening, sniffing, looking for what sparks me and in what size, shape and quality of container to cook my inner alchemy. In the conversation between Robbie and Pat—“cutting off the claws of the lion” rang startlingly even though the tone was “Doesn’t everybody know this?”  No I didn’t.  But now I do. Dream set the kindling for the spark.

Good cooking to you all,

Janet Fortess