The bright side of the moon could not exist without the half wrapped in shadow. A half-life is not substantial, not sustainable. You cannot cut out half your heart and live.

To work in the dark, you must be able to hold your own light, and still be intimate with the darkness.

Alchemy, the masters teach, is the process of linking the spiritual to the material. The alchemist is the bridge between the worlds. It is a process of working inside a mirror, knowing always that in the end, the part will reflect the whole. As inside, so outside.

You move into the darkness, wrapping it around you like a heavy cloak. You dive into it naked like a midnight swim, slip beneath its covers and invite it to envelope you, as a dream. You lose yourself in the richness of its mysteries. You start to become the darkness. It starts to become you.