Spiritual Transformation Through Alchemy: presenter Dara Tatray

As above so below is a saying derived from a brief text known as the Emerald Tablet, an early English translation of which was by Sir Isaac Newton. The Hermetic tradition is based on the notion of a thorough connection between spirit and matter, the human being and nature, the macrocosm and the microcosm: and it treats these pairs or dualities as aspects of an overarching and underlying unity. This view Hermeticism shares with the thought of Pythagoras, Plato and the Vedanta. Much of the world prior to the seventeenth century saw reality in such terms, an understanding of which affords us an insight into a common intellectual heritage long lost to view. It also speaks to us of what today we sorely need to hear: our potential for becoming fully human by realising the wisdom which the gods possess.

Dara Tatray is the President of the Adelaide Theosophical Society. Previously, she served at the national headquarters of the TS in Australia as National President, National Secretary, Editor of Theosophy in Australia, and national lecturer. She holds a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science (UNSW 2006) and has a long-standing love of Advaita Vedanta and the perennial philosophy, especially through the works of Ramana Maharshi, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Patañjali, and Helena Blavatsky.