Tirta Usada Journal: spiritual science and alchemy

This journal entry marks the beginning of a series of conversations relating to the topic of spiritual science. I’d like to begin with the acknowledgment of Dr. Rudolf Steiner who was the first person, that I know of, to coin the phrase “spiritual science”. Steiner, who many people have heard of, is the founder of the Anthroposophic movement which includes the likes of biodynamic farming, Waldorf Steiner schools – even architecture, art and eurythmy. It’s a truly holistic public mystery school that has contributed greatly to my understanding of the world.

Steiner talked about spiritual science. He was a scientist himself – he held a Ph.D – and a lot of his work was based on that of Goethe. Spiritual science took the objectivity of material sciences and transported it into the realm of that which cannot be see or perceived with the five senses. So, in no way does it discredit or go against the material sciences. In fact, in many ways it enhances it.

When we limit ourselves to just the material world, we close off several other realms which we, as spiritual beings, have access to. Steiner systematized a lot of Vedic concepts and esoteric concepts, where we look at the body as being made of not only a physical body but an etheric body, which is also related to concepts like Qi and Prana in the Eastern traditions. We also have an astral body which is related to the emotional body or the emotional state of a being, and we have the spirit body which is also sometimes referred to as the “I” body or the ego, as an undeveloped aspect of that spirit body. Spiritual science acknowledges the existence of all of these bodies, whether we’re looking at a person, a situation, a plant or an animal. So, we see the physical and then we venture into the more subtle realms which lead us into other avenues of investigation.

When we disregard the spiritual aspects or bodies of the being, we miss out on many opportunities for true healing and an extremely rich cosmology that addresses the true holistic nature of a being. We are existing in a day and age where physical disease, degenerative disease and mental illness are on the rise. Many traditions, including homeopathy, have observed that spiritual disease is increasing, too. The answer to curing this lies not only in the fields of medicine and healing, but also in agriculture, economy, design, gardening – and the list goes on. It’s about the refinement of life as a whole.

Understanding this concept inspired me to refine my work and purpose in a profound way. I see life evolving in wheels and circles and when I reflect on my own experience, I feel like I’ve almost come full circle from where my initial interest in healing was sparked – through herbs, Ayurveda, Indonesian traditional herbal medicines and ethnobotany in Indonesia, into the more subtle realm of homeopathy. Today, in my practice, I find myself returning to these herbs through alchemy, looking at them, however, from a more energetic and cosmological perspective, through the astrology of the different plants and my patients themselves.

I went through homeopathic training as well as training in the health sciences, through to practicing in a very classical homeopathic way before being introduced to Kinesiology. This practice opened up a whole new realm of possibilities, which led me into alchemy, which then opened me up further to the stars, and the seven alchemical planets, after which the seven days of the week are named. My work today explores the microcosm – the internal organs all represented by the different planets – and the different plants, minerals, gemstones, and other substances in nature that also correspond to the same thing. Coming upon the work of Dr Are Thoresen, I was then opened up to the difference between translocation in healing and transformation in healing. And that introduced me to 12 element system of the zodiac, which is where a lot of my work is focussed now.

Alchemy is something that has interested me from a young age. It truly came into play, however, when I came across the work of Ian Watson, the English homeopath who based a lot of his work on the work of the late Dr Robin Murphy. I began listening to his lectures in around 2016, and I was deeply inspired. As a holistic practitioner, I’m always looking for ways to expand whether it’s in knowledge or in the scope of things, and I see evolution as a process where the view becomes more expansive and the intervention becomes more subtle. So, I will credit Ian Watson for this evolution in my own work and was very lucky to be able to spend time with him in England when I visited right at the beginning of 2020. In one of his lectures, Watson said that about 80% of homeopathy was drawn from the alchemical tradition, which is something we’re not taught in school. And that the works of Paracelsus, who really is the father of modern medicine whether it’s natural or allopathic, was deeply based in the alchemical traditions.

Seeing such an elegant system emerge between the archetypes of the planet and the day of the week the person is born on, and seeing how we could correlate the remedies with this, opened my eyes to a system of treatment that was much more elegant, intuitive and wider in scope and possibilities. It is based on toning the strengths of a person. We’re all born with a certain configuration and in many cases, because of how society is shaped, we are held back from experiencing these strengths – we compromise them in order to comply with expectations, community beliefs, family expectations and so on. When we augment that strong point, however, because the bodies and the inner being are self-organizing systems, healing can naturally occur through that process.

This, in my opinion, is the kind of true healing many of us have been kept in the dark about. I look forward to sharing deeper insights into alchemy and the other areas of spiritual science that have both moved me on a personal level and transformed my practice in the journal entries and workshops to come.