Agreed - I guess I was taking Alchemy a bit more broadly maybe (hence ‘of a sort’). Still, I used to do a yoga practice referred to as Alchemic yoga - which was all about stimulating and moving the acids, oils and salts in the body to achieve internal ‘cleaning’ and lubricating and setting. The way you spoke about being able to reach a point where you can feel or intuit (not quite the right words but you get what I’m referring to yeah?) your way through growing because you’ve spent so long watching and engaging, in an artisan like way - it reminds me of how the teacher used to describe developing our practice. Plus there’s that whole ‘shifting the chemistry of the soil’ thing that you do, with the CAT for example. So there’s some bending going on too! Just bending to replicate apparently ideal natural conditions... so the plant can be it’s best, which rarely happens with so much precision in nature. Not arguing... just talking... (hopefully not hijacking the thread with philosophy .).
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We're on the same page. That's a great description of how I look at it. It's the 9 years of college/grad school that gets me taking words like Alchemy literally.
Your explanation is great!